Chapter Ten
"There was only one Angel on the ship. Just the one, I swear," River argued. She would never have sent them in there if she thought they were going into any immediate danger.
"Could they have been here already?" Amy asked.
"The Aplans, how did they die out?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Amy's question for the time being.
River shrugged. "Nobody knows."
"We know."
"They don't look like Angels," said Octavian, trying to convince himself as well as everyone else.
"And they're not fast," added Amy. "You said they were fast. They should have had us by now."
"They're dying, losing their form. They must have been down here for centuries, starving," the Doctor stated.
Everyone turned to look at Scarlett as she spoke for the first time since finding out about the statues, "Losing their image."
The Doctor placed a hand on her arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze before moving on. "And their image is their power… Power. Power!"
"Doctor?" frowned Amy.
"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," said River.
Octavian nodded in agreement before speaking into his communication device. "Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in!"
There was a short pause before another voice spoke back.
"It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir."
"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? 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."
The Doctor strode over to Octavian then, taking the communicator from his hands. "Bob, Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?"
"I'm talking to my –" started Octavian.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up!"
"I'm on my way up to you, sir; I'm homing in on your signal."
"Well done, Bob," smiled the Doctor. "Scared keeps you fast, told you, didn't I? Your friends, Bob, what did the Angel do to them?"
"Snapped their necks, sir."
The Doctor's face fell. "That's odd. That's not how the Angels kill you; they displace you in time, unless they needed the bodies for something."
Octavian took the communicator from the Doctor's hands. "Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan."
The Doctor took the device back. "Don't be an idiot! The Angels don't leave you alive!" Turning back to the communicator, he continued. "Bob, keep running, but tell me, how did you escape?"
"I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too."
A draft whirled round the cave and Scarlett felt a shiver run down her spine.
"What do you mean the Angel killed you too?" the Doctor continued, ignoring everyone's confused and startled expressions.
"Snapped my neck, sir." Scarlett suppressed a groan. "Wasn't as painless as I expected but it was pretty quick, so that was something."
"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?"
"You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you," explained Angel Bob. "Sorry about the confusion."
"So when you say you're on your way up to us..."
"It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes."
The Doctor sighed. "No way out."
"Then we get out through the wreckage. Go!" ordered Octavian.
"Go, go, go. All of you run!" the Doctor added.
Amy and Scarlett joined hands and the former turned to the Doctor briefly, "Doctor?"
"Yes, I'm coming, just go, go, go!"
Amy nodded and dragged Scarlett down a pathway, with River and the clerics following behind. They reached a bridge and Scarlett grabbed onto the rail to help herself across without falling, but when she attempted to move it again, she couldn't.
"Scarlett? What are you doing?" Amy frowned, dropping Scarlett's free hand to look at her.
River and the clerics ran past them hastily but Scarlett couldn't blame them. She'd want to be safe as quickly as possible, too.
When she glanced down at her hand, her eyes widened in shock. It was no longer a hand made up of flesh and blood but of… stone. Scarlett shook her head. She must be hallucinating. Fear could do that to a person, right? She shut her eyes briefly before opening them again, expecting to see her real hand back in place. But unfortunately, she was wrong.
The Doctor and Octavian ran straight past them before the Doctor backtracked by himself. "Don't wait for me, go, run," he insisted.
"I can't. I really can't," Scarlett said weakly.
"Why not?" asked the Doctor hurriedly.
"Look at it! Look at my hand," Scarlett gestured with her free hand. "It's stone!"
The Doctor lifted his torch, shining it into her eyes. She flinched and only managed to keep eye contact for a few seconds before looking away.
"You looked into the eyes of an Angel, didn't you?" the Doctor asked, his voice soft.
"I couldn't stop myself. I tried. By the time you told me not to, I had already done it," Scarlett frowned. Now really wasn't the time to start criticising her choices.
"Listen," started the Doctor. "It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone."
Scarlett gaped at him. Was he normally this stupid?
"It is! Look at it!"
"It's not," added Amy, reminding Scarlett that she was still there, waiting for them both.
"It's in your mind. I promise you," continued the Doctor. "You can move that hand. You can let go."
"I can't, okay? I've tried and I can't. It's stone."
As Scarlett spoke, their torch lights began to flicker on and off.
"The Angel is gonna come and it's gonna turn this light off, and then there's nothing I can do to stop it. So do it; concentrate, move your hand!" he urged.
Tears sprang to Scarlett's eyes and she shook her head adamantly. "I can't."
"Then we're both going to die," said the Doctor before glancing at Amy. "Amy, go."
She hesitated slightly before obeying, and running off to find River.
"You're not going to die," Scarlett said.
"They'll kill the lights."
The torch flickered off briefly and the Angels moved closer.
"You've got to go, you know you have. River knows you in the future. You know you can't die here!"
"Time can be re-written, it doesn't work like that," he replied.
The light flickered again and they turned to look at the approaching Angels.
"Keep your eyes on them. Don't blink," the Doctor reminded her.
"Run!" Scarlett insisted.
"You see, I'm not going, I'm not leaving you here."
"I don't need you to die for me, Doctor, do I look that clingy?" Scarlett sighed, all while secretly hoping he wouldn't really leave her.
"You can move your hand," he tried again. In the short time that he had known Scarlett, he had learned that she was strong. She could get past this. She could beat the Angel.
"It's stone."
"It's not stone!"
"Those people up there will die without you. If you stay here with me, you'll have as good as killed them," Scarlett reasoned.
"Scarlett Watkins, you are magnificent. And I'm sorry."
Scarlett sank her teeth into her lower lip and nodded slightly. "It's okay. I understand. You've got to leave me."
"Oh, no, I'm not leaving you, never. I'm sorry about this," he paused for a moment to bend down and sank his teeth into her hand. Scarlett let out a yelp of surprise, pulling her hand back and cradling it to her chest. "See? Not stone. Now run!"
"You bit me!" Scarlett yelled.
"Yep, and you're alive," he nodded while pushing her backwards towards the next passage.
"I've got a mark!" Scarlett frowned, sticking her hand out to show him. "Look at my hand!"
"Yeah, and you're alive, did I mention?"
"Blimey, your teeth! Have you got space teeth?"
"Alive," he continued.
"If this is what you do with your teeth I'd hate to see your –"
"Alive! All I'm saying!" he repeated, not wanting to hear the end of that sentence just yet, before grabbing her hand and pulling her into a run.
When they reached the others, Octavian was finishing off his sentence.
"… Expect incoming."
"Yeah, it's the Angels. They're coming. And they're draining the power for themselves," said the Doctor, carefully pushing Scarlett into Amy's awaiting arms.
"Which means we won't be able to see them," replied Octavian.
"Which means we can't stay here," finished the Doctor.
"Any suggestions?" asked River.
"The statues are advancing on all sides and we don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium," Octavian answered quickly.
"There's no way up, no way back, no way out. No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea," River said, the last part directed at the Doctor.
The lights flickered once more, and when they could see again they noticed that the Angels had moved closer, practically blocking off the passage.
"There's always a way out," said the Doctor.
"Doctor? Can I speak to the Doctor, please?" Angel Bob's voice blared from the communicator once more.
"Hello, Angels. What's your problem?"
"Your power will not last much longer, and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir."
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.
"There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end."
"Which is?"
"I died in fear."
"I'm sorry?"
"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."
Amy frowned and kept her grip on Scarlett's arm while whispering to River. "What are they doing?"
River lowered her voice before replying. "They're trying to make him angry."
"I'm sorry, sir. The Angels were very keen for you to know that."
The Doctor's expression changed briefly but it was gone in a second. "Well then, the Angels have made their second mistake because I'm not going to let that pass. I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier."
"But you're trapped, sir, and about to die."
"Yeah, I'm trapped. Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake!"
"What mistake, sir?"
The Doctor turned to face everyone.
"Trust me?"
"Always," said River as Amy nodded her head with a smile.
"What she said," Scarlett added with a small laugh.
He grinned and turned to the clerics. "You lot – trust me?"
Octavian nodded. "We have faith, sir."
"Then give me your gun." He continued once the gun was in his hand. "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do," he paused to demonstrate, "Jump."
"Jump where?" Octavian asked.
"Just jump, high as you can. Come on! Leap of faith, Bishop. On my signal."
"What signal?"
"You won't miss it," he said, aiming the gun at the roof of the cave.
"Sorry, can I ask again?" asked Angel Bob. "You mentioned a mistake?"
"Oh, big mistake. Huge. 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?"
The Doctor smirked, "Me."
He fired the gun at the gravity globe and they all jumped, falling into nothingness.