Just then, Bonnie came out into the backyard. "Ok, this is quite enough nonsense. I know you're upset with me, but come in and have a nice visit before you run off."
"Bonnie, I told you to wait inside the house!" shouted the Doctor.
"Yes, you did, but I'm done waiting around," said Bonnie crossly.
"Ma, do like he says and go back into the house," said Lana nervously, focusing her attention over to her mother. Bonnie had her back to the angel and walked right past it oblivious.
"Now you girls can be upset with me all you like, but I'm still your mother and I won't have you talking to me like…" Suddenly, Bonnie was gone, the angel stood frozen in her place with one arm outstretched.
"Ma!" Annie screamed out and made a move to run toward the spot, but the Doctor grabbed her by the arm.
"Stay put, it's too late and I'm sorry," said the Doctor frantically.
Lana stared horrified at the angel that stood in the place of her mother. "Can…can we go get her?" Lana asked, trying to remain composed. "You said it sends them back in time, so we can go get her right? I don't know how we explain the TARDIS to her, but we can go get her."
"We don't know where it sent her," said the Doctor regretfully. "I'm sorry, but it's too late. We need to go, or it'll take us, too."
The three of them climbed the ladder out of the tree house, each of them careful not to take their eyes off the statue. Once on the ground, Annie said, "But there has to be a way to fight this thing."
"There isn't," said the Doctor. "We just need to leave."
"How can we leave if the second we turn our backs it gets us?" said Lana.
"We keep our eyes on it as long as possible and hope we get lucky," said the Doctor.
"Can't we just smash it?" asked Annie.
"No, you can't kill a stone," said the Doctor.
"You've got a point, Annie," said Lana. "I'll keep my eyes on it. Go get the sledgehammer out of the tool shed."
"That's not going to help," insisted the Doctor, but Annie had already taken off to retrieve the sledgehammer.
Lana kept a steady gaze on the statue. "How do you know it won't work? Have you ever tried it?"
"It won't work," said the Doctor. "Annie, no!" But Annie was already coming at the angel, sledgehammer in hand. She raised the heavy tool above her head and brought it down over the slab of stone sending small bits of rock flying in all directions. She swung again, and again, and again until the pile of rocks was unrecognizable.
"Seems to work just fine," said Annie, tossing the sledgehammer over the shards of her handiwork.
The Doctor approached Annie hesitantly, not taking his eyes off the pile of stones. He held his hand out to her, and gently pulled her away. "Just back up," he said slowly.
"But it's safe now, isn't it?" said Lana. "She just broke it to pieces; we should be able to go."
"I wouldn't be too sure," said the Doctor cautiously.
"What do you mean you wouldn't be too sure?" burst out Annie. "I got it, that's done. Shame it doesn't bring our mother back! Maybe if you weren't too dense to think of this sooner, everything would just be all better!" She stomped at the Doctor and shoved him to the ground.
"Annie, calm down, it's not his fault," said Lana, pulling her sister back. But her voice wavered.
"Lana, Annie, look behind you," said the Doctor, looking past them.
"I told you, I got it," Annie said sharply. "Brute force wins the day."
"Look behind you," said the Doctor more forcefully.
Lana and Annie slowly turned around, expecting to see the same pile of rubble. In its place, about half a dozen small cherubs stood with menacing looks on their faces. "I told you, you can't kill a stone," said the Doctor.
"How is that possible?" said Lana.
"Never mind that, it's time to run!" said the Doctor. He grabbed both of them by their hands and urged them in the direction of Lana's car. "We need to get back to the TARDIS!"
In the time their backs were turned, the cherubs had advanced halfway down the driveway. "Get in! Get in!" he urged. "Lana, forget everything I said about your driving earlier!"
"Alright, Blue, give it all you got," Lana whispered to the car with a pat on the dashboard before she started the ignition and peeled out into the street.
"Annie, help me watch the angels!" the Doctor ordered.
"You don't need to tell me twice," she said as the car careened down the road. Their attention was thwarted for a moment as Lana hit a pothole and the cherubs moved closer again.
"Can you try to avoid the bumps?" the Doctor shouted.
"I can't avoid the bumps!" Lana shot back. "It's a bumpy road!" She hit another bump which gave enough moment's distraction for two of the small statues to grip onto the car.
"Can those things get in?" asked Annie in a panic. "They can't get in can they?"
"They're incredibly strong," said the Doctor. "They can get in if they want to, but I wouldn't worry about that quite yet."
"Well what would you worry about first, global warming?" said Lana sarcastically.
"No," said the Doctor as the car came to a sudden stop, engines dying. "I'd worry about that first."
"What's happened?" asked Annie in a worried tone, as Lana tried in vain to restart the ignition.
"They've drained the power from your battery," said the Doctor frantically. "Don't take your eyes off them."
"Do you have a plan?" asked Lana, her voice choked with fear as she stared at the group of cherubs hoping to stop their advance.
"The plan was to get back to the TARDIS," said the Doctor. "Might be a bit difficult now…c'mon, we need to get out. Keep looking at them."
"We're at the cemetery," commented Annie, pointing at the entrance they were stopped in front of. "This is where it came from."
"Alright then, new plan," said the Doctor. "We split up."
"How is that in any way a good plan?" chastised Lana. "More eyes are good right?"
"They feed on potential energy," explained the Doctor in rapid fire fashion. "I'm a better meal than you are. I should be able to lead them away and keep the two of you safe. Get back to the TARDIS and then call me."
"They'll get you before we can get to the TARDIS!" Lana argued.
"Yes," agreed the Doctor. "And you'll be safe. I'm not letting this happen again. You are my responsibility and in danger now because of me."
"What the hell are you talking about?" said Annie. "We are not your responsibility. And what do you mean again?"
"Nothing," said the Doctor quickly. "It's nothing. Just do as I say."
"Doctor, we're not leaving you here for the angels," said Lana. "That's not a plan we can stick with."
"The worst they can do is send me back in time," the Doctor tried to reassure them. "Your phone can reach me whenever I'm at and if you have the TARDIS, I can instruct you back to me."
"Now you'll let me drive," muttered Annie.
"No offense, Doctor," said Lana nervously, "but is this really the best time for flying lessons? Wouldn't it be better for them to send us back in time and you fly to pick us up? Maybe we'll even get lucky and it'll send us the same place as Ma. She's gotta be having kittens; we can calm her down."
"They're more likely to follow me," said the Doctor. "And I can't let them near the TARDIS."
"And all they can do is send you back in time?" said Lana. "They can't hurt you otherwise?"
"That's it, I promise," said the Doctor. "Now go, just go."
"Your plan still sucks," interjected Annie.
"It's the best plan we've got," said the Doctor.
"No it's not," argued Annie. "It's really not." She pointed up the road in the direction they would have gone. Four more adult angels were blocking their path.
"We seem to be surrounded, Doctor," said Lana, attempting to remain calm.
"Well, yes, ten points for stating the obvious," said the Doctor sarcastically.
"Well there's nowhere to go, so what now?" demanded Annie.
"That's not entirely true, we can go into the cemetery," said the Doctor.
"Won't there be more of them in there?" Annie pointed out.
"Most likely, yes," said the Doctor.
"Maybe we just let them send us into the past," suggested Lana. "How bad can that really be?"
"Well you're right of course, that wouldn't be so horrible," said the Doctor. "You could live out a good long life in the past…unless of course they just snap our necks."
"What?" shrieked Annie.
"You said that sending us to the past was the worst thing they could do," said Lana, panic rising in her voice more and more with every word.
"I lied," admitted the Doctor.
"That's horrible!" accused Lana.
"Ok, so through the creepy angel infested graveyard then?" said Annie. "My idea of a party."
"At least it's not a dark and stormy night," muttered Lana.
"Let's go we need to get moving," the Doctor encouraged.
The three of them then did the only thing they could do. They ran. They ran through the cemetery, passing the rows of headstones, floral memorials, and mausoleums, each looking over their shoulders every few moments to see the angels standing just a little closer. They wondered each time they passed a new statue if it was actually an angel. They didn't have to wonder long because the number of statues behind them increased the deeper into the graveyard they went, until there were more than two dozen stone monsters looming behind them.
Suddenly, the Doctor tripped, tumbling into a creek bed. "Doctor!" Lana and Annie cried out in unison, rushing over to help him.
"Don't worry about me! Don't look away!" the Doctor ordered. Lana and Annie quickly turned back to see the statues had advanced dangerously close.
"Doctor, there's no way out!" said Lana frantically. "We're surrounded. They have us!"
"Wait a tic, what is this?" said the Doctor excitedly from the creek as he started scanning around with his sonic screwdriver thinking he may have found a glimmer of hope.
"It's a creek; I think there's more important things to worry about right now!" shouted Lana.
"Like impending death," said Annie. "That's definitely top of my priority list."
"It's not just a creek," said the Doctor, checking the readings on his screwdriver. "It's leaking temporal energy. There is a rift in space time running right through here. No wonder the angels are here."
"That's fascinating!" said Lana sarcastically. "I'm always thrilled to learn something new, really I am, but did we mention impending death?"
Annie reached out and gripped her sister's hand. "I don't see a way out of this. It's been one hell of an adventure, though."
"Just let me think for a minute," said the Doctor. "Keep watching the angels; don't blink."
"Well hurry up and think of something then," demanded Annie. "We can't keep this up forever."
"I'm going to do something I probably shouldn't," said the Doctor.
"What's that?" asked Annie.
"When I tell you, I need you both to close your eyes and jump in here," said the Doctor.
"Why would we do that?" said Lana nervously. "They'll get us if we blink."
"I'm opening up a small crack of this rift," said the Doctor. "I'll explain later, but right now I need you to trust me."
"I don't trust doctors," said Lana.
"We're going to die, aren't we?" said Annie.
"I suppose there's nothing else to do but what he says," said Lana. "There's no way out."
They could hear the familiar pitch of the sonic screwdriver as the Doctor opened a small temporal crack leaking a golden light. "Jump now!" he shouted. Lana and Annie both closed their eyes. Hand in hand, they jumped.
When they opened their eyes, they all found themselves back in the tree house. "How are we back here?" asked Lana, confused.
"We moved," said the Doctor simply as he cheerfully tweaked her nose.
"What happened?" asked Annie, equally confused.
"I resonated the temporal energy within the rift just enough to create a space time anomaly, cancelling out the events," explained the Doctor. "By being at the center of the anomaly, we created a tiny little paradox which eliminated the angels and reverted time previous to our interaction."
"Wait a second," said Lana. "Did you just say you erased time?"
"More or less," said the Doctor. "Good to see you're keeping up."
"So we're back where we started," said Annie. "No angels?"
"No angels," the Doctor confirmed with a wide grin on his face.
"But if you erased time, it basically didn't happen," said Lana. "How can we remember something that hasn't happened?"
"You're time travelers now," said the Doctor. "It changes the way you see the world."
Lana and Annie laughed, happy to be alive and unable to resist the Doctor's infectious grin. They all embraced in a big group hug, but then suddenly Lana and Annie looked at each other and remembered, "Ma!"
They scrambled down the ladder as quickly as they could, meeting their mother at the back door and tackling her with a hug. "What's gotten into you two?" said Bonnie, confused.
"We're just so happy to see you," said Lana.
"We love you so much, Ma," said Annie.
The Doctor came up behind them, and pulled the group in for a big hug. "Nice family moment, feeling the love. I'll just leave you to it then." He turned and started walking away from the house.
Lana and Annie exchanged a knowing look as they saw the Doctor walking away. Lana gave their mother a quick peck on the cheek. "Give us just a minute, will you Ma?"
"Just where in the hell do you think you're going?" Annie demanded as they ran after him.
"You've got your mum to see to," said the Doctor with a shrug. "I thought I'd get going. It's dangerous for you to be around me."
"Don't get me wrong, we're quite pleased to see her alive and in the present," said Lana. "But she's just going to start driving us nuts again in about five minutes."
"We still want to come with you," Annie added. "We don't mind a little danger."
"We understand the risks," said Lana. "And what about you? Aren't you lonely traveling around all by yourself?"
"Well…if you're sure," said the Doctor as his face lit up with a wide smile and he pulled the two of them in for a hug. "All of space and time…what could be more fun?"
In 1996, a soft golden light reflected from a nondescript creek bed in a cemetery. Time had been rewritten.