The Satan Pit
Krop Tor
"I have been imprisoned for eternity, but no more! The pit is open, and I am free!"
Jefferson clenched his jaw and raised his rifle at the Ood. "Open fire!" He ordered. The rifles of him and his subordinate shook and rattled with the fire of the bullets, each hitting the Ood dead in the head until they collapsed to the ground, their minds now a fine river of crimson red. Their deaths seemed to act as a calming sacrifice, for once they died, the planet stopped shaking, calming down to a peaceful stillness once more.
"We're stabilizing!" Zach reported over the speakers. "The gravity field is back online! We've got orbit!"
Jefferson gave a quick sigh at that while Rose rushed down to the monitor and grasped the speaker. "Doctor?! Clara?! Clara, can you hear me?! Clara, Doctor, Ida, are you there?!" She yelled, but only static answered.
"Open door 25." Jefferson and his subordinate spun around, their rifles raised at the spinning wheel on the door, which opened to reveal, to their relieved surprise, a sweating and fearful Danny.
"It's me!" He quickly yelled, and they nodded, lowering their rifles as Danny spun the wheel on the door.
"Close door 25."
"But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad." He rambled.
"How many of them?" Jefferson asked.
"All of them! All 50!" Danny said.
"Danny, out of the way." He calmly said. Danny went to protest but he grasped his shoulder. "Out of the way!" He ordered, pushing him to the side of the door and he grasped the wheel to turn it.
"But they're armed!" Danny protested. "It's the interface device! I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon!"
"Open door 25."
Standing on the other side was a group of 5 glaring Ood. Before any of the three could react, one stepped through and pressed its sphere on the subordinate's forehead, making her scream in agony as the electricity killed her stone dead. Jefferson then raised his rifle and opened fire once again.
"Close door 1." Zach turned to rush down the corridor but stopped seeing a large group of Ood walking down towards him from the other side. Giving a low growl in his throat, he turned and rushed back. "Open door 1. Close door 1."
Zach started to press buttons on the door's control panel before pressing a large red button on it with the palm of his hand. "Lockdown! Seal door 1!" He ordered.
"Seal door 1."
Zach moved back to the main console, and after providing a quick fix to the static over the coms, he could hear the commotion of Jefferson and Danny exclaiming to seal doors, causing a lockdown in their own location. "Jefferson, what's happening there?!" He ordered.
"I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?" Jefferson reported.
Zach moved to an emergency lockbox on the wall, opened it and took out a yellow and black pistol with a protruding grey bullet. "All I've got is a bolt gun with, uh…" Shit. There's only one in there. "All of one bolt." He said after a moment before groaning and moving back to the console. "I can take out a grand total of 1 Ood! Fat lot of good that is!" He said, tossing the bolt gun down on the console.
"Given the emergency, I recommend "Strategy Nine"." Jefferson advised.
Zach, with some tired weariness, nodded. "Strategy Nine agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose, what about Ida, and the Doctor and Clara, any word?" He asked.
"I can't get a reply." Rose said. "Just…nothing. I keep trying, but its-"
"Nope! Sorry! Still here!" The Doctor called over the com.
"And perfectly fine, thank you!" Clara added.
Rose growled. "You could have said something, you stupid fuckwits!"
"Whoa! Watch the language!" The Doctor remarked. "Anyway, it's the three of us. Me, Clara and Ida, hello!"
"And…" Clara started as an interject, "the seal opened up. It's gone." Just like that, the coms went silent, but not from fault. "All we've got left is this…chasm, like a pit."
"How deep is it?" Zach asked.
"Can't tell." Clara said, almost straining her eyesight to gaze in further, but all they could see was still pitch black. Not even their torches could illuminate the darkness. "It looks like it goes down forever."
""The pit is open."" Rose quoted. "That's what the voice said."
"But there's nothing? I mean…there's nothing coming out?" Zach reiterated.
"No." The Doctor said. "No, no sign of "The Beast"." He said dramatically, earning a snigger from Clara and Ida.
''It said "Satan"." Rose whimpered.
They sighed, but not in annoyance, but in sadness that they couldn't be there for Rose to help her. "Come on, Rose, keep it together, okay?" Clara reassured softly.
"Is there no such thing, Clara?" Rose asked. They decided not to answer her question. "Doctor, Clara, tell me there's no such thing."
"Rose, don't let it get into your head." Clara said. "Trust me, you already know that doesn't end well." She said grimly.
Rose gulped. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault." Clara returned.
"Ida?" Zach perked up. "I recommend that you withdraw immediately."
Ida blinked. "But…we've come all this way." She protested, with a tiny bit of a childish whine.
"Okay, that was an order. Withdraw." Zach reiterated. "When that thing opened, the whole planet shifted. One more inch and we fall into the Black Hole, so this thing stops right now."
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood." Ida reminded.
"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar-" Ida cut him by switching off their link with the group up top, making the Doctor and Clara cock their eyebrows at her in surprise.
"He's not going to be impressed with that, Ida." Clara remarked.
"Well, what do you think?" Ida returned, switching their attention as she nodded to the pit.
"He did give an order." The Doctor reminded.
"Yes, but…what do you think?" She asked.
The Doctor and Clara shared a look, before he placed his foot on the edge of the pit and leaned his right arm on his knee, the three-gazing back into the darkness. "It said "I am the temptation.""
"I-if there's something in there, why is it still hiding?"
"Maybe, we opened the prison but not the cell." The Doctor theorized.
"We should go down." Ida said, earning a small look of surprise from the couple. "I'd go." She said bravely. "What about you two?"
They shrugged. "Oh, in a second, yeah." The Doctor said in brief obviousness before he turned serious again. "But, then again…" He chuckled, sending Clara a small shaking of the head. "That is so Human." He remarked lightly. ""Where angels fear to tread."" He quoted. "Even now, standing on the edge. It's that feeling you get, yeah? Right at the back of your head. That impulse. That strange little impulse. That mad little voice saying "Go on. Go on. Go on. Go over, go on."" He said dramatically. "Maybe it's relying on that." He muttered before he sighed and glanced at the pair beside him, specifically Clara. "For once in my life…Clara," She gave him a small fond look at his words, "I'm going to say…retreat." He said finally after a moment, standing up properly which surprisingly caused a small click in his back making him groan. "Oh, now I know I'm getting old." He grumbled, earning a small giggle from Clara. "Watch it." He warned, and she just giggled harder, while he switched their com links back online again. "Rose, we're coming back."
Rose grinned in relief. "Best news I've heard all day." She quipped to herself. Then, she and Danny heard Jefferson cocking his rifle and they turned, seeing him aiming it at the terrified, sweating Toby, who was lying on the floor and looking up fearfully at Jefferson. "What are you doing?" Rose asked.
"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it." He said simply.
Rose moved to stand beside him. "Are you going to start shooting your own people now?" Rose asked sternly. "Is that what you're going to do? Is it?"
"If necessary."
"Well, then, you'll have to shoot me if necessary, so what's it going to be?" Jefferson said nothing, so she knelt beside Toby. "Look at his face. Whatever it was, it's gone. It passed into the Ood, and you saw it happen." She reprimanded. "He's clean."
Jefferson darted his gaze between the terrified Toby and the stern Rose, and he relented. She's trying to let me give Toby a chance. Fair enough. He muttered inwardly, and he let his grip on his rifle relax. "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him." He warned before walking back to the monitor.
Rose turned to Toby and let her stern expression soften. "You all right?" She asked.
"I…I…I don't know." He stuttered.
"Can you remember anything?"
"Just…it-it-it was so angry. It was…it was fury and rage and…and death." Those last two words made his eyes widen in a form of fearful recognition. "It was him. It was the Devil."
Rose, already knowing from Clara what it was like to have someone mess around with your head, decided to be kind. "Come here." She ushered and wrapped Toby in a hug.
"What's "Strategy Nine"?" The Doctor asked as they walked back to the capsule.
"Open the airlocks. We'll be safe inside the lockdown." Ida explained. "The Ood will get thrown out into the vacuum."
"So, we're going back to a slaughter?" Clara asked in stern demand.
Ida sighed. "The Devil's work." She said grimly.
"But why?"
"How often have you heard the phrase "It's us or them"?" Ida asked, and she interrupted the couple before they could respond. "Trust me, I don't like it either, no one does. I rather take a third option than that, but right now, it hasn't shown itself to me." She said bluntly, stepping back into the capsule, followed in a dejected pace, by the Doctor and Clara. "Okay, we're in. Bring us up." She said into her suit mic.
"Ascension in 3…2…1." Jefferson said. On his command, the capsule did not start its journey back but instead, lost all of its power, plunging the three into darkness.
"This is the darkness." The Beast spoke with the voices of the Ood through the speakers of both the capsule and the suits. They could also hear the crew above gasping briefly in shock, so they could also hear the voice. "This is MY domain." It growled. "You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns, which die and, in the end, only the darkness remains."
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base 6 representing the Torchwood Archive. You will identify yourself." He demanded.
"You know my name."
"What do you want?"
"You will die here, all of you. This planet is your grave."
The Doctor quickly interrupted, his voice bringing some relief to everyone listening. "If you are the Beast, then answer me this: Which one, hmmm?" The Beast didn't answer, and he smiled. "Cause the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. "The Arkiphetes", "Quoldonity", "Christianity", "Pash-Pash", "New Judaism", "San Claar", "Church of the Tin Vagabond". Which Devil are you?"
"All of them!" It snarled.
"What? Then you're…the truth behind the myth?"
The Beast chuckled lightly to itself, sending nasty shivers down their spines. "This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind." It taunted.
The Doctor clenched his jaw into a glare, despite the fact that they couldn't interact with the Beast except for voice. His glare lessened somewhat when Clara softly took his hand, which he silently thanked her for. "How did you end up on this rock?" He asked sternly.
"The disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity." It spat.
Despite their dull expressions, the Doctor and Clara were both guilty as charged to be rather curious as to its history. "When was this?" The Doctor asked.
"Before Time."
"What does that mean?" The Doctor scoffed.
"Before Time." It growled.
"What does "Before Time" mean?!" The Doctor asked sternly again.
"Before Time and light and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before the ancient lights burned their lives away. Before the Solitract was banished into exile. Before ALL universes were created."
The Doctor's face fell into disbelief. "That's impossible. No life could have existed back then."
"Is that YOUR religion?"
The Doctor almost gulped, but he restrained against it. "It's a belief." He said with some trepidation.
The Beast laughed. "You know nothing. ALL of you. So small!" It snarled. "The Captain, so scared of command." It taunted. "The soldier haunted by the eyes of his wife. The scientist, still running from daddy."
"What?" Ida muttered.
"The little boy who lied." It continued. "The virgin. The impossible girl," Clara's jaw clenched at that, "who no matter how hard she tries, she will never be there when her King needs her most."
"Bullshit." Clara spat but the Beast ignored her.
"And the lost girl, so far away from home." It purred, and the couple's hearts plummeted. "The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."
One small moment of unnerving silence passed before the small voice of a terrified Rose Tyler spoke. "Doctor, Clara, what does that mean?" She whimpered.
"Rose, please don't listen." Clara said, herself also not getting over the Beast's words about her.
"What does it mean?" Rose repeated.
The Beast chuckled. "You will die…and I will live!" It snarled. Then, a loud roar sounded through the coms, making everyone jump with a gasp.
"What the hell was that?!" Danny exclaimed.
"What did it mean?!" Rose asked.
"What do we do?!" Danny asked. "Jefferson! Zach, what do we do?!"
"Captain, what's the situation of Strategy Nine?" Jefferson calmly asked. "Captain, report."
"Stop!" The Doctor said, but everyone ignored him, still rambling on in terror. "Everyone, just stop!" He demanded.
"Report!"
"Report!"
"Report!"
"Oh, for fucks sake." The Doctor grumbled before he pressed many buttons in unison on his wrist pad, causing loud feedback to screech through the coms, making everyone silence with a wince. "You want voices in the dark, then listen to mine!" He finally said with frustration. "That thing is playing on very basic fears! Darkness, childhood, nightmares, death, all that stuff!"
"But that's how the Devil works!" Danny protested.
"Or a good psychologist." The Doctor retorted.
"But how did it know about my father?" Ida perked up.
The Doctor sighed, and he decided not to answer that question. "Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm? Cause I'll tell you what I can see: Humans. Brilliant Humans. Humans who can travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a Black Hole, just for the sake of discovery, that's amazing!" He beamed. The pair beside him started to smile, especially Clara, yet hers was more in proud love than in reassured relief. "Do you hear me?! Amazing, all of you! The Captain, his officer, his elder, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage: The Beast is alone, we are not. If we can use that to fight against him-"
*Crack*
The shuttle rocked and shook violently, sending the trio stumbling against the wall as they heard both the coms get flooded by a loud static and a continuous rumbling sound on the roof, which made Ida immediately gasp.
"The cable's snapped!" She yelled.
"Get out!" The Doctor ordered. "Get out!"
The trio dove out of the capsule, not even bothering to slam the doors behind them as they rushed away, hearing the loud crack and slam of the ten-mile cable shattering the capsule into a smoking mess. "Great." Clara muttered. "No way out."
"Come on, Clara." The Doctor whined. "Have a bit of optimism. You never know what's down here."
"Now that sounds creepy instead of reassuring." She admonished lightly.
He shrugged his shoulders before they looked at Ida. "How much air have we got?"
Ida pressed a button on her wrist pad. "60 minutes." She then blinked and double checked with a frown. "55."
"Doctor?! Clara?! Are you all right?!" Rose yelled into the speaker as Danny and Jefferson peered down the now empty hole, searching fruitlessly for a sign of the cable. "Zach?!"
"Coms are down." Zach answered calmly.
"Are they alive?!" Rose asked.
"I've still got life signs, yes…but we've lost the capsule. They're stuck down there." He said grimly.
Rose blinked, opened her mouth but said nothing, so she closed it and placed the speaker back onto the monitor before moving to the ledge beside Danny and Jefferson, peering over the edge. "We've got to bring them back." She said finally.
"We can't." Jefferson said.
"But we have to." She protested.
"They're ten miles down. We haven't got another ten miles worth of cable." He responded. On that, a loud crack sounded at the door, making everyone spin around to look at it, Jefferson with his rifle raised. "Captain? Situation report." He said calmly, slowly marching up towards the door.
"It's the Ood." Zach said after a few moments of silence. "They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in."
Jefferson briefly peeled back the view latch and sighed. "Yeah, it's the same on door 25." He reported.
"How long's it going to take?" Rose asked.
Jefferson shrugged. "Well, it's only a basic frame. It should take 10 minutes."
*Crack*
He blinked, briefly glanced back at the door and gave another blink. "8."
"I've got a security frame. It might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you." Zach reported.
Rose glanced around for a moment before she took a deep breath. If the Doctor or Clara weren't here to take command, she'll have to do. God, I hope I don't screw up. "Right, so we need to stop them, or get out, or both."
"I'll take both, yeah?" Danny quipped. "But how?"
She gave him a "Seriously?" look. "You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut them off? Cause he was making sense. He was telling you to THINK your way out of this." They blinked at her and she growled low in her throat. "Come on! For starters, we need some lights! Zach, there's got to be some sort of power somewhere."
Zach groaned. "There's nothing I can do. Some Captain, stuck in here pressing buttons."
"That's what the Doctor and Clara meant. Press the right buttons."
"They've gutted the generators…" Zach trailed off and Rose smiled.
I'm getting somewhere! She inwardly squealed. "But?"
"But the rocket's got an independent supply." He finally said after a moment. "If I could reroute that…*Clears Throat* Mr. Jefferson. Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety."
Jefferson quickly moved to the monitor to press the necessary keys. "Opening bypass conduits, sir." He reported.
"Channelling rocket feed. In 3…2…1…Power."
The lights then flared on and the crew, even the still nerve wracked Toby, either chuckled gleefully or cracked a relieved smile. "Let there be light." Danny quipped.
"All right, what about that Strategy 9 thing?" Rose asked.
Jefferson shook his head. "Not enough power. Needs 100%."
Rose cleared her throat. "Right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that." Rose walked over to the still sitting Toby. "Toby, what about you?"
Toby stood up and gave a sigh. "I'm not a soldier, I can't do anything-"
"No, you're the Archaeologist." Rose interrupted sternly. "What do you know about the pit?"
Toby opened his mouth, then he blinked. He did it again and again, which made Rose squint her eyes ever so slightly in puzzlement. "Well…it's…it's hard to explain." He said finally. "Yes, we don't know much about the planet, we can't even translate the language."
"But?" Rose interjected.
Toby took a few more moments, gazing around in his own puzzlement. "It's like…since that thing got inside my head, it's like…the letters make more sense."
Rose shrugged her shoulders. "Well then, get to work." She quipped lightly before turning back to Danny, trusting Toby would know what to do. "As for you, Danny boy, you're in charge of the Ood. Anyway of stopping them?'
"Well, um…I don't know." He finally said dejectedly.
Rose grasped his shoulder and pulled him to the monitor. "Then find out." She said simply. "The sooner we get control of the base, the sooner we rid ourselves of the Ood AND we get our friends out. Now, get going. Shift." She winked and Danny, after a few moments of bewildered blinking, moved to work. Rose just moved to stand by the edge of the hole and gazed down, giving a silent promise that didn't need to be spoken aloud.
"Well," Ida started, throwing her arms outwards at the wreckage that formerly was the capsule, "we've got all this cable, we might as well use it. The drum's disconnected, we could adapt it. Feed it through."
"And then what?" The Doctor asked, him and Clara staring at Ida.
She shrugged. "Abseil…into the pit."
They slowly nodded. "Abseil. Right."
"We're running out of air with no way back, it's the only thing we can do…even if it's the last thing we ever achieve."
"We'll get back." Clara reassured. "Our friends are up there. Rose is up there."
Ida almost gave into the itch of groaning in her throat, but she resisted. "Well, maybe the key to that is finding out what's in the pit."
The Doctor shrugged and the three moved to work. "Well, it's half of a good plan."
"What's the other half?" Ida asked.
"I go down. Not you."
"What?" Clara asked suddenly before Ida did.
"Not you either, Clara. I'm going down alone." He said with finality.
Clara scoffed. "Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir." She spat.
"Don't!" He warned with a growl, silencing her immediately. "Clara…please don't." He said in a softer tone.
Clara slouched her shoulders, glancing down at the ground. "I'm sorry." She mumbled. The Doctor immediately went over and wrapped her in a hug. "I didn't mean to-"
"I know." He quickly said. "But we can't go down at the same time, you know that."
"But what if you don't…" Clara trailed off and the Doctor hugged her tighter.
"I WILL, Clara. I WILL come back." He promised. Clara, albeit rather dejectedly, accepted it and they parted. The Doctor started to chuckle low in his throat, making Clara blink at him. "I was going to kiss you for luck, but…you know…" He tapped the glass of his helmet, which made Clara giggle.
"Then if you survive down there and get back in one piece…" Clara shrugged with a mischievous smile, "there will be more than a kiss for a reward." She flirted.
"There better be." He flirted back.
"Jesus Christ." Ida growled with a roll of her eyes, making the couple look at her in childish fright. "Are you two finished?"
"Yeah." They squeaked in unison.
*Crack*
Everyone had managed to stop flinching at the sound by the 10th time, yet they still fluttered their nervous eyes to the doorway as they worked. "Open junctions 5, 6, 7. Reroute filters 16 to 24. Go." Jefferson pressed the final button and he sighed at the beep of acceptance on the computer, all the while Danny and Rose hung by the monitor and Toby worked by himself with a pen and notepad.
"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood." Danny said to Rose. "Trouble is, we haven't got them onboard."
Rose almost gave a dry scoff. "Well, that's handy, listing the things we haven't got. We haven't got a swimming pool either, or a Tesco's." She quipped dryly.
Danny rolled his eyes and continued typing. "I have an idea of what we can do, but can it work?" He muttered to himself and he clacked away. It ended with the computer giving a loud beep, bringing up the text "Affirmative" and Danny squealed out a laugh. "Oh my god, it says yes! I can do it!" He squealed.
"Do what?" Rose asked, feeling like she missed out on a hilarious joke.
Danny cleared his throat to collect himself. "Well, hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy, brainstorm!"
"What happens to the Ood?" Rose asked.
"It'll tank them! Without any actual damage, they'll just spark out!"
Rose beamed. "There we are then, do it!" Danny didn't say anything, and her beaming expression slowly morphed into a clenched jaw. "But?"
Danny glanced down at the floor, almost like a kid who got caught trying to open the jar of cookies. "But…I have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."
Rose sighed but patted his back anyway. "That's what we'll do, then." She said, moving around him to stand beside Jefferson at another computer, while Danny, after a few moments of bewildered blinking, went to work. "Mr. Jefferson, sir, anyway out?" She asked.
"Just about." He answered, bringing up a blue schematic map of the underside of the base. "There's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to move around the base through there."
Rose smirked with her tongue in her teeth. "Ventilation shafts." She quipped.
Jefferson smiled, but only just. "I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation. Well, no air in fact at all. They were designed for machines, not life-forms."
"But," Zach interrupted over the coms, "I can manipulate the oxygen field from here, create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network." He said.
"Right." Rose muttered. "So, we go down and you make the air follow us…by hand." She said dryly.
Zach snorted under his breath. "You wanted me pressing buttons." He retorted.
"Yeah, I did ask for that." Rose muttered under her breath. "Okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation, so if you could please, sir, work out a route."
"Working it out now." Zach reported.
"No, I'm the senior officer. I'm the one that goes down." Ida whined as the three placed the full cable drum at least twenty feet, by recommendation from Ida, from the edge of the pit.
The Doctor just scoffed incredulously, turning to look at Ida. "I'm no sort of officer so I can do what I want."
"Doctor, it's my job." She still whined.
"Only on paper." He reminded with a retort. "So, on that, I go down. And that's final." He said, and Ida sighed.
"Fine." She grumbled, grabbing the end of the cable and preparing a hook on the end while the Doctor prepped his belt to also function as a semi-harness, Clara and Ida hooking him onto the cable. "All right, that should hold it." Ida said, moving back to check the drum while Clara gave the Doctor a quick farewell hug. "If you two lovebirds are finished," Ida quickly said, making them part with a small blush, "how is the cable now?" She pressed her wrist pad and the drum started to slowly spin, loosening the tug it had on the Doctor, but only by a tad.
"Fine. Should work." The Doctor said as he stood on the edge of the pit, looking over his shoulder and down into the dark abyss. "Doesn't feel like such a good idea now." As he started, he felt his nerves begin to twitch in agitation and his glove cladded hands gripped the cable tighter, making him grin. "There it is again. That itch." His gleaming eyes shot to Clara, who was shaking her head. "Go down, go down, go down, go down, go down." He said dramatically, making Clara and Ida snigger.
"The urge to jump." Ida said, giving a last check over on the drum. "Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It's our body's way of testing us, calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch." Ida explained.
"No, that's not it." The Doctor said. "That's too kind. It's not the urge to jump, it's deeper than that." His grin returned in full force. "It's the urge to fall!" And with that, he jumped over the side of the pit and down into the chasm.
"Doctor!" Clara yelled, and the cable stopped moving, halting him in his descent and his body quickly swung to the rock face, his feet bracing and planting themselves upon it, the Doctor taking a breath with a light snigger. "Are you okay?!" She asked with worry.
The Doctor sighed. He didn't like making Clara feel that way, but he just couldn't help himself. "I'm okay, thank you."
"Please don't do that." Clara muttered.
"I'm sorry." He said earnestly.
Clara gave a breath of relief while Ida stepped in. Well…her voice did anyway. "Do you see anything different down there?"
The Doctor glanced around. The rock face did form a large space around him, but it stopped at least 20, maybe 30 feet beneath his current position. Beyond that was just the blackness of the pit. "The wall of the pit seems to be the same as the cavern just…not much of it. There's a crust about…20, maybe 30 feet down and then…nothing, just the pit." He glanced back up and lessened his grip on the cable, but only enough as not to put too much of a strain on his own hands. "Okay then, lower me down."
"Good luck." Clara quickly said, her words making him smile softly.
"Here we go." Ida said, and the cable started to lower him down into the darkness.
*Crack*
"Danny, come on!" Rose yelled, her, Jefferson and Toby had wrenched back a grate opening in the floor, for their time was up and the Ood were about to get through the door.
"Hold on! Just conforming!" Danny yelled back, still at the monitor. "Come on, come on, come on, come on." He muttered anxiously.
"Danny, we've got to go now!" Jefferson ordered.
Thankfully, as he spoke, the computer had finished its work, slotting out a small golden chip, which Danny took and immediately thrusted into his pocket. "Yeah! Put that in the monitor and it's a bad time to be an Ood!" He squealed in relief as he rushed over to join the group, Jefferson keeping his rifle raised at the door.
"We're coming back, have you got that?" Rose asked sternly. "We're coming back to this room and we're getting our friends out."
"That we will." Jefferson nodded. "Okay, Danny, you go first, then you, Miss Tyler, then Toby. I'll go last in defensive position, now come on, quick as you can!" He ordered and the three quickly piled through the hole and into the tunnel.
The tunnel, almost to their disappointment, was a simple, dull grey tunnel of steel that, while not harmfully bad in anyway, was still uncomfortable considering the enclosed, cramped space. And it reeked, possibly from underuse. "God, it stinks." Rose remarked as Toby climbed in. "You all right?" She asked Danny.
"Yeah, I'm laughing." Danny shot her a thumbs up before pressing his wrist pad to activate his com link. "Which way do we go?"
"Just go straight ahead." Zach said. "Keep going until I say so." The three started to crawl through the tunnels as Jefferson entered in last and dropped the grate latch above him, moving quickly with his rifle to join the trio.
"Not your best angle, Danny." Rose quipped, glancing at his backside.
"Oi! Stop it!" Danny protested.
"I don't know. It could be worse." Toby quipped.
"Oi!" Rose squeaked.
"Go straight on until you reach Junction 7.1." Zach ordered. "Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you." He reassured.
The group kept crawling until their own knees started to protest, but they kept going, right up to reaching the steel door, marked "7.1". As they reached it, they shuffled about to sit, letting their protesting knees breathe while they themselves started to breathe deep. "We're at 7.1, sir." Danny informed.
"Okay, I've got you." Zach said. They heard him jump, muttering a small "Christ" under his breath, which they attributed to the Ood still cutting through his door. "I'm just aerating the next section." He said.
"Getting kind of cramped, sir. Can't you hurry up?" Danny protested.
"I'm working on half power here." Zach said, and they could tell he had shrugged in obviousness.
"Stop complaining." Jefferson half ordered under his breathing.
"Mr. Jefferson said "Stop complaining"." Rose carried on to Danny.
"I heard." Danny waved dismissively.
"He heard." Rose carried to Jefferson.
"Okay, w-well the air's getting a bit thin." Toby protested to Zach.
"He's complaining now." Rose quipped to Jefferson.
"I heard." Jefferson rolled his eyes.
Silence fell for a brief moment, which they realized was Rose scrunching her nose against the smell of sweat. They all had it, but Danny seemed to have it in figurative bucket loads. "Danny, is that you?" She asked.
Danny, despite their current confines, waved his arms up in exasperation. "I'm not exactly happy." Danny said obviously.
"I'm just moving the air; I've got to oxygenate the next section." Zach informed. "Now keep calm or it's going to feel worse."
*Clang*
They all glanced at each other nervously at the sound of a large door smacking down onto the floor. It was quickly followed by another clang, this one of steel grating against steel grating. Jefferson quickly moved to the right side of the tunnel and pointed his rifle down the tunnel.
"What was that?" Danny asked fearfully.
"Mr. Jefferson, what was that?" Rose asked with more collectedness.
"What was that noise?" Toby asked in the same tone as Danny.
"Captain, what was that?" Jefferson asked.
"The junction in Habitation 5 has been opened. It must be the Ood." The four strained to listen and they could hear the slapping of the Ood's hands and the shuffling of their bodies as they moved through the tunnels, quite obviously in their direction. "They're in the tunnels!" Zach reported.
"Open the gate." Danny said.
"I've got to get the air in!" Zach reminded.
"Just open it, sir!" Danny protested.
"Where are they? Are they close?" Rose asked.
"I don't know. I can't tell. I can't see them. The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life-forms."
"Whose idea was that?" Rose quipped sarcastically.
"Open the gate!" Danny demanded.
Thankfully, at least for them, the gate slid open, allowing the four to quickly crawl through towards the oncoming intersection. "Danny, turn left! Immediate left!" Zach ordered, and they moved down the ordered direction.
"The Ood, sir! Can't you trap them?! Cut off the air?!" Jefferson asked as he crawled in last position, always glancing back behind him for their own sake.
"Not without cutting off yours." Zach answered. The group kept moving down the tunnel, straight towards another intersection. "Danny, turn right. Go right." Zach ordered. "And go fast, Dan! They're going to catch up!" He added, and Danny picked up speed as best he could, turning to his right and moving down the tunnel towards the next gate, 8.1.
"I'll maintain defensive position!" Jefferson called, stopping right at the intersection, turning around to face the other direction and pointing his rifle down the tunnel.
"You can't stop!" Rose protested, stopping her movements to look back past Toby.
"Miss Tyler, that's my job!" He said, cocking his rifle and grasping it with two hands. "You've got your task, now see to it!"
"You heard what he said, now shift!" Toby quickly said and Rose, despite some dejection, moved down the tunnel to catch up with Danny, who had already reached 8.1.
"Opening 8.1 now." Zach said, and the gate opened up, allowing the trio to rush through. Right on that note, they heard Jefferson opening fire back down the tunnel, the noise carrying right through back to them. They ignored the urge to wince at the sound, continuing to crawl down the tunnel until they reached the next gate, 8.2.
"8.2! Open 8.2!" Danny demanded. "Zach! Open 8.2!"
"I've got to aerate it!" Zach reminded.
"Open it now!" Danny exclaimed in fear.
"I'm trying!"
Danny started to smack the gate, making Rose immediately grasp his arm to stop him. "Danny, stop it! That's not helping!" Rose said.
"Zach, get it open!" Toby demanded.
"Jefferson, I've got to open 8.2 by closing 8.1. You've got to get past the Junction, now move." Zach ordered. They heard the rifle firing stop, only to be replaced by the firing of a pistol. "That's an order, now move!" He demanded. The pistol firing had stopped but the trio could still not see Jefferson moving down the tunnel. "I'm going to lose oxygen, Jefferson! I can't stop for your dramatics!"
Danny gave a squeal of relief as 8.2 slid straight open. "That's it!"
"Come on, come on!" Toby said, Danny and Rose rushing through towards another intersection.
"Danny, turn left and head for 9.2, that's the last one." Zach said. "Jefferson! You've got to move faster!" He ordered. Before Rose and Toby rounded the corner, they could see Jefferson rushing down towards them, but 8.1 was quickly closing before him. "John, move! Move!"
"Mr. Jefferson, come on!" Rose yelled.
"Keep going!" Toby ushered, and Rose moved to join Danny by 9.2. The trio then stopped to rest, and they could hear Jefferson panting over his com, but they could tell that he had failed to get past the gate on time.
"Regret to inform, sir, I was a bit slow." Jefferson panted. "Not so fast these days."
"I can't open 8.1, John. Not without losing air for the others." Zach said, his voice starting to break.
"And quite right too, sir." Jefferson reassured. "I think I bought them a little time."
"There's nothing I can do, John. I'm sorry." Zach muttered.
"You've done enough, sir, and made a very good Captain under the circumstances." Jefferson reassured, before taking a deep breath. "Might I ask, if you can't add oxygen to this section…can you speed up the process of its removal?"
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" Zach asked.
"Well, if I might choose the manner of my departure, sir, lack of air seems more natural than…well…let's say…death by Ood. I'd appreciate it, sir."
Zach gulped. "Godspeed, Mr. Jefferson."
"Thank you, sir." Jefferson said.
For the trio, only silence fell for a few moments, until Zach cleared his throat and spoke. "Report: Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD, deceased, with honours…43k 2.1."
Danny took a moment to clear his throat from potentially breaking before speaking. "Zach…we're at the final junction. 9.2. And, uh…if my respects could be on record, he saved our lives."
"Noted." Zach said. "Opening 9.2."
The trio took a breath before turning to the opening gate and they jumped in fright, seeing the red eyed Ood waiting patiently on the other side. "Lower 9.2! Zach, lower it!" Rose yelled.
"Back, back, back!" Danny yelled.
"We can't go back!" Toby protested even while they still moved away from the gate. "They got 8.2 sealed off! We're stuck!"
Rose glanced around, checking for a way out. She glanced up above her head and a piece of the tunnel steel slid away to reveal a steel grate. "Get out of there! Now!" Zach ordered.
Rose immediately placed her hands on the grate and pushed it open. "Come on! Up!" She yelled, hopping up into the corridor above, feeling somewhat relieved at being free from the confines of the tunnel. "Danny! Get up!" She yelled, grabbing his hand to help hoist him up out of the tunnel. "Toby, come on!" She yelled, hearing the rushing of Toby getting under the open hole.
"Help me! Oh my god, help me!" He exclaimed in terror, Rose and Danny grabbing his arms to hoist him up.
"Open door 32." They glanced behind them to see the Ood moving through the doorway towards them as the hole beneath their feet slid shut.
"This way! Come on!" Danny yelled, leading them down the corridor to the next door.
"Open door 34." They raced through into the next intersection and through the entrance into Ood Habitation.
"Hurry up!" Zach ordered.
The trio sprinted up to the main monitor and Danny quickly fumbled through his pockets to get the golden chip. "Get it in!" Rose demanded, the trio spotting Ood still in their pen down the stairs while also glancing at the door, seeing more Ood getting closer to the entrance.
"Danny, get it done!" Toby demanded. "Stop them!"
"I'm trying! I'm trying! I'm getting it in!"
"Danny, get that thing transmitting!" Danny pulled out the golden chip and slotted it into the monitor. The basic counter went straight from 100 to 0 and the Ood all grasped their heads, stumbling down to their knees as if a loud screeching noise was blaring inside their heads. After a few moments, they fell down to the floor, writhed about in silence before closing their eyes and losing consciousness. "You did it." Rose muttered and the three started to laugh. "We did it!" Rose and Danny gave each other a quick hug before Rose gave one to Toby, then parting and moved to the monitor to grab the speaker as Toby and Danny hugged in relief. "Zach, we did it, the Ood are down. Now we've got to get our friends back." She said.
"I'm on my way." Zach responded, and they sighed before moving quickly out of the room, now freed from the threat of death.
"You get representations of the horned beast right across the universe." The Doctor said as he was still being lowered into the ever-black chasm. "In the myths and legends of a million worlds. Earth, Draconia, Vel Consadine, Daemos…the Kaled god of War. It's the same image over and over again. Maybe that idea came from somewhere…bleeding through…the thought at the back of every sentient mind."
"Emanating from here?" Ida asked through his com.
"Could be."
"But if this is the original, does that make it real? Does that make it the actual Devil, though?"
"Well, if that's what you want to believe." The Doctor said.
"That could be all it is in the end." Clara inputted over his com. "Just an idea."
Then, without warning, his descent stopped, the cable halting him in his tracks. "That's it." Ida said. "That's all we've got. Are you getting any sort of readout down there?"
The Doctor checked his wrist pad, but he sighed. "Nothing. Could be miles to go yet. Or…" He started with a blink, "could be 30 feet and no way of telling. Without the TARDIS, I could still survive 30 feet." He muttered to himself.
"Oh no you don't." Clara growled. "You're coming back up." The cable started to revolve back but the Doctor just pressed his own personal control of it to halt its progress. "Doctor, what are you doing?!" Clara demanded but her tone was more of worry than anger.
"Clara, if you bring me back, we're just going to sit there and run out of air. I told you, I've got to go down."
"But you can't." Clara protested. "Doctor, please, you can't."
"Call it an act of faith." He said calmly, starting the slow procedure to unbuckle his own harness from the cable.
"But…I don't want to die without…" Clara trailed off and the Doctor sighed sadly.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor unbuckled another latch before stopping for a moment. "Ida, do you have any faith?"
"No, not really." Said person responded. "I was brought up Neoclassic Congregational. Cause of my mum, she was…" Ida trailed off before sighing sadly. "Oh, my old mum." She gave a sad chuckle under her breath before sniffing. "But no, I never believed."
"Neoclassic." The Doctor muttered. "Has that got a Devil?"
"No, not as such, just, um…the things that men do."
The Doctor shrugged dejectedly. "Same thing in the end." A small moment of silence followed until the Doctor sighed again, this time in a sombre attitude. "Clara, I never did ask. Have you got any sort of faith?" He asked.
"I…I used to, for a time." Clara answered sadly. "Not that I was truly religious or anything, I just…I don't know. Something about it seemed…peaceful."
"What made you stop?" The Doctor asked.
Clara sniffed. "You know what it was." The Doctor sighed at that, now wishing he could take it back, but he couldn't. It was already said. "I remember, before Danny died, he wanted to go on vacation. Go to another country like New Zealand or Italy, maybe Rome, enjoy some peace. But I thought he was being insulting, since my parents wanted to do it as well but…you know." Clara sniffed. "I don't remember exactly what I said to him but…I wish I could take it back now."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't deserve it." Clara let out a small sob and the Doctor wished he could be back up there with her, but he couldn't right now.
"And you didn't go in the end." He deducted. "Why didn't you say anything? We could have gone there."
"It just…slipped my mind." Clara said simply.
The Doctor sighed. "We could have gone to Hobbiton, did you know? They made it a permanent place now, you can have tours down there, go to the Green Dragon. Have second breakfast." He added, and Clara let a small chuckle out.
"What about you?" Clara asked after a moment to compose herself, yet her voice was still sad. "Do you believe in anything?"
The Doctor, for a few moments, was at a loss for words. What do I believe in? I honestly have no idea. "I…believe…I believe I haven't seen everything? I don't know." He gave a light chuckle and briefly stopped to hold the cable. "It's funny, isn't it?" He asked rhetorically. "The things you make up, the rules. If that thing had said it came from BEYOND the universe, then I'd believe it, but BEFORE the universe?" He shook his head with a small frown. "Impossible. Doesn't fit my rules." Well, I do like the impossible. Oh Clara, my Clara. "Still, I guess that's why I keep travelling. Or one of the reasons why. To be proved wrong." The Doctor glanced at his harness to see only one clasp left, leaving him to grasp the cable just in case. Once that clasp goes, he falls. But not yet. "Thank you, Clara."
"No, don't go!" Clara whimpered.
"I AM coming back, you know that?" He reminded her reassuringly.
"But what if you don't? Please, don't do this."
The Doctor glanced up, seeing the entrance of the pit so far ahead, it almost was hard to see it amongst the darkness. "Smile for me." Clara didn't answer, and he sighed. "Go on, Clara Oswald. Just one smile."
"How can I smile? You can't see me." She muttered.
The Doctor smirked. "When do I not see you?" He asked earnestly. No answer came but the Doctor unconsciously beamed. "There you go." He said warmly.
Clara sniffed. "How did you…"
"I know you Clara. My Clara." The Doctor said. Her smile. She is so beautiful. "I'll see you soon." With that, the Doctor unclasped the final latch and plunged into the darkness.
Rose, Danny and Toby raced back into Habitation 5, quickly joined by Zach. Rose dashed up to the monitor to grasp the speaker. "Doctor? Clara, are you there? Can you hear me?" She asked worriedly.
"The coms are still down." Zach said, moving up to the monitor. "I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal, just give me a minute."
Zach worked for, while it was quite literally a minute, it felt like an eternity until Rose was allowed to talk again. "Doctor? Are you there? Clara?"
All that came through was Clara's silent sobbing, so Ida was the one that spoke up. "He's gone."
Rose stared in disbelief. "What do you mean, "He's gone"?"
"He fell. Into the pit. And we don't know how deep it is, miles and miles and miles."
"Well…what do you mean he fell?" Rose asked.
"I couldn't stop him." Clara whimpered, and Rose gulped, not liking the sad tone of her friend. "He wanted to go down, see if it could give us a way out but…I don't know."
"Hey, it's all right." Ida cooed, and they could figure out that she was hugging Clara for comfort. "He'll come back. He did promise."
Rose glanced down in sadness and wordlessly allowed Zach to take the speaker. "Ida, Clara, there's no way of reaching you two. No cable, no backup. You're 10 miles down and…we can't get there."
"You should see this place, Zach." Ida said softly. "It's beautiful. I wanted to discover things and…" Ida's voice broke at that, "and here I am." She said sadly.
"We've got to abandon the base." Zach informed. "I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure that no one ever comes here again."
"But we'll never find out what it was." Ida pointed out.
"Well, maybe that's best."
"Yeah." Ida agreed.
Zach's shoulders slumped, and he cleared his throat to stop his voice breaking. "Officer Scott-"
"It's all right." Ida interrupted. "Just go. And good luck." She added warmly despite her sad tone.
"You too. And you Clara."
Clara sniffed. "Take care." She said simply.
Zach placed the speaker back onto the monitor before briefly burying his face in one hand. Then, he gave a small sad sigh before clearing his throat. "Danny, Toby, close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We're leaving." He ordered, proceeding to walk away from the monitor.
"I'm not going." Rose said.
Zach turned back with a slight tinge of confusion. "Rose, there's space for you."
Rose shook her head. "But I can't leave her." Rose's voice broke. "She's my friend. I can't leave her alone."
"Ida's my friend too." Zach said sadly. "But we can't do anything more for them. I'm sorry."
"Even so, how can I leave her, all on her own, without the Doctor, without anything?" Rose asked, holding back a sniff. "No, I'm…I'm going to stay. I want to help her."
Zach sighed. "Then I apologize for this." He said sadly. "Danny, Toby, make her secure." He ordered, taking out of his pocket a small grey tranquilizer syringe.
Danny and Toby grasped her arms, making her wrestle to try to break free. "No! No! Let me go! Get off me!"
Zach took the syringe into her left arm, currently held by Toby, and pierced it in, quickly sending her into unconsciousness. "I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind." He said before grabbing her legs and hoisting her up over his shoulder. "Let's get her on board."
They moved to exit out of Habitation 5, right into another corridor where a few unconscious Ood lay. One of them twitched, making Toby jump. "Did that one just move?" He asked nervously.
The Ood twitched again. "It's the telepathic field. It's reasserting itself." Danny answered.
"Move it. Get to the rocket. Move!" Zach ordered.
The Doctor rolled and shifted in his sleep. Mmm. Barcelona. Fantastic. The Doctor rolled with a groan. I'm not hindering you. If you both want to make fools of yourselves, I suggest you do what you said you'd do. Go and find a policeman. The Doctor eyes started to flicker open. Clara. My Clara. Clara! The Doctor shot up with a gasp, feeling the glass, or rather what was left of it, in shards on the ground beneath where his head lay, his helmet loose on his head and the glass completely shattered. And yet, he could breath. "I'm breathing." He muttered, taking off the helmet to glance around properly. It looked like he was in a very dark cave with dark brown rocky walls and matching dirt all over the ground. He also saw the torch attached to his suit laying on the ground, but its own glass had survived intact, despite a few cracks in it. His body ached dully, most likely from the landing, but nothing felt broken, thankfully. The air. It feels…heavy. Like a cloud. It's an Air Cushion, supporting my fall. The Doctor pressed his wrist pad to turn on his com. "You can breathe down here, Clara." He said but only static responded and he sighed. "Clara? Can you hear me?" He asked but still no answer.
"Dislocating "B" Clamp and "C" Clamp." Zach reported as he, Danny, Toby and the sleeping Rose sat in the cockpit of their rocket. "Raising Blu-Nitro to maximum. Toby, how's the Negapact feedline?"
"Clear and ready to go, sir." Toby reported. "For god's sake, get us out of here!" He exclaimed in fear.
"Captain!" Danny called. "I think we're going to have a problem passenger!" He said, motioning to Rose who was waking up from her forced slumber.
"Keep an eye on her." Zach ordered.
"What's…what's going on?" Rose asked.
"It's all right, Rose. We're safe." Danny said.
Rose quickly deduced where she was, and the ever-increasing rumbling of the room helped to support it. "I'm not going anywhere!" Rose exclaimed, fumbling fruitlessly at her seatbelt. "Get me out of this thing! Get me out!"
The rocket's shaking grew more violent until Zach yelled, with the accompaniment of Danny and Toby's whooping, while Rose protested fruitlessly, "And…lift-off!" Through the screen in front of them, they could see the Black Hole at the side sliding away as the rocket took off from the planet and began its journey into space.
"Take me back to the planet." Rose demanded. Zach blinked, glancing behind his shoulder to see Danny and Toby staring at Rose with wide eyes as she raised the bolt gun directly at him. "Take me back!" She growled.
"Or what?" He asked dully, turning to look back in front of him.
"Or I'll shoot." Rose muttered.
Zach just blinked with a sigh. "Would you though?" He asked. "Would you really?" Silence fell for a few moments, making Zach glance back to see Rose's shoulders slump and she placed the bolt gun back where she found it. "Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back." He said apologetically as Rose stared out a window beside her seeing the planet still in her view and close to the rocket but starting to shrink ever so slightly as they moved away. "Toby, give me the stats."
Toby cleared his throat. "Stats at 53, funnel stable at 66.5. Hull pressure constant." He reported. "Smooth as we can, sir, all the way back home. Co-ordinates set for planet Earth."
The Doctor paced through the cave, flickering his lit torch at the walls of the cavern. They bore drawn artwork, depicting what would be history, or myth, of this planet and the Beast. The Doctor in his mind went into his storm room, or mind palace, but kept the door open, considering he was all on his own. "What do you reckon, Clara?" He asked the figment of his imagination, standing by a blackboard in the TARDIS console room. "They, whoever they are, depicted some great big battle in their history on the wall. It's a bit confusing to look at. It seems like your stereotypical Devil was fighting against an army. But the "Artwork" doesn't make it clear if its man or some form of angels. If it's man, then the Beast was lying about being before the universe. If its angels, then it wasn't."
Scratching came from the blackboard, making him look over. "The Beast could have been telling the truth that it was man. Maybe there was another universe before everything in existence." The message said on the board.
The Doctor shrugged, but it was more of dejected weariness. "I'll be honest, I have no idea what it is or what the meaning and history of these are. But the basic summary of it was the Beast lived and reigned, then people, or angels, or both, rebelled against it. Then they imprisoned it here, on this planet. If there's one thing I can say about all this, these people or things or whatever should have had an actual artist doing this work because honestly, it's truly horrendous-"
"Doctor, you're being rude." Clara's voice chastised in his head.
The Doctor breathed out. "Sorry." Then, the Doctor spotted on the wall and part of the "Art", two small dull golden urns, or was it vases, the Doctor briefly questioned to himself, that were sitting before a slouching and chained red creature. Exiting out of his storm room, the Doctor glanced around the cave before seeing the very two urns before him, sitting on two stands of worn grey stone, marked with more inscriptions like that of the pit entrance. "Maybe that is the key." The Doctor muttered in his head, moving up and gently brushing his hand against one of the urns. At his touch the two urns flickered a bright yellow light within that made him frown. "Or the gate. Or the bars." He offered. Stepping in between the two small stone stands, the Doctor glanced again around the cave and then, he stopped. Straining his ears, he heard the small rumbling of a bestial growl, breathing softly to itself. The Doctor turned around and…there it was. Standing tall past a cliff beyond the two urns was the Beast in all its glory. Blood red wrinkled and scarred skin, long claws at the end of its hands, both of which were chained up to the wall of the cave by very large, black chains. It had two large, charcoal horns, one of which had its end broken off while the other was still intact, yet also chained to the cave wall. Its eyes were a simple glaring fire of orange, surrounded by pitch black in its sockets. Its own mouth was an array of horrific, fang like teeth, with no traces of any lips, just dried wounded tearing around the mouth and a long black tongue that hid away within. The Beast however was so large in its own cave prison that the Doctor could only see its upper chest to its head, the rest of the body was completely hidden from view. To the Doctor's own nervous astonishment, the Beast raised its head up and looked straight at the Doctor and gave a low, unnerving roar.
"Don't get caught up in its physical existence." Clara's voice spoke to him. "Remember: Whoever placed that Air Cushion here was expecting you in this place. The question is: Who was it and what do they want with you?"
The Doctor gazed at the Beast, his nervous yet awe-filled expression slowly turned into a frown. "Okay, I accept that you exist." He said calmly. "I don't have to accept what you are but your physical existence, yes, I'll give you that." The Beast snarled which made the Doctor blink. "But…I don't understand." He said, moving forward just a bit to get closer to the Beast. "I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. Was it you? If you need me for something, what is it?" The Beast raised its arm and tried to lash out at the Doctor, but the chains caught it before it could reach him, and it was wrenched back with a growl. "Have I…have I got to…I don't know, began audience or…is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation? Summons or spell maybe?" He scoffed to himself. "All these things I don't believe in, are THEY real?" He asked but the Beast just stared at him and he waved his arms up in exasperation. "Speak to me! Tell me!" He demanded. It just titled its head at him in rather…animalistic curiosity.
"He won't talk." Clara's voice said. "Or…he can't talk."
The Doctor's frown started to turn into deep concentration. "Hold on, hold on." He muttered. "Wait a minute, just let me…" He trailed off before beaming. "Oh! Wait, no!" He frowned. "Yes!" He beamed before blinking and frowning again. "No." He muttered. "Come on, think it through. You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No!" He took that back. "More than that, brilliant!" Then his gaze turned into squinting scrutiny. "But…looking at you now, all I can see is…beast. The animal. Just the body." His eyes widened in realization. "You're just the body, the physical form. What's happened to your mind, hmm?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. "Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence?" The Beast didn't respond, so the Doctor turned back to the drawn history on the walls. "Let's get this straight. You were imprisoned a long time ago." He quickly scoffed. "Before the universe, after, sideways, in between, doesn't matter." He quipped sarcastically. Glancing back at the "Art", he could see the drawn urns were sending a small form of funnel into a swirling mist of darkness. "Oh yes! Open the prison, the gravity field collapses! This planet falls into the Black Hole!" He deducted, walking away from the wall and back to stand in front of the Beast. "You escape, you die, brilliant!" He beamed. "But that's just the body." He quickly added, the Beast still staring at him in curiosity, despite its low growling. "The body is trapped, that's all. You see, the Devil is an idea. In all those civilizations, it's just an idea. But an idea is hard to kill. An idea can escape." His eyes squinted at the Beast. "The mind." He deducted. "The mind of the great Beast. The mind can escape…" The Doctor trailed off for a few moments before his eyes widened and he laughed. "Oh, but that's it!" He beamed. "You didn't give me air, your jailors did! They set this up all those years ago!" He deducted. "For they need me alive. Because if you're escaping, then I've got to stop you!" He exclaimed and the Beast, whether to mirror his own mood or in mocking fear, roared at him as he grabbed a large stone from the floor of the cave and moved up to one of the urns. "If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed. Your mind with it." He raised the stone above his head, keeping his hard glare on the Beast. However, he faltered. The Beast was staring at him in what seemed like the ghost of a taunting, "Go on then". That made the Doctor rethink it and he dropped the stone back to the ground and placed his hands on either side of the urn, his glare fading into a dull look. "But then you're clever enough to use this whole system against me." He said with a slouch. "If I destroy this planet, I destroy the gravity field. And even if my friends up there are already in the rocket, they will still be vulnerable. It will lose protection and fall into the Black Hole. I would have to sacrifice them. I would have to sacrifice Clara." The Beast started to laugh heartfully and tauntingly at him and the Doctor clenched his jaw, walking back to stand in between the two urns. "So that's the trap. Or the test or the final judgment, I don't know." He shrugged dismissively. "But if I kill you, I kill her." The Beast laughed again, finishing with a taunting growl towards the Doctor. However, the Doctor started to smile mischievously to himself and placed his hands together behind his back. "Except that implies that in this big grand scheme of gods and devils, that she is just a victim." The Doctor shook his head. "But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would be gods and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing…I believe in her!" The Doctor then picked up the rock again, raised it above his head and brought it down onto one of the urns, smashing it into pieces. The planet started to shake violently around him, the very rocks of the cave starting to come down in small, scattered rain around him and he dashed over to the final urn and smashed it to pieces, the Beast roaring in protest as he did. Then, with a dash of flaring victory, he tossed the rock back down to the ground and glared at the Beast. "This is your freedom! Free to die!" The Doctor taunted. "You're going into that Black Hole and I'm riding with you!"
The Beast started to shake and rattle against its chains in furious protest, and, surprisingly to the Doctor, started to spit fire out from its mouth and its own veins lightning up to match the scorching light, but all the Doctor did was grin and taunt it even further.
The rocket started to suddenly shake and rumble violently around them, causing Rose and Danny to grasp the side of the room to brace themselves, while Toby was left grasping his own chair. "What happened?! What was that?!" Danny demanded.
"What's he doing?! What is he doing?!" Toby demanded.
"We've lost the funnel! Gravity collapse!" Zach reported.
"What does that mean?!" Rose demanded.
"We can't escape! We're heading straight for the Black Hole!" True enough to his word, the ship started to spin around until the Black Hole was brought back into their sights again and they helplessly started to be pulled towards it, but the flying of the ship kept making the Black Hole disappear and reappear in their field of vision.
Rose looked out of her side window to see the shaking planet starting to move with them towards the Black Hole. "It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling." Rose muttered, moving back dejectedly into her seat as she turned to glance at Toby. But Toby's form had brought back the unnerving symbols and the glaring red eyes, making her jump back in shock.
"I am the rage and the bile and the ferocity!" Toby exclaimed in his modulated voice that attracted Danny to look at him, who then jumped back with a gasp in his seat.
"It's Toby! Zach do something! Just do something!" Rose yelled.
"I am the prince and the fall and the enemy!"
"Zach, it's him!" Danny yelled, attracting Zach's attention, whose eyes widened as he saw Toby's possessed form. "It's him! It's him!"
"I am the sin and the fear and the darkness!"
"Stay where you are, the ship's not stable!" Zach ordered. Toby suddenly unhinged his jaw and a gout of flame burst out of his mouth, shocking the three in complete astonishment. "What is he?! What the hell is he?!" Zach demanded.
"I shall never die! The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust! Nothing shall ever destroy me! Nothing!"
Rose acted quickly, grabbing the bolt gun and aimed it at the front glass. "Go to hell." She growled and fired, the bolt shattering the glass into pieces and the air started to rush out of the room and into space. Rose then released Toby from his seat belt and without it to restrain him, he was sent flying into space, exclaiming in rage as he was dragged away by the Black Hole.
"Emergency shield!" Zach yelled, pressing a button on the console above his head to slide up a dark grey glass, stopping the rushing air and allowing them to briefly relax before they returned their attention back to the oncoming Black Hole. "We've still lost the gravity funnel. We can't escape the Black Hole!"
"But we stopped him." Rose added. "It's what my friends would have done."
"Some victory." Zach quipped dryly. "We're going in."
The Beast continued fruitlessly to rage and rattle and shake against its chains, writhing in rageful agony as it was consumed in its own fire. The Doctor raced away through the cave before a sudden shake and a burst of smoke sent him flying against a panel of blue wood, making him groan. Then, his eyes widened, and he looked above him to see it standing there. The box. His home. Clara's home. He beamed, and he laughed with such glee and relief, especially when the door was immediately opened by the TARDIS itself and he sprang inside.
"The planet's lost orbit." Danny said grimly. "It's falling into the Black Hole." He glanced over at Rose as the red emergency lights flared and blared in the cockpit. "I'm sorry." He said earnestly.
"We did our best." Zach added.
"It's not your fault." Rose reassured.
"But hey…first Human beings to fall inside a Black Hole, that's…how about that?" He quipped and the two gave a small smirk at it. "History."
The ship continued to rattle and shake as they got closer to the Black Hole and as they reached its outer horizon, it stopped. It all stopped. The ship stopped moving, completely suspended in space and the alarms quickly shut themselves off. "What happened?" Rose asked as her, Danny and Zach stared at each other in bewilderment.
The ship started to turn around and move away from the Black Hole. "We're…turning." Zach blinked. "We're turning around. We're turning away. How-"
Static flared through the room before a single voice sent joyful relief through their veins. "Sorry about the hijack, Captain, this is the good ship TARDIS." The Doctor beamed, and Rose grinned. "Now, first things first, have you got a Rose Tyler on board?"
"I'm here! It's me!" Rose exclaimed. "Oh my god! Where are you?! Have you got Clara?!"
"Oh I'm just towing you home. Gravity schmavity. My people practically invented Black Holes. Well…in fact they did. Speaking of Clara, she is perfectly fine."
"Oh, thank god." Rose beamed.
"In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh and Captain, can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Rose Tyler, I'll give you Ida Scott. How about that?"
"She's alive?!" Zach exclaimed.
"Yeah." The Doctor said obviously. Zach and Danny started to laugh in relief at his words. "She, rather like Clara, had a bit of oxygen starvation but they both will be all right." Then his tone went suddenly sombre. "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." Danny and Zach checked the readings and they could indeed tell that in their conversation with the Doctor, they had missed the planet falling and disintegrating into the Black Hole. A loud ringing sound was heard, and the Doctor clicked his tongue. "Ah. Entering clear space, end of the line, mission closed-ah."
A couple of minutes did indeed pass by before the TARDIS stopped towing the rocket and then materialized within the hull of the ship. The Doctor carried the unconscious Ida out and into Danny's arms, all the while said man stared at the box in complete astonishment. Rose then shrugged at him before she bounded over and wrapped the Doctor in a hug. "Oh! Good to see you!" She beamed.
"You too." He returned before they parted. "Come on, gotta be there for Clara." He quickly said, and they entered the TARDIS to see Clara groaning as she woke up, standing up from the Captain's seat and glancing at her surroundings in some puzzlement. "Ah, you up now?" The Doctor asked as he stepped up to Clara.
"Doctor, what…" Clara trailed off as the recent events came back to her and her eyes slowly widened, but the Doctor took it as a different meaning.
"See?" He beamed. "I told you I'd be back-"
Clara interrupted by smacking him across the face, making him blink in confusion at her. She smacked him again and again and before the Doctor could deduce it all, she sniffed and blinked back a tear. "How dare you." Her voice broke.
"Clara, I'm sorry." He said earnestly, and she allowed him to wrap her in a hug, burying her face into his chest.
"Please don't do that again. Please." She whimpered as he stroked her hair.
The Doctor kissed her head before nuzzling his head against hers. "I promise. Okay?" He asked, and Clara nodded. He gave her a warm smile before pressing a kiss against her lips. "You all right now?" He asked.
Clara nodded and gave him a small smile. "Yeah, I am now."
He bopped her nose with his finger. "Told you so."
Clara blinked. "Did you just-"
"Yes. Your nose was too cute to avoid it." He purred, and she blushed.
"Stop it."
"I'd agree with that but not for the same reason." Rose interjected, and the couple parted. Rose and Clara shared a beaming grin. "Come here." Rose ushered, and Clara wrapped her in a hug. "Good to have you back."
"You too." Clara returned before they parted and moved over to the console as the Doctor reinitiated the com link with the rocket.
"I don't know." Ida muttered. "I…I can't remember."
"Well, it looked like a box." Danny said, and the TARDIS trio had to hide their sniggers behind their hands.
"What do you mean, "A box"?" Zach asked.
"Down in the hold. A big blue box." Danny said obviously. "It just appeared. I don't know."
"Zach?" The Doctor interrupted, and they could hear the crew jump with a small gasp, which made them snigger. "We'll be off now. Have a good trip home. And the next time you get curious about something-oh." He stopped himself with a roll of his eyes. "What's the point, you'll just go blundering in. The Human race." He jabbed.
"Watch it." Rose defended.
"But Doctor, what did you find down there?" Ida asked. "That creature, what was it?"
The Doctor shrugged dismissively. "I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good." He added. "The day I know everything, might as well stop."
"What do you think it was, really?" Clara asked.
"I think…we beat it. That's good enough for me."
"It said I wouldn't be there when you'd need me the most." Clara pointed out.
"And that was a big load of bull if I ever heard it." The Doctor retorted.
"It said I was gonna die in battle." Rose interrupted grimly.
The Doctor and Clara shot each other sad looks before glancing at Rose. "Then it lied." The Doctor said, earning a small smile from Rose. "Right, onwards, upwards. Ida, see you again maybe." The Doctor said to the crew.
"I hope so." Ida returned.
"And thanks boys!" Rose called.
"Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said. You three, who are you?"
"Oh…" The TARDIS trio shot each other bright grins, "the stuff of legend." The Doctor said after a moment for obvious dramatic pause before motioning for Clara to pull the dematerialization lever.
"This is the final report of Sanctuary Base 6." Zach said as the Doctor hovered his hand over the button to cut off the com connection. "Officer Tobias Zed, deceased, with honours. 43k 2.1. Also, Ood 1 Alpha 1, deceased, with honours. Ood 1 Alpha 2, deceased, with honours."
The Doctor pressed the button and cut off the connection, deep in thought over the Beast's words. He didn't believe its words about Clara for the life of him but Rose? He hoped that Rose wouldn't actually die in battle, because she was his and Clara's friend. She would be fine. Wouldn't she?
AN: DUN DUN DUNNN! I've said it already but goddammit I love this two parter. It was my favourite, until "Heaven Sent" was released. Still, ugh, Rose's time is getting close and I'm so not ready. But still, I'm looking forward to the next episode. It's not the greatest episode but I still think it has quite a bit of fun with it and ends in a rather cheesy manner, but that will all be for next time.
Also, side note, since Series 11 has come to an end, I can say that I love Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor and her new TARDIS fam-I mean gang-I mean team. One of my favourite moments of this season was the end of "The Ghost Monument". No spoilers in case you haven't seen it, but it's just so heart-warming and endearing and Jodie just sold it for me, even though I was on with her as the Doctor from the first episode. It's also one of my favourite episodes of that season, including the first and the "Demons in the Punjab" and the creepy spiders one. Also Alan Cumming as King James was one of the funniest performances I've ever seen, talking about "Saten!". Also is it me or is something up with all those heart eyes that 13 and Yas keep sharing? Hmmm…(¬_¬)…new pairing, eh?! XD Anyway, as always, thanks for reading and leave a review if you wish. :)