"Open fire!" Jefferson ordered.

Jessie ran over to the comm, ducking to avoid flying bullets at the Ood. "Doctor?" she shouted into it. "Doctor? Can you hear me? Doctor! Ida! Are you there?"

"Open Door 25."

Jessie dropped the mic and drew her gun from under her jacket. Scooti squeaked in surprise as she pointed it at the door, but she blinked when Danny stumbled through. "Whoa!" he shouted, holding up his hands, and Jessie instantly snapped her gun towards the ceiling. "It's me! But they're coming!"

"Close Door 25."

"It's the Ood," Danny hastened to explain as Jessie raised an eyebrow at him. "They've gone mad!"

"How many of them?" Jefferson asked, turning, and blinking when he saw Jessie's gun.

"All of them! All fifty!

"Danny, out of the way," he ordered, going to the door. "Out of the way!"

"But they're armed!" Danny protested. "It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon!"

"Open Door 25."

Jessie brought her gun up to the Ood standing by the door, and it stuck its communication globe thing into the last guard's forehead. She screamed, getting electrocuted. Jessie whipped up her gun and shot before Jefferson could, taking out the first Ood, then began unloading even more. "Seal Door 24," Jefferson began ordering. "Seal Door 23!"

"Jefferson, what's happening down there?" Zach asked.

Scooti and Danny closed the door as Jefferson answered. "I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"

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

"Given the emergency, I recommend Strategy 9."

"Strategy 9 agreed. Right. We need to get everyone together. Bad Wolf? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"

"I can't get a reply," she said, going back to the mic. "Just nothing. I keep trying, but it's - "

"No, sorry, I'm fine." She growled as through the static, the Doctor's voice came through. "Still here."

***

"You could've said that, you stupid - !"

The Doctor jerked back as feedback came through on the comm. I probably don't want to know what that last part was. "Whoa! Careful! Anyway, it's both of us. Me and Ida. Hello!" He peered over the trapdoor thing. "But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chasm."

"How deep is it?" Zach asked.

"Can't tell. It looks like it goes down forever."

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

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

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

"It said Satan," Jessie whispered.

The Doctor closed his eyes. "Come on, Jess. Keep it together."

"Is there no such thing?" Jessie demanded. "Doctor, tell me there's no such thing, because this is the voice that's been giving me those nightmares!"

The Doctor growled protectively, when Zach came back on. "Ida? I recommend that you withdraw immediately."

"But we've come all this way!" Ida protested.

"OK, 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 stops right now."

"But it's not much better up there with the Ood. I'm initiating Strategy 9, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar - "

Ida flicked the comm off, then turned to the Doctor. "What do you think?" she asked.

"I think they've an order," the Doctor replied.

"Yeah, but what do you think?"

The Doctor tilted his head, thinking. "It said 'I am the temptation.'"

"Well, if there's something in there, why is it still hiding?"

"Maybe we opened the prison, but not the cell," he suggested.

"We should go down. I'd go down." She looked at him. "What about you?"

"Oh," the Doctor said, joining her by the seal. "Oh, in a second. But then again . . . 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. That mad little voice saying, 'go on. Go on. Go on. Go over. Go on.' Maybe it's relying on that. For once in my life, Officer Scott . . . " He peered over the edge again, then stepped back. "I'm going to say retreat." He sighed. "Oh, now I know I'm getting old." He raised a hand to his comm. "Jessie, we're coming back."

***

She sighed in relief. "Best news I've heard all day."

"Mr. Jefferson!" Scooti cried.

Jessie turned to see Jefferson point the gun he had at a cowering Toby. "What're you doing?" she barked.

"He's infected!" Jefferson snapped. "He brought that thing onboard, you saw it!"

"Are you going to start shooting your own people now?" she asked. "Is that what you're going to do? Is it?"

"If necessary."

"Well, then, you'll have to shoot me if necessary as well, and believe me, I'd love to see you try and accomplish that," Jessie retorted. "So, what's it going to be?" She nodded at Toby. "Look at his face. Whatever it was, it's gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."

Jefferson narrowed his eyes, but pointed his rifle away. "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him."

"We'll see who shoots him first," Jessie replied, turning to Toby. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Toby replied, looking his hands over before shaking his head. "I don't know."

"Can you remember anything?" Jessie insisted.

"Just . . . it was so angry," he whispered. "It was fury and rage and death. It was him. It was the Devil."

She patted his shoulder. "As long as you don't try and suck me and Scooti out into space again."

Toby gave a weak smile, and Scooti helped him up, giving him a hug. "C'mon."

***

"What's Strategy 9?" the Doctor asked as they got into the capsule.

"Open the airlocks," Ida replied. "We'll be safe inside the lockdown. The Ood will get thrown out into the vacuum."

The Doctor sighed. "So we're going back to a slaughter?"

"The Devil's work." She fiddled with the controls. "OK. We're in. Bring us up."

"Ascension in three," Jefferson called out. "Two . . . one . . . "

The lights went out, and so went the power.

"This is the darkness. This is my domain."

***

Jessie's eyes widened at the images of the Ood on the screen, speaking with the voice of the Beast. "You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die."

"That's not the Ood," Zach commented. "Something's talking through them."

"Only the darkness remains."

"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six representing the Torchwood archive." Torchwood again?! Jessie thought again, her eyes widening. "You will identify yourself."

"You know my name."

"What do you want?"

"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave. This is your doom."

"Doomsday," Jessie whispered.

"It's him," Toby choked out, standing slowly. "It's him. It's him!"

"If you are the Beast, then answer me this. Which one?" the Doctor challenged over the comm. "'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."

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

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

The Time War. Jessie felt it like a punch in the gut, and she knew the Beast had made a wrong move. Sure enough, the next time the Doctor spoke, it was tinged in anger. "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?"

"Before time."

"What does 'before time' mean?" the Doctor demanded, and Jessie rolled her eyes.

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

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

"Is that your religion?"

"It's 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." Jessie threw a quick look at Jefferson when he stiffened. "The scientist, still running from Daddy." Jessie figured that was Ida. "The girl who should be dead." Jessie squeezed Scooti's hand when tears began falling down her cheeks. "The little boy who lied." Danny looked down at that. "The virgin." That knocked Jessie out, so she looked down at Toby to see him staring blankly at the screen. "And the lost and raging Bad Wolf Asgardian, so far from home. The mutant, so twisted in knots that no one knows who she is." Jessie stiffened instantly, swallowing. "The valiant child whose doomsday comes, the Deathbringer girl who will die in battle so very soon."

"Doctor," Jessie asked slowly, trying not to hyperventilate. "What does that mean?"

"Jessie, don't listen," the Doctor demanded.

"What does it mean?"

"You will die, and I will live."

She screamed and jumped back when an image of a roaring beast with horns replaced the Ood, and then the monitors cut out. "What the hell was that?" Danny demanded.

"I had that thing inside my head!" Toby gasped.

"Doctor, what did it mean?" Jessie demanded.

"What do we do?" Scooti asked worriedly. "Jefferson?"

"Captain, what's the situation on Strategy 9?" Jefferson asked.

"Zach, what do we do?"

"The planet, the orbit, the black hole. Everything's true!"

"Captain, report."

"We've lost pictures, Mr. Jefferson."

"Doctor, how did it know all of that?" Jessie asked again, losing track of who was saying what.

***

The Doctor shook his head, giving up on trying to calm everyone down just by talking. He flicked feedback over the comm, getting everyone to shut up. "You want voices in the dark?" he asked. "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," Dany said.

"Or a good psychologist," the Doctor pointed out.

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

"OK, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm?" When he got no answer, he took a deep breath. "'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! 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 - "

He cut off hearing a sharp bang up above. Ida blanched. "The cable's snapped!"

"Get out!"

Ida threw open the door of the capsule, and the two of them jumped out, falling onto the ground. The Doctor winced when he heard the sound of miles of steel cable fall on the capsule. He stood up when the damage was done, and he surveyed everything. "How much air have we got?" he finally asked Ida.

"Sixty minutes," she replied, then double checked her watch. "Fifty five," she corrected.

***

"Doctor, we lost the cable!" Jessie shouted into the mic. "Doctor, are you all right?" She got no reply, and began to shuffle anxiously. "Doctor!"

"Comms are down," Zach said. "I've still got life signs, but we've lost the capsule. There's no way out. They're stuck down there."

"Bu we've got to bring them back!" Jessie protested.

"They're ten miles down," Jefferson told her. "We haven't got another ten miles of cable."

Bang!

Jessie stepped back from the mic and whipped her gun out again, aiming it at Door 25. Jefferson looked at her sharply before raising his wrist to talk into the comm. "Captain? Situation report."

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

"Yeah, it's the same on Door 25."

"How long will it take?" Jessie asked tightly, gesturing for Scooti, Danny, and Toby to get behind her, which they did quickly.

"Well, it's only a basic frame. It should take ten minutes," Jefferson replied. He winced when another bolt was destroyed.

"Eight," Scooti corrected.

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

"Right." Jessie began to think at rapid speed, her SHIELD training kicking in. "So we need to a) stop them, b) get out, or option c) both a and b."

"I'll take both, yeah?" Danny opted. "But how?"

"You heard the Doctor," Jessie said, grinning. "Why do you think that thing cut him off? Cuz he was making sense! He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! OK, for starters, we need some lights." She looked up. "There's got to be some sort of power somewhere."

"There's nothing I can do," Zach told her. "Some Captain. Stuck in here and pressing buttons."

Jessie smiled. Brilliant! "That's what the Doctor meant! Press the right buttons!"

There was a moment of silence. "They've gutted the generators, but the rocket's got an independent supply!" Zach explained, sounding like he was trying to accomplish multiple things at once. "If I can reroute that . . . Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety."

Jefferson pressed more buttons on the console by the chute. "Opening bypass conduits, sir," he reported.

"Channeling rocket feed in three . . . two . . . one. Power!"

Jessie laughed as the lights came back on. "There we go!"

"Let there be light!" Danny agreed with a whoop, hugging Scooti and Toby with a laugh.

"What about that Strategy 9 thing?" Jessie asked, remembering.

"Not enough power," Jefferson replied, shaking his head. "It needs a hundred percent."

"All right," Jessie said smartly, pacing. "We need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that." She turned to Toby. "Toby, what about you?"

"I'm not a soldier," he said bitterly. "I can't do anything."

"No, you're the archaeologist. What do you know about the pit?"

"Well, nothing. We can't even translate the language!"

"Right," Jessie muttered, turning to pace again.

"Hold on." She turned to him, seeing him think hard. "Maybe . . . "

"What is it?" Scooti asked.

"Since that thing was inside my head, it's like the letters made more sense."

Jessie nodded. "Well, get to work. Scooti, if there's any maintenance thing that could help us, start to work on that." She nodded. "As for you, Danny boy . . . " She turned to him. "You're in charge of the Ood. Any way of stopping them?"

"Well, I don't know," he admitted.

"Then find out," she ordered. "The sooner we get control of the Base, the sooner we can get the Doctor and Ida out." They stared at her as if she was speaking another language, and she made a noise of frustration. "Go!"

***

"Well," Ida said as she dragged the cable out from on top of the capsule. "We've got all this cable. We might as well use it. The drum's disconnected. We could adapt it, feed it through."

"And then what?" the Doctor asked.

"Abseil into the pit."

He blinked. "Abseil. Right."

"We're running out of air with no way back," she reminded him. "It's the only thing we can do, even if it's the last thing we ever achieve."

"I'll get back." He looked up. "Jessie's up there."

If Ida noted how he said Jessie instead of Bad Wolf, she didn't comment. "Well, maybe the key to that is finding out what's in the pit."

"Well, it's half of a good plan."

"What's the other half?"

He braced himself. "I go down. Not you."

***

"Open junctions five, six, seven," Jefferson told Scooti as she worked on the computer. "Reroute filters sixteen to twenty four. Go."

"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood," Danny told Jessie as he worked as well. "Trouble is, we haven't got them onboard."

"Well, don't go listing all the things we haven't got," Jessie grumbled.

The screen he was working on flashed "AFFIRMATIVE," and Danny grinned happily. "Oh my God. It says yes! I can do it!" He turned to her. "Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm!"

"What happens to the Ood?" she asked.

"It'll tank them. Spark out."

"There we are, then," she said in satisfaction. "Do it!"

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

"That's what we'll do, then." She turned to Jefferson and Scooti. "Mr. Jefferson, sir, Scooti, any way out?"

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

"Ventilation shafts," Jessie murmured, looking around.

"I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation," Scooti pointed out. "No air at all. They were designed for machines, not lifeforms."

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

"Right," Jessie said, thinking. "So we go down, and you make the air follow us by hand."

"You wanted me pressing buttons," he reminded her.

"Yeah, and I asked for it," she admitted. "OK. We need to get to Ood Habitation. Work out a route."

Scooti nodded and began working even faster.

***

"That should hold it," Ida said as the Doctor finished tying one end of the cable around his waist. "How's it going?"

"Fine," he replied. "Should work." He sighed. "Doesn't feel like such a good idea now." He stepped onto the rim, looking back down into the darkness. "Hmm . . . there it is again." He tilted his head. "That itch. Go down, go down, go down, go down, go down."

"The urge to jump," Ida replied. "Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It's our body's way of testing us, calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch."

The Doctor shook his head slowly. "No, that's not it. That's too kind. It's not the urge to jump. It's deeper than that." He turned to her. "It's the urge to fall."

"Doctor!" she shouted when he fell back into the chasm. A few moments later, there was a sharp tug when the cable stopped. "Are you OK?" she shouted down, looking down.

The Doctor gave her a thumbs up, looking around. "Not bad, thanks. The wall of the pit seems to be the same as the cavern, just not as much of it. There's a crust about twenty feet down, and then nothing. Just the pit." He took a deep breath. "OK, then." He looked up. "Lower me down."

Ida took a deep breath, too. "Well . . . here we go, then." She disappeared, and the Doctor began to go deeper into the pit.

***

Jessie worked on the ventilation shaft with Scooti, looking up at Danny, who was working on the computer still. "Danny!"

"Hold on!" he shouted back. "Just conforming!"

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

Danny grinned. "Yeah!" He took a chip out of the machine and ran to join them. "Put that in the monitor, and it's a bad time to be an Ood."

"We're coming back," Jessie told them all as they crowded around the hole. "Have you got that? We're coming back to this room, and we're getting the Doctor and Ida out."

"OK." Jefferson looked at Danny. "Danny, you go first, then you, Scooti, and then you, Miss . . . "

"Call me Bad Wolf," Jessie said firmly.

Jefferson nodded. "Then you, Bad Wolf, then Toby. I'll go last in defensive position. Now, come on, quick as you can!"

Danny dropped through the hole, followed by Scooti. Jessie waited a moment, then nimbly fell through. She wrinkled her nose as she bent down. "God, it stinks," she commented as Toby came in. "You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm laughing," Danny commented as Jefferson climbed down. "Which way do we go?"

"Just keep going straight ahead," Zach replied. "Keep going until I say so."

Jefferson fitted the hatch back, and Jessie crawled behind Scooti and Danny. Scooti tilted her head. "Not your best angle, Danny," she commented.

Danny threw a scowl at her. "Oi! Stop it!"

"I don't know," Toby said thoughtfully. "It could be worse."

Jessie looked over her shoulder to see him looking at her. "Hey!" she snapped.

"Straight on until you find junction seven point one. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air." Jessie could feel it around her, and she sighed in relief. "I've got you."

Danny stopped at an intersection. "We're at seven point one, sir."

"OK, I've got you. I'm just aerating the next section."

"Getting kind of cramped, sir," Danny said as Jefferson caught up. "Can't you hurry up?"

"I'm working on half power here!"

"Stop complaining," Jefferson grumbled.

"Mr. Jefferson says stop complaining," Jessie told Danny.

He rolled his eyes. "I heard."

Jessie looked over her shoulder to Jefferson. "He heard," she said helpfully.

"But the air's getting a bit thin," Toby added.

"He's complaining now," Jessie told Jefferson.

Jefferson gave her a look. "I heard."

Scooti sniffed a little, then made a face. "Danny, is that you?"

"I'm not exactly happy," Danny ground out.

"I'm just moving the air," Zach told them. "I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now keep calm, or it's going to feel worse."

There was a sharp bang somewhere, and Jessie looked around. "What was that?" Danny asked.

"Mr. Jefferson, what was that?" Scooti added.

"What's that noise?" Toby put in.

"Captain, what was that?" Jefferson asked.

"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened," Zach replied. "It must be the Ood. They've opened the tunnels!"

"Damn," Jessie muttered.

"Well, open the gate!" Danny said.

"I've got to get the air in!" Zach protested.

"Just open it, sir."

"Where are they?" Jessie asked, reaching for the gun on her hip. "Are they close?"

"I don't know. I can't tell," Zach answered. "I can't see them. The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."

"Whose idea was that?" Jessie asked incredulously.

"Open the gate!" Danny exclaimed.

The door to the next section slid up, and Danny led the way through. "Danny, turn left," Zach ordered. "Immediate left."

"The Ood, sir," Jefferson said. "Can't you trap them? Cut off the air?"

"Not without cutting off yours," Zach replied as they kept crawling. "Danny, turn right. Go right!" Danny did. "Go fast, Dan. They're going to catch up."

Jessie looked over her shoulder, then drew her gun. "You guys keep moving."

"You can't stop!" Jefferson protested.

"If I get cut off, then I can still make it through," Jessie said.

"This is my job!"

"So's mine!" That shut Jefferson up as Jessie cocked her gun. "Your job is to protect your friends. Mine's currently down in the pit with Ida. He's doing his job. It's my turn to do mine. Get going!"

Everyone stared at her, then began to keep moving. Jessie pressed herself against the walls of the tunnel, then began to shoot when she saw the Ood. Alien after alien fell. "Eight point two," she heard Danny shout. "Open eight point two, Zach! Open eight point two!"

"I've got to aerate it!" Zach replied.

Jessie gritted her teeth, gripping one of her taser disks and throwing it down the way. It electrocuted the lead Ood, buying more time. "Hurry it up down there!"

"Bad Wolf, I've got to open eight point two by closing eight point one." She listened to Zach as she kept electrocuting more Ood. "You've got to get past the junction. Now, move!"

"Copy," she replied, switching to crawl around the corner.

"That's it!" she heard Danny up ahead. "Come on!"

"Danny, turn left and head for nine point two," Zach ordered. "That's the last one. Bad Wolf, you've got to move faster. Move!"

"Jessie!" Scooti cried out, using her real name.

"Keep going!" Toby shouted.

Jessie stopped short when the door slid closed in front of her. She took a deep breath, backing up a little, then sent a blast of fire down the corridor. She heard the startled cries of the Ood, then swiftly crawled through the door the best she could. Danny, Toby, Scooti, and Jefferson cried out in surprise as she joined them. She took a deep breath, then gave them a small smirk. "Well?" she asked. "Are we going or not?"

"Opening nine point two," Zach announced.

Jessie gasped when an Ood was revealed behind the door. "Lower nine point two!" she called out, the Ood beginning to crawl towards them. "Hurry, Zach!"

"Back!" Danny called. "Back! Back!"

"We can't go back!" Scooti protested. "The gang point's sealed off!"

"We're stuck!" Jefferson confirmed.

Jessie growled, looking up. "Oh, not in my book." She stood, phasing herself through the grating and pulling herself up. "Grab my hands! Come on!" Danny took hers, and she pulled him up through the grating. Scooti was next, then Mr. Jefferson. "Toby, come on! Toby, get out of there, come on!"

Toby grabbed her hands, and she pulled him up as well. "It's this way!" Danny said, beginning to run.

"Hurry it up!" Zach called from over the comm.

Jessie didn't wait to open the door. She grabbed Danny's arm, then Jefferson's, who grabbed onto Scooti and Toby. She phased them through the door, then looked at Danny. "Get it in!"

Danny made it to the computer and began fumbling through his pockets. "Danny, get down!" Jefferson ordered, raising his gun as more Ood began to walk up the stairs.

"Transmit!" Scooti cried.

"I"m trying! I'm trying!" Danny protested as he pulled out the chip. "I'm getting it!"

"Danny, get that thing transmitting!" Jessie barked.

Danny slid the chip into the computer, and she watched the number 100 drop to 0. The Ood stopped suddenly, clutching their heads and writhing before they finally fell. Jessie laughed, jumping up and down. "You did it!" she cried, hugging Danny. "We did it!"

"Yes!" Danny whooped, hugging Scooti as she began to laugh.

"Zach, we did it!" Jessie reported as everyone celebrated around her. "The Ood are down. Now we've got to get the Doctor."

"I'm on my way," Zach replied.

Jessie could tell he was smiling.

***

The Doctor tried to cover up his nervousness as he was descending by doing the one thing he did best: talk. "You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe, in the myths and legends of a million worlds," he babbled. "Earth, Draconia, Velconsadine, Daemos. The carving on the wall. It's the same image, over and over again. Maybe that idea came from somewhere, bleeding through. The thought at the back of every sentient mind."

"Emanating from here?" Ida asked.

"Could be."

"But if this is the original, does that make it real?" The Doctor thought. "Does that make it the actual devil, though?"

The Doctor was tempted to say no, but then he thought about the nightmares Jessie had. She said it was the same voice. He shook his head. "Well, if that's what you want to believe," he settled for. "Maybe that's what the devil is, in the end. An idea."

He jerked to a stop, and he looked around. End of the line, he guessed, swallowing when he saw there was still darkness below. "That's it," Ida called down. "That's all we've got. You got any sort of readout?"

"Nothing," he reported, peering underneath him. "Could be miles to go, yet." He swallowed again. "Or could be thirty feet. No way of telling." He thought. "I could survive thirty feet . . . "

"Oh, no you don't!" she instantly shouted. "I'm pulling you back up." The cable began to reel up, but the Doctor made a noise of frustration and stopped it on his side. "What're you doing?" Ida shouted down.

"You bring me back, then we're just going to sit there and run out of air," he called up. "I've got to go down."

"But you can't! Doctor, you can't!"

"Call it an act of faith."

There was a moment of silence. "But I don't want to die on my own," Ida said, more softer.

The Doctor closed his eyes. "I know," he replied, beginning to undo the clips holding him in place. "I didn't ask," he said. "Have you got any sort of faith?"

"Not really," Ida replied. "I was brought up Neo Classic Congregational, because of my mum. She was." She chuckled. "My old mum. But no. I never believed."

"Neo Classics," he said thoughtfully. "Have they got a Devil?"

"No, not as such. Just, er . . . the things that men do."

"Same thing in the end," the Doctor muttered.

"What about you?"

The Doctor stopped what he was doing, thinking. What do I believe in? he thought. "I believe," he started slowly. "I believe I haven't seen everything. I don't know." He chuckled. "It's funny, sin't it? The things you make up. The rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe, I'd believe it, but before the universe?" He shook his head. "Impossible. Doesn't fit my rule. Still, that's why I keep traveling. To be proved wrong." He finished with the penultimate clip. Now the only thing left suspending him was the last clip. "Thank you, Ida."

"Don't go!" she cried.

"If they get back in touch," the Doctor said, ignoring her. "If you talk to Jessie, just tell her . . . tell her . . . " He cut off with a swallow, shaking his head. "Oh, she knows," he muttered, and he let the final clip go.

***

"Doctor?" Jessie asked into the comm when Zach finished adjusting the connection. "Are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me? Are you there?"

"He's gone."

Those two words made Jessie freeze. "What do you mean, 'he's gone?'" she asked slowly.

"He fell into the pit," Ida replied. "And I don't know how deep it is. Miles and miles and miles."

"But what do you mean, 'she fell?'" she squeaked, feeling Scooti's hand on her arm.

"I couldn't stop him." Ida paused. "I think he said your name. He said Jessie."

Jessie made a noise that sounded like a cat being strangled, and Zach took the mic from her. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her, and Jefferson joined Scooti in trying to comfort her. "Ida? There's no way of reaching you. No cable, no backup. You're ten miles down. We can't get there."

Ida sighed. "You should see this place, Zach. 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. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."

"But we'll never find out what it was!"

"Well . . . maybe that's the best."

"Yeah," she whispered.

"Officer Scott - "

"It's all right," Ida interrupted. "Just go. Good luck."

"And you," Zach replied, then put the mic down and turned to face them. "Danny, Toby, close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online, then all of you, get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We're leaving."

Jessie took a deep breath and steeled herself, turning to face them. "I'm not going."

"What?" Scooti asked sharply.

"Jessie, there's space for you," Zach insisted.

Jessie shook her head. "No. I'm going to wait for the Doctor, just like he waited for me."

"I'm sorry, but he's dead."

"You don't know him," Jessie shouted at him, "'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?" She shook her head firmly, backing away. "No. I'm going to stay."

Zach took a deep breath. "Then I apologize for this." He turned. "Danny? Toby? Jefferson? Make her secure."

Jessie's eyes widened when the three moved quicker than she could tell, and while Danny and Toby took her arms, Jefferson moved to hold her around the waist. "No!" she shrieked, trying to scramble out of their grips. Scooti just watched in silence, tears streaming down her face. "No! Let me go! Get off of me!" Zach moved closer. "I'm not leaving!"

Zach reached up to her arm and injected her with something, and she slumped, knowing there was some drug in there. "No," she managed to whisper.

"I'm not leaving you behind," Zach stated before she fell unconscious.

***

The Doctor woke up slowly from where he landed and inhaled a little, then blinked and looked up when he realized something important. "I'm breathing," he said slowly, looking at the shattered remains of his faceplate. "Air cushion to support the fall!" He looked up towards the top of the pit. "You can breathe down here, Ida! Can you hear me? Ida?" He got no reply and stood up, beginning to walk when he heard the rumble of engines. He stopped and smiled a little. "A rocket," he whispered.

***

Jessie stirred slowly, feeling the pain in her arm where Zach had gotten her with the injection.

And then she realized she was strapped into a seat.

"Captain?" Danny said. "I think we're going to have a problem passenger."

She sat bolt upright, realizing where they were. "What?!"

"Keep an eye on her," Zach said from the pilot's seat, Scooti next to him as co-pilot.

"Wait a minute," she said, looking around. "We're not - "

"It's all right, Jessie," Jefferson said from the other side of her. "You're safe."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Jessie shouted, looking around for the release clips to get out of the harness, the thought of phasing completely gone from her mind. "Get me out of this thing! Take me back!"

"And lift off!" Zach shouted, and Danny and Toby whooped in delight when the rocket started. "Whoo!"

Jessie reached over to Jefferson and grabbed his gun, pointing it at Zach. "Take me back to the planet," she demanded. "Take me back!"

"Or what?" Zach challenged.

"Or I'll shoot."

Scooti looked at her in alarm. "You'd do that?" she asked.

"Is that what your Doctor would want?" Zach added.

Jessie narrowed her eyes, then slumped back into her seat, handing the gun to Jefferson. "Sorry," Zach apologized, "but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside." She did to see that they were heading out of the planet's range, and also away from the black hole. "We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted, isn't that right?"

Toby started chuckling, and Danny frowned at him. "What's the joke?"

"Just . . . we made it," Toby laughed in apparent relief. "We escaped. We actually did it!"

"Not all of us," Jessie muttered, thinking about the Doctor and Ida.

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

"Gravity funnel holding, sir," Toby replied, taking a look at what he was seeing. "Always holding."

***

At least Jessie was safe. That was all that mattered, the Doctor told himself as he walked through the cavern, shining his flashlight on the walls. "The history of some big battle," he muttered as he saw the paintings. "Man against Beast. I don't know if you're getting this, Ida. Hope so. Anyway, they defeated the Beast and imprisoned it."

He stopped when he saw two bronze urns on pedestals in the center. Then he slowly turned to shine the light on the two matching urns painted on the wall. "Or maybe that's the key," he muttered. He walked over and touched one, then swallowed when both lit up, and he looked up. "Or the gate. Or the bars."

The massive horned creature that had once been sleeping woke and looked at him. It roared and shook, but it was chained by horns and limbs to the other walls. "OK," the Doctor shouted. "I accept that you exist! I don't have to accept what you are, but you're physical existence. I'll give you that. But I don't understand. I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need for something. What for?" The Beast just kept roaring at him. "Have I got to . . . I don't know, beg an audience? Or is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell? All these things I don't believe in. Are they real?" The Beast kept on roaring, and the Doctor bristled in anger. "Speak to me! Tell me!"

The Beast kept roaring, and the Doctor's eyes lit up in realization. Maybe . . . "You won't talk," he said, thinking. "Or you can't talk." The Beast roared even louder, and the Doctor knew he had it right. "Oh, hold on a minute. Wait a minute. Just let me . . . oh!" He frowned, still thinking. "No! Yes! No!" He shook his head, holding up a finger. "Think it through. You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No. More than that. Brilliant." He tilted his head. "But, looking at you now, all I can see is Beast. The animal. Just the body. You're just the body, the physical form." He leaned forward. "What's happened to your mind, hmm? Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence?" He cut off shortly, and his eyes widened. No. "Oh, no."

The Beast roared in laughter, and the Doctor shook his head. Toby. He's still got it. He furiously began to think. "You're imprisoned, long time ago. Before the universe, after, sideways, in between, doesn't matter. The prison is perfect. It's absolute. It's eternal." He thought of something, and he grinned. "Oh, yes! Open the prison, the gravity field collapses. This planet falls into the black hole! You escape, you die. Brilliant!" He pointed at the Beast. "But that's just the body. The body is trapped. That's all. The devil is an idea. In all those civilizations, just an idea, but an idea is hard to kill. An idea could escape. The mind. The ind of the great Beast. The mind can escape!" Everything clicked, and the Doctor nodded furiously. "Oh, but that's it! You didn't give me air! Your jailers did! They set this up all those years ago! They need me alive, because if you're escaping, then I've got to stop you!" He picked up a rock big enough to smash through the urns. "If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed. Your mind with it." He raised the rock -

And abruptly, something else clicked, and he froze. The planet gets destroyed. The gravity field gets destroyed. The rocket hasn't made it out of the gravity field. And that means - "But then, you're clever enough to use this whole system against me," he whispered, looking down at the rock in his hand. "If I destroy this planet, I destroy the gravity field. The rocket. The rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole." He swallowed, turning to face the Beast. "I have to sacrifice Jessie."

The Beast roared in laughter even louder.

***

"Stats at fifty three," Toby reported as Jessie sat, her chin in her hand. "Funnel stable at sixty six point five. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir, all the way back home. Coordinates set for planet Earth."

"We're going home," Scooti whispered happily. "We're actually going home!"

Something occurred to Jessie, and she raised her head a little. "Hold on. This doesn't make sense. We escaped, but there's a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've ripped out the air or burnt us, or something like that. It let us go. Why?" She froze, the next thought coming to her and freezing her blood. "Unless it wanted us to escape."

"Hey, Bad Wolf, do us a favor." Toby glared at her. "Shut up." Jessie narrowed her eyes at him, and Jefferson looked at him as well as Toby went back to what he was doing as if he'd never said those words. "Almost there. We'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in forty, thirty nine . . . "

***

"So that's the trap," the Doctor said, walking away from the urns. "Or the test, or the final judgement. I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her." The Beast kept laughing, but he shook his head. "Except that implies in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils that she's just a victim." He shook his head again, making his final decision about not only what to do, but what he believed in. "But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon . . . if I believe in one thing, just one thing . . . " He held up the rock. "I believe in her!" He smashed both of the urns, and he felt the planet begin to shake underneath his feet, and the Beast roared at him, the loudest ever. "This is your freedom!" the Doctor shouted at it. "Free to die! You're going into that black hole, and I'm riding with you!"

***

Jessie got a grip on the seat she was in when the rocket began to shake. "What happened?" Danny shouted. "What was that?"

"What's he doing?" Toby yelled. "What is he doing?"

"We've lost the funnel," Zach said tensely, looking at the readouts in front of him. "Gravity collapse."

"What's that mean?" Jessie asked.

"We can't escape," Scooti replied, panicking. "We're headed straight for the black hole!"

Jessie looked out the window of the rocket. "It's the planet," she said, pointing as she saw the planet headed for the black hole. "The planet's moving. It's falling."

She turned again, and she screamed, startled when she saw Toby covered in the black symbols, glaring at her with red eyes. "I am the rage!" he snarled.

"It's Toby!" Jessie shrieked. "Zach, do something!"

"And the bile, and the ferocity!"

"Just do something!"

Jefferson was scrambling for his gun, set down behind him. "I am the Prince and the Fall and the enemy," Toby continued with the entity of the Beast. "I am the sin and the fear and the darkness."

"It's him!" Danny cried out in fear. "It's him! It's him!"

"Stay where you are!" Zach ordered. "The ship's not stable!" Jessie shrieked when fire came out of Toby's mouth.

"What is he?!" Scooti yelped. "What the hell is he?"

"I shall never die," Toby declared. "The thought of me is forever. In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust - " At that, Jessie finally snapped into action. She reached through her seat and fumbled for Jefferson's gun and managed to grab it, pulling it back by her. "Nothing shall ever destroy me," Toby finished. "Nothing!"

Jessie aimed at the window. "Go to hell," she spat darkly, firing.

The air began to get sucked from the rocket, and Jessie undid the fastenings on Toby's seat belt. He roared as he was sucked out. "Emergency shield!" Zach ordered.

Scooti pressed a button, and a metal shutter slid over the hole. "Emergency shield activated."

"We've still lost the gravity field," Zach pointed out. "We can't escape the black hole."

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

"Some victory." Zach shook his head. "We're going in."

Jessie let out a deep breath. Jefferson took one of her hands and squeezed. Jessie gave him a small smile, then reached across. Danny looked at her, then hesitantly took her other one. "Then we're going in together," she said firmly.

Danny nodded, then checked another scanner. "The planet's lost orbit," he announced. "It's falling!" Jessie closed her eyes, and a few seconds later, Danny made another report. "The planet's gone. I'm sorry."

"Accelerate," Zach ordered, and Scooti made the adjustments. "I did my best. But, hey! The first human beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History!"

Jessie turned to bury her face into Jefferson's shoulder when the shaking stopped. She froze, looking up. "What happened?" she asked slowly.

"We're turning," Zach whispered, looking at his boards. "We're turning around." Jessie slowly began to smile. Did the impossible really just happen? "We're turning away!"

Static came over the comm. Then - "Sorry about the hijack, Captain," a familiar Southern London voice said cheerfully, and Jessie whooped in delight, laughing. "This is the good ship TARDIS! Now, first things first. Have you got a Jessie Nightshade onboard?"

"I'm here!" she shouted, laughing and smiling in relief. "It's me! Oh my God, where are you?"

"I'm just towing you home," he replied, then snorted. "Gravity schmavity. My people practically invented black holes." He paused. "Well, in fact, they did." Jessie laughed again, ignoring Danny's bewildered look. "Oh, and Captain? Can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Jessie Nightshade, I'll give you . . . Ida Scott?" Scooti gasped in astonishment, and Jessie clapped a hand over her mouth. "How about that?"

"She's alive!" Zach gasped.

"Yes!" Danny whooped.

"Thank God," Jefferson whispered.

"Yeah, bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right," the Doctor confirmed. "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." His voice lightened considerably. "Ah, entering clear space! End of the line. Mission closed."

Jessie unbuckled her fastenings and climbed over her seat and took off running towards the cargo hold when she heard the faint sound of the TARDIS engines. Danny and Jefferson quickly tried to follow. Ida was leaning against the doors of the TARDIS, looking worse for wear, but she was all right. Jessie took a deep breath, then turned to Danny and Jefferson, who were looking at the TARDIS in surprise. "See you." She hugged them both. "Tell Scooti and Zach that I said goodbye." She didn't wait for them to respond as she inserted her key into the TARDIS doors and opened them.

She stepped inside the TARDIS, feeling an overwhelming sense of relief that she was all right as she closed the doors. She turned again, and she was met with the sight of a grinning Time Lord staring at her in as much relief as she was feeling. She ran over and threw her arms around her neck as his went around her waist. "Oh, thank God," she gasped out, grinning into his shoulder.

He laughed, spinning her around. "If there's a real one out there, then yes," he agreed. "Thank God."

***

She swung her legs while she sat on the console, waiting for the Doctor to change out of that ridiculous orange space suit. When he waltzed back in with his normal pinstripes, she grinned. "Much better."

He smirked at her and reactivated the link to the rocket. "Zach?" he called. "We'll be off now. Have a good trip home, and the next time you get curious about something - " He cut off, making a face. "Oh, what's the point?" he sighed as Jessie joined him. "You'll just go blundering in. The human race."

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

He shrugged. "I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good. Say I know everything? Might as well stop."

"What do you think it was, really?" Jessie whispered.

"I think we beat it. That's good enough for me."

She took a deep breath. "Doctor." He turned to her. "That voice has been in my head for weeks. Always the same message. It said I was going to die in battle."

"Then it lied," the Doctor said matter-of-factly before turning back to the comm. "Right! Onwards and upwards. Ida? See you again. Maybe."

"I hope so," Ida said.

"And thanks for everything, guys!" Jessie called.

"Good luck, Jessie!" came the calls of Scooti, Danny, Jefferson, and Zach.

"Hang on, though, Doctor," Ida interrupted. "Bad Wolf, or whatever your name really is. You never really said. You two . . . who are you?"

"Oh . . . " The Doctor looked at Jessie and smiled. "The stuff of legend."

He turned a lever, and the TARDIS dematerialized, leaving the Impossible Planet behind them. "Right!" he declared, turning to her. "Where do we go next?"

Jessie laughed. "You are impossible."

He just gave her a grin. "I know."

***

How 'bout an adventure where everybody lives? Except for Toby . . . he kind of needed to die.

I loved Rose in this episode. It shows how she can still be a badass even under pressure and how she can handle herself, and how dedicated she is to the Doctor. Still so upset over what happened to her in Doomsday . . . that soundtrack didn't help either. I still cry every time I hear it.

On the topic of "Doomsday," what do you think I'm going to have happen to Jessie then? C'mon, you know something is going to happen. If anyone can guess what I'm planning, you all are seriously psychic or something like that.

"Love and Monsters" is going to be an interlude since there was so little Doctor and Rose in it. After that, "Fear Her," then interlude, and then . . . *takes a deep breath* "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday." And then probably two interludes (cuz too much will happen for just one) and then the epilogue. :)

And then we go from there. Who's excited??