I am so very sorry about the wait. I have been trying to update quicker but I just haven't found the time. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I tried to speed up the chapters getting through the episodes. I promise I'll try to update quicker. Please enjoy.
Doctor's POV
I managed to convince Zack to let me go down with Ida in the capsule. It didn't take much, I was going to go whether he let down or not but it was better to have to captain's approval. Rose didn't seem too pleased but she let me go.
"I'll see you later." I wouldn't let this be the last time I saw her.
"Not if I see you first." Rose kissed my helmet in good luck and I descended with Ida.
Zack's voice sounded over the comms. "You've gone below the oxygen field. you're on your own now."
"Just keep breathing, breathing is good." I smiled.
"Rose, stay off the comms." Zack didn't seem to pleased that Rose had hijacked the system though I wasn't complaining. The ride down was quite bumpy but everything seemed fine. We landed with a jolt.
"Doctor? Doctor are you alright?" the landing must have set something off up above. Rose sounded genuinely worried.
"It's alright, we've made it. Heading out of the capsule down now." I would never get used to this kind of thing. Stepping out onto an alien planet and not knowing what I would find. I got chills.
"What's it like down there?" I would've taken Rose with me but there wasn't enough room. I knew how much this annoyed her to be apart from all this, I guess I could show her later. I squinted in the darkness.
"It's hard to tell. Some sort of cave, cavern. It's massive." Next to me, Ida produced some sort of glob thing and lobed it into the air. The cave lit up like someone had just flicked the light on or something. It was beautiful. There were carvings on the walls. It was defiantly a sight of civilisation though that seemed to be years ago. Zack pushed us back on the mission and Ida started walking purposely forward in one direction. I followed behind still enjoying the sight of everything.
"Energy signature indicates north- northwest. Are you getting picture up there?" Rose would be disappointed that there were no pictures.
"There's too much interference. We're in you hands." It sounded like Zack was disappointed as well.
"Well we've come this far, there's no turning back now." Ida talked like a scientist.
"oh, did you have to? 'No turning back.' That's almost as bad as 'nothing could possibly go wrong.'"
Ida didn't seem impressed. "have you finished?"
"Yeah finished." I continued walking not looking at Ida. I love making other people annoyed at my rambling.
Rose's POV
Everything was fine below but it seemed like the problems were up above. Danny said there was something wrong with the Ood. The telepathic field was at Basic 100 or something which according to Jefferson meant brain death. The Doctor began to wonder if something was up, I wonder how much he heard over the comms, but we all pretended that it was fine and dandy though it clearly wasn't. The Doctor started to explain that they had found a seal or something. "Trap door" is what he called it and he didn't seem to keen on the whole thing.
"The edge is covered with those symbols." Ida was always on task even thought the Doctor wasn't. Zack had the same idea as me; wanting to know whether it opened or not.
"That's what trap doors tend to do." Sometime I wish the Doctor wouldn't so smart all the time.
"Trap door doesn't do it justice. It's massive Zack. About 30 feet in diameter." Ida obviously wasn't paying any attention to the Doctor at all. Good girl.
"Any way of opening it?"
"Don't know. I can't see any sort of mechanism."
"I suppose that would be the writing. The letters that defy translation." The Doctor was back on track now which was good.
"Toby, did you get any where with translating it?" I turned to Toby who was sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. I knew this was hard for him but they needed the information.
"Toby, they need to know if the lettering makes any sort of sense."
"I know what it means." That was weird, Toby's voice sounded all deep and funny. I ignored it.
"Well tell them." Toby stood up slowly taking his hands away from his face. The lettering was written in black across his face and his eyes were blood red. It was frightening.
"These are the words to the Beast. And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease." His voice remained in the same deep voice that shook me to my very bones. Jefferson moved in front raising his gun aiming towards Toby. "And now he will rise."
"Officer, you will stand down." Jefferson seemed too sounded confident though I wasn't. I heard the Doctor and Zack calling through the comms asking what was wrong. "Officer you have compromised security. You will stand down and be confined. Immediately." Toby didn't seem to hear Jefferson. He started walking forward so I did the most natural thing, I started walking backwards. Toby began talking about Jefferson's wife and I could tell Jefferson wasn't please he knew about it.
"Under the strictures of Condition Red, I am authorised to shoot you." Jefferson raised his gun.
"But how many can you kill?" Toby breathed in and the writing on his face turned into black smoke. I watched as it flew through the air filling the noses of the Ood. There eyes turned red. Toby coughed and suddenly fell unconscious. The Ood began to speak in the same deep voice that Toby had.
"We are the legion of the Beast." I grabbed the comm.
"Doctor it's the Ood. I don't know what it is, it's like their possessed." Jefferson was talking to Zack over his comm as well. And the Ood continued talking.
"He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some may call him Abbadon. Some may call him Krop Tor. Some may call him Satan or Lucifer, the king of Despair, the Deathless Prince, and the Bringer of Night. And these are the words that shall set him free."
The Ood started walking towards us though I didn't know what they were going to do with us.
"Back up to the door." I followed Jefferson's orders moving back towards the door.
"I am become manifest…"
"Move Quickly!"
"I shall walk in the light."
"To the door!"
"And my legions will swarm across the worlds." Things weren't looking good.
Doctor's POV
I was headed back to the capsule. I would save Rose at what ever cost. Suddenly I was thrown off balance. The entire cavern was shaking and moving.
"Doctor, it is opening!" Ida was still back by the seal. I knew I had to save Rose but I also knew I couldn't leave Ida alone there. I doubled back and forwards like a complete idiot. I didn't know what to do. I took a deep breath and headed back towards Ida and the seal knowing that Rose would be taken care of by the others. I could still hear the voice through the comms.
"I am the sin and the temptation and the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the death of hope." I didn't know who was speaking, it defiantly wasn't the crew. I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more. The pit is open and I am free!" I made it back to the seal with Ida just to see the seal disappear and a great big pit open up. I knew the voice and the pit had something in common but I didn't know what.
Rose's POV
The Ood marched towards us but we couldn't get through the door for some reason. I didn't know how to open it. Jefferson raised his gun and started shooting at the Ood which feel dead at our feet. The base stopped shaking and everything became deathly quiet. I ran back to the comms determined to find out whether the Doctor and Ida were alright.
"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor, Ida, are you there." I got no respond and my hearts sank just a little. I heard the door open and I turned sharply my breath catching in my throat. Danny came through scared and out of breath.
"It's me, but they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."
"How many of them?"
"All of them, all 50." Danny's voice cracked a little and given the situation I didn't blame him. 50 Ood against 5 humans was not good. Danny started getting to work sealing all the doors, sealing us in while Jefferson reported to Zack.
"I've got very little ammunition sire. How about you?"
"All I've got is a bolt-gun with, uh, all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is." One bolt gun didn't seem like much.
"Given the emergency, I recommend strategy nine."
"Strategy nine agreed. Right we need to get everyone together. Rose, what about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"
"Nothing, I keep trying but…" It was annoying that I couldn't contact him anymore.
"No sorry, I'm fine. Still here." My hearts soared at the sound of his voice. I also got a little angry with him.
"You could've said you stupid…!"
Doctor's POV
"Whoa, careful!" Rose just swore at me so loudly that we all got feedback ringing in out ears. As my ears stopped ringing I told them it wasn't just me. Ida was still with me.
"But the seal opened up. All we've got left is this chasm."
"How deep is it?"
"I don't know. Looks like it goes down forever." I thought that was impossible because you'd have to hit the edge of the planet but I don't know what to believe here.
"The pit is open. That's what the voice said." Rose was right, that is what the voice said but nothing was coming out. No beast or anything. I was beginning to believe that we should never have come here, that we should've left as soon as I thought something was up.
"It said Satan."
"Come on Rose, keep it together."
"Is there no such thing?" I wasn't going to reply because I had seen things now that changed my idea of the universe. "Doctor? Tell me there is no such thing." I couldn't do that to her, it was her choice to believe what she wished.
"Ida, I recommend you withdraw." Zack was taking command again. Ida didn't seem happy.
"But we've come all this way." Zack changed his word making it an order for us to withdraw back up above. Ida switched her comm off and turned to me.
"What do you think?"
I would give anything to be back by Rose's side but my curiosity about the pit was overwhelming. "He gave an order."
"Yeah, but what do you think?" Ida wasn't giving up easily.
"It said "I am the temptation."
Ida moved closer to the edge of the pit, I was almost afraid of her going over. "If there's something down there, why isn't it coming out?"
"Maybe we've open the prison but not the cell?"
"We should go down. I'd go. Would you?"
"Oh in a second. But then again that's so human. Where angels fear to tread. Even now standing on the edge, it's that feeling you get yeah? Right at the back of your head. That impulse, that strange little impulse. That mad little voice saying "go on, go on, go on. Go over, go on." Maybe it's relying on that. For once in my life Officer Scott, I'm going to say, retreat. Now I know I'm getting old." I pressed a button on my comm. "Rose, we're coming back." This was too much for me. I had to leave it alone and get back to Rose before we both got suck.
"Best news I've had all day." Ida and I began the fairly long trek back to the capsule. Ida described to me 'strategy nine' which was in short a slaughter. Something I wasn't overly keen to be apart of. We arrived back at the capsule in no time.
"Okay, we're in. Bring us up."
"Ascension in three, two, one." The lights in the capsule went black. it sounded like something had cut all power to the base. The 'beast' started talking to us through the Ood. Images of the red eyed Ood showed on our screens. I began to get cocky and started talking back to it.
"If you are the Beast then answer me this? Which one hmm? Because the universe has been busy since you've been gone, there are more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Arkiphets, Quoldonity, Christianity, Pash Pash, Neo-Judaism, San Claar, the Church of the Tin Vagabond, Which devil are you?"
"All of them." My eyebrows raised in disbelief. There was no way he could be all of them.
"What, so you're the truth behind the myth?"
"This one knows me as I know him, the killer of his own kind," I couldn't say I please to hear him say that but I continued with my interrogation.
"How did you end up on this rock?"
"The disciples of the light rose up against and chained me to the pot for all eternity."
"When was this?"
"Before time." I couldn't believe what he was saying. 'Before time' that was impossible.
"What does 'before time' mean?"
"Before time and light and space and matter, before the cataclysm, before this universe was created."
I told him that was impossible. Nothing could've existed back then, nothing at all.
"Is that your religion?"
I had never thought about it that way. I guess it was a belief of mine but I wouldn't call it a religion, I don't have one not any more after all this time.
"You know nothing. All of you, so small. The captain, so scared of command. The solider, haunted by the eyes of his wife. The scientist, still running from daddy. The little boy who lied, the virgin and the lost girl. So far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon." I wouldn't allow him to say those things of Rose, she wouldn't die and I would make sure of that.
"Rose don't listen to him. He knows nothing Rose, don't listen."
Suddenly everyone started talking at once. I tried to get them to listen to me. I could hear Jefferson asking Zack for commands, Rose trying to contact me and Ida asking if anyone had got a reading from the thing. I reached up and grabbed the radio line and twisted a cord. Feed back rang in everyone's ears making everyone shut up.
"If you want voices in the dark, then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood, nightmares, all that stuff."
"But that's how the Devil works."
"Or a good psychologist."
"But how did it know about my father?" Ida had stumped me there but I wasn't about to give up.
"Okay but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine hmm? 'Cause I'll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space. Flying in a tiny rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing. All of you. The captain, his officer, his elder, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage the Beast is alone, we are not. If we can use that to fight against him…" I heard something crack far away. I didn't like the sound of it. Realising that the cable had snapped and was about to hit us. Ida and I dived out of the capsule just in time.
Rose's POV
I was staring down the mine shaft with the others. Just staring down into the darkness hoping that there was someway we could bring the Doctor back to me but we didn't have another ten miles of cable. They were stuck. We also had bigger problems to deal with. The Ood were breaking through the door bolts and we had no where to go. My Timelord brain started working over time. We needed to find a way to stop the Ood and get out of here.
"You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? Because he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! For starters we need some lights. Zack, there's got to be some sort of power somewhere." Zack wasn't being very helpful.
"There's nothing I can do. Some Captain! Stuck in here, pressing buttons."
"That's what the Doctor meant, press the right buttons." Zack started pressing the right buttons and we got power back to the base. We didn't have enough for strategy nine but it was a start. I got Zack and Jefferson working on a way out and Danny got to work with finding a way to stop the Ood. Even Toby who was back with us could help. He said that the writing started making sense after the thing was inside his head. I got him to see if he could translate anything at all just so we could have the extra information. With nothing left for me to do I wandered back over to the mine shaft and stared down. what I wanted more than anything was for the Doctor to arrive back up here safe and sound with me but I knew I would have to do a lot more than wish to see him back up here with me.
I moved back over to Danny to see what he had found.
"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood. Trouble is, we haven't got them on board." He didn't seem to happy and neither was I but I wasn't going to let him see that. I watched as he continued the search for any sort of virus that would stop the Ood. Suddenly the screen started flashing AFFIRMATIVE.
"Oh my God! It says yes! I can do it! Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm. The Ood will be wiped out."
"Well get to it then."
"I know… but I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood habitation." This was going to be difficult than I thought. I moved over to Jefferson to see what he had found for us as an escape route.
"There's a network maintenance tunnels running underneath the base." The screen before him showed a network of tunnels that seemed big enough for us to crawl though.
"Ventilation shafts." I said with a smile. I've always wanted to crawl through ventilation shafts like they do in the movies.
"I appreciate the reference but there's no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed got machines not life forms." That wasn't good. My hearts sank a little as I realised we might be stuck here forever.
"But I can manipulate the oxygen field from here, create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network."
Zack's idea didn't sound very appealing to me. I could see a lot of things going wrong with this plan. "Right. So we go down and you make the air follow us by hand?"
"You wanted me pressing buttons."
"Alright, I asked for it. We need to get to Ood habitation, work out a route." There was nothing I could do to back out of this now. It was all my idea getting Zack to 'press the right buttons' and now it was coming back to bite me on the bum.
Zack had found a route and we were all set to go. It was perfect timing as well because the Ood were about to finish breaking through the door bolts. Everything was going to plan. We had found a way out and Danny had a virus to stop the Ood.
"We're coming back. We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out." We descended into the tunnels; Danny was leading, then me, then Toby and Jefferson in defensive position. It was a tight squeeze and after a while the novelty of crawling through the shafts wore off. The air was getting thin and it wasn't helping anyone. Danny smelt so bad it was horrible but I guess I couldn't blame him. We weren't in the best situation. We hear a noise at the other end of the tunnel. The Ood must've followed us through the tunnels.
"Where are they? Are they close?"
"I don't know, I can't tell. The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."
"Who's idea was that!" I couldn't believe it, doesn't register as proper life forms that's just stupid.
We sped through the junction. Jefferson decided to stay in defensive position. I didn't want to lose anyone but I had no say in it. We made it to the last junction but Jefferson didn't. Zack opened 9.2 but there were Ood already on the other side. We couldn't go back but we couldn't go forward. It seemed like we had hit a dead end. I looked up to find a grate like the one we went through to get into the tunnels. Pushing it open I pulled myself through and Danny and Toby followed after me. Danny led the way towards Ood habitation with Toby and me following at a run. We made it to Ood habitation and realised that some Ood were still there. They started walking up the stairs towards us as Danny fumbled to transmit the virus. Danny slammed a button home and the Ood started shaking then collapsed to the floor.
"We did it!" I hugged Danny and Toby. It was the best feeling in the world. I grabbed the comm and contacted Zack.
"Zack we did it. The Ood are down! Now we've got to get the Doctor."
"On my way."
Doctor's POV
Hanging from a wire 10 miles down in a pit with possibly no end wasn't the best experience in the world but I wouldn't let Ida pull me back up. There was no point to that, we would just sit there and run out of air. I had to go down no matter what she thought. I could survive a 30 feet drop and even if it was more than 30 feet I was glad to know that Rose would be taken care of. I started unclipping my harness.
"Thank you Ida."
"Don't go!"
"If they get back in touch… if you talk to Rose, just tell her… tell her… oh she knows." It was heart breaking to know that I might never talk to Rose again or ever see her face but this was the way things were. I let the last clip go and fell into the darkness.
Everything was alright now. I had gone down into the 'pit' with Ida and gone further than I thought I would. I defeated the 'devil' or whatever he was and now I was inside the TARDIS. It was scary being down there all on my own but I guess I should be used to that by now. What scared me the most was that my idea of reality and the universe was challenged by the fact that the 'devil' was a true physical form. Everything changed for me, I didn't know what to believe and that is what scared me the most.
I had time for one trip to save Ida because I wasn't about to let her die on her own when she had no choice. I needed to find Rose and then we could leave this planet forever. I contacted the rocket.
"Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS. First things first have you got a Rose Tyler on board?" No one spoke for a moment. I thought that was odd seeing as Rose would've yelled to me that she was there. "Have you got her Zack?"
"I'm sorry Doctor. We couldn't bring her with us. She stayed on the planet and now the planet is falling into the Black Hole. There was nothing we could do. I'm sorry." My heart sank. She had stayed behind on the planet and there was nothing I could do. Anger started building up in me.
ROSE!
Rose's POV
It's scary to think what has happened since the Doctor and I stepped out onto Sanctuary Base 6. I battled the Ood while the Doctor fought the Devil while remaining in orbit around a Black hole. But it wasn't over yet. The rocket was leaving and I wasn't on it. I had stayed behind because I wasn't leaving the Doctor even if he was dead. Zack had tried to drug me but it wouldn't work. I guess the new Timelord blood system was too powerful for normal human drugs. I wouldn't go with them and they were forced to leave me. Now I was falling with the planet into the black hole and there was nothing the Doctor could do. I thought about everything that had happened to me. All the places I'd been, all the things I'd seen. There was so much more to see but I would never get there. I had only been a Timelady for a short amount of time but it was the best time in the world. I wouldn't have missed it. As I'm falling I think about Mum. How she will never know how much I love her. I miss her when I leave but I have to go. There is nothing left for me on earth anymore. My life was with the Doctor.
ROSE!
I sat up a little, only a little. The Doctor was still only inside my head.
Doctor, I'm here.
Where are you Rose? Why aren't you on the rocket?
I wouldn't leave you Doctor and the drug wouldn't work. I guess that comes with being a Timelord now not a plain human. But I'm falling Doctor, the planet is falling into the black hole and I'm sorry there is nothing I can do. I felt anger in the Doctor's mind.
WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHY! I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE I COULD HAVE THIS ONE HAPPINESS IN MY LIFE BUT YOU STOLE THAT AWAY DIDN'T YOU ROSE. I'M IN THE TARDIS SAFE AND SOUND BUT MY LIFE IS FALLING WITH YOU INTO THE BLOODY BLACK HOLE!
Don't swear Doctor. I wouldn't let the Doctor do this to himself. Please don't do this Doctor. Stop yelling please.
WHY Rose! Give me one good reason why I should stop yelling! Because there is nothing I can do to save you Rose.
I left tears flowing down my cheeks. Because you're breaking my hearts.
Doctor's POV
Because you're breaking my hearts. Rose's voice was soft but I could still hear her as if she was in the room with me. I didn't know what to say. She was right; there was no reason for me to be shouting at her like that. I fell back against the pillar in the TARDIS and slid to the floor. All my thoughts were focused on Rose.
I should've done something else. I should've been able to stop the planet falling. I shook my head at Rose's stupidity. No, no, don't do that to yourself Rose. You know there was nothing you could do. I'm sorry I shouldn't have yelled at you, its just I don't know what I'm going to do without you. I honestly had no clue what I was going to do.
Tell my mum please. Tell her I love her. I love you too Doctor. Forever. Her voice was fading. She was moving out of our range.
Rose Tyler…"I love you." She was gone. I would never be able to reach her again. She was gone for good. My life wasn't worth living anymore now that she was gone but I had to get Ida back to Zack. I stood up and made my way to the lab where I had placed Ida on the oxygen machine.
So... what did you think? Please review.
xoxox