The Darkness could smell it...they'd found the scrolls. "Increase your pace, they have found it!" he barked at the six, who set off at a marching speed.
He enjoyed playing this game of cat and mouse...catch the humans then let them go. What a curious but wonderful game this was, so human. The Time Lord's mind was full of such wonderful memories; but they were the trivial things, things that meant nothing to him. The memories he really wanted were locked away from him, all that Time Lord knowledge; all that power.
He'd been blind-sided by the conversion of his host's body but he'd turned to his advantage.
The memories of the Daleks were almost as potent as that of the Time Lord memories he still craved for. This universe had so much potential, the potential to give him the power he'd been craving for millennia.
He would build a new Empire, but first he had to destroy the one thing that could stop him...the Light.
That had been his only regret in his long life. He should have destroyed the Light when he had the opportunity.
Instead he had to be satisfied with destroying those that had help the Light escape. He'd been searching ever since for the whereabouts of it and now he was nearer that he could ever dream of.
Find the Light...extinguish it.
"Increase your pace, they have found the scrolls. Bring them to me!"
"We obey!" six voices said as one.
The Doctor's ghostly features were taut with fear, giving him an even more spectral appearance.
"He's coming Jack, you have to leave!"
"Who's coming?" Jack asked.
"Please Jack. Take the scrolls..."
The Doctor's face creased in ghostly agony and he winked out of existence.
Gwen's cry of alarm jolted Jack back into reality, as did her pushing him to the ground.
The distinctive green glow of a Dalek rake bit into the stone above his head.
They both stilled when a voice rang out...a very familiar voice.
"You might as well come out. Hiding will not save you."
Gwen and Jack looked at each other and with a silent agreement they both stood and stepped out of their hiding place.
Gwen grabbed Jack's hand and he felt it tighten when he stepped out of the shadows.
Jack took in the pale skin and the black eyes of something he thought was dead. He frowned...there was something different...something more wrong, if that were possible.
Then it fell into place when other figures appeared out of the shadow.
Their skin was pale and lined with veins, just like the Doctor's; but it was the blue glow of the eyes that sealed it. They shone with the same blue as the Dalek eyestalk.
The Doctor had fallen victim to the one thing that would have terrified him...an unholy fusion of Time Lord, Dalek and the Darkness.
"Hand over the box," the Darkness said.
"It's just an empty box," Jack said, his tone casual and full of disinterest.
A small smile played across the Darkness's face. "Really Captain, I know you're bluffing. I have the Time Lord's memories. You are an open book to me."
"Hmm, is that so?" Jack replied. "In that case, your library card has just expired!"
He threw the box in the air, aiming it at one of the torches.
"No!" the Darkness cried as it caught one of the flames and began to burn.
"Run!" Jack yelled and shoved Gwen in front of him, using the chaos of six people attempting to rescue the box.
"Harkness!" the Darkness roared as his own men stopped him from pursuing the fleeing humans.
He shoved them aside and deftly snatched the box from its fiery demise. Caring not if his scorched his host's hands he opened the box.
Thankfully the scrolls within were unmarked. The Darkness smiled, if only Harkness had opened the other scrolls, then perhaps he would have made sure that they burned.
He had the first part of the weapon to destroy the Light and the next clue as to where the next object was located.
The noise had attracted the Supreme Dalek who appeared out of the shadows and the smoke.
"You require assistance. I detected human life signs in this vicinity."
The Darkness looked down the passageway and then at the box. "No, the humans have escaped me, but I have the co-ordinates for our next destination. We will leave."
"And what of this planet and its inhabitants?"
"Take what you need for conversion. As for the rest and this planet, incinerate."
"I obey!" the Supreme Dalek said.
Jack ran, not daring to look behind. He was focused only on the figure of Gwen as they dashed out of the destroyed wall of the pyramid and into the safety of the TARDIS.
It was only after they had dematerialised did it occur to Jack that their escape was too easy.
It was only when the TARDIS showed him did he really knew the Darkness had let them go. The screen showed him the planet below start to glow as bomb upon Dalek bomb rained down on it, until it was nothing but a fiery ball.
He watched as the Dalek fleet moved away from the now molten planet and glide away into the darkness of space.
He growled in frustration...the Darkness no doubt knew where he was going next. He could only hope that the TARDIS could get there before them.
Inside the part of his mind that the Doctor had hidden away the Doctor let out a cry of frustration and anguish.
Yet more people had died because of his tardiness and Rassilon knows how many more. His only hope now was that the taking of the scrolls would awaken the Light and it would find a suitable host.
Ianto sat reading the reports of what had happened whilst he'd been a guest of the Darkness. It made unpleasant reading and he was in two minds as to whether he should read it.
He was about to turn another page when he felt a cool breeze across his neck. He shivered and carried on reading.
He nearly dropped the report when a voice whispered in his ear.
"Ianto...you will come to me, come to my temple...come to the Light."