sadhappygirl: Oh, good, I'm glad. Thank you! Its true and its unfortunate that he feels he does.
Mystery Commenter (AKA Nos apparently): Nice to meet you at last! I'm honored to have earned a sign-in. Haha.
All was quiet and still in the control room and he could see nothing but the small, blinking lights from thousands of buttons. Akdevor was not there.
Cautiously, the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, closing her door and then turning to the room. First things first; he needed to see. He turned on the modified flashlight and scoured the room, eyes scanning over the pillars (which he could now see were covered with familiar writing, although he couldn't place where he'd seen them) until he found what he was looking for. The back wall was lined with wires; wires that connected to all of the buttons and thus the controls. He went back into the TARDIS, got a larger light with a stand and set it up facing the door, but didn't turn it on. Akdevor wasn't here and he didn't want to alert him of his presence just yet. This done, he went to the wall, set down the amplifier beside him and began fingering through the wires like one might books at a book store.
"Aha!" he exclaimed quietly, pulling loose a few wires and holding them up to the light of his flashlight. He transfered them to the same hand and then got out his sonic screwdriver. He scanned them to make sure they were what he thought they were and after his suspicions were confirmed, began peeling off the outer layer to get to the thin cords within. He spliced two togther, connected a couple to another set of wires, put them back and then went looking for more.
He guessed Martha, Jack, Grem and Amara were about halfway done with their tasks, so long as they hadn't run into any trouble. Strange thing was, he was more nervous about them not running into trouble. He'd learned a long time ago that if it was too easy, than you had missed something. Something very important. It unnerved him that he hadn't encountered any problems. Akdevor had not yet made an appearance, which could either mean that Jack, Martha, Grem or Amara had accidentally drawn him out, or he was biding his time, which would be even worse.
It shouldn't be this quiet. Someone or something should have tried to stop him by now.
"Oh, stop that,"he rebuked himself quietly, barely above a whisper, "You're being paranoid. You're plan's probably just working better than you thought."
When have my plans ever gone this well?
He sighed, trying to shake the troubling thoughts and keep himself calm. Akdevor didn't need more negative emotions to feed off of him.
He had just started getting control of his anxiety when he felt him, slowly making his way up the hall. He could feel Akdevor feeling around for him, his mind reaching out like a hand grasping for a handhold. He thought he could hear him laughing, low and cruel, but he wasn't sure. He couldn't quite hear over the frantic beating of his hearts. Time was up and the Doctor began stripping and rerouting wires with urgent speed.
"Doctor, Doctor... come out wherever you are..."
Shivers ran up the Doctor's spine as fear took its icy hold on him, but he ignored it, willing his fingers to stop shaking and finish their work.
"Foolish Doctor. You should have taken your chance when you had it," he said, chuckling in mock amusement. "Now you will never leave. Now you will be mine."
The Doctor's hearts raced as he spliced the last two wires together. He tossed them aside, grabbed the light and flashed it to his right, shining it at the oncoming Akdevor, who screeched and fell back behind a pillar. The Doctor quickly grabbed up the amplifier and ran to the standing light, flipping it on so that it illuminated half of the room in white and blue light. He positioned himself behind it, making sure there was no way for Akdevor to get near him without having to pass through the light.
Akdevor laughed. "Do you really think those lights will protect you from me, Doctor? I am not so easily bested."
The Doctor felt Akdevor trying to touch his mind and he pushed him away. "Oh, I don't know about that. Not a lot of beings are afraid of something as silly as a little lightbulb," he drawled, reaching down to the amplifier and grabbing the earphone. He slowly put it into his ear and pressed a button on the amplifier, which began to hum quietly.
"I see you came fully prepared," Akdevor noted, but the Doctor could hear the steady confidence in the way he spoke and he feared that he may have overlooked something. "And what would that be?"
The Doctor looked down at the amplifier as if he hadn't noticed it. "What, this thing? It's my boom-box. You never know when you might need theme music, you see. Oh and its a psychic amplifier, but I don't use that part much."
Akdevor chuckled mockingly. "You must be more frightened than I thought to have brought such a contraption."
"Frightened? No, that's not me. More like prepared... actually that's not me, either. I usually wing-it. Gets me into trouble most of the time... Well, really all of the time, but lucky for me I'm like a cockroach. I won't go away and I won't die."
"Oh, but Doctor, your death would be such a waste," Akdevor said smoothly. "You have too much potential to squander lightly."
He didn't like the way he was talking. He didn't like that he didn't sound concerned and hadn't made any efforts towards stopping him. He had missed something, but he didn't have the faintest idea what Akdevor had up his sleeve.
The Doctor looked at the black mist hovering behind the safety of the pillars' shadows, sliding his hands into his trousers' pockets. "I think I've met my full potential, thanks, but I appreciate the compliment. Well, I hate to cut this conversation short, but in case you didn't notice, I'm quite busy stopping you. But since you're here, I can give you this one chance to stop. Let all of those people go. Let me help you." He thought he would hate himself for even offering something as foul as Akdevor a second chance, but as the words came out of his mouth, he found that he actually meant it. He wanted to help.
But the answer he got was what he had expected. Akdevor roared with laughter, the sound grating against the Doctor's ears.
"Even after seeing into my mind, you still don't quite comprehend me, do you, Doctor?"
"No need to get excited, I offer second chances to every beastie I meet," the Doctor said.
The silence that followed sent chills down the Doctor's spine and made his hair stand on end. He'd just angered him somehow, although after going over what he'd just said in his head a few times, he couldn't imagine what could have gotten him in such a fuss.
He didn't have to wonder long.
"Beastie? You foolish mortal, I am no beastie. I am the darkness that lurks in the heart of every living entity. I am evil personified. My names are diverse, but all come to mean the same thing. The Devil."
The Doctor rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I hate to burst your bubble, but you're not the only one who-" Realization suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks and he slapped his forehead in wide-eyed revelation. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "Sometimes I am so thick! Thick, thick, thick!" He punctuated each word with slap to his head. He looked at the black, smokey form of Akdevor and smiled smugly. "I knew you were familiar... more recently familiar, I mean. And I knew I've seen those letters before." He pointed to the writing on the wall. "I've met one of your kind before... very recently."
"Impossible. I am the last."
"You are now," the Doctor corrected tauntingly. "You're not the first being who claimed to be the Devil. You want to know what happened to him?" He paused, allowing a dramatic moment to pass before finishing. "I killed him."
Akdevor growled low and deep. "You speak of the Satan Pit. He was once the strongest, but his power faded. He was weak."
"True. He was very primal, I suppose, but that was probably because he'd been trapped for eternity," the Doctor mused. "But not you. No. Not you. You're a lot like him, yes, with your god-complex and your Legion, but you... you've adapted. You've evolved with time. I mean, look at this place! Took a planet and made it a spaceship. Turned your servants into monsters. You even evolved out of a physical form. Bravo, well done. But I've got a question..." He could feel Akdevor's anger rising, but he just didn't care, so he did the thing he did best; he babbled. "Why is it that you're on the outskirts of the universe? Hm?"
Akdevor was silent.
"It's not that hard a question. Surely if you're so powerful you'd be out there enslaving the entire universe. So what's stopping you?"
Akdevor growled low in fury.
"Maybe... just maybe... you're not as strong you say you are," he said challengingly. He gestured around the at the controls. "You have evolved, yes, I'll give you that, but this is sad, really. You've barely got enough power in this ship to keep yourself out of the gravity fields of other planets. Its a wonder you haven't crashed into something yet!" He messed with a few controls, frowning in disappointment. "And why would an all-powerful being like you need a ship?" He grinned. "You're body's still too physical to go out into space. In other words... you're stuck!" he concluded with a triumphant laugh.
"Perhaps for now... but once you are mine, once your knowledge is within my grasp, I will be free to roam not just space... but time as well."
"Fat chance," the Doctor scoffed.
"You're... what did you call it? You're boom-box cannot fight me off and free Legion. You know that. So, which will it be? Will you save them and let me ravage your soul, or will you protect yourself and let them suffer?"
"I think you're underestimating me," the Doctor said severely, feeling a slow, ever-growing anger building in his core. "You may surpass me in psychic abilities, but I can build almost anything with just some paper clips and a cardboard box. This thing will hold out for as long as I need it." He patted the top of the amplifier proudly. He was bluffing, of course. He wasn't sure it was going to work for as long as he'd need it, as he hadn't actually built one before and it was likely to overload if it was worked too hard, but Akdevor didn't need to know that. Besides, his fear was being swallowed up by a slow-building anger and he wanted to make him anxious. Make him scared for a change. "So, you have two options. One; you fight me and I let this planet keep hurtling towards the exploding star I've locked into the coordinates, or you can let me disable your ship, free your Legion and send you to the farthest corners of the universe where you can't hurt anyone. It's up to you."
"I'm already in the farthest corner," Akdevor chuckled.
The Doctor smiled darkly. "Believe me, if you were really in the farthest corner of the universe, you would never have had the chance to claim anyone for your Legion."
"Are you giving me an ultimatum, Doctor?"
"I'm giving you a choice," the Doctor replied evenly.
Akdevor laughed wickedly, but there was no humor in it. "How noble. A pointless gesture perhaps, but noble nonetheless. Unfortunately none of your options appeal to me, so I must instead pick another. You will be mine, your friends will be mine and then the rest of the universe." With that, Akdevor advanced on his mind.
The amplifier worked supremely well. The Doctor threw up barriers that were so strong it made Akdevor howl with pain, retreating. The Doctor wanted to attack him, wanted to show him that he couldn't get away that easily, but he still had to free Legion and from what he could feel just from the peripherals of his minds' eye, there were a lot of Legion to help and it was going to require his full attention. So with Akdevor reeling from his horribly failed attack, the Doctor turned his mind to Legion.
Overwhelming was an understatement. Even with the amplifier, the sheer amount of minds suddenly accessible to him had him reeling and he had to lean against the wall opposite him just to keep standing. All of their pain and suffering rushed at him like a tidal wave, enveloping him in dispair and misery that made his stomach turn over almost to the point of collapsing, but he pushed past it. He saw nearly a hundred minds like Grem, corrupted nearly beyond repair, but the rest were relatively simple. He gathered up his strength, readying himself for a very tiring ordeal when he felt something surge at him, battering through his first barrier like a raging bull. He screamed in pain, dropping to his knees. The corrupted minds, which had been ignoring him for the most part, suddenly lunged at him. His brain felt like it was being ripped apart with jagged claws and he clutched his head, his throat becoming raw and hoarse.
He had expected Akdevor to attack. He would have been able to fight him off easily enough, but he hadn't anticipated Legion to join the fray. They didn't have that kind of mental power. Under other circumstances, he might have taken a moment to marvel at the kind of effort and power it took for Akdevor to leave enough of himself in his elite to even leave behind a strong enough psychic implant that could fight off intruders. He hadn't been aware of it within Grem, because Grem had subdued it enough for it not to be a threat, but the rest of his kind had not been so lucky and now they all ripped, clawed and tore at him with ferocious rage, eager to aid their master.
Akdevor moved on to the second barrier, tearing at it for all he was worth and his Legion quickly joined him. The Doctor retreated from the minds of the other Legion and reinforced the foundering barrier. The weight of both Akdevor and the maddened Legion felt like a vice on his head, but the amplifier was doing its job extraordinarily well, though he could feel heat coming from the machine beside him and knew it was only a matter of time before it overheated.
"Why do you make this difficult? You know I will get you in the end. Why fight me? None escape me. You will be no exception."
The Doctor grasped his head, teeth clenched as he hissed in pain, but beyond the minds pressing in on his own, past the violent, evil attackers working their hardest to break his defenses, he saw his companions passing by in their sunlight and amongst them, a majestic, gray creature with great bat wings.
"You're wrong," the Doctor hissed through his teeth, working to get control of his frantic breaths enough to speak clearly. "One did escape you. Have a look." He let Grem through the barrier, his huge wings stretching out in magnificent beauty. Legion snarled in rage at the sight of him, knowing him to be the traitor. Akdevor roared, the sound resonating with the utmost hate.
"You may have broken him," the Doctor said. "But he isn't yours. And neither am I." He started pushing back with renewed strength, feeling Legion and Akdevor unwilling yield to him, being forcefully driven back. They screeched and howled with rage and... terror. They were afraid. He could feel their distress and rage, feel them looking to their master to regain control. Akdevor bellowed in maddened wrath, but could not redeem the ground he had lost. The Doctor continued pushing until the battle was suddenly in Akdevor's own mind.
"You saw my sorrow," the Doctor said coldly as the slow-building anger rose and rose until it was burning like a flame. "You saw my pain. But you never saw my anger. Well you have it now." He stood up, hands dropping down from his hands to his sides. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the far wall lined with the spliced wires. "You've made your choice. Now accept the consequences." The sonic screwdriver buzzed and the little blue light lit up and the far wall suddenly lit up in flames, illuminating the room and bursting out of the wall and outside, rising forth in a brilliant collumn of flame.
"What have you done?" Akdevor bellowed.
"The coordinates are locked and now there's no way to fix them. This planet is doomed for destruction... you along with it."
"You fool! I will kill them! I will kill them all!"
The Doctor took a threatening step forward, out of the light and straight up to the black cloud. "If you think threats are going to in any way sway me, you are mistaken. I give one chance and you turned it down. You don't have the power."
"Wretched flesh-mortal! I am the Dark One! The Deceiver! Lucifer! You cannot b-" the rest was drowned out with a horrid howl of agony.
The Doctor turned from him, shut his eyes and focused on Legion, gathering them all to him while simultaneously holding Akdevor at bay. He brought all of them into focus and began reopening the doors that had been shut, closing the doors that had been opened and forcing away the dark and tortorous thoughts that had been plaguing them. The elite he gathered seperately, opening the doors of their friends and family to help their healing, as this was all he was able to do.
"NO! YOU WILL FAIL! I AM THE DEVIL! THE RAGE AND THE SCOURGE OF THE UNIVERSE! I WILL TAKE THEM ALL AND DESTROY YOU!"
The Doctor released the minds of the healed one by one until at last all that remained was Akdevor, his screams of violent rage suddenly interrupted by the sound of crackling and a snap.
The psychic amplifier died.
Hoo-boy I had a good time writing this chapter. Of course, now I feel like I've gotten into a good writing style and pace, right near the end. Isn't that always how it goes? Haha. I really enjoyed writing this whole scene and I think it turned out nicely. I look forward to everyone's opinions.