The Lost Time Lord (A Doctor Who/Tenth Doctor Fanfiction)

Chapter Thirty-One: The Satan Pit

"Well I could've told you that." 

My eyes widened as a voice came over the comms that I hadn't heard in almost two days. 

"Mary?!" I asked, holding my wrist up to my mouth. 

"Yes, sir, I'm hearing you."

"Mary, where are you?!" I exclaimed. "We're down in the mineshaft, we can come and get you."

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that. I'm safe in the TARDIS and you two or working with borrowed time, as far as oxygen goes. Either stay where you are or go back to the station, either way, I'm coming to you once I- Good lord! The interference down here is wreaking havoc on the nav systems. Its like television in the 50s!"

"Sorry, nav systems?" I asked, turning away from Ida. "Since when do you know how to operate the nav systems?"

"Oh, Doctor. Now is really not the time to start asking questions like that. The answer is long and dramatic, and neither of us has the time for that sort of explanation." She said. "I'm recommending you make good on that 'retreat' idea. I'll be right behind you." 

"Hold on, you're not going to fly the TARDIS." I said. "You're good Mary, but you're not that good."

"Oh yeah? Watch me."

"Mary-"

"Doctor, seriously, we do not have time to discuss this. You and Officer Scott need to get back up to the station, and from what I hear, they're working on instituting strategy nine, which sounds big and dangerous, so I'm gonna need you to trust me." 

"To fly the TARDIS?" I repeated.

"Do you trust me or not?" She asked. I sighed, shaking my head. 

"Right behind us, yeah?" 

"Right behind." She chorused. I nodded, turning around and leading the way back towards the lift, with Ida falling into step beside me. 

"What is Strategy Nine?" I questioned. 

"Open the airlocks, "She said, "We'll be safe inside the lockdown."

I raised my wrist to my lips again.

"Mary, are you sure you can-"

"That doesn't sound like trusting me."

"Its your first time flying the TARDIS, with less than 48 hours to learn how to fly the TARDIS, and you're trying to fly into the heart of a space station sat beneath a black hole with faulty navigation systems that you shouldn't even know how to use."

"I quite like those odds, actually." I shook my head. "Doctor, I promise, I know what I'm doing. Just try to stay alive long enough for me to explain how, ok?"

I sighed, gritting my teeth before stepping into the lift, allowing Ida to shut the door behind us. 

"Ok, we're in. Bring us up." She said. 

"Ascension in three, two, one."

The lights in the lift flickered before ultimately going out, with the only light left being the one in each our helmets. 

"This is the darkness. This is my domain. You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die, in the end...Only the darkness remains."

"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base 6, representing the Torchwood Archive. You will identify yourself." 

"You know my name."

"What do you want?"

"You will die here, all of you. This planet is your grave. "

"If you are the beast the answer me this," I demanded, "Which one, hmm? 'Cause the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Arkiphets, Quoldonity, Christianity, Pash Pash, Neo-Judaism, San Claar, the Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?"

"All of them."

"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"

"This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind."

"How did you end up on this rock?" I asked. 

"The disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the Pit for all eternity."

"When was this?"

"Before time." 

"What does that mean?" I questioned furrowing my eyebrows. "What does before time mean?"

"Before time and light and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created. "

"That's impossible," I replied, "No life could have existed back then." 

"Is that your religion? "

"Its a belief."

"You know nothing. All of you, so small. The captain, so scared of command. The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife. The scientist, still running from daddy. The little boy who lied, the virgin, and the lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle oh so very soon."

"Doctor, what does that mean?"

"Rose, don't listen." I said. 

"You will die...and I will live."

A giant roar cut off the Beast's transmission, and the others began launching into panic.

"What the hell was that?" Danny asked. 

"Doctor, what did it mean?"

"What do we do?"

"Captain, what's the situation with Strategy Nine?"

"We've lost pictures, did anyone get an analysis?"

"How did it know-"

"Stop, everyone just stop-" I tried, attempting to talk over them.

"What do we do?"

"Report-"

"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!" Mary's voice sounded through the comms, cutting off the panicked ramblings of the crew.