Torchwood: The End is Now – Part 3: The End of It All
She awoke on a cold floor, and it felt organic. Her head was spinning, but she still had her weapons, so she was safe. A voice brought her back to normality. It was announcing for people to go into the main chamber. She looked forward and saw a group of people walking in the same direction, but she was unsure if they were doppelgangers, or real people. When the line carried on, Lilly sneaked down the corridor after them.
She looked into the hall and saw a crowd of people bowing down and worshipping a strange figure. She crept around the room in order to get a closer look, and noticed that what she was looking at seemed to be a large frog type creature. People stood against the walls around the room. Lilly guessed that they were the doppelgangers, but they seemed to be in complete servitude to the creature. She dropped to her knees, and guided the laser on her rifle to the creature's head, when she noticed that the creature wasn't opening its mouth, and yet she was hearing what it was saying.
She realised at that moment that it was using some kind of telepathy to communicate, and it must have known all along that she was there. It called her and invited her down to the main hall, inviting her to witness the service. She climbed down to where everyone was, and stood at the creature's feet.
"If you think I'm going to get down on my knees and beg just like the rest of them, you can forget it."
The creature spoke in a pleasant tone. "I wouldn't expect that from you. You seem different to the rest. You are a female warrior, I can tell. And for that I hold you in the highest regard."
She wondered why it was being so nice to her when it had most of the country as slaves. "Can we call a truce? You let these people go and I won't have to kill you. I'm sure there's somewhere nice we can relocate you too. You don't need to do this."
"But I do. It has been written in the scriptures. It is what I do. I need my company up here."
"How many are there of you?"
"Just me. And my minions, all made from your race."
"OK, fair enough. Just let us go and no one has to get hurt."
"No."
"Look, I'm the one with the gun here. What I say goes."
"Nonsense, warrior woman. Now sit down."
"No." She was defiant. There was no way it would be getting her to sit down.
All of a sudden she felt a force shoving her downwards, and she sat. As much as she tried to get up, she couldn't. It was like it had some kind of hold over her. Then she came to the conclusion that it was telekinetic as well as telepathic. As it finished the service, it called her up once again.
"Warrior Woman, I will let you do what you like to a certain extent as long as you do not harm anyone on here."
With that, he fell into a deep sleep, and Lilly was confused. She pointed a gun at it, when a hand grabbed her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." She'd recognise that voice anywhere. It was Captain Jack Harkness. She gave him a hug, and began to feel happy that there was someone else on her side on this ship.
"This was my official business. I found a distress call from another planet and went to check it out. The planet had been cannibalised, and everyone was gone."
"But what does it do with people."
"It consumes them. Humans and the like are its diet. It uses some kind of low wave telepathy to keep everyone under control. Like a hive mind. Those it doesn't eat are used for gene splicing."
"Why not us?" She was confused, especially when it referred to her as warrior woman. Lilly knew she was many things, but not a warrior.
"We are who it considers warriors. We get the special treatment."
"Oh, God. It wants to turn me into a monster."
Lilly was mortified by this. She placed her head in her hands, and then looked back up at Jack. But there was another Jack next to him. Either she was seeing double, or there was a doppelganger. And Lilly didn't know which was which.
She looked at one. "I'm the real Jack."
"No, I'm the real Jack."
Her head was spinning. She still didn't feel right, but she knew one thing. Jack Harkness couldn't die. A doppelganger wouldn't have the same feeling. She shot them both in the head, and felt a relief when one came back to life. Then the creature awoke. "I warned you." It spoke coolly.
It thrust her in an opposite direction, knocking her out cold. She woke up some time later, in a cell, stripped of her weapons. She was Earth's last hope, and she had been reduced to nothing. Lilly Klein sat in her cell, alone and powerless, and she did the one thing that she swore she wouldn't do. She began to cry.