"So Doctor, why did you have come get me on this day? I'm supposed to be grading my students' papers, you know. Final exams and all," she explained as he brought them back to Torchwood.
"Well dear, we've got a crisis on our hands. By the way, where are we in our timelines?" He pulled out his journal and she pulled out hers. After examining their journals, they looked at each other surprised.
"At least we're together at this one point in time," he said, dumbfounded.
"How is it that your discovery of the Rift leaking in Weeping Angels from different universes coincides with my lecture of students learning about significant events that are based on the Cardiff rift?" She was surprised.
"Wibbly wobbly—"
"Timey wimey. Yes dear, you've said that all too well. In that case, let's see what we've got on our hands in good old Cardiff."
The Torchwood team and the Ponds were busy tucking into some takeaway when they heard the TARDIS return. Amy and Rory were the first to jump up, eager to see their daughter.
"Hello mummy dearest. And hello dad," she greeted before hugging them both.
"How have you been River? Or what title am I supposed to address you by now?" Amy asked, smiling.
"It's Professor Song now. I'm teaching archaeology now," River declared proudly.
"Mmm I remember when we first met. You were so fascinated with everything in that bloody spaceship that nearly turned me into a Weeping Angel," Amy said, half laughing and half not.
"But the Doctor and I saved you anyway because we knew what we were dealing with," River retorted.
"I know, I know. It's good to see you again. I've missed you," Amy said, hugging her daughter again.
"And who might these lovely people be?" River asked, eyeing everyone.
"Hi, Captain Jack Harkness," Jack said, introducing himself with a grin and a handshake.
"Oi, stop that," the Doctor groaned. "This happens to be my wife."
"Oh I know, Doctor. She picked quite the looker for a husband, didn't she?" Jack winked at both of them. The Doctor rolled his eyes, but grinned anyway because Jack's good-natured demeanor was just infectious.
"River, meet Owen, our medical officer, Gwen and Sherlock, our police liaisons,"
"Consulting detective," Sherlock interjected.
"My mistake, Sherlock's the consulting detective. Tosh, our computer specialist, and Ianto. He gets the coffee, but does well anyway because he looks great in a suit. He's also our administrator, and provides general support."
"Sir—" Ianto sighed, blushing anyway.
"Nice to meet you all. Well, why don't we all just tuck in and worry about the Weeping Angels later," River suggested as they all sat down around the big table.
"Sorry love, but we can't stop even for a moment to tuck in. But we can always to both. By the way, Ianto, did you get what I asked?" The Doctor asked hopefully.
"Uh yeah, I got you your fish fingers and custard," he handed over the container, wrinkling his nose.
"Doctor, how come you eat that so much? That's pretty much all you'll ever eat anyway?" Rory asked. He was really wondering why he was so obsessed with them.
"Well, you should know Rory, that when I first became this man," he gestured to himself, "Amelia started feeding me whatever she could, hoping that I would at least like something. Turns out I hated everything she set down in front of me—"
"Except for the fish fingers and custard," Amy added, smiling at the memory. He was such a mad man back then, and he's still that now. He'll always be her Raggedy Man.
"Except for fish fingers and custard. And Jelly Babies. Can't get enough of those though. Shame that they don't sell those anymore. I would love to get my hands on some of those Jelly Babies," the Doctor said with a frown.
"I suppose I could go out and get some later, if you wanted to," Ianto proposed.
"Nah, it's okay. But I might take you up on that later on," the Doctor replied.
"Anyway, Jack, fill me on what's been going on," River started, grabbing a takeaway container and opening it up, digging into a potsticker.
"Well, River, this all started a couple of months ago when there were random dead bodies that were found all over Cardiff. Nothing links them except the way that they died, which was by strangulation. No DNA on any of the bodies, so there was no way to pin down the killer," Jack explained while eating some chow mein. "Until now when the Doctor took some of the readings off of the latest victims. Apparently, they were all attacked by Weeping Angels. Most of them were strangled, but the latest one was sent back in time to live out her life until the present."
"What we're trying to figure out is why these particular Weeping Angels that are coming through the Rift are so much more vindictive than the previous ones that we've dealt with before. My theory is that they're coming from parallel universes on the other side of the Rift, like a new breed of Weeping Angels, of sorts," the Doctor said, munching on a fish finger.
"Is there any way close up the Rift, like you did with the cracks in the universe?" Amy asked, hopeful.
"Unfortunately, Amy, this is one thing that you can't just patch up," Jack went on.
"Actually, that's not true. Remember when the Abbadon broke through and it sucked up your life energy? The Rift was sealed when you killed it," Gwen reminded him.
"Or that time that we sent Tommy through to the other side to seal it off'?" Tosh asked quietly.
"Alright," Jack put his hands up. "I get it. But the point is that this Rift is just so active and so prone to ripping open, it would have to take some serious power to seal it up. Those Weeping Angels are feasting on the time energy down here on Earth. So, we need to find a way to deal with them. Doctor, where do we even begin?"
"I say that we need to go straight to the source and deal with them from there," he replied.
"That sounds like a really bad idea, Doctor," Rory insisted. "Honestly, that's just asking for trouble."
"Yeah, and remember the last time that we dealt with an army of Weeping Angels? We had that crack to erase them. What's going to be there to save us this time?" Amy remarked.
The Doctor sighed. "Nothing. There are some possibilities that I can think of that can at least get rid of some of the Angels here on Earth."
"Like what?" Rory asked.
"Well, before I was me, the Angels took my TARDIS, leaving me and my friend Martha Jones trapped in 1969. The only way that we got it back was because the Angels held up the TARDIS in a cellar and we had someone else rescue it. The TARDIS was transported back to us, leaving the Angels locked in place. I'd rather not do that again, but it doesn't seem like we have that many options," the Doctor recalled.
"So basically, we'd be running from them forever?" River questioned.
"Not exactly, although we do run the risk of being sent back in time," the Doctor replied.
"Nice work, Doctor. Excellent plan, full of intelligent precautions," Sherlock began.
"If you call being sitting ducks an intelligent precaution," Amy drawled. "Doctor, that plan is just bound to go wrong and you know it."
"I know, I know! I just don't know what else to do," he said, frowning. "We just have to make it up as we go along."
"Doctor, I don't think we can afford to make it up as we go along. People are dying every day because these Angels are still out there!" Jack exclaimed.
"So what do you think, Jack? What do you think we should do?"
"I don't know! That's why I called you! Because I have no idea what the hell is going on and you're the only who can stop them! Again…" he said, cooling down. "This always happens. The fate of the world rests in the hands of the Doctor."
"You make me sound like a hero. I'm really just a mad man with a box," the Doctor murmured.
"You're so much more than that, Doctor. I've been with you through hell and high water, and I've seen just what you can do. You don't give yourself enough credit."
"Jack, you don't know what I've been through since then…"
"I know, but I know you. I've known you through all your regenerations, seeing you change for the better. We're going to work together to figure this out, okay?" He looked at the Doctor.
He looked somewhat more optimistic. "Alright. River? Tosh? What can you both tell us about the Rift?"
"From all that we've learned having lived near it for so long, it was ripped open in 1869 when the Gelth fled to Cardiff and it was closed by a psychic named Gwenyth. However, reports date back to 92 AD when it acted as a prison for Abbadon. There have been attempts to go into the Rift, but those who have gone through have never returned. There are two theories about what's on the other side: Either there's just one opening that wanders around the universe, or there are multiple access points to the Rift, but maybe they're not open all the time," Tosh explained.
"I think that Tosh has everything covered on the history of the Rift. However, I think that I can add onto it, with the history of the Weeping Angels," River said.
"Take it away, doll," Jack went.
"And do I intend to. The Weeping Angels are some of the oldest creatures in the universe, existing before the very fabric of reality itself was created. The Weeping Angels originated from the very corners of the universe. Some say that they were the result of the love affair between Medusa and Atropos—"
"One of the three Fates, based on Greek mythology. Responsible for cutting the thread of life and choosing the matter of the person's death," Sherlock added.
"Correct. Resulting in their ability to become stone when looked upon. So it's sort of the reverse of what Medusa, with their fate being decided by the touch of an Angel. Some say that the Weeping Angels were the result of the union of Medusa and the Angel of Death, Samael."
"Or maybe all three of them just had a giant orgy, resulting in a very weird looking baby," Jack chimed in.
River was about to object to it, but shut her mouth. "That's actually not a bad theory. It's hard to say where they came from, but all that we know is that they're a very old race, coming from a far corner. Somehow, they've been able to come from there and spread throughout the universe and beyond, eventually making their way to Earth. Anything that can take on the image of an Angel becomes an Angel itself, as we already know. However, recent research has contested the discrepancies the makeup of an Angel in whether or not it has to be made of stone. Conclusions that have been come upon report that any statue that a Weeping Angel touches becomes a Weeping Angel itself," River described.
"I didn't get a chance to ask this earlier, but logically, any statue could be or could become a Weeping Angel?" Sherlock asked.
Al she could do was nod.
"So what, we're going to have to be afraid of every bloody statue that we come in contact with?" Sherlock raised his voice, not liking the possibility of having to live in fear of so many statues.
"Not necessarily. Because people catch statues in their peripheral vision, the Angels are always frozen. However, it's when the city goes to sleep that they come out and attack," River replied.
"That explains why all the attacks were early in the morning! Those people were all found alone early in the morning, making them the perfect target for a Weeping Angel," Rory exclaimed.
"But that still doesn't explain why we're somehow dealing with a new breed of Weeping Angels that just somehow loves to kill people rather than feeding off of their time energy," the Doctor reiterated.
"I don't think anyone knows, Doctor. It's not like there's some sort of queen bee that just keeps reproducing Angels, sending them off to all parts of time and space," River started. "But…that could be entirely possible. There's just so much time energy for them here on Earth to feed off, there's really no reason for them to just be killing people. Unless the Weeping Angels just happen to have a personal vendetta against the people of Earth."
"Well, there are only so many species that happen to like me. The Weeping Angels is just one of them, unless you count Angel Bob."
"So do you think that we could travel to the corner of the universe that the Weeping Angels came from and just wipe them out?" Sherlock asked.
The Doctor looked at him sharply. "Sherlock, if there's one thing that you should know about me, it's that I hate violence. I'm a Time Lord, a more benevolent species. We always believed in the power of negotiation instead of eradicating an entire race. Also, we believed that every species should have the power to speak for themselves. I would be perfectly willing to travel there to talk to them if it weren't for the constant threat of Weeping Angels haunting every place on Earth."
"How would you talk to them without getting killed?" Sherlock asked.
"The Angels have the ability to take the consciousness of someone who has died and communicate through them, like Angel Bob. So you would have to contribute one of your bodies to communicate with the Angels either here or on their planet, but we'd all be in a very not good situation," the Doctor explained.
"So, where do we start?"
"The highest concentrations of Weeping Angels in Great Britain would have to be Trafalgar Square and the Highgate Cemetery," River said.
Sherlock suddenly looked like the wind got knocked out of him as he slumped back in his chair.
"Sherlock? Is everything okay?" Jack peered at him, really concerned.
Sherlock was motionless, except for uttering one word. "John."
Rory looked at the Doctor nervously and whispered something in this ear. The Doctor looked at him surprised but then nodded.
"We'll be right back. We just need to pop out for a bit. Won't be long," the Doctor answered, slipping into Jack's office before the two of them departed.
"Rory, where are you going?" Amy asked.
"Spoilers," he replied.
Amy rolled her eyes, but resumed eating her takeaway.
The two men went back to the TARDIS, ready for takeoff again.
"Rory, you do realize you run a great risk by crossing over on your own timeline in order to prevent John remembering you later on," the Doctor insisted.
"Doctor, this is for his own safety. He would be really hurt if he knew that I knew about Sherlock," Rory held.
"Very well. Rory, you're on your own for this own," the Doctor explained as he landed, handing him a white pill in a small bottle.
"I know."
