CHAPTER 35

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THE ORIGIN OF THE COMING DARKNESS

As soon as Solon heard the knock on his door, he knew instantly that it was the Doctor. No one else ever paid him a visit after all. They knew better.

As soon as Solon opened the door, he immediately saw an old man that he was certain could be no one else but the Doctor despite how different that he looked from the last time that he had seen him. His eyes gave him away after all. The look in those eyes never did change it seemed. They still held that same inner fire as they always had.

Next to him stood a young blonde woman with far kinder eyes who wore a magnificent pink dress and bonnet in the style of the era that instantly stood out and would have marked her as Rose Tyler even if he hadn't already guessed who she was.

"Hello, my name is Lady Christina de Souza and this is my husband Lord Peter de Souza. It's very nice to meet you," Rose Tyler said in her most posh sounding accent that was heavily based on her original one as Arkytior.

Even while she ignored Clara's snickering in the background, Rose had to consciously keep herself from wincing even as she spoke. She had always hated to sound this pompous and stuffy. It just so wasn't her.

It was certainly better than letting the Doctor speak to him however. He would have instantly let on to Solon that he wasn't human as soon as he opened his mouth which was why she had told him to let her do as much of the talking as possible.

"Good afternoon, Lady de Souza. What can I do for you?" Solon asked as he tried his best to act as if he had no idea what they were doing there.

"Well, I heard of your experiments of course and I wanted to come here and see them for myself. I just have to know if you really can bring back the dead. If you can, I'll give you all of the funding that you'll ever need," Rose said with a fake smile.

"And why would you do that, Lady de Souza? Is there someone in particular that you wish to see returned from the Great Beyond?" Solon asked curiously as he wondered just how far that Rose would take this little act of hers.

Rose now put on a performance worthy of an actress as she said in an emotional voice, "It's my father. He died when I was still a baby and I'd really like to see him again."

She was so convincing in fact that the Doctor instantly put a comforting arm around her. He knew that she was drawing on her very real feelings of loss at that moment in order to fool Solon.

Solon noticed the genuineness of her emotions for himself and couldn't help but marvel at them. He had never seen any Time Lord act so human before and it greatly surprised him. He was beginning to share Erebus' interest in her now and found himself instantly becoming intrigued and wanting to know more about her.

"I can't promise that I can bring back someone who's been gone that long, Lady de Souza, but I will certainly do my very best. Come in. Let me show you some of my equipment. I'm afraid that I don't have any of my usual specimens handy or I would allow you to see the results of my experiments for yourself," Solon said as he invited the two Time Lords inside.

The truth was that he had plenty of specimens but not any that he wanted to show her. He didn't want to give her any clue about what he was really working on after all until it was far too late for her to do anything about it.

"Then how will I know if you can really do what you say you can or not without any proof?" Rose asked in a disappointed voice as she kept up her cover story.

"Oh, I will give you your proof before this day is done, Lady de Souza. Have no doubts about that," Solon said as he gestured for her to enter once more.

"Very well then but I will have you know that I am most certainly not amused by this," Rose said as she fought back the urge to laugh at the image of Queen Victoria that was currently stuck in her head at that moment.

"I'm afraid I'll have to beg your pardon, Sir. It's not you really. Her Ladyship is never amused by anything you see," Clara then said to Solon in her own best imitation of Rose's Cockney accent as she immediately swept into the room.

"And you are?" Solon asked even though he was almost certain from her appearance that this was Clara Oswald, the Daughter of the Wolf.

"Why, I'm Lady de Souza's nanny, Sir. My name's Jenna Tyler by the way. It's very nice to meet you, yeah?" Clara said as she tried very hard not to burst out laughing at the furious look on Rose's face at that moment.

I'm so gonna kill you. Rose's voice said telepathically in Clara's mind.

"And why would you bring your nanny with you to something like this, Lady de Souza?" Solon asked as he eagerly waited to hear what Rose's answer would be.

"I know that it isn't usually done to bring the servants along on such an important occasion, but mine are very special to me. You might say that they're just like part of the family," Rose said thinking on her feet.

"Oh, aye. I'm just like her little brother," Jamie said as he barged in now wearing a manservant's outfit of the period.

"Yes, and he's just as annoying as one sometimes as well," Victoria said as she entered wearing a dress very much like the ones that she used to wear so long ago.

"She's the wife. Don't pay her any mind though. She just loves to kid me that way. She really completely adores me of course. She just hides it very well," Jamie said with a grin.

"Maybe just a little too well at times, yeah?" Clara said with her exaggerated accent.

"That's enough, Jenna. Still not amused right now you know?" Rose said with a frown.

"So sorry, Miss. You won't give me the back of your hand again, will you? Please say that you won't. It hurts ever so much," Clara said with a barely concealed grin.

"I'm definitely about to give you something in a minute," Rose said in a threatening tone.

"I'm afraid that you'll just have to ignore my governess, Sir. I usually do," The Doctor said with a sigh.

"Yes," Solon said not quite sure how to react to their bantering.

"Dr. Solon, could you please show my friends here your equipment? I'm most anxious for them to see it so that they'll know you for what you truly are at last. They're still not sure if you're the real thing or not after all, but I most assuredly do believe in you. That's why I told them about you because I knew if anyone could help them with their problem that you could," Mary Shelley said as she came inside last to play out her part in Rose's plan.

Solon looked at her with a smile of satisfaction as he said, "Oh, I think that you will all become believers in what I can do before this day is through. I can practically guarantee it."

Mary shivered in fear at that moment because she already believed him and had absolutely no desire to find out anything else about his secret activities.

That was when Solon led them all down a long corridor that finally ended in a heavy steel door with numerous padlocks on it. He quickly and eagerly undid the locks and allowed them inside his laboratory as he began to carry out his plan for them.

He gestured towards a large table in the center of the room with numerous wires leading to it that trailed off behind a partially closed door as he said, "This is where I place the dead as I prepare them for the reinvigoration process. It's not quite what you described in your novel though I'm afraid, Mrs. Shelley. Mine is far more sophisticated if you'll pardon my bluntness."

"You know me then?" Mary asked with a sudden feeling of dread as she began to wonder if this evil man was already on to all of them.

"Oh, yes. You're one of the most famous women of our age. Of course I know the great Mary Shelley. You might say that all of this was inspired by your own work," Solon said with a malevolent smile.

He had instantly thought of her of course when he had wondered what era to go to in order to entrap the Doctor and Rose. His plans for Rose did involve something that Dr. Frankenstein himself would have no doubt tried after all if he were able.

"I'm . . . most flattered. I had hoped as much. I was so intrigued by your work because it was so very much like my book, and that's exactly why I told my friends to come here and see you," Mary said with barely concealed disgust lurking just beneath her tone.

"Then I am the one who is flattered, Madam. Now you all wanted to see the proof of my experiments did you? I'll show them to you shortly," Solon said eagerly.

"I thought that you said that you didn't have any of your specimens on hand though," Rose pointed out.

"I meant human ones. I still have animals here of course. I'll bring one momentarily," Solon said as he raced off to the room behind the partially closed door.

"I'm not sure I want to see what he comes out with if it's all the same to you," Clara said with a grimace as soon as Solon shut the door.

"Well, you shouldn't have invited yourself in then, yeah? I was originally going to just leave you outside," Rose said in an annoyed tone.

"I can't imagine why," The Doctor said with a scowl.

"Keep it up, Old Man, and Solon will have a brand new test subject for his experiments," Clara threatened.

"Oh, you have no idea just how right that you are, Clara Oswald. Soon he will be one of many new test subjects . . . as will you," Solon's voice said over a hidden speaker.

"He knows, Doctor! I feared as much based on what he said earlier," Mary said in a voice filled with terror.

"Of course I knew, Mrs. Shelley. I planned all of this well ahead of time of course so I knew exactly who you would be bringing into my trap. Just as I knew that the Doctor wouldn't be able to resist walking right into it as soon as he heard that I was still alive. You just couldn't ignore a chance to finally finish me off could you, Doctor?" Solon said in a voice filled with resentment.

"We both know why I tried to kill you, Solon. It was because you were trying to bring back one of history's greatest monsters just as you're doing right now. Some things never change it seems," The Doctor said with a frown.

"How very true, Doctor. Just like before when I'm on the very cusp of finally proving the full extent of my genius to the entire universe at last, you come here to destroy me. You won't succeed this time however, Time Lord, because this time I am in control of everything that has transpired here today. This time you will die and your wife will help me return a being far greater than even Morbius to this reality. The universe will have an all new Golden Age as the Brethren reshape it to their desires and completely eliminate all suffering and sorrow from it," Solon said with the unfettered zeal of an absolute fanatic.

"Yes, and no doubt they'll also eliminate all traces of free will while they're carrying out this little fairy tale of theirs too. There is no Golden Age, Solon, and there never will be. It's just the same old set of lies that all tyrants always tell people so that they can gain unlimited power. They'll promise them the moon as long as they gain what they want. Morbius was exactly the same way. You always fall for the same lie each and every time, Solon. You really do put the stupid in stupid little apes, don't you?" The Doctor said as he looked at him with open disdain.

Solon became furious now as he said, "We'll see who the stupid one is, Doctor. You are the one who walked right into my trap after all and no doubt in your arrogance convinced yourself that you could overcome whatever I came up with to stop you. Now you'll find out exactly just how wrong that you are."

He smiled now as heavy steel walls came down over the entire room and completely blocked both of the ways out of it. Now the experiment had truly begun at last.

"I promised you test subjects, Rose Tyler, and now I've finally kept that promise. I'm sure that you had no idea that you were about to be one of those subjects yourself however. In fact, you should be honored because you're my main subject," Solon said with an evil laugh.

"Not yet I'm not, mate. I didn't just walk in here blindly despite what it seems like. I knew that you'd try something like this and I came fully prepared for it, yeah?" Rose said in a confident voice.

"Don't think that you can escape, Bad Wolf. I made sure to line this entire room with extensive Vortex shielding according to Lord Erebus' carefully laid out guidelines. It was just enough to keep you from accessing your powers but not enough to completely cut you off from the Vortex and kill you. We definitely wanted you alive after all," Solon said with a smile in his voice.

"Yeah, I know. I sensed that as soon as I walked in here. My power wasn't what I was talking about though," Rose said as she began to smile.

"Perhaps you're referring to your adopted daughter Victoria and the power of the Great Intelligence then? Oh, yes. I know about that as well because Erebus knows about it. Through his Brethren, he gave me the means to even block her incredible power by giving me an amulet that would allow me to be completely resistant to all alterations of reality of all kinds. It was based off of a technology created by a Great Old One named Weyland that not only lets me be completely unaffected by all changes in the Web of Time but also protects me and the entire immediate area around me from the power of the Intelligence as well," Solon said smugly.

"It's true. I can't even teleport us out. He's blocking me somehow," Victoria revealed in a troubled voice.

"That's okay, Victoria, because that wasn't what I was talking about either," Rose said without an ounce of confidence leaving her voice.

"Your Guardian powers will be just as ineffective I'm afraid," Solon said in a slightly less confident voice as he began to become unnerved by Rose's seeming lack of concern.

What was she up to? And why did she keep looking off into the distance that way? It was almost as if there was something that only she could see there and that thought unnerved him even more somehow.

The Doctor smiled now as he heard this self-doubt finally creeping into his old enemy's voice at last. He was only just now realizing what a huge mistake that he had made.

All along he had thought that he had been the one placing them into a trap when it had been him that was becoming trapped all along.

"Enough of this! Let the experiment begin now. In moments, my equipment will completely transfer the consciousness of everyone in that room out of their bodies and into the carefully prepared cadavers that I have waiting for them nearby. Then I will replace your mind, Rose Tyler, with that of my master's. I will finally free Erebus from his exile in the Void at long last and give him a new all-powerful body to rule the universe with: yours. With your abilities to completely control all of reality under his command, he will finally have regained his original power at last and become truly unstoppable," Solon said in a panicked tone as he reached for a nearby lever.

Rose and the Doctor now looked at one another in surprise as Rose said, "His original power? Erebus had powers just like mine?"

"It looks like you weren't the only one to receive Vortex abilities after all," The Doctor said in an almost intrigued voice.

Before they could speculate on this any further however, both they and everyone else began to scream in pain as they could feel Solon's machines begin to violently rip their very essence from their bodies. They could already feel their surroundings beginning to change as Solon's machines started to swap their minds into another set of bodies lying somewhere nearby.

"Rose, if you've really got a plan, now's definitely the time to carry it out," Clara said in a voice filled with fear.

Rose was just about to do exactly that when she suddenly found her mind having been brought to another place entirely. In the blink of an eye, she was no longer in the room with the others but was plunged into a place filled with complete darkness instead.

At first she feared that she had waited too long to act and that she had had her mind switched after all. Then she finally realized the real truth about where she was moments later.

She could somehow instinctively feel that she was no longer in her own universe at all anymore. She was somewhere in-between all realities everywhere.

She was in the Void.

She wasn't alone however. She could sense the presence of someone else here. Someone who she could now tell had been anxiously waiting on her to come here.

You're Erebus, yeah? Rose thought as she tried to reach out telepathically to him since she no longer had a mouth to speak with now.

Very good, Arkytior. I knew that you'd figure it out right away. You always were just as clever as the Doctor if not more so after all. A deep voice that she knew must be Erebus' said back to her.

You seem to know a lot about us, don't you? I wish I could say the same about you, yeah? Rose replied as she tried to stall for time by making him talk about himself.

All world beaters just loved to brag about themselves after all when given half a chance to talk. They just couldn't help it.

I suppose it's only fair that you know exactly why you're about to have your entire life ripped away from you, isn't it? So you want to know my story, Rose Tyler? It's very much like yours actually . . . at least at first anyway. As you already may have guessed based on Solon's little slip earlier, you were far from the first person to have complete and absolute control over this entire reality. I was. I was the very first known person to gain the power of the Vortex several millennia ago. It happened to me exactly as it did for you by the way. I too was completely normal until I looked into the Untempered Schism. I was one of the very first to do so in fact because I was one of the very first of the second generation of Time Lords after having been born to Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord society. Erebus replied.

I knew you were Rassilon's son. I found out that much from my Mum when she told me how she had to temporarily team up with Rassilon right in the middle of her attempt to overthrow him in order to save the universe from you. All of this about your having the same powers as me is definitely something new though. I didn't see anything about that and Mum never said a word about it. Rose admitted.

That's probably because she had no idea where I got my power from and controlling the Vortex wasn't even thought of as a possibility for a Time Lord back in that time. Even I had no idea where I gained my abilities from at first. It wasn't until much later that I finally figured that out. I digress however. You wanted to hear my life story after all, didn't you? Erebus explained.

Yeah, if you're feeling in the mood for it. What else do I have to do in here? Rose answered.

Still as flippant and defiant as always, Arkytior? I wonder how quickly it will take that powerful will of yours to falter and fall apart as soon as you realize the truth about what's about to happen to you. I suppose I'm soon about to find out. Now it's time for the rest of my story. Unlike your mother, my father learned about my abilities almost as soon as I had gained them. His response to this was to lock me away in a specially prepared prison from that moment forward. I spent my entire childhood as a 'guest' there. Erebus replied.

Rose couldn't help but feel sorry for him even despite what he was currently doing to her. Something like that happening to her had been one of her own worst fears growing up after all.

That's right, Arkytior. I actually lived out your worst nightmares as my own father sealed me away and sent some of his scientists to experiment on me in an attempt to find a 'cure' for my condition. The official story was that I was too sick to go out in public of course. He didn't want anyone to know the real truth: that he had a freak for a son. That's what he called me once, you know? A freak. Erebus responded in a voice filled with pain.

I'm sorry. No one should ever have to be treated that way especially for something that's not their fault. Rose replied meaning it.

Don't feel pity for me, Arkytior. I finally gained my chance at revenge after all because one day I was suddenly freed. The rebel Time Lords out to overthrow Rassilon burst into my hidden prison by mistake thinking that they had found some hidden weapons cache of his. They found me instead however, and I gladly expressed my gratitude to them by instantly wiping out each and every one of them. I couldn't have them run off to tell Father that I had been freed after all, could I? Erebus responded in a cold voice.

Now I suddenly don't feel quite so sorry for you anymore. Rose replied in a horrified tone.

Nor should you, Arkytior. I am not deserving of your pity. I never was. Unlike you, I was strong enough to quickly bring together an army of like-minded Time Lords to fight under my cause, the Brethren, and to use my power to fight back against those who would oppress me instead of hiding away from them as you did. Yes, I know all about that. I've watched you from afar for centuries after all. I watched from deep within the Void as you hid who you were for the first two hundred years of your life. Then I watched as even when you finally did reveal yourself to everyone that you still held back and never used the full extent of your abilities. You still believed that it was wrong to impose your will upon others even though you were clearly the superior being. I saw your entire life, Arkytior, and I was disgusted by it. You could have done as I had and attempted to overthrow the entire High Council but instead you hid in fear or held back your strength. Erebus said in contempt.

Maybe because unlike you I don't believe in trampling all over people to get what I want. I'm not a superior being. I'm just a regular, flawed person like everyone else . . . and so are you, yeah? How else do you think you wound up in here if you were so superior? Rose pointed out.

I wound up in here because my father used what his scientists had learned about me against me. He used Sekhmet to lure me into a trap much as Solon did to you today. Then before I knew what he was doing, he ripped open a hole to the Void and sucked me right into it. He knew that the emptiness of the Void would cancel out even my powers by almost completely cutting me off from the Vortex and leave me trapped inside of it forever. I had just enough power left to observe what was going on in other realities but that's all. My Brethren have had to be my hands for all of these centuries as they have constantly searched for a way to free me. That was another way that my life mirrored yours. You too almost fell into the Void once. If you had, not even you would have been able to return from it without outside help. It's very curious just how similar that we are, isn't it? Erebus responded.

That's funny because I was just thinking the exact opposite. Rose replied in anger.

Oh, you definitely have a right to be angry, Arkytior, because I have finally found a way to be freed at last. Solon has finally given it to me. He's going to allow me to switch places with you, you see. I'll take control of your body and your power, and you'll be the one who's trapped in here. I'll finally use your abilities to gain the sort of universal power that I should have always had at last and there will be nothing at all that you can do about it. All you'll be able to do is watch. Erebus responded as he began to laugh.

There's just one thing wrong with that. I won't be here long enough for your little brain transplant to finish. Rose replied in a smug tone.

And how do you propose to escape? The others will never be able to escape from Solon's prison and free you. I've already made sure of that. I've thought of a way to counteract everything that they could possibly come up with in order to leave it. Erebus answered.

Not everything, mate. You must not be all seeing despite being able to spy on me or you would have already known what I was going to do. Right now I'm really glad about that too, yeah? Sorry to muck about with your plans but I really must be going. See you later. In fact, I can promise you that. This definitely isn't the last that you'll see of me. Rose responded as she could already feel her plan of escape going into effect at last.

What are you - ? No! You can't do this! There was no way that you could escape. This is impossible. I thought of everything. Erebus protested as he felt Rose's mind being swiftly pulled out of the Void and back into her body.

"Not quite everything," Rose said to herself as she woke up inside of a TARDIS Console Room and smiled.

"Rose, are you alright? I completely lost contact with you for a moment there. I couldn't even feel you through our link," The Doctor said in an uncharacteristic display of emotion.

"I'm just fine now that I'm back with you again. I finally found out exactly what he's up to though and it's definitely not good. I'm so glad that I came up with another way out of his trap just in case my powers didn't work. He came so close to beating me, Doctor. So close," Rose said in a troubled voice.

"Then it's a good thing that I went with you isn't it? Luckily for you, Solon didn't even detect me because I was invisible," The voice of their old friend, the TARDIS known as Charlotte, said from all around them.

It was she that they were now traveling inside. She had quickly spirited them all away as soon as Solon had attacked. Thankfully his equipment hadn't worked on her since her Matrix was vastly different from a Time Lord or human consciousness or they really would have been in trouble.

"It's also lucky that he didn't TARDIS proof the room. Thankfully he never even thought of a TARDIS in human form coming in there with us," The Doctor said as he unconsciously put a protective arm around Rose.

"Erebus is just like me in another way too apparently. He can see so many things about the past, present, and future but not everything. That's going to be his undoing too. I'll make sure of that now that I know that he's after me. So don't you worry about me, alright?" Rose reassured a clearly worried Doctor.

"That's simply not possible. I always worry about you, Rose," The Doctor admitted as he pulled her closer to him in a protective manner.

That was when he silently swore to himself that he would find some way to stop Erebus and the Brethren long before they could ever get anywhere near her a second time. He wasn't about to lose her again. Never again.

The Brethren were about to find out exactly why he needed so many rules.

Next: The Doctor declares war on the Brethren. I think that says it all. Will even Rose be able to keep him from going too far though? Maybe UNIT's kindly and very familiar looking old Curator can help give her some advice about that. Plus I'll also show what happens with Mary Shelley next. Will she decide to go traveling with the Doctor once again? Oh, and just in case you think I've forgotten about them there will be more with Danny and Clara. Will Danny's relationship with Clara wind up putting him in great danger?