The two made their way to the canteen, where a few of the others were sitting, looking down once they had entered the room. The Doctor wordlessly sat down as Rose went to get something to eat, coming back with a tray filled with something that the Doctor would rather not touch. Ida went towards the controls on the wall to close the roof, the Doctor stopping her. "Could you leave it open?" he asked. "Just for a bit? I wont go mad, I promise."

"How would you know?" Ida asked. The Doctor gave her a 'trust me' smile as she shrugged her shoulders. "Scooti, check the lockdown, Jefferson, check the airlocks for me" she ordered, the two in question leaving the room. Soon, Ida had left as well, leaving the Doctor and Rose more or less alone again, beside the Ood. "I've seen films and things, yeah, they say black holes are like gateways to another universe," Rose said once she pushed her empty tray away.

"Not that one," the Doctor denied. "It just eats."

"Long way from home..." Rose mumbled, thinking about her mother. She promised herself she would never do that again, leave for two long. Last time, she was gone for a year, not that it was her fault. Now she was gone for good. The Doctor glanced at her. He raised his arm, pointing towards the black space. "Go that way, turn right, keep going for um... about five hundred years... then you'll reach the Earth," he told her, lowering his arm as she gave a small smile. She reached into her pink pocket, pulling out her phone. "No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range," she said in wonder. "Mind you, even if I could... what would I tell her? Can you build another TARDIS?" she laughed slightly, knowing that was next to no way near possible.

The Doctor smiled, shaking his head. "They were grown, not built," he explained. "And with my own planet gone... we're kind of stuck."

"Don't suppose you could call out, could you?" Rose asked. "To Eliza, I mean. You two were... mind talking and stuff, right?"

The Doctor immediately shook his head, feeling no want of Eliza's help what so ever. She was nothing but a manipulator, a liar. She wouldn't help, anyway. Besides, he couldn't feel her anyway, so that didn't really matter. "Well, it could be worse," Rose said, trying to keep a light tone in her voice. "This lot said they'd give us a lift."

"And then what?"

"I dunno," Rose shrugged. "Find a planet... get a job... live a life, same as the rest of the universe," she took a drink of her coffee.

The Doctor scoffed, Rose laughing. Her doing all that sort of stuff was fine, but him? It was nearly unthinkable. "I'd have to settle down," he said, a look of terror etched across his face. "In a house or something, a proper house with... with... doors and things. Carpets! Me! Living in a house!" he shook his head as Rose laughed at his fear of domestics. "Now that... that is terrifying."

"You'd have to get a mortgage," Rose teased in sing-song.

The Doctor stared at her for a long moment, dumbstruck. "...No," he stated as Rose continued to laugh. "I am dying. That's it. I am dying, it is all over," he hung his head lowly, rubbing his eyes with his right hand.

"What about me? I'd have to get one, too," Rose laughed again. "I dunno, we could share... or not. Save money, I guess..." she trailed off, catching the Doctor's eye.

"Would make it easier," the Doctor said, smiling gently at her proposal. "I'd rather be stuck on some planet with you rather than without you."

"We'll see," Rose said, giving him a tongue in the teeth smile, leaning her tired head on his shoulder. The two sat in silence for a few moments, the Doctor breaking it with a sigh. "I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home," he told her.

"Everyone leaves home in the end."

"Not to end up stuck here," he kissed her forehead in apology.

"Yeah, but stuck with you," Rose mused as she wrapped her arms around his middle. "That's not so bad."

The Doctor looked down at her to see her eyes closed. "Yeah?" he asked the pink and yellow human. Rose nodded her head in reply, holding him tighter. She let go a few seconds later, her phone giving off her ringtone. She frowned as she picked it up and looked at the 'No number' pooping up on her screen. That's weird... she thought as she looked to her signal bar, which were all grey, telling her she still didn't have any signal. She pressed the small green button on her mobile, holding it to her ear.

"He is awake," said a low, deep voice. Shocked, Rose flung the phone across the floor.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, eyeing her and the phone. Rose continued to stare at the phone, panic bubbling up in her stomach as she shook her head.

The Doctor and Rose ran down a small flight of stairs towards the Ood Habitation, noticing Danny in front of a large computer type machine, below him were dozens of motionless Ood, sitting in rows. "Evening!" the Doctor greeted as he jumped the last few stairs.

"Ah, the mysterious couple," Danny replied, looking at the screen. "How are you, then? Settling in?"

Ignoring his question, the Doctor brushed him aside. "Yeah, sorry, straight to business, the Ood. How do they communicate?" the Doctor asked. "I mean, with each other."

"Oh, just empaths," Danny said dismissively. "There's a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does them much good. They're basically a herd race. Like cattle.

"This telepathic field - can it pick up messages?" the Doctor asked again.

Danny looked at him in a confused manor, Rose piping up, "'Cos I was having dinner, and one of the Ood said something... well, odd."

"Oh. An odd Ood," Danny joked.

"And then I got something else on my er," she glanced up at the Doctor, wondering if any of tem had phones or even knew if phones still existed. "Communicator thing."

"Oh, be fair. We've got whole star systems burning up around us. There's all sorts of stray transmissions. Probably nothing," Danny told her, the Doctor and Rose looked at each other, far from convinced. "Look... if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field. It's the only way to look after them. They're so stupid, they don't even tell us when they're ill."

"Monitor the field - that's this thing?" the Doctor asked, gesturing the computer in front of Danny, the monitor screen saying 'Basic 5'.

"Yeah. But like I said, it's low level telepathy. They only register Basic 5," Danny said, not noticing the change in Basic, which had risen from Basic 5 to 6. "That's not Basic 5," the Doctor told him, the number continuing to rise. After a few moments, the Doctor added, "They've gone up to Basic 30."

"Doctor, the Ood," Rose told him quietly, looking down at the pen. All of them stood up, turning toward the three on the balcony. "What does Basic 30 mean?" she asked Danny, who was baffled. "Well, it means that they're shouting, screaming inside their heads."

"Or something's shouting at them..." the Doctor muttered quietly. Danny turned on his heel, battering his fingers against the keyboard. "But where's it coming from? What is it saying? I mean-" he snapped his head up at Rose, his eyebrows practically knitted together. "What did it say to you?"

"Something about the beast in the pit," Rose told him.

"What about your communicator?" Danny continued his questions. "What did that say?"

"He is awake," Rose replied after a pause.

There was another long silence, an eerie one. "And you will worship him," said the Ood together.

"Worship who?" the Doctor asked them, the Ood giving no reply. "Who's talking to you? Who is it?" he asked again. The base shook, more violently that before. The Doctor and Rose jog down the stairs and into the pen, inspecting the Ood. Danny was still on the balcony as the base shook again, the three of tem struggling to keep their balance.

"Emergency hull breach," the computer said. "Emergency hull breach."

"Which section?" Danny asked into his wrist watch, his voice cracking slightly.

The Doctor, Rose and Danny all run back to the canteen area, running through a door that led to a corridor, the three quickly meeting up with Jefferson, Toby and Ida. "That wasn't a quake,2 the Doctor told the three, who nodded once the trembling stopped. "What was it?" he asked as Rose bent down to Toby, who was panting and sweating on the floor.

Zach voice came over Jefferson's wrist watch, surprisingly calm. "We've lost sections 11 to 13," he announced to the party."Everyone all right?"

"We've got everyone here except Scooti," Jefferson replied, looking around for the wiry headed woman."Scooti, report.," Jefferson spoke into his watch. There was no reply, Jefferson continuing, "Scooti Manista? That's an order. Report." There was a blank beep, Zach's voice coming again. "She's all right.I picked up her bio chip, she's in Habitation 3. Better go and check if she's not responding, she might be unconscious," Zach gave a small laugh. "How about that, eh? We survived."

Nodding, Jefferson repeated, "Habitation 3... come on, I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on." Jefferson wandered down the corridor, the Doctor, Rose and Toby staying where they were. "What happened?" the Doctor asked as he noticed Toby was panicking.

"I don't- I dunno, I- I was working and then I can't remember," Toby explained breathlessly, flustered. "All- all that noise, the room was falling apart, there was no air..." he took a breath. Rose took hold of his arm, helping the young man to his feet. "Come on. Up you get," Rose said as Toby rose from the floor. "Come and have some Protein One," she encouraged as she linked her arm with Toby's as they walked down the corridor.

"Oh, you've gone native," the Doctor claimed, keeping a close, sharp eye on Toby.

"Oi, don't knock it," Rose chastised. "It's nice. Protein One with just adash of Three," she clicked her fingers. The two laughed as her expert knowledge of the limited food the base had to offer, Toby deep in his own thoughts as they walked along.

Have you seen Scooti?" Jefferson asked as they walked in.

"No, no, no, I don't think so," Toby stuttered as Rose escorted him to a seat.

"Nowhere here," Jefferson sighed irritably. "Zach? We've got a problem," he called into his wrist watch. "Scooti's still missing."

"It says Habitation 3," Zach insisted.

"Yeah, well that's where I am, and I'm telling you she's NOT HERE," Jefferson told him sternly. Out of the top corner of his eye, the Doctor saw something souring outside the base. Turning up towards it, the Doctor muttered, "I've found her..."

The remaining five looked up and out of the roof, Rose's hand flying to her mouth. "Oh, my God..." she muttered, a pool of sick threatening to force its way up her throat. Just above their heads, Scooti was floating through the dead space, her face motionless as she soared through the emptiness, towards the black hole, which was slowly pulling her in to feast. "I'm sorry," the Doctor told her quietly. "I'm so sorry." The six of them looked up towards her, staring, horrified. Finally, Jefferson spoke, regrettably, quietly into his wrist watch. "Captain... report Officer Scootori Manista PKD... deceased. 43K2.1."

"She was twenty..." Ida spoke shakily. "Twenty years old." Unable to take the sight of her lifeless body, she walked to the controls on the wall, closing the roof quickly as Scooti's body drifting closer and closer to the black hole as they shut. "For how should Man die better than facing fearful odds?" Jefferson said. "For the ashes of his father... and the temples of his Gods..." Jefferson's voice broke down to a whisper as he ended his small speech, the roof closing completely, leaving the room a lot more darker and gloomier than before.

The Doctor turned to the rest of the party, but looked straight passed them. The Doctor frowned as he noticed the small girl behind the other five. This was no place for children to be, the Doctor thought. The young girl was... what? Three? She looked like a toddler at least. She was garbed in a simple red t-shirt and blue trousers, her short hair reaching her shoulder. He was about to ask about her, but then noticed something. His mind, it was no longer empty. It wasn't full either, but the ache for presence of his people was no longer as painful. It was a very similar feeling as when his old nuisance was around. The small girl looked up at him, her big brown eyes searching his. Her sad expression was swapped with a somewhat happier one as she gave him a tiny wave and a smile. He gave a small nudge to her mind, a test, and she replied with a bigger smile and a nudge in return.

The Doctor turned around to see if anyone else was looking at her, to notice no one was, they were all still looking up at the roof. He turned back to see a blue flash. When it ceased, the girl was no longer there, and neither was the presence.

That flash... the Doctor thought, recognising the colour. It was exactly the same colour he'd seen the first night he was in his body, when Eliza had first left them. He'd seen it in Scotland, when he was sitting on the bed Eliza had briefly rested on. He'd seen it at New Earth, when Eliza left abruptly. This young girl must have known her, or at least came from where Eliza came from. He looked around again to see that no one had taking their eyes off the roof. The flash had spread through the whole room, they must have noticed. The Doctor remembered what Danny had said about he and Rose the first time they met him. Hallucanations.

Through his strange encounter, or hallucination, the Doctor didn't realise the eerie silence that spread through the base. It was deathly silent, which he hadn't heard since he came to the base. The drilling, it'd ceased.

"It's stopped," Ida whispered. There was a tremble that ran through the base, a crash. "What was that?" Rose asked as she went to stand by the Doctor. "What was it?"

"The drill," the Doctor replied.

"We've stopped drilling," Ida nodded happily. "We've made it. Point Zero." The four now happy crew members rushed towards the Exploration Deck, the Doctor and Rose slowly following them. If they'd hit the bottom, it meant there was still a chance of getting the TARDIS back. His curiosity was also going wild. He'd bet any money he had that whatever had talked to Rose and what had interfered with the Ood was down there, and he was desperate to have a little chat with it. The decision was made, he thought as he grasped Rose's smooth hand in his own rough one. He was going down to the pit.

The Doctor walked down a flight of metal stairs, garbed in a bright orange space suit with a helmet lodged securly under his arm. Zach looked over to him, a hint of disbelief on his face. "Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force," the Doctor greeted.

"Doctor, this is breaking every single protocol," Zach explained sternly. "We don't even know who you are."

The Doctor smiled at him teasingly. "Yeah, but you trust me, don't you?" he asked. "And you can't let Ida go down there on her own. Go on... look me in the eye... yes you do, I can see it. Trust." Zach sighed, looking around at Ida, then back up to the Doctor, who was looking at his expectantly. "I should be going down," Zach told the Doctor.

"The Captain doesn't lead the mission," the Doctor replied reasonably. "He stays here. In charge."

"Not much good at it, am I?" Zach asked bitterly. The Doctor didn't answer him, only looked at him, nearly pleadingly. Zach shook his head and sighed, then turned to talk to Ida. "Positions! We're going down in two. Everyone, positions!"

The Doctor smiled at the man, his smile fading when he noticed Rose walking towards him. He brought his wrist watch up to check it as Rose stopped in front of him. "Oxygen... nitro-balance... gravity. It's ages since I wore one of these!" he said giddily. Rose gave him an even stare, looking up and down the suit. Taking a breath, she snacked her arms around him, latching her lips onto his as he wrapped his free arm around her waist. Pulling away, the Doctor pulled her into a hug, kissing her on the forehead as she snuggled into his shoulder. "I want that spacesuit back in one piece, you got that?" Rose told him as they broke apart.

"Yes, sir," the Doctor said, taking his helmet from under his arm. "And don't worry, okay? I'm coming back for you," he told her reassuringly as he brought the helmet up and fastened it around his head, attaching it to the suit.

"It's funny, 'cos people back home think that space travel's gonna be all whizzing about and teleports and anti-gravity... but it's not, is it?" Rose asked, her voice breaking slightly. "It's tough."

The Doctor gave her a nod and squeezed her hand tightly. "I'll see you later," he told her confidently.

Rose gave as much as a tongue in the teeth smile as she could, replying, "Not if I see you first." She laughed, pulling his helmet down to place a kiss on it for good luck.

Smiling, the Doctor walked into the capsule that would be sending him and Ida down to the pit, Ida following not too long after. Zach's voice soon boomed over the tannoy. "8... 7... 6...5... 4... 3... 2...1... release." The capsule gave a shudder, Jefferson giving them both a salute as Rose waved, the Doctor returning it. The capsule began to descend into the pit, the Doctor and Ida standing together in silence as they watched each other uncertainly. "Gone beyond the oxygen field. You're on your own," came Zach's voice through their watches. Nodding, both the Doctor and Ida switch on their oxygen tanks.

"Don't forget to breath," said Rose over the comm. "Breathing's good."

"Rose, stay off the comm," Zach ordered.

"Fat chance," Rose replied stubbornly, making the Doctor chuckle. He'd never actually told her before, but he was immensely proud of his pink and yellow human. Too proud. She stood up to people that could easily harm her, never backing down to what she thought was right. She gave everyone a second change and she was kind to nearly everyone they met and he... he loved her all the more for it. Taking a breath, he cleared his throat, making a promise to tell her how he really felt when he got back.

The capsule shook violently, the Doctor and Ida thrown off their feet, clutching at the railings around the capsule to regain their balance and steady themselves. Soon, the rumbling had stopped, finishing with a great tremble, indicating they had reached the end of their ride. The Doctor opened the door, taking a few steps out, jumping at Ida's surprised gasp at Zach's urgent, "Doctor?"

"It's all right," he assured. "We've made it... coming out of the capsule now," he told them, hearing Rose give a sigh of relief. The Doctor lifted his hand, switching on his headlight, a small amount of the cave they were in lighting up. "What's it like down there?" Rose asked.

"It's hard to tell," the Doctor replied. "Some sort of... cave... cavern... it's massive."

"Well, this should help," Ida took something out of her pocket, a small white orb. "Gravity globe," she told him. She threw the orb into the air, the white glow spreading through the cave as the entire cavern lit up, revealing designs on the walls, ceiling and floor, ancient architecture. On one of the walls, there was a huge face just etched into the rock. Ida looked around the cave in awe, memorising as many patterns and designs as she could. "That's... that's... my God, that's beautiful," she whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

"Rose... you can tell Toby... we've found his civilisation," the Doctor said over the comm as he looked over the walls.

"Concentrate now, people," Zack said. "Keep on the mission. Ida... what about the power source?"

Ida took something from her leg strap, looking down at the rectangular object in her hand. "We're close. Energy signature indicates north, north west," she reported. "Are you getting pictures up there?

"There's too much interference," Zach said. "We're in your hands."

"Well... we've come this far," Ida said to the Doctor. "There's no turning back."

"Oh, did you have to?" the Doctor said in a pleading tone as Rose laughed. "No turning back? That's almost as bad as "nothing can possible go wrong" or "this is is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had" -" Surprised at her sudden sharp turn, Ida asked, "Are you finished?" The Doctor stared at her for a few moments, replying, "Yeah! Finished." He took his place in front of her, continuing to look at the architecture as she watched him in amusement.

There was a long silence from the base as the two continued their investigation of the underground cavern, then the sound of some sort of struggle arose, causing the Doctor to ask, "Everything all right up there?"

"Yeah, yeah," Rose replied quickly, nearly breathlessly. The Doctor frowned.

"It's fine," Zach said assuring.

Nodding, the Doctor and Ida made their way to a round cave, a enormous circular trapdoor slowly coming into focus in front of them, engravings patterned around the outside of it. "We've found something," the Doctor called. "It looks like metal. Like some sort of seal. I've got a nasty feeling the word might be 'trapdoor'. Not a good word, 'trapdoor'. Never met a trapdoor I liked," he trailed off.

"The edge is covered with those symbols," Ida examined, walking around the edge slowly the look at each individual symbol.

"Do you think it opens?" Zach asked.

"That's what trapdoors tend to do," the Doctor replied sarcastically.

"'Trapdoor' doesn't do it justice. It's massive, Zach. About thirty feet in diameter," she told him.

"Any way of opening it?" Zach asked again.

"I don't know," Ida admitted. "I can't see any sort of mechanism, she finished, looking around the trapdoor again.

"I suppose that's the writing," the Doctor said in wonder. "That'll tell us what to do. The letters that defy translation."

"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?" Zach asked. There was a long silence, a deep, demanding voice taking the place of Zach's over the comm. "These are the words of the Beast, and he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness, he is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise."

The Doctor's panic began to grow again. "What is it? What's he done? What's happening? Rose? What's going on?" he asked with urgency, but received no reply. There was a deathly long silence after that, broken by the voices of the Ood. "We are the Legion of the Beast," they all said in union.

"Rose? What is it? Rose?" he called urgently, again receiving not reply. He turned to Ida, who looked at him worriedly. "I'm going back up," he told her before running back toward the capsule. "It's the Ood," Rose exclaimed into the comm. "Doctor, I don't know what it is - it's- it's like they're possessed."

"He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time," said the Ood again. "Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan...or Lucifer...or the Bringer of Despair...The Deathless Prince. The Bringer of Night.These are the words that shall set him free. My Legions shall swarm across the worlds..."

As the Doctor walked back towards the capsule, Ida voice came back to him over the comm as the ground began to shake violently. "Doctor! It's opening!" she called. The Doctor quickly made his way back to her as rocks started to shower upon them, the Doctor took Ida by the arm, making sure that Ida didn't fall into the opening trapdoor. Ida gave a small whimper, terrified. Smoke soon began to rise from the pit, the ground still jerking.

"The Pit is open. And I am free," the voice said in finality, giving a horrible, skin crawling laugh as the Doctor and Ida stared down into the pit, the trembling ceasing finally as the two looked at each other fearfully.