Notes: Sorry this took me a while... I got stuck about halfway through. I hope you like it, there are a few changes of course since I didn't do the image of an angel/something in her eye bit. Mainly because they never did anything with that ever again and this episode made me angry because they defeated them the last time by having them look at each other and in this episode it didn't seem to matter at all if they looked at each other. Anyway, Moffat inconsistency rant over now. Enjoy!
Chapter Fourteen – Flesh and Stone: Part Two
Jamie and River pulled Amy along through the forest and often had to lift her over some of the larger branches on the ground as they followed the soldiers.
"You seem to be missing someone Amy," River commented knowingly.
"Well, he was a little bit busy when I left, yeah?" Amy replied, slightly flustered.
Jamie wasn't sure who they were talking about, but just listened intently. He was fairly sure that River wouldn't have brought it up in his presence if it were something he shouldn't know about.
"Why are you running, Amy?" River asked her pointedly.
"I don't know! I should be happy about it, but instead I'm just scared," Amy told her and she stumbled painfully.
Jamie and River found a spot to sit her down as they checked her ankle.
"We can't keep pushing her like this. We should wait for mum and dad," Jamie said as he checked the readings on his sonic.
"We can't stay here. We've got to keep moving," Octavian protested.
"We wait for Rose and the Doctor," River told him.
"Our mission is to make this wreckage safe and neutralize the Angels. Until that is achieved..." Octavian began, but was quickly interrupted.
"Father Octavian, when Rose and the Doctor are in the room, your one and only mission is to keep them alive long enough to get everyone else home. And trust me, it's not easy. Now, if they're dead back there, I'll never forgive myself. And if they're alive, I'll never forgive them," she informed the Bishop, then noticed Jamie smirking at her. "And they're standing right behind me, aren't they?"
"Oh yeah," the Doctor replied and jumped down to the clearing, pulling Rose behind him.
"I hate you," River told him with a scowl.
"Nah, you don't," Rose laughed and patter her shoulder.
"Bishop, the Angels are in the forest," the Doctor informed Octavian.
"We need visual contact on every line of approach," the Bishop ordered his men.
"How did you two get past them?" River asked worriedly.
"I found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe," the Doctor responded curtly.
"What was it really?" Jamie asked.
"The end of the universe," the Doctor answered. "So, let's see then," he added as he scanned Amy's injured leg.
"Right. We can't keep dragging Amy haphazardly through the forest and we can't all keep an eye out for Angels if we're carrying her. So, a few of us are going to scout ahead and find the quickest path through here. Once we get to the Primary Flight Deck, we stabilize the wreckage, stop the Angels and get everyone out of here safe and sound," the Doctor informed everyone.
"And how exactly do you plan on stopping the Angels?" River asked him.
"I don't know yet, I haven't stopped talking," the Doctor replied. "Father, you and your Clerics are going to stay here, look after Amy. River, you know this ship better than the rest of us, so you can help me. Jamie, I might need your help with the computer systems. Rose, would you stay here to look after Amy as well?" he asked, knowing that they worked best together, but he trusted her more to take care of Amy than the soldiers.
"That's fine, is there a setting on my sonic that could help heal her leg at all? I'd like to do something useful while we wait for you," Rose replied.
"Yes, hand it here. It won't heal it much, but should bring down the swelling and pain," he said as he flicked her sonic to the right setting, then snogged her thoroughly before heading off with the others.
The Doctor licked his finger and held it up in the air. "So, the Primary Flight Deck is a quarter of a mile that way. We get there and then... I'll do a thing," he announced, leading the way.
"What thing?" River questioned indignantly.
"I don't know. It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing. Moving out!" the Doctor responded confidently.
"Doctor, I'm coming with you. My Clerics will look after your wife and Miss Pond. These are my best men. They'd lay down their lives in the protection of their charges," Octavian said, following the small group.
"I don't need you," the Doctor informed him, preferring to have more people protecting Amy and Rose from the Angels.
"I don't care. Where Doctor Song goes, I go," the Bishop replied, allowing no arguments to sway him.
"What? You two engaged or something?" the Doctor asked and watched carefully for River's reaction. He knew that she was somehow related to him, based on her knowledge of the part of his name that was shared with Jamie. He didn't feel a link with her that would indicate she was his daughter, although they could have adopted her. The most likely explanation was that she would marry into their family, so this reaction might give him a clue.
River stiffened immediately and looked nervously between Octavian, the Doctor and Jamie, but didn't say a word.
Octavian looked at River calculatingly before he said, "Yes, in a manner of speaking. Marco, you're in charge 'til I get back."
Marco acknowledged the order and the soldiers kept vigil over the forest.
"River, may I borrow your computer for a moment?" the Doctor asked and began transferring readings of the crack into it when she handed it to him. He walked ahead of the others while the computer worked out some calculations.
Jamie decided to take the opportunity to ask River about her conversation with Amy. "Who did you think was supposed to be with Amy?" he asked her.
"James, I know that you care about Amy very much. But she's supposed to be getting married the morning after you picked her up," River replied.
"Married? Why would she do that?" Jamie asked, scrunching his nose in disgust.
River laughed and placed an arm around his shoulders. "Because she and Rory are a matched set, just like your mum and dad. She doesn't know it yet, but even the impossible won't separate them forever," River answered.
"But, if she gets married, she might not want to come with us anymore," Jamie said sadly.
"Oh, lots of room in the TARDIS," River told him and moved to catch up with the Doctor as he paused to study the computer in his hands for a moment.
"What is it, dad?" Jamie asked.
"Er... readings from a crack in the wall," the Doctor replied.
"How can a crack in the wall be the end of the universe?" River asked, curious about his answer from earlier.
"Don't know, but here's what I think. One day, there's going to be a very big bang. So big, every moment in history, past and future, will crack," the Doctor answered thoughtfully.
"Is that possible? How?" River questioned.
"How can you be engaged, in a manner of speaking?" the Doctor threw back at her. He was determined to get a few answers about who River Song really was in their lives.
"Well," she began with a nervous swallow and a glance toward Father Octavian. "Sucker for a man in uniform."
The Bishop approached them and River's eyes opened wide in fear. "Doctor Song's in my personal custody. I released her from the Storm Cage Containment Facility four days ago and I am legally responsible for her until she's accomplished her mission and earned her pardon. Just so we understand each other," Octavian informed them.
"You were in Storm Cage?" the Doctor questioned as he eyed her appraisingly. What was she doing imprisoned in one of the highest security facilities in this galaxy?
He was jolted from his thoughts by the chirping of the computer in his hands. Numbers began to scroll along the bottom of the screen as the calculations completed.
"That can't be right," Jamie whispered as he read it.
"What? What is that?" River asked.
"The date of the explosion, where the crack begins," the Doctor replied and exchanged a worried look with his son.
"And for those of us who can't read the base code of the universe?" she prompted.
The Doctor pressed a button for it to translate into numerals she would understand, further proving that she wasn't his daughter or she would understand it. The numbers displayed "26 06 2010."
"Amy's time," the Doctor added.
"Not just Amy's time, that's the day after we picked her up! That's..." Jamie stated, getting more upset by the minute, but was stopped from continuing by River squeezing his shoulder and giving him a look that warned not to reveal Amy's secret just yet.
-'-{ }-'-
Rose sat with Amy and carefully ran her sonic back and forth over her injured ankle while the soldiers kept watch for Angels in the forest.
"The Angels are advancing, ma'am," a soldier named Marco called to Rose.
"Keep your eyes on them. They can't move while you're looking at them," Rose shouted back, hoping to get Amy feeling well enough to walk.
"Are you boys seeing what I'm seeing?" Cleric Phillip called to the others.
"The trees, yeah?" Marco asked and everyone noticed the lights in the forest starting to dim slightly.
"What are they doing? What's wrong with the trees?" Amy asked as she looked up at the trees worriedly.
"Here too, sir. They're ripping the treeborgs apart," Pedro replied.
"And here. They're taking out the lights," Marco informed them.
"Alright, Amy, how's that leg feeling now? Do you think you can walk again?" Rose asked her, wishing they could just run for it.
"I dunno. I don't think so," Amy said as fear started to swell inside her, causing tears to form in the corners of her eyes.
"We're going to be alright, just hang on," Rose told her and focussed on contacting her husband. "The Angels are ripping the trees apart, love. And I don't think Amy's going to be able to run for it. Any solutions yet?"
"Working on it," came the abrupt reply. She could tell he was focussed on something and didn't want to distract him further. Rose had faith in her husband's ability to get them out of things in the nick of time, so the most important thing now, was to keep herself and Amy alive until he could do it.
-'-{ }-'-
"This is the Primary Flight Deck, but it doesn't open from here. There must be a service hatch or something," Octavian told them.
"Hurry up and find it. Time's running out," River snapped at him.
"What? What did you say? Time's running out, is that what you said?" the Doctor asked curiously. He always thought that was an odd turn of phrase. As a being of time, the idea of time running out was strange.
"Yeah. I just meant..." she began.
"I know what you meant. Hush," he interrupted as his mind began to swirl with possibilities about time and the crack being the end of the universe. "But what if it could?"
"What if what could, dad?" Jamie asked over his shoulder as he searched for an opening onto the flight deck.
"Time. What if time could run out?" the Doctor mused.
"Found it!" the Bishop called and Jamie began to work on the hatch with his sonic while his dad continued to think about time.
"Cracks... cracks in time. Time running out. No, couldn't be... couldn't be. But how is a duck pond a duck pond if there aren't any ducks? And she didn't recognize the Daleks," the Doctor mumbled to himself and waved his hands through the air ineffectually. "Ok, time can shift... time can change... time can be rewritten. Ah... oh!" he gasped as he came to some kind of conclusion.
-'-{ }-'-
The Angels were getting closer to the area where the clerics were keeping watch over Amy and Rose. Just as they thought they'd have to find a way to carry Amy out of there, however, a bright light broke through the trees.
"The ship's not on fire, is it?" Marco asked the opinion of the others.
"It can't be. The compressors would have taken care of it. Marco, the Angels have gone. Where'd they go?" Pedro wondered.
"What do you mean they've gone?" Rose asked, getting up from her spot beside Amy to see what was happening.
"This side's clear too, sir," Phillip reported.
"There's still movement out there, but away from us now. It's like they're running," Marco told them.
"Well, I doubt they're running away from us. So, what are they running toward?" Rose questioned as she looked curiously at the white light penetrating the trees.
"Phillip, Crispin, need to get a closer look at that," Marco ordered and the two soldiers immediately took off into the forest. After staring into the light for a few minutes, Marco said dazedly, "It's like, I don't know, a curtain of energy... sort of shifting. Makes you feel weird."
"And you think it scared the Angels?" Amy asked from her seat. She couldn't see the source of the light from her position.
"What could scare those things?" Pedro wondered, knowing how impervious they were to every attack they had put forth.
"No, it didn't scare them. They're running towards it. Let me see better. Do you have a good angle where you are, Marco?" Rose reasoned and tried to find the best view of the light source. "Oh my god," she whispered and decided that she needed to contact her husband.
"Love, this is getting serious. The crack has gotten much larger. The light is shining through the forest now and the Angels turned away from approaching us and are running towards it," Rose thought to the Doctor.
"Oooh, that's very not good," the Doctor replied. "We're getting the hatch open to the Primary Flight Deck now. We'll see if we can find a way to get Amy here without her having to walk or be carried the whole way."
"Marco, you want me to get a closer look at that?" Pedro asked as he stared into the light.
"Go for it. Don't get too close," Marco replied and Pedro immediately ran off through the trees.
"Hang on. What about the other two? Why not just wait until they're back?" Amy questioned the intelligence of sending anyone else out there.
"What other two?" Marco replied, confusion written plainly on his face.
"The ones you sent before," Amy told him.
"I didn't send anyone before," Marco said, shaking his head.
"You most certainly did! Crispin and Phillip were sent as soon as the Angels turned tail and now you've send Pedro to the same fate," Rose chastised him angrily.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but there never was a Crispin or a Phillip on this mission, I promise you," Marco responded respectfully.
"Yes, there were and you've forgotten them for some reason. Why would that be?" Rose assured him, knowing that something like this was a sign that things were getting progressively worse.
"New problem, Doctor. First two, and now a third soldier have marched off into the light and the remaining soldier seems to have forgotten that they ever existed," Rose communicated silently with her husband.
"Hmm... oooh. Working on it... time can be unwritten! It's been happening all around us and we haven't even noticed. The Daleks, the CyberKing, nobody remembers!" the Doctor continued his musings as he talked with Rose telepathically.
"Are you saying that these cracks are erasing history?" Rose asked him fearfully.
"I'm not sure yet, but keep everyone away from that light. We'll get you out of there soon," he replied.
As Rose was distracted by her communications, Amy continued to try and reason with Marco. "Honestly, before you sent Pedro, you sent Crispin and Phillip, and now you can't even remember them. Something happened. I don't know what, and you don't even remember," Amy cried as she got more and more worried.
"Pedro?" Marco questioned.
"Yeah, before you sent Pedro," Amy insisted.
"Who's Pedro?" he asked, clearly becoming more and more confused.
"Ok, let's not worry about that right now," Rose interrupted, relatively sure that there wasn't anything they could do for the missing soldiers, and wanting to make sure that the remaining people stayed alive. "No one else is going anywhere near that light. I need your help, Marco. We're going to take it slowly for now, since the Angels seem to be preoccupied, but we're going to start carrying Amy towards the others," she ordered as she took charge of the situation.
-'-{ }-'-
"Look out!" Jamie shouted as he stared at the Angel that suddenly appeared near Father Octavian.
River had already climbed through the hatch and onto the Flight Deck. The Doctor and Octavian backed their way towards the hatch, keeping their eyes fixed on the Angel.
"There'll be more coming now. They've probably realized that they can't absorb the energy from the crack," the Doctor told them as he urged the others through before him. He rushed through the hatch himself and sealed it shut.
"There's a teleport. If I can get it to work, we can beam the others here," River shouted from the far corner.
"Right. Jamie, see if you can help her with that. We'll have three people to teleport back here as soon as possible," the Doctor replied as he checked the status of the ship on the computers around him.
"The Angels will be coming back your way again, love. Please be careful. We're trying to get the teleport here working. There's an Angel right outside our door," the Doctor thought to Rose worriedly.
"Ok, so best not to even bother trying to get to that door then? Just watch around us for Angels until you can zap us out of here, yeah?" Rose responded, her panic rising.
"I'd love to say yes, but there's Time Energy spilling out of that crack, and you have to stay ahead of it. The Angels could kill you, but the Time Energy could erase your very existence. You need to keep moving, my love," her husband begged.
There was a loud banging sound that echoed through the ship.
"What's that?" River asked.
"The Angels, running from the fire. They came here to feed on the Time Energy, now it's going to feed on them," the Doctor replied.
"What's the Time Energy going to do, dad? You said they can't absorb it," Jamie questioned.
"Er... keep eating," the Doctor replied.
"How do we stop it?" River asked plainly as they kept working on the transporter.
"Feed it," the Doctor replied quietly.
"Feed it what?" River wondered.
"A big, complicated space time event should shut it up for a while," the Doctor responded and wrung his hands nervously. He wondered what his plan would do to Rose and Jamie. They would both likely cease to exist as well. There had to be another way.
"Like what, for instance?" River questioned, knowing how dangerous his plans often were.
"Like me, for instance... but there has to be another way. If I ceased to exist, Rose would have died in a shop basement and Jamie would never have been born, and who knows how many other horrible events might have come to pass," the Doctor rambled as he paced the room worriedly.
"What about the Angels, dad? Are they complicated space time events as well?" Jamie prompted.
"Well, yes... the crack is already eating them, but ..." the Doctor considered this when he was pulled from his musings by the sound of the transporter whirring to life.
Amy Pond suddenly appeared and tumbled to the ground. She was abruptly carried away from the machine as Jamie activated it once again to bring his mother into the room as well. When Rose ran to her son's side for a hug, Jamie pressed the button one last time, and Marco appeared on the platform. Everyone sighed with relief and the Doctor leapt over the computer console to hug his wife fiercely.
An alarm sounded abruptly and everyone turned to face the barrier separating them from the forest filled with Angels as it slowly began to rise.
"The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power, which means the shield is releasing," the Doctor explained and held tightly to Rose's waist as he moved closer to the confrontation.
An army of Angels stood before them. The ones furthest away moved forward slowly any time the group looked away from them. The ones in front were stuck for the moment in the sight lines of both the other Angels and the Doctor's group.
"Angel Bob, I presume," the Doctor addressed the Angel that held one of the communicators.
"The Time Field is coming. It will destroy our reality," Bob announced.
"Yeah, and look at you all, running away. What can I do for you?" the Doctor questioned.
"There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close, and they will be saved," Bob replied.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do, could do that. But why?" the Doctor said dismissively, knowing that he had already removed that option from consideration.
"Your friends and family will also be saved," Bob reasoned.
"I could see how you'd think that, but no, not really. You see, my past existence is rather important to their current existence," the Doctor half-heartedly explained.
"I've travelled in time. I'm a complicated space time event too. Throw me in," River suggested, desperately searching for another solution.
"Oh, be serious. Compared to me, these Angels are more complicated than you, and it would take every one of them to amount to me, so... get a grip," the Doctor said pointedly.
"What? ... Oh, brilliant!" Jamie exclaimed as he instructed Amy and Octavian to hold tight to some grab bars along the wall.
"Oh, you genius." River gasped and grabbed a hold of another bar near her tightly.
"Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now," Bob told him in his eerily calm voice.
"Thing is, Bob, the Angels are draining all the power from this ship. Every last bit of it. And you know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the gravity of the situation," the Doctor replied, which earned a giggle from Rose beside him. "Or to put it another way, Angels, night-night," he added as he and Rose both grabbed the bar closest to them and held to each other tightly as well.
The gravity on the ship failed and all of the Angels were sucked into the crack as they felt themselves pulled off of the floor. For Rose and the Doctor, this was far too familiar a feeling. Their hold on each other was desperate through the ordeal as the events of Canary Wharf haunted them both. They clung desperately to their anchors until the power flashed back to life and the artificial gravity reasserted itself.
Finding her feet back on the floor, Amy asked, "What just happened?"
"The Angels were erased from time, which means that they were never here to drain the power and now everything is fine," the Doctor explained.
"What Angels? Is this wreckage secure now, sir?" Octavian questioned, clearly confused by what had just happened.
"Perfectly safe for retrieval, Bishop," the Doctor responded with a smile and began to shut down the engines from the computer station. The radiation would then dissipate enough to gain access to the ship from the outside rather than the tunnels.
Back on the beach, near the TARDIS, they were surrounded by all of the clerics that had been killed in the events. Crispin, Phillip and Pedro were still missing, but no one seemed to even remember that they were ever there. Nor did any of them remember the Angels.
"Why don't they remember any of it, Doctor?" Amy asked curiously.
"The Angels all fell into the Time Field. They never existed," the Doctor explained.
"Then why do I remember it at all? Why do we remember it?" she pressed further.
"You're a time traveller now, Amy. It changes the way you see the universe, forever. Good, isn't it? It's a growing club," he added with a chuckle and wrapped an arm over her shoulder.
"And the crack... that the Time Energy was coming from, is that gone too?" she asked worriedly.
"Yeah, for now. But the explosion that caused it is still happening. Somewhere out there, somewhere in time," the Doctor told her quietly.
River stood nearby, with Father Octavian speaking on his communicator. She was in handcuffs and seemed to want to bid them farewell.
"What now?" the Doctor asked her, knowing that she was the one with more knowledge than himself at this point.
"The prison ship's in orbit. They'll beam me up any second. I might have done enough to earn a pardon this time. We'll see," River replied with a smile.
"I know that you're family, River. I've not worked out just how yet, but Rose and I have been in prison plenty of times. Storm Cage is a piece of cake, so why are you actually serving your sentence?" the Doctor asked.
River laughed at that and told him, "It's a long story, Doctor. It can't be told, it has to be lived. No sneak previews. You'll see me again quite soon, when the Pandorica opens."
"The Pandorica? Ha!" the Doctor laughed as well.
"Isn't that a fairy tale?" Jamie asked confusedly.
"Aren't we all, James? I'll see you there," she added with a wink at Jamie. He blushed slightly and shuffled closer to his parents.
"Bye, River," Rose called to her.
"Until next time, Rose. You too, Amy. Oh, I think that's my ride," she announced as the communicator in her pocket started beeping.
"Can we trust you, River Song?" the Doctor asked her before she disappeared.
"If you like. But where's the fun in that?" she replied with a smirk and vanished in a whirl of wind and sand along with all of the soldiers.
The Doctor and Rose walked back to the TARDIS with their hands clasped between them. Their thoughts were swirling with ideas about who River could be to them as well as worrying about these cracks that were erasing people's memories of huge events. If Amy didn't remember the Daleks' invasion, did the people involved in it still remember? Of course, they were time travellers too, so maybe they would.
When everyone was back inside the TARDIS, the small family began the process of moving the ship into the Vortex. Amy sat on the bench nearby and nervously fidgeted.
"I want to go home," Amy told them quietly.
Jamie gasped and ran to hug his friend. The Doctor looked at her sadly over the console.
"No, not like that. I just, I just need to show you all something. You said you've been running, well, I'm running too," Amy admitted.