Chapter 12: Trying to Beat the System
xXx
Well, it was mine... *starts singing* but I'm afraid it was only just a dream...
xXx
Sorry, thinglings! I thought I'd uploaded this... LOL, nope.
xXx
"Where did it come from?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all the time," River answered. Kati-Rose gave a soft frown. What had that look meant? she wondered. Does this mean I'm successful in saving Amy?
"There's a different between dormant and patient." the Doctor told her.
"What's that mean," Amy asked, "it's a statue when you can see it?"
"The Weeping Angels can only move if their unseen," River said. "So legend has it."
Kati-Rose had begun gazing at the statue, silently, unblinkingly. Even if the effort was futile, she had to try. She remained in the same posture as she corrected River, "It's not legend. It's a quantum lock. As soon as they are seen by any living thing, they turn to stone. It's a fact of their biology."
"The ultimate defence mechanism," the Doctor said softly.
"What, being a stone?" Amy asked.
"Being a stone until you turn you back," the Doctor told her in a low voice. He suddenly straightened, seeming to radiate excitement and energy.
"Alright!" the Doctor clapped his hands, making the occupants of the room flinch. "Let's go outside?"
"Nah, I'll stay here," Kati-Rose told him, "I need to check something."
"Alright," the Doctor nodded. "Amy, River, Father Octavian?" he asked. The aforementioned people nodded and followed them out while Kati-Rose stared at the angel.
Needless to say, she was rather good at staring at things for prolonged periods of time. When she was younger, she'd had a habit to 'zone out' – she'd stare at certain objects without blinking for prolonged periods of time when she was thinking something over, and occasionally it had taken physical force for her friends to get her to stop staring at their hair-ties (Jade had not been very amused).
Staring contests had also helped, and whovians took these thing very seriously. Well, her friends did. There was also a captioned image she'd found. 'Blink one eye at a time - beat the system'. She'd have to tell them that it worked. However, her examination of the Angel's wings (She counted at least fifty feathers) had been broken when Amy opened the door to the drop ship to join her, when she looked back, she saw that the Angel had raised it's face from it's hands slightly and had started looking over it's shoulder.
Amy called out. "Kati-Rose?" she asked the girl having the staring contest with the screen, "Kati-Rose? What are you doing?"
She moved her hand in front of her Kati's eyes, and she jumped and cursed.
Dammit! Kati-Rose swore internally, before following with some words that she would prefer not to be mentioned. Amy had ruined it! She had been doing so well.
"Oh well, it's not like I would have been allowed to change it," she muttered, resigned. It was true, of course. It was not as if she could just go gallivanting off through the Doctor's life, throwing herelf in front of targets like some air-headed girl that thought she was invincible. Her parent's-, never mind. It should have taught her that no-one could survive forever.
"Change what?" Amy asked her. Change what indeed? What could she change?
"Change what is going to happen next," Kati-Rose answered calmly. Even if she couldn't change it, she could still try. What did she have to lose? She heard the module door close and give a click.
"That'll be the deadlock," she muttered. Amy was looking at her oddly.
"The screen," Kati-Rose told her, gesturing towards the monitor with her head. During the conversation, the Angel had moved closer to the camera. 2 phases before it gets out, Kati-Rose thought. What would she do then? Would she run and leave Amy to confront it, leave the red-head to her fate? Would she take her place? Time was running out and her brain was fighting between its survival instinct and her emotions and desire to save everyoe. You will fail, of course, her brain reasoned.
Amy looked to the screen with a look of shock on her face. She tried to turn off the monitor, but every time she the screen faded to black, the Angel switched it back on again. Kati-Rose wanted so, so much to keep looking at the angel, keep them both safe, but in the end, this had to happen to one of them and she was in no way intending it to be Amy. Heart versus head, she was pretty sure the phrase was, and heart had won.
"But you're just a recording," Amy told it, "You can't move."
She tried to pull out the lead to the monitor, getting in Kati-Rose's line of vision as she did so, but the cable wouldn't budge. When she moved out of the way, the Angel was up close to the camera.
"Amelia..." Kati-Rose paused. Her friend turned to look at her, and blocked her view of the Angel again. "The image of an angel becomes in itself an angel," she told her. Might as well get the worst over with, her brain told her. If you're going to be so sacrificial you might as well not give yourself a chance to back out.
This was vitally important information, and, yes, it was scary, but Amy went into a full-on panic. She rushed over to open the door, knocking Kati-Rose over in the progress. She then started banging on the metal, calling for help all the while.
"Amelia Jessica Pond!" Kati-Rose yelled. "Yes, you're panicking, yes, you may be about to die, but calm the baise down!" She looked back at the angel, but it was too late- it had skipped the last stage entirely and was now flickering as the recording did inside the room, out of the screen. Are you happy now? something inside snarled. You might fail and kill both you and Amy.
Amy, however, was not going to calm down. "Doctor!" she yelled in panic. Why wasn't she panicking? What was going on? How was she standing there, staring, as the most terrifying thing imaginable was coming towards her? And why was she hearing music...?
Kati-Rose heard an answering voice shout, "Kati-Rose! Amy!"
Amy called out again as Kati-Rose kept looking at the Angel that was now in the room with them.
"Doctor!"
She heard a frantic voice calling from outside the drop ship, "Are you alright? What's happening?"
"Doctor? Doctor, it's come out of the television," said Amy in a voice just as panicked as the Doctor's. Kati-Rose just kept staring at the angel, trying not to look into its eyes.
She could hear voices from outside, but she was focusing on looking at the Angel's dress, wings, anywhere but the eyes. But they were like magnets, and she screwed her own shut, trying to focus. Big mistake. The angel grabbed her face between its hands and forced her to meet its stony eyes, contorted as it snarled.
She heard a gasp, and took her own shaky breath. Don't panic, don't panic. Why was she panicking now? She'd been fine up until this point, why was she panicking? "Doctor?" she called, still looking at the angel's eyes, "the Angel doesn't tolerate disrespect. It's my aunt reincarnated – if you don't look it in the eyes, it grabs your face and forces you."
She felt a horrifying sensation of falling as something went into her eye and the angel disappeared, leaving her to fall to the ground just as the Doctor and River burst in. She vaguely heard Amy explaining what she had done as she blinked rapidly before screwing her eyes shut. Her fingers tingled and she flexed them. Thanks, adrenaline. Why are you here now?
"I froze it. There was some sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel anymore. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good."
She heard River's voice say, "That was amazing." and the Doctor telling her to hug Amy.
"Why?" River asked.
"I'm busy hugging Kati-Rose" was his reply.
The Doctor leant down beside Kati-Rose and gathered her up into his arms, noticing how she kept her eyes firmly shut. Kati-Rose was sure that she should be more stressed than this, but the angel was in her mind, fiddling with her brain, and she felt slightly numb. What was that? What had she been worrying about?
"That was not funny," he told her seriously, and she nodded.
"You okay?" he asked. She gave a shaky laugh, eyes still closed.
"No," she said truthfully and he gave her a slight squeeze. "But you need to get Amy the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy," she told him seriously.
"Why?" he asked.
"Don't panic," she told him, and he laughed.
"Open your eyes for me?" he asked, "Please?"
Kati-Rose really didn't want to open her eyes. Really, really didn't. But then she did, and it wasn't her. Her eyes flew open, grey as a storm cloud, before slamming shut again. "Satisfied?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. It had been worth it, she thought, to see the Doctor's worried face, proof of how much he cared about her. It was nice to be cared for. Wait, what?
An explosion came from outside. "Doctor?" Octavian called, "We're through."
"For the moment," the Doctor answered her last statement, and kissed her forehead before helping her to her feet. "And I'm not helping you walk if you don't open your eyes," he told her jokingly.
Kati-Rose grudgingly opened her eyes, knowing that he wouldn't follow through with that threat, but then she would have to explain why she couldn't open her eyes, and she wasn't allowed to do that, as far as she knew.
"Okay, now it starts," the Doctor said, and he, River and Amy walked out of the drop ship.
"Coming?" River asked Kati-Rose.
"Yeah," she replied, "There's just something in my eye."
And in my head. What is wrong with me?
xXx
This chapter is very, very messed up. It's purposeful. And very, very important to the plot. Very, very important. I mean, this is perhaps the most importantly-worded chapter in the story so far.
This chapter carries a subliminal message that is important to the plot. Really important. It will reappear again in other chapters at specific points and eventually lead up to the end. And I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. But it's time to wake up.
- LoS
