[quote]"Uhhhhh... I'm Rose? Who might you be?"

"Are you always this cheery, even to giant voices in the sky?"

"Uhhh... did the world end while I was asleep? Or did I miss something?"[/quote]

Rigby bounced and leaped down to the crumbling floor, skittered out of the way of falling concrete, teetered on the edge of the growing glowing chasm in the floor, bounded to Rose's side, snatched the banana peel while she was distracted by the voice-in-the-sky, and he stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. Nali patted him on the head and he growled with his mouth full and leaped again to perch atop a fallen slab of concrete while the Stone rumbled and broke all around them.

It seemed not a one of them was taking this calamity seriously.

After all, who could fear death who had been dead?

Several of those who had stood around Rose plummeted into the churning glowing depths below. Their bodies flailed like ragdolls, broke on the gears and spun into the brightness beneath. Another was struck in the head by concrete and thrown headfirst into the clockwork abyss. Those who had awakened from certain death were being slaughtered one by one, their blood spattered on the pipes. It was as if the Stone were intent on the deaths of the condemned.

And then there were four.

Rose would hear the voice from the sky whispering in her ear. [i]That's a pretty name. Perhaps you will be mine, Rose.[/i] A piercing pain stabbed her head, then a bursting pressure like something was forcing itself into her skull. Taking her over. Something dark, deep, menacing.

The singing reached a fevered pitch, behind the banging of the ogre's club. At the same moment, the Stone thundered and the roof collapsed in a torrential fall of stone and rain.

Rose was suddenly released and thrown back; the voice was gone from her head in an instant. She would see a shimmer of a shadow -- huge, flickering, white-eyed -- flung away from her and smashed against the trembling rubble.

The singing stopped.

The thunder stopped.

The rain stopped.

The walls stopped shaking, and the roof stopped breaking.

The gears below squealed to a halt, and the orange glow died.

Before them was a monstrous dark shape, full of sharpness and decay, its eyes big and glowing white. It twitched and flickered and towered over them like emptiness itself. This was what had tried to force itself into Rose's mind, before the singing in the next room had driven it out.

But the song was done, and they all were dead -- save four.

Its voice was like the hiss of a snake.

[i]I AM A GOD IN NEED OF A BODY. YOU ARE ALL BODIES IN NEED OF YOUR GOD. DO I HAVE A VOLUNTEER?[/i]

The singing had weakened him; he could no longer hang in the sky and bellow down at them with the threat of worldly power. He could no longer force his way into Rose's head -- but he could accept an invitation.

The shadow twitched and flickered like static, and its bright eyes stared through them.

[i]HURRY, OR SHE WILL SING AGAIN.[/i] He chuckled darkly. [i]AND YOUR BLOOD WILL RUN.[/i]