Chris watched as The Doctor landed his fall she ran over to him, checking to make sure he was still alive. She saw his chest move and breathed a sigh of relief before attempting to shake the man awake. She lifted his head to see the shield was shattered and gently removed the glass from in front of his face. When that was done and the timelord was still not awake Chris let out a sigh. She went to the wall to lean against it and watched The Doctor wake up from there.
"I'm breathing," The Doctor said in wonder before sitting up. He slowly removed his helmet, looking around.
"No shit sherlock," Chris breathed, she watched as The Doctor stood up and spun around attempting to find the location of the voice.
"Who's there," The Doctor called finally, it had sounded like Chris but surely she wouldn't be there.
Chris was going to have a field trip with this.
"Your worst nightmare," Chris called, pitching her voice so it sounded deeper than normal and adding an Australian accent. When she was training in college she spent several hours working on different accents.
"Bob Marley?" The Doctor said before pausing, "wait no. You said worst nightmare."
Chris couldn't help it, she burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. After a good minute of laughing, she wiped her eyes and stepped out of the shadows. The Doctor's eyes widened at the sight of her and Chris just grinned at him.
"You're afraid of Bob Marley?" She asked The Doctor who was still looking at her in shock. When she was in front of him she waved a hand before his face, "Doc, hey, you still in there?"
The Doctor shook his head before suddenly grabbing Chris and pulling her into a hug. Chris stiffened for a moment before hugging The Doctor back slowly. She waited for him to loosen his grip before pulling back.
"How long have you been down here?" The Doctor asked worriedly
"Since the last time you saw me," Chris told him with a small smile at his concern, "I'm still the same Chris."
"So what, you've been down here alone?" The Doctor asked, "what did you do?"
"Made a friend, of course," Chris said more cheerfully than she felt.
"Oh, of course," The Doctor agreed before looking at Chris in confusion, "what?"
Chris pointed over to where the beast was chained and The Doctor followed her arm to see what she was pointing at. The Doctor looked between Chris and the Beast suspiciously and Chris shook her head.
"Not literally, Doctor," Chris said with a frown, "no literal friends were made down here."
"Oh," The Doctor said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly before he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Chris said before suddenly she was gone… again.
Jefferson shot back at the Ood again as the group made their way through the tunnels. He moved forward a few feet then turned to shoot again, ignoring the shouts of his crewmates to move faster. He wasn't young anymore and he already knew he wasn't going to make it.
"John, you've got to move faster," Zach demanded, terrified at what would happen if he didn't.
Jefferson pushed himself a little harder and yet he knew he was still trapped. He watched with misted eyes as the gate closed in front of him, trapping him with the Ood. Jefferson breathed heavily as he leaned against the wall, aiming his gun at the approaching Ood.
"Reget to inform, sir," Jefferson said into his comm., "I was a bit slow, not so fast these days."
"I can't open eight point one, John. Not without losing air for the others." Zach told him with a sigh.
"Quite right too, sir," Jefferson said as the Ood came into view, "I think I bought them a little time."
"There's nothing I can do, John," Zach let him know sadly, upset that he yet again was letting his crew down.
Suddenly there was a bright light and Jefferson closed his eyes against it. When he opened them the girl, Chris, was seated next to him looking around in shock. He backed away a little and resisted the urge to point the gun at her, the Ood were currently the bigger threat.
"Oh, same adventure, a little further back I believe," Chris muttered as she rummaged in her bag, "Jefferson's been caught and now so have I. I'm not dying today, it wasn't in my schedule so it's not happening. I do, however, have this, if you were wondering how I'm not dying today despite the fact that all signs are pointing towards the both of dying."
Chris had pulled out her vortex manipulator and was now fiddling with the controls. She pulled out her sonic next when her fiddling didn't work and soniced the thing to the right coordinates. When they were set she glanced at the bewildered Jefferson and shot him a grin, grabbing his hand and placing it on the manipulator, ignoring the shaking of her own limbs.
"Hold on tight," Chris said in warning before hitting the button on the manipulator and sending the duo away from the Ood.
They landed and Chris was up in a flash looking around the room for the rest of the crew. Rose and the rest should have been getting back soon unless Chris had overshot and they'd already left. She glanced up in relief as the door opened to reveal Rose, Danny, Toby, and Zach. The four stopped to stare at the two others before suddenly running towards the pair.
Chris was pulled into a hug by Rose which she returned stiffly while Jefferson was helped off the ground by the other three. When Chris was released she turned to the others with a grin. Addressing Jefferson first.
"Time travel without a capsule is nasty business, I'm afraid," Chris said gently, "Just take it easy for a bit."
Rose went to the comm. and picked it up, calling for the Doctor. Chris moved to stand next to her when suddenly her knees buckled and she fell to the ground with a yelp. She took a deep breath before rolling onto her bum and staring up at the group sheepishly.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have moved as soon as I did," Chris said, ignoring the stinging pain in her palms and the shaking of her limbs as she took calming breaths.
When she had appeared trapped with Jefferson she had immediately gone for the manipulator without even thinking about it. She knew it was because of Rain, the time lady in her head was always one step ahead of her, for which she was grateful. Even so, the panic that she felt, and was still feeling, was not willing to let her concentrate on getting everyone out.
"You okay?" Rose asked squatting in front of Chris who gave her a shaky smile.
"I'm always okay," Chris told her before letting out a sigh, "Okay, that's a lie if there ever was one. I'll be fine in a mo, Rose."
Rose raised an eyebrow before shaking her head. She lifted the comm. to find out where The Doctor was and if he was okay.
"Are you there Doctor?" Rose asked.
"He's gone," Was Ida's immediate and sad reply.
"What do you mean, he's gone?" Rose asked, glancing at Chris who was currently staring at her hands in awe.
"He fell into the pit. I have no way of knowing how deep it is," Ida replied, "He said your name, your's and Chris'."
Chris blinked in surprise at that and looked away from her hands. She knew she had scraped them on the grating and that her left palm had been bleeding but when she had looked again all signs of injury had been gone.
"Oh he's fine, by the way," Chris said after a moment, "nice safe landing. There's an airfield down there that cushioned his fall."
"How do you know that?" Jefferson asked, looking at the girl in awe.
"Magic," Chris said sarcastically, before raising her wrist that had the vortex manipulator, "No sorry, wrong time for that. This is a vortex manipulator, it allows me to travel in time."
"Oh," Jefferson said, at a loss for proper words at the moment.
"Anyways, were we not going to evacuate? Or did I hear the plan incorrectly?" Chris asked looking at the group while she tried to hide how uncomfortable she was with all the attention she was getting.
"I'm sorry. Ida?" Zach said after taking the comm. from Rose, "There's no way of reaching you. No cable, no backup. You're ten miles down. We can't get there."
"You should see this place, Zach. It's beautiful," Ida told him softly, "Well, I wanted to discover things, and here I am."
"We've got to abandon the base," Zach said as the rest of the group watched on sadly, "I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."
"But we'll never find out what it was," Ida protested
"Well, maybe that's best," Zach said
"Yeah," Ida agreed
"Officer Scott," Zach started
"It's all right," Ida interrupted determinedly, "Just go. Good luck."
"And you. Danny, Toby, and Jefferson close down the feed links." Zach ordered and the men got to work, "Get the retro tropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We're leaving."
"I'm not going," Rose said ignoring that Chris was already shaking her head,
"Rose, there's space for you," Zach told her
"No, I'm going to wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me," Rose said only for Chris to grab her arm, turning the young woman around to face her.
"Rose, he's alive, I swear he gets out. Now, The Doctor wants you safe and safe means going with them, alright."
"What do you know," Rose yelled, pulling away from Chris, "You just leave him? It's like you don't even care! I'm staying, just cause you're going to abandon him doesn't mean I have to."
Chris shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips as she nodded to Zach who was holding a syringe.
"Then I apologise for this. Danny, Toby? Make her secure," Zach ordered as Danny and Toby grabbed Rose
"No, no. No! No! No!" Rose protested, kicking out and glaring at the group, "Let me go! Get off me! I'm not leaving!"
"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind, "Zach said after injecting Rose, "Let's get her on board. What about you?"
"I'm not putting up a fight," Chris said with a shrug, "But I don't think you're going to have enough room for both Rose and me."
Jefferson, who had caught Rose as she passed out, hoisted the young woman onto his shoulder. Chris smiled at the image wishing, yet again, that she had a camera with her.
"Did that Ood just move," Toby demanded as they entered a corridor littered in Ood, "Oh my god."
"it's the telepathic field, it's reasserting itself," Danny said as he started moving faster.
"Get to the rocket," Zach ordered and everyone started running as the Ood began to wake.
Chris looked around the capsule and frowned. There were not enough chairs for all of them and if they ejected Toby as she knew they would then this would be a problem. She knew that she would have to stay behind. Maybe she could use the manipulator to get back to The Doctor and onto the Tardis.
"There's no room for me," Chris announced, backing out of the rocket. "Don't argue with me, I've got my manipulator."
"Chris," Jefferson started, not liking the idea of his saviour staying behind, time traveler or not.
"Nope," Chris said cheerfully despite the fear that she felt, "Listen, you may not believe me but I know what's going to happen. Everyone has to be strapped down so one of us has to stay behind. I have the best chance at surviving," She raised a hand to stop Zach from interrupting, "No, I'm not joking, I'm not arguing. The Ood are waking up. You guys need to go."
Zach stared at Chris for a moment before nodding. She nodded back, shutting the door as she left the rocket. Chris looked at the rocket once more before pulling her vortex manipulator out of her bag and strapping it to her wrist. She used her sonic to key it into The Doctor as she tried not to panic at the sight of the approaching Ood.
"Dislocating B clamp, C-clamp," Zach said, trying not to think of the person that they were leaving behind as he got them ready to take off, "raising blu-nitro to maximum," Zach turned to Jefferson, who was the "How's the negapact feed line?"
"Clear, ready to go, sir," Jefferson replied.
"Oh, for God's sake, get us out of here!" Toby panicked.
"Captain," Danny warned as he saw Rose waking up, "Think we're gonna have a problem."
"Keep an eye on her," Zach ordered Danny, not looking back at them.
"What did you?" Rose demanded groggily before shaking her head to clear it.
"It's all right, Rose, we're safe," Danny placated
"I'm not going anywhere!" Rose yelled, looking around for Chris, "Get me out of this thing. Chris! Get me OUT!"
"Aaaaand, lift off!" Zach yelled as the rocket took off
"Take me back to the planet," Rose demanded, tears springing to her eyes when she couldn't find Chris, "Take me back!"
"Or what?" Jefferson questioned.
"Or I'll shoot," Rose said, grabbing a nearby gun.
"Would you, though?" Zach asked, "Would you really? Is that what your Doctor would want? What about Chris?" Rose physically deflated, "I'm sorry. But it's too late, anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. Chris stayed behind to keep the rest of us safe. And this is what the Doctor would have wanted, isn't that right?"
The Doctor looked around the cave again, finding himself to be disappointed at the disappearance of Chris. Though he was also grateful, Chris was more likely to survive with Rose. The crew would get them off the ship.
He walked up to the wall and started tracing the figures depicting an ancient battle. He couldn't read the words but he was able to tell the story from the pictures.
"Can you hear me, Ida?" The Doctor said quietly into the comm., receiving no response, "History of some big battle. Man against Beast. Dunno if you're getting this, Ida. Hope so. Anyway, they defeated the Beast and imprisoned it. And maybe that's the key. Or the gate, or the bars, or-"
The sound of the Beast interrupted him and The Doctor looked over at it curiously, trying to figure out why it would want him alive. Because the airfield showed that someone indeed wanted him alive.
"I don't have to accept what you are, but your physical existence, I give you that," The Doctor said with a shrug, the Beast growled at him, "I don't understand. I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need me for something - what for? Have I got to. I don't know, beg an audience, or is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell? All those things I don't believe in, are they real?" The Doctor started to get frustrated at the lack of a response from the Beast, "Speak to me! Tell me! You won't talk. Or- you can't talk," the Beast roared, "Hold on, hold on, wait a minute, just let me. Oh! No. Yes! No." The Doctor smacked himself on the head, "Think it through! You spoke before, I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that, brilliant. But looking at you now, all I can see. is the Beast. The animal. Just the body. You're just the body, the physical form. What happened to your mind? Hmm? Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence?"
The Doctor considered the Beast for a moment longer before coming to a realisation, "Oh no, You're imprisoned, long time ago. Before the universe, after, sideways, in between, doesn't matter. And the prison is perfect. It's absolute, it's eternal. Oh, yes. Open the prison, and the gravity field collapses, this planet falls into the black hole. You escape, you die." The Doctor laughed, "Brilliant! But that's just the body. The body's trapped, that's all. The Devil is an idea, in all those civilisations, just an idea. But an idea is hard to kill. An idea can escape! The mind, the mind of the great Beast, the mind can escape."
The Doctor's mouth fell open as he came to another realization, "Oh, but that's it! You didn't give me air. Your jailers did! They set this up, all those years ago. They need me alive! Because if you're escaping then I've got to stop you. If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed.
Your mind with it? But then you're clever enough to use this whole system against me. If I destroy this planet, then I destroy the gravity field." The Doctor took a breath, spotting a lever near the Beast's prison "The rocket. The rocket loses protection. Falls into the Black Hole. I have to sacrifice Rose. No, if I did that Chris would kill me. Death by Chris, not the way I want to go."
"So that's the trap. Or the test or the final judgement, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill them. Except that implies, in this big, grand scheme of gods and devils, their just victims." The Doctor laughed grimly as he grabbed onto the lever, "But I've seen a lot of the universe. I've seen fake gods, and bad gods, and demi-gods 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."
He pulled the lever just as Chris appeared in a flash of light next to him. She groaned and didn't move for a second before opening her eyes and giving a breath of relief at the sight of The Doctor.
"Chris?" The Doctor knelt next to her, not noticing her stuff the manipulator into her bag, "Why are you here?"
"Y-" Chris tried to speak but instead started coughing. After a moment of The Doctor rubbing her back, she was able to breathe again and she gave him a reassuring smile, "You should know by now that I have little control over where I am."
"Are you the same Chris?" The Doctor asked as he helped the young woman stand up wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"Aren't I always the same Chris?" Chris asked with a smirk even though she was currently shaking, "okay seriously, though, same Chris."
"Why aren't you one the rocket?" The Doctor demanded
"Not enough room, I had the best chance of survival," Chris said with a shrug, not looking at The Doctor.
She squeaked in surprise as The Doctor spun her around so that he could make eye contact with her.
"Did they force you to stay behind?" The Doctor asked seriously, making Chris blink in surprise.
"What? No," Chris denied, "Doctor I forced them to leave me behind. There wasn't enough room on the rocket for all of us. And I told you, I had the best chance of survival."
"Why do you keep saying that?" The Doctor questioned, almost shouting now, "How would you know that? You said yourself you have little control where you go!"
"There's no need to shout," Chris said pulling away from The Doctor, "and I can't tell you."
"Why not?" The Doctor asked, calming slightly.
"Because in the future I write myself a note saying that I can't tell you," Chris told him, "and if I'm going to take anyone's advice right now it's going to be a version of me who's already lived through all this crap."
The Doctor nodded after a moment before reaching out and grabbing Chris' hand, surprised when she didn't pull away. Chris was looking at the Beast with what The Doctor realized was pity. He considered that for a moment before understanding why.
Chris knew that they were going to leave the Beast on the planet. Granted, The Doctor wasn't sure how they were going to do that quite yet. He figured Chris knew but he'd quickly learned not to ask her for hints. He'd been chewed out enough for doing just that since he first met the girl.
"You know," Chris started suddenly, surprising The Doctor out of his thoughts, "the Beast was a lot more intimidating on the show. I mean the physical body, not the mind of the Beast. But now he's just kind of sad."
The Beast roared not liking what Chris was saying about him. Chris winced, squeezing The Doctor's hand as the two watched the Beast for a moment.
"Okay, take that back, the body is a little bit scary," Chris said and The Doctor dropped her hand only to wrap his arm around her shoulders and steer her away.
"Alright, we need to think of a way out of here," The Doctor ordered, intent on taking Chris' mind off the Beast
"The Tardis," Chris said with a knowing smirk, "Sexy's nearby Doctor."
"S-sexy?" The Doctor stuttered, his face going warm.
"Oh Doc," Chris teased as she pulled the still blushing Doctor towards the Tardis, "you know that I know more than I should,don'tcha?"
What's the joke?" Zach asked the laughing Toby as the group continued to fly away from the planet.
"Just, we made it!" Toby cheered, "We escaped! We actually did it!"
"Not all of us," Jefferson reminded coldly, "We're not out of it yet."
"We're still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole," Toby said still with a large smile.
"Toby read me the stats," Zach demanded, wanting to distract the man
"Gravity funnel holding, sir," Toby informed, "Ohh, it's holding! "Stats at 53, funnel stable at 66.
5, hull pressure constant."
"Smooth as we can, sir, all the way back home," Jefferson said as he finished typing the coordinates they needed into the programming computer, "Co-ordinates set for Planet Earth."
"It doesn't make sense," Rose mused as she wiped her eyes, trying not to think of what could possibly be happening to Chris and The Doctor. In her past, Chris had shown her the manipulator that she had but Rose wasn't sure if Chris had it at that point. "We escaped, but there're a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've ripped out the air, or burnt us, or anything, But it let us go - why? Unless it wanted us to escape."
"Hey, Rose, do us a favour," Toby demanded, "Shut up."
Rose shot him an offended look before looking out at the black space that they were currently flying in.
"Almost there," Captain Zach informed them, "We're beyond the reach of the Black Hole in 40, 39-"
He paused as the rocket started to shake. The group shared panicked looks.
"What was that?" Toby asked furiously, " What's he doing? What is he doing?!"
"We've lost the funnel!" Zach yelled as the rocket started to shake heavily, "Gravity collapse!"
"What does that mean?" Rose shouted fearfully.
"We can't escape!" Zach yelled back.
Rose turned to see that Toby's skin was glowing again. His jaw was moving but no words were coming out at the moment. The rocket shook again and suddenly The Beast was speaking through Toby.
"I am the rage and the bile and the ferocity!" The Beast roared, "I am the prince and the fool and the agony!"
"It's him, it's Toby!" Danny panicked as Rose reached for a gun in a split moment decision,
"I am the sin and the fear and the darkness!"
"The ship's not stable!" Zach yelled, trying his best to keep his team safe.
"What is he?" Danny yelled. Rose made eye contact with Jefferson who seemed to understand her plan "What the hell is he?"
"I shall never die! The thought of me is forever!" The Beast yelled "In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust! Nothing shall ever destroy me! Nothing!"
"Go to hell," Rose yelled before unbuckling Toby and then immediately shooting out the window so that both Toby and The Beast flew out towards the black hole.
"Emergency shield!" Jefferson yelled as he slammed his fist down on a button.
"We've still lost the gravity funnel," Zach reminded them, "We can't escape the black hole."
"But we stopped him," Rose reminded, "That's what Chris and The Doctor would have done."
"Some victory," Danny said somewhat sarcastically.
"We're going in," Jefferson told them, not looking back at the rest of the crew but instead focusing on the scene in front of them as the rocket was pulled towards the black hole.
"The planet's lost orbit," Zach told them
"It's falling!" Danny yelled
"I'm sorry," Zach apologized, "I did my best. But hey, first human beings to fall into a black hole, how about that? History."
Chris glanced at The Doctor as he piloted the Tardis out of the black hole and towards the rocket. She and he had made the decision to save Ida at the cost of the Ood. Chris could see how much it pained the time lord to make that decision.
I know it's hard but you made the right call, Rain, who had been quiet since they had left the planet, told The Doctor.
"How do you know that?" The Doctor asked out loud, not turning away from the Tardis, "you always seem to know things but you've never explained how. Why not?"
"I can't," Chris said apologetically, "I wrote myself a letter telling myself not to tell you. Which means I can't. Not yet at least."
"Okay," The Doctor said, suddenly brightening, "I've got a lock on the rocket, you ready for the trade?"
Chris glanced at Ida who was sleeping soundly on the jumpseat. She had done a scan of the woman with her sonic and determined that she would be fine. Chris nodded to The Doctor, giving him the go ahead.
"Sorry about the hijack, Captain," The Doctor said, grinning at Chris, "This is the good ship Tardis."
"Now, first things first, have you got a Rose Tyler on board?" Chris asked, pushing The Doctor out of the way, "because I have a spa day planned with her and we are not missing out."
"Spa day," The Doctor asked, covering the mic, "since when?"
"Since just now," Chris grinned, "Now budge."
Chris hip bumped the time lord out of the way as she listened to Rose say she was present on the rocket.
"I'm here! It's me!" Rose yelled, "Oh, my God! Where are you?"
"We're just towing you home," The Doctor informed, pushing Chris to the side much gentler than she had moved him, "Gravity, shmavity - my people practically invented black holes.
In fact, they did. Couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe."
"Oh, and Captain? Can we do a swap?" Chris asked, winking at The Doctor, "Say, if you give me Rose Tyler, I'll give you Ida Scott, how about that?"
"She's alive?" Zach called, relieved, "Thank God."
"Yeah, bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right," The Doctor explained, "We couldn't save the Ood. We only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet."
There was a shared moment of silence for the loss of the Oods. The silence was interrupted by a beep from the Tardis.
"Entering clear space," The Doctor informed gently, "End of the line. Mission closed."
The Tardis doors opened to allow Jefferson and Rose to enter from the rocket. Jefferson had come to retrieve Ida from the trio. Chris ran over and gave the man a hug, surprising everyone present.
"I'm glad you're okay, Jefferson," Chris said happily, "now go do good things with your life. Help people, save the world, invent a new flavor of ice cream. Seriously, ice cream is good, there always needs to be new flavors."
Jefferson chuckled as he returned the hug, "Thanks for saving me, Chris."
"Anytime, Jefferson," Chris promised as she released the man.
"Zach, we'll be off now," The Doctor called through the comm when everyone was situated on their own ships. "Have a good trip home. And the next time you get curious about something. Oh, what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race!"
"But Doctor, what did you find down there?" Ida asked, having woken up to walk to the rocket on her own, "that creature, what was it?"
"I don't know," The Doctor said sharing a look with Chris, "Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! The day I know everything, I might as well stop."
"What do you think it was?" Ida asked, "Really?"
"I think we beat it," Chris offered, seeing that The Doctor wasn't sure of his phrasing quite yet, "That's good enough for us,"
"It said I was going to die in battle," Rose said fearfully.
"Then it lied." The Doctor countered, knowing that Chris would never let that happen.
"Right! Onwards! Upwards!" The Doctor cheered after shaking his head, "Ida, see you again, maybe."
"I hope so," Ida responded,
"And thanks, boys!" Rose added
"Hang on, though, Doctor, Zach called, stopping them from leaving, "You never really said. You three… who are you?
"Oh the stuff of legend," The Doctor said with a smirk before sending the Tardis into the vortex.
A/N: So I did warn you guys that I wouldn't be posting as often, yes? I work 24/5 so I might be a tad busy. I will be posting more regularly in October when I'm done with all the extra stuff I'm doing. I hope you guys enjoy this and I'm sorry for the long wait.