Ties Between Time and Space

✦43✦

Chapter Forty-Three
No Choice Left

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"You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe, in the myths and legends of a million worlds," the Doctor talked as he descended into the pit. It felt like the darkness went on for miles and miles. "Earth, Draconia, Velconsadine, Daemos. The Kaled 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.

"Emanating from here?" Ida questioned, listening to his rambles.

"Could be."

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

A devil maybe, the devil not likely. Like Emma said, this beast was probably one of the first beasts. Lucifer wouldn't be so bored as to travel light-years away from his current time into the middle of deep space just for a quick torment session. But really the devil, a devil, what was the real difference? A monster was still a monster, no matter the name it used.

"Well, if that's what you want to believe. Maybe that's what the devil is, in the end. An idea," the Doctor said.

He jerked to a stop leaving him to dangle in the middle of nothingness. The cable ran out. It was ten miles down already, and he still hadn't hit the bottom of the pit.

"That's it," Ida said. "That's all we've got. You getting any sort of readout?"

"Nothing," the Doctor replied, holding the device in his hand at arm's length. "Could be miles to go, yet. Or could be thirty feet. No way of telling," he said before muttering in consideration. "I could survive thirty feet."

Emma might kill me, but at least I'd survive the fall, he thought.

"Oh no you don't," Ida said immediately rejecting the idea. "I'm pulling you back up."

She clicked the reverse button but the Doctor quickly stopped it. The cable jerked him to a stop yet again.

"What're you doing?" Ida questioned.

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

"But you can't. Doctor, you can't," Ida refused.

"Call it an act of faith."

"But I don't want to die on my own," she whispered, her voice trembling in fear.

"I know," the Doctor said softly.

He undid the clip on the cable that wrapped around his waist. He'd never know if he didn't try. The least he could do now was try. He was running out of oxygen and there was no way back to the base. Either he got lucky or he suffocated to death. Those were the only two options, not even Emma being a Nephilim could save him now. He needed to try and save himself. He had to get back to her. Get back to his angel.

*---*---*

Emma stopped in front of the communication system in the drilling room. She pressed the button as Zach arrived behind them.

"Doctor? Doctor, are you there?" Emma asked, her heart racing. "Ida? Doctor?"

"The comms are still down. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute," Zach said as he started typing away on the keyboard in front of the monitor.

*---*---*

"I didn't ask. Have you got any sort of faith?"

"Not really," Ida shook her head, sitting on the edge of the seal. "I was brought up Neo Classic Congregational, because of my mum. She was... My old mum," she swallowed hard at the thought of her mother. "But no, I never believed."