AN: Quick little true story before we start. When I was looking up the cast for physical descriptions and stuff, I realized that "Shaun Parkes", who plays "Zachary Cross Flane", was the same person that played "Izzy" in "The Mummy Returns". That movie is one of my childhood movies, as awfully stupid as it gets, and now I can't watch this two parter the same way, since all I can think of when I see him is "Izzy!" and he runs off whimpering. Sorry about the ramble, I just wanted to share a laugh I had with myself when I wrote this. Anyway, *Cough*, getting past all of that, on we go with the chapter. ;)

The Impossible Planet

Unknown Location and Time

Wherever and whenever the TARDIS landed, it landed with a groaning whooshing sound that could inspire hope in some or fear in others. Yet, for this one time, it inspired…concerned bewilderment. The groaning was much deeper, more rasping and ragged, almost as if the TARDIS had eaten a bad meal and was suffering from a form of space diarrhoea. It's materializing cycle also seemed to be much slower, like an exhausted man getting out of bed when they also weren't a morning person, trying desperately to blink away the sleep from their eyes. With these occurrences, you'd think the room it landed in would be rather strange or more out of the ordinary for the TARDIS group to encounter, but the room was only a mere storage closet, packed to the brim with large silver and yellow boxes along with an assortment of bags and suitcases. The only lighting in the room aside from the TARDIS itself was a few white lights in the ceiling along with some underneath the floor, all of which was a mere metallic grating, similar to the flooring inside the TARDIS console room. As the TARDIS landed with its loud and rasping groan, the trio stepped out, the Doctor first, then Clara and Rose. Clara and Rose, rather unlike some of their previous adventures, had both decided to go for something a bit minimalist. Clara for a blue denim shirt with red buttons and skinny black jeans. Rose on the other hand was wearing a raspberry Diesel jacket, a crimson top underneath said jacket and simple blue jeans with a brown belt. As they closed the door, they turned back around to stare their confused and bewildered expressions at the box, with the Doctor placing a gentle hand on its door, as if he was stroking a scared animal. "I don't know what's wrong with her. She's sort of…queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't want to land." The Doctor said with a concerned voice.

"But she'll be all right though, won't she?" Clara asked with the same voice. "She has to be."

"Well," Rose perked up, "if you two think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else." She offered. The three just stared at each other before bursting into laughter.

"Yeah, not happening." Clara agreed. "So, where are we?" She asked.

"I think…we've landed, quite obviously, inside a cupboard." The Doctor explained before moving to the door. "Here we go."

The door was a large yellow door with a wheel instead of a handle and the number "15" on it. When the Doctor turned the wheel anti-clockwise to unlock it, an automated female voice said, "Open door 15." They stepped through the door, finding themselves in a bronze, dull golden corridor, the floor grating mixed with lights and steam vents, yet the place wasn't THAT warm. It was just mildly warm. "Close door 15." The computer voice said as Rose closed the door, turning the wheel clockwise to lock it.

The Doctor absentmindedly scratched the back of his head as they gazed about the corridor, while Clara looked up at the ceiling in confusion, for there seemed to be an awful lot of noise outside. "Some sort of base." The Doctor said. "Moon base, sea base, space base. They build these things out of kits."

"Glad we're indoors." Clara said nervously, nodding to the roof. "Sounds like a storm out there."

"And…rather close." Rose noted. She also gave a small obvious snort as the Doctor took Clara's hand to comfort her before they moved to the main front door of the corridor.

"Open door 16." The voice said as they moved through the door. "Close door 16."

The next corridor was rather long and only had two doors, one of which being the one they just walked through, so they decided to move to the next one, "17". "Human design, you've got a thing about kits." The Doctor quipped lightly. "This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe, only bigger and easier."

"Open door 17." The trio stepped through the next door and into a rather spacious room. "Close door 17." It bore a large signature, "HAB 3", which the Doctor quickly concluded to be "Habitation 3". And it was stylized as a form of cafeteria, with three large tables surrounded by small yellow stools with a circular base, along with a serving area and empty grey trays. The rumbling of the mysterious storm outside was not heard through the roof of this room, which made them suspect that the roof on this one was more reinforced with a different material than the ones in the corridors. However, they did hear the sound of a distant rumbling in the floor, but it sounded more like machinery than a storm.

Clara and Rose stared around the room in impressed intrigue while the Doctor beamed. "Oh, it's a sanctuary base!" He grinned at Clara. "Deep space exploration, we've gone way out. Oh, and…listen to that. Underneath." He said, stepping close to Clara and pointing to the floor. Clara and Rose kept themselves silent and they could definitely hear the mechanical rumbling. "Someone's drilling." He pointed out.

"Mining, maybe?" Clara offered. "Resources, knowledge…or a local myth?"

The Doctor smiled warmly at her. "I bloody love you; you know that?"

Clara grasped his tie, biting back her own smile. "I don't know. You should say it more often." She flirted, pulling him down for a kiss.

Rose rolled her eyes, staring instead at the far wall. She could see to her own intrigue, a large series of symbols printed in black ink along with three words printed above them. ""Welcome to Hell"." She read.

The Doctor and Clara both took it the wrong way, breaking their kiss to stare at her incredulously. "Oh come on, you've always put up with-"

"Not you two, you idiots!" She admonished. "Over there." She pointed to the wall, chuckling at their relieved faces. However, she stopped laughing when the BOTH of them had their expressions morph into an extreme curiosity and, could she detect, hints of…fear?

"Hold on." The Doctor muttered, taking out his "Brainy Specs" and moving with Clara to get closer to the wall. "What does that say?" He asked as he and Clara knelt before the wall. Rose took the hint and moved up with them, peering over their shoulders but their expressions didn't change as they gazed closer at the symbols. "That's…weird. It won't translate." All of the symbols bore a sort of familiarity, the Doctor and Clara finding traces in them that reminded them of many of Earth's languages and even some alien languages that they had encountered, especially during their time together before they met Rose. But the problem was that those languages did translate but these symbols, whatever language they were, just sat there on the wall, unchanging. It intensified the intrigue in their minds, but it also sowed seeds of worry in their hearts, even Clara's non-beating heart, which would have picked up a small pace if it was working properly.

"Doctor, the TARDIS translates everything, writing including." Clara said.

"Except for noise based ones." He quickly included.

"So…why aren't we seeing English?" She asked.

He just stared at the symbols. "It's…not working." He quickly deducted. "And if it's not working then it means…" As he trailed off, his face quickly morphed into a completely bewildered expression, but his voice didn't change any levels whatsoever. "This writing is old." He concluded after a moment. "Very old." He blinked again, shaking his head. "Impossibly old." Taking a breath, the Doctor stood up as he pocketed his "Brainy Specs" and moved to the 2nd other door in the room, "19". "We should find out who's in charge." He quickly said as he started to spin the wheel. "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge, not a good move, and if someone's lucky enough-"

"Open door 19."

"Oh!" He gasped, Clara and Rose jumping with a shock. On the other side of the door, standing as a trio, dressed neck to toe and hands in grey or black button jump suits was…a very strange species, to put it lightly. Their skin was ash grey, their head completely bald, with no sign that they ever had any hair or that they could grow hair. Their ears were small, roughly the size of a thumb and pointing out sideways, ending in a pointed tip. Their eyes were rather the same, a crimson red outline that gradually grew darker towards its centre most point. Their skin towards the middle of their faces was incredibly wrinkled however, and where there normally was a mouth was instead a mass array of dull red tentacles including, quite puzzlingly, a white tube that spun out of the tentacle array and linked into a white sphere that lay in their right hands. The alien trio just stared at the TARDIS trio, but their expression could not be determined. Once the TARDIS trio regained their bearings, they sent the mysterious newcomers a smile, albeit a rather nervous one. "Right, hello!" The Doctor beamed. "Sorry, um…I was just saying, uh…nice base."

The white spheres in their hands lit up like a Christmas tree and an automated male voice came out of all three in unison. "We must feed."

The TARDIS trio blinked. "You're going to what?" The Doctor asked.

"We must feed."

"Yeah." Clara inputted quickly. "I think they mean on us." The trio backed away quickly from the open door, the newcomers slowly walking in.

"We must feed. We must feed."

"Open door 17."

The trio turned around quickly, seeing yet another trio of the strange aliens starting to pile inside the room, joining the unnerving chorus. "We must feed. We must feed."

"Close door 17. Open door 18."

This time, two more aliens moved into the room. "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed."

"Close door 18."

As they found themselves slowly backing up to a wall, the Doctor and Clara, who quickly grasped onto each other's hands to remain close, took out their sonics, despite not even knowing what these creatures were. Rose improvised, albeit rather appallingly, taking one of the yellow stools to use as a weapon or a shield, as the group of eight aliens moved into the centre of the room, marching slowly towards the trio. "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed-" Then suddenly, they stopped. The creatures started to share looks between themselves before they turned back to the trio, and the front creature held up its white sphere to its eyes as if it was inspecting it. "We must feed-" It blinked and tried again. "We must feed-" The alien then rattled the sphere a tiny bit, smacked it with the palm of its hand, and tried again. "We must feed YOU if you are hungry."

The TARDIS trio blinked, shared with each other incredulous looks before they frowned. "So sorry, what?" Clara asked.

"We apologize." The front alien said on its own. "Electromagnetics have interfered with speech systems. Would you like some refreshment?"

Rose, realizing she looked rather ridiculous with the stool, quickly placed it back down on the ground while the Doctor and Clara timidly pocketed their sonics. "Ummm…uhh…uh, not for me, thanks." The Doctor quickly stuttered.

"Yeah, me neither." Clara said. "Sorry."

Rose timidly held up a hand, before feeling a little bit foolish since there was more than one of the alien creatures. "Umm…do you have any coffee?" She asked.

"I'm afraid we only have Protein One, Protein Two and Protein Three."

"What does…Protein One taste like?"

"Milk."

"Protein Two?"

"Salt."

The Doctor and Clara shared a puzzled look at that before shrugging it off. "And…Protein Three?"

"Sugar."

Rose blinked a few times, stared off into the middle distance with a small squint, making a tiny "Mmm" sound in her throat before coming back up with a smile again. "Okay, I'll have a cup of One with just a little bit of Three. Tiny bit. Thank you."

"We will have to charge payment to your designation codes."

"We haven't got one." The Doctor inputted.

The creature didn't say anything for a moment, but its eyes widened in quite obvious shock. "That is impossible."

"Nah, that's Clara." The Doctor said with a smirk. "She's the Impossible Girl. We're just along for the ride."

Clara blushed. "Shut up."

"Never." The Doctor winked, kissing the palm of her hand.

"I have to apologize but this must be reported." The creature quickly said.

"Oh, do you have to?" The Doctor whined childishly with a pout.

The creature cupped its sphere in both hands and bowed low. "We regret we have unauthorized Humans in Habitation 3."

The trio, in a childish pouting manner that the Doctor already started, moved to lean against a nearby table, the Doctor pulling Clara in to hug her from behind. "That's a bit harsh, unauthorized. Why don't you just call us "Visitors"?"

"Why not "Guests"?" Clara tried, the back of her head under his chin. "Guests is good."

"Or…" The Doctor started with a beaming grin, ","Friends you just haven't met yet"."

Clara just tilted her head to stare up at him. "Not entirely sure what you were going for there."

The Doctor just sighed. "Neither do I." He admitted, earning a small giggle from Clara.

"Open door 18."

Suddenly, stepping through the open door, and rather thankfully to the TARDIS trio were Humans. At least, they could be Humans, despite the numerous alien species including one "Doctor" which looked like but weren't Humans. Despite this, three people, all dressed in black leather jackets, dark green cargo pants, and even military dog tags, enforcing to the TARDIS trio that they were the security soldiers, entered the room. The two in behind, a male and a brown skinned lady, both in their mid to late 20's, were carrying semi large rifles, hands ready on the trigger. The man in front was late 40's to early 50's, with blue eyes and had a receding brown haircut with dashes of grey, specifically in small groups by his ears. If his age wasn't obvious enough to make him the leader of that group, then his lack of a rifle, instead opting for a pistol in a belt holster would've reinforced it. The leader stared at the TARDIS trio in complete and utter astonishment. "What the hell?" He breathed. "How did…" Stepping quickly from the door and through the parting creatures, he and his two subordinates walked straight up to the TARDIS trio. "Who the hell are you?" He asked.

The main alien that had just been speaking before interrupted. "These are friends you just haven't met yet."

The TARDIS trio gave a small chuckle at its words before the head soldier rolled his eyes with a groan. "That's enough out of you." He growled, smacking the sphere out of the alien's grasp.

"Oi! There's no need for that!" Rose defended.

"Don't be daft. It's not like they care anyway." He grumbled before bringing up his wrist and pressed a few buttons into the side of his wrist pad. "Captain." He said into the wrist pad, staring at the TARDIS trio as if he believed that they were just a figment of his imagination. "You're not going to believe this, we've got people. Out of nowhere, i mean, real people, I mean…two…living people just…standing here right in front of me."

"Don't be stupid. That's impossible." The Captain's voice spoke out of his wrist pad.

"I suggest telling THEM that." He quipped lightly before letting his finger go from one of the buttons on his wrist pad.

"But…you're a sanctuary base. Which means you're on a planet in space." Clara deducted. "If you're on a planet or a moon, you must have visitors now and then. It can't be THAT impossible."

He blinked again. "You telling me you don't know where you are?" He asked.

"No idea." The Doctor said for Clara. "More fun that way, eh?" He winked at her and she returned it with a grin.

The speakers of the base flared briefly with static before a female voice, likely another crew member, spoke up. "Stand by, everyone, buckle down. We have incoming and it's a big one." Before she finished speaking, the head of security moved over to door "18", now with a look of worried concern, which once again puzzled the TARDIS trio. "Quake .5 on its way."

"Open door 18."

"Through here." He ordered. The trio blinked as the base alarms started to blare out, but he spoke again, sterner and with more force. "Now! Quickly, come on! Move!" The trio hurried up, moving past the man and through the doorway. The next corridor was rather long, and the end result was door "1".

"Close door 18."

Suddenly, the base started to shake, causing the trio to grip onto anything in reach to keep themselves steady. "Move it! Come on!" The man ordered again, making them rush down to the end of the corridor.

"Open door 1." As they stepped through the door, the rumbling of the base subsided, but they guessed it was only for a moment as the alarms kept blaring, and the noise of the storm outside returned in full force. The new room they stepped into however, they guessed to be the main control room of the base, as they found the actual crew here along with a few more of the mysterious aliens. Standing at the centre control panel in the room was a dark-skinned man with short black hair, roughly mid 30's of age, blue eyes, dressed in a black jacket with a black shirt and black jeans who, along with the security guards, wore dog tags around his neck. Standing beside him was a woman, also mid 30's with blonde hair, wearing a black button up jumper with a black shirt and jeans. Also in the room were three more crew members, one of which was a late 20's man with short brown hair, dressed in a light blue shirt and dark blue jeans. The second, one who was moving to a nearby table with a chair, was a young woman in her early 20's with dirty blonde hair, dressed in a dark brown shirt with dark blue jeans. The final crew member was a man in his early 30's, with shoulder length black hair, dressed in a black jumper, blue shirt and dull green cargo jeans. And every single crew member stared at the TARDIS trio in a blend of awe and disbelief.

"Oh my god. You meant it." The dark-skinned man said, and his voice sounded just like the Captain on the security man's wrist communicator, so the trio quickly joined the dots in their heads.

Two of the security guards left the room, the third and their leader remaining behind. "Close door 1."

"People." The young blonde muttered with a wide-eyed look. "Look at that, real people."

"That's us!" The Doctor beamed. "Hooray!" Clara giggled, shaking her head at his expression.

"Yeah, definitely real." Rose nodded. "My name is Rose." She waved. "Rose Tyler, and this is the Doctor and Clara." The couple gave an imitation of a cowboy greeting.

The man in his 30's shook his head. "Come on, the oxygen must be offline. We're hallucinating, they can't be…" He quickly moved up to gaze at them closer and his eyes widened even more. "No! They're real!"

The Captain groaned. "Come on, we're in the middle of an alert!" He reminded. "Danny, strap up!" He ordered to the man who had just been talking. "The quake's coming in! Impact in 30 seconds!" Every one of the crew assumed a quick position of sitting in chairs in the room to hold onto the desks while the security head stood in a small compartment with yellow handles and grasped them tight. The Captain then turned to the TARDIS trio with an almost apologetic look. "Sorry, you three, whoever you are. Just hold on, tight."

Clara got it immediately, moving to grasp a nearby railing while the Doctor and Rose blinked. "Hold onto what?" Rose asked.

"A railing." Clara answered before the Captain did. The pair just blinked at her and she rolled her eyes. "Earthquake?" She reminded. Like a lightbulb flickering on, they immediately got the idea and moved to grasp a railing with her. "Sorry about that." She muttered to the Captain.

He shrugged in mere thanks to her before glancing at one of the creatures. "Ood, are we fixed?" He asked, and the Doctor and Clara gave a slow nod to each other.

So, THAT'S what they are called. They thought in unison.

"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated." One of the Ood said before it returned to grasping onto a railing for support.

"What's this planet called anyway?" The Doctor asked the crew.

"No, don't be stupid." The older blonde woman retorted. "It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?" The trio just shook their heads at her, and she blinked again. "You really don't know, do you-"

"And…impact!" Upon the Captain's report the base started to shake, rattling everyone in their spots as they grasped onto their railings for dear life. And then, it stopped.

The Doctor stood up with a shrug. "Oh, well that wasn't so bad-" The earthquake returned in full force, sending the Doctor flying back into his restrained position as the base shook and rattled with incredible violence, everyone's vision starting to blur as they screamed and cried against the quake. The main console itself started to spark into small flames, steam and smoke rising from the wiring that, rather thankfully, didn't get anyone nearby. Everyone's hands and arms started to sweat and tense from the shaking and their tight grip on the railings and, unfortunately, one slipped. Clara, miss timing the sudden end of the shaking that left everyone catching their breath, had let go of the railing at the wrong time, slipping and banging her head on it before collapsing to the ground, holding a hand to her stinging head. "Clara!" The Doctor exclaimed, quickly letting go of his railing to grab Clara, gently removing her hand to show the cut on her forehead. It wasn't a terrible injury, but it did leave Clara's head throbbing.

The crew of the base however didn't take notice just yet. "Okay, that's it." The Captain sighed, the security head quickly grabbing a fire extinguisher to remove the small flames from the main console. "Everyone all right?" No one answered at that, just a few catching their breaths or coughing from the small intake of smoke the fires had caused. "Speak to me!" The Captain ordered. "Ida?!"

"Yeah, yeah!" The older blonde woman answered.

"Danny?!"

"Fine!"

"Toby?!"

"Yeah, fine!" The young man in the blue shirt answered.

"Scooti?!"

"No damage!" The young blonde woman answered.

"Jefferson?!"

"Check!" The security head reported as he placed the fire extinguisher away after finishing with the flames.

"Oh yeah, we're fine, thanks, fine. Yeah, don't worry about us." The Doctor scoffed as he held Clara. "No med kit would be needed, nah, it'll be all right."

The Captain quickly nodded. "Scooti, get them a med kit!"

"On it!" Scooti quickly came over with a small white container, quickly opening it and rummaging through to grab a small cloth and some medicine for Clara's head.

"The surface caved in." The Captain reported, looking up at one of the many screens on the main console, showing a blue schematic of the entire sanctuary base. It showed a blinking red light on a corridor with four numbers, "5, 6, 7, 8". "I deflected it onto Storage 5 through 8, we've lost them completely." Taking a quick breath, he glanced at Toby. "Toby, go and check the rocket link."

Toby blinked. "That's not my department." He reminded politely.

The Captain sighed wearily. "Just do as I say, yeah?"

Toby gave a sigh before nodding and moved past the TARDIS trio and Scooti to exit the room. "Open door 1. Close door 1."

"Ida, how's the life support?" The Captain asked.

"Oxygen holding. Internal gravity 56.6. We should be okay." Ida reported before she glanced at the TARDIS trio, specifically at a dazed Clara. "You all right?" She asked Clara.

Clara shrugged lightly. "That made me feel rather exhausted." She admitted as Scooti treated the cut on her forehead while the Doctor held her from behind.

"You'll be fine." The Doctor reassured, placing a kiss on her head.

"Count yourself lucky." Scooti quipped as she finished, placing her supplies back into the med kit. "Could've resulted in broken bones or sprained muscles."

"Don't worry." Clara smirked lightly. "I'm already used to head injuries."

"In a submarine." The Doctor retorted with a roll of his eyes.

"Watch it." Clara warned wearily.

"You can live through it, Clara. You're more tough than you let on." Rose reassured for her.

"Thank you." Clara said earnestly.

A comfortable silence would've fell in the room for a few moments, however the rumbling rushing sound of the storm outside kept it feeling uneasy, especially for Rose. "Never mind the earthquake, that's…that's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?" She asked.

"You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane." Scooti answered as she walked back to the main console. "There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum."

"Then what's shaking the roof?"

The crew that were still in the room turned to the trio. This time, their expressions were small smiles of…impressed puzzlement, if that was a form of expression. "You're not joking. You really don't know." Ida blinked before shrugging. "Well, introductions." She said, moving around the console to stand properly in front of the trio. "FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, Science Officer." She motioned to herself before pointing to the Captain. "Zachary Cross Flane, Acting Captain, sir." She quickly added before pointing to Jefferson, the TARDIS trio nodding in greeting to each of the crew. "You've met Mr. Jefferson, he's Head of Security." She pointed to Danny. "Danny Bartock, Ethics Committee."

"Not as boring as it sounds." Danny interjected with a smirk.

"And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, Archaeology." Ida said. "And finally, you've received first-hand experience from the lovely Scooti Manista, Trainee Maintenance." She said, placing her hands on Scooti's shoulders with a pat as she walked past said girl.

"There's more where that came from." Scooti winked, earning a giggle from Clara.

Ida walked to the side of the room where a small red and silver lever sat on the wall and she grasped it. "And this…is home." She twisted the lever around, and the roof churned into life.

"Brace yourselves." Zach warned. "The sight of it sends some people mad." The TARDIS trio, with the Doctor helping Clara to stand up, watched as the roof retracted away, revealing the faint outline of a thick glass plane underneath that protected them from space. Beyond it however took them all, including the Doctor, by complete shock and bewilderment. Sitting there, in the dark regions of space above the planet, as a large swirl of orange and red light, mixed with rocks and dust that gathered into one single point, tumbling down into darkness and oblivion, absorbed into nothing. It was clear to the trio what it was.

"That's a Black Hole." Rose muttered, pointing at it. She saw Clara echoing her awe filled yet shocked expression while the Doctor's bore shock and fear.

"But that's impossible." He muttered.

"I did warn you." Zach quipped dryly.

"We're standing under a Black Hole." The Doctor said obviously.

"In orbit." Ida inputted.

"But we can't be."

"You can see for yourself, we're in orbit."

The Doctor finally removed his gaze from the Black Hole and glanced at Ida. "But we CAN'T be."

"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that Black Hole without falling in." Ida shrugged with an indifferent face. "Discuss."

"And…that's bad, yeah?" Rose tried to conclude.

The Doctor would've scoffed, if his fear of the Black Hole had allowed it. "Bad doesn't cover it." He said as the trio returned their gaze to the Black Hole. "A Black Hole's a dead star. It collapses in on itself, in and in and in until the matter's so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too." Then his voice turned grim. "Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity, time, everything just gets pulled inside and crushed."

"So, they can't be in orbit." Rose concluded; her own voice now grim. "We should be pulled right in."

"We should be dead." Clara said grimly.

"And yet…here we are." Ida interjected. "Beyond the laws of physics. Welcome on board."

"But…if there's no atmosphere out there, what's that?" Rose pointed to the dust and swirls of wind outside.

"Stars breaking up, gas clouds." Ida said. "We have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads before falling into that thing."

"So, a bit worse than a storm, then." Rose deducted.

"Just a bit." Ida nodded.

"Just a bit, yeah." The base then gave another shake, making everyone just grasp onto something so they didn't stumble over.

Clara shook her head with a smirk as the grogginess started to fade from her head. "Add that to the list of my worries then, eh?" She quipped, pointing to her forehead. The Doctor sent her a smile, wrapping her in a hug again.

"Close door 28."

Toby entered the long corridor, holding a small stack of white rolls and blueprints in his hand, walking silent and alone. Of course, if a screaming brain full of ideas and plans one would do if they weren't condemned to this hell hole-

"Toby."

Toby blinked. For a small second, he thought he heard something say his name, if only no more than a whisper. As if the universe agreed with his grim theory, the power in the corridor flickered and flared, the lights blinking on and off making Toby shiver in his spot. Then, it fell silent, only filled with his uneasy breathing. "Dan-" He cut himself off. Danny was the team prankster, but he didn't think Danny would do something like this. For once, Toby decided that either he DID hear a voice and he's just going completely barmy or…he mistook a puff of steam for a voice. Either way, he decided to shrug it off as nothing and moved to the other end of the corridor.

"Open door 1. Close door 1."

"The rocket link's fine." Toby reported as he entered the room, placing the blueprints aside before joining the team, sans Danny and Scooti, who were standing off to the side, and the TARDIS trio at the main console.

Zach started pressing and clacking away at the computer, bringing up in a hologram, surveillance footage of the Black Hole. "That's the Black Hole officially designated "K37 Gen 5"." He said.

"In the scriptures of the Faltino…" Ida started with an interject, "this planet is called "Krop Tor, the Bitter Pill", and the Black Hole is supposed to be a mighty demon, who was tricked into devouring the planet only to spit it out, because it was poison."

Rose smirked. ""The Bitter Pill". I like that."

The Doctor, while having his right arm around a curious looking Clara, held his left hand under his chin, blinking with puzzlement at the Black Hole. "We are so far out." He muttered. "Lost in the drifts of the universe. How did you even get here?" He asked.

"We flew in." Zach said obviously before pressing a few more keys, now bringing up a green schematic of the planet sending out a pulsing red funnel in the Black Hole's direction and the Doctor immediately took out his "Brainy Specs". "You see, this planet is generating a gravity field. We don't know how, we've no idea but, it's kept in constant balance against the Black Hole." He explained to the even more curious TARDIS trio. "And the field extends out there, as a funnel." He said, pointing his finger along the outline of the red funnel. "A distinct gravity funnel reaching out into clear space. THAT was our way in." Zach finished explaining.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You flew down that thing? Like a roller coaster." She commented.

"By rights, the ship should've been torn apart. We lost the Captain…which is what put me in charge." He added.

"You're doing a good job." Ida reassured.

He shrugged dejectedly. "Yeah well, needs must."

"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out." Danny interjected.

Scooti chuckled. "We had fun speculating about that."

"Oh yeah." Danny nodded, bopping her on the head with one of the blueprints, making her send a "Watch it, mate" look at him. "That's the word. "Fun"."

"But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power." The Doctor said with a frown. "I mean…not just big but off the scale. Can I?" He asked Ida, motioning to a calculator on the main console.

She quickly nodded. "Sure. Help yourself." She said, taking the calculator and passing it to the Doctor as he and Clara moved closer to work on the calculator in once again, a rather close embrace.

Rose on the other hand received a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see one of the Ood standing before her, holding a small white plastic cup containing a drink. "Your refreshment. "It said politely.

"Oh, yeah, thanks. Thank you." Rose quickly said, taking the cup in one hand. "I'm sorry, what was your name?"

The Ood tilted its head to her as if it was genuinely curious as to why she asked. "We have no titles. We are as one." The Ood then walked away and Rose, blinking in puzzlement, walked up to Danny and Scooti.

"Um…what are they called?" Rose asked.

Danny blinked in puzzlement. "Oh, come on, where've you been living? Everyone's got one."

Rose shrugged. "Well, not me. So…what are they?"

"They're the "Ood"." Danny said.

"The "Ood"?"

Danny and Scooti nodded. "The "Ood"." He repeated.

Rose shrugged again with a smile. "Well, that's…Ood."

Scooti actually sniggered. "They're very Ood, but handy." She quipped.

"And what do they do around here?" Rose asked.

"They work the mine shafts, all the drilling and stuff, supervision and maintenance. They're born for it. Basic slave race." Danny explained.

Rose blinked, her smile fading. "You've got slaves?" She asked.

"Don't start." Scooti groaned. "She's like one of that lot. Friends of the Ood."

"Well, maybe I am, yeah. Since when do Humans need slaves?" Rose asked bluntly.

Danny sighed. "But the Ood offer themselves. Like, if you don't give them orders, they just…pine away and die."

Rose turned to one of the Ood standing nearby and asked, "Seriously, you like being ordered about?"

"It is all we crave."

"Why's that, then?"

"We have nothing else in life."

"Yeah, well, I used to think like that…a long time ago." Rose muttered. "But that's…starting to slow down a bit."

"Why?"

"Family." Rose said simply.

"There we go. Do you see?" The Doctor called up, bringing everyone back to the main console, staring at the couple. "To generate that gravity field and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of 6 to the power of 6 every 6 seconds."

"That's a lot of 6's." Rose said obviously.

"And it's impossible." The Doctor concluded.

"It took us two years to work that out." Zack said in shock again.

The Doctor shrugged. "I'm very good."

"Watch the ego." Clara warned.

The Doctor breathed out. "Sorry."

"But…that's why we're here." Ida said, clacking a few keys on the console computer to bring up a green schematic of the planet, showing a red glowing orb as its centre and a small red dot a small distance above it. "This power source is ten miles below, through solid rock. Point Zero, we're drilling down to try and find it."

"And it's giving off readings of over 90 stats on the Blazen Scale."

"We could revolutionize modern science." Ida said, making the trio smirk.

"We could use it to fuel the Empire." Jefferson interjected.

The Doctor frowned at that, taking off his "Brainy Specs". "Or start a war." He said grimly.

"It's buried beneath us, in the darkness, waiting." Toby interjected.

"What's your job? Chief Dramatist?" Rose quipped, making everyone, even Jefferson smirk.

Toby shook his head. "Well, whatever it is down there, it's not a natural phenomenon. And this planet once supported life…eons ago, before the Human race had even learned to walk."

"We saw that lettering written on the wall. Did you do that?" Clara asked.

Toby nodded. "I copied it from fragments we found unearthed by the drilling but…I can't translate it."

"No, neither can we." The Doctor said. "And that's saying something-"

"Shh." Clara hushed. "You're spoiling the mood." She quipped lightly, making the Doctor roll his eyes.

"There was some…form of civilization and they buried something. Now it's reaching out, calling us in." Toby continued.

The Doctor smiled. "And you came."

Ida frowned. "How could we not?" She asked as Zack turned off the schematics.

"So…when it comes right down to it, why did you come here?" The Doctor asked. "Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why." He quickly said before they could answer. "Because it was there. Brilliant!" He beamed before glancing at Zach. "Excuse me, uh…Zach, was it?"

He nodded with some slight trepidation. "That's me."

"Just stand there, cause I'm gonna hug you. Is that all right?"

Zach shrugged. "Suppose so."

"Here we go. Coming in." The Doctor came around and wrapped Zach in a hug, beaming as he did. "Oh, Human beings. You are amazing! Ha!" He patted Zach on the back before parting away. "Thank you."

Zach smiled. "Not at all."

The Doctor moved back to stand beside Clara. "But apart from that, you're completely mad." He said seriously again. "You should pack your bags, get back in that ship and fly for your lives."

Ida scoffed. "You can talk. How the hell did you get here?"

"Well…um…me and Clara have this…ship. It's hard to explain, she just sort of…appears."

Clara nodded. "We can show. We parked down the corridor from, um…what's it called? HAB?"

"Habitation Area 3." The Doctor corrected.

"Thank you."

"Do you mean "Storage 6"?" Zach asked, his tone also serious.

"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah." The Doctor nodded. The crew started to share awkward glances and the Doctor's face fell. "Storage 6, but you said-" The crew lowered their heads and his gaze grew dark. "You said "Storage 5 to 8"." Without another word, the Doctor sprang up from the console, Clara and Rose quick in tow.

"Open door 1."

"What is it?! What's wrong?!" Rose called as they raced down the corridor.

"Open door 19." The trio moved through into Habitation 3 towards the other side of the room. "Close door 19."

"Ugh, stupid doors, come on!" The Doctor growled as he spun the wheel on the next door.

"Open door 17. Close door 17. Open door 15. Close door 15." The Doctor and Clara then bounded up towards door "16", the one that leads into the storage corridor, Rose standing close behind them. Yet, no matter how hard they tried, the wheel would not move. "Door 16 out of commission."

"Can't be! Can't be!" The Doctor exclaimed, letting go off the wheel and opening a small circular latch in the door, letting him see through to the other side.

"What's wrong? What is it?" Rose asked. The Doctor wordlessly stood out of the way to let Clara see. Clara briefly gave the Doctor a bemused look, considering her short stature, and he rolled his eyes before grabbing her waist and hoisting her up to see through the hole. When she did, her worried expression quickly turned to mimic the Doctor's, now one of grim dread. "Doctor, Clara, the TARDIS is in there. What's happened?" Rose asked again.

"The TARDIS is gone." Clara answered, the Doctor setting her down on her feet again and they stepped away from the door to look at Rose's disbelieving face.

"Door 16 out of commission." The computer reminded.

"No, it can't be." Rose muttered with a shake of her head.

"The earthquake." The Doctor said simply. "This section collapsed."

"But it's got to be out there somewhere." Rose moved to gaze through the latch and her face also fell into silent dread. There was no room or corridor beyond this door. It was only the black cragged, scorched rocks and terrain of the dead planet outside.

"Look down." The Doctor said.

Rose looked down as best she could and where the rooms once stood was now only blackened darkness, the earth beneath them having caved away, leaving nothing behind. Not even their beloved blue box.

"The ground gave way." The Doctor said as the TARDIS trio stood inside the main console room with only Zach and Ida. "Mine and Clara's TARDIS must've fallen right into the heart of the planet. But you've got robot drills heading the same way."

"We can't divert the drilling." Zach said apologetically.

"But we need our ship! Please!" Clara pleaded in interjection. "She's all we have. She's our home!"

"Clara, we have only got the resources to dig one central shaft down to the power source and that's it. No diversions, no distractions, no exceptions. Your home is lost." He concluded grimly, watching apologetically as the Doctor and Clara's faces fell. "All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place and that is the end of it." Zach then excused himself from the room while Ida walked up to the couple.

"Open door 1."

"I'll, umm…put you two on the duty roster. I'm sure there's something for you two to do." Ida said gently before moving to leave as well.

"Close door 1."

A moment of silence fell in the room, before the Doctor turned around to Clara and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm sorry for trapping you here." He said apologetically.

"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." She said back, placing a kiss on his shoulder and one just beneath his ear and he smiled. They parted just a bit from their hug to look at Rose and motioned her over.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about me." Rose smirked. The universe quite obviously disagreed with her, so the base rattled and shook in unison with the barren planet outside, which made Rose's smirk fade into a fearful look. "Okay, we're on a planet that shouldn't exist underneath a Black Hole, and no way out." Rose gave a small chuckle that, if only for a moment, managed to lighten the mood. "Yeah, I've changed my mind. Start worrying about me." Rose then quickly moved over to join the hug, while the Doctor and Clara exchanged a small look. For once in all their time together, they truly did not know what to do. And for that, they were afraid.

"Entering night shift. Your chosen track for transition is Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson".

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson

Jesus loves you more than you will know

Wo wo wo

God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson

Heaven holds a place for those who pray

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey

For the crew and their newly joined TARDIS companions, the following few hours came by as a bit of a blur. The Ood kept working away in contented silence, Jefferson and the security guards keeping an eye on them. Well…more so the state of the equipment than the Ood themselves. Danny had the wondrous job of monitoring the Ood, as most of his job was, which included assigning groups off into different tasks and keeping his clipboard nearby when he needed to tick them off at the end of their shifts. Rose got paired up with Ida, surprisingly enough taking an interest in some of the science behind the base and the Black Hole, despite some of the teasing Ida may give her due to her lack of knowledge. She still blames all of that on Jimmy what's-his-face. The Doctor and Clara, however, were paired up with Scooti, who needed to perform a few moments of maintenance on one of their monitoring machines outside. Scooti had already been suited up in an orange spacesuit when they greeted her, minus a yellow and black helmet that she hadn't put on yet.

"How much oxygen do you get in these things?" The Doctor asked as he and Clara strapped themselves into a spacesuit, Scooti helping to make sure their tanks were wired and properly full.

"Depends on how much you breathe." Scooti quipped. "But, roughly speaking, you get about three hours' worth of air." At that, Scooti helped Clara put the Doctor's helmet on before she grabbed Clara's and placed it on her head. "Ooh, your boyfriend's a lucky man." Scooti admired.

Clara blinked in surprise. "Why?"

Scooti smirked. "You're the only one that can make wearing these suits look adorable."

Clara blushed pink, but the Doctor interjected with a laugh before she could say anything. "Trust me, she makes most things look adorable."

"Shut up!" Clara squeaked.

Scooti chuckled as she grabbed her own helmet and placed it on. "All right, we just press the green button on your wrist pads and…here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. Jesus loves you more than you will know." They did so while she hummed the song, and the suit began to fill up with a field of air. "There we go. All…aired up?" Scooti tried before shaking her head. "Nah. I'll just leave the jokes to Danny." She winked at the sniggering couple, their voices to themselves bore an echo, almost like they were speaking into a tin can, however to each other, they were connected in audio speakers inside their suits. They each grabbed a large wrench, or Clara who instead grabbed a medium sized wrench and they moved to enter a small airlock compartment.

"Open door 50. Close door 50."

"Rather snug in here." The Doctor commented about the closed space of the compartment.

"You don't sound like you're complaining." Scooti flirted, winking at a bemused Doctor.

"He never does." Clara flirted back.

Scooti gave the ghost of cocking an eyebrow before she raised her wrist to her head and pressed a button on her wrist pad to open a communication line. "Zach, we're ready."

"Isolating the oxygen field now." Zach's voice said, and a hissing sound was heard in the airlock before a red light on the door turned green and Scooti then opened the door. The ground outside was almost like a bad canyon, covered with nothing but rocks and dust, the view of the Black Hole ahead partially covered by large mountains of charcoal rock, but the unmistakably sinister void beyond was still sucking away at all the life around it. The trio moved their way out onto the field, towards a large device with small lit red receptors pointing in all directions. "Behold…our monitoring system." Scooti jokingly introduced to the couple as they started to make the repairs needed to a few lights that were deactivated. "It's needed, since there's a Black Hole on our doorstep. Also keeps a focus on the gravity field." She explained.

""Oxygen field"?" Clara asked out of nowhere to a chuckling Scooti. "What's an oxygen field?"

"All sanctuary bases need oxygen. But instead of having a supply, we use generators to create an oxygen field. We just need to maintain the generators themselves, then we don't have to worry about losing air." Scooti informed.

For a brief moment, static flared up in their speakers, making them wince for a second. "Ahh, the hell?!" The Doctor groaned, the trio briefly pausing their work. "We were nearly there!"

"No pun intended." Danny's voice rang and Scooti groaned.

"Danny, stop it." Scooti admonished.

"Sorry. Checking off Ood after their shifts is rather dull." Danny said. "Hey hey hey, hey hey hey." He hummed. "Ood 7 Gamma 10. Ood 7 Gamma 11. Ood 7 Gamma 12."

The Doctor and Clara gave each other a look and mouthed "3…2…1." Then in unison, they droned out a long and loud, "Ood!" Danny gave a brief squeak of shock while Scooti just raised her eyebrows at the laughing couple, barely able to contain her giggles.

"Besides, Danny, didn't you say that your job wasn't as boring as it sounded?" Clara asked with an unmistakable grin.

"That doesn't mean it's never boring!" Danny quickly said.

"We guessed that, Danny." Zach's voice rang through.

"Sorry, sir." Danny mumbled.

"How are you three going out there?" Zach asked.

The Doctor and Clara just stood up and clicked their backs as a sign to Scooti, who gave them a thumbs up. "All finished. Heading back inside." Scooti said and the trio grabbed their tools and started on back.

Toby, sitting alone in a small room, the nearest wall supporting a bunk bed, just worked away on deciphering the symbols, using a blue desk lamp that supported a magnifying glass within, all the while he wore a pair of latex gloves, just in case. Then, for a brief second, the music playing on the speakers was cut off by static and the room filled with silence. Toby gave a brief blink at it, glancing around the empty room, but he decided to shrug it off and returned to work-

"Toby."

He immediately spun around, re-checking the room but still, nothing was in here with him, so he returned to work. Maybe's it's my mind fooling around. Or Danny doing another prank-

"I can see you."

Toby groaned, placing down the shard fragment and his pen and spun around. "Danny, is that you?" He asked, feeling both irritated but also just a tiny bit afraid. Come on, Toby, it's only a prank. "It's not funny, all right?" No answer. "Dan?" He got up and moved to the door.

"Open door 39."

Gazing outside, despite the hissing steam and the orange lights, he still couldn't see anyone. "I'm-I'm trying to work, Daniel." Still nothing. "Look, if-if that's you, then can you just stop it?" The lights flickered off and on for a few moments, making Toby blink and his heart race before he started to breathe, just to calm himself. Stepping towards the door, he glanced at both ends of the corridor and when he was sure he couldn't see anything, he stepped back inside.

"Close door 39."

"What'd you reckon?" The Doctor asked Clara as they, along with a silent Rose, sat by the symbols on the wall in Habitation 3. Ida and Danny also sat in the room, Danny finishing his meal while Ida ate away at hers and Scooti was at the serving counter getting her own.

"I don't know." Clara shrugged as the Doctor wrote away with a pencil on a small notebook, scrunching his face against his "Brainy Specs".

"Danny," Zach's voice came on in through the speakers, startling said man, "check the temperature in "Ood Habitation". It seems to be rising." Danny gave a sigh but got up anyway and moved to exit the room.

"Open door 18. Close door 18."

Rose clapped her hands together and stood up. "You two want anything? Getting me a bite." She said simply.

They shook their heads. "Maybe later." Clara said, and Rose gave a thumbs up before moving over to the serving counter by Scooti.

"Help yourself." She said to Rose, who immediately grabbed a silver tray and stood beside her at the counter, where a single Ood stared curiously at her, two others keeping work on the cooking of food. Rose leaned over, seeing a few different choices but they all looked rather like beans mixed with rabbit dung. One boiling pot had a blue choice, one had green, one had burnt orange, one had black and the final one seemed to be similar to white sheep fur. Rose looked at Scooti with a radiating expression of puzzlement and Scooti chuckled. "Black is roast chicken with potatoes and gravy. Burnt orange is bacon, eggs and hash browns. And the white is pancakes with maple syrup." Rose gave a nod, having already set her mind on having the black. She adored roast chicken, especially one with gravy. "Just don't have the green. Tastes like mac and cheese." Scooti warned as she finished gathering her food on her tray. Before she moved away however, she quickly glanced down at her tray with a mischievous smirk. "Or the blue. Tastes like seafood." Scooti giggled while Rose grinned as Scooti walked away to sit at a table.

Rose glanced up at the patient Ood and quickly decided her mind. "I'll have some of the black, please." She said. The Ood then took a large spoon and gently put the serving on her tray. "I'll have a bit of the burnt orange and just a tiny bit of the white." She also added and the Ood served it up.

"Would you like sauce with that?"

Rose shrugged. "I'll have a go, yeah." The Ood then took a large bottle filled with an orange liquid and poured a spoonful into a small cup in the tray. Rose gave a smirk, for the Ood was bringing back a few memories to her. "I did that job once. I was a…a dinner lady. Not that I'm calling you a lady." She quickly caught herself before frowning. "Although…I don't know. You might be." Nobody said if the Ood had genders. They could all be the same sexed or they could be male or female. Or something completely different. Rose quickly shook her head to clear her inner rant and returned her attention to the still curious Ood before her. "Do you actually get paid, though? Do they give you money?"

"The Beast and his armies shall rise from the pit to make war against God."

Rose stared at the Ood in unblinking astonishment. "I'm sorry?" She asked with a light voice.

The Ood blinked, glanced down at its white sphere, rattled and tapped it for a few seconds before glancing back up. "Apologies. I said I hope you enjoy your meal."

Rose nodded timidly. "Yeah." And without another word, mainly due to her confusion and slight nervousness at its words, she grabbed her tray and moved away from the counter.

"Drill head now at Point Sixteen." The computer said. Zach worked alone in the main control room to monitor the base, every few moments taking a drink from a large flask of water. "Drill head speed increasing."

"Keep pressure at 60." Zach ordered before standing up from his leather chair to move to the security computer. As he typed and clacked away at the keyboard, he heard the low sound of a snarl coming from the main console. Turning sharply around, the snarling stopped, the hologram of the planet flickered into static before it switched off, and Zach glanced around in trepidatious nervousness. "What?" He muttered to himself.

"Open door 3."

If only these doors could open and close faster. Danny mused to himself as he kept walking through the base, only halfway on his route to Ood Habitation.

"Close door 3."

Danny sniggered to himself. "Close door 3." He mocked, making him chuckle even more.

"He is awake."

Danny blinked. He didn't understand why, but suddenly, as the computer spoke those three words, he found a sinister chill crawling up his spine and his new-found joyful attitude had been drained away into nervous trepidation. Danny quickly pressed a green button on a communication panel on the door. "What did you say?" Danny asked.

"Close door 3."

Danny peeled back the view latch in the door, checking to see if anyone was on the other side. There wasn't. He was completely alone. Deciding for once to be a bit brave on his own, he swallowed a gulp down in his throat, breathed out a sigh and closed the latch.

Toby changed the settings on his work lamp, setting the blue light to a different radiation so he could view the symbols differently through the glass lens. He reached out over the desk to grab another pen-

"Toby."

Toby felt his insides melt into terrified dread. That voice, what was before a low creepy whisper was now clear and loud, sinister in tone and utterly nerve shaking to listen to. Toby moved to turn his seat-

"Don't turn around." The voice warned.

"Dan?" Toby whimpered. Even at his low, fearful voice, there was no answer. There didn't need to be. His question was utterly fruitless and moronic, and he knew it. "That's not Dan." He moved to turn-

"Don't look at me." The voice ordered.

Toby gulped. "Who-who are you?"

The voice purred in appreciation to his question. "Mmmmmmmm…I have so many names."

"If-if I could-"

"If you look at me, you will die." The voice snarled.

"But-but who are you?"

The voice seemed to ignore his question and Toby felt the room began to close in around him, be it in his own fear or something else entirely. "I'm behind you, Toby. I'm right behind you." The voice purred. Toby moved to turn his head again, but the voice growled. "Don't look. Don't look at me." The voice snarled. "One look and you will die." Toby felt his own breath began to quicken in his fear, his heart rate agreeing with his breathing and it began to rise, knotting up in his throat. "I'm reaching out, Toby. I'm so close. Don't turn around." The voice quickly said, Toby blinking at its words, as it said it before he could even turn his head. Then, it purred once again, and Toby felt his heart rate quicken more at its words. "Ohhh, I can touch you."

Toby, without any more forethought, spun around in his seat. The room was empty, and the voice was gone, with no indication or sign that there was anything in the room to begin with. Toby let his breathing calm down before he turned back around to the desk. However, as he glanced down at the fragments in his grasp, he blinked in fearful astonishment. The symbols were completely gone, and the fragments looked as if they never had the symbols to begin with. He placed the fragments down and all of a sudden, he felt a rush of blood in his head, his mind beginning to pound and Toby had no idea where it was all coming from. During the rush of blood in his head, he felt himself pulling his latex gloves off of his hands, which were burning with a sudden pain like a million shards of rock were scratching inside his own body. Once the pounding in his head subsided into a dull throb, he glanced down at his hands with his weary eyes and he let out a frightened gasp of shock. The palms of his own hands bore the symbols of his own work. But they weren't painted or drawn on, instead they were burnt onto his skin, yet nary a scorch mark could be seen, but his hands still throbbed from the pain. Then, he let out a cry as his face began to replicate that same feeling. He quickly grabbed a small circular mirror off his desk and held it up to his face. Every inch of his exposed face and neck was covered in the burned symbols, while his own eye colour had changed to a scorching red. Then, without any warning, his hand dropped the mirror onto the floor, and he stood up, his legs acting on their own accord. This was quickly followed by his throat constricting hard, almost as if someone was choking him from the inside and his sudden loss of air and the return of the throbbing in his head caused his vision to spin and he collapsed onto the floor, his form motionless and his body no longer breathing. Yet even without all of this, his fists slowly drew into a tight clench.

The electricity flared in Habitation 3, making everyone blink in concerned confusion. Ida pressed her finger to her wrist pad and brought it up to her mouth. "Zach, have we got a problem?" She asked.

"No more than usual." Zach reported. "Got the Scarlet System burning up, might be worth a look."

Ida took her finger away at that and glanced at the TARDIS trio. "You might want to see this. Moment in history." She then went up to the lever and twisted it, revolving away the roof to once again show the Black Hole, still eating away. It's next victim: A red cloud of mist swirling above the planet. "There, on the edge. That red cloud." Ida pointed, and everyone looked at the red cloud, the crew in sadness and the trio in subtle wonder. "That used to be the Scarlet System, home to the Pelushi, a mighty civilization spanning a billion years, disappearing forever…their planets and suns consumed." Ida breathed out a sigh and gave a bittersweet smile. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed its passing." She then placed her hand back on the lever-

"Uh, no, could you leave it open?" The Doctor interrupted, making Ida blink. "Just for a bit. We won't go mad, we promise."

"How would you know?" Ida asked.

Rose leaned over. "Because they already are." She mouthed to Ida, who shook her head with a smile.

"Scooti, check the lockdown. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me." Jefferson immediately stood up to leave while Ida moved to the other door.

"Open door 18. Open door 19. Close door 18."

"Take care, you two." Scooti called to the Doctor and Clara. "Wouldn't want to see you go blind as well." She teased. The Doctor and Clara winked at her and she grinned before leaving the room.

"Close door 19."

Now the trio were completely alone in the room, the Doctor and Clara keeping themselves in a hug while Rose sat opposite them. "I've seen films and things, yeah?" Rose perked up. "They say Black Holes are like gateways to another universe."

The Doctor shook his head. "Not that one. It just eats."

"And a long way from home." Rose muttered sadly.

The Doctor shot Clara a look who just smiled sadly, so the Doctor leaned over and pointed his finger up towards space. "Go that way." He pointed to the right of the Black Hole. "Turn right, keep going for…um, about um…500 years, and you'll reach the Earth."

Rose smiled at that while she took out her phone to quickly check it. "No signal." She said with a cocked eyebrow. "That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could…what would I tell her?" Rose then turned around to look properly at the couple. "Can you build another TARDIS?" She asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone…we're kind of stuck."

Rose shrugged. "Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift."

"And then what?" Clara asked.

Rose blinked. "I don't know. Find a planet, get a job…live a life same as the rest of the universe."

Clara blinked, and Rose almost giggled at her nervous look. Instead of her however, it was the Doctor that spoke up in a stuttering voice. "We'd have to settle down." He blinked. "Get a house or something, a proper house, with-with-with-with doors and things. Carpets! Me! Living in a house!" He squeaked, and Clara started to laugh at him, Rose just restraining her good mood to small giggles. "Now THAT…THAT is terrifying."

"And we would have to share a mortgage." Clara whispered in a sing song voice.

The Doctor blinked at her, now with complete horror. "No."

"Yeah."

"No!"

"Yeah!"

"I'm dying, that's it. I am dying, it is all over." He quipped, leaning back in his seat.

Clara decided to change strategy and just looked up at him with her own puppy dog eyes. "What about me? I'd have to get one, too. Would it really be that bad, sharing a house with me?"

The Doctor gulped. "Please don't." He pleaded rather fruitlessly.

"Come on." Clara pleaded.

Without a word, he wrapped her in a hug, gave her a kiss, then affectionately nuzzled her face into his neck. "Why do you do this to me, Clara?" He asked.

Clara smiled victoriously. "Because I love you." She said obviously. They didn't need to glance over to see Rose rolling her eyes at their behaviour, so after a few moments, they decided to change their attention over to Rose. "We did promise Jackie we'd always take you back home."

Rose gave them a sad look. "Everyone does leave home in the end, but…not like this." She said.

"We're sorry." Clara said honestly.

Rose smiled. "Well, stuck with you two, even with all the flirting and the lovey doving…it's not so bad."

"Yeah?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes."

"Even with the "Lovey doving"?" He returned.

"Yes." Rose said with a hint of playful irritation.

*Rings Rings*

Everyone blinked, looking at Rose's phone in complete astonishment. Rose timidly held her phone up, pressed the answer button and held it to her ear.

"He is awake."

Rose immediately tossed the phone to the ground, blinking with a slight shaking breath. She glanced over at the couple, who were giving her bewildered looks. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but…"

"Rose." Clara interrupted. "You just got a phone call in a place where you don't even have any signal. That's already…"

"Nerve wracking?" Rose finished. They nodded and quickly stood up from their seats.

"Let's pay a visit to Ood Habitation." The Doctor said.

"Evening!" The Doctor called, making Danny jump as the TARDIS trio jumped down the stairs to stand beside him at a monitor console.

"Only us." Clara reassured.

Danny briefly cocked an eyebrow. "The mysterious couple and their friend. Scooti took a shine to you two." He quipped to the Doctor and Clara, both barely able to contain their mischievous smirks. "How are you then? Settling in?"

"It's all good." Clara said.

"Yeah. Sorry, straight to business. The Ood. How do they communicate? I mean, with each other." The Doctor asked, the group looking over the railing beside them, up above two flights of winding stairs to what was roughly 48 Ood, all split into groups of 4, either sitting or standing in completely peaceful silence.

Danny shrugged. "Oh, just empaths. Ish. There's a low-level telepathic field connecting them." He snorted under his breath. "Not that it does them much good. They're basically a herd race, like cattle."

The Doctor and Clara shot each other a look. They didn't like the way that Danny was talking about the Ood but unfortunately, they had a more important matter to deal with. "This telepathic field, can it pick up messages?" The Doctor asked.

"Because I was getting dinner and one of the Ood said something…" Danny nodded for Rose to continue and she shrugged, "well…odd."

Danny cocked an eyebrow. "Mmm. An odd Ood."

"And then I got something else on my, um…" The Doctor shot her a warning look and she didn't need to ask him to know that they probably didn't use phones like hers anymore. "On my…communicator…thing."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Oh, be fair. We've got whole star systems burning up around us. There's all sorts of stray transmissions, probably nothing." Danny stopped typing at the monitor and grabbed his clipboard and a pen, moving to overlook the Ood to make more notes. He stopped when he felt the trio still staring at him, which briefly made him blink before he sighed. "Look…if there was something wrong, it would show." He motioned to the monitor. "We monitor the telepathic field. It's the only way to look after them." He said, glancing down at the Ood with an apologetic look. "They're so stupid. They don't even tell us when they're ill."

"Monitor the field. That's this thing?" Clara asked, pointing to the monitor, the Doctor and Rose glancing over her shoulder at the blue screen. It read "Basic: 5" and had four lines of pink, purple, red and blue, all of which were moving in either a straight line or a sudden small bump, rather like a heart rate monitor in a hospital.

"Yeah, but like I said, it's low-level telepathy. They only register Basic 5." Danny said.

Yet, as he spoke, the number on the monitor started to count up and Rose glanced away, looking down at the Ood who were spinning around in their seats to stare up at them, holding their spheres in their hands before they just sat there, completely motionless yet unblinking. "Well, that's not Basic 5." The Doctor said. "10…20." After another moment, he glanced back at Danny. "They've gone up to Basic 30."

Danny blinked, moving through them to look at the monitor. "But they can't." He muttered.

"Doctor. Clara." Rose quickly said, which attracted the couple's attention to the Ood, their faces quickly covered in a puzzled frown. "What does Basic 30 mean?" Rose asked Danny.

The telepathy monitor was now jumping up and down violently as Danny took it all in. "Well…it means that they're shouting. Screaming inside their heads."

"Or something's shouting at them." Clara said.

"But…where's it coming from?" Danny asked. "What is it saying? I mean, what did it say to you?" Danny asked Rose.

Rose shrugged, not taking her eyes off the Ood. "Something about the Beast in the pit."

"What about your communicator? What did that say?"

Rose gulped. She really didn't want to say it out loud, but Danny and the couple were staring at her intently and she gave in. ""He is awake"."

"And you will worship him." The Ood suddenly said in unison, sending shivers down the group's spines.

"What the hell?" Danny muttered in fear.

"He is awake." The Doctor spoke up, quickly taking command.

"And you will worship him."

"Worship who?" The Doctor asked. The Ood didn't answer and he clenched his jaw. "Who's talking to you? Who is it?!"

Scooti jumped joyfully around the corner into the open doorway of Toby's bedroom/work area, holding a blue folder in her hand. "Toby, I've got your expenditure…" She trailed off, noticing the room was empty. Deciding to shrug it off for he may be elsewhere, she placed the blue file down on his desk.

"Open door 41. Close door 41."

Scooti slowly turned around with a frown. "Forty…one." With haste, she darted out of the room and down to the exit.

"Open door 40. Close door 40."

Moving towards door 41, Scooti pressed the green button on the door panel. "Computer, did you open and close door 41?"

"Confirmed."

"But…that's an airlock compartment. Why would you open it? We can only go outside if the Captain gives us permission. Has someone gone out?"

"Confirmed."

"But who was it?"

"Cannot confirm."

Scooti pinched her nose with a sigh. "Okay. Hold on, I know. Tell me whose spacesuit's been logged out."

"No spacesuit has been logged out."

Scooti frowned. "Not even the spares?"

"Confirmed."

Scooti inwardly groaned. "But…you're not making any sense. You can't go outside without…" She trailed off, taking her finger off the green button and pressing it instead to a button on her wrist pad. "Zach, I think we've got a breakdown on door 41. It's saying somebody's gone outside onto the planet's surface." The only answer that came through was static and it made Scooti blink. "Zach?" She tried pressing different buttons but all that came through was still static. "Zach?" She tried again but still nothing. Scooti clenched her jaw and pressed her finger back onto the green button. "Computer, trace fault."

"There is no fault."

"Tell me who went through that door!" Scooti said irritably.

"He is awake."

Scooti, for whatever reason, felt her heart rocket into her throat. Not even thinking back to her enjoyable moments with that adorable couple could help lighten her mood. "What?" She muttered.

"He is awake."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"He bathes in the Black Sun."

At that, a shielded window next to door 41 started to roll back its steel cover and Scooti stepped towards it to stare outside. What she saw both astonished and horrified her. It was Toby, without any protection or even a spacesuit, standing out on the rocky surface, his own clothes and hair rippling in the windy ashes of the dying lights around the dead planet. "Toby." She muttered in shock. It was almost as if he heard her, for he turned around to look at her and her eyes widened at the blackened symbols on his face, his red eyes and his radiating smile. However it was a sinister smile that unnerved her to the core. "There's no air, there's no…" She trailed off, not able to find the words. Toby extended his hand outwards and motioned her to join him. For a brief moment, she almost felt the urge to accept. To find the answer to why he could survive outside, or what was wrong with him. But instead, she resisted and shook her head fervently. "No! Stop it! You can't be!" Toby's grin faded into a soldering glare and he slowly clenched his fist together. Without any waring, the glass started to crack at a rapid pace and Scooti quickly dashed to door 40. She tried to open it, but it was locked, and she started to cry. "Open door 40! Open door 40!" The computer didn't respond, yet she continued despite the hot tears that began to prickle her horrified eyes. "Open door 40! Open door 40! Open door 4-"

"Goodbye, child." Toby's cold, distorted voice called to her as the glass shattered. Scooti screamed as she was sucked out into the vacuum of space.

The base, without a warning, started to rock violently, sending everyone stumbling to the floor. The Doctor, Clara and Rose, who had gone down to look closer at the Ood, helped themselves off the shaking floor to look at a frightened Danny.

"Emergency hull breach. Emergency hull breach." At that, the alarm started to wail loudly, making everyone flinch at it for a brief second as the TARDIS group stumbled up the stairs towards Danny.

Danny pressed a button on his wrist pad and held it up. "Which section?!" He cried.

What answered wasn't Zach's voice through his wrist but through the speakers of the base itself. "Everyone! Evacuate 11 to 13, we've got a breach! The base is open! I repeat, the base is open!"

"Run!" The Doctor called, and they raced from the room, rushing through doors and corridors to door 19.

"Open door 19." The TARDIS group raced through Habitation 3 to door 18. "Open door 18. Close door 19." Danny raced to follow them through the door, closing it as he went. "Close door 18."

"I can't contain the oxygen field! We're going to lose it!" Zach called.

The group ran down the corridor, turning a corner to see Jefferson holding open a door, rushing wind coming through, almost blinding them as it did. "Come on!" Jefferson called, a panting Ida quickly rushing through the door. "Keep moving!" Jefferson's two security subordinates came through as well and Jefferson then held out a hand for the final person. "And you too, sunshine!" He said, grabbing a perfectly fine yet sweaty Toby's hand and hauled him through before swinging the door shut.

"Breach sealed. Breach sealed. Oxygen levels normal." The wind died off and everyone that had come through sighed in relief, panting to catch their breaths.

"Everyone all right?" The Doctor asked. "What happened? What was it?"

"Hull breach." Jefferson said. "We were open to the elements. Another couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that Black Hole at close quarters."

"You okay?" Rose asked Toby, kneeling down beside him as he nodded.

"That wasn't a quake. What caused it?" The Doctor asked. Jefferson shrugged for no one knew the answer.

"We've lost Sections 11 to 13. Everyone all right?" Zach asked.

"We've got everyone here except Scooti." Jefferson said before he pressed another button on his wrist pad. "Scooti, report." Only static answered and everyone, especially the Doctor, Clara and Ida shot him worried looks. "Scooti Manista, that's an order. Report." He ordered.

"She's all right." Zach interrupted, making them sigh in relief. "I've picked up her biochip. She's in Habitation 3. Better go and check if she's not responding. She might be unconscious." Everyone gave small smiles of relief, their panting calmed down, just not completely. "How about that, eh? We survived." Zach remarked.

"Habitation 3." Jefferson repeated. "Come on. I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on." He ushered and everyone except for the TARDIS trio and a shaking Toby followed him out of the corridor.

"You all right?" Clara asked Toby, her and the Doctor squatting down beside him and Rose. "What happened?'

"I don't-I don't know. I-I was working and then I-I can't remember." He stuttered. "All-all that noise. The room was falling apart. There was no air."

Rose quickly wrapped her arm through his and gently helped him up on his feet. "Come on, up you get. Come and have some Protein 1."

"Ooh, you've gone native." The Doctor commented, shooting Clara a cocked eyebrow as they stood up, letting Rose pass with Toby.

"Oi, don't knock it, it's nice. Protein 1 with just a *Clicks* dash of 3." Rose commented. They followed after the rest of the crew into Habitation 3, where Jefferson, Ida and Danny were gazing around frantically with no sign of Scooti in the room. Rose led Toby over to sit on a stool while the Doctor and Clara stood silent in the room, giving each other frightened, concerned looks over the missing young girl.

"There's no sign of her." Danny said to Jefferson.

"The biochip says she's in here." Jefferson said.

"Scooti, please respond. If you can hear this, please respond." Ida said into her wrist pad.

"Toby, did you see Scooti?" Jefferson asked.

"No, no, no, I don't think so." Toby stammered out.

Jefferson pressed his finger to a button on his wrist pad, everyone quickly silencing themselves as he spoke. "Zach. We've got a problem. Scooti's still missing."

"But it says Habitation 3." Zach said through the wrist pad.

"Yeah, well, that's where I am and I'm telling you, she's not here." Jefferson quickly said in irritation.

"Yes, she is." Clara spoke up, her voice wracked with sadness. The crew and Rose turned to see the Doctor and Clara staring up at the ceiling, so they followed their gaze.

"Oh, my god." Rose breathed, holding a hand to her mouth in shock while the crew just stared on in sorrow. Scooti's own pale, ruined body was floating above the roof, her unblinking, lifeless eyes staring down at them.

"I'm sorry, Scooti. I'm so sorry." The Doctor said sadly, quickly taking Clara's hand.

Jefferson placed his finger back onto his wrist pad again. "Captain." He said with a broken voice. "Report: Officer Scootori Manista PKD…deceased. 43K 2.1."

"She was twenty." Ida said in sad bitterness. "Twenty years old." Without another word, she moved over to the wall and flicked the lever, slowly rolling the roof back into place in their last goodbye to Scooti.

"'For how should man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his father and the temples of his gods?"" Jefferson quoted.

"She was so nice." Clara muttered sadly. "And so kind." The Doctor wordlessly brought her into a soft hug. They didn't get to know her for very long, but they really did like her. And now she was gone, in the blink of an eye. That made them sadder than anything else.

Everyone stood there in respectful silence for a minute before they started to glance at each other, slowly blinking. It was too silent, with one noticeable absent noise. "It's stopped." Ida said.

"What's stopped?" Rose asked.

"That was…" Clara started but the Doctor finished for her.

"The drill."

"We've stopped drilling. We made it." Ida said. "Point Zero."

"All non-essential Oods to be confined." Zach ordered.

The TARDIS trio, along with Zach, Jefferson, Toby and Ida, had gathered into the capsule room. Ida was already dressed in her orange spacesuit, clearly intending to go down. "Capsule established!" Ida reported. "All systems functioning! The mine shaft is going! Bring systems online now!"

Jefferson and the Ood worked to prepare the capsule while the Doctor and Clara, both dressed back in spacesuits and holding their helmets, walked straight up to Zach. "Reporting as volunteers for the expeditionary force." The Doctor said.

Zach groaned. "You two, this is breaking every single protocol. We don't even know who you are."

The Doctor smirked. "Yeah, but you trust us, don't you?"

"And you can't let Ida go down there on her own." Clara reminded.

"Go on." The Doctor implored as Zach said nothing. "Look us in the eyes." They grinned, spotting the glimmer of what they wanted in his gaze. "Yes, you do. There it is, I can see it. Trust."

Zach shook his head. "I should be going down."

"The Captain doesn't lead the mission. He stays here, in charge." The Doctor said.

Zach scoffed. "Not much good at it, am I?" He retorted.

"You're a lot better than you give yourself credit for." Clara said softly, making him blink. "Besides, you have the rest of the crew to look after as well. And we liked Scooti, so we're not letting anyone else die. You got that?" She ordered.

Zach, after a moment, nodded. "Yes." He quickly shook their hands before moving away. "Positions!" He called. "We're going down in 2 minutes! Everyone, positions!" Zach walked away to help Ida get her suit ready while Rose walked up to the Doctor and Clara.

"The last time I wore one of these was when me and Clara were in a spooky old mansion." The Doctor said, sending a smirking Clara a wink. "Good times."

Rose shook her head as they placed their helmets on. "It's funny, cause people back home think that space travel's gonna be all…whizzing about and teleports and anti-gravity. But it's not, is it? It's tough."

"We'll see you later." Clara said to Rose.

"Not if I see you two first." Rose beamed before wrapping them both in a hug, one at a time.

"You will remain here." Danny ordered through a speakerphone to the Ood in Ood Habitation, the male subordinate of Jefferson standing guard with him. "No command can override this. Have you got that? My instructions only." Danny placed the speaker back into the monitor with a slight feeling of nervousness. Why did it seem like they weren't listening to me?

The Doctor and Ida first entered the yellow and black capsule to stand at the back, while Jefferson held the door open. "Will you actually fit in there?" Jefferson asked, for the capsule wasn't very big.

Clara snorted. "Course I can. I'm the smallest person here." She quickly moved through to stand inside the capsule in front of the Doctor and Ida and, true to her word, she did indeed fit inside. She beamed back at Jefferson. "See?" Jefferson just rolled his eyes before closing the door.

"Capsule active." Zach said over the speakers as the expedition trio gripped the handles inside the capsule, while the Doctor and Clara grasped each other's hands, sending each other reassuring smiles. "Counting down in 10…9…8…7…6…5…4." On that, Jefferson sent them a salute while Rose waved with a grin. "3…2…1…Release."

The capsule shuddered into life, starting its descent down the shaft towards the power source. "Here we go." Ida quipped lightly.

After only a mere minute of traveling in the shaking capsule, their alarms in their suits went off and they quickly switched on their oxygen supply. They now had at least three hours' worth of air. "You've gone beyond the oxygen field. You're on your own." Zach informed through their suit's speakers.

"Maintain your breathing, all right?" Rose reminded. "Breathings good."

"Rose, stay off the com." Zach said.

"Fat chance." Rose quipped, making the trio snigger.

"You're about to land in 3…2…1." As Zach spoke, the capsule landed with a thud, sending the trio stumbling around in the capsule, groaning loudly as they did. Clara, once again with unfortunate luck, was sent tumbling against the wall. She however had the helmet to protect her head, but that still didn't protect her from the throbbing in her mind.

"Ugh, rough landing." Clara quipped dryly, the Doctor helping her to stand up.

"You all right?" Ida asked while the Doctor just stared in silent concern at her. They could hear distantly Rose and Zach calling for them, but they ignored them just for a moment.

"Yeah. Got rather bad luck against quakes." She said lightly, making them smirk.

"Ida, report to me! Doctor! Clara!" Zach demanded.

The trio pressed their wrist pads to open their line of communication. "It's all right. We've made it." The Doctor said, and they could hear the crew over the line sighing in relief. "Heading out of the capsule now." They opened the door, each grabbing a large torch and turned it on along with the lights in their suit helmets. Stepping out, they could see a large, darkened cave, quite obviously filled with rocks.

"What's it like down there?" Rose asked as Ida reached back into the capsule for something.

"It's hard to tell." The Doctor responded. "Some sort of…cave? Cavern? It's massive!"

"Well, this should help." Ida said as she stepped back to join them, holding a large dark grey sphere in her hands. "Gravity Globe." Ida tossed it up above their heads and it lit up the entire cavern. The sight was astonishing to the trio. The cavern, amidst its strewn rubble and rocks, was filled with marking and symbols like the ones Toby had copied up above. It even had three large statues, carved out from the rock walls, two of which seemed to be large fanged creatures guarding an archway. They didn't have the answers to everything there, but they didn't care. To the trio, it was utterly marvellous. "That's…that's…" Ida struggled as they stared about in amazement. "My god, that's beautiful." She finally said.

"Rose, you can tell Toby…we've found his civilization." Clara remarked despite her wonderous gaze.

"Oi, Toby! Sounds like you've got plenty of work." Rose called in the com, as the trio started to walk away from the capsule and towards the archway, Ida leading the charge, looking at her wrist pad for readings.

"Concentrate now, people. Keep on the mission." Zach reminded. "Ida…what about the power source?"

"We're close." Ida said. "Energy signature indicates North-Northwest. Are you getting pictures up there?" She asked.

"There's too much interference." Zach answered. "We're in your hands."

Ida scoffed. "Well, we've come this far. There's no turning back."

"Oh, did you have to?" The Doctor groaned with Clara. ""No turning back"? That's almost as bad as "Nothing can possibly go wrong," or "This is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had"."

Ida stopped walking, turning around to look at them with raised eyebrows. "Have you finished?" She asked dryly.

The couple exchanged looks but nodded hastily. "Yeah, finished."

"Most definitely." Clara said, and they quickly walked past a puzzled Ida.

"Are they always like this?" Jefferson asked Rose.

"Yes." Rose answered dryly. Jefferson sighed but accepted the answer anyway.

"Captain, sir. There's something happening with the Ood." Danny said over the com.

Rose and Jefferson blinked. "What are they doing?" Zach asked.

"They're staring at me." Danny said nervously. "I've told them to stop, but they won't."

They blinked again, now in puzzlement, while Zach audibly groaned. "Danny, you're a big boy. I think you can take being stared at."

"But the telepathic field, sir. It's at Basic 100." Danny said. "I've checked. There isn't any fault. It's definitely 100."

That gained their attention. "But that's impossible." Zach muttered.

"What's "Basic 100" mean?" Rose asked.

"They should be dead." Danny answered.

"Basic 100's brain death." Jefferson reiterated.

"But they're safe? They're not actually moving?" Zach asked.

"No, sir."

"Keep watching them. And you, Jefferson, keep a guard on the Ood." Zach ordered.

Jefferson nodded. "Officer at arms." He said, his female subordinate quickly moving into action while he grabbed his rifle.

"You can't fire a gun in here. What if you hit a wall?" Rose asked.

"I'm firing Stock 15, only impacts upon organics." He glanced at his female subordinate. "Keep watch, guard them."

"Yes sir." She said.

"Is everything all right up there?" Clara asked suddenly over the com.

"Yeah, yeah." Rose quickly said.

"It's fine." Zach said.

"Great." Danny added.

"We've found something." The Doctor said, earning everyone's attention. "It looks like metal, like some sort of seal. I've got a nasty feeling the word might be "Trapdoor". Not a good word, "Trapdoor". Never met a trapdoor I've liked."

"The edge is covered with those symbols." Ida reported.

"Do you think it opens?" Zach asked.

"That's what trapdoors tend to do." The Doctor said.

Ida scoffed. ""Trapdoor" doesn't do it justice. It's massive, Zach. About 30 feet in diameter."

"Anyway of opening it?" Zach asked.

"I don't know. I can't see any sort of mechanism." Ida said.

"Maybe that's what the writing's for." Clara perked up. "The letters that defy translation. Snobby little bastards." She quipped lightly, earning a few sniggers.

"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?" Zach asked.

Rose and Jefferson looked over. Toby, despite the good nature of the crew, had spent the last few minutes sitting on a box with his head in his hands. "Toby, they need to know, that lettering, does it make any sort of sense?"

"I know what it says." Toby whispered, yet they could hear his words.

"Then tell them." Rose said.

Jefferson blinked. "When did you work that out?"

"It doesn't matter." Rose almost snapped at Jefferson before glancing back at Toby, who was standing up from his seat. "Just tell them…" She trailed off as he turned to look at her, his eyes a soldering red and his face covered in the scorching black symbols.

Toby laid his eyes upon them all and he grinned. "These are the words of the Beast." He spoke in his distorted voice. As he spoke, Jefferson and his subordinate looked over at him, their eyes widening in shock. "And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise." He grinned coldly upon them as Jefferson came around Rose to stand in front of Toby, cocking and pointing his rifle towards the possessed man.

"Officer, you will stand down! Stand down!" Jefferson demanded, his orders making Toby's grin fade into a glare. Rose tried to use the com but all that came through was a sharp static, while they watched as Toby just calmly stretched his arms out and clicked his neck. "Officer, you've compromised security. You will stand down and be confined, immediately!" He demanded.

Toby looked at him and squinted his eyes. "Mr. Jefferson, tell me sir. Did your wife ever forgive you?"

Jefferson, quite remarkably on his part, hid any horror he felt at Toby's words by simply clenching his jaw. "I don't know what you mean." He muttered.

Toby smirked. "Let me tell you a secret: She never did."

Jefferson hardened his face into a glare that almost matched Toby's, restraining the shaking in his hands to a small twitch. "Officer, you will stand down and be confined." He repeated.

"Or what?"

"Or, under the strictures of Condition Red, I am authorized to shoot you."

Toby's smirk widened into his cold grin once again. "But how many can you kill?" He retorted. At those words, he unhinged his jaw and let loose a low growl from his throat, his red eyes lighting up and the symbols on his face dissolving into smoke that floated away from Toby and straight into the eyes of the Ood in the room. Toby, now completely normal, stared around in terror before he coughed and collapsed to the ground, unconscious and silent, but definitely not dead.

The three possessed Ood turned their heads to look at Rose, Jefferson and his subordinate. Then, they grasped their spheres and held it out in front of them and spoke in unison with distorted voices just like Toby, "We are the legion of the Beast."

The static over the coms faded, but no one wanted to take their eyes off the unnerving Ood. "Rose! What is it?! What's he done?! Rose?! What's going on?!" Clara exclaimed.

"Jefferson! Report! Report!" Zach demanded. "Jefferson, report! Someone, report!"

"The legion shall be many, and the legion shall be few."

Jefferson quickly pressed a button on his wrist before holding his rifle back up in one hand. "Sir, we have contamination in the livestock. They won't adhere us. They won't even listen to us."

Danny and his male guard looked on in wide eyed horror as the Ood all stood up, their eyes glowing red as they all grasped their spheres, staring dead straight upon them. "He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of Time." Then, one by one, they started to walk towards and up the stairs to the frightened pair. "Some may call him "Abaddon". Some may call him "Krop Tor". Some may call him "Satan" or "Lucifer" or "The Bringer of Despair"."

Danny quickly grasped the com link and held it up. "Captain! It's the Ood! They're out of control!" Then, he quickly placed it back and the pair started to move backwards, away from the advancing horde of possessed Ood.

""The Deathless Prince". "The Bringer of Night"." The first Ood that finished climbing the stairs stood in front of the pair and without warning, its sphere shot out of its grasp and struck the guard dead in the forehead, shocking him with thousands of volts of electricity, causing his body to collapse stone dead to the ground as the sphere shot back into the Ood's grasp. "These are the words that shall set him free." Danny, with utter horror on his face at what he had just witnessed, turned and fled out of the room, the Ood slowly hot on his trail.

"Back up to the door!" Jefferson ordered, Rose and his subordinate quickly moving to the door as he backed up with them, holding his rifle up in warning at the slowly advancing Ood.

"I am the sin and the temptation and the desire. I am the pain and the loss. I am become manifest. I shall walk in might. The dead will come, and my legions will swarm across worlds and everything shall die in its wake."

"Open the door! Quickly!"

"Door sealed. Door sealed." The computer said tauntingly as Rose tried and failed to get it open.

The whole planet began to shake violently, far worse than the Earthquake from mere hours earlier, causing Zach to grip the console despite still sitting in his chair. "We're moving! The whole thing's moving! The planet's moving!" He exclaimed into the mic, praying that someone would hear what was going on. The roof above his head began to roll away, letting him see the Black Hole beyond their horizon. And it was getting closer. "The gravity field! It's gone! We're losing orbit! We're gonna fall into the Black Hole!"

The large steel seal, the cause of the planet's shaking and tumbling towards the Black Hole, was opening up with loud, grinding screeches of steel scraping against itself. The Doctor, Clara and Ida tried to help each other to maintain their balance, but the shaking of the planet kept causing them to stumble to their knees as they looked on at the opening slab in terrified bewilderment. Once the seal had given way, all that way left beyond it was a dark, pitch black pit and the trio, including the crew above, heard a clear, booming, snarling voice in their heads laughing. It was cold, heartless, merciless and pure, utter evil. Then, it spoke to them all.

"I have been imprisoned for eternity, but no more! The pit is open, and I am free!"

AN: Oh, to be continued! Goddammit, eh?! XD Bloody hell I love this two parter, partly because I find the Beast to be such a cool and evil villain. One of my favourite one-off villains they've ever done. Anyway, despite you're being left for another couple of weeks on a cliff-hanger, thank you so much for reading and leave a review if you wish. :)