"But they..." Jack stopped, looking thoughtful. "Yes. They take the form of what you want them to be. You guys...alone in a whole new world. They protected you...they were like parents."
The Doctor nodded. "Their world was separated from most of the universe before the shift. They'd destroyed everything around them. But the shift changed all that. Suddenly they were surrounded by species they couldn't manipulate. We tried to protect them, my people and I. Anyone who came to fight with us were warned them to leave the Feyad race well alone but they didn't listen. They'd go there, take one look and fall in love with the place. It was never a good vantage point. They convinced themselves they needed to be there."
Donna listened, trying to take it in, trying to picture that lost world. She'd been so engrossed in trying to talk to Ianto on their way in, she had never noticed the prisoner in the first cell. Despite the circumstances, she was suddenly overwhelmed to have a look, to know what form it might take for her.
Moira took a deep breath and stared at her two colleagues. Then, without warning, she turned and ran. Keira darted after her but John hesitated and reached over to the locked cell.
"Don't hurt her," he said, standing aside to let them out.
Jack tore down the hall behind the Doctor. Donna followed her grandfather, watching him carefully for any signs that this might be all too much for him. But he was surprisingly nonchalant, seemingly at home with the unheard-of experiences that had thrown at him in the last half hour. Maybe if you'd lived through a war, there was little that could truly surprise or shock you. You had already seen everything, expected anything. As he passed Jenny, he put out a hand and touched her shoulder. Donna took her hand.
"You alright?"
Jenny nodded, giving her a brief smile.
They reached the cell. Moira, Keira and John were standing silently, mesmerised by the creature within. Keira held Moira's hand tightly. They suddenly reminded Donna of children. Lost children. Despite everything, she felt terribly sorry for them.
But the creature. Leaning a bit forward, she looked into the cell...
...where the Doctor stared steadily back.
"No way!" She was aware of the others turning to look at her but she didn't care. Jack raised an eyebrow and mouthed "what?"
"What is it, sweetheart?" her granddad asked quietly. He hadn't approached the cell.
"It's all...wrong..." she said, terrified that they could all see what she could. What the hell would the actual Doctor think?
But the form was already shimmering as if to tell her that she was the one to have it all wrong. It was the Doctor. But it was more than that. It was...
...a heartbeat
...a hand
...a feeling of pure, unadulterated understanding...of worlds turning around her, within her...of civilisations growing and bending to the will of the universe...of harmony...of simple knowing...
...exhilaration...
...and a watch.
Suddenly she knew what she needed to do. Donna took a deep breath and backed away.
..................................................
Moira, Keira and John looked shattered. The expressions on their faces made them look far older then they were. Jack had an image of the people they'd been. He'd seen their photos. Read their files. They'd been a team. In the midst of their work, they'd had fun. Bright young things. Sent into a world they were never meant to see.
"Are there any other sightings of Feyads?" the Doctor asked, disturbing his thoughts.
Jack shook his head. "We've only seen this one but let's face it, they're pretty hard to spot. You noticed her on the way down here?" What did she look like? was the question he really wanted to ask and the Doctor smiled slightly as if he knew it.
"They were...all that time? We were just a study?" Keira asked. She looked determinedly away from the Feyad.
"Yes," the Doctor said gently. "In many ways, they did and do live as simply as you thought. Their defence mechanisms are what makes them dangerous. One of the most destructive thing there is, desire. Besides that...Donna? Are you ok?"
Donna was standing apart from them, staring at the cell, looking as if she was not really seeing anything. She looked up and nodded vaguely.
"The memory manipulation...they taught you that?" Jack asked John and Keira.
"Moira's the only one who can do that," John said. "We were never able to learn it."
"We thought," Moira hesitated, pushing against the words, "the war destroyed them."
"Not all," the Doctor said. "All the Feyad have ever wanted is to be left alone, just as they are. Not unlike your plan for the earth, Moira. Alien beings are not part of their grand plan. Living their lives...mingling thousands of beautiful dreams...sharing each other's dreams and memories, being all things to each other."
The Feyad's eyes, Jack noticed, were fixed on Moira.
"You destroyed us," Moira said, facing it. Whatever she saw in that cell was making her paler by the second.
"Moira," the Doctor said gently, "come away. This won't help."
"The machine," Jenny said suddenly, "can you feel it?"
Jack looked around for whatever it was she noticed. But the Doctor gave her an appraising look.
"I feel it," he said.
"What?" Jack asked impatiently.
"It's vibrating," Jenny said slowly, "it's like it's connecting with..." She pointed at the Feyad, then turned to look at the Doctor, her face shocked and pale.
"What do you see?" he asked her gently.
But Jenny wouldn't say. She just stared into the cell.
Now he could feel the air starting to change. The temperature was rising for a start. Something heavy was pressing down. He could see the others notice it too. Wilf took in a deep gulp of air and Keira cupped her hands over her mouth.
"It's killing us," she gasped.
Moira approached the glass slowly, intent on the creature within.
"I loved you," she said in a half-whisper, "I loved you all."
The Doctor stood beside her and addressed the Feyad.
"This is a warning," he said in a tone undercut with ice. "You leave these people alone. You can have your machine if you agree to leave here. Immediately. Go back to wherever it is you've made your home. If not, it gets destroyed and you stay here forever, far, far away from your people."
The Feyad, in whatever form she took to the Doctor, rose to her feet. Slowly, she turned to face him and nodded slowly.
The Doctor nodded curtly back.
"Moira, come away."
But Moira was so close now, her hands pressed tightly against the glass.
"I've never seen..." Her voice broke and wobbled. "I've seen anything like it..." Tears streamed down her face.
A mist gathered around them. They were choking.
Jack could hardly see.
"Donna!" The Doctor's voice was urgent. "Jack, where's Donna?"
"I don't know! She's here, isn't she? Donna!"
"Donna?" Wilf staggered up beside them. "Where is she? Is something wrong with her?" A fit of coughing made him bend forward, gasping for breath.
"Jack...have to stop her. I'll be right back!"
"Stop her? From what?"
In the gloom, the Doctor stepped close to him.
"Think about it Jack. How it might have tempted her? Think about what our friend here has done to you."
"What?"
The words hit him like a blow to the stomach. For a second, he thought he'd actually been slammed into the wall.
What?
"Yeah. Go on," he muttered.
The lights overhead flickered. The mist was almost tangible now. He could feel it, pressing down. Affecting him? Of course it wasn't. How could it?
Affecting him.
"Stop it!" Jack yelled. She simply stared steadily back.
Wilf slid to the ground.
Martha and Ianto were the first to reach him but even as they crouched down, they both slumped down beside him. As he tried to reach them, Jack felt someone else against his feet. It seemed that everyone was affected now. He should probably move them all further down the hall, as far away from the Feyad and whatever she was doing, as they could get.
"Keira?" He reached down, trying to find her shoulders to move her. Jenny knelt beside them, and looked up at him. Her eyes were enormous.
"It's not affecting me either," she said.
"Good! Are they breathing?"
"Yeah. For now." Jenny groped around. "John's here too." She reached into Keira's pocket and retrieved her gun. She stared at it.
"We could shoot that creature, couldn't we?" she asked in a whisper. "You could open the door. If it saved everyone...If it was the only way..."
"We could." Jack stared steadily back at her.
"And then I could shoot that machine. Destroy the inside of it. It'd break the connection."
"Absolutely."
Jenny crept forward on her knees towards the cell and stopped abruptly, looking back at him.
"What?" Jack asked nonchalantly.
"I just thought," her voice wavered slightly. "If we move them all...back towards the end of the hall, they'll breathe easier for a bit longer. We should do that first."
"Never thought of that!" Jack gave her a small salute. "Just as well one of us is thinking along the lines of the Doctor, isn't it?"
Wherever the hell he was...