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.

Okay, I know I've been really bad with no updating and stuff...I've been very busy! So here you all are - I've put up all my finished chapters in one go, so you can all read the end right now! I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Eleven: In Caverns Deeper and Darkness Deeper

'You have to rest. Or else you're going to fall over backwards, look very stupid and be publicly humiliated and I am not going to help you get up because you'll deserve it for not resting.'

The Doctor glared at Xan. 'You are not helping. And I don't need to rest.'

'Oh, sorry. My mistake. I thought that blood-shot eyes, falling asleep and generally looking like a pile of crap were symptoms of exhaustion.'

The Doctor appealed to Rose. 'Do I look like a pile of crap?'

'Of course not,' she said soothingly. 'Just like you haven't slept for a month. Which means you do look terrible.'

Xan folded his arms and gave the Doctor a smug 'I told you so' smirk.

'I am going to go and ask if we can have some food and water,' Rose said. 'We could all do with something, couldn't we?' The two men both made similar non-committal noises. She shook her head in exasperation and exited.

'Why do you do this?' Xan asked him suddenly.

The Doctor paused, raised an eyebrow and said, 'What's that supposed to mean?'

'You travel the breadth of time and space, looking for trouble. Why?'

The Doctor paused, then shrugged. 'Why does anyone do anything? Why did you bother to come with us?'

'Because I didn't have much of a life left and you know that,' Xan replied. There was a short silence and then Xan said, ''You like to ask questions but you don't like to answer them.' He didn't look at the Doctor. 'And you're very good at guarding your thoughts, aren't you?' He scuffed the floor with his foot, his arms folded. 'You're afraid of contact but you never travel alone. You want that contact with intelligant life-forms but you always stop yourself from getting too close.' He finally looked up. 'You're very lonely, aren't you?' he said with immense sympathy.

The Doctor shrugged. 'I'm used to it,' he said.

Xan smiled, rather sadly. 'You don't get used to being lonely,' he said. 'You just learn how to live with it.'

'You're a very perceptive man.'

'I have a unique insight into people,' Xan said, his tone dry.

'Hybrids are still considered outsiders in your time, aren't they?' the Doctor asked, his tone equally dry.

'Humans are beginning to accept us,' Xan replied. 'I would never have got as far as I did if they hadn't. The Amraki never accepted me.' He paused and said with obvious difficulty, 'I met my father three years ago. He told me that if I had been found by the Amraki before I became a respectable citizen, they probably would have killed me.'

'That's - awful,' the Doctor said quietly.

'Yes, isn't it?' Xan said with forced cheerfulness. 'I've lost count of the amount of specist abuse I've suffered over the years.'

'If it makes you feel any better, in the future of Tenarca, that changes,' the Doctor said.

Xan smiled. 'Yes, it does. Make me feel better, I mean.'

'Times always change,' the Doctor continued. 'You knew some Amraki, then?'

'A few.'

'Was it them who tampered with your abilities?'

Xan started and then laughed, bitterly. 'Them? They'd have just wiped my mind and left me a drooling idiot. No, it wasn't them.'

'I thought it might have been,' the Doctor commented. 'Since Amraki are one of the most advanced races when it comes to telepathy and telekinisis - they were notoriously proud and protective of the abilities. You're not telekinetic?'

'Not consciously,' Xan replied. 'The ability comes into play when I'm fighting or something, like a reflex. I have trouble utilising it with conscious thought.'

'Did someone tamper with that ability, too?'

Xan forced a smile. 'I don't really want to talk about this.'

The Doctor saw there was no point in pushing this line of conversation at the moment. 'Fine,' he said mildly. So now they both knew where the boundaries lay and what they each were unprepared to discuss. Although the Doctor was determined never to speak to the hybrid of the war that had destroyed his people, he was equally determined to find out what had happened to Xan to screw up his abilities so badly and what was so terrible that he refused to talk about.

However, his thoughts on this subject and how to approach it were distracted by Rose's return with a tray of food and a jug of water.

'I need to find the shadow and find it soon,' the Doctor said, picking at a piece of bread aimlessly.

'How are you going to find it?' Rose asked curiously, sipping at water.

'Very likely, it'll come and find us. Specifically, it'll come and find me. It knows I'm here, I'm not going anywhere until we face this down and - '

'How do you know that?' she asked.

'I know,' he said, rather shortly.

'How are you going to destroy it?'

He shrugged, dropping the bread on the tray. 'I don't know if I can, yet. Perhaps I can drive it away or imprison it again, but it's cunning. It won't want to go back and it'll fight.'

'Do you think we can trap it?' Xan asked.

'I don't know. But I'm damn well going to see what I can do.'

'Can I do anything?' Rose began then breathed in suddenly, going very pale and swayed slightly.

The Doctor looked worried. 'How are you feeling?' he asked gently.

'Fine,' she said quickly.

Xan lifted an eyebrow and glanced at the Doctor.

'You're not,' the Doctor said.

'I know,' she said. 'But - just hurry up and sort this out, right?' She gave him a weak smile.

He grinned back. 'Business as usual.'

She returned the grin. 'Yeah, business as usual.'

The Doctor glanced up at Xan. 'How are you feeling?'

'Fine,' Xan said, echoing Rose. He gave her a brief look. 'Holding up fine.'

The Doctor gave Rose another concerned look. 'We need to get that antidote off of Solia. Soon. I'll ask her for it.'

'Good luck with that,' Xan said cynically.

'She'll do the right thing in the end,' the Doctor said firmly.

'Yeah, whatever,' Xan muttered.

The Doctor chose to ignore that. 'I'm going to start looking. I think it'll go somewhere dark and abandoned where it thinks I won't find it. Recover a little before it comes looking to finish this. So I'm going to find it before it has a chance to recover its strength. But it won't be too far away - it needs people, it needs to feed on people but too much contact seems to send them mad - look at Solia, definitely an anthill short of a picnic.'

'Too true,' Xan said under his breath.

The other two ignored him.