"Open fire!" Jefferson commanded as he and the rest of the guards start shooting at the Ood. Raelle hung back at the door, watching in horror as the Ood all dropped dead.
"We're stabilising" Zach informed the other over the comms as the overhead shutters closed over him. "We've got orbit."
Raelle rushes back over to the comms. "Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?" She shouts out. "Doctor, Ida, are you there?"
"Open door 25."
Jefferson and the guards turn at the door, prepared to shoot. Danny appears. "It's me!" Danny entered, holding up his hands in defence. He closes the door behind him. "But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."
Jefferson sighs, running a hand down his face. "How many of them?"
"All of them! All fifty!" Danny panics.
"Danny, out of the way." Jefferson walks over to the door, tugging Danny aside. "Out of the way!"
Danny clings onto Jefferson's arm in an attempt to stop him. "But they're armed! It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon." He continued as Jefferson pries open the door.
"Open door 25."
Jefferson opens the door. Behind the door, an Ood stands, sticking its globe onto one of the guard's forehead. She screams in pain. Raelle spins round to watch as she collapses to the floor, eye wide. Jefferson starts shooting at the group of Oods.
"Seal door 24. Seal door 23." Jefferson commands over the comms to Zach.
"Jefferson, what's happening there?" Zach inquires.
"I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?" Jefferson informs Zach, moving to stand beside Raelle next to the scanner.
"All I've got is a bolt gun. With er, all of one bolt." Zach told Jefferson. "I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is."
"Given the emergency, I recommend strategy nine."
Zach sighs. "Strategy Nine Agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Raelle? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"
Raelle shook her head, looking at the scanner before her. "I can't get a reply." She told Zach, a defeated tone to her voice. "Just nothing. I keep trying, but it's-"
Static comes over the comms. "No, sorry, I'm fine. Still here." The Doctor's voice floods over the comms. Raelle sighs a breath of relief.
"You could've said, you stupid-"
Down in Point Zero, the Doctor receives feedback over the comms before Raelle can finish her sentence. He winces at the sound. Probably for the best she didn't get to finish her sentence. "Whoa. Careful!" He whines. "Anyway, it's both of us. Me and Ida. Hello. But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chasm." He informs the group as him and Ida stare into the trapdoor. The trapdoor had opened, leaving a big hole, very deep and dark.
"How deep is it?" Zach asked.
"Can't tell. It looks like it goes down forever."
"The pit is open." Raelle added. "That's what the voice said." She informed the Doctor.
"But there's nothing. I mean-" Zach huffs. "There's nothing coming out?"
The Doctor shook his head as Ida shone her torch down the hole. "No, no. No sign of the Beast."
"It said Satan." Raelle said, in a worried tone.
"Come on, Elle. Keep it together." The Doctor told her in a firm voice. She chewed on the side of her lip.
"Is there no such thing?" She asked, closing her eyes. "Doctor?" There was no reply. "Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."
"Ida?" Zach chimed in over the comms. "I recommend that you withdraw immediately."
Ida huffed. "But, we've come all this way." She argued, throwing her hands up in despair.
"That was an order. Withdraw." Zach commanded. "When that thing opened, the whole planet's shifted. One more inch and we fall into the black hole. So this thing stops right now."
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood." Ida argued.
"I'm initiating strategy nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately. "Zach reiterated. "No ar-" Ida turns off the comms, silencing Zach. The Doctor raised his eyebrows in response.
She turned to the Doctor. "What do you think?"
"I think they've an order." He replied, walking over to peer down the hole.
"Yeah, but what do you think?" She reitterated.
"It said, I am the temptation." The Doctor rests one leg on the side of the hole as she shone his torch down. Ida moved to stand beside him.
"Well, if there's something in there, why is it still hiding?"
The Doctor sighed, a frown appearing on his face. "Maybe we opened the prison but not the cell."
"We should go down." She nodded, looking at the Doctor. The Doctor frowned in response. "I'd go. What about you?"
"Oh. Oh, in a second, but then again." He chuckled, smiling at Ida. "That is so human. Where angels fear to tread. Even now, standing on the edge. It's that feeling you get, eh? Right at the back of your head. That impulse. That strange little impulse." He told Ida as they peered down. "That mad little voice saying, go on. Go on. Go on. Go over. Go on." He rambled in a hushed tone. "Maybe it's relying on that. For once in my life, Officer Scott, I'm going to say....retreat. Oh, now I know I'm getting old." He stepped away from the hole, pressing down on the comms. "Elle, we're coming back."
"Best new I've heard all day." Raelle sighed into the comms. The Doctor and Ida return to the capsule.
"What's strategy nine?" The Doctor asks Ida as they near the capsule.
"Open the airlocks. We'll be safe inside the lock down. The Ood will get thrown out into the vacuum."
"So we're going back to a slaughter?" The Doctor frowned.
"The devil's work."
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ
As Raelle responded to The Doctor over the comms, Jefferson points his rifle at Toby. Raelle looks over, a frown emerging on her face as Toby shuffles away in fear.
"What're you doing?" She asks Jefferson.
"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it."
Raelle looked at Jefferson in disbelief. "Are you going to start shooting your own people now, Is that what you're going to do?" She asked him in a deadpan tone. He didn't reply. "Is it?"
"If necessary."
"Well then, you'll have to shoot me if necessary, so what's it going to be?" She reasoned with him. She gestured to Toby. "Look at his face. Whatever it was, is gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."
"Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him." Jefferson told Raelle, lowering his gun and walking away. Raelle perched down in front of Toby's shaking frame.
"Are you all right?" She asked him.
He nodded, still on edge. "Yeah. I don't know."
"Can you remember anything?"
"Just, it was so angry. It was fury and rage and death. It was him." Toby paused, looking Raelle in the face. "It was the devil."
"Come on." She pulls terrified Toby into a hug, doing her best to comfort him.
"Okay, we're in. Bring us up." Ida informed the group over the comms. Raelle moved to join Jefferson and Danny by the screen next to the capsule.
"Ascension in three, two, one." Jefferson presses the button to pull the capsule up. However, all the power goes out. Raelle looks around in confusion, seeing Danny and Jefferson mirror her expression.
"This is the darkness. This is my domain." The Ood appear on the screen, red eyes peering into the camera. Raelle watches, a frown on her face. "You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die"
"That's not the Ood." Zach interrupts over the comms. "Something's talking through them."
"Only the darkness remains."
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six, representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself."
"You know my name."
"What do you want?" He asked incredulously.
"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave."
"It's him." Toby stated, rocking back and forth in distress. Raelle, Danny and Jefferson all turn to look at him. "It's him. It's him."
"If you are the Beast, then answer me this." The Doctor asked incredulously. "Which one, hmm?" He paused, raising an eyebrow in response. "Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?"
"All of them."
The Doctor scoffed. "What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"
"This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind."
The Doctor frowned. "How did you end up on this rock?"
"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?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Before time."
"What does before time mean?" He cried out.
"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."
The Doctor frowned, eyes wide. "That's impossible. No life could have existed back then."
"Is that your religion?"
"It's a belief." He scoffed.
"You know nothing. All of you, so small. The Captain, so scared of command."
"The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife." Jefferson shuffled before Raelle, looking shocked. "The scientist, still running from Daddy. " Ida looked at the Doctor eyes wide. "The little boy who lied." Danny gasped. "The virgin." Toby continued rocking back and forth. "And the lost girl, the lost soul, so far away from home." Raelle frowned. She felt a wave of anger flow through her chest. The Doctor wasn't happy with the mention of Raelle. "The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."
Raelle stared ahead, blinking blankly. "Doctor, what does that mean?" She asked timidly over the comms.
"Elle, don't listen." He replied, through gritted teeth.
"What does it mean?" She repeated.
"You will die and I will live." The image of the Ood is replaced by a roaring horned beast. Everyone assembled around the screen jumps back.
"What the hell was that?" Danny cried out in shock.
"I had that thing inside my head." Toby told the others, looking like he may throw up any second.
Raelle gulped. "Doctor, what did it mean?" She asked trembling.
"What do we do? Jefferson?" Danny asked.
Jefferson switched on his comms. "Captain? What's the situation on strategy nine?"
"Zach, what do we do?" Danny added.
"The planet, the orbit, the black hole. Everything's true." Toby whispered.
"Captain, report." Jefferson ordered.
"We've lost pictures, Mister Jefferson." Zach informed.
"Doctor, how did it know all of that" Raelle repeated.
"Jefferson.-"
"Stop." The Doctor ordered. Everyone had ruptured into chaos, rambling over one another.
"What did it mean?" Raelle cried out.
"Everyone just stop." The Doctor repeated.
"What do we do?-" Danny cried out.
"Report." Jefferson bellowed.
The Doctor sends feedback through the comms to shut everyone up. They all wince in response before falling silent. "You want voices in the dark then listen to mine." He bellowed through the comms. "That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."
"But that's how the devil works." Danny argued.
"Or a good psychologist." The Doctor countered.
Ida scoffed. "Yeah, but how did it know about my father?"
The Doctor stared at Ida before continuing. "Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm? Cos I'll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a Black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That's amazing!" The Doctor cried out. "Do you hear me? Amazing, all of you. The Captain, his Officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him-"
The Doctor was cut off by a loud bang as the cable connected to the capsule shears and falls into the shaft.
"The cable's snapped!" Ida exclaimed as her and the Doctor looked up above the capsule.
"Get out!" He shouted. They sprint out of the capsule, managing to get out in enough time and throw themselves to the ground as alleged miles of steel cable arrives at speed.
"Doctor, we lost the cable!" Raelle cries out through the comms to him. "Doctor, are you all right? Doctor!" She panics.
"Comms are down." Zach sighed.
"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?" She continues, trembling slightly.
"I've still got life signs, but we've lost the capsule." Zach informed her.
"Say something. Are you there?" She cries out.
"There's no way out. They're stuck down there." Zach told them. Jefferson and Danny looked at each other in dismay as Raelle placed a hand to her forehead in an attempt to calm herself.
"But we've got to bring them back." She called out over the comms.
Jefferson grabbed her by the shoulders, getting her to look at him. "They're ten miles down. We haven't got another ten miles of cable." Banging on the door next to them caused them to look over. "Captain? Situation report."
"It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in."
"Yeah, it's the same on door 25." Jefferson informs him.
"How long's it going to take?" Raelle asks.
"Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes." Jefferson informed her. Another bolt is cut. "Eight." He corrected.
"I've got a security frame. It might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you." Zach called out on the comms.
Raelle sighed, calming herself. "Right. So we need to stop them, or get out, or both."
Danny chuckled nervously. "I'll take both, yeah? But how?"
"You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? Cos he was making sense." She nodded. "He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on!" She ushered for the others to help her think of a way out. "For starters, we need some lights. Zach, there's got to be some sort of power somewhere."
"There's nothing I can do. Some Captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons." Zach growled frustrated.
"That's what the Doctor meant. Press the right buttons." She told him, trying to help him think.
He sighed. "They've gutted the generators. But the rocket's got an independent supply." He realised. "If I could reroute that. Mister Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety."
Jefferson nodded. "Opening bypass conduits, sir."
"Channelling rocket feed in three, two, one. Power." Zach informed as the lights switched back on. Raelle laughed.
"There we go." She chuckled.
"Let there be light!" Danny joined Raelle.
"What about that strategy nine thing?" She inquired.
Jefferson shook his head. "Not enough power. It needs a hundred percent."
"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mister Jefferson, you start working on that. Toby, what about you?" She asked, turning to face him.
"I'm not a soldier. I can't do anything." He shook his head.
"No, you're the archeologist. What do you know about the pit?" She gestured down where the capsule used to be.
"Well, nothing. We can't even translate the language."
"Right."
"Hold on. Maybe..." He trailed off.
"What is it?" She tipped her head.
"Since that thing was inside my head, it's like the letters made more sense."
"Well, get to work." She clapped at the man. "Anything you can translate, just anything. As for you, Danny boy." She turned to face him. "You're in charge of the Ood. Any way of stopping them?"
He shrugged. "Well, I don't know."
"Then find out. The sooner we get control of the Base, the sooner we can get the Doctor out. Shift" She tapped Danny with her foot, sending him a playful smile. As the others hurried along with their tasks, she made her way over to the hole down to Point Zero. She sighed as she looked downwards, secretly praying the Doctor would be safe.