"I can't believe we're trapped!" Jack snarled as he nursed a grazed knuckle.
"Well we are," Gwen said from her position on the floor.
Jack ignored the sarcasm in her voice and sank down beside her. He'd just settled when a cold breeze ruffled his hair and a figure faded into view.
"What are you doing sitting there? This isn't a holiday camp."
Jack scowled at the almost see through figure of the Doctor.
"Does it look like I'm sunbathing? We're in a god-damned trap!"
The figure solidified and crouched down in front of Jack and Gwen.
"I'm sorry, both of you. It's my fault. I should have been doing this. It's not something humans should be doing."
"Yeah well, we are. You said something about a hybrid state. What does that mean?"
The Doctor shifted and stood up and Jack knew he was avoiding the question when he said.
"The answer to the trap is on the wall Jack. The symbols are like the Big Bad Wolf," he said and wandered over to the wall.
Jack tried not shiver as the Doctor made no sound and left no footprints in the dust.
Jack looked at Gwen who raised an eyebrow and allowed Jack to pull her up.
As they got closer to the wall they could see that the surface was no longer smooth. Dotted across the wall at shoulder height were raised symbols in a language they didn't recognise.
"What a minute, I know this language, its Farian," Jack said.
The Doctor reached out a ghostly hand and pointed to one symbol. "Yes, they designed the traps for this pyramid. It's a puzzle-gram, get one symbol wrong and bam!"
Both Jack and Gwen jumped, not expecting the spectral form to have such a loud voice.
Jack studied the symbols. "Farian which means you have to think literal and sideways. Doctor, what happens?"
He turned towards the Doctor but he was gone, back to whatever hell he was trapped in.
"Just you and me then, "he said to Gwen. "Here goes nothing," he said and pressed the symbol the Doctor had pointed at.
There was a satisfying clunk and the symbol retracted. "That was the symbol for water, which would mean the next symbol would be..." he scanned the wall, saw the symbol he wanted. " Drought, Gwen the symbol that looks like a half-moon with three wavy lines at the side, press it."
Gwen reached up and pushed. There was the satisfying rumble as the symbol retracted.
"The Doc said it was like the Big Bad Wolf. What did he mean?"
Gwen thought for a moment. "Got it, Three Little Pigs, you only get three chances."
Jack stepped back. "Great. Draught goes to..."
"Flood," Gwen suggested.
Jack scanned the symbols. "No, too literal. Think sideways. So drought is to..."
"Monsoon, rain, downpour, I don't know," Gwen said.
Jack scanned the symbols and then he saw it. "No, it couldn't be!"
"What is it?" Gwen said.
"Noah!" Jack exclaimed and pressed the symbol.
There was a rumble and the wall began to move and sand and dust began to shower them. The grinding of gears filled their ears and the wall slowly ascended to reveal a short corridor that ended in a set of huge bronze doors.
"Could it get anymore Indiana Jones," Jack said as he grasped hold of the jewel encrusted handles.
The doors swung inwards with a suitable metallic groan. As they opened torches burst into life and revealed a stone dais, on which a plain wooden box sat.
Gwen stepped forward and went to grab the box.
"No!" Jack cried and dived for her, pushing her to one side just as three darts winged across the room and embedded themselves in the wall as Jack hit the floor.
"Screw this!" Jack growled and scrabbled up and dove for the dais and snatched the box.
The dais collapsed and an ominous rumbling filled the air.
"Not again!" Jack yelled.
"No, it's not coming from inside, its coming from outside!" Gwen exclaimed.
The rumble increased. "That sounds like an explosion," Jack said.
They both froze as a metallic shriek of death echoed through the chamber.
"Find the scrolls! Exterminate any opposition!"
The Darkness subdued the last of the Dalek Imperative that was woven through his host's body as he stepped through the hole that had been blasted in the side of the pyramid. But still he had to be cautious, one false step and he would be nothing but dust.
He himself would survive but he needed the Time Lord's body, needed it for when he faced the Light.
If he's been right, Captain Harkness and Gwen Cooper would have found the scrolls by now.
Although the Daleks drones were shrieking "Exterminate" he had no intention of letting them kill either of them.
There were at least three more objects that needed to be found and he needed the humans for that. He would have done it himself but the designers and keepers of the Light had designed the traps to recognise him and he would have been destroyed.
So the humans were the next best option and they were expendable.
"Find the scrolls, they will be on the upper levels," he said to the Supreme Dalek as it glided to halt beside him.
"I obey!" it said and glided off into the smoke that now filled the passageway.
The Darkness turned away and began moving in the opposite direction that the Daleks had taken. He stopped when he realised he was alone.
He sighed. "You will follow!" he called and a few seconds later a half dozen figures appeared in front of him.
"We will find the scrolls. You will arm yourselves."
"We obey!" six voices chorused and the sound of six weapons being primed spelt death for someone.
"What the hell are they doing here!" Jack said as he hefted the wooden box.
"Who cares, they're here and we're dead!" Gwen said as she grabbed hold of Jack and hauled him out of the chamber.
They ran and stopped only when their lungs screamed at them to stop. They pushed themselves into a small alcove, knowing that it wouldn't hide them for long.
Jack set the box down "They wouldn't be here for us, so they must be here for this."
He lifted the lid cautiously, expecting the worse but was disappointed when nothing happened.
Inside were three scrolls, bound together with golden thread.
Gwen let out a laugh. "Is that it? Three lousy scrolls."
Jack took the scrolls out of the box and carefully unravelled them. They felt old and he felt very uneasy at holding them.
The metallic shrieks of the Daleks shattered whatever uneasiness Jack may have felt.
He unrolled one of the scrolls. It was covered in the same symbols that had been on the wall.
"What would they want with these?" he said out loud.
Then he spotted a line of symbols, the only one highlighted in gold. He spoke the words out loud as he traced his finger along them.
"The path to the light must traverse the Dark and the traveller must face the Dragon."
"What the hell does that mean?" Gwen said as she peered nervously round the corner of their less than secure hiding place.
Jack said nothing, he was deep in thought. "Wait a minute, these are coordinates. The Dragon is the Soltasian Nebula. We have to get out of here."
He placed the scrolls back into the box and had just closed the lid when he felt a now familiar breeze.
The Doctor coalesced in front of him.
But it wasn't that which made Jack shiver, it was the look of fear on the Doctor's face.
"You have to go...go now Jack...he's coming!"