It was suddenly quiet, and very dark, in the cave. As her eyes slowly adjusted to what little light penetrated, she saw the passage she had walked along the first time, which led deeper into the mountain. She shivered as she remembered her nine year old self, almost skipping down there, in the hope of helping whoever needed it. She didn't dare touch the stones around her to see the old memory. She had revisited this place plenty of times in her nightmares.

A wave of crippling pain rushed through her and she fell to her knees again. Her back couldn't support her and so she fell full length on the ground, trembling, on her front. Ragged breaths were torn from her throat as she fought to keep her mind her own. Now that she was alone, she also wasn't afraid to let out a small groan of pain.

"What do you hope to achieve with this, girl?" It whispered in her mind. Andy tried to fight it, she would not lose herself now, "You've locked out your only source of help. You'd only to touch him and I would have left you. You wouldn't have to die."

"You really think I believe you?" Andy spat, not afraid to seemingly talk to herself either. Technically there were two of them in the cave, "You would have probably killed me and then him too." A sly chuckle in her head followed her pants of agony,

"So little belief in your fellow man. He is a Time Lord after all. Has lived for centuries, will probably live for more. I would have all the time in the world to bring him round to my side,"

"He would have resisted you," Andy's voice became rougher as the pain intensified.

"He would have lost. As you will," the voice grew stronger, and Andy felt her feet leave her control. She scrambled desperately in her mind to bring them back, but it took advantage of her panic and took her legs up to the knee,

"No! I won't lose. I've kept you at bay for nine years, you think I'm going to lose now!" Her voice was tight, and her misgivings made the doubt palpable.

"You don't really believe that, do you, child?" suddenly she couldn't feel her legs. They were no longer hers. Yet her legs rose her up and walked to the left of the rocky passage. Stalactites dripped water into a hollow in the rock, forming a small pool. Andy's legs settled her down there, and in the pool of water, in the dim light, she saw her irises, green for now, but with a ring of black around the outside, "Do you truly believe that I could have been held back by a little girl? Because that's what you were, if you recall. A stupid little girl, who wandered from the path."

"I thought you needed help. You called out, told me to help you." Andy gritted her teeth and tried to bring her legs under her own control, but it was like the curtain was back, now blocking off her legs.

"Why would someone who needed help hide at the back of a cave? Surely they would have been at the entrance. You were so easy to entice. You wanted to be noticed. To be helpful. To be loved."

"Why is that a bad thing?" Andy ground out in frustration. She could feel it slowly making its way slowly up her torso, paralysing her, and tried to fight her fear.

"It makes you weak. To be loved, you have to please, and to please you must roll over like a dog and do what anybody wants you to. No questions asked. And you did that so well, didn't you? When the rocks fell the first time you ran out and lifted them without a second thought. Didn't even notice the strain. Then you turned around, expecting to be thanked, lauded, worshipped and everybody was staring at you in fear. And after that they took you for granted, didn't they? Always there, always willing, never asking for anything more. What a good little dog you were."

"I was nine years old," Andy said. The pain was so strong she could barely think, she just wanted it to be over. The paralysing force swept up her arms, taking them with barely a skirmish.

"Weak!" it barked at her, "They saw it from the start and they made use of it. Matros didn't lift a finger, did he? He was happy to see you go. One less mouth to feed." Matros. Dirty old Matros. Never cared. But hadn't he been outside, just a minute ago? The numbness had now reached her neck, "And then finally, nine years of loneliness, of misery, of cold. Of nobody caring. Of nobody wanting you around. No boys wanting to kiss you. No girls wanting to plait your hair. No Matros to look proudly at you. Nobody cared but me. Nobody wanted you, but me. I have been through it all with you. I have seen every hurt, every curse laid upon you. And I can help you." Something was wrong. Andy knew something was wrong. What it said was right, but…hadn't the Doctor said that this was what it did. Used people's weaknesses against them. But she couldn't feel the pain anymore. She was numb almost everywhere. But the pain had been…real. This numbness wasn't real. She couldn't move. Suddenly she wanted to move. She wanted to walk, run, jump. Who cared, she just wanted to move. But it was stopping her. She reached down to stop the numbness, but it snapped back at her, bringing the full force of the pain back. It made Andy cry out.

"Do you want this? Do you? Because I can give it back if you like? Your entire body, on fire, hot knives stuck in you, red hot pokers, everywhere. Do you want that? The pain?"

"I want to feel," she said.

"To feel is to be weak. To want is to be weak. Are you really that weak? I let myself believe you were stronger. Was I wrong?" Was she weak? Was she really? She could remember feeling, the pain of it, and the warmth. Those days when Matros gave her a rare smile, the sun had seemed to shine brighter. The quiet pride she took in her work, only to be humbled when it all came crashing back down a few days later. The beauty she saw in the woods, the earth itself. The brilliant thrill of the power, the thrumming of the heartbeat of the planet itself in her veins. Was all of that weak? Suddenly she could move her neck. She turned towards the pool. Her irises were nearly pitch black. There was a tiny ring of green in the middle.

"Wrong."

"What?" It sounded a little uncertain.

"My eyes are green," she said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Her head suddenly hurt like lightning had just struck it, "NO!" she shouted.

"Weak. Pathetic. Worthless. You are nothing, you know. No wonder nobody ever wanted you. You can't do anything properly. Can't even keep a mountain together. What makes you think you're special in anyway at all? You are nothing. You're not even pretty. Why would any boy want you? Why would anyone want to be your friend? You're little above an animal. No wonder Matros never looked at you like a daughter. You are nothing. You will not defeat me! I am thousands of years old! I saw the first light of suns and I will live to see them die! You are worthless, you will die like the dog you are. Alone and pathetic. You are nothing!"

"YES!" There was a beat of silence. Then inside her head,

"What?"

"Yes, I am nothing." Something in Andy's heart broke as she admitted that, but it didn't matter, "I have nothing, I am nothing. But I…" she winced as a sharp pain lanced through her, "Am so much more than that. I understand things you can't," another jolt of pain, another moan to go with it, but she could move her shoulders, "I've seen things even you won't," the pain rose with every centimetre she fought back, but her right arm was free, "And I don't need Matros or anyone to be proud of me. I know, I know I'm enough, for me," Even as the pain increased, her voice never wavered. Her stomach muscles rose and fell with every breath, "Because the Doctor was right," pain beyond pain followed these words but she clamped it down, flooded it all into her left arm, the arm that bore the scar, that had let it in in the first place, as her legs finally responded to her commands, "You are just an idea that ended up in my head. Well, it's my head. And it's my body. And it's my soul. And I'd like it back now. So get the hell out of me," she snarled, pushing with every force of her will, pushing through the pain, at the parasite that had infected her long enough. The pain was excruciating and she couldn't hold it in anymore. She screamed and thrashed and writhed but when she looked down at her left arm, black smoke seemed to be coming out of a spot near her forearm. She watched in horrified fascination, as the air around her grew blacker. She felt it leave. Suddenly there was an emptiness where there had always been something. But it was a good emptiness and she relaxed.

But then a sharp tug came from her arm. Another wave of pain flowed through her, worse than anything she had ever experienced before. The cave around her began to shake, like there was an earthquake. Dust of ages began to fall from the ceiling. Through slitted eyes, Andy squinted down at her arm. What looked like gold tendrils, apparently attached to the black smoke, were slowly flowing up from her arm. She felt herself begin to fade. A part of the black smoke came close to her,

"You will never be rid of me. You will come with me, and you will know the misery of this life"

Some part of Andy realised that it was her life force that was attached to the black smoke. It was pulling out her soul. She tried desperately to pull it back to her but her vision was failing. She was very warm though. It felt like her body was sinking into a nice warm bath. The cave was being filled with some sort of green light. Her hearing was perfectly fine and the rumbling in the cave was getting worse. A loud crack came from above. Andy's eyes opened. Almost in slow motion, a stalactite was falling towards her face. Before her eyes closed, Andy remembered seeing her right arm raise up, in an attempt to stop it.