So it's been a while… I've been writing this chapter for ages I promise! Think I just lost a little bit of motivation but we'll get there. Hoping to stick to a schedule of an update a month from here on out!


Hally watched, as The Doctor and Ida were slowly lowered down and further down into the centre of this hellhole they were now stuck on. And they really were stuck. No TARDIS, no way out and just a never-ending stretch of blackness in front of them.

Hally was really trying very hard not to find someone to blame for the predicament she was now in. However, she was scared and rather petty so she decided she would place 100% of the blame on one Mickey Smith. Who was not present to defend himself.

Now, she knew that placing the blame on Mickey, who had actually left the TARDIS about a week ago to continue living in the parallel world they'd managed to crash through to, was quite a far stretch, but it felt like it made sense.

You see, everything that had changed in the last few weeks of Hally's life had only started to change once Mr Smith had started travelling with them. At first, Hally had thought it would be a great idea. Rose and Mickey would be all coupled up and she'd get to spend some quality father-daughter time with The Doctor.

Perhaps initially that had happened. During their brief escapade to 18th Century France, The Doctor had even found himself catching the eye of Madame de Pompadour, which Hally had briefly been quite pleased about. Maybe Rose would turn back to Mickey for comfort. But no, after that it seemed that Rose and The Doctor had managed to get even closer and even more weird. There had been a few moments where Hally had actually found herself looking to Mickey to share in her disgust. But he would just laugh at her and shrug.

But then, after dealing with the Cybermen on the parallel earth, Mickey had decided to leave them. He'd muttered something to Hally about not wanting to live his life as a third-wheeling tin dog. Hally had smiled and nodded as if she knew what he was talking about. But actually, she'd been rather irritated with him for giving up so easily. How was she supposed to stop The Doctor and Rose from being gross now?

All of a sudden, being in the TARDIS was like being in the school playground. Sometimes Hally would walk into the console room or the kitchen and The Doctor and Rose would instantly go silent, their faces burning. Hally would narrow her eyes at them both and slowly exit, hearing childish giggling coming from the pair on her exit.

And THEN there were the times when she couldn't find them at all. She'd walk the silent TARDIS corridors in search of either one of them for near half an hour before eventually giving up, deciding the TARDIS must be playing tricks on her and going back to sulking in her room.

Then, things had only gotten stranger after their visit to England, 1953. There had definitely been a moment when The Doctor had thought he'd lost Rose, when she'd been stood in front of them, face completely missing. It was then that Hally realised she recognised the white-hot rage that The Doctor was using to fuel his mission to save Rose. She'd seen that look before.

A few weeks after that, even the TARDIS had started acting strange around her. She'd walk into the console room with Rose and The Doctor and instantly orange lights and siren-like alarms would start going off. Initially, The Doctor had been panicked, he'd rushed around the console room, hitting various parts of the mechanisms with a rubber hammer. Wittering on to himself about unreliable parts.

"Doctor, I'm not sure hitting it is going to stop the alarm…" Rose muttered, leaning over the console to peer down at The Doctor who was currently hitting at it from underneath.

"It always helps!" He grumbled, whacking at the underside of the console irritably.

The alarm stopped for a few seconds and the TARDIS inhabitants looked at each other hopefully.

"OH!" The Doctor yelled when the alarm started back up again, louder than before.

Hally covered her ears with her hands. "Maybe stop hitting her!"

The Doctor jumped up and pointed the hammer at her. "Well, you fix it then." He huffed irritably.

"Umm, could it be this…?" Rose piped up from behind him, raising her hand like a schoolchild. The Doctor turned around and both he and Hally leant to the side to try and see what Rose was pointing at.

The Doctor's face fell into a confused frown as he moved over to the screen. Hally couldn't really see, but there were two angry flashing dots on the screen.

"But that's not…" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, glancing around the room as if looking for something.

"There's not two - …" He muttered before he stopped. Hally raised an eyebrow, it was like someone had pressed pause on The Doctor.

"Umm… what is it?" Hally asked.

The Doctor looked up at her slowly, sending a glance over towards Rose.

"Rose go stand over there…" The Doctor pointed towards the door of the TARDIS, on one side of the console. Rose laughed but after receiving an exasperated glare from The Doctor, did as she was told.

The Doctor pointed at Hally and motioned with his hand for her to take a few steps back. "Hally, step back into the corridor." Hally shot Rose a confused look, which she returned, shrugging her shoulders.

"Noooow." The Doctor whined. Hally flailed her hands in exasperation but moved herself towards the entrance to the corridor which led deeper into the TARDIS. The Doctor was staring at the screen. After a moment, the alarm stopped.

"Ah…" The Doctor muttered, covering his face with his hand.

"What's wrong with the TARDIS?" Rose asked from the other side of the console room.

"Umm…" The Doctor straightened up, looking between the two women. "Nothing… she's fine. She's actually fine." He'd started to pace between them both.

Hally laughed. "Fine? You sure about that?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

He stopped, bringing his hands up to his face, thinking hard. After a moment he turned back to the console pressing a few buttons. "Anyone hungry?" He started randomly.

Rose laughed. "No?"

"I'm starving." The Doctor continued, Hally recognised the noise the TARDIS was now making, they were landing somewhere.

"Chips, anyone want chips? Hal? Rose? Chips? Yeah!" The Doctor continued.

Hally shrugged. "I guess, I could eat chips?"

The Doctor clapped his hands. "Perfect! Hally's going to go and get us chips!"

Hally raised an eyebrow. "I am?"

"Yes! Chips." The Doctor landed the TARDIS, rounding on Rose. "If you two could just swap… that'd be grand."

Rose raised an eyebrow and started towards the middle of the console room. The Doctor held his hand up quickly, motioning for her to stand back. "No! Round the outside… I need you to both swap places… but… as far away as possible."

Hally frowned. "Doctor what's going on?"

"Chips! Chips is what is going on. Now both of you, circle around please." The Doctor cried, motioning for them both to start moving in a circular direction.

Hally audibly huffed and started moving to her left, watching as Rose moved around the outside of the console room until eventually they'd swapped places and now Hally stood in front of the TARDIS doors.

"Perfect. Ummm… now, Hal, you can go grab some chips." The Doctor nodded, pointing towards the door.

"Right… ok?" Hally looked at Rose, who was looking back at her with the same confused look.

"Yep. Chips." The Doctor nodded.

"I guess… I'll be back in 15?" Hally shrugged her shoulders, confused by The Doctor's sudden obsession with chips but feeling like it wasn't the right time to question him. The Doctor nodded enthusiastically and shooting one last look at Rose, Hally exited the TARDIS.

Luckily, The Doctor had landed in a place she knew. Cardiff. Hally gave another look back at the TARDIS before heading towards the nearest chip shop she knew. After 'purchasing' 3 small cones of chips, Hally walked back to where The Doctor had parked the TARDIS. Hally's blood ran cold when she noticed that the spot where the TARDIS had inhabited just moments before, was now empty. Her panic was short lived, however, because as she watched, the TARDIS began to rematerialize in front of her eyes. When it finally landed, The Doctor swung open the door, grinning at her stupidly.

"Hey there!" He yelled.

Hally frowned, she could see Rose peeking out from behind The Doctor, smiling kindly at her.

"It's been 7 minutes?" Hally asked, pushing past The Doctor and into the TARDIS. She handed Rose and The Doctor their cones of chips.

"Oh yes!" The Doctor laughed. "Chips… I'd completely forgotten."

Rose had also laughed at that.

Hally looked between the two of them. They were acting strange. Come to think of it… something about them looked strange too. They were wearing the same clothes of course… but it was like there was something different. Hally looked around the console room. Everything looked how it had been.

Suddenly Hally felt a pair of arms engulf her tightly. It was Rose. She was hugging her.

"Umm… Hi?" Hally mumbled against Rose's arm. The young human pulled away. Hally swore there was a mist of tears in her eyes.

"Hey." Rose grinned at her.

"You two are being weird…"

The Doctor had laughed at that. "Yes. Sorry. Chips. Let's get a move on right?"

"Did you fix the TARDIS?" Hally asked, popping a chip into her mouth.

"Huh?" The Doctor frowned. "Oh right! Yes. All fixed." He grinned happily. Hally noticed Rose shooting him a knowing smile.

"Ok… good." Hally looked between them. "Where to?"

"Right! Yes. Where indeed…"

After that, they'd landed on a space station in orbit around a black hole and in a very short amount of time they'd managed to lose the TARDIS and meet with all the remaining crew and Ood aboard the station.

"No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could. What would I tell her? Can you build another Tardis?" Rose asked as she checked her phone.

"They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone, we're kind of stuck." The Doctor admitted.

"Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift." Rose shrugged, trying to put on a happy smile.

"And then what?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the human.

"I don't know. Find a planet, get a job, live a life, same as the rest of the universe." Rose shrugged, Hally could see she was looking at The Doctor with something else behind her eyes. A secret.

The Doctor made a face. "I'd have to settle down. Get a house or something. A proper house with, with doors and things. Carpets. Me, living in a house. Now that, that is terrifying."

Rose laughed. "You'd have to get a mortgage."

"No." The Doctor gasped.

"Oh, yes." Rose grinned.

"I'm dying. That's it. I'm dying. It is all over."

"What about me? I'd have to get one, too. I don't know, could be the same one. We could both, I don't know, share. Or not, you know. Whatever. I don't know. We'll sort something out…" Rose rambled. Hally frowned looking between them.

"Anyway…" The Doctor started.

"We'll see." Rose finished.

The trio had gone to meet the Ood then, with Danny. The telepathic field connecting them had shot up. The Doctor had described it as screaming, like something was screaming at the Ood telepathically. The beast in the pit had awoken…

Then the drill had stopped. They'd reached the centre. Of course, The Doctor had volunteered to go down with Ida to investigate.

"I want that spacesuit back in one piece, you got that?" Rose had hugged him tightly, when they'd pulled away from one another they'd both looked over at Hally for a split second.

"Yes, sir." The Doctor replied, before pulling his daughter into a tight hug.

Rose and Hally watched as the capsule containing The Doctor and Ida had been lowered further and further into the darkness of the pit. Watching on the grainy monitor, Rose clutching the microphone in her hand.

"Don't forget to breathe. Breathing's good." Rose had muttered into the mic.

"Rose, stay off the comm." Zach, one of the crew had muttered.

"No chance." Rose replied, shooting Hally a glance.

The Doctor and Ida had made it to the end of the shaft, they'd found some kind of trap door. Meanwhile, Danny had been observing the Ood, supposedly their telepathic field had been increasing dramatically. Hally tried to reach out to feel the field, she could feel something. Like a small background vibration. Like when a tiny fly flies past your ear. You can feel it just for a second. But then it'd disappear, nothing concrete enough to get a hold of.

Once The Doctor and Ida had found the trap door they'd sent images up to the control room for Toby to decipher. Rose was pacing, obviously impatient.

"Toby, they need to know that lettering. Does it make any sort of sense?" The human leant over him, trying to look at the images.

"I know what it says." Toby's voice made Hally look over. It'd changed.

"Then tell them." Rose huffed.

Jefferson, another of the crew members frowned and looked over to his friend. "When did you work that out?"

"It doesn't matter, just tell them."

Toby stood up slowly, turning towards the three of them. Rose gasped and Hally made to step forward in front of the two humans, putting herself between Toby and Rose.

He was covered in symbols, he opened his mouth to speak but it wasn't his voice that echoed around the control room. "These are the words of the Beast. And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise."

The Doctor's voice crackled over the comms system "What is it? What's he done? What's happening? Rose, Hal, what's going on?"

Hally scanned the room quickly, trying to find a quick escape route out of the room. Toby was advancing on them slowly. His mouth opened and as he did the symbols that marred his face began to fall away from him over to the Ood. The Ood jerked to attention, their eyes glowing red. Hally barely caught Toby as his body collapsed to the floor.

"We are the Legion of the Beast." The Ood all said, they were stood together. Not moving, but staring intently at the humans.

The Doctor was shouting at them over the comms system, but the Ood drowned the sound of his voice out.

"The Legion shall be many, and the Legion shall be few."

"He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan or Lucifer."

"Or the Bringer of Despair, the Deathless Prince, the Bringer of Night."

"These are the words that shall set him free."

"I am the sin and the temptation and the desire. I am the pain and the loss."

"The gravity field. It's going! We're losing orbit! We're going to fall into the black hole!" Zack cried out, the entire base jerked violently, the humans losing their balance.

"I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more."

Hally looked over at Rose, her pale face reflecting her own fear back at her. Rose reached out to her with her hand, Hally quickly took it and gave her what she hoped was an encouraging squeeze as the station shook violently again.

"The Pit is open. And I am free."


IIIII IIIII

20th December 2007?

Hally was sat on one of the round benches in the yard watching the humans. She rolled her jaw, wincing at the dull ache in her muscles. She'd seen the dark purple and green bruises that currently painted her jawline earlier that morning from the ridiculous muzzle device that she'd been forced to wear for the past 2 weeks. They'd taken it off yesterday. She supposed as a 'reward' for her seemingly good behaviour. Not like she'd had a choice.

Her usual guard was currently burning holes in the back of her head with his icy stare. He never left her side anymore. The very sight of him was starting to make Hally want to scream and do other violent things…

Although she supposed she had 'behaved' herself over the last few days. Whatever that meant. Saxon's words had shaken her the last time they had spoken. She'd hated him for what he'd said, but a part of her couldn't rid herself of the feeling that he was right. She had changed since Gallifrey. She was different. But was that necessarily a bad thing? Standing up for people who needed help wasn't a bad thing, if that'd been something she'd learnt from The Doctor then there wasn't anything wrong with that, was there?

There was a sharp smacking sound from the other side of the yard, Hally's eyes flicked up to see Courtney pushing Bethany into the metal fence that surrounded their outside space. Hally didn't even realise that she'd gotten to her feet before she felt the heavy hand of the guard on her shoulder. He squeezed painfully. A warning.

An ache started to pull in Hally's shoulders and she realised she had tensed up. Her eyes wandered back over to Courtney and Bethany, the arrogant taller girl was smirking. Bethany cowered slightly, trying to move away from the older girl, shooting Hally a small apologetic look. Hally's jaw twitched. She knew that this wouldn't end well for her if she intervened. But it wouldn't end well for Bethany if she didn't. Walking away would be easier.

I should just turn around…

But, of course, she couldn't. Her decision had already been made the moment she saw Courtney advancing on the younger girl. Hally moved. Her guard's hand was still gripping her shoulder tightly. She grabbed it with both of her arms and tugged as hard as she could, pulling his arm in front of her and yanking it down until she heard a snap.

Not wanting to waste the short window she'd have, Hally ducked and turned, grabbing what she figured must be his Taser from his belt. She brought it up quickly, connecting the handle with the side of his head. His head snapped to the side, not quite unconscious but the way he tilted and almost toppled over to the side told Hally that he was dealt with. Without a second thought, Hally moved over to Bethany, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her roughly away from Courtney.

Hally could see that Courtney was laughing but she couldn't hear it over the sound of her own blood rushing through her head.

"You've really done it now." Her sickening voice caught her attention.

Hally growled at her, baring her teeth. She could feel her hearts hammering loudly in her chest, adrenaline beating violently through her blood. It was so loud. Not quite loud enough to completely cover the unmistakable weight of her fear. There was silence outside for a few moments.

Then suddenly, alarms were blaring and within seconds the yard was flooded with the guards, every single one of them had their own Tasers pointed at her, they fanned out in front of her and Bethany blocking any chance of escape. Not that Hally had ever considered escaping. She pulled Bethany behind her slightly, pushing her out of harm's way. Hally let out a shaky breath and lifted her own Taser up at the guards, she wouldn't go down completely without a fight.

But what she brought up wasn't the jet black stick.

Hally's blood ran cold and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

"You've really done it now." Courtney had said…

She hadn't grabbed the Taser.

She'd grabbed a gun.

Hally looked back up to the circle of guards in front of her, trying to keep her arm from shaking. The middle guards parted slightly and Saxon walked forward, flanked by two men in lab coats. Her eyes met with his, the usually sparkling deep brown were stone cold and menacing. A glint of metal caught her attention and her eyes flicked over to one of the men flanking Saxon, they were armed with syringes, the liquid inside a swirling bright orange.

"Place the gun on the ground!" One of the guards yelled, the semi-circle of men in grey took a tentative step forward, slowly boxing her in.

Hally's hand tensed around the gun. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't let them come near. Her eyes flickered around them, feeling more and more like a wild animal about to attack.

Could she take them down before they got to her? How many? What about Saxon…?

"Drop the gun on the ground." Saxon's voice cut through to her. There was no kindness there anymore. His cold eyes never left her face, she could almost feel him willing her to obey him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that one of the lab coat men had started to circle behind her as the guards inched closer still.

"STAY STILL!" She cried, doing the one thing that made any sense. She pointed the gun straight at Saxon's head.

Suddenly everyone was still. No one moved. Not even Hally. The breath was caught in her throat. It felt like no one was breathing.

Saxon's eyes darkened on her. "Put it down."

She couldn't. She couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't talk.

She managed to shake her head, her eyes stung with the salt of tears and she grit her teeth hard.

He must have seen something in her eyes, must have understood the pure state of panic that she was in because his expression shifted and he took a gentle step forward.

"Look at me." He whispered. "Just me."

She kept her gaze steady on his, her arm was burning now with the weight of the gun. She could see the trigger shaking in her hand.

Saxon lifted up his hand, motioning for the lab coats to move away from her. They did, slowly moving back to his side. His eyes never left hers as he gently took one of the orange syringes off one of them, holding it out so she could see it.

"It's just me. You're alright." He said softly, taking another tentative step forward, leaving the guards behind him.

"I won't let them hurt you. Let me help."

Hally let out a short breath, lowering the gun ever so slightly so it was now pointing just below his heart. He smiled encouragingly and took another step. He was just an arm's length away.

"That's it." He cooed.

Her eyes flickered behind him to the guards that were still encircling them, their weapons still pointed at her. Her hand twitched on the gun, gripping it tighter. She should shoot him.

"Don't look at them. It's just me." He whispered, before raising his hand behind him. "All of you, back off…" He murmured, loud enough for them to hear but not too loud, as if trying not to spook a frightened animal.

He looked back at her, holding out his free hand. "Give me the gun."

Hally felt tears prick at her eyes. Her pride stinging. She was so fed up with feeling so powerless, so alone. Something in her mind was screaming at her to just shoot him. To end it. But there was something burning behind his eyes. She wasn't going to shoot him. She couldn't.

Gently she lowered the gun fully into Saxon's outstretched hand but she didn't let go. Her hand was still wrapped tightly around the handle.

Saxon lifted up his other hand, holding the orange syringe up to her.

"It's going to be ok. I'm going to fix this for you. You're just going to go sleep. Ok?"

Hally watched him intently. He was giving her a way out. She could just stop fighting him and she could go to sleep. That sounded good. Right? He would fix it for her.

Hally gave him the smallest of nods and he took another step in closer.

She could smell him now, she wasn't sure if she'd smelt him before. Her grip must have loosened on the gun because she felt him gently pull it from her grip, dropping it onto the floor. His hand came up and gently brushed his now free hand over her left cheek, he moved his hand towards the back of her head and she relaxed into his hand, letting him gently cradle her head.

"Ssshh, I've got you." He whispered softly, his eyes were dark and intense. There was something in them that Hally recognised. Something…

There was a sharp scratch at her neck as Saxon injected the syringe. Within seconds black fog descended over her eyes. She felt herself fall, hands caught her and everything went quiet.