Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who
Chapter 37: What do You Believe In?
"Catacombs. Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great."
"Technically, I think it's called a "Maze of the Dead""
-The Doctor & Father Octavian
"Tiptoe, by the window, By the window, that is where I'll be. Come Tiptoe through the tulips with me.." Amy sung under her breath, whistling as she walked through the base by herself. It was nice to be alone for once and not have to fake a persona. "Oh, tiptoe by the garden, by the garden of the willow tree, come tiptoe through the tulips..."
She paused, looking at the airlock door with a smirk. With a twist of her hand the door wrenched open and got sucked out into the vacuum.
"With me..." She finished with a tiny smirk as the air rushed out around her and the howling of the bitter pill hit her ears.
Danny let out a final breath after the moment of silence was over, "Zach...we're at the final junction. 9.2. And er...if my respects could be on record. He saved out lives."
There was a second, "Noted. Opening 9.2."
The gate opened. And the Ood were right behind it.
They scrambled away. Rose screamed, shouting, "Lower 9.2. Zach, lower it!"
"Back! Back! Back!
"We can't go back!" Toby shouted, "The gang point's sealed off!"
"Mrs. Williams has blown the airlock directly above you." Zach said through, "Looks like she's taking a space walk."
"Stop her!" Rose screamed.
"I can't, it's too late."
Rose closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears, before nodding, " Can you re-pressurize the area?"
"Er- Give me a moment."
"We don't have a moment!" She shouted.
There was the sound of metal moving upstairs and then a sharp hissing. Zach beeped, "Go! Now!"
Rose pushed the gate up, moving upwards into a hallway. She immediately ran into an open window, looking out into space.
"AMY!" She yelled towards the ginger, who looked like she was...skipping on the surface.
The ginger haired girl turned back and waved cheerfully at her without a care in the world, but the tattoo's where still there and her red eyes were menacing.
"COME BACK!" Rose banged on the glass, tears falling quickly, her voice dropping back to normal, leaning her head on the glass, "Please...you're all I have left..."
Danny placed a hand on her shoulder, and Rose turned, seeing the tears in his own eyes as well. They had all lost people today.
Toby scrambled out of the hole. A loud bang echoed on the close bulkhead door and Zach gasped.
"That's not possible! It's pure vacuum!"
"That doesn't seem to be stopping anyone these days." Danny grumbled, looking at Amy who was still walking away from the base. He grabbed rose's hand, "This way"
And he pulled them down the other hall, away from he approaching Ood.
Amy whistled an unknown song. Actually, she did know it.
"Macarena?" She frowned, shaking her head. She looked down into the deep cavern that had been created when the Earthquake shook the planet. Shaking her free.
She crouched at the edge, looking where the closest stairs would have been located, sighing. She looked at her own hands, there was a thin bubble of air covering her skin. It was so thin, thinner than paper. You couldn't even see it.
She hadn't taken in a breath since she walk outside. Only the preemptive exhale. She could maintain oxygen levels in the body, but she couldn't risk damaging the lungs, well any more than she was already doing. She needed this body to last a little bit longer.
She started to walk around the edge towards the second pair of stairs on the other side. Normally hidden the collapsing earth had exposed them. The sight of them filled her with disgust. The guards used to walk down them when they guarded her, every day, the echo of their shoes on the stairs drew a bolt of rage through her and made her eyes flash.
And now she would be the one descending.
With that happy thought in her mind she started her hike around the edge of the cavern.
Rose burst through the door into Ood habitation and let out a breath of relief. Unfortunately there had already been Ood inside and they all turned and looked up at their arrival.
"Get it in!" Rose ordered. Danny ran over to the computer, working as quickly as he could.
Toby hissed at them , "Danny get down!"
"Transmit!"
"I'm trying!" Danny cried, "I'm trying! I'm getting at it-"
"Stop them!" Toby screeched.
The Ood are slowly walking up the stairs, in an orderly fashion, like soldiers.
"Danny! Get that things transmitting!"
Danny slammed something at the computer, and all the Ood grabbed their head. A screeching echoed through the air, not sound, but in her mind. After a moment Rose realized it was the Ood screaming out in pain.
After a few seconds they all collapsed to the ground.
Rose looked at them for a moment, then a huge smile broke out, "You did it! We did it!"
"Yes!" Danny cried, looking shocked. Rose threw her arms around him, then turning to hug Toby, who stiffened before returning it with a huge grin.
Rose grabbed the comm, "Zach, we did it. The Ood are down. Now we've gotta get the Doctor and Amy."
"I'm on my way!"
There was blackness. He was so far down that he couldn't even see the light of the gravity globe anymore. Being suspended in the air only by a thin rope that he didn't entirely trust. On his way down he'd come up with five different ways that he could have secured himself that would have been safer.
He leaned over into his comm which had lost connection to the surface a while ago. He talked to Ida, "You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe. In the Myths and legends of a million world. Earth...Draconia, Velconsadine...Daemos...the Kaled God of war." He wrinkled his nose at that one. It was no shock that the people who would become the Daleks would worship a God of war, "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."
He thought about what Amy had told him - the cracks in the skin of universe. Could that be how it was bleeding through?
"Emanating from here?" Ida asked.
The Doctor pushed that idea into the back of him mind. That was a problem for future him, "Could be."
"But if this is the original...does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil, though?"
"Well..." The Doctor tilted his head, "If that's what you want to believe. Maybe that's what the devil is, in the end. An idea."
He jerked to a halt and for a moment he was sure the cable had snapped. But he just stopped, not moving.
"That's it." Ida whispered, "That's all we've got." The Doctor started to scan the area, seeing if he could determine how far away the base was. "You getting any sort of readout?"
"Nothing." He grumbled, "Could be miles to go, yet. Or...could be thirty feet. No way of telling." He paused, looking down. He had two choices now really. Go back up, stay with Ida and maybe get rescued. Or...go down.
But what was really waiting for him up there? Death by suffocation? He would last a bit longer than Ida, but then what? Maybe he'd get rescued, but that wasn't nearly as appealing as it used to be.
He hitch a ride? Him, the Doctor, hitch a ride with humans. He wrinkled his nose. Even when he had been banished to Earth he had owned a car. He remembered his time on Earth, the TARDIS disabled, not being able to go anywhere. He repressed a shudder. It had been one of the worst times of his life. Despite working for U.N.I.T. he'd been grouchy all the time.
But Rose would be there. That made him smile. He remembered the way she'd stuttered her way through asking to life with him and his heart fluttered. Of course they would live together. She'd need his expertise of whatever planet they landed on, and he'd need her to...he'd just need her.
But...then she'd grow old. And he wouldn't. And he'd be alone once again, stuck in one time and place. With no TARDIS.
"I could survive thirty feet." He whispered.
"Oh no you don't. I'm pulling you back up!"
The rope started to climb, but the Doctor quickly pressed another, halting himself.
"What're you doing!"
"You bring me back, then we're just gonna sit there and run out of air. I've gotta go down."
"But you can't" Her voice took on an edge of hysterics, "Doctor, you can't!"
The Doctor looked down, "Call it an act of faith." He slowly started to unhook the securing cable.
"But..." Her voice cracked, "I don't want to die on my own..."
The Doctor's eyes watered, "I know..." He whispered as he released another hook.
Amy faltered as she felt something inside her.
"I knew it." She whispered, her jaw clenched.
Stop him.
Rose picked up the comm, looking at it nervously, "Doctor? Are you there? Doctor? Ida? Can you hear me?"
"The comms are still down." Zach said, now standing with them. He seemed relieved to not be stuck in the command room anymore, "I can patch them though the central desk and boost the minute."
The Doctor released a third hook, "I didn't ask - have you got any sort of faith, or...?"
"Not really. I was brought up Neo Classic, congregational...because of my mum, she was..." She paused for a moment, "My old mum. But no, I never believed."
The Doctor nodded, "Neo Classic - have they got the Devil?"
"No, not as such. Just um...the things that men do."
"Same thing in the end."
"What about you?"
This made the Doctor pause. What did he believe in? He'd never given it much thought. There were many things that he believed to be true, many things that he knew to be true, but, something that he had pure faith and trust and belief in?
"I believe...I believe I haven't seen everything, I don't know...it's funny, isn'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...impossible. Doesn't fit my rule. Still, that's why I keep traveling. To be proved wrong. Thank you, Ida."
"Don't go!" She begged.
The Doctor had a thought. "If they get back in touch...if you talk to Rose...Just tell her..."
The words got stuck in his throat. They always did, he could never force them out. Once he said it, once he got it out there it was permanent. He couldn't take it back. And if he lost her...when he lost her, it would hurt so much more.
"Tell her I..." He tried once more before looking down and whispering to himself, "Oh, she knows..."
And with that he released the last hook and fell into the pit.
Rose tried the comm again, "Doctor? Are you there? Doctor, Ida? Can you hear me?"
She waited a moment.
"Are you there, Doctor?"
"He's gone."
Rose felt her heart stop at Ida's voice. She couldn't even bring herself to be elated that Ida was still alive. "What do you mean, 'he's gone'?"
"He fell. Into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is - miles and miles and miles."
Rose's voice broke as she choked down a sob, "But...what do you mean 'he fell'?" No he wouldn't leave her. He wouldn't...
Ida's voice was quiet and tick with tears, "I couldn't stop him. He said your name..."
Rose didn't say anything, her tears making her vision go fuzzy and her throat got thick. Her lip quivered and she stared into the nothingness.
Zach leaned forward and grabbed the comm, "I'm sorry." He whispered to Rose before turning on the comm, "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's voice sounded wistful, and Rose just couldn't' help the tears that started to flow. She had lost so much, too much, everything. "It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover thing...And here I am."
Rose looked down and wished she and Ida could switch places. She'd rather die here with the Doctor than go on by herself.
"We've got to abandon base." Zach said sadly. "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?"
Zach nodded, looking disturbed, "Well, maybe that's best."
"Yeah."
Zach looked away, looking horrified, "Officer Scott-"
"It's all right. Just go. Good luck."
Zach looked relieved and sad all at the same time, "Thank you." He put the comm back, "Danny - Toby - close down the feed links. Get the retrotopes online. Then get to the rocket - strap yourselves in. We're leaving."
It only took Rose a split second to make her decision. She turned towards Zach, "I'm not going."
Amy tilted her head, "She's not going."
I'm aware.
Amy rolled her eyes at Toby's statement in her mind, "Then make her go. The Doctor won't risk her life.
It matters not, he will believe her on the rocket.
A loud force slammed into her mind. Before consulting with Toby she had already taken control of Zach's mind, forcing the decision for him. Rose had to get on that ship. Amy had to make sure she was safe.
She forced herself out of it. Damn this host! Her body was weak, but her mind was strong.
She didn't have much time.
"Rose..." Zach looked at her reassuringly, "There's space for you."
Rose spoke quietly, not trusting her own voice, "No, I'm gonna wait for the Doctor and Amy. Just like he waited for me..."
Zach smiled at her gently, "I'm sorry, but...they're dead."
"You don't know him!" She snapped, her voice cracking under the strain, "'Cos he's not..." She was barely keeping it together, "I'm telling you, he's- he's not...and even if he was, how could I leave him?" He heart strained thinking that he would stay down there forever...die alone, "All on his own, all the way down there? No. I'm gonna stay."
Zach nodded, and something in his mind shifted. "Then I apologise for this. Danny - Toby - make her secure."
She hadn't even noticed the two coming up beside her, grabbing her arms, one each.
She panicked, trying to struggle out of their arms, "No - No! No! No! No! Let me go!" She screamed at them, "Get off me! I'm not leaving!" She felt a sharp pinch in her arm as the needle went into it, "No..." She whispered before the drugs took hold and everything went dark.
Amy smirked as she felt them taking her to the ship. Everything was falling into place. Looking down she tilted her head. The Doctor had reached the prison, but he was unconscious.
She started down the first steps, knowing he would not awaken until she got there.
And then he would die.
She hummed gleefully, "Tiptoe through the tulips, with me."
A/N: So there is a 92689% chance that I was watching insidious when I wrote this chapter. For anyone who thinks otherwise tiptoe through th tulips is a scary ass song. Also I think I've seen the Dark Knight too many times cause whenever I see the chapter title I'm just like, "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you...stranger". I'm sorry, that was a weird rant.
I enjoyed writing the Doctor's POV in this one - with his conversation with Ida. It's one of my fav scenes in this episode. I totally kissed the reference to the Kaleds until I was writing it thought.
Can I say something about the Kaleds for a moment? I would like to talk to Terry Nation and ask you a serious fucking question: are you serious? Like...we need a name for the original species that the Daleks were! What about...Kaled? Isn't that just 'Dalek' Backwards? Yes. Brilliant!
Okay rant over.
Anon Review Replies
Astrakelly: Thanks for the review! As for River..well...spoilers ;)
Guest (WHOknows): Thank you so much for the review! The whole series will be four stories long, and this story is about 50 chapters long (only a bit longer than the first one). And for your second quesiton - the Doctor, Amy and River will all meet when I write Silence in the LIbrary ;), if you're talking about before that? Well...spoilers.
Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I love hearing from you guys! Seriously come review or PM me and ask me anything! Also review with any comments, concerns, and questions!
Until Next Time,
-Ash