The Time of Angels
The Doctor strode through a museum based in a medieval church, his hand entwined with the Professor's left, her right hand still in a cast, having done a number to it trying to chop a robotic scientist during an earlier adventure. Amy tagged along after them in a huff.
"Wrong!" he pointed to one of the artifacts.
"Wrong!" the Professor pointed to another.
"Bit right…" the Doctor nodded to one more.
"But mostly wrong."
He grinned, "I love museums."
"Yeah, great," Amy muttered, "Can we go to a planet now? Big spaceship, Churchill's bunker...you promised me a planet next."
"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid..."
"It's the Delerium Archive, final resting place of the Headless Monks, the biggest museum ever!" the Professor added excitedly, she always did love museum trips in school.
"You've got a time machine, what do you need museums for?" Amy asked.
"Wrong!" the Professor just nodded at a statue, "Very wrong actually."
"Oh, one of mine!" the Doctor pulled her over to a display case, "And one of yours too!"
She laughed, "It's how he keeps score Amy."
"Oi!" he looked at her, "You're just as bad," he turned to Amy, "She made me take her to the musical museum on Kalmix IV once just so she could point out how many compositions were actually hers."
"What? Do you really think Mozart came up with all those songs? The drunk?"
He laughed at her…when something in the next display case caught his eye, he tugged her over to an antique box, all covered in dust and stone. He peered down at the strange symbols etched into it.
"Oh great, an old box," Amy muttered.
"It's from one of the old star liners," the Doctor explained, "A Home Box."
"What's a Home Box?"
"Like a black box on a plane, except it homes," the Professor told her, "Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home, with all the flight data."
"So?"
"The writing," she pointed to the etchings, "The graffiti, it's Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords."
"There were days," the Doctor smiled in reminiscence, "There were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires and topple Gods..."
"...hold a picture animated by ionic energy at bay..." the Professor sighed, but the Doctor just pressed a kiss to her temple at the less than pleasant memory.
"What does it say?" Amy asked, excited now.
The Doctor grimaced, "Hello, sweetie."
The Professor frowned and deftly snatched the sonic from the Doctor's pocket, flashing it across the locks on the glass and grabbing the box. Alarms started ringing and they bolted towards the TARDIS, the box tucked under the Professor's arm as two guards chased after them.
"And you get cross with me for setting off alarms," the Doctor grumbled to her.
"At least I didn't trip the one to the headmaster's office!" she shouted back, recalling how much trouble they'd nearly gotten into when he'd decided something was possessing the headmaster of the Academy when they were 31/33 and talked her into breaking into the man's office.
"That only happened once!"
"That's because we only broke into his office once!"
"Why are we doing this?" Amy asked, cutting into their argument, as they ran up to the console and started to hook the Home Box up.
"'Cos someone on a spaceship 12,000 years ago is trying to attract my attention," the Doctor explained quickly, "Let's see if we can get the security playback working."
A grainy, black and white footage of a slightly younger River Song, dressed in a long black dress, appeared on the monitor. She pulled down her shades and winked at the camera before walking off. The footage switched to her with her back to the camera, facing a door.
"The party's over, Dr. Song…" a man off-screen said, "Yet still you're on board."
River turned to face him, "Sorry, Alistair. I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination."
"Wait till she runs. Don't make it look like an execution."
River simply looked at her watch, "Triple-seven, five, slash, three, four, nine by ten…" the Doctor and Professor exchanged a look, "Zero, twelve, slash, acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor."
"We owe her," the Professor mumbled, feeling terrible about how she had treated…or not treated…the woman the last time they saw her. Whoever she was, whoever she was to them, it was very clear that River Song cared about them deeply, and the way she had treated the woman, like she might have been the enemy...She shook her head, she was determined to make up for that, even if it hadn't happened for River just yet.
The Doctor nodded and they quickly ran around the console, the Professor working the controls as best she could with one good hand and partial use of the other while the Doctor typed something into the keyboard.
"What was that, what did she say?" Amy asked.
"Coordinates!" the Doctor replied.
"Like I said on the dance floor, you might want to find something to hang on to!" the River on screen said as a timer went off. The door behind her burst open and she blew a kiss at the camera before falling out. The footage cut off as the Doctor ran to the door of the TARDIS, holding it open and reaching out, pulling River right in, moments after the explosion. Unfortunately, the force of it all knocked them both to the floor.
"Doctor?" Amy frowned.
"River?" the Doctor eyed the woman.
River just pushed herself to her feet and turned to look back at the ship taking off, "Follow that ship."
"Already on it!" the Professor called, pulling a lever, and the TARDIS was off.
River smiled widely and ran to the console, giving the Professor a quick little hug before she noticed the cast on the woman's hand, "What happened?" she gasped, grabbing the hand, looking at the white casing and then the Professor, "Did you try to punch the wall of the TARDIS again? Did someone else try to break the Time Lock?"
"You know about that?" the Doctor exclaimed as he made his way over, shocked that River knew that intimate detail of their past.
"Not really the time," the Professor reminded them, hitting a button. River and the Doctor exchanged a look and moved to help her pilot while Amy stood back, watching them.
"They've gone into warp drive!" River reported as she pulled off her red heels and hung them on the monitor, "We're losing them! Stay close!"
"We're trying!" the Doctor shouted.
"Use the stabilizers."
"There aren't any stabilizers!"
"The blue switches," the Professor told him.
"The blue ones don't do anything, they're just...blue."
"Yes, they're blue," River rolled her eyes, "They're the blue stabilizers!" she pushed them down and the ship became quiet and still, "See?"
"Yeah, well, it's just boring now, isn't it? They're…boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers."
"Doctor, how come she can fly the TARDIS?" Amy asked.
"You call that flying the TARDIS? Ha!" he sat back on the jump seat by the console sulkily.
"Ok," River brought the monitor over to the Professor, "I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right alongside."
The Professor nodded, impressed, everything by the book.
"Parked us?" the Doctor scoffed, "We haven't landed."
"Of course we've landed. I just landed her."
"But it didn't make the noise."
"What noise?"
"You know, the..." he imitated the wheezing noise as he stood.
"It's not supposed to make that noise," the Professor told him, patting his shoulder, "You leave the brakes on."
"Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise," he turned to her, "I love that noise."
"And here I thought you loved me," she mock pouted.
He gave her a quick peck, "Always," she beamed, "Come along, Pond, let's have a look!"
"No, wait!" River called as the Doctor tried to pull the Professor to the door, "Environment checks."
"Thank you!" the Professor smiled, rushing over to the console to help her, "Finally, someone else who does them."
"Oh, yes, sorry!" the Doctor rolled his eyes at them, "Quite right. Environment checks," he turned and stuck his head out the door, "Nice out."
The Professor put her hands on her hips as she faced him at the top of the stairs to the console, "I started doing environment checks because of that you know," he smirked at her, "I got bored very easily with your last incarnation peeking out with no warning all willy nilly."
"Willy nilly?" he snorted a bit.
"Wibbly wobbly," she countered.
"Touché."
"We're somewhere in the Garn Belt," River cut in, knowing the two of them could go on forever if no one stopped them, "There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest..."
"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System," the Doctor cut in, "Oxygen rich atmosphere, toxins in the soft band, 11-hour day, and..." he put his head out the door once more, "Chances of rain later."
The Professor shook her head and walked over to him, "You think you're so hot when you do that."
His smirk widened as he pulled her into his arms, making her squeak a bit at the suddenness, "No…YOU think I'm so hot when I do that."
"Touché," she laughed, letting her hands trail down from his shoulders to his hands, pulling him back to the console.
"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" Amy asked River.
"Oh, I had lessons from the very best," River told her.
The Doctor grinned, smug, "Well, yeah…"
"Thank God the Professor took charge or else I never would have learned to fly the TARDIS properly," River smirked, before glancing at the woman in question, "He nearly blew a hole in the Horsehead Nebula once trying to make a U-turn."
"I believe it," she nodded sadly as the Doctor pouted.
"That'll probably only happen once though," he remarked.
River just raised an eyebrow at that before mouthing 'no, it won't' to the Professor before she picked up her shoes, "Right then, why did they land here?" she turned and headed for the door.
"They didn't land," the Doctor called.
"Sorry?"
"You should've checked the Home Box, it crashed," he followed after her, waiting till she stepped outside before closing the doors behind her and rushing back to the console.
"Explain!" Amy demanded, "Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"
The Doctor turned and started working the controls, "It's a long story and we don't know most of it. Off we go!"
"What are you doing?"
"Leaving. She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go. "
"Are you basically running away?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"'Cos she's the future, our future."
"Can you run away from that?"
"I can run away from anything I like, save the Professor," he leaned forward a bit and whispered, "She'd track me down."
"You bet I would," the Professor laughed.
"Time is not the boss of me though."
"But I am," she stepped over, "And I'm curious as to what she's chasing."
"You're not the boss of me either," he grinned, though there was a playfulness in his eyes.
She raised an eyebrow in amusement, "I'm not, am I?"
"Nope."
"Shall I be forced to pull rank on you soldier?" she stepped closer to him, draping her arms around his neck, "Or should I implement some...persuasive...tactics?"
"You can try," he smirked, leaning closer to her, "But I think I've seen a fair few of your 'tactics' over the years."
A smirk slowly made its way onto her face as well, "Perhaps, but you're forgetting," she leaned closer still, their noses touching, "I always could think faster than you," and closer, till her lips brushed against his as she spoke, "I'm sure I could think of a 'fair few' more..."
"Hang on," Amy cut in, their flirting reaching ridiculous levels, "Is that a planet out there?"
"Yes, of course it's a planet," the Doctor nodded, pulling away from the Professor just a bit to face Amy, his arm still around her though.
"You did promise her a planet," the Professor reminded him, seeing where Amy was going.
"Five minutes?" Amy pleaded.
The Doctor looked between the two women, already knowing he was done for, "Ok, five minutes!"
"Yes!" Amy cheered, heading for the door.
"But that's all, 'cos I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything!"
"What about me?" the Professor asked, playful.
He grinned at her, entwining their fingers, "YOU, on the other hand, can drag me anywhere."
She laughed as they headed to the door and stepped out of the TARDIS, onto a beach where there was debris all around from the crash. The ship in question was sticking out of a very large, old, stone structure, burning in areas.
"What caused it to crash?" River asked, looking up at it as they walked over to her, "Not me."
"The airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it," the Professor confirmed, "According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase-shift. No survivors."
"A phase-shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them."
"About what?" the Doctor eyed her.
"Well, at least the building was empty. It's a temple. Unoccupied for centuries," she held up a small handheld device and typed on it, scanning the wreckage.
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Amy asked as she walked over to them.
The Doctor sighed, "Amy Pond, Professor River Song."
"Ah," River gasped, turning to him, "I'm going to be a Professor some day, am I?" the Doctor winced at the slip, "How exciting!" she chuckled, "Spoilers!" she then turned back to what she was doing before.
"Yeah," Amy whispered to them, "But who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum!"
The Doctor shook his head and walked off a few feet, tugging the Professor with him, to look at the crash as well, "Two things are always guaranteed to show up in a museum," River told Amy, "The Home Box of category four star liner and, sooner or later, him. It's how he keeps score."
"I know," Amy laughed.
"And if you think he's bad, don't even get the Professor started on Mozart! It's hilarious, isn't it?"
The Doctor bit out a sarcastic laugh, hearing her, "We're nobody's taxi service!" he turned to River, "We're not gonna be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a spaceship."
"And you are so wrong," River replied calmly, "There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die," she smirked at him before winking at Amy, "Now he's listening!" she walked off, holding up the device as a comm., "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal," she turned to the Doctor, holding the device up to the sky, "Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."
The Doctor took out the sonic and flashed it at River, aiming for her comm.. She dropped into a small curtsey and turned around.
"Ooh, Doctor!" Amy said sassily, "You soniced her!"
"We have a minute!" River called, walking back over to them, "Shall we?" she opened her purse and pulled out her TARDIS shaped diary, "Where were we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?"
"What's the book?" Amy asked.
"Nope, not yet," the Professor told River.
"Stay away from it," the Doctor warned Amy.
"What is it though?" Amy shook her head.
"Her diary."
"Our diary," River corrected.
"Her past, our...future…" he muttered.
"Time travel," the Professor continued, "We keep meeting in the wrong order."
Just then, four columns of swirling dust appeared on the sand and four soldiers in desert camouflage appeared within them. One of them, an older man, walked over to River, "You promised me an army, Dr. Song."
"No," she smirked, "I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Professor."
"Oi!" the Doctor mock grumbled at being left out.
"And the Doctor," River added.
The Doctor grinned and gave a lighthearted salute.
"Father Octavian, sir, ma'am," he shook their hands.
"A Bishop," the Professor eyed him, recognizing the military markings, "Second class."
"Yes ma'am," he nodded.
"What's our status?"
"20 clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly."
"Fair enough," she nodded in thought, "And the mission?"
The Doctor grinned, watching her get to work. He was inordinately pleased that she wasn't the soldier in this incarnation, but he could see the faint traces of it as she took charge. If anything she seemed…comfortable with her knowledge and abilities, not as resentful or cut off as before. And for that, he couldn't be more thankful. It killed her to be closed off, he knew, but now…it seemed she was at peace with what had happened and what she could do. And honestly, he just wanted her to be happy.
'YOU make me happy,' he heard her voice whisper in his mind, making him beam.
'Not as happy as you make me,' he shot back at her, making her blush.
"Dr. Song was helping us with a covert investigation," Octavian continued, snapping them out of their thoughts, "Has she explained what we're dealing with?"
"Doctor, Professor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?" River turned to them.
The Doctor could only tense.
~8~
That night they walked across the beach, a transport ship set up with equipment while the soldiers moved to ready the camp. Octavian strode past his men as the trio followed him, "The Angel," he began, "As far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralize it."
The Professor turned to look at the crash, assessing it, "We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives."
Octavian nodded, holding up a handheld device to show her, "According to this, behind the cliff face, there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple."
She nodded, "We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up."
"Oh, good," the Doctor grumbled, his mind already racing with how not good that really was.
"Good, sir?" Octavian looked up.
"Catacombs, probably dark ones," his jaw tensed, his hearts starting to race at the thought of facing a Weeping Angel again, especially with the Professor there, he...he didn't want anything to happen to her, "Dark catacombs, great."
"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead."
The Professor winced, seeing the Doctor tense more, and turned to the Octavian, "You can stop any time you like."
"Father Octavian?" another soldier called.
"Excuse me, sir, ma'am," he turned and walked off.
The Doctor sighed and turned to a table with equipment on it, sonicing it, needing something to distract him from his thoughts.
"You're letting people call you 'sir' and 'ma'am,'" Amy remarked as she sat on the table beside the equipment, "You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?"
"Now that's interesting..." the Doctor looked at her as the Professor picked up various bits of tech and looked at them herself, "You're still here. Which part of 'Wait in the TARDIS till we tell you it's safe' was so confusing?"
"Oh, are you all Mr. Grumpy Face today?"
"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced," the Professor explained to her, knowing how much the Doctor wasn't looking forward to this particular adventure so much anymore, "And one is trapped inside that wreckage."
"We're supposed to climb in with a screwdriver and a torch," the Doctor continued.
"And my trusty blaster."
"And, assuming we survive the radiation…"
"And the whole ship doesn't blow up in our faces…"
"Do something clever which we haven't actually thought of yet," he sighed, "That's our day, that's what we're up to. Any questions?"
"Is River Song your wife?" Amy asked him out of nowhere, "'Cos she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that. She's kinda like, you know, 'Heel, boy!' She's Mrs. Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she gonna be your wife one day?"
"She better not be," the Professor remarked. She tried to keep the idea in her mind that River was someone close to the BOTH of them in the future. Certainly the way she acted in the Library and her concern for her hand made her feel like there was nothing romantic between River and the Doctor…but still, it was the future. They wouldn't know for sure unless they lived it or River told them, and even then she could be lying.
"She's not," the Doctor agreed without hesitation, absolutely no doubt in his mind that River was not his wife. The Professor was his wife, the only wife he'd ever wanted to have and that would not change for anything. He'd made the mistake of marrying someone who wasn't her before, never again.
'Because I don't share,' she warned the Doctor lightly.
He smiled, 'Me either,' he added, giving her a peck before sighing, "But Amy's right…I am definitely Mr. Grumpy Face today."
"Doctor!" River called from the transport, "Professor!"
"Oops!" Amy laughed, not having heard their silent words, "Her indoors!"
"Father Octavian!" River added as they walked towards the transport.
"Why do they call him 'Father?'"
"He's their Bishop, they're his clerics," the Professor replied with a shrug, "It's the 51st Century, the Church moved on long ago."
~8~
A small clip of the Angel played over and over, its body facing away from the camera, its hands over its eyes.
"What do you think?" River asked as she held the remote, watching the screen in the transport ship, "It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop."
"Yeah, it's an Angel," the Doctor nodded, "Hands covering its face."
"You've encountered the Angels before?" Octavian looked at them.
"Once," the Professor nodded, "On Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving."
"It's just a statue," Amy shook her head.
"It's a statue when you see it," River corrected.
"Where did it come from?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since, dormant all that time."
"There's a difference between being dormant and being patient," the Professor mumbled.
"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Amy asked.
"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen," River explained, "So legend has it."
"It's not legend, it's a quantum lock," the Professor looked at her, "In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They become stone. The ultimate defense mechanism."
"What, being a stone?" Amy frowned.
"Being a stone...until you turn your back," the Doctor nodded before turning and walking out of the ship with the Professor. They stopped and looked at the cliff.
"The hyperdrive would've split on impact," the Professor remarked, knowing how her next assessment would not help the Doctor's nerves any, "The whole ship will be flooded with radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost any living thing."
"Deadly to an Angel?" Octavian hoped.
"Dinner to an Angel," the Doctor corrected with a sigh, "The longer we leave it, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple? Are they still around?"
"Looks like Alpan architecture…" the Professor murmured.
River looked at her handheld and nodded, "The Aplans. The indigenous life form. They died out 400 years ago."
"200 years later, the planet was terra-formed," Octavian added, "Currently there are six billion human colonists."
"You lot, you're everywhere!" the Doctor laughed slightly, "Like rabbits! We'll never get done saving you."
"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population..."
"Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load!"
"Verger, how we doing with those explosives?" Octavian jumped into action.
The Professor pulled out her blaster and checked it, sending a small smile at the Doctor, "I love it when you let me use guns."
It almost felt strange for her to say that, given how much her recent incarnations differed in their feelings towards weapons, one being frightened of using them for fear of liking them and the other liking them far too much. Now, it felt almost like her blaster was just an extension of herself, like it was just an extra means of protecting the Doctor. She didn't have to use it offensively or as a threat, but as a safeguard against their enemies. She could use it only when she needed to and put it away when the threat was gone.
The Doctor turned to her, "I hate it when you use them," he told her, before leaning in and wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her back to his chest as he whispered in her ear, "Though you look sexy when you do," and dropped a little kiss to her neck making her squirm from the ticklish sensation of it.
She laughed lightly and turned her head, nuzzling the side of his face as she softly replied in a mock-warning whisper, "Don't let the TARDIS hear you calling ME sexy."
He laughed, pulling away just a bit to let her finish checking her blaster. It was equally as strange for him to find her with a weapon, well, sexy, but she was. Seeing her so strong and in control of herself and the use of her weapon, not using it as a reaction or to threaten anyone but just to want to protect him...that little shiver he'd always gotten seeing her with the blaster had returned full force. It seemed, she wasn't the only one who had changed in terms of weapons, he shouldn't have liked seeing her with one, but he kind of did.
"Dr. Song, with me," Octavian called, not even having noticed their moment as he returned from checking on his men.
"Two minutes," River waved him off, beaming as she HAD noticed their moment, "Sweetums, I need you," she called, heading off.
The Doctor looked at the Professor expectantly, "What?" she shook her head.
"Sweetums," he repeated, she still just looked at him. He pointed to himself, "Sweetie…" and then at her, "Sweetums."
She scrunched her nose at the nickname, earning a laugh from him, before she turned to head after River.
"Anybody need me?" Amy called as they crossed, "Nobody?"
"Two minutes Amy!" the Doctor replied, following the two. Amy sighed and headed back into the transport.
They walked over to a small table where River held up a small journal, "I found this. Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman, it's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages."
The Doctor flipped through the book, "Not bad," he tossed it to the Professor who did the same.
"Bit slow in the middle," she agreed jokingly.
"Didn't you hate his girlfriend?" he laughed, "No, hang on, wait, wait!" he snatched it back and sniffed it.
"Dr. Song?" Amy popped her head out of the transport unit, "Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?"
"No, just the four seconds," she called back.
"This book is wrong!" the Doctor frowned, looking at the Professor, "What's wrong with this book? It's wrong."
The Professor took the book from him and flipped though it slower.
"Oh, it's so strange when you two go all baby face," River remarked as she observed them, "How early is this for you?" she looked at her diary.
"Very early," the Doctor replied, watching the Professor.
"So you don't know who I am yet?"
"I've got an idea," the Professor mumbled.
The Doctor looked at her, a bit miffed. It was one of the few things she was hiding from him. He knew her, anything she didn't know for certain she hid till she was positive before telling him. She had done the same when Rose and the Dimension Cannon and the walls of the Universe weakening had occurred, not wanting to upset him if she were wrong. He'd resigned himself to wait till she told him.
But he couldn't help but smile just a bit though because one of the most prominent things she was absolutely certain about in her mind was her love for him. It was always there, never hidden, warming his hearts. To see her that certain…
He shook his head, now was not the time. He looked at River, "How do you know who we are? We don't always look the same."
"I've got pictures of all your faces," she remarked, "You never show up in the right order though. I need the spotter's guide."
"Pictures?" the Professor frowned, "Why aren't there pictures?"
The Doctor nodded, taking the book from her and flipping through, looking for even a sketch, "This whole book, it's a warning, about the Weeping Angels. So why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?"
"There was that bit about images," River reminded them.
"Yes!" the Professor took the book and flipped to the page, "'That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.'"
"What does that mean? 'An image of a Angel becomes itself an Angel.'"
"Doctor!" Amy screamed, "Professor! It's in the room!"
"Amy!" the Doctor turned and ran to the transport with the Professor.
"Doctor!"
"Are you alright?" he reached the door, "What's happening?"
"Doctor! Doctor, it's coming out of the television. The Angel is here."
"Don't take your eyes off it!" the Professor called as the Doctor pulled out the sonic and tried to flash the keypad, "It can't move if you're looking."
"What's wrong?" the Doctor frowned at the scan, "It's deadlocked."
"There is no deadlock," River tried to override the controls herself.
"Don't blink, Amy!" the Professor shouted, knowing her blaster would be useless as well, "Don't even blink!" the Doctor ran to a small box on the side of the transport, pulling things out.
"Professor!" she shouted.
"What are you doing?" River turned to him.
"Cutting the power," he replied, pulling the wires, "It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off. It's no good, it's deadlocked the whole system."
"There's no deadlock!"
"There is now!"
"Help me!" Amy begged.
"Amy!" the Professor turned back to the door, "Can you turn it off?"
"Professor!"
"The screen, can you turn it off?" the Doctor agreed.
"I tried."
"Try again but don't take your eyes off the Angel."
"I'm not!"
"Each time it moves, it'll move faster," the Professor warned as River grabbed a small welding gun, "Don't even blink."
"I'm not blinking! Have you ever tried not blinking? It just keeps switching back on!"
"Yeah, it's the Angel," the Doctor told her.
"But it's just a recording."
"No," the Professor shook her head, "Anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel."
"What are you doing?" the Doctor turned to River.
"I'm trying to cut through," she aimed her small blowtorch, "It's not even warm."
"There is no way in, it's not physically possible," he ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
"Doctor!" Amy called, "What's it gonna do to me? Professor?"
They exchanged a look, "Just keep looking at it," the Professor told her as the Doctor grabbed the book and flipped through it, trying to find help, "Don't stop looking!"
"Just tell me. Just tell me. Tell me!"
"Amy, not the eyes," the Doctor warned, "Look anywhere but don't look at the eyes."
"Why?"
"What is it?" River asked.
"'The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors,'" he read, "'Beware what may enter there.'"
"Professor, what did you say?" Amy shouted.
"Don't look at the eyes!" she repeated.
"No, about images, what did you say about images?"
"Whatever holds the image of an Angel is an Angel," River told her.
"Ok...hold this..." they listened intently as Amy started to count, "One, two, three, four..."
A moment later the doors unlocked.
They burst into the room, the Doctor quickly running to the screen and unplugging it as the Professor hugged Amy tightly.
"I froze it!" she told them, "There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel any more. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it Doctor?" she turned to him, "That was pretty good."
"That was amazing!" River grinned.
"River, hug Amy," the Doctor ordered.
"Why?"
"'Cos I'm busy."
"I'm fine," Amy breathed.
"You're brilliant Amy," the Professor told her as River hugged Amy.
"Thanks. Yeah. I kind of creamed it, didn't I?"
"So it was here?" River looked at the Time Lords, "That was the Angel?"
"That was a projection of the Angel," the Doctor read off his scan of the screen with the sonic, "It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant."
There was an explosion outside and the Doctor and Professor ran to the doorway.
"It's gone positive!" a soldier shouted to Octavian.
"Professor!" Octavian reported, "We're through!"
"Ok," the Doctor looked back at Amy and River, "Now it starts," and he and the Professor stepped outside.
~8~
The Doctor climbed down a dangling ladder to where the Professor and Octavian were standing at the bottom of the maze's chamber. There were a few soldiers around them as Amy and River came down after him. The Doctor quickly pulled the Professor away from Octavian, taking her face in his hands, and kissing her deeply. She smiled lightly into the kiss, lifting her left hand to gently cup his cheek as she kissed him back, sensing his fear at what she'd done and relief that she was alright.
She'd insisted on going down first, being one of the two people in a skirt. The soldiers had tried to argue that it was too dangerous, that she was already injured, and that they should go first. To end that, she'd simply rattled off facts about the Angel, reminded them that it was still in the belly of the ship as far as they knew, informed them that she'd had experience going in first with the Doctor, and then, to ram it all home, pulled out her blaster and managed to blast a cup out of another soldier's hand as he sat on a rock quite a distance away with her left hand even though this incarnation of her was right-handed. After that, there was no arguing that she was more than qualified to go down first…not that the Doctor was very happy with that.
"Don't you do that again," he breathed, pulling away only to kiss her again, "Never ever."
"I'm fine," she gave a little laugh, stroking his cheek, "No harm done."
"But what if the Angel had been here?" he looked at her, frowning.
"But it wasn't."
"But what if it was?"
"But it wasn't," she repeated.
"I just don't want anything to happen to you," he told her, taking her hand from his cheek and holding it tightly, this version of her seemed just as set on protecting him as her previous one, "I can't lose you."
She smiled softly at him, squeezing his hand, "And you won't. I'm not about to go anywhere without you," she gave him a peck, "Besides, I can take care of myself. I'm a big girl."
He couldn't help but smile at that, his eyes quickly looking her up and down, "Yes you are."
Her mouth opened a little as she gaped playfully at him, pulling her hand away to lightly smack him on the chest, "Not exactly the context I meant it in."
He laughed and shook his head, looking around at the darkened cavernous room they'd found themselves in, "Do we have a gravity globe?" he asked as he turned to Octavian, oblivious to River and Amy, one shaking her head at them with a smile on her face, the other crossing her arms, eyeing them with a small frown.
"Grav-globe," Octavian called as one of the soldiers handed the sphere to him.
"Where are we?" Amy looked around, "What is this?"
"It's an Aplan mortarium," the Professor told her.
"Sometimes called a maze of the dead," River added.
"And what's that?" Amy frowned.
"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone..." the Doctor took the globe and kicked it up into the air, lighting up a cave full of stone statues, "The perfect hiding place."
"I guess this makes it a bit trickier," Octavian muttered.
"A bit, yeah."
"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for."
"A needle in a haystack," River nodded.
"A needle that looks like hay," the Doctor corrected, "A hay-like needle. Of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. A…" the Professor quickly put her hand over his mouth and then kissed the back of her hand, silencing him. He pulled her hand away, kissing her palm before turning to River, "No, yours was fine."
"Right…" Octavian eyed them a moment, completely confused as to how they could be so...flirty...with a deadly Weeping Angel after them, before shaking his head and focusing on his men, "Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question, how do we fight it?"
"We find it, and hope," the Doctor replied as he turned on a torch and headed off with the Professor and Amy, River moving to follow.
"They don't know yet, do they?" Octavian grabbed River's arm and pulled her back, "Who and what you are."
"It's too early in their time stream," she nodded.
"Well, make sure they don't work it out, or they're not gonna help us."
"Trust me, this Doctor can be oblivious, it's the Professor you need to watch out for," she pulled her arm away, "But I've learned to check my body language enough to not give away any hints to her, I won't let you down. Believe you me, I have no intention of going back to prison."
"Sir?" a soldier called, "Side chamber. One visible exit."
"Check it out," he ordered, "Angelo, go with him."
~8~
As the Doctor shown his torch in every direction as they walked through the stone statues at the base of the mortarium the Professor looked back to see how Amy was handling all this, when she saw the girl rubbing her eye, hard, "Alright there Amy?" she called.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Amy looked up. The Professor nodded and turned back to the Doctor when River came up beside her, "So, what's a maze of the dead?"
"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds," River waved her off, "It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls. Ok, that was fairly bad. Right give me your arm," she held up a syringe, "This won't hurt a bit," and stuck her.
"Ow!"
"There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabilizer. Stabilizes your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship."
"So what're they like? In the future, I mean. 'Cos you know them in the future, don't you? You know the Doctor?"
River eyed her curiously a moment as she seemed only interested in the Doctor in the end, but sighed, "The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor. And the Professor…" she could only shrug.
"Oh, well that's very helpful. Mind if I write that down?"
"Yes, we are!"
The Doctor didn't even glance over from the readings he was looking at on River's scanner, "Sorry, what?"
"Talking about you."
"Wasn't listening, I'm busy."
"Ah. The other way up."
He turned the device over before glancing at the Professor, sensing her amusement, only to see her watching him from a small ways away where she and Octavian were going over more specifics, "Yeah…"
"You're so his wife," Amy remarked to River.
"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy!" River laughed, "This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?"
"Yep."
"You're good. You're so not right...but you are very good."
"What do you mean? You've got to be his wife!"
She laughed, "Doctor can you come here a moment?" the Doctor looked up at her curiously before walking over. River reached out and took his left hand, holding it up to Amy so she could see, so she would notice, the wedding ring he wore.
Amy's eyes widened.
"Professor!" River called. The girl looked up and, with a quick assessment, held up her left hand as well, the dim light reflecting off her own two rings.
Amy frowned a bit at that, which the Professor noticed. It wasn't the first time either.
Amy had ways of starting off conversations or questions with the both of them but then focusing on the Doctor in the end, of trying to stand closer to him than her, of trying to almost…flirt…with him. She knew Amy probably hadn't noticed the wedding rings they wore, they had put the low level perception filters on them so that, should they face a new enemy, they wouldn't notice and try to use them against each other, so she could understand why Amy hadn't. But still…as Martha had once described it, with the way she and the Doctor acted, it should have been obvious that there was something between them.
She could only sigh, that was the curse of loving the Doctor, everyone loved him at some point.
~8~
The Doctor, Professor, Amy, and River were examining a set of statues when gunfire rang out. They quickly ran back to the chamber they'd arrived in to see Octavian standing before a timid looking young man.
"Sorry," the boy was mumbling, "Sorry, I thought...I thought it looked at me."
"We know what the Angel looks like," Octavian turned his light on the deformed, faceless statue before them, "Is that the Angel?"
"No, sir."
"No, sir, it is not! According to the Professor and the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor."
"What's your name?" the Doctor stepped forward.
"Bob, sir," the boy answered.
"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob."
"It's a Sacred Name," Octavian told him, "We all have Sacred Names, they're given to us in the service of the Church."
"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?"
"Yes, sir," Bob admitted.
"Good," the Professor walked over as well, "I'll tell you something Bob, scared keeps you fast and on edge and attentive. Trust me," she put her finger on her nose and pointed at him, "Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron."
"Are you scared ma'am?" he asked her.
"Am I a moron?" he shook his head, "Well there you go," he smiled, "Carry on."
"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes," Octavian reported before turning to Bob, "You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach."
"You're scared?" the Doctor asked, taking the Professor's hand as she passed.
"A bit," she admitted, letting out a breath, "I'm more worried of you getting harmed than the statue though."
He nodded, he could understand that completely. He squeezed her hand, "That Angel won't hurt me," he told her, "You've got my back."
"Always," she smiled.
"As I'll forever have yours," he lifted her hand and kissed the back of it.
~8~
"Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse?" Amy asked as they walked through the maze, "There's a whole ship up there."
"Incredible builders, the Aplans," River remarked as they walked into another chamber along their climb.
"We had dinner with their chief architect once," the Doctor told them, "Two heads are better than one."
"You mean you helped him?" Amy asked.
"No, he means he had two heads," the Professor replied, frowning in thought, something about all this...she felt like she was missing something...
"That book, the very end, what did it say?" the Doctor asked, feeling the same.
"Hang on…" River pulled it out.
"Read it to us."
"'What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels.'"
~8~
"Are we there yet?" Amy groaned as they walked up what felt like the hundredth staircase, "It's a hell of a climb."
"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul," the Professor remarked.
"Only two levels to go," River told her.
"Lovely species, the Aplans," the Doctor turned to the Professor, "We should visit them again some time."
"I thought they were all dead?" Amy frowned.
"So's Virginia Woolf. We're on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's having two heads. You're never short of a snog with an extra head."
"Doctor, there's something…" River muttered, "I don't know what it is..."
"Something's wrong," the Professor nodded, "Don't know what it is yet either, working on it."
River nodded, if she was working on it then it would only be a short time before she figured it out.
"Then they started having laws against self-marrying," the Doctor continued, "And what was that about? But that's the church for you. Er, no offence, Bishop."
"Quite a lot taken, if that's alright, Doctor," Octavian glared as they stepped into a narrow passage, lined with statues, "Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up from here. That way."
"Church had a point, if you think about it," Amy commented, "The divorces must have been messy."
"There's something…" the Professor murmured, stepping closer to a statue and reaching out to touch it, only to jump back, her eyes wide, "Oh no…"
"What's wrong?"
"That's not stone…"
"Oh!" River's eyes widened in horror.
"Exactly," the Doctor nodded as he too stepped back from the statues.
"How could we not notice that?"
"Low level perception filter," the Professor shrugged.
"Or maybe we're thick," the Doctor bit out.
"What's wrong, sir?" Octavian frowned.
"Nobody move," the Professor ordered, "Everyone stay exactly where you are."
"Bishop, we are truly sorry," the Doctor looked at him, "We've made a mistake and we are all in danger."
"What danger?" Octavian asked.
"The Aplans," River told him.
"The Aplans?"
"They've got two heads."
"Yes, I get that. So?"
"So why don't the statues?" the Doctor remarked, and suddenly everyone noticed the statues all had only one head.
"Everyone, over there," the Professor pointed to a spot in the back where there were no statues, "Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak," everyone moved over and gathered together, the Doctor and Professor moving in front of them, facing the statues, "I want you all to switch off your torches."
"Ma'am?" Octavian frowned.
"Just do it," the Doctor snapped. They quickly did so until it was only the Doctor holding his own torch, "Ok…" he glanced at the Professor who nodded, "I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."
"Are you sure about this?" River asked.
"No."
He switched it off for a split second and turned it on. They gasped, seeing the statues now facing them.
"Oh, my God!" Amy breathed, "They've moved!"
The Doctor and Professor ran ahead, the others following them, only to see all the statues lining their way to the ship were looking at them.
"They're Angels," the Doctor shook his head, "All of them!"
"But they can't be," River frowned.
"Clerics," the Professor rounded on them, "Keep watching them," and then she ran back to the small passage to see the Angels had moved forwards, crawling and struggling towards them.
The Doctor ran to her side, stopping short at the sight, "Every statue in this maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel."
"They're coming after us."
"There was only one Angel on the ship," River insisted, "Just the one, I swear."
"Could they have been here already?" Amy wondered.
"The Aplans, how did they die out?" the Doctor turned to River.
"Nobody knows," she shrugged.
"We know."
"They don't look like Angels," Octavian remarked as he shown his light on one of their disfigured, formless faces.
"And they're not fast," Amy added, "You said they were fast. They should have had us by now."
"They're dying," the Professor told her, having gotten enough from touching the statue. It wasn't stone per say, but had seemed to be growing more stone-like…till they arrived. But now it was regressing, they were becoming less statues and more Angels, "They were losing their form. They must have been down here for centuries, starving."
"Losing their image."
"And their image is their power."
"Power," the Doctor frowned, before shouting, "Power!"
"Doctor?" Amy eyed him.
"Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out, the drive burn. The crash wasn't an accident, it was a rescue mission, for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army and it's waking up."
"We need to get out of here fast," River determined.
"Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please," Octavian called into his comm. "Any of you, come in!"
"It's Bob, sir," Bob came over, "Sorry, sir."
The Professor frowned at the boy's voice pattern.
"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you?" Octavian asked, "All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active!"
"I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir."
"Bob," the Doctor snatched the comm. from Octavian, "Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?"
"I'm talking to my..." Octavian tried to snatch it back.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up!"
"I'm on my way up to you, sir, I'm homing on your signal," Bob replied.
"Well done, Bob. Scared keeps you fast, the Professor told you, didn't she?" he smiled at the Professor, only to see her frown.
She reached out and grabbed the comm., "Your friends, Bob, what did the Angel do to them exactly?"
"Snapped their necks, ma'am," he replied.
"That's not how the Angels kill you," she shook her head, looking at the Doctor, concerned, "They displace you in time. Unless they need your body for something."
"Bob," Octavian took the comm. back, "Did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan..."
"Don't be an idiot!" the Doctor snapped, taking the comm. again, "The Professor just said the Angels don't leave you alive!" he picked up the comm., "Bob, keep running."
"But tell me," the Professor took it from him, suspicious, "How did you escape?"
"I didn't escape, ma'am," Bob told them, "The Angel killed me, too."
"What do you mean the Angel killed you too?" the Doctor asked, taking the comm. once more.
"Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected but it was pretty quick, so that was something."
"If you're dead, how can we be talking to you?"
"We're not talking to him," the Professor said, they all looked at her, "The Angel has no voice. If it needed a body part, it would take one to speak. It must have stripped his cerebral cortex from his body and re-animated a version of consciousness to communicate with us."
"The Angel says she's very smart sir, she's right," Bob called, "Sorry about the confusion."
"So when you say you're on your way up to us..." the Doctor trailed.
"It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes."
"No way out."
"Then we get out through the wreckage," Octavian decided, "Go!"
"Go, go, go. All of you run!"
"Doctor?" Amy called back, seeing him and the Professor unmoving.
"Yes, we're coming, just go, go, go!" Amy and River left with the clerics, leaving only the two and Octavian behind, "Called you an idiot. Sorry, but there's no way we could have rescued your men."
"I know that, sir," Octavian nodded, "And when you've flown away in your little blue box, I'll explain that to their families."
He turned and walked off.
The Professor took the comm. back, "Angel Bob, which Angel are we talking to? The one from the ship?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied, "The other Angels are still restoring."
"So the Angel is not in the wreckage. Thank you!" she grabbed the Doctor's hand and they ran out of the passage, into an Angel-less space, only to see Amy standing there.
"Don't wait for us, go, run!" the Doctor called as they dashed past.
"I can't!" Amy shouted as they turned back to her, "No, really, I can't."
"Why not?"
"Look at it. Look at my hand. It's stone!" she gestured to her hand.
They shared a glance, her hand looked perfectly fine. The Professor grabbed Amy's torch, shifting it between the girl's eyes, looking in them.
"You looked into the eyes of the Angel, didn't you?" she asked.
"I couldn't stop myself. I tried."
"Listen," the Doctor told her, "It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone."
"It is. Look at it!"
"It's in your mind," the Professor insisted, "We promise you. You can move that hand. You can let go."
"I can't, ok? I've tried and I can't. It's stone."
The torchlight began to flicker.
The Doctor glanced up to see Angels in the edge of the passage, "The Angel is gonna come and it's gonna turn this light off, and then there's nothing we can do to stop it. So do it, concentrate, move your hand!"
"I can't."
"Then we're all going to die," the Professor decided.
"You're not going to die."
"They'll kill the lights."
The lights flickered again, the Angels moving closer.
"You've got to go, you know you have," Amy tried to reason with them, "You've got all that stuff with River and that's all got to happen. You know you can't die here!"
"Time can be rewritten, it doesn't work like that," the Doctor shook his head. The lights flickered once more and Amy turned to help them look at the Angels, "Keep your eyes on it. Don't blink."
"Run!"
"We're not going," the Professor insisted, "We're not leaving you here."
"I don't need you to die for me! Do I look that clingy?"
"You can move your hand," the Doctor told her.
"It's stone."
"It's not stone!" the Professor argued.
"Those people up there will die without you. If you stay here with me, you'll have as good as killed them."
"Amy Pond, you are magnificent," the Doctor turned to her, the Professor keeping her eye on the Angels, "And I'm sorry."
"It's ok. I understand. You've got to leave me."
"Oh, no," he grinned, "We're not leaving you, never. I'm sorry about this," he turned and bit her hand. Amy jumped, screaming, and pulled her hand away, looking at it, "See, not stone. Now run!"
"You bit me!" she shouted as the Professor started to move them backwards though the passage, her eyes on the Angels, not even bothering to reach for her blaster, it would be useless against them.
"Yep and you're alive."
"I've got a mark! Look at my hand!"
"Yeah, and you're alive, did I mention?"
"Blimey, your teeth! Have you got space teeth?"
"Alive. All I'm saying."
"Just move!" the Professor shouted, pushing them through an archway. They turned and ran as quick as they could till they reached a large cavernous room where the clerics were standing, the Byzantium's base sticking into the roof.
"Clerics, we're down to four men," they heard Octavian say as they ran in, "Expect incoming."
"Yeah, it's the Angels," the Doctor told them, "They're coming. And they're draining the power for themselves."
"Which means we won't be able to see them."
"Which means we can't stay here."
"There are more incoming!"
"Any suggestions?" River looked at them as the clerics took position, keeping their eyes on the door.
"The statues are advancing on all sides and we don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium," Octavian turned to the Professor, giving her a briefing.
"There's no way up, no way back, no way out. No pressure, but this is usually when one of you has a really good idea."
"There's always a way out," the Doctor muttered. The lights began to flicker off again and come back on, the Angels closer, blocking the passages, "There's always a way out."
"Professor?" Angel Bob called over the comm., "Can I speak to the Professor, please?"
"Angels," she greeted, taking the comm. from the Doctor, "What is it?"
"Your power will not last much longer and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, ma'am."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end."
"Which is?"
"I died in fear."
"Excuse me?"
The Doctor looked at the Professor, moving to her side.
"You told me my fear would keep me alive but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down."
"What are they doing?" Amy whispered to River.
"They're trying to make her angry," she replied just as quietly.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Angel Bob continued, "The Angels were very keen for you to know that."
"You want to know something Bob?" the Professor asked him, her voice eerily calm, she had learned from her mistake with the Daleks, she was not about to let anything anger her to the point she made mistakes again, and now...she could see it, the way out, "You weren't the only one to die in fear. The only thing about that is…you didn't have to truly keep living afterwards."
The Doctor took the comm. from her, knowing that she was referring to her forced regeneration during the war.
"Hello Angels, me again," the Doctor spoke, "And I've got to say you've made your second mistake and I'm not about to let that pass. We're sorry you're dead, Bob, but we swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier."
"But you're trapped, sir, and about to die," Angel Bob reminded him.
"Yeah, we're trapped. Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake!"
"What mistake, sir?"
The Doctor ignored him and turned to Amy, "Trust us?"
"Yeah," she nodded.
"Trust us?" he asked River.
"Always."
And then Octavian, "You lot, trust us?"
"Sir, two more incoming!" a cleric called.
"We have faith, sir," Octavian replied.
"Then give me your gun," Octavian handed it over and he tossed it to the Professor, who began to ready it, while he turned to the group, "The Professor's about to do something incredibly stupid…"
"Oi!" she glared at him.
"The Professor's about to do something incredibly brilliant," he amended quickly, "When she does..." he jumped in place, "Jump."
"Jump where?" Octavian asked.
"Just jump, high as you can. Come on, leap of faith, Bishop. On our signal."
"What signal?"
"You won't miss it," the Professor raised the gun at the roof with her left hand, it felt odd to not use her blaster, but a shot from it would cancel out what they were planning.
"You always were a better shot than me," the Doctor told her quietly, watching as she took careful aim.
"Sorry, can I ask again?" Angel Bob called, "You mentioned mistakes?"
"Oh, big mistakes," the Doctor picked up the comm., "Huge. Because first of all, you tried to anger my Bonded, and trust me she can see a ploy coming a mile away and outmaneuver you before you even realize it."
"And the other?"
"There's one thing you never put in a trap, if you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap."
"And what would that be, sir?"
"Us!"
And with that, the Professor fired at the gravity globe and it exploded…
To be continued…
A/N: Are you enjoying the flirting? I am enjoying writing it, very much so :) I feel like, with River being there, they might subconsciously be a bit more flirty and affectionate than normal, since they don't REALLY know who she is or who she is to them yet. Not to mention, with River's normal flirty personality it might make them more comfortable being so openly flirty. And the dangerous situation might be helping to drive their emotions some more :) But, I mean, if it's too much, I can always tone it down...
This chapter may seem a bit Professor heavy, with her taking charge and the clerics turning to her and giving her the information. I just figure, in such a military style engagement, she WOULD be the one they'd turn to, given her past as a soldier. And, it's also sort of nice to see that she is just as capable as the Doctor in handling situations and taking the lead.
Next chapter we get the infamous Amy-kissing-Doctor scene. Wonder how that will turn out...hmmm...