“You’re definitely hanging on, Doctor,” said Tressure smugly.
“You must stop!” screamed the Doctor through strained and painful gasps.
“I will only stop when you die,” said Tressure. “So far you’re shaping up for joining my powers. But you’re starting to fail. And if you die then I know you’re worthless.”
The Doctor couldn’t answer. He only could scream.
Nivere had found herself in a dark spaceship corridor. It was an old type from centuries ago and she felt sure she couldn’t remember how she got here. All she could remember was being stood with the savage, Yentob, and then the visions. She saw herself as a younger woman outside the church with the woman called Jayne. When she was happy. When she lived with the other Ancestors.
And then she had been thrown into the future.
She did what she always wanted to do – fly into space, but it still wasn’t enough. She saw Mark Dennington’s wife, Julia, die on a moon expedition and it was partly her fault. The oxygen flow pipe hadn’t been repaired properly from last time. It was her job, but she couldn’t have told Mark that.
When Julia had died Mark had been stricken with grief. He couldn’t live in their apartment on Earth anymore, not with all the old memories of Julia. So, in guilt she supposed, she took Mark under her wing and befriended him, let him join her expeditions.
She thought about forgetting this quest. Going back to Mark and telling him the truth and then just being an explorer again. Try to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. But, no, she’d gone too far. She was so close to the Eye and, she felt sure, close to Tressure. He would give her the powers she craved for and then she would make the Ancestors pay for casting her out.
A scream came from up the corridor. It sounded so chilling that Nivere almost considered turning to run. But she had to carry on.
She moved along the corridor. There was a light coming from a room up above. A green light. Nivere’s heart began pounding faster and faster as she advanced on the object of her desires.
The walls of the fortress were crumbling down around Caroline, Dennington and Yentob, but still they continued to trek into the heart of the fortress.
“Where’s that old fella you were hanging around with?” asked Caroline.
“Nivere told me that Slavin is dead,” said Yentob sadly.
“Dead? How did it happen?”
“Tressure killed him. Another reason why I can’t trust him anymore. Slavin had faith in him until the end.”
“I take it Slavin was one of his most trusted servants?” asked Dennington.
“The most trusted one. And that, I suppose, was his mistake. I always had my doubts over Tressure, but Slavin would always put me in my place. It seems I was right all along.”
A block of stone crashed down beside Yentob, almost crushing him.
“We have to be careful,” said Dennington.
“Do you think Tressure can sense us?” asked Caroline.
“No. He’s probably preoccupied with something else,” replied Yentob.
“Like what?”
“The Doctor, perhaps?” suggested Dennington.
“I hope he’s alright.”
But the Doctor wasn’t alright. He felt as if his insides were being ripped apart. He hadn’t cried in a long, long time, but right about now all he could think of was crying his eyes out. He wanted to rip himself free from the torment of this bizarre cloud, but he had no control over himself.
“Still not dying, Doctor?” chuckled Tressure.
“Let me go!” screamed the Doctor.
“What’s happening?”
Tressure turned and saw the woman, April Nivere, standing in the doorway looking in awe at the Doctor’s body being pulled and tossed about in the cloud.
“So, Captain Nivere, you have made it here.”
“After a few problems I’ve finally found you.” She extended her hand. “I’m April Nivere.”
Tressure didn’t take her hand. He was watching her eyes. They were focusing on the Eye around his neck. “You want this, don’t you?”
Nivere retracted her hand quickly. “I, um, yes. Yes I would like to share in your power.”
“Then I’m afraid that you will have to go through the same torment as him.” He pointed to the Doctor, flapping around in the air.
“But I would never survive,” she said nervously.
“You are one of the Ancestors,” Tressure replied calmly. “You could survive anything.”
“I’m not one anymore,” she said, trying to put the past behind her.
“Of course you are.”
“They cast me out. I lost any kind of power I had.”
“That’s because Jayne made you believe that.” Tressure smiled. “Those powers are still in there, buried deep down.”
“Then why must I go through that test?”
“You mustn’t defy me, April,” said Tressure, taking a step back. “I am offering you a share in my power. A chance for you to become a Goddess.”
There was a noise from behind. They turned and saw the Doctor lying on the ground, smoke rising from his burnt clothes.
“What happened?” asked Nivere.
“He…he lost his…concentration,” spluttered the Doctor.
“Lucky for you, Doctor,” said Tressure.
“It’s becoming…quite a ha-habit.” The Doctor managed a weak smile.
“You will be silent,” said Tressure, crossing the floor and booting the Doctor in his stomach.
“Or what? You’ll kill me? You’ve just about done that anyway so why don’t you finish it off?”
“No,” said Tressure, unwilling to take his bait. “We will take this battle down to the real world again.”
Grasp was lying in a cell, holding the wound on his leg. It had stopped bleeding some time ago, but it was still soar. The lizard-man had considered taking his life for failing his captain but, to his annoyance, he could find nothing that would have done the job properly.
He was just drifting back off to sleep when the door was kicked open and Caroline, Dennington and the man who had attacked him walked in.
“Grasp, how are you?” asked Dennington.
Grasp was a little weary. “What’s happening? How did you get through that door?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Grasp, this whole place is crumbling. The door was damaged badly.”
“I haven’t been fully aware of my surroundings,” he slurred.
“He is sick,” said Yentob. “He might not be able to help us.”
“We can’t leave him,” said Dennington. “Yentob, help me carry him out.”
Caroline stood by and watched the two men lift up Grasp and help him into the corridor as the ceiling of his cell collapsed. They then headed for the main chamber.
Running around the chamber like a headless chicken was Danny. He kept collapsing to the floor and then getting up again, muttering something about ‘Gods of the Eye’.
“What do you think’s wrong with him?” asked Ivy.
“I can’t be certain, but I suppose Tressure’s power is beginning to leave him,” said Dunjan.
“Can we do anything to help?” asked Ivy, feeling concerned for him for the first time since she’d met him.
“Not in here we can’t. And even if we did get out, I can’t see what I could do.” Dunjan felt his staff and it tingled. “Wait! I think we might be able to get out of this cage after all.”
“How?” Ivy’s heart had leapt a few feet out of her chest.
“Tressure’s power is spread all over the planet. He can’t have that much of a grip on us.”
Dunjan gripped his staff tighter and aimed it at the bars. He mumbled something incomprehensible to Ivy and a few seconds later the bars of their cage melted away.
Danny’s head snapped around and he stared with glowing green eyes at the two former prisoners.
“No!”
“Quickly, Dunjan, do something,” said Ivy as Danny ran for them.
It was too late to cast a spell and Dunjan simply swung his staff around and smacked Danny in the stomach. He fell to the floor and curled into a foetal position, mumbling something to himself.
Dennington, Yentob, Caroline and Grasp ran into the chamber just as the ceiling opened and a glowing bright green light descended into the room.
“What is it?” asked Caroline.
“The end,” said Danny, crying on the floor.
The light faded and standing there was Tressure, Nivere and the Doctor, once again, trapped in a torture cloud.
“What are you doing to him?” shouted Caroline.
“He is about to die,” smiled Tressure.
“No,” shouted Danny. “You can’t do it.”
“So, you’re defying me, are you?” said Tressure. “Do you never learn? Prepare to see the Doctor die.”
The cloud turned from green to red. The Doctor’s scream could be heard beyond the jungle, beyond the planet, beyond even space itself. His body began to dissolve away.
Dunjan mumbled some words and, unbeknownst to Tressure, pointed his staff towards the Doctor’s position,
The Doctor disappeared with a final, terrifying scream and Tressure laughed out loudly.
“You monster!” screamed Ivy.
Nivere felt her fingers tingling and she held them up to her face. Her eyes were glowing white hot. She smiled, a memory coming over her and then pointed her hand towards the group of travellers.
“Captain, what’s wrong?”
“He was right,” said Nivere, nodding towards Tressure. “I didn’t lose my powers. I only thought I did.”
“What powers?” asked Ivy.
“These powers,” laughed Nivere as a bolt of white light shot out of Nivere’s hand and engulfed Mark Dennington in a bright white light. And then he was gone.
“What did you do to him?” shouted Caroline, not knowing if she could take anymore of this.
“Took him out of the picture.”
“But he was your friend!” said Ivy through gritted teeth.
“Exactly,” said Nivere.
Tressure grinned down at her.
“So I can become your aid?” asked Nivere. “A Goddess?”
“If you will take the test,” said Tressure.
Nivere looked to the cloud which had now turned back to green. “I…I can’t do it.”
“Then you are worthless to me.”
“But I promise I would be worthy of your power.”
“Take the test,” said Tressure, getting mildly irritated with the woman.
“I can’t,” said Nivere, shaking her head.
“Then you are worthless, pointless to me. You must die!”
Tressure extended his arms and let out a bolt of green lightning. The lightning hit Nivere and she collapsed to the floor. Her face began to melt and burn away.
She remembered being with the Ancestors back at the church and wished she had stayed loyal to them. Margot had always told her that her hunger for power would kill her - and it had.
The last thing she saw was a distraught Grasp limping over to her.
Grasp held Nivere’s head in his arms and screamed out in anguish.
Tressure stood laughing and turned to Danny. “It seems you are the only one left who is worthy of my power. It’s a pity that I must have a traitor as my companion.”
“Yes,” said Danny slowly. “Will you still accept me?”
“Of course,” said Tressure. “I would have preferred someone a little more loyal like, say, Slavin, but…you can join me in my powers.”
Danny nodded. “I don’t need to go into the cloud?”
“No. Take the Eye. Make yourself complete. You have shown your worth.”
Danny stepped forward and placed his hand around the Eye. He could do it. He could really become a God and rule over his own world, but he remembered what the voices had told him, what the previous Gods of the Eye had spoken to him about when he’d first shown strength to Tressure. The Eye had become tainted by evil and for the sake of the universe it had to be destroyed.
Danny had kept the false face for so long through pain and stress. Aided by the former Gods it was time to reveal his true intentions.
“What the hell!” he said, smiled at Tressure and then hurled the Eye to the ground. The green object shattered into a billion different fragments and Tressure screamed in agony, collapsing to the floor, searching out shards of power, his fingers running over the smashed pieces.
Danny turned to the others and gave a slight grin.
“Danny?” said Caroline confused.
“I had to trick you all. It was the only way I could do it,” he said.
“But…you were so convincing.”
Danny smiled sadly. “At times I wasn’t fully here and it was the Eye talking through me, but buried deep down, when the time was right, I knew I’d be able to do it. I knew I’d be able to destroy him.”
“Talk about a long con!” laughed Ivy.
The energy from the storm outside began rushing in through the ceiling and was drawn into Tressure and the broken Eye.
“We have to get out of here,” said Caroline.
Ivy tried to pull Grasp away from Nivere’s body, but he wouldn’t move. In the end they had to leave him.
After the travellers had left the fortress, Grasp was alone with Nivere’s dead body and the crying Tressure. He looked at the once powerful God and laughed.
“Not so special now.”
Tressure looked up sadly at Grasp as the lizard-man raised his dagger and stabbed Tressure straight through the heart.
Everyone had gotten clear of the fortress when suddenly there was a massive explosion and the entire stone structure exploded in a bright green light.
After a few moments everything subsided. The weather returned to normal and the ground stopped shaking.
Caroline gave a huge sigh and of relief and then began crying.
The Doctor had gone and they were never going to see him again. For the first time, she actually realised how much he had started to mean to her.
Danny put his arm around her and comforted her.
As they turned to go they saw the familiar figure of the Doctor, standing beside a tree, eating a pink coloured apple and smiling.
“What…?” said Caroline, lost for words.
“It was all Mr Dunjan’s hard work,” said the Doctor. His clothes were ripped and torn but it didn’t stop him from putting on that smug look of his.
“I don’t understand,” said Ivy. “We saw you die.”
“Yes, but what you didn’t see was Dunjan casting one of his spells.”
“It’s true,” said Dunjan, standing beside the Doctor. “But I didn’t know if it would work. I took a chance that Tressure’s powers had been distracted again.”
“Dunjan transported me outside of the fortress making it look as if I’d died. Tressure was so distracted he didn’t even bother to check whether I really did died.”
Caroline ran over to hug the Doctor as did Ivy. “It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you all,” said the Doctor, a little taken aback by Caroline’s affection. “I just wish I could have been more help.”
“Doctor,” said Ivy. “Captain Nivere is dead. And Grasp as well.”
“I know,” said the Doctor sadly. “But she never would have learned. And in the end her desires backfired on her.” The Doctor looked around, noticing someone was missing. “Where’s Mr Dennington.”
“Gone,” said Ivy sadly. “Nivere made this kind of white light appear from her hands and then he was just gone. I never even knew she had any powers.”
The Doctor looked in deep thought and he tapped on his chin. “She was an Ancestor.”
“And what’s one of them?” asked Caroline.
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
“So, now what Doctor?” asked Danny, rubbing at his forehead.
“Now, we try and get the TARDIS out of that swamp.”
As they walked off Yentob looked back at the crumbled fortress. “Farewell, Slavin,” he said quietly, and then ran to join the others.
Because of Tressure’s power being removed, Dunjan was free to use his magic to transport everyone back to Nivere’s ship and get the TARDIS out of the swamp.
“Well, I can take you home now if you want, Ivy,” said the Doctor.
“Actually I was thinking of taking Nivere’s ship and making my own way back,” said Ivy. “I need to go home and tell everyone what happened here today.”
“I actually meant home, as in Victorian England.”
“I’m afraid I’m too far gone for that now, Doctor,” she smiled. “I need to make sure everyone knows about Theen.”
“Yes. Tell them about how Aamina and Bridges died, as well as Grasp and Nivere, and poor old Mark,” smiled the Doctor. “Just don’t be a stranger, Ivy. I’d like this to be a ‘see you later’ rather than a goodbye.”
“Of course, Doctor. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other more often.”
The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders and looked down at her. “If you ever need to talk, Ivy, you know where I am. You know my numbers.”
She smiled sadly. “And if you ever feel like you’re ready to tell me about what happened to you - about what’s still happening to you - I’ll be around.”
“Hello?” came a voice.
The group turned to look and there was Dennington emerging from behind the ship.
“Mark!” said Ivy. “We thought you were dead!”
“No,” said Mark, rubbing his head and a little confused. “I woke up behind the ship. She saved me. Must have transported me outside the fortress walls.”
“She was your friend,” said the Doctor, “she clearly had some humanity left in there.”
“I’ll miss her,” said Mark.
“Never mind,” said Ivy. “You’ve got me now.” She tapped him playfully on the arm. “Let’s get back and rebuild our lives, hey?”
Everybody said their good byes and the Doctor, Caroline, Danny, Dunjan and Yentob watched the old spaceship blast off back into space.
“See you soon, Miss Coldstone,” said the Doctor quietly.
Yentob escorted the Doctor and his friends back to the TARDIS.
“What about you two?” asked Caroline.
“We’re going to try and work together,” said Dunjan. “Try and unite the tribes and make all of them work for the good of Theen.”
“And then,” continued Yentob, “maybe one day we can worship a real God.”
“I hope your dreams come true,” said the Doctor.
Dunjan shook the Doctor, Caroline and Danny’s hands and the two tribesmen walked back into the jungle with new hope in their hearts.
The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door and then turned to Danny. “How are you feeling Danny?”
“I’m feeling better than ever now,” said Danny.
“Are you sure?” asked Caroline. “You were feeling ill before we got here.”
“I think it was Tressure’s power calling to me,” said Danny. “I don’t know how, but it affected me more than anyone else.”
“Next time though,” said the Doctor, “please keep us in the loop when you devise these little plans.”
The Doctor and Caroline went inside the TARDIS. Danny gave a last look around him. This could have been his kingdom. But then he was never meant to be a God. He felt a pain stretch across his forehead and then, shrugging it off, he went into the blue police box.
The TARDIS dematerialised and left Theen.
In the air a bird circled, and in the rivers the fish swam again. The evil had been lifted from the land and Theen was safe at last.
THE END
Next time: The Fear Factor
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