A/N: Yayness! Not long till series four now :D Only four weeks of school torture and then Easter Holidays! Then DW airs. Alledgedly. Dunno exact date but David said early April :) TRUST THE WORD OF THE ALMIGHTY DAVID!!!

Chapter 40 – What Are The Genres Of This Story Again?

Three weeks later…

It was bloody cold in here, and Jack couldn't help but wonder where the hell the so-called 'rescue' party had got to. They couldn't bloody rescue a cat stuck up a tree.

Okay, so that was slightly selfish. Khthonia had just left him here and forgotten about him, so God only really knew what was being done to the Doctor. Jack dreaded to think. He only hoped the Doctor was still alive and could hold out long enough for them to get to him.

"Life-sign from in here," came a girl's voice from outside suddenly, and Jack could easily recognise the tender tones of Jill Lethbridge-Stewart, and he never thought he'd be so happy to hear her voice. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

Rose's voice came next. "Doctor? Jack?"

"Rose," Jack called out, sitting up slightly as if he thought they'd have trouble seeing him.

"Jack!" Rose called once more, sounding even closer. "Is the Doctor with you?"

"No," he replied, unable to get the tone of regret out of his voice.

"Break-in positions, I'll go first," he heard Jill's voice next as she spoke to the UNIT group, waiting for them to assume positions before there was a short burst of gunfire under a silencer, some grinding of metal on metal before the door swung easily right open.

"Took you long enough!" Jack said indignantly from the darkness, and Jill cast a beam of light from her torch to the figure sat in the corner, curled in on himself. He instantly shielded his eyes from the light, having not seen it for so long.

"Well next time we won't bother," Jill muttered, rolling her eyes. Bloody ungrateful Harkness.

"Are you alright?" Rory asked his uncle, moving forward with the Sonic to unlock the hand chains.

"I'm fine, we should worry more about your dad to be honest," he said, rubbing sore wrists as Rory pulled him to his feet, and Jack gave Rose a brief hug. "Good to see you again Rosie."

Rose gritted her teeth, annoyed. "My name isn't Rosie!"

Jack just laughed. "You're okay?" He rested both his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes as she nodded affirmation. "Glad we go you out, if nothin' else." He turned to the rest of the group. "What took you so long?"

Rory shrugged. "It was the TARDIS. She wouldn't land before this time, she said 'the time is not right' or something."

Jack nodded, already knowing why. He turned to Gwen. "Gun?" He held out his hand to receive a firearm from Gwen, already loaded. He flicked off the safety and raised it straight, checking his aim. "Alright, let's go."

The journey was slow and hindered, the constant checking of the ring made it even slower. The energy in the ring was somehow scattered, and Rory claimed the energy vibes from his father were somehow faded. Owen kept his medical kit close, anticipating the worst.

Suddenly Rory stopped dead in his tracks, staggering slightly and grabbing his head as he cried out in shock. Everyone instantly span around, the Doctor the first to bound over to him and place his hands on either side of his son's head.

"What is it?" he asked in his Northern accent, scanning quickly through Rory's mind to find the source.

"I don't know…" he murmured, "got all light-headed for a second."

"Energy burst?" the Doctor questioned, more to himself. "Not sure. We should keep an eye on it though."

But then Rose gasped, and once again everyone turned to see what was going on. She suddenly pelted forward towards the junction in the corridor, taking a right whilst screaming, "DOCTOR!" as she ran. Jack and the Doctor shared a glance, unsure of this new happening before leading the pack in following after her.

They finally caught up with her a few hundred yards later, standing still at the start of a long corridor staring down the end.

"Rose? What is it?" Jack asked, almost falling over in his haste to stop beside her.

"He's gone…" she whispered, traces of disbelief plain in her voice. "I saw him. I swear I saw him. He came this way and…" she frowned once more, squinting down the corridor. "There!" she yelled, pointing ahead of her and sprinting in that same direction. Jack followed her gaze – and froze.

"Doctor?!" he exclaimed in disbelief, but already knew that wasn't the Doctor. The Doctor wasn't shiny, silver and made a high-pitched buzzing noise like a television. It was some kind of…apparition. "Okay, enterin' the realms of fantasy now…" he muttered, before following Rose.

She ran some more, the others following her before she stopped at another junction and sighed. He was gone again. She turned back, watery eyes fixed on Jack, questions brewing inside of her.

"Yeah, I saw him," he said before she could ask. "I don't know what's goin' on."

Rory stepped forward, resting his hand on his mum's shoulder. "Well whatever it was, it's definitely taken us closer to dad. The energy's still weak, but it's stronger."

"Could it have been Eva?" Jill suddenly asked, frowning through her thoughts. "Like, created his image to guide us?"

"That makes sense," Jack nodded. "But why doesn't she just tell us?"

"Wait, you're going to have to talk me through with this one…" Sarah-Jane was saying sounding incredibly confused. "Eva's dead, so how can she be walking around?" The Ninth Doctor saw everyone else nod in agreement to her question.

"Everything I'm about to say is complete theory, and until now I never believed it myself. Okay, this isn't the only Universe in existence. Aswell as parallel Universes, there are different plains of reality. You have our reality, of what we call 'the living', but there are so many things living amongst us and we're completely blind. The superstition of ghosts? Just a different plain of reality that now and again leaks through. It's all just a theory, but it's said when souls die they need somewhere to go. They don't just disappear."

"Like energy?" Gwen asked, and the Doctor nodded.

"Exactly. Energy cannot be destroyed; it has to go somewhere in some form. Just like souls. So some people say they go to an alternate plain of reality, which now and again leaks through. Those are the ghosts. But this Woman, Khthonia, She can see all these plains of reality and has brought back souls of the dead that harness great power to the wrong reality. Eva is a powerful psychic, which is why She brought her back and enslaved her. Get it?"

"No," Gwen said blankly.

"Ape."

"Yip, yip!"

The sound was surprising and Rose even jumped in alarm as something furry rubbed against her leg, panting loudly. She looked down, shocked to see Bob. The instant he knew she was looking at him he bolted off down the corridor, howling like a dog in the hunt as he disappeared around the corner. Had Bob been here with the Doctor all this time?

He led them quickly down a million corridors, taking lefts and rights and seemingly knowing exactly where he was going. Every now and then he'd stop, sniff the air and the floor, then go bounding off in a new direction. By the time they had caught up with him he was standing by a large pair of double-doors, sniffing the crack between them and pawing at the wood. Obediently the members of UNIT moved forward and pulled the heavy doors open.

Jaws dropped.

A/N: OMG look!

Chapter 41 – That Big RAWR Climatic Scene Part One

There was torture equipment either side of them, apparently well used and heavily blood stained. There hung tens of metal cages encasing helpless skeletons from the ceiling, which was as least thirty feet above their heads.

"Classic architecture, dontcha love it?" Jack grinned, gazing up at the nearest torture implement – which happened to be a rack.

"Gives me goosebumps," the Doctor agreed in his Northern accent, taking a side glance at Rose – but she had seen something far more interesting than the architecture at the other end of the hall.

So we're getting so close to the end!