Steel


"This is absolutely ridiculous." Amy muttered as the all sat around a table, waiting for Gwyneth to finish with her preparations. She had no idea what was going through the Doctor's head, opting to hold a séance when he of all people knew ghosts did not exist. Rose swatted her arm to silence the ginger who grudgingly relented.

"This is how Madame Mortlock summons those from the land of mists down in mid-town." Gwyneth explained. "Come, we must all joins hands."

Even if Amy found the whole situation to be pointless and ridiculous, she grabbed Rose's hand from the right and tried to reach for Dickens', but the man pulled away and stood up with flair.

"I can't take part in this." he huffed.

"Humbug?" the Doctor teased and Amy snickered. "Come on, open mind."

"This is precisely the cheap mummery I try to unmask!" he declared. "Séances, nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing!"

"Now don't antagonise her." The Doctor warned, grinning to himself. "I love a happy medium."

Rose giggled with the Doctor while Amy forced Dickens to sit down in his seat and forcefully grabbed his hand, shooting him a glare that dared him to argue back. Gwyneth started to address the spirits and Amy had to kick Dickens when he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, Gwyneth stopped talking mid-sentence and she looked straight up at the ceiling. The group followed her gaze but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Amy could hear a low whistling sound echoing around the room. She shared a nervous look with Rose and the blonde's nervous expression confirmed what she heard.

"Can anybody hear that?" Rose asked while Amy looked around the room for a draft or a flickering lamp.

"Nothing can happen, this is sheer folly!" Dickens reassured Rose, though Amy had the sneaking suspicion it was to provide him with more comfort.

"Look at her!" Rose argued with the pessimist, pointing at Gwyneth, who was beginning to twitch more violently.

"I feel them." She gasped, shaking slightly. "I feel them!"

Smoke poured out of the gas lamps and filled the room. Amy gripped Rose's hand tighter as disembodied spirits began to speak. Amy strained her ears but she struggled to make out what they were saying.

"What's it saying?" Rose asked, her eyes snaking back and forth between the Doctor and the spirits as if she was worried they would try to possess them.

"They can't get through the rift." The Doctor said with realisation. He turned to the twitching maid. "Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it! Now look deep, allow them through."

"Doctor," Amy started in warning, catching his attention. "Is that a good idea? They tried to hurt Rose."

Something flashed through the Doctor's eyes briefly but it disappeared just as quickly.

"I can't!" Gwyneth cried in agony, her eyes still locked on the ceiling. The poor girl sounded like she was using all her power trying to keep a fix on the ghosts, which worried Amy.

"You don't have to do this" Rose cried desperately, clearly distressed by the Doctor's plan.

"Yes, you do and you can." The Doctor said apprehensively, shooting them both glares. "Just believe it! I have faith in you Gwyneth!"

There was silence as Gwyneth lowered her head. More silence filled the air and the knot in Amy's stomach grew. Finally, a triumphant "yes!" filled the air and she sagged with relief.

Everybody watched as the ghosts formed shapes behind Gwyneth, growing and splitting into three different forms. The blue gas morphed and twisted until it formed a child with long flowing wisps of hair made of gas. The other two were less developed and looked grotesque in appearance. Their features reminded Amy of the deformed Weeping Angels in the Byzantium.

"Great god," Sneed gasped. "They're spirits from the other side!"

Charles was speechless, looking at the gas creatures with an expression that was a mixture of wonder and horror.

"The other side of the universe" the Doctor corrected.

"Pity us!" the spirits cried in a chilling tone that made the hair on the back of Amy's neck stand on end. "Pity the Gelth! There it so little time, help us!"

"What do you want us to do?" the Doctor asked them. Amy shot an annoyed glare at him. Why was the Doctor helping them so quickly after he witnessed them try to kill Rose?

"The rift, take the girl to the rift, make the bridge!"

"What for?" the Doctor asked and Amy and Rose exchanged nervous looks.

"We are so very few. The last of our kind, help us!" the creature cried insistently Amy had a horrible feeling gnawing at her gut.

"Why, what happened?" the Doctor asked, looking worried himself. They both had a feeling they knew the answer to his question.

"Once we had physical form like you, and then the war came" the Gelth replied and Amy's breath hitched.

"What war?" Dickens asked.

"The Time War." it looked as if a rupture shredded the Doctor to pieces as he exchanged nervous glances with Rose. These creatures were using the Doctor like putty in their hands. "The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away, we're trapped in this gaseous state."

"That's why you need the corpses." The Doctor concluded and Amy couldn't help but noticed he didn't look very upset.

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need physical form and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste away, give them to us"

"No, you can't have them!" Amy said indignantly. She felt nauseous at the thought of aliens inhabiting the corpses of loved ones.

"We can't!" Rose agreed, addressing the spirits mournfully.

The Doctor shot them angry glares. "Why can't we?"

"What did you say?" Amy asked incredulously, gawping at the Doctor with an open mouth.

"It's…it's not…" Rose struggled to come up with a coherent response and a plausible explanation, something which the Doctor seemed to take advantage of.

"Not decent? Not polite?" he said coldly. "It could save their lives!"

"It's not their property!" Amy yelled, drawing the Doctor's attention to her. "Those people have died, Doctor, we should honour and respect their memory!"

"Well, it's like you said, they're dead, they won't feel anything." the Doctor shrugged. Rose looked at the Doctor in shock and Amy was ready to lunge at him.

"Open the rift!" the Gelth interjected. "Let the Gelth through! We're dying, help us! Pity the Gelth!"

With one last cry of agony, they left their place behind Gwyneth and retreated into the gas lamps, leaving the room in silence as Gwyneth slumped over.

"It's all true." Dickens muttered mournfully, staring at the wall. A companionable silence followed as Amy and Rose got up to help Gwyneth, talking quietly.


Amy and Rose laid Gwyneth on a couch while Rose went to get the maid a cup of water. The silent and mutual dislike Amy and the Doctor felt for each currently was thick enough to be cut with a knife. The Scot dabbed at Gwyneth's head with a wet cloth while the Doctor leaned against the doorway and watched her work. Neither of them spoke.

After a few minutes of excruciating silence, Gwyneth started to stir. Eventually, her eyes fluttered open and Amy and Rose rushed to her side, ready to comfort her if necessary.

"It's alright!" Rose said gently, trying very hard not to freak Gwyneth out after the entire ordeal. "You just sleep."

"But…my angels miss. They came, didn't they? They need me." Gwyneth said with conviction and Amy sighed.

"Experience has taught me not to trust angels…especially the ones who weep" she said morosely, earning a strange look from the Doctor, but she ignored.

"They do need you Gwyneth." The Doctor said, drawing the maid's attention to him. "You're their only chance of survival."

"Look, I told you to leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles for you!" Rose growled from her spot besides Gwyneth, clearly fed up with the Doctor's attitude.

The Doctor said nothing, resting his head against a wall and watching them patronisingly. Rose glared at him one last time before turning back to Gwyneth.

"Drink this." She said softly, handing her the glass of water, which Gwyneth took thankfully and chugged it down. The whole thing must have had a strain on her and left her parched.

The Doctor then had a conversation with Sneed, explaining everything to him that Amy didn't pay attention to, focusing on making sure Gwyneth was comfortable.

"They've been trying to go from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through."

"Or they're just lying to us through their gassy teeth." Amy muttered through gritted teeth.

"Amy…" the Doctor started in warning.

"What?" Amy glared at the man. "We don't know!"

The Doctor sent her a venomous glare, a dark look in his eyes before he turned his back to her and went back to addressing Sneed.

"They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"That's why they need the girl…" Dickens concluded, not looking very pleased with the prospect.

"Why are we even talking about this?" Amy demanded as Rose shot to her feet.

"They're not having her!" the pink and yellow girl declared.

"But she can help!" the Doctor argued with the teenager. "Living on the rift, she's become a part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and they can get through!"

"Incredible, Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world that can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers!" Dickens summarised, sounding very ill.

"Good system, it might work." The Doctor said, not sounding very upset.

"You can't let them run around dead people!" Rose yelled at him.

The two resumed their argument while Amy quietly slipped over to Gwyneth. She had a question she was dying to know the answer to.

"Gwyneth, you were able to look into my memories, correct?"

Gwyneth responded with a shaky grin. Amy paused to take a deep breath, the memories of the man hitting her hard.

"Can you see where he is? The Lone Centurion, I mean, do you know where he is?"

There was a pause between the pair as Gwyneth closed her eyes. A moment later her popped open and she shook her head sadly. The answer made Amy's shoulders sag in disappointment.

"I'm very sorry ma'am…but there are things even I can't see." Gwyneth replied morosely. Amy nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Standing up and focusing on the Doctor and Rose, she realised they were still arguing.

"It is different, yeah, it's a different morality. Get used to it or go home." He snapped and Amy could see Rose flinch in shock and sadness.

"That's not fair." Amy said, attracting their attention. The Doctor looked between her and Rose before sighing heavily.

"You know what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."

"Can't they just stay in that gaseous state?" Amy asked. The Doctor shook his head and scrubbed his eyes with his hands.

"It doesn't work like that. They're bodies aren't built to survive in that state. They're dying painfully and slowly unless we give them the bodies and to do that, we need Gwyneth's help"

"I don't care, they're not using her." Rose said with conviction. The Doctor looked ready to coax her when another voice rang across the room.

"Don't I get a say, miss?"

All eyes were on the fragile form on Gwyneth, who sat on the couch with a small but sincere smile plastered on her face. Amy silently applauded the orphaned maid for her calmness despite the situation.

"Look," Rose said, her tone gentle and soothing, a stark contrast from the tone she used when speaking to the Doctor. "You don't understand what's going on."

"You would say that miss because it's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid" Gwyneth said with a sad smile and Amy felt sorry for the girl. Rose also seemed to be taken aback by her comment as her shoulder's sagged.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Rose countered gently.

"It's true though." Gwyneth said sadly. "Things might be different where you're from but here and now, I know my own mind. The angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything." The Doctor said softly, clearly wanting to have her full consent.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me, what do I have to do?"

Amy slowly realised what horrible conclusion Gwyneth had come to. She turned to the Doctor, waiting for him to tell the truth. The silence that echoed around the room was palatable as all eyes were trained on the Doctor. Amy knew he would tell her the truth; this was the Doctor of all people. She had faith he would explain to Gwyneth what they really were.

So when the Doctor simply smiled and walked over to the silent Sneed and Dickens, Amy felt like she was punched in the gut. Her eyes fluttered closed as she remembered what the unwavering rule with the Doctor was. What it always would be. Rule one: The Doctor lies.

"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there's a spot that's weaker than the others. Mr Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house, the place where the most ghosts have been?"

"That would be the Morgue, sir." Sneed replied in his nasally voice. Amy chuckled humourlessly.

"Of course it would."

"No chance you were going to say 'gazebo', was there?" Rose mumbled. Everybody looked at her sadly as they steeled themselves for what they were about to do.

Meanwhile, Amy was steeling herself for what she had to do to get the Doctor to listen to her.


Everybody started to make their way towards the basement where the morgue was located. When Sneed, Dickens and Gwyneth were down the stairs and Rose was about to follow, Amy pushed the Doctor back into the living room and motioned for Rose to go on without them. The teenager complied, still miffed with the Doctor for what he was about to do.

"What?" The Doctor all but growled at her. This time, Amy wasn't going to back down.

"You're really going to let her do this?" she asked, remembering how he was on board with sending Kahler-Jex off to his doom at the hands of the Gunslinger. It was a common occurrence that Amy was accustomed to when the Doctor came back after travelling alone for a while. "You're going to let her walk off to her doom believing that God in sending her on a mission?"

"Yeah, why not?" the Doctor shrugged callously. "Better to let her die in hope than die lonely."

"This is not okay Doctor! You're lying to a woman who's risking her life for you!"

The Doctor's gaze darkened. "It wouldn't be the first time somebody has risked their life for me."

"I don't care!" Amy hissed. "This is wrong! You just came back from a war, people you cared about died, and I get that!"

Amy really did understand. She would often sit with the Doctor in the library with underneath the skylight where nebulas or planets or stars would roll by and the Doctor would tell her stories about his past. It wasn't frequent, but she knew it was something massive the Doctor was sharing with her. He used to tell her the most amazing stories, mentioning his past companions fleetingly.

He liked to mention somebody called Sarah Jane Smith a lot, calling her his best friend other than herself and always telling her about how she was out there, fighting the good fight. He also mentioned his granddaughter Susan on occasion and told Amy that Susan would have loved to meet her. It was childish, but Amy held onto the hope she could meet Susan, but that hope was diminished when she chose to be with Rory in a sealed off time period.

"No, you don't!" the Doctor yelled at her. "You know nothing about me apart from what I chose to share with you and Rose. You don't know why I travel in time and space, my family, nothing."

Amy laughed dryly at his words. He really had no idea how much she really knew about him. She knew it would change their relationship drastically, and she was still angry with him about the whole experimentation thing, and it was the only way to get him to listen to her.

"Doctor…" Amy said, stopping him in the middle of his vent. She inhaled deeply, suddenly feeling the urge to forget what she was about to do and run away, but she held her ground.

"One day, I will become somebody you trust." She started, looking straight into his confused, blue eyes. "Somebody you will trust with your life."

"How do I know you're not just saying that?" The Doctor asked, fidgeting slightly. Amy could tell he was nervous with the prospect that she was somebody from his future. "That Hunter Magma could have done anything to you on Platform One."

"I guessed you would say that." Amy chuckled. "You're so…ambivalent in this regeneration."

The Doctor's face paled. "How do you know about that?"

Amy smiled sadly. She reached around her neck and pulled off the string she had attached her key too while getting dressed for Cardiff. She outstretched her hand, the TARDIS key placed on the palm of her hand.

"You know it's the same one, don't even try to deny it."

The Doctor looked and her, then he looked at the key, then he looked at her again with a pale face.

"Oh."


A/N: First on my list of agendas is an apology for Bwburke94! I'm sorry for getting your name wrong, I'm very bad with numbers, you see.

So the cat's out of the bag. The Doctor now knows that Amy's from his future at such an early point in the series too! I have my reasons for this, you'll find out part of the reason in the next chapter. Get ready for original plot guys! A quick note is that school is starting up soon, so I'm going to finish as many chapters as I can before that.

Thank you Aka-Baka Hoshi, Bwburke94 and Notwritten for your reviews! Congratulations to Bwburke94 for guessing that little factor, I was quite surprised when that popped in your review.

Next chapter will be the end of the Unquiet Dead and then after that, I'll be splitting each episode into two chapters each for practical purposes.