The argument could be heard clear across the small compound that housed the temporary UNIT camp.

"You can't stop me, I have people in there!"

"I'm not stopping you, but you have to leave the Doctor behind!"

"Not a hell's chance of that happening. He comes with me, like it or not!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't let a clearly insane alien loose into what is already chaos!"

The two soldiers guarding the Doctor, who was now handcuffed to a more solid piece of metal, tried hard not to listen to the argument.

"You know, that would stop if you just undid these cuffs and let me go," the Doctor said.

The two soldiers ignored him as they were ordered to.

"Really, if you just let me go...after all, you just want to go and see if your families are okay," he said softly.

One of the soldiers looked round and was going to tell him to be quiet, when he realised he wife had been out on shopping trip with her mother...he wondered if they were all right.

"You do, don't you," the Doctor said. "She could be out there, injured or..."

The other soldier turned. "Shut it, don't listen to him," he said to the other soldier.

"How about you?" the Doctor said, looking directly at the one who had told him to shut it. "You're...sister...at the hospital...was she there?"

The man shook his head as an image of his sister lying trapped under rubble flashed through his head.

"If you let me go, then you can go and see...I won't tell," the Doctor continued his voice low and soft, barely audible amongst the noise of the camp.

"You've got the keys," one of the guards said. "Let him go, I have to know if Ruth's okay."

The other guard frowned. "Yeah, my sister, she was at the hospital," he said and took out a set of keys, and walked behind the Doctor.

The Doctor smiled as the guard undid the cuffs, he knew those mind tricks Koschei had taught him back in the Academy would come in handy...humans, they were so easy to trick.

He flexed his wrists as the cuffs were removed and he stood up, rolled his shoulders and moved away from the chair.

"Thank you and you know, why don't you go now," he said and stepped towards the two soldiers and touched them lightly on the forehead.

He moved past the two men, who never moved a muscle as he walked away from them. He took one look over at the office where the argument was still going.

"Argue until the Daleks come home, I'm going to find Miss Jones and Miss Cooper."

As he walked away, he felt that feeling again...something was trying to touch core of his soul and the feeling was darkness and chaos.

Blinking the feeling away, he disappeared into the rubble and smoke of the city.

"This is getting us nowhere. If you insist on taking the Doctor back to Torchwood, at least let me give you an escort. He's slippery at the best of times, you'll need more than two sets of eyes," Colonel Mogambo said.

Jack went to reply, but Ianto put a hand on his shoulder. "She's right, this is going nowhere, and there's more than the Doctor going on here. That wasn't an earthquake, was it?" he said looking at the colonel.

Colonel Mogambo sighed. "No, it wasn't an earthquake, let me show you something."

Jack had to look at the fuzzy image twice. It looked like a huge black cloud, looming up on the lens of a UNIT deep space probe.

"What is it?"

"We have no idea, all we know is this was transmitted just before we lost contact. We're not worried about the satellite. Captain Harkness, this earthquake wasn't caused by the tectonic plates moving, it was caused by Pluto disappearing. It wasn't planet wide, thank god, but we think it was felt here because of the Rift."

Jack took a few moments to digest the colonel's words. "This thing, where is it now?"

"According to only other satellite, it's heading for Neptune...it's eating everything in its path, stars, meteorites, asteroids, anything."

"Any idea of where it's heading?" Jack asked, although he already knew the answer.

"If it keeps going along the same trajectory, its heading straight for us and the only person that might be able to help is currently the raving lunatic handcuffed to one of my chairs. Do you think he'll tell us anything?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Doubt it, he far too gone."

"Unless we stroke his ego," Ianto said.

"Explain," Jack said.

"If we tell him that he's the only one who can save us, what with us being stupid apes and all, he might just let something slip."

"That might work, what harm can it do," Jack said. "What do you say colonel?

Colonel Mogambo looked at them, then at the fuzzy image on the screen. "Well, it can't get any worse."

They stepped out of the office and found themselves looking at two immobile soldiers and one very empty chair, a pair of handcuffs sitting neatly in the place a Time Lord had been sitting.

Jack and Ianto looked at each other and both knew what the other was thinking.

"Martha!"

Martha grimaced as she straightened Gwen's leg. "Sorry."

Gwen forced a smile. "It okay, just really painful. Did you get through to anyone?"

Martha shook her head. "Nothing, the quake must have knocked everything out. We'll have to wait for them to find us."

Gwen let out a short gasp as Martha tightened the dressing again. "It's bad, isn't it, and don't lie Martha."

Martha hesitated. "Yes, it's a compound fracture; it's partially torn an artery, your bleeding to death I'm going to have to pull it straight. I can't get to the med-room, so this is going to be painful, really painful."

Gwen nodded."Just do it."

Martha nodded. "On three, one...two...three," and she pulled.

Gwen let out a scream of pain and passed out.

"I'm really sorry," Martha said and tried her best to cushion the leg, but she knew if help didn't come soon Gwen would be beyond help.

The Doctor picked his way across the rubble of what was once a church. He hoped he was heading in the right direction, it was hard to tell, what with most of the normal landmarks either fallen or nothing but rubble.

The acrid smell of wiring and other things burning were causing his eyes and throat to burn. He could hear sporadic gunfire and the shouts of what were no doubt looters and UNIT soldiers.

"Sometimes a little chaos is good for the soul," he said out loud. "Now, which way is the right way?"

He was about to move when that feeling came back again, and this time it came back with painful force.

He let out a startled cry, stumbled, fell to his knees as his mind was filled with...darkness, chaos and hunger?

Something was coming...and it wanted him!

With a supreme effort he struggled up, his head full of nothing but the dark and the chaos.

"No!" he cried...he had to get away...had to run...he needed...what did he need...he needed the TARDIS.

White Coat looked up as someone burst into his office.

"Sir, we've found him, he's in the quake zone...he's in Cardiff!"

White Coat smiled. "Excellent, get my shuttle ready. What is the status of the other problem?"

"Still moving this way sir and it's closing in on Neptune."

"Then we'd better hurry. Give the order for evacuation, contact our clients, and tell them that if they want to survive, they should leave now."

White Coat waited until the man had gone, then he let himself smile. It hadn't quite gone to plan, but no matter. Soon he would have his property back, and they would be in another galaxy.

"Well at least I'll be rid of a certain Captain Harkness," he smiled to himself. "Now, where did I put that device?"

The thing with no mass or no light approached the first of the moons of Neptune and devoured it as if it was nothing.

It was very hungry, and these little planets were not enough to sate its hunger. It could feel the one it wanted, stronger now. It had had a taste...back when the planet it wanted to devour had been destroyed and it wanted more...it wanted to devour it whole.