Souls Eclipsed- Doctor Who

The Forest 2

Early update because school is canceled so why not. Please stay safe guys! 

I didn't notice it at first, but as we walked through the forest, the grass started getting more and more brittle. It lost its color slowly, and then all at once. And suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by mounds of dead grass and vines, jumbled together in the same nonsensical order that the other cores had been in. There was a smell of death that floated through the air and left a pit in my stomach. And the sadness. It was almost too much, I was already so vulnerable after the pain I had felt only a few hours ago. This sadness ate at every piece of happiness inside of me. Everything was so absolutely irrevocably dead.

I looked over at The Doctor- his demeanor had changed so suddenly. He was gripping my hand harshly, as if his life depended on it. I was scared to ask, but I had to know, because I knew that he understood what was happening- he just wasn't letting on.

"Doctor.. What is this place?"

He sighed and closed his eyes. "It's a core graveyard."

I frowned, "a what?"

The Doctor released my hand and rubbed his face tiredly, "at one point," he explained, "these were all live energy cores, just like the vines we ran into. But they died. All the energy- all the... the..." He looked at me sadly, searching for the right words, "life was sucked out of them." The Doctor shook his head sadly and moved towards a dead vine that looked particularly complex, "they were killed."

"Killed?" A pang of fear ran through my heart, "by who?"

"Not by who," The Doctor whipped his head around angrily, "by what."

I took a step back, shocked by how quickly he turned to anger. All I could feel was the damp sadness that weighed over my soul.

"Oh, this is clever, very clever," He continued, a rueful smile spread across his face that didn't quite meet the eyes, "almost didn't figure it out but- then again- it is very hard to fool me."

"Congratulations!" The Doctor yelled up into the sky, "Lily," he softened as he turned his attention to me, "we never should have come here," his voice was grave, eyes wide with sincerity, "and I am so.. so ... sorry for what is about to happen."

I blinked in confusion, watching as he paced around the graveyard, rubbing his forehead.

"At first I didn't understand, I thought, what could just strip a TARDIS down to her core like that?" He scoffed, "but then you brought me here and it all made sense!" 

The Doctor had been shouting at the sky but he quickly turned his attention to me, "see- Lily- this planet is psychic. It's one of the seven Sousoulos planets. They need energy to survive, except, they don't have a core." He explained rapidly, "so the planet uses psychic signals to lure in space ships. A big flashing neon message that tells travellers- whatever you most desire lies in this planet." The Doctor's face contorted into disgust, "well they can't resist. And when the space ship lands..." 

He approached me, pure hatred gleaming in his eyes, "Lily can you guess what happens?"

I stood there, frozen, my mouth hanging open at his outburst.

"That's fine, I'll tell you," The Doctor clenched his hands, "This planet strips the ship down to the core and feeds off of its energy. Eventually the core dies, and then the planet finds a new one."

I frowned, still not quite grasping why he was so upset, "Doctor I don't-"

"Lily," He was quite close to me, "do you know what kind of energy a psychic planet feeds off of?"