Part 29 (1/2)

Their eyes bulge as the mist threatens to overwhelm them.

Together in this final stranglehold, unable to harm each other further, they sink down until only their heads are left, glaring at each other in absolute hatred.

Hopkins feels the warm stuff rise up over his chin and the pull from below. His last view is of Neville's eyes, glaring.

'VALDEMAR!' shrieks the sorcerer. Then neither man can see anything.

Romana's struggles subside with the final descent of Neville and Hopkins. Perhaps, and the Doctor is not going to be drawn on this, perhaps it really is finished.

Now, how is he going to return his companion to normal?

Pelham topples over. Blood loss, it was only going to be a matter of time. Another one who needs his help.

All of a sudden, he realises he is the last one. He raises his hands from Romana. She has retreated into herself, whether because of his words or not he does not know. The Doctor stands.

Interesting how quiet this cavern can be when it wants to.

He takes a deep breath of the hot salty air, and wonders what happened to Neville and Hopkins. The last he saw of them they were banging heads on the molten slab of that disa.s.sembling gateway.

Whatever process it was going through seems to have stopped.

Of course, with the unfortunate death of Huvan, the power to open the gateway would have ceased as well.

He looks down at the boy's corpse. If there could have been another way, if he had had the opportunity, he is certain he could have resolved all this in a less violent manner. Despite Huvan's age, Neville had ensured he remained a child. He really hadn't been given the opportunity to grow up.

Huvan smiles. The Doctor goes cold.

As he watches, the boy raises his arms over the small wound in his chest. Huvan breathes and the bullet pops out into his waiting fingers. 'Still think you can convince me, Doctor?' he says brightly.

As the boy floats up and rights himself, the Doctor feels intensely weary. This isn't over. It's never over.

'What do you want, Huvan?' he asks, readying himself.

The boy considers for a moment. It is intensely disconcerting to see that his feet are approximately fifteen centimetres from the ground. What has he become?

'I want Romana. That's all I ever wanted.'

The Doctor glances at his supine companion. 'I'm sorry,' he says. 'But I can't allow it.'

'Can't allow it?'

'You will not control the higher dimensions, Huvan. It's not a place; it's the primal stuff of the universe. You will not be able to control it through force of will. Everything that is you will be lost. And Romana too.'

'She wanted to come with me, she wanted me to release the higher dimensions. You know that.'

'Ah, but you could say she wasn't herself. She must give herself willingly. I will not allow you to force her.' Something explodes inside his head. He clutches his temple and sinks to his knees.

'A fraction of the pain I can inflict, Doctor. I don't need your permission.'

The agony leaves him. Its intensity was phenomenal and total. The Doctor knows he won't survive another attack. He's going to have to be good. Very good.

'You still have a chance, Huvan,' he says. 'You possess the power to do it.'

'Do what?' The ghost of a smile still plays over the boy's pale lips. He looks altered; it's not the black shadows of the higher dimensions, but a self-induced improvement in his appearance. It is as if Huvan has given himself a charisma injection. The Doctor muses that it was true he needed one.

Still, it might be enough to work on his vanity.

'To live the life of a normal human being.'

'Why should I want to do that? I, who possess the power of an entire universe.'

'Because you would still be alone. Because there would be no one your equal, and believe me, you will never be happy until you find that. Otherwise, you're just another Paul Neville.'

'Don't mention that name. I made me what I am. Not him, I!' Around the cavern, something like thunder rumbles.

'Anyway, what would be so wrong? I wish only to enter the gateway.'

The Doctor shakes his head. 'No, Huvan. I can't allow you to do this.'

A flare of anger. The boy could kill him any minute.

Instead, however, the Doctor is surprised to see him smile.

'How about this?' Huvan says, a cold, humourless joke. 'I won't release the higher dimensions, I shall just give myself up to them. Your reality will be safe. All I want is Romana to join with me, so we may become one.'

'And if I refuse?'

'No, Doctor. There is no refusal. Do this or I open the gateway and take her with me anyway. Only then, you lose everything. How about that? What do you say?'

The smile is mocking now, insidious.

When the Doctor replies, he is unhesitant. 'I will not make that decision, Huvan,' he says. 'You know it is beyond my power.'

'But the universe depends on your answer, Doctor.'

'I will not answer. I cannot be held responsible for the fate of another.'

'Then you have condemned your whole universe.

Everything you know, s.p.a.ce, even time itself will alter.'

The creaking, the giant, booming, echoing process of release starts up again. Only this time, great sheets of something like thick black rain blast upwards from the gateway. Strands like the black fibres around Romana's eyes.

The higher dimensions revealing themselves. There is nothing emerging, the Doctor knows that. It is the reality around him that is changing; the particle accelerator initiating a process for which there is no reversal.

'Huvan!' he bellows. He must make the boy change his mind. There is no choice. Before the process begins to affect him. 'Huvan, listen.'