"Pond!" The Doctor yelled. He was standing outside the TARDIS, his back on the corner. He was waiting for Amy. She always took ages. He should have pre-empted it, but he managed to find a way to forget her habit always rendered them late. Well, later. The TARDIS rarely landed at the right time. But that just made this more interesting. He chuckled to himself, remembering the time that the TARDIS became a human woman, taking Idris's body.
The Doctor's nostalgia was interrupted when the doors of the TARDIS swung open to reveal Amy in her signature outfit: sweater, shorts and converses. The Doctor smiled as he remembered his love of converses in his tenth incarnation. Amy caught his smile and smiled back.
"Yes, Doctor?" She shut the doors behind her.
"I was just going to say to hurry up," he smiled sweetly at her.
"Well, I'm here now, so hush your complaining." She stepped away from the TARDIS and let the Doctor lock the doors. Not that she didn't have a TARDIS key, she did. It was just that the Doctor had an OCD complex about his Tardis. Amy was still slightly creeped out by it, and his other habits concerning his time-machine: whispering to her, stroking her when he thought Amy wasn't looking, the list went on. "So! Where are we?" Looking around, she managed to establish that they weren't on Earth. Even though she'd been travelling with the Doctor for more that a year, he skills of recognition hadn't developed as much as she'd anticipated.
"We're on the Starship Enterprise." But she knew he was messing with her. He sighed. "You see right through me, Pond. I don't know. Air's breathable though." He gave her a quirky little grin before setting off at a run.
"Always with the running!" Amy muttered, exasperated, before she started after him.
As the landscape passed them by, full of different shade of white, the scenery changed. From the Tardis, the shapes became fluffier, more gentle and soft. The ground beneath them gave a little bounce. Kind of like the tarmac at a children's playground, Amy likened it in her head, not concerned with telling the Doctor of her thoughts. She'd get to it in a minute. After all, they did travel in time. They had all the time in the world.
Eventually, the Doctor slowed to a stop, and Amy only just managed to stop before bumping into him. He hasn't said a word, very uncharacteristically, and was just gazing upwards. While waiting for the Doctor to say something, Amy' s eyes followed his line of sight, and she saw one the most beautiful things she'd ever seen, imagined or dreamt of, and she realised that this must be what rendered the normally chatterbox Doctor into silence.
"Whoa…." Amy couldn't find any word either – and Amy was exceptionally good with her words! She was unable to react to the sight before her. It was, to give a very loose and general idea, like a waterfall. The cliff face was a very pale pinky-grey, and appeared to move, just a little in the breeze that pulled at both Amy's and the Doctor's hair. At the top of the cliff, there appeared to be a crack, it was so far up. From the parting in the rock, there was something falling, it could have been water, but it resembled a river of sapphires and crystals more than any body of water Amy had ever seen on Earth.
Amy linked her arm though the Doctor's, seeming to trigger his ability to speak again.
"This," he paused dramatically, "is the Jewel Waterfall of Petrvean. It has 'special powers'." He didn't draw the quotes in the air, instead letting his voice imply them. When it was clear that the Doctor wasn't going to continue unprompted, Amy turned away from the cliff to look directly into the Doctor's face.
"And those powers are…?"
"Legend says that if anyone gets closer than we are, closer that where the flowers start to grow, "Amy looked at her feet and saw flowers that bore some resemblance to daises only a foot or so away from her toes. Her attention back to the Doctor, he finished. "If anyone step's inside that circle of flowers, the waterfall influences them. Makes them prophetic. Only the power that comes with being a prophet blows the mind of most creatures in the known and unknown universe. Only certain beings have to potential to have that kind of power." The Doctor turned his head to Amy, "So be careful where you step."
This gave Amy a lot to think about. "So we're on Petrvean? That's the name of this planet?"
"You could say that."
"Hmm… you say that like there's an alternative…"
"Yup." The Doctor popped his lips on the "p". "There is. This is an alternate dimension. Not universe," he said as Amy tried to ask a question. Clearly, this answered her question, because she didn't say anything more.
Her arm still linked into the Doctor's, he swung her around, away from the waterfall, and they both immediately saw a tall man, frowning at them. Amy wanted to whisper in the Doctor's ear, asking him who the man was, wondering how he was so breathtakingly beautiful, why he was just so perfect, but the Doctor turned his head slightly, indicating that he would say the first thing, and he would let her know what was happening. Clearly this place, this person, made the Doctor was wary of what he said, and where he said it, so Amy let the Doctor lead the conversation.
"Pleased to meet you, I'm the Doctor, and this is Amelia Pond," Amy glared at him, but he ignored it.
The man smiled a small smile. "I'd say we've been expecting you, but no-one ever knows when to expect you, do they, Doctor? And the wonderful Amy. Wonderful gorgeous Amy." She wondered why he called her Amy, not Amelia, as she was introduced. "But, well, we have been wondering when you would arrive." As his feet bumped onto the floor, Amy realised that he'd been floating a little, and her eyes widened.
Amy spoke up, unable to curb her curiosity and enthusiasm for new places. "Who are you?"
"I am Castiel, angel of Thursday."
"Oh? What's that mean?" Amy looked puzzled.
"I'm still not sure. And I call you Amy because that's your preferred name." Amy looked surprised, while the Doctor was just amused, wondering why the "angel" bit of Castiel's title didn't click in Amy's head.
"He's an angel," the Doctor murmured into Amy's ear.
"And due to that, I know most things about you. Like how you have Rory Williams waiting in Leadworth, England, for you and the Doctor to return," Amy looked guilty, and Castiel cottoned on. "But don't feel bad, he's missing you, but he loves you and knows you love him, so there's no issue with you in his head."
"So is that what you do, get into people's heads?"
"Not really, its just a side effect of being ones of God's chosen ones." He said this with slight exasperation, and Amy wondered what it was that caused this feeling in him. Castiel's eyes grew larger upon hearing what Amy was thinking, but didn't say anything, but he seemed to want to. He and the Doctor clearly knew each other on some level. Eventually, Castiel said something.
"I appreciate your concern and kindness, Ms Amelia Williams, and I will answer your concerns as soon as we get into the Tardis." Amy was shocked, but not as shocked as the Doctor at the name Castiel used for Amy, while Amy immediately thought nothing of it. It was all over her notebooks, just like a teenager, and it was second nature to her to hear that name. What she did pick up on was that Castiel was coming with them into the Tardis.
"Yes, I am. I need to talk where He can't hear me. That's the only place in the universe." He gave the Doctor a meaningful glance, and they started back towards the blue box. Amy stepped between the two men and linked her arms between them, clearly surprising Castiel, but the Doctor took it as second nature and smiled at the angel, then to Amy. Castiel seemed to find it awkward initially, but after a few moments it became perfectly natural, and he became comfortable, able to strike up a conversation with the two of them.
"So, where have you been recently?" He was looking for some neutral conversation, Amy thought. He caught her eye and nodded slightly, so she threw herself into telling him everything about the birth of Romulus and Remus.
"Intriguing, intriguing…" Castiel smiled at the Scottish girl, while the Doctor just had an amused expression, seemingly glad that Amy and Castiel were getting along.
Amy's enthusiasm wasn't curbed by Castiel's only few words, because what he said, although not much, stil communicated everything he needed to, and his eyes communicated more. With the Doctor off in his own little world, Amy and Castiel chatted, the distance from the Jewel Waterfall appearing much longer now that it was being walked, rather than ran, but Amy didn't mind. And now, quite surprisingly, did Castiel. Normally reserved and quiet, the angel found himself being more comfortable and willing to speak with the lively red-haired girl, while reason should dictate that perhaps he should close himself off: He always found a way to get information from him, maybe Amy was one of his more complex schemes? He quickly disregards this thought, glad that Amy was unable to read his mind, and then threw himself into the conversation, which now progressed to Nero. Emperor Nero, he should say.
The Doctor started to join in with one of his amusing anecdotes about Roman emperors, especially Caligula, as they approached the Tardis. Relief flooded Castiel's face, clearly glad of a safe haven. This time Amy pulled the Tardis key from her pocket, untangling her arms from the two men's. Thinking about it, neither of them were men: one was an alien, the other an angel of the Lord. Rory wouldn't believe it, nor would Mel. Chuckling at the idea of her friends' reactions, she opened the Tardis doors and let Castiel and the Doctor in, following them into the console room.
"So! What's up?" The Doctor sat on the bench and crossed his legs at the ankles, arms reaching over his head. Castiel looked over his shoulder, waiting for the door to click shut under the force of Amy's hand.
Once shut, Amy sat next to the Doctor, wondering why an angel would come to the Doctor for his help.
"There's going to be a war."
"Another one?"
"Another one." He confirmed.
"Another one?" Amy resented the Doctor's omniscience, just slightly.
"Yeah." Castiel sighed and leaned against the console.
"Careful!" The Doctor leapt up.
"Sorry." Looking bashful, Castiel continued. "Before, it was Him against Lucifer." Amy nodded. That one she knew about. But who else was there to fight? "Now its us against Him."
"Oh." Amy was slightly confused, and Castiel explained:
"You know how, after The Fall, Lucifer fell, leaving God without his left hand man." Amy nodded. "Well, there are more of us wanting what Luci wanted." Amy noticed the term of endearment, wondering if Castiel was one of these who 'wanted what Luci wanted,' but didn't say anything, letting the dark haired angel of the Lord continue. "And he doesn't know yet. But Michael does."
"Michael, Archangel Michael?" The Doctor chipped in, curious and his hands now in his lap. Amy took it, not liking the sound of the conversation.