Author's Notes: Not Torchwood compliant. As always, Kit and Madhukar are mine; all else belongs to the BBC.
Chapter Six – The Color of Wrath
The slam of the door behind them was like a shot through Rose's heart. They weren't dead yet, but they had no weapons, no plan, and from what she could see, no way out.
"Downstairs," instructed the Master, motioning with Jack's blaster.
"I'm not leaving him!" Rose protested.
The Master stood over her. "You cannot do anything for him," he said coldly. "Downstairs. Now."
Rose looked over at Jack, who gave her a curt nod. Kit's expression was bleak. Resistance is still futile, Rose thought. She glared at the Master, and then turned on her heel to head down the stairs with Jack and Kit behind her. They were followed by the Master and the Cyberman who'd been standing guard outside the conversion room.
They'd just reached the bottom of the stairs when a whining sound from the room upstairs made them look back. The Master's eyes gleamed with dark humor. "All is on schedule. The conversion system is starting to power up. How long until it reaches full capacity?" he asked the Cyberman.
"Eight point two-five minutes," the Cyberman responded.
"Good! Very good." He turned away from the Cyberman and gestured toward the corridor leading outside. "After you," he told Rose. When she hesitated, he continued, "Unless you really want to listen to him scream?" He moved closer to her. "I'm trying to be kind. I still hope to convince my associate to forget his own plans for you and give you to me."
"I'll take the devil I know," Rose retorted.
His expression hardened and he gave her a shove toward the exit. Jack caught her by the arm and kept her from falling. Quietly, he murmured, "Let's get out of this death trap first."
Kit laid a hand on Rose's other arm. "Nothing's impossible, and a few minutes can change everything," she said very softly. "The Doctor's counting on us. On you. Let's not let him down."
There's almost no time, Rose thought, forcing down her panic. But we have to stop the armies first. It's what the Doctor would want. She nodded fractionally and walked out of the building, flanked by her friends. The Master and the Cyberman followed them out, and the Master pointed across the arid ground toward a tall, narrow tower of metal beams. "Over there," he said.
Rose set a quick pace over to the structure. The sooner we see what they're doing the sooner we can stop it, she thought as she jogged up the metal stairs.
One, two, three flights of stairs. She felt just a bit winded as they reached the platform at the top. Toby stood with his back to her, leaning against the guardrail on the other side of the platform. "Is it done yet?" he asked without looking at them.
"Four more minutes," the Master answered. "Then I will return for Phase Two."
"Excellent," Toby said, his back still turned to them. "You are just in time. I opened the door to the Void. My legions have gathered." He raised his arms like a prophet. Two Daleks rose through the air to hover just on the other side of the railing.
Rose glanced at Kit and Jack. Filled with dread, they walked the short distance across the platform to the guardrail. Rose's jaw dropped as she saw the plain rolling out before them.
They go on forever!
The platform stood on a small rise. Below it, between two rows of radio telescopes, Daleks and Cybermen stood in ranks. Row after row of them, gleaming in the hot sunlight. How many did we send into the Void? At least five million Cybermen. And I don't know how many Daleks. They're all here.
"My God," Jack breathed beside her.
Toby turned toward them with a dark smile and glowing red eyes, more Beast than man now. "You have learned," he said.
"Wasn't talking to you," Jack snapped back.
"No respect," the Master said, fiddling with Jack's blaster. Casually, he raised it and fired at Jack.
Kit screamed as Jack's body toppled over the railing and plummeted to the ground. She ran to the railing and nearly went over herself before Rose grabbed onto her. The two women sank to their knees, Kit's eyes fixed on Jack's broken form below. Rose stared at the Master in shocked disbelief.
Nonchalantly, he leaned over the railing to look down, then looked back at Rose and Kit. "I don't know about any of you, but I was getting tired of his mouth."
Four minutes earlier…
The Doctor grimaced as a high-pitched whine filled the air. "I don't suppose you can turn that down?" he called out.
No answer. The whining sound continued. "I didn't think so," he muttered. He could hear Madhukar flipping switches at the control panel. "Madhukar, I know I haven't been the best teacher, certainly not the most orthodox, but this really isn't necessary—"
The conversion assembly began to move. The Doctor scrunched his eyes shut and clenched his jaw in anticipation. Then his eyes flew open again as he heard the sound of lasers and crashing metal. The whine stopped and his shackles clicked open. He sat up and looked around.
The three Cybermen were on the floor, their heads neatly severed by the lasers on the conversion assembly, now stopped and silent above him.
"Three Cybermen down, nearly five million to go," Madhukar said, flicking one final switch. He looked up at the Doctor with eyes that had returned to their normal state. "We must hurry."
The Doctor swung his legs off the table and stood up, staring at the Seeker. "You reset the controls to turn the lasers onto the Cybermen! But…that would have taken some technical expertise, and I know you're no good at anything technical."
Madhukar raised one eyebrow. "Is that any way to talk to a fellow scientist, Doctor? Or should I call you John Smith?"
The Doctor's jaw dropped. The voice was Madhukar's, but the speaking pattern and the knowledge…even the body language… "Tremas?"
The other man inclined his head with a slight smile. "At your service, old friend."
The Doctor walked up to him, looking him up and down in shock. "You…how…What about Madhukar?"
The other man's stance shifted slightly, and when he spoke, the Doctor could hear a difference. "I am here, Acarya. I am here, and he is here." Another shift. "Your student is sharing his mind with me. I was able to slip in when the Master tried to possess Madhukar." He stepped over to one of the fallen Cybermen and knelt down beside it. "We can stop all of this if we can knock out the transmitters."
"Transmitters? Plural?" the Doctor asked in surprise.
"The Master set up multiple transmission points here, just in case you managed to escape and destroy one. He decided you couldn't damage more than two."
The Doctor moved beside him. "How many are there?"
"One system downstairs, three out there. And the armies are massing between them," was the grim answer. "We'll need weapons."
The Doctor looked up at the conversion assembly. "We can take the lasers from that," he suggested.
A headshake. "Those weapons are hard-wired, and it would take too long. But we can take them from here." He pointed to the Cyberman's arm.
"The lasers from the Cybermen!" the Doctor said.
"Exactly, Acarya." This time it was Madhukar speaking, holding the sonic screwdriver out with a grin. "Something else that I slipped away from the Master when he wasn't paying attention."
The Doctor took the sonic screwdriver and started disassembling the arm of the Cyberman. "Tremas, the Master said you'd gone mad," the Doctor told him as he worked.
A slight smile crossed Madhukar's face as Tremas answered. "That is what he thinks. I've been deceiving the deceiver for a long, long time. He's too conceited to believe that he could be fooled by lesser beings."
The Doctor pulled laser component from the arm and passed it over. "He also said your knowledge was useful."
A chuckle from the other man as he took the laser. "He never learned anything that valuable from my memories. We tossed him a few bones, as Bruce would say."
The other trapped mind, the Doctor thought as he moved to the next Cyberman. "Is Bruce with you also?"
Madhukar/Tremas shook his head as he worked with the laser. "He stayed behind, keeping up the illusion. I was able to plant a suggestion, a psychic ghost of myself if you will. The Master thinks we're busy raving in the back of his brain. He's kept us shoved back there for years."
The Doctor finished with the second Cyberman and moved on to the last one. "You planted a suggestion?"
"You know the Master's one true mastery is hypnosis. I learned more from him than he ever did from me," Tremas replied. "I saw much in his mind, and through his eyes." He was silent for a moment, and then said, "I saw the way you cared for my daughter. I want to thank you for that."
The Doctor paused to look up at him. "It was my pleasure," he said sincerely.
A moment of silent understanding passed, and then they both bent their heads back to their work.
"You didn't have to kill him!" Rose shouted. Kit was still shaking in her arms, her eyes cast down on the scene below.
The Master smirked as he leaned back against the guardrail. "No, I didn't have to. I wanted to. He was mine."
Kit's head jerked up. Rose gasped to see her eyes, blazing crimson in her tear-tracked face. "And you're mine," Kit hissed. She made a motion with her hand, and the Master lurched away from the railing. A look of terror crossed his face.
Toby, on the other hand, looked pleased. "Very good, young one! You have the power, and a whole Mediary at your disposal. Now show me what you can do with it."
Kit whirled on him. "I can stop you!" she said angrily.
One of the hovering Daleks swiveled its eyestalk toward her. "You will not interfere!" it snapped.
Kit raised her other hand and then slowly clenched it into a fist. Rose gaped as the Dalek began to collapse in on itself, like a tin can crushed by invisible forces. Kit made a throwing motion, and the ruined Dalek was flung into the other one that was still floating next to the platform. Both of them dropped to the ground.
Toby was laughing. "Well done, young one! But can you stop them all?"
"No, Kit!" Rose cried. "It'll kill you!"
Kit snapped, "Do you think I care? Jack's dead!" She looked over at Rose, and the glow faded from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Rose," she said in a softer voice. "I was looking forward to being your friend. But I have to stop this. Now. And there's only one way." Her eyes smoldered red again as she turned her attention back toward the Master. "But first, for you!" Another motion of her hand, and the guardrail broke. A section of it twisted around him, binding him tightly. In a satisfied tone, Kit said, "That will hold you for now. I have bigger fish to fry. A couple million of them!" She walked past him toward the open section of the guardrail and stepped through it.
Rose cried out in horror, thinking Kit was leaping to her death. But Kit didn't fall. Instead, she was surrounded by tendrils of swirling darkness. Just the opposite of what's in the heart of the TARDIS, Rose thought numbly. The tendrils buoyed her, and she moved toward the massed armies.
"Hell was too good for you," she announced in a voice that rang across the plain. "It ends here at Megiddo." She made a sweeping motion with one arm, and rows of Cybermen began crashing into each other like dominoes. She slammed her other arm downward, and a group of Daleks was flattened.
Seeing their numbers being decimated, the armies began to fight back. "Exterminate!" shrieked thousands of Dalek voices, mingling with a Cyberman chorus of, "Delete! Delete! Delete!"
Dalek rays blasted at Kit, and the Cybermen began firing their lasers. But nothing could pierce the dark power surrounding her. Instead, the violet-black tendrils seemed to suck in the energy of the weapons. Kit reached out and rolled some of it up like a ball. She pitched it with deadly accuracy down the middle of the ranks, smashing more of the enemy forces.
Rose watched the destruction with wide eyes. Then she realized Toby was laughing. "She's destroying your armies, but you think it's funny?" she asked. "You've been pushing her to take the power like this. Why?"
"So I can feed," Toby answered. "As she destroys my unwitting disciples, she draws more and more of the energy of the Vortex and refines it within herself, making that power even stronger. Perfect for me to use. Soon she will be a feast to restore my full power." He smiled darkly at Rose. "Just like the other angels who followed me before."
Furious, Rose launched herself at Toby, landing a sharp blow on his chin and sending him stumbling backwards. With a growl, he turned back toward her, wiping blood from his lip. He took a step toward her, when a sudden jolt rocked the platform. Rose could hear a low rumble, and looked back at the plain. Kit was making slicing motions, churning up tons of dirt and debris, and sending the Cybermen and Daleks flying in a whirlwind of smashing machinery. The ground shook, with huge cracks breaking through the soil. The platform jerked again, and Rose careened into Toby as the tower began to lean.
"There! Just a few modifications and each of these is now more powerful than the original models."
The Doctor took the proffered laser and looked at it closely. "How powerful?"
"Try it and see," Tremas replied with Madhukar's voice.
The Doctor raised the weapon, pointed it at the wall and fired. The laser blasted away a large section of concrete, opening the room to the outside. "I'm impressed," the Doctor said, rising to look out of the gaping hole. This side of the building looked out on a seemingly endless stretch of empty brown desert. "Very impressed. Let's go."
They ran down the steps to the main room. "Which computer…oh, never mind," the Doctor said. He shot out the entire bank, and then started toward the exit. Over his shoulder, he said, "I know Madhukar doesn't use weapons…Tremas, what kind of shot are you?"
The other man gave him the kind of smile that had never crossed Madhukar's face before, grim and almost feral. "Something else I learned from the Master," Tremas answered.
They ran outside, to be greeted by cries of EXTERMINATE and DELETE in the distance, mixed with the sounds of crashing metal just beyond. "It sounds like that's where the action is!" the Doctor said.
His companion nodded. "The other transmitters are there, beyond that tower."
Together, they bolted across the ground toward the base of the tower ahead of them. As they reached it, the Doctor skidded to a stop, staring in horror at the ground where Jack lay like a broken doll. Jack's contorted position and the scorching on his chest told the Doctor everything he needed to know, but he still knelt down next to his friend and felt for a pulse. He knew it was a futile gesture but—
The Doctor gasped as he felt a throb under his fingers. Thready, but growing stronger. He rocked back on his heels as Jack took in a huge gasp and opened his eyes. With a great effort, Jack straightened his twisted limbs, sat up and looked around wildly. "What the hell happened to me?" he demanded.
"I was going to ask the same of you!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You were dead, Jack. I'd swear it."
"So would I," Jack told him.
The ground rumbled underneath them. "We are running out of time!" Madhukar's voice was agitated. He held one of the lasers out to Jack. "Can you shoot?"
Jack took the weapon, looking at him quizzically. "You know I can."
"He's not quite himself," the Doctor explained as he helped Jack to his feet. "I'll explain later. We need to go! Can you run, Jack?"
Jack nodded, and the three men rounded the corner of the tower. The plain came into view. "Oh, my God!" Jack cried out. "She did what he wanted! It'll kill her! Kit! Stop!"
The Doctor stared in shock. The Legion of the Beast was being wiped out. Kit was hovering above the destruction, surrounded by violet-black whorls of energy. Jagged cracks were appearing in the ground, running toward them.
"She can't hear you, Jack. But if we stop the discord, she'll stop! What are our targets?" the Doctor shouted.
Madhukar pointed. "There! And there, and there!"
They pointed their lasers to fire, and stumbled as the ground moved beneath their feet again. They could hear the sound of groaning metal from the tower behind them. The Doctor looked back to see it starting to lean.
"Doctor, Jack, now!" The men fired their weapons at three of the radio telescopes. Each of the antennae exploded into a ball of fire as the tower began to fall.
A thunderclap shook the sky. Suddenly it was filled with beings glowing with bright, golden light.
Rose crashed into Toby with a force that knocked the wind out of her. He grabbed onto her arms so she couldn't strike him again, and held on, grinning madly as the tower leaned more and started to topple over.
A blast of wind and heat made them look out over the plain. Three of the radio telescopes had gone up in flames. Toby let her go and howled as the sky blazed with golden light.
Rose shut her eyes against a blinding flash right next to her. She opened them again as she felt a set of arms around her, and looked into a shining face. "You're safe, Rose Tyler," said the angel holding her. Another flash, and they were on the ground. The tower slammed down behind them, sending up clouds of dust. The angel held up his hand, and a shimmer sprang up, the dust roiling behind it blocked from reaching them.
"Rose!" She turned to see the Doctor running toward her, followed by Madhukar. And a little farther back, staring over the plain…"Jack?"
She ran into the Doctor's arms, weak with relief. "I thought you were dead!" she told him. "And I saw the Master kill Jack. How—?"
"I don't know yet, Rose," he answered. "Where are Toby and the Master?"
"In our control, Doctor," the angel answered, pointing upward. Toby was held fast by a pair of angels, and surrounded by more. The group disappeared in a brilliant flare. At the same time, another pair of angels appeared and deposited the Master on the ground, still wrapped in the remains of the metal guardrail.
"What about Kit?" Rose asked the angel. His smile disappeared. He didn't answer, but instead looked out over the plain.
A phalanx of angels were destroying the remaining Daleks and Cybermen. More surrounded Kit, who was still in midair with dark tendrils swirling around her. They called to her, and she answered in a language the Doctor didn't recognize.
"The TARDIS isn't translating," Rose observed with a frown. "Why?"
"Do you remember the words of the Beast on Krop Tor?" the Doctor replied. "That's the language. Impossibly old."
"They're telling her to give up the power," the angel said in his golden tenor. "But she wants to hold it until she burns herself out."
"That will kill her!" the Doctor protested. "I told her not to sacrifice herself!"
Rose answered bleakly, "She thinks Jack is dead, Doctor. She doesn't care."
"The power is already killing her," the angel said in a grim tone. He walked to Jack, who was watching with fear-widened eyes. He laid a hand on Jack's shoulder. "You can stop this. Call her. I'll make sure she hears."
Jack glanced over at the angel, and then turned his gaze back at the plain and cupped his hands round his mouth. "Kit! Angel!" he called, his voice filled with desperation and love and amplified by the angel's touch.
Kit jerked her head up and looked toward them. Her eyes widened in shock and wonder. "JACK?" she cried.
The glow faded from her eyes and the dark tendrils shrank away to nothingness as she surrendered the power that had been holding her up above the plain. Like a wounded bird, she fell.