Early morning rise, no thanks to the bells. Scraps freaked out and jumped off the bed.
"Alright, we're up! We're up!" Lady shouted and covered her ears. She laughed as Scraps ran back and hid up her jumper, shivering. "Aw, not afraid of heights but big bells? Scaredy cat." Scraps seemed to hear and poked out her head, giving Lady almost a look. She smiled. "I take it back. No one is as brave as you." They both got ready and headed back down to the church. It appears it was full, as morning mass had began. Scraps scampered away, but Lady sat down on the last row and listened, head tilting. Father Bishop was in the middle of a powerful sermon.
"Remember! Brothers and sisters. No one loves you as much as God. No one gives as much as God. He may judge, but he forgives. All throughout your lives, you will be faced with difficulties, in which it will be hard to chose right from wrong. If the wrong seems right, God will forgive. If the right seems wrong, God will forgive. For what is life without mistakes? Mistakes that will cost lives" Lady breathed in slowly, "Or mistakes that would build friendships and bridges." Lady smiled. "Mistakes build this city, it built this great land. And therefore, mistakes will build your life." Father Louis bowed and returned to the altar. Lady kept his words with her all throughout the mass until it finished. When it ended, and everyone left, her eyes were still transfixed on the stained glass, her mind full of Father's speech.
"My dear, are you alright?" Lady jumped slightly and hadn't even noticed Father Louis standing near her. His eyes were full of concern.
"I'm fine, you words… just moved me."
"They were intended to move." He smiled and took Lady by the hand and led her out of the rows. "Now, young Axe, strange name for a fellow, has been up for a while. He just popped down into the cellar as I directed him to. Said he was looking for food."
"Father, is there food in the cellar?" Father Louis laughed.
"No, I just put him there to stay out of trouble." He winked. Lady smiled.
"You put a young boy in a cellar full of wine? And you wanted to keep him out of trouble!" They both travelled to the cellar, which was under the kitchen. It was dark and damp, but large. They found Axe standing on a barrel, trying to see something on a top shelf.
"Oh, hey guys- woah!" The barrel wobbled beneath him and Axe slipped, falling right on his butt. "Ow." He groaned and rubbed it while Lady helped him up. "That's going to bruise." Lady laughed.
"Well, that's what you get for being clumsy." Axe grinned.
Father Louis looked up in direction of the shelf Axe was trying to reach. "What were you looking for boy?" Axe scratched his head.
"Oh, well I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was there first", he pointed to a little wooden table to his left, "then there", a near shelf, "and then there." He pointed to the high shelf. "Strangest thing." Lady climbed up the shelves and took a peek. She jumped down and shrugged.
"Nope."
"How curious." Father Louis remarked. "However, I'm sure you two are starving. Am I right?"
"Couldn't be wrong." Lady smiled.
Father Louis cooked cheese with eggs on bread. The cheese was creamy and the eggs were the freshest Axe had ever had. Afterwards, Lady and Axe explored the church more.
"What do you think was it that I saw?" Axe asked while Lady balanced on platforms. She shrugged.
"Rat?" Axe groaned.
"I'd rather alien." She laughed. Suddenly Axe whipped around. "You see that?" Lady stopped and looked around.
"No, where?" She jumped down. Lady analysed the room. "Hang on…" She walked towards a statue of an old man. "This guy", she saw the plaque, "St Mark, he wasn't here at the mass." Axe looked confused.
"Well, where was he?" Lady scratched her chin. She pointed towards the back of the church.
"There, he stood by the front doors. In fact, with another statue and he's gone too!" Lady laughed in bewilderment. "He's there!" She pointed up and on a ledge high in the ceiling was the statue. It stared down with cold eyes.
"Lady, remember when you mentioned the eyes of Notre Dame? Well, I think they're watching us." Lady nodded.
"I think you're right." She swallowed and glanced back to St Mark. His eyes, though they weren't previously, were now fixed on her. "I think we should leave." Axe nodded and headed for the door. He opened it and found the soldier, and three more, waiting at the bottom of the steps. "Okay, we can't leave." Lady groaned.
"Okay, heavily armed soldiers, or moving statues." She weighted it between her hands. Axe grew nervous.
"That's no choice at all." Lady nodded.
"I know. But at least we know the soldiers mean us harm, the statues might not." They both walked away from the ground floor and headed up the stairs to the bell tower. Seeing, nothing, they then headed for the rooftops.
"Anything?" Axe yelled over the wind. Lady shook her head.
"Nothing out of the ordinary." The wind suddenly died. They both turned around and a circle of statues surrounded them. Lady smiled uneasily. "Stand corrected."
The statues were a mixture of angels, saints and gargoyles. They all remained in normal positions but their eyes were fixed on Lady. Axe clenched his fists.
"Time Lady." Lady held up a hand to confirm it was her. The statues did not move, but the voice was heard clear in their minds. The voice sounded sharp and cold, shrill and old.
"Yes?" Axe stared at her in amazement. She said it so clearly, without fear. They both blinked, but the middle statue of a young saint with a sword clenched in its hands lifted its head, quicker than they both could see. Lady opened her mouth a bit. "Oh, so you're not who I think you are. Right, danger level dropped a bit." Axe was confused.
"Sorry, what? Danger level?" Lady stepped forward, addressing both Axe and the statues.
"I thought that our stalkers were the Weeping Angels, who are very dangerous. They are not."
"Oh, but we are." The angel said. Lady raised an eyebrow but her fingers twitched.
"Explain, o rocky one." The angel laughed softly and a gargoyle to its right snarled. Neither of them moved.
"We are both the Ancient Angels, and not. We all share blood, but time has led us along different paths. The Time Lady's observations of our brothers' differences from us was correct, but her judgement on danger was ill."
"Oh really? How so." She raised an eyebrow. The saint continued.
"We cannot fully become ourselves under the gaze of anyone, except in the presence of those touched by the energy of time. We can then communicate through thoughts. Your friend spotted one of us in the cellar. You spot us now."
"Touched by time energy huh? That is a difference. So you basically still are rocks until someone who just happens to be a time traveller takes a look at you. But what about your feeding habits? Still sending people back in time?" Lady's tone had a sharp and bitter edge to it. The saint replied.
"No. That is not our weapon. While the Weeping Angels feed on the time not spent, we feed on time that has been."
"That means…?"
"We suck it from you now. Your whole life, all your experiences, moments, every single minute." Lady swallowed.
"Wait, some please explain!" Axe cried in frustration. "Sorry to interrupt, but I am extremely confused." Lady opened her mouth, but the angel interrupted.
"You see child, the Weeping Angels and us are part of a ancient race called the Lonely Assassins. We had met Gallifreyans like her before, and constantly have been destroyed and betrayed. Why, only her last reincarnation did this miserable Time Lady destroy 50 of our brothers!" Lady glared at the angel, ignoring the look of Axe's face. "We swore revenge for our dead brothers and that it why, we will devour her soul." The silent was deafening. "Why, the soul of a Time Lady. All those years, all that time. What a feast!"
"I'm sorry, but you will not have it." The statues went quiet.
"And why not?" Lady smiled.
"Well, frankly I'm sick of people trying to steal energy from me! And I'm still using it of course."
"Then there's no problem."
"You better believe there's a problem! I destroyed you once, and I shall do it again!" Her yell made the neighbouring birds fly in fright.
One by one, the statues laughed. Axe groaned and held his hands to his ears. Lady gritted her teeth and she tried blocking out their cackles but it was too loud. The statues never moved, but their eyes and piercing laughs were enough to make Lady nearly lose her mind.
"Shut up!" yelled Axe, but they just laughed louder. "Shut up!" Lady cried in frustration and grabbed Axe's hand, bolting down the steps back into the church. They didn't stop until they ran into the cellar. They both got their breath back. As Axe took away his hands from his ears, Lady gasped.
"My god!" A small trickle of blood came from Axe's ears. Lady checked her own, but there wasn't any.
"Lady, what's going on?" She couldn't look at him in the face.
"I don't know." She said.
"What are you going to do?"
She repeated it quieter, followed by a sigh. "I just don't know."
"You did it before, you can do it again."
"That wasn't me."
"What do you mean?" Lady smiled and turned her full attention to Axe.
"I'm a Time Lady. Therefore, I live longer than most. But, whenever I'm close to death, my body regenerates. I take a new form and the wounds are gone. But so is my conscious. You see, I'm number nine. I've had eight previous lives, each with their own voice, personality and in a way, lives. I know a little of what I have done but not a lot. You see I believe that my last generation went wrong. A lot of my memory has gone missing." Axe never interrupted, but listened intently. "So I may not know how to defeat them." Axe looked away.
"I'm sure that you are clever enough to figure it out again." Lady smiled.
"With your help of course." Axe smiled and shook his head. "You really are too modest." They sat in silence.
"Well, what now?" Lady chewed her lip.
"They kill people with a lot of time spent I suppose."
"So, old people?" Lady nodded. Then they both remembered the only old person they both knew. "Father Louis!"
