Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I am only borrowing them and they will be returned to the BBC undamaged and in their original packaging.

Chapter Nine: Shadows Are Invisible In Darkness

'You're willing to talk now,' Solia said. She didn't bother to hide how smug she was feeling.

The Doctor didn't reply for a moment. Then he said, 'I try to give people chances. You have harmed my friends, attempted to harm me, all to force us into aiding you. I gave you a chance before, to save yourself and your people and you cast it back in my face. Now I'm being forced to give you another chance, but that is all you get. Understand? If you stab us in the back again, the deal is off.'

Solia licked her lips nervously. Her smugness had suddenly evaporated and she looked almost afraid, then she hid it. 'I understand,' she said.

'Good.' He rested his hands on the table. 'Then we had better get started, hadn't we?'

Solia touched the book in front of her. 'With what?'

'Trying to find out what is going on with this planet,' he said with a touch of sharpness. 'Don't you think? Since it's so important to you that you poisoned my friends?'

'Please stop going on about it,' she said, sounding rather bored.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. 'I'm so sorry,' he said nastily. 'Am I upsetting you? I certainly hope I am because it's less than you deserve!'

She studious ignored this. 'What do you want to do?'

He pulled the paper with the prophecy he had written out on it and unfolded it. 'I think I should start with this,' he said.

Solia stared in obvious surprise at the paper, although she didn't ask about it. 'Very well. Where shall we start with it?'

'Not we,' he said coolly. 'Me. You're just here for me to ask questions about it.'

Her eyes narrowed. 'And your little friends?'

'They're thinking,' he said absently, reading and reading again the prophecy. 'Good minds might work together, but three good minds apart can come up with the same solution and know that we've all come up with it independently which makes it more likely - I think I've misquoted there.' He looked up, thought, shrugged, and said, 'Never mind. My point still stands.'

'You're talking rubbish,' she informed him.

'True, he admitted, taking his glasses our of his jacket pocket. 'It was complete drivel, but there was a point in there somewhere, I'm pretty sure of that.' He pushed the glasses up his nose and sniffed loudly. 'All right. So. We have three travellers from the sky. Okay, I grant that sounds like me and my friends although - ' he held up a cautionary finger, 'I am not saying that we are the people in the prophecy, because that's leading credence to a truly ridiculous theory, even if other people think otherwise.'

Solia folded her arms. 'Your friends think there's something in it, don't they?'

He glowered at her. 'Let's just say that I think there are more rationale explanations, but I am now considering that your prophecy might have a very slight, very small possibility.' He looked irritated. 'All right?'

She smiled smugly and nodded.

'Anyway,' he said crossly. 'The Great Healer will return. Xan thinks it might be me, me being the Doctor, and I think he's got Rose convinced although not me.'

Solia simply watched him, didn't say anything.

'"And he shall bring the storm in his wake"', he muttered, rubbing his forehead. 'Does that mean that he brings the storm or that it simply comes close behind him? Could be either way...I swore, I would never ask you this, but what do you think?'

'It says he will lead us to safety,' she replied. 'I think he simply comes before the storm, I don't think he brings it with him. At least, not deliberately.'

'That's an optimistic approach,' he muttered. 'Unfortunately, I am inclined to agree with you because this planet was going to the dogs long before I got here.' He blinked and shook his head angrily. 'Assuming I am this stupid Great Healer and I'm not saying I am!'

'Of course not,' Solia said with a straight face.

He gave her a suspicious glare and continued. 'The whole "Be not afraid, for Solenistra shall not die but shall be rescued from death" is pretty self-evident, I think. As is the "Look to the coming of the one Great Healer". He shook his head again, in puzzlement this time. 'But "to battle the turning tide and to cut down the advancing shadow"? And I don't get "the one who dares stand in the path of the storm and who defies its fury". That doesn't make sense - ' He stopped. He lifted his eyes and sighed defeated. 'I don't need to understand that bit, do I?' he said miserably. 'That's me all over, isn't it?' He shook his head and rolled his eyes, then proceeded to read the prophecy through again. 'Do you have any idea what the shadow or the turning tide are?'

'No,' she said.

The tone of her voice made him look up sharply. 'You do know,' he said quietly.

'No, I don't,' she replied instantly.

'First, you refuse to shut up about this prophecy and now you're clamming up,' he said, removing his glasses. 'Solia, what do you know?'

She shook her head stubbornly. Her face had paled and she refused to look him in the eye.

'You're afraid to tell me. You weren't afraid to poison us, but now you're afraid. It's that bad, isn't it? This turning tide?' He watched her. 'That's change, we agreed on that, a turning tide means change although not necessarily good change, simple enough. It's this shadow you're afraid of, isn't it?' He saw her shudder and nodded. 'I thought so. What is it, Solia? What is the shadow?'

'I don't know;' she whispered, refusing to look at him.

He observed her, then said, 'I'm going to find out, Solia. I always do.'

Solia shot him a hesitant, frightened look. 'I can't talk about this,' she said very quietly.

'Why?' he demanded. Then stopped.

There was something. He felt a softly cold draught whisper through the room. It didn't come through the door, but from behind him, from the wall. The touch of air, icy cold and sudden, was tainted. He could almost smell the ancient evil in that single breath of wind. Slowly, he turned around.

The wall behind him was solid stone. He stared at it and then turned his intense, piercing gaze upon Solia, one eyebrow raised in a silent question.

Looking terrified, she nodded, barely.

Slowly, he replaced the paper in his pocket and walked over the wall, running a hand over the stone. It was freezing cold to the touch, far colder than any stone should be. It felt like a chunk of ice. Ignoring the pain, he continued to run his hand over the wall until he reached the next corner and felt the stone instantly warm again under his fingers.

'That can't be right,' he said softly.

The filthy breath of air floated past. The Doctor tensed. The stench in the air faded. He pressed a hand to the wall and found that it had resumed a warmer temperature.

'It's gone,' he said.

Solia breathed out a sigh of relief. 'Thank goodness,' she said.

'Are you going to tell me what that was?' he asked. 'You know what it is was, don't you?'

'I know it was this shadow,' she said.

'But you don't know what it is.'

'No. I'm not sure I want to know.'

'It's old,' he said quietly to himself. 'Older than me, older than almost anything I know. I can feel the age in it...That smell...' He shook his head. 'That cold.' He gazed off into the distance. 'It doesn't belong here.'

'Do you know what it is?'

'Not yet,' he replied. 'But I will.'

Solia gave him a funny look. 'You think you'll find out?'

'Yes,' he said confidently and flashed a brilliant smile. 'Trust me, Solia. This shadow is something wrong and it's lodged here, and maybe it is what's been destroying this world. I intend to look into this.'

She returned the smile. 'So, I was right.'

'No!' he snapped. 'You were not right, not to hurt us!' She shrank back and he lowered his voice and said, 'I'm going to go and talk to my friends. If we come up with anything, I will tell you.'

He walked past her, frowning and deep in thought. He walked straight past the guards, totally ignoring them all. They exchanged bewildered glances and looked back at Solia who nodded firmly. They hurried after the Doctor, trying to look as if they were guarding him, but they had to run just to catch him up. Upon reaching the cave-room where the other two were, he strode in and announced, 'We have work to do.'

Xan rolled over and sat up. He was eating something. Rose also sat up from where she had been sprawled across a chair.

'What is it?' she asked, interestedly.

He smiled. 'We got trouble,' he said.

Rose grinned delightedly. 'Great! What we going to do about it?'

He hurled himself into a chair next to her and sighed heavily. 'Not sure yet,' he said, gazing up at the ceiling. He pulled the paper out of his pocket, balled it up and started tossing it from hand to hand, then batted it with one hand and sent it over to Rose who laughed, caught it with one hand and instantly threw it at Xan who picked it out of the air without looking.

'So, you found something,' he said. 'You thinking there might be something in this prophecy, I mean that you're willing to admit to?'

The Doctor frowned at him. 'Yes,' he said after a minute. 'Not sure I'm this Great Healer, no one's got me convinced of that yet, but there's defiantly something on this planet that should not be here.'

'The shadow?' Rose asked.

He nodded.

'You found it?' Xan asked, sounding interested.

'I think so. There was this - breath of air. It stank of darkness, of the dank depths, of something ancient and evil and shouldn't be here. I didn't see it, but it was there.'

'You didn't see it?' Rose asked.

'No. I'm not surprised, I would have been surprised if I had seen it.' He paused and added mysteriously, 'Shadows are invisible in darkness. This must be a perfect place for it to hide.'

'How are we going to get rid of it?' Rose asked.

'I don't know yet. I want to find out something more about it, if I can.' He grinned at them both. 'Ready for trouble?'

'Hell, yeah!' Xan said, grinning.

'Are you kidding?' Rose asked, also grinning.