Chapter Thirty Eight: The Satan Pit

As the last of the Ood in the drilling area collapsed dead on the ground, Zach's voice filtered through the comms link once more. "We're stabilising. We've got orbit."

Alex ran back to the comm. "Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor, Ida, are you there?"

"Open door 25," the computer announced, and Jefferson and the female guard prepared to shoot, Alex turning round in case they needed her assistance.

"It's me!" Danny yelped, holding his hands up before turning to close the door behind him. "But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."

"How many of them?" Jefferson demanded.

"All of them! All fifty!"

"Danny, out of the way. Out of the way!" Jefferson ordered, pulling the younger man away, before preparing to shoot. Alex joined him and the guard.

"But they're armed! It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon," Danny cried, as Jefferson opened the door, and an Ood demonstrated on the female guard. She dropped to the floor, dead, and Jefferson and Alex opened fire. They managed to push the Ood back to outside the door and close it again.

"Seal door 24. Seal door 23," Jefferson told the computer.

"Jefferson, what's happening there?" Zach questioned through the comms.

"I've got very little ammunition, sir, but Alex seems to be holding up. How about you?" Jefferson reported.

"All I've got is a bolt gun. With, er, all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is," Zach scoffed.

"Given the emergency, I recommend strategy Nine," Jefferson stated. Danny and Scooti shared an uneasy look.

"Strategy Nine agreed." There was a pause. "Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"

Rose sighed. "I can't get a reply. Just nothing. I keep trying, but it's—"

There was a burst of static, then the Doctor's voice filtered through. "No, sorry, I'm fine. Still here."

"I'm going to bloody kill you!" Alex exclaimed, laughing in relief, tears in her eyes.

"Thanks very much," the Doctor replied sarcastically, but she could tell he was glad to hear her voice as well. "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."

"How deep is it?" Zach inquired.

"Can't tell. It looks like it goes down forever," came the Doctor's response.

"'The pit is open'," Rose quoted. "That's what the voice said."

"But there's nothing. I mean, there's nothing coming out?" Zach made sure.

"No, no. No sign of the Beast."

"It said Satan," Alex realised, frowning, before giving a light smile to her companions. "I've always wanted to punch the devil."

"Really, Kez? Not the time," the Doctor groaned, exasperated. Rose smirked. She'd heard him call her that a few times now, and while she didn't quite understand it, she wasn't about to question it. For one, it was too cute to interrupt.

"But is there no such thing?" she asked. He didn't reply. "Doctor. Doctor, tell me, is there no such thing?" His silence told her more than words could.

"Ida?" Zach called. "I recommend that you withdraw. Immediately."

"But, we've come all this way," she protested.

Zach sighed. "Okay, that was an order. Withdraw. When that thing opened, the whole planet 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 tried.

"I'm initiating strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar—" A burst of static cut Zach off as Ida turned off the comms. "Ida. Ida!"

After a few tense minutes of silence, the comms came back online. "Kez, Rose, we're coming back," the Doctor stated.

Alex sighed happily. "Thank you," she said quietly, smiling.

Behind her, Jefferson pointed his rifle at Toby, making Danny and Scooti gasp.

"What're you doing?" Rose demanded. Alex was immersed in conversation with the Doctor and Ida about the cavern they were in.

"He's infected," Jefferson explained. "He brought that thing on board. You saw it."

"Are you going to start shooting your own people now, is that what you're going to do? Is it?" Rose questioned, shocked.

"If necessary," Jefferson ground out.

"Well, then, you'll have to shoot me if necessary, so what's it going to be?" Jefferson paused, and Rose took advantage of his hesitation. "Look at his face. Whatever it was, is gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."

Jefferson sighed. "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him." Rose nodded, before turning to Toby.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I don't know." Toby seemed shaken, and not just from his satanic encounter.

"Can you remember anything?" Rose asked.

"Just, it was so angry. It was fury and rage and death. It was him. It was the devil."

"Come on," Rose said, hugging the terrified man.

"Okay, we're in," Ida piped up from the capsule. "Bring us up."

"Ascension in three, two, one—" The lights cut out.

"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—"

Zach cut the voice off, as Alex conjured a ball of silver energy so they could at least see each other. "That's not the Ood. 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?" Zach questioned.

"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave." Alex rolled her eyes, even as Toby was hyperventilating.

"If you are the Beast, then answer me this," the Doctor piped up. "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 Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, 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." Alex and Rose winced.

When he spoke next, the Doctor's voice had hardened. "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?" Alex inquired curiously.

"Before time."

"What does that mean?" the Doctor scoffed.

"Before time."

"What does before time mean?" the Time Lord demanded.

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

"That's impossible," the Doctor denied. "No life could have existed back then."

"Is that your religion?"

"It's a belief," the Doctor stated uncertainly.

"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. The girl who should have died. The unworthy angel standing amidst the bodies of her victims. And the lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."

"Doctor, what does that mean?" Rose questioned, noting the way her sister's free hand had clenched into a fist at the mention of her worth.

"Girls, don't listen," the Doctor replied. Alex snorted softly. He knew her too well.

"What does it mean?" Rose repeated.

"You will die and I will live." As the voice finished, the image of the Ood on the monitors everyone had been watching was replaced by a roaring horned beast.

Shocked, everyone began to talk at once, apart from the Doctor and Alex, causing quite the commotion. Eventually, the young redhead had had enough, and yelled, "Stop! Everyone, just stop!" They all cut off, surprised.

"Thanks," the Doctor muttered, before beginning to talk. "You want voices in the dark, then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."

"But that's how the devil works," Danny said, making Alex roll her eyes. Like he knew.

"Or a good psychologist," the Doctor reasoned.

"Yeah, but how did it know about my father?" Ida asked.

"Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm? Cause 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, 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 the cable attached to the capsule snapping and falling into the shaft.

"The cable's snapped!" Ida cried.

"Get out!" the Doctor shouted.

While Rose tried to contact them, Zach sighed. "Comms are down. I've still got life signs, but we've lost the capsule. There's no way out. They're stuck down there."

"But we've got to bring them back," Alex reasoned. She had to know if he was all right.

"They're ten miles down. We haven't got another ten miles of cable," Jefferson stated grimly. There was a banging at door 25, and Jefferson took the comm from Rose. "Captain? Situation report."

"It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in," Zach replied.

"Yeah, it's the same on door 25," Jefferson said, checking.

"How long's it going to take?" Rose questioned.

"Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes," Jefferson estimated. Another bolt was cut. "Eight."

"I've got a security frame. it might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you," Zach put in.

"Right, so we need to stop them, or get out, or both," Rose thought aloud.

"I'll take both, yeah? But how?" Danny asked, obviously panicking a little.

Alex smiled, hefting herself up to sit on the railings lining the shaft. "Oh, come on. We just need to think, is all. If there's one thing I've learnt from travelling with the Doctor, it's that there's always a way out, no matter what you're fighting. Satan can do what he likes, I don't care," she said bluntly, now grinning. "'Cause I'm not dying here today. And neither are you. Besides, why do you think it cut the Doctor off? Cause he was making sense. He was telling us to think our way out of this. Come on! For starters, we need some lights. There's got to be some sort of power somewhere."

"There's nothing I can do," Zach replied. "Some Captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons."

"Then press the right buttons," Alex hinted.

Zach sighed. "They've gutted the generators. But the rocket's got an independent supply. If I could reroute that... Scooti? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety."

"Opening bypass conduits, sir," Scooti announced cheerfully as she obeyed.

"Channelling rocket feed in three, two, one. Power." The lights came on, and Alex extinguished her energy.

"There we go!" Rose cheered.

"Let there be light," Danny quipped.

"What about that strategy Nine thingy?" Alex questioned.

"Not enough power." Jefferson shook his head. "It needs a hundred percent."

"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr Jefferson, you start working on that. Rose, can you sort out Toby? As for you, Danny boy, you're in charge of the Ood. Any way of stopping them?" Alex asked.

"Well, I don't know."

"Then find out. Scooti, keep him at it. The sooner we get control of the Base, the sooner we can get the Doctor and Ida out. Shift." Alex smiled, sort of enjoying herself, as she moved to stand by Jefferson, keeping a palm outstretched towards the door that was being broken down by the Ood.

"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood," Danny was saying as Rose joined him and Scooti. "Trouble is, we haven't got them on board."

Scooti rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Well that's handy, listing all the things we haven't got. We haven't got a swimming pool either. Go on!" As Danny turned back to the screen he was researching on, Scooti smiled at Rose, nodding her head over to Alex. "Your sister's cute when she gets bossy," she joked.

Rose laughed. "Yeah, I bet the Doctor thinks so too."

The screen flashed 'Affirmative', and Danny grinned. "Oh my God. It says yes. I can do it. Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm!"

"What happens to the Ood?" Scooti asked.

"It'll tank them, spark out."

"There we are, then. Do it!" Rose commanded.

"No, but I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation," Danny stated.

"Then that's what we'll do," Alex said, having caught that last bit. "Mr Jefferson, sir. Any way out?"

"Just about," he replied. "There's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here."

"Ventilation shafts." Alex was nodding appreciatively.

"Yeah, I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms," Jefferson explained.

"But I can manipulate the oxygen field from here. Create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network," Zach added.

"Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us by hand?" Alex sighed, unsure how her wings would fit in a non-ventilated ventilation shaft.

"You wanted me pressing buttons," Zach pointed out cheekily.

"Yeah, I asked for it. Okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation. Work out a route."

***

When Alex told Rose what she was going to do, the older girl was shocked. "You can't! You heard Mr Jefferson, the Ood are gonna be through that door in a matter of minutes!"

"I know, Rose, and I don't like it either, but there's no way I'm gonna fit down there with my wings," Alex reasoned.

Rose frowned. "I suppose." She still looked unsure, and Alex decided to lighten the mood a bit.

"Are you calling me fat?" she teased, smiling when her sister did. "I'll be careful, I promise. Come on, with this—" She held up her arm, making her Mark glow. "—and my speed, they won't touch me. If I could get us all through that way, I would, but it's too risky." She paused. "I told Jefferson. He's gonna look after you guys. I'll meet you once the Ood are out."

An increased banging at the door stole everyone's attention for a second as Toby and Scooti lifted a section of grating up, leading into the maintenance tunnels.

"Danny!" Rose warned, as she moved towards the tunnel, and Alex moved away to the door, rubbing her palms together.

"Hold on! Just conforming," Danny replied, downloading the flare—or whatever it was; Rose hadn't really understood a word he was saying—onto a memory chip.

"Dan, we got to go now! Come on!" Jefferson ordered.

"Yeah!" Danny grabbed the chip from the machine and ran over to the others. "Put that in the monitor and it's a bad time to be an Ood."

"Good luck, Miss Tyler," Jefferson said, and Alex turned to smile at him.

"Thanks. Now go!"

"Okay, Danny, you go first, then you, Scooti, then Rose, then Toby. I'll go last in defensive position. Now, come on, quick as you can!"

Alex turned back to the door as the last of the humans pulled the grating back down and the Ood burst into the room. "I'm so sorry," she apologised solemnly, then began sending out blasts, each taking out an Ood.

Soon, the aliens began to collapse, clutching at their heads. Immediately, Alex stopped shooting. With a start, she realised the Beast had been right. Here she was, standing alone amongst the bodies of her victims.

She swallowed back a lump in her throat. "I'm sorry," she said, before making her way to the others.

***

Zach, Danny, Toby, Scooti, and Rose bumped into her on the way, and they ran back to the drilling area. Alex didn't question the lack of Jefferson: something about the tears drying on Scooti's and Rose's cheeks made the situation crystal clear.

"Doctor, are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me?" Rose asked, speaking into the comms back at the drilling area.

"The comms are still down," Zach told her. "I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute."

Once it was done, she began talking again. "Doctor? Are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me? Are you there, Doctor?"

"He's gone," Ida replied, and Alex froze.

"What do you mean, he's gone?" Rose questioned slowly.

"He fell into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is. Miles and miles and miles," Ida stated apologetically. She sounded so scared.

"When you say he fell...?" Alex trailed quietly.

"I couldn't stop him," Ida stated, and Alex sighed. He'd jumped, just to see what was down there. Idiot. "He said... Well, I think... He said Kez. I think he meant you." Alex turned around, stifling a sob.

Zach took the microphone from Rose. "I'm sorry. Ida? There's no way of reaching you. No cable, no back up. You're ten miles down. We can't get there."

"You should see this place, Zach," Ida changed the subject, obviously trying to maintain a strong façade. "It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover things, and here I am."

"We've got to abandon the base. I'm declaring this mission unsafe," Zach stated. "All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."

"But we'll never find out what it was," Ida sighed.

"Well, maybe that's best," Zach pointed out.

"Yeah."

"Officer Scott—"

"It's all right," Ida cut him off. "Just go. Good luck."

"And you." Zach turned to the others. "Danny, Toby, Scooti, close down the feed links. get the retrotropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We're leaving."

"I'm not going," Alex interjected.

Zach frowned. "Alex, there's space for you."

"No, I'm going to wait for the Doctor. Just like he'd wait for me."

"I'm sorry, but he's dead," Zach said, sighing when he saw the tears in the girl's eyes.

"You don't know him," she replied, her voice cracking. "Cause he's not. I'm telling you, he's not. And even if he was, how could I leave him all on his own, all the way down there? I promised him forever." She shook her head, resolute. "No, I'm going to stay."

"Then I apologise for this," Zach sighed. "Danny, Toby? Make her secure."

The boys grabbed her, holding her still despite her thrashing against them, her armour forming once again. "No! No, no, no, please! Please, I can't leave him! I'm not leaving him!" Zach injected her with something, and she slumped, unconscious, in the boys' arms. Rose looked on in horror, still unable to process that the Doctor was dead. Zach hauled her sister in a fireman's lift, then lead the way to the rocket.

"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind," he decreed. "Let's get her on board."

***

Everyone was strapped into seats on the rocket, including a still-unconscious Alex.

"Dislocating B clamp. C Clamp. Raising blu-nitro to maximum. Toby, how's the Negapact feed line?" Zach asked.

"Clear. Ready to go, sir. For God's sakes, get us out of here!" Toby replied.

Alex stirred, and Danny sighed. "Captain, I think we're going to have a problem passenger."

Rose turned to look at her sister from shotgun.

"Keep an eye on her," Zach advised.

The redhead's eyes fluttered open, and she frowned, putting a hand to her head. "Wait. We're not..."

"It's all right, Alex. You're safe," Danny tried, but his wasn't the voice she needed or wanted to hear.

"I'm not going anywhere! Get me out of this thing! Get me out!" she shouted, panicking.

"And lift off!" Zach yelled over her, and the rocket shot into space, further and further away from the Doctor and the TARDIS.

Alex held her palm pointed at Zach threateningly, a silver glow already forming. "Take me back to the planet. Take me back!"

"Or what?" Zach asked calmly.

"Or I'll shoot," Alex replied steadily, ignoring the tears streaming down her cheeks. Rose was shocked; she had never thought Alex would go that far, not for anyone. But then again, maybe the Doctor never was just anyone.

"Would you, though? Would you really? Is that what your Doctor would want?"

Alex sobbed, slumping back into her seat.

"Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted. Isn't that right?" Zach reasoned.

A few minutes later, Toby began to laugh.

"What's the joke?" Scooti asked sarcastically, shocked that he'd laugh considering the atmosphere.

"Just, we made it. We escaped! We actually did it!" Toby replied, now grinning.

"Not all of us," Rose reminded him dully.

"Besides, we're not out of it yet," Zach added. "We're still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats."

Toby checked the screen in front of him. "Gravity funnel holding, sir. Always holding. Stats at fifty three. Funnel stable at sixty six point five. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir, all the way back home. Co-ordinates set for planet Earth."

***

"It doesn't make sense," Rose mused. "We escaped, but there's a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've ripped out the air, or, I don't know, burnt us, or anything. But it let us go. Why? Unless it wanted us to escape?"

"Hey, Rose, do us a favour. Shut up. Almost there. We'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in forty, thirty nine..." Toby counted.

Suddenly, the rocket began to shake.

"What happened?" Danny cried.

"What is that?" Scooti demanded.

"What's he doing? What is he doing?" Toby questioned frantically.

"We've lost the funnel. Gravity collapse!" Zach yelled over the panic.

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"We can't escape. We're headed straight for the black hole!"

"It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling," Alex said softly, almost detached from her own imminent death. Next to her, Toby's face became covered in symbols.

"I am the rage," he stated.

"Alex!" Rose shouted. "It's Toby!"

Alex turned to glare at the possessed man next to her.

"And the bile and the ferocity."

"Do something!" Scooti screamed.

"I am the Prince and the Fall and the Enemy. I am the sin and the fear and the darkness."

"It's him! It's him! It's him!" Danny cowered away from his former teammate.

"Stay where you are. The ship's not stable!" Zach warned. Toby exhaled fire, bringing Alex back to the situation with a jolt. "What is he?! What the hell is he?!"

"I shall never die. The thought of me is forever. In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust."

Alex glared, aiming her palm at the ceiling, where their was a window panel.

"Nothing shall ever destroy me. Nothing!"

"Go to hell!" She shot out the window, smashing it, then unfastened Toby's seat belt. He was sucked out towards the black hole, roaring. 

"Emergency shield!" Zach yelled. A metal shuttle sealed the hole, making it safe to breathe. "We've still lost the gravity funnel. We can't escape the black hole."

"But we stopped him," Rose pointed out. "That's what the Doctor would've done."

"Some victory," Scooti snorted. "We're going in."

"The planet's lost orbit. It's falling!" Danny reported. "The planet's gone." He looked at Alex sadly. "I'm sorry."

"We did our best. But hey!" Zach smiled tightly. "The first human beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History."

Suddenly, the shaking stopped, and the rocket tilted.

"What happened?" Rose asked, confused.

Alex straightened, a smile beginning to creep onto her face. "Rose," she murmured. "I can hear him!"

"We're turning. We're turning around. We're turning away!"

The radio crackled into life, and the voice that came out of it made everyone smile. "Sorry about the hijack, Captain! This is the good ship TARDIS." Alex squealed, laughing happily, yet crying again. "Now, first thing's first. Have you got a couple of Tylers on board?"

"We're here!" Rose cried. "Oh my God! Where are you?"

"I'm just towing you home. Gravity schmavity. My people practically invented black holes." There was a pause. "Well, in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain? Can we do a swap? Say, if you give me my girls, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?" Everyone could hear the grin in his voice.

"She's alive!" Zach cheered.

"Yes!" Scooti grinned.

"Thank God," Danny sighed.

"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right." The Doctor's voice went dark. "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." Something beeped. "Ah! Entering clear space. End of the line. Mission closed."

***

Once the TARDIS had landed in the storage of the rocket, Alex sprinted to see him, leaving Rose to say goodbye to the humans. She burst through the doors and straight into the Time Lord's embrace, barely registering that he was still wearing the spacesuit. For a minute, they both just revelled in being together again, after fearing for each other's lives like that.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," Alex warned with a cracked voice from crying, looking up at him.

The Doctor winced. "I know. I'm sorry. I think we'll avoid black holes in the future. And the past. And—" He was cut off when Alex stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.

***

Rose pushed one of the TARDIS doors open tentatively. She'd given her friends a good ten minutes to get it out of their system, not really wanting to walk in on them. Fortunately, when she stepped into the console room, they were stood side-by-side at the console while the Doctor set up the comms link again, back in his usual suit and tie.

"Zach?" he called. "We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home. And the next time you get curious abut something..." He sighed. "Oh, what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race."

"But Doctor, what did you find down there?" Ida inquired. "That creature, what was it?"

"I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good. Day I know everything? Might as well stop." He grinned at the girls.

"What do you think it was, really?" Rose asked.

"I think we beat it. That's good enough for me," the Doctor replied.

"It said I was going to die in battle," Rose recalled.

"Then it lied," Alex stated firmly, and Rose smiled, confident that her sister and the Time Lord combined would never let anything happen to her.

"Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe," the Doctor lied.

"I hope so," Ida replied.

"And thanks, guys!" Rose and Alex called in unison.

"Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said." Ida paused. "You three, who are you?"

"Oh, the stuff of legends," the Doctor smiled.