And finally, we found her...

The Third Adventure Part 2

"I can't," the Doctor groaned as we squeezed through the cave entrance - my worst fears were at once confirmed, and the tunnel through the mountain did get narrower the further you went. I looked ahead (the way lit by a headlamp on my head) and could tell that I'd fit through, just. There was a few meters of narrow tunnel, with grey-brown stone pushing against our sides, inches above our heads. Nevertheless, I was small. I'd fit.

The Doctor was a large man. He'd gone in after me, suspecting this situation would occur, and it was quickly apparent that it was hopeless for him to even try. He was wedged against two walls of rock, with the top of his head grating uncomfortably against the ceiling of the tunnel. Whilst he could still move, he'd end up stuck fast if he carried on.

He looked at me, an apologetic expression on his face. "I'm stuck," he barked.

Well Duh.

"Yeah," I said softly. "But I'm not..."

The Doctor took a shaky breath. "I'll have to look for another way in. If there is one. But you..."

"It's fine," I whispered, lying through my teeth, "I'll go on. See if I can't catch it a second time." My voice was high and squeaky, my nose blocked off by the nosepeg.

The Doctor grinned at me with watery eyes. "Rose..." he began.

"We'll get her." I said firmly. "And if the only way to get her is to kill that thing, you know I won't hesitate. Not for one moment."

"I know." The Doctor said proudly. "I know you won't. I'll be as quick as I can..."

"Sure." I said. "Good luck."

"You too." He replied, and backed out of the tunnel.

Leaving only me. I shut my eyes for a couple of seconds and took a deep breath, before pressing on. Even though I would fit, it wasn't going to be comfortable. I suddenly had hideous visions of getting trapped in here, getting stuck fast between the stone walls, unable to go forwards or back. What would happen to me then? I'd be easy dinner for the Whispering. Or what if something happened to the Doctor out there, and I ended up simply being stuck here alone, starving to death...I shuddered, every cell of my brain screaming at me to retreat, but every muscle of my body ignoring them, pressing on and on, further into the cave. My nose peg wasn't quite disguising the smell.

"Rose!" I called out, listening to the echo of my voice bouncing around the cave further on. Clearly it was about to widen out...I hoped. "Rooosee!" I screamed again, forcing myself through the tunnel...up ahead I could hear the gentle dripping of water, and the echo of my own footsteps as I walked on, buried alive inside a mountain.

And then, just like that, I saw her. Rose. She was standing with her face to the wall up ahead; the tunnel widened out into a cavern, the ceiling dripping with long, needle like stalactites, droplets of water dribbling off the nibs and into the floor, itself littered with clusters of stalagmites, which jutted up in vicious pins of stone, razor sharp and brown like some hideous animal teeth. And there she was, in the far side of the opening! Not speaking, not moving. Just standing there, looking intently at the cave wall...

"Rose!" I exclaimed again, squeezing myself through quickly - too quickly - the cave walls pulled my sleeves back as I passed, and my bare arms were grazed on the rough stone. But I didn't stop. With a final burst of effort, I forced myself out of the narrow pathway and into the cave.

I ripped the nosepeg off and rushed over to Rose, dodging the needle-like rocks and rested a hand on her shoulder. "It's me! Rose...Rose?" I ignored the smell which hung about the cave. Tried to.

For a moment, she ignored me, and continued to gaze resolutely at the wall. Then slowly, ever so slowly, she turned round. I looked at her, and she at me, with two glazed, distant eyes. She shook my hand from her shoulder and brushed past me, staring still into the darkness.

"Come on, babes," I breathed desparatley, "it's okay. We're here for ya."

Rose turned back to me with a puzzled expression on her face.

"You know me!" I said, "It's me, and the Doctor's just topside! What's it done to you?"

Rose continued to look at me, her eyes glazed. "Lynsey." She finally said, in a barely audible voice.

"Yeah!" I said encouragingly, taking a step towards her. "You still there, Rosie? Do you understand where we are?"

Rose once again took a moment to respond. "Don't you get it?" She said softly, "don't you see? Please, tell me you see..."

"See?" I spluttered, taking her hand in mine. She didn't pull away. "See what? What do you mean see?"

"Me. I'm the ally. I serve, I protect...you've been fighting it. You oughtn't to. It wants to help us..."

"Help us?" I exclaimed, suddenly very anxious about the Whispering's absence - though I hadn't seen nor heard it, there was no mistaking that smell. It was close. "How? By killing? How is that helping us? Rose, your being used as it's bloody life insurance! It's got you, babes...come with me!"

"I knew you wouldn't," Rose said sadly, "I knew you couldn't see like I do...it showed me everything! Everything! Not just the universe, but all that lay beyond..."

"It's possessed you!" I moaned, shaking her shoulder roughly, "but I know your in there. I know it, Rose! Come on! You know this ain't right. It's got you locked down here like a prisoner, and-"

"Not down here." Rose corrected me, her voice not changing from that quiet, calm whisper.

"Eh?"

"Not down here. Up here. And what will you see? Which face?" Rose grinned. It was a hideous leer, her eyes staring blankly over my shoulder whilst her mouth stretched wide, wider than I'd ever seen her smile before. She looked down at the ground, and up at me. "What will you see, Lynsey? The child? The crab monster? Or who knows, will you even open your mind, and see what it really looks like? Like I did? I know what it is, and it's all that there is to know..."

I understood just in time, and threw myself clear of the ground, edging into a little gap behind the pointy rocks on the ground. With an ear-cracking crash, the ground upon which I'd just been standing exploded - it didn't just crack, it flew apart. Rose stepped back calmly, as if witnessing nothing more interesting than a piece of reality television. I watched a stone smack her in the face, blood welling from a wound in her cheek. She cared not a bit; she didn't even flinch.

All at once, the smell of the Whispering increased a hundredfold. Beneath the ground was more of the yellowy goo like that which I'd seen back on Ravrock. A shape, a huge shape, shot up from the ground, twisting and whirling in the air. I tried to look, but once again felt the pierce of a headache between my temples, nausea cramping my stomach. My eyes watered and stung as I looked at the shape. It was real, flesh and blood like I was. I thought that I almost understood what I was seeing, almost grasped something recognizable, something I could relate to - but each time I almost understood, the pains in my head would increase, and my eyes would slide out of focus. I was an eighties computer, and someone was trying to run a twenty-first century console game on me - I couldn't comprehend it, couldn't contemplate it. It was making me crash and freeze, frying my hard-drive and my memory, turning me into a helpless husk like Rose, destroying my mind so utterly that in that moment I realized-

Then it stopped, and I forgot again. Kneeling on the floor like a sprung trap was the small boy in the brown coat and flat cap hat. He was gazing at me, his eyes twinkling. His hands were tipped not with fingernails, but with needle sharp brown claws. He smiled, and his teeth were the stalagmites and stalactites, rows of razor sharp brown things jutting out of his mouth.

I pulled the Dimension Trap from my pocket and scrambled to prime it, but it was far too late. The Whispering shot forward like lightning, smashing into me and knocking it from my hand. It grabbed my neck and started for force my head down slowly, delibaratley slowly, towards the jutting needle-like rocks on the floor. I could feel it's rancid breath on the back of my neck, and tried desparatley to use the Dimension Trap which was in my hand. But now another arm shot to my hand and knocked the Dimension Trap clean away, across the floor and down into the exposed nest. In the corner, Rose watched impassively.

I sobbed as my right temple came into contact with one of the needles. Again, slowly and gently the Whispering pushed down, and I felt the point digging into my skin, pressing against my skull. I flailed around helplessly, my fists flying through the air, making contact with the monster, but doing nothing to hurt it. I was aware that it wasn't the child behind me any longer. It was a larger shape, and one that made no sense out of the corner of my eye.

"Doctor!" I screamed, as Rose turned back to face the wall. I wondered in that moment if she was beyond help; how strong must the hypnosis be to make her like this? The thought sent a torrent of anger flooding through my veins, and in a burst of strength that the Whispering hadn't expected, I lurched upwards, flinging it aside. I knew only too well that it had the strength of a thousand people, yet it hadn't been using it. It had enjoyed taunting me instead. Big mistake. I primed the Dimension Trap and I threw it at the creature, which had once again resumed the form of the child. But no sooner had the bomb landed by it's feet, it transformed a hand into a lobster-like pincer, crushing the little metal ball as if it were nothing more than a hollow ping-pong ball. It growled and lurched at me.

"Come at me again, you would?" It said in the child's lisping sing-song voice. "Fight me again? Shilly shilly little Lynshey!" It squealed with laughter and transformed it's other arm into a pincer. It sliced through the air, slamming it's pincers at the ground by my feet. I leapt back - should either of those land on my feet, it would have crippled me.

"I'm sorry," I gasped, looking again at Rose, who gazed only at the wall. "So sorry." I stumbled back towards the entrance and squeezed into the narrow tunnel. The Whispering followed; it's little form made it easy work. I squeezed and pushed through, cutting and grazing myself anew. The Whispering was in no hurry. It followed me slowly, not even touching the rough stone walls. That grin stayed on it's face, the teeth shrinking back to normal.

"Hey fatty boom-boom," it exclaimed, watching my force my small, yet still too large, frame through the narrow gap in the mountain, "sweet sugar dumpling." It had adjusted it's voice to that of a young man, and the singing voice was gentle and pleasant.

Up ahead, daylight. The ice and snow swirled peacefully, the cool, yet amazingly nor cold air touching me softly. I threw myself clear, and out onto the soft snowy floor. The Whispering strolled casually outside, looking down at me with an expression which hovered between pity and disgust.

"Tell your friend that I am the last of my kind." It instructed in an unfamiliar, older voice. This form was one I hadn't seen before, and not one which I recognized. It was an old man with long, white hair, a dark coat and a beige waistcoat. He held the lapels of that coat, and was looking down on me sternly. "Tell him that I know him to be the last of his. I've seen his past, I know who he is. And tell him, above all else, that there are two options; we both live, or we both die. Two genocides or none. I will return again to Locus Heights, Women Wept. He can come, or he can not. The choice is his."

And then it melted away into that indistinguishable shape. I didn't even bother looking this time. It sped back into the tunnel. With a whipping sound, a tail of some sort flew out at struck the roof of the passage, caving it in.

Blocking our way back for Rose.

I lay on the snow, panting heavily, rubbing the spot on my head which he'd pressed against the sharp rock. Not for the first time since arriving on Yaed, I think I blacked out. Because suddenly, the sun in the sky was in a different spot, and the man with the white hair stood above me again.

"Well?" He demanded.

I scrambled to my feet, thinking the Whispering was back. It wasn't. I blinked and instead of that, the Doctor stood there, watching me with a look of mild concern on his face.

"Gone," I whimpered. The Doctor exhaled in fury and turned away from me.

"I tried!" I protested.

"I know ya did," he said shortly, "I were wrong to send you in there alone...that's all. Shoulda been together, or not at all. It wouldn't 'ave gotten away if I'd been there."

"Bully for you," I spat, feeling hurt, "I did my best. And I know where it's gone."

"You do?" The Doctor said, the grumpiness evaporating at once, "how?"

"It told me," I said, "It's at a place called Locus Heights. It said to me that...that it's the last of it's kind...and that if you stop following, it'll leave you alone."

"Not 'appening." The Doctor said. I noticed a strange expression on his face. "Especially not if that's where it's going."

"What's Locus Heights?"

"That," the Doctor said solemnly, grabbing my hand, "is the most densely populated city this side of the universe. Understand the implications o' that?"

"It was there once before, wasn't it?" I said softly. "Before the shop? That's where you chased it from."

"I repeat," the Doctor replied, "do you understand the implications of it being there? Do you understand what happened before? And what could now happen again, if it goes back there?"

I did. And we ran back to the Tardis, hand in hand.

Onto Locus Heights. On the planet of Women Wept.

And I knew as we went, I think - I don't know how I knew, I don't know why - but I knew somehow that this would be the final stand. However things turned out.

The Doctor's Diary, Entry 1967 Part 2

I regret getting angry with her. Wasn't her fault, was it? I know she tried her best.

I blame myself. What was I thinking? Letting her go in there to get it? How can I think of putting her in that sort of danger, and then have the bloody cheek to get stroppy when, surprise surprise, things don't go so good?

I walked all around the mountain looking for another way in. No luck. Meanwhile, my best friend was trapped in there getting tortured, yes tortured by that monster.

I swear it now - enough. No more. I'm going to Locus Heights. Always wanted to visit that place, but I'd have hoped it would be under better circumstances. But needs must.

And after this is over, me and her will stay and see the sights, if she wants. I've always wanted to go for a walk on the frozen sea. I'll bring me mittens.