A/N: Okie dokie guys! For those still not up to date, I have since revised this story and have fixed a lot of things in it that kept glaring at me during my reread. At long last I am finishing this bad boy so I can have a clean conscience lol Apologies for not updating sooner since my last note. I was on vacation with my family and finally got around to finishing this chapter on the plane ride home (all 9 hours; fuck me). Enjoy!

The Doctor fell in and out of consciousness as he was dragged down to an unknown, dark space hidden from the rest of the house. He felt stuck in a dreamless haze, trying to gather his strength in a temporary healing coma. Unlike his regeneration sickness, the draining of energy wasn't drastic enough to keep him bed-bound for a significant period of time. Regardless he was still conscious and aware of his surroundings. He didn't risk opening his eyes, not when his enemies could easily kill him if they so choose.

"How is he?" he heard one of the stepsisters say to the other.

"Alive," the other responded.

"Good. The others may have escaped but at least he's still loyal," the first said coldly. They snickered to themselves, the sound of a door opening interrupting the Doctor's need to focus on their conversation. With a harsh thud, he grunted as he felt his body connect with the ground, the door shutting with a loud slam. The sound of a lock switched into place, imprisoning the Time Lord with whatever company lay beyond.

He waited patiently for any sound to come, but there was none. Was he alone? He regained full consciousness, the partial healing incomplete but it was enough to keep himself steady on his feet. He sat up in a sitting position, fatigue palpable as he tried his best to keep awake. The room barely had any light, though his superior biology did its best to see through it. Despite the darkness, the room was surprisingly spacious, though quiet. Too quiet.

The Doctor quickly dusted himself off and got to his feet, swaying a tad but was otherwise okay and prepared to come up with an escape plan. He thankfully still had his sonic, and felt his way along the wall to find the door. But his foot collided with something else.

A guttural growl penetrated the silence, and the Doctor jumped, nearly falling back to the floor. Through the dark he saw a darker shape move, the clanging of chains the indication of a prisoner trapped here. The shape was familiar.

Before another thought could come to him, talons grabbed him. He knew the grip. It was one of them.

"You did this! This is your fault!" it shouted, its voice male. Two of its six limbs prepared itself to drain whatever energy the Doctor had left, but the Doctor anticipated the attack.

"Please, no! I can help! I'm here to help!" he cried out. He screamed when the male tore through his memories, each time more painful than the last. It was then the male dropped him hastily, a look of realization in its mind. The Doctor lay panting; grunting as the pain slowly ebbed away yet lingered as a headache. Trying to see past his blurry vision, he got out his sonic once again, illuminating the end like a torch. The beast shrieked in horror, turning its bulk away from the sudden onslaught of light.

"Doctor…" the male said quietly, his features tentative, almost confused.

"How do you know my name?"

"They speak of you. I sense their thoughts. Time Lords… you're the last."

The Doctor stood still, trying to contemplate how he could know so much, considering his imprisonment. Had he been down here all this time? How long has it been for him?

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't understand. Who are you? Where are we? How did you get here?"

The male, despite his hesitation, snatched the sonic from his fingers and pointed it at his surroundings. The Doctor's blood ran cold.

The room wasn't empty. It was filled with cages. Open cages.

"Rassalion… they're gone."

The memory of the ballroom hit him like a tidal wave. All of those sentient beings… dying.

They all came from here. But how?

"I… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

It was then the large male dropped the sonic like a toy, the light making his features more terrifying. He approached the Doctor, his eyes calculating. "Why did you come here?" He grabbed his shirt, aggression in his gaze. "Why are you the last? The Time Lords are gone. Yet you remain."

The Doctor stood defiant. "The big question is, why are you here when all of those souls escaped?"

The male's gaze suddenly saddened, and the Doctor wondered where he fit. He felt that there had to be more to this fellow.

"Their binds are weak. I was meant to stay here. But they fought against the restrains and ran free without me. I heard them across the land. They were ravenous. They wanted food. And I can sense it, too… I want it."

The last thing the Doctor needed was another sentient after Rose. His gaze hardened. "Don't you dare! I'm here for her. She was put here by your kind and it ends now. Why have your kind done this? Answer me!"

The male hissed, his eyes glowing green. "My kin are only doing what is necessary to keep them alive! I'm too weak for them now. They searched for another because I am no longer an asset. I'm surprised they haven't killed me yet."

"Finding alien crafts and devouring their souls doesn't excuse—wait, hold on, did you say my kin?"

The male's expression suddenly saddened. "My mother and sisters. They betrayed me. I… I disagreed, Doctor. I didn't want to do it, either, but when I refused they put me here and—"

"They fed off of you, didn't they? For as long as they could." The Doctor's expression held no emotion, just a hard, unmerciful stare at nothing. "They tossed their own flesh and blood into a dungeon, rotting with the rest."

The Doctor's summary made the male loosen his grip on the Time Lord, shrinking away to a corner, his chains clanging. The male refused to look at him, the Doctor feeling wrong for saying such words when they were probably a painful reminder of the cruelty of his family.

Tentatively, the Doctor moved towards the male's bulk, placing a hand on his massive shoulder and tried to send waves of empathy into him. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Pstu'ra," the male replied, his voice meek.

The Doctor only nodded. "Why did they put you here? Why were any of you put here, while they're above ground?"

It was then that Pstu'ra stood up on his hind legs, his height passing the Doctor by feet. He walked over to another spot in the dark not illuminated by the sonic, only to stop abruptly. Pstu'ra hissed, tugging on the chains and roaring defiantly.

"Hold on, hold on, big fella," the Doctor spoke up in an attempt to calm him down, grabbing his sonic and feeling along the wall for the bolts. As quick as he got there, he sonic-ed the chains off, the metal clanging to the ground as he got to work unlatching the restrains from Pstu'ra's ankles.

"Bless you," he heard him say, so quiet he almost missed it. Continuing on his way, Pstu'ra felt something in the middle of the room, his eyes more acute than the Doctor's as a switch was flipped. The room suddenly came to life as a blue and brown haze filled the space. The horrors of the location were now visible, making the Doctor's hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The cages were small, barely big enough to sustain someone as large as Pstu'ra, though he was not in a cell when he found him. The others, however, were.

Clearly his family wanted better access if they ever needed a nibble.

The Doctor's fists tightened at this realization.

Pstu'ra's source of light came from a tall machine, very much like the Time Vortex in his TARDIS: long, reaching the ceiling, and filled with bits and bobs in every which way and that. The Doctor was fascinated but he had better things to do. Crackles of energy filled this device, and he wondered where it came from.

"We live for centuries, Doctor," Pstu'ra spoke. "Much like you. But we've long changed since then. We used to look so different, so many millions upon thousands of years ago. We were a peaceful race."

There was a pause. "But… but then there was the Time War."

Pstu'ra nodded. "We weren't technologically advanced, not really. The war thrust us into an industrial age. We had no choice if we had a fighting chance. I remember stories of the Daleks coming, just a handful wiping out my kind. It was mad. Our bodies changed in response to how our world changed. No longer were we capable of any of our customs once the war began. And now we are this.

"Centuries later, come my time, my family was among the higher ruling dynasties. We may be beasts to you, Doctor, but we still held standards. My family… they were greedy. When the war finally ceased, our resources were vastly depleted. We hardly had enough to feed the billions we used to have. We… we fed off of each other's life force. The war had made us so desperate, so miserable; we sacrificed life over death, only to receive death either way."

The Doctor's eyes suddenly popped from his skull. "Pstu'ra… my god, I never even wondered! What are you?"

Pstu'ra focused his green irises at the Doctor's sadness and defeat plain to see. "We are what is left of the Y'ohona."

"The Y'ohona, of course!" the Doctor shouted, his hands in his hair. "Stupid, stupid, Doctor!" Pstu'ra's stood there bewildered at the Time Lord's manic actions. "That's right, your kind were telepathic! Sentient! You don't rely on physical food to eat. You use the energy within each of you to fuel yourselves. If you lot are steeped in death and misery and sorrow for too long, you starve. I don't know how you managed to survive for this long after the devastation the war brought to your planet, Pstu'ra, but I give you my greatest apologies. What's going on now… it shouldn't have happened."

"We wouldn't have survived… if it hadn't been for this," Pstu'ra said, pointing to the machine. "My family developed it. Revolutionized the way our energy could be collected. We were all in a depression. But this… this helped us. We activated it, and it was designed to change brain waves. To make us happy again. So we could live again.

"My family wanted too much. The little resources we had on our planet were put into building thousands of these machines, fueling us, only for them to die so soon because our planet was beyond repair. So my family used it for more… nefarious purposes.

"I learned of their plan. They were so desperate to feed off of energy, to regain enough strength that could not be found here since our machines cost too much, that they stole ships from space; put them into fantasy worlds where they were constantly miserable, going insane. I watched hundreds of lives drained from them, just so they could gorge. I… I feel ashamed to admit that I have done the same, just to keep myself alive. My conscience got the better of me, Doctor. I told on them, like a child. I used my high position of power, as part of a ruling family dynasty to tell the nation without them knowing. Needless to say, our small population was outraged. My family was, too.

"They enjoyed the pain. They feasted on the pain of others, for it fueled them more than happiness could. No one would get in their way. Survival of the fittest. We've been down here for so long we forgot what sunlight felt like. My kind, we nearly starved. We held on the best we could but it was no use, not when we had little hope. So they caved. They dealt with having to feast on each other's misery. So many died, just here in their cells, while my family went above ground, eating people from the inside out so they could keep their little dynasty going, to keep their place in society afloat when it has long been gone. When nothing was found in space, they came back, feasting on my kind and me; children, elders; the strong, the weak; it didn't matter.

"I was a traitor. They kept me as a favorite, not even bothering to put me in an eternal state of damnation when the thought of my own family eating my soul was enough to keep them wanting more. That's why I'm here, Doctor. I'm their little play thing."

"They were all down here in the dark… just so our friends upstairs could get their kicks? Is that what I'm understanding?" The Doctor's tone was icy.

Pstu'ra nodded once. He was warming up the Doctor's concealed rage. They had something in common.

"You helped them revolt."

Pstu'ra smiled, the first one he's seen on an Y'ohona's face. "I urged them to leave. They were terrified of my family, afraid they would continuously eat them instead. Cannibalism was common. So I told them to go, for they were strong enough to break their bonds but hadn't due to fear. So they set out at last, hoping to find the food my family found and use that as a means to live. I felt every last light flicker from their eyes above me, from what I could assume was the ballroom. I'm aware of the story they created above ground, one not familiar to our culture but was a good a candidate as any to keep their victim perpetually miserable."

The Doctor turned his eyes to the machine, coming towards it and examining it. It impressed him; it was the one creating this madness, the perceived reality Rose had to suffer through just for Tremaine and her daughters to reek havoc on her. His blood boiled.

Pstu'ra saw the raw determination in the Time Lord's eyes, feeling suddenly ashamed for insulting him earlier. "I know it wasn't your fault for the war, Doctor. I've felt your presence and knew they still lived, even when my family doubted. But now, after everything… I just felt—"

"I know. I know."

It was silent for a bit, each too afraid to say anything else as death reeked around them like a rotting, stinking corpse. The Doctor recognized a few buttons and keys, and pressed a common command sequence. The screen in front of him came to life, the Y'ohona language translated to English thanks to the TARDIS. Pstu'ra's body language stood to attention, suddenly curious.

"What are you doing? Don't touch it, you might disrupt the coding!"

"Coding? As in… like website coding?"

"I'm unsure of what a website is, but it is a plethora of commands, all designed and typed in a specific format to create a tangible image to mimic one's surroundings. This is how they create the worlds for others to bask in. The machines use the planet's activities near the mantle, generating energy from there. Which is why you should not touch it. This world would crumble, and everything with it!"

"Aaahhh, but Pstu'ra, isn't that what we want for this desolate rock?" the Doctor smirked, his fingers going to work as he dug into the guts of the machine. Scrolling through pages of code, he immediately came across what he was looking for: a timed destruct command.

"What are you doing?" Pstu'ra said urgently. He was about to get the Doctor away from the machine when the device suddenly chirped in response to the Doctor's quick fingers. Pstu'ra approached the machine, seeing the code even he couldn't decipher, yet seemed all too familiar to the Doctor.

"Piece of cake," the Doctor said proudly. The equivalent to the enter button was pressed after countless more typing:

activate destruct command? Y/N _;

*WARNING: will lose valuable data_;

Y_;

destruct_;

deactivate device #adb4832? Y/N _;

Y_;

enter_;

commencing_;

The Doctor pressed enter again, despite Pstu'ra hissing in annoyance. "What are you doing? Do that and you'll destabilize the current reality!"

"Precisely."

"WHAT?"

allotted time until shutdown _30m30s30mi_;

*CHANGE? Y/N_;

Y_;

60m0s0mi_;

enter_;

countdown begins_;

"You fool!"

The Doctor smirked, his sonic in hand. "No time for that, Pstu'ra. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I'm good at, it's fighting against time. I've got an hour to escape this reality before it removes itself into atoms, all the while getting back to my TARDIS and getting out of here. Meanwhile, your greedy family will suffer as this machine will self destruct along with this little fantasy world it made. And you're coming with me."

"I… I don't—"

"No need to thank me yet. I've got my companion to save."

A/N: It's not as long as you would guys probably like, but this was just a chapter to set things in motion. I wanted this story to be 12 chapters because even numbers are cool so the next part is going to be the climax and the final being the resolution. That's my plan at least! I pray to god I can complete this before I go away to college but eh, if I don't, you'll still hate me anyway lmao