NOTE: Sorry this chapter took so long. This is a very busy time of year for me...for us all really I'm sure! Happy 2014! Only eight more months till Doctor Who starts up again (which I hear they haven't technically actually started filming yet).

...it's gonna be a long year.


Chapter Eleven

"Where is everybody?" The Doctor asked. "Kraid always greets me."

"Maybe he doesn't know we're here." Amy offered.

"His species is very intuitive, particularly to the kind of Vortex disturbance that the TARDIS creates. He should have contacted us by now, at the very least we should have run into one of the several million others who live here."

"Doctor," River said gently "we've seen a single Angel destroy whole worlds ten times this siz..."

"No." The Doctor shook his head. "The worlds decimated by the Angels always have this bitter taste to the air. It took me a while to pick up on it, but now that I've made the connection it's unmistakable. The Angels did not decimate Kraid and his people. They must be here somewhere."

River and Amy exchanged a meaningful glance. They knew when the Doctor was lying, even when he was mostly just lying to himself. The Doctor noticed the look the pair had given one another and he hated to admit that they were right. The Angels may not have destroyed the population, but something certainly had. Trying to shake off the uneasy feeling the Doctor continued to lead them towards the command centre of the Matrix.

Keeping a sharp eye out for more Angels the trio moved through the tunnels. Amy had asked him why they didn't just park the TARDIS closer to the command centre and he had giving her a long complicated explanation that boiled down to not wanting the TARDIS too close to the borrowed piece of her Heart that he'd placed in the Matrix. Amy had asked if he was using the lose definition of 'borrowed' that he usually did but she never got an answer.

Eventually the tunnel before them opened into a massive cavern. The Doctor hesitated at the mouth of the vast space as he looked out over the neatly laid out rows of oval stones that lay on the ground. Each rock was approximately three feet in length and a mottled dark green colour. A fine layer of dust had settled on everything. When there was no sign of any Angels or other danger he carefully stepped out into the rows with Amy and River staying close.

"What is this?" Amy asked nervously.

"A nursery." The Doctor replied as he bent down and gently touched one of the odd stones. "These are Xolisithle eggs."

"There must be hundreds of thousands of them." River noted.

"And there would be more than one cave like this. Like I said before they don't breed often but when they do they mean business. More than that they have a special kind of genetic memory, certain eggs would be selected to become exact replica of important members of their society, memory and all. Sort of like regeneration but without the massive trauma to the personality that happens with Time Lords."

"So Kraid wasn't really thousands of years old?" Amy asked.

"Yes and no. He was the same person just reborn over and over. The actual life span of the Xolisithle is around eight to nine hundred years, they live one generation at a time the older generation dying off once the new one is laid."

"So what happened here?" River asked as she looked around at the silent cave of eggs.

"I don't know." The Doctor scanned the nearest egg with the sonic and read the results. "These never had a chance of hatching, they aren't even fertile. The new generation never hatched to replace the one that died"

"The Xolisithle are extinct?" Amy asked horrified.

"Yes." The Doctor answered sadly as he stared at the egg at his feet. "I wonder if Kraid and the others ever named their planet."

River stepped up and put her arm over the Doctor's shoulders. When he didn't take his morose stare off the dead egg River reached up and touched her gloved palm against his cheek. Heavy hearted the Doctor continued to watch the egg as though willing it to hatch.

"I should have been here to help them." The Doctor said.

"You saved them once, gave them thousands of more years on a peaceful world." River said softly. "You did all that you could."

"It wasn't enough."

"It almost never is, but you can't let that stop you from trying."

"You're right." The Doctor agreed as he finally looked at River. "Come on, we need to find the Matrix."

The Doctor took River's hand and grabbed Amy's with the other and lead them through the silent nursery. It didn't take them long to reach the door that sealed the control centre where the Doctor had first connected with the Matrix. Using the sonic he activated the mechanism that slid the door open. The Doctor yelped and put his arms out to keep Amy and River back as he caught sight of the Angel standing in the middle of the room. Although standing rather than kneeling this one did have its wings spread open like the one that had approached River.

"I'll take care of this." River said as she pushed past the Doctor.

"No, River wait." The Doctor kept an eye on the Angel as he pulled her back. "I think we need to try and talk to it."

"How?"

"I don't really know, but I have the feeling that it knew we would be coming here. If it wanted to kill us it would have been right at the door, not in the middle of the room."

"It still needs to kill someone to gain a voice." River pointed out.

The lights flickered and the Angel was suddenly holding its hand out as if it was inviting the Doctor to dance.

"Maybe not." The Doctor took a step closer. "It might be as simple as touching it."

"Please tell me you're kidding." Amy complained. "We can't trust that thing."

"Amy right, Doctor."

"When the future Valeyard came and visited us at the Timonic Explosion he started asking for help, he said I had to find the Angels. They have something important to tell us."

"So now we're not only trusting the Angels but the Valeyard as well?" River asked skeptically.

"For now you can just trust that I know what I'm doing."

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Sweetie." River teased.

With his eyes still locked on the Angel the Doctor smiled. He tried to ignore the pounding of his hearts and the voice in his head that was telling him this was a bad idea as he slowly walked closer. Stopping a few feet in front of the stone beast the Doctor reached out and touched the Angel's out stretched hand with one finger. When nothing happened he actually took the Angle's hand for a moment before releasing it once again.

"Nothing...I wasn't expecting that."

"Maybe we have to not be looking at it." River suggested.

"That's a good point. Alright, okay..." the Doctor took a deep breath. "So...close your eyes everyone."

"Doctor?" Amy asked nervously. "Are you sure about this?"

"Not in the slightest."

"But we're doing it anyway."

"Exactly."

The Doctor trusted that River and Amy had closed their eyes but found he didn't quite have the courage to do the same. He stood staring at the Angel that had outstretched its hand to him. The Doctor studied the Angel's face, trying to read the creature's intentions. It was hard to believe that it wanted his help. The Doctor had witnessed the aftermath of entire worlds destroyed by their power. He had also seen his own world shattered when they took Amy away. It hadn't happened yet but it was going to.

"Unless they are all die off first..." The Doctor muttered.

"Doctor?" River asked.

"Nothing. Geronimo!"

Usually the Doctor used the phrase to leap into action, but this time he used it and then simply blinked. In the split second that the Angel was out of sight it lashed out and snatched his wrist. It was much harder to close his eyes properly now that the Angel physically had a hold of him but he managed. The Doctor cried out as the Angel's touch crystalized his arm into stone. Unable to keep his eyes closed for more than a few seconds the Doctor snapped them open to freeze the Angel once again. The Angel was holding his marble arm in its unbreakable grip with its sharp teeth bared at him.

"Doctor!" River and Amy cried in unison.

"Stay back!" The Doctor barked. "Close your eyes again."

"Doc..."

"I have to see what it wants."

"What if it wants you dead?" Amy pointed out.

"If it wanted me dead I would be."

"He has a point." River noted as she closed her eyes and placed her hand over Amy's to encourage her to do the same.

"Please don't kill me." The Doctor whispered to the Angel as he closed his eyes once more.

The Doctor ground his teeth to keep silent as the Angel increased its painful grip. Suddenly there was a whispering in his ear in a that sounded like his own voice. The Doctor realized that it probably was his own voice that the Angel had stolen. He tried to listen but the Angel's message was disjointed and senseless.

"I don't understand you."

The Angel made what sounded like a noise of frustration or possibly rage, it was hard to tell which. The Doctor gasped as his senses were violently assaulted by images and emotions of the Angel's plight. The effects of the explosion had poisoned the time energy that the Angels fed from and was slowly destroying them. For a brief moment the Doctor's mind was filled with the fates of other time-aware species as the Angel showed him the deaths of countless Reapers, Halcyon, Wraiths, Dwellers, Chronovores, Timewyrms, Pantophagens, Vortisaurs, and even the Daleks. With dependance one way or another on the Time Vortex these species were suffering the greatest effects of the radiation.

Unable to witness any more death the Doctor began to struggle for freedom from the Angel's telepathic grasp. Unwilling to release its prey the Angel continued to pour images of the dying civilizations and creatures that depend on the Vortex. Tears started streamed from the Doctor's closed eyes as he tried and failed to open them to stop the Angel. He felt that he might be screaming but he wasn't sure it was his own voice or the Angel. Either way he wasn't sure how much longer his sanity was going to hold out against the Angel's touch.

"Let me go! I can't help you if you don't let me go!"

The Angel made no move to release him as it turned from images of the chaos to inflicting its own despair at the slow death it was suffering on the Doctor's hearts. Demanding once again to be released the Doctor suddenly fell back as his captor finally granted him his freedom. He forced his eyes open to make sure that he could freeze the Angel again, but there was nothing in front of him other than a pile of dust. He looked up at River who was at his side now.

"River, did you kill the Angel?"

"It wouldn't let you go." River replied with no apology.

"Right."

The Doctor got back to his feet with River's help. He looked down at the arm that the Angel had taken a hold of and jerked back when he discovered that it was still turned to stone. He held his arm up and stared at it in horror.

"Doctor?" Amy asked concerned. "What's wrong?"

"My arm...it's stone."

"No, it's not."

"Of course it is," the Doctor insisted "look at it."

The Doctor peacefully allowed Amy to take a hold of his infected arm for closer inspection. Without warning Amy brought his hand up and bit him. The Doctor yelped and jerked away from her.

"Ow...ow, OW!" The Doctor complained and then wiggled his fingers now that the illusion was broken. "Oh, but brilliant work, Amy."

"Your welcome." Amy kissed the Doctor's cheek.

"Of course this still means that the Angel was and probably still is inside my head." The Doctor lamented.

"I think I can fix that." River smiled.

"Wha..."

The Doctor was cut off as River carded her fingers into the Doctor's hair and used the purchase to pull him into an aggressive kiss. Amy shifted her weight uncomfortably as the Doctor continued to kiss her daughter. When River finally released him the Doctor gave her a pleasantly confused look.

"Since my touch kills Angels you should be all good now." River explained.

"I...uh..." The Doctor blushed. "I don't really know if it works like that, River."

"Well let's assume for now that it does."

"Fair enough."

"Did the Angel talk to you?" River asked expectantly.

"It did." The Doctor nodded. "The Angels are dying, and they aren't the only ones."

The Doctor did he best to relay the visions of death and suffering that the Angel had pressed on him. He didn't have all the details since most of what the Angel had shown him was disjointed and seemingly out of order. The Angel itself had clearly already been poisoned and its pain kept it from being fully coherent.

"I hate to be the one to say this," Amy started "but from everything you've ever told me all these species that are dying basically bad new. Would it be so wrong if they disappeared?"

"The Universe is a vast ecosystem." The Doctor replied. "The extinction of these species will have consequences for us all."

"Wait Time Lords are as much Vortex creatures as the Daleks." River said. "If all of the time aware speices are dying, shouldn't you be as well?"

"For all we know I am, but I also have something stirring up my regeneration energy in ways that it really shouldn't be."

"True. So what do we do about it?"

"The effects of the Timonic Fusion Device has had on the Vortex needs to be reverse and more and more I'm fearing that we are going to need the Valeyard's help for that. Only he truly understand what that device did and how it works."

"He's not really proven to be much of a 'team player'." River pointed out.

"Which is why I think the Angles and Reapers have come to you for help."

"What?"

"Somehow they know that you're the one person that he will do anything for."

"Why should I mean anything to him? He already has the original me with him to keep him happy."

"Maybe not." The Doctor admitted. "When the future Valeyard appeared he begged me to save you and he was..."

"Doctor?" River pressed when he didn't continue.

"He was covered in blood."