The Master opened his eyes in the Dreamscape and glared up at the other two as they stared down at him. He was lying in the middle of the clearing on his back. It was clear to him they had teamed up in order to pull him back.
"Well?" He prompted impatiently. Koschei crossed his ams and walked over to lean against a tree and stare down at his alter disapprovingly.
"You deviated from the plan." Jyun explained emotionlessly as the Master got up and brushed himself off.
"It was vague at best anyway." The Master replied unrepentantly. "So, I thought I'd make a few adjustments."
"We disapprove." Jyun stated simply, his neutral expression not faltering, even though the Master suspected he was actually rather irked.
"We'll discuss it later. The fact is, while you're messing about fixating on who's leading who, and we have yet to escape, an Angel infested Mortaria!" Koschei snapped "I'm going to manifest. Anything I should know?"
"All the statues are Angels." The Master informed him smoothly. Koschei cursed. "Let me handle it."
"I'm doing it myself. I don't trust you." Koschei said flatly.
"I am yourself." The Master argued. "I'm a part of you whether or not you like to admit it."
"I admit it. You're the part of him that's a jackass." Jyun deadpanned. Koschei nodded at that before closing his eyes and vanishing from the Dreamscape.
The Doctor knelt carefully next to Koschei's unconscious form on the ground, patting his cheek.
"Time to get up now Kos. It's not safe here." He murmered, but got no response.
"Doctor." Father Octavian said, walking briskly towards him. "We're completely surrounded. My men have confirmed the Angels have blocked all exits. There's no way out."
"There's always a way out." The Doctor muttered distractedly, not looking up. He grabbed Koschei's shoulder and shook him gently.
"DOCTOR!" The Bishop snapped, reaching out to grab him.
"Oh, I wouldn't." River warned him. Amy quickly moved to sit next to him and was relieved to see a pair of deep ochre eyes open and look up at them as she did. The Doctor let out a relieved sigh, giving his now conscious companion's shoulder a little squeeze before jumping to his feet and turning to the others.
"Right, we're in a trap, a very good trap. All passageways blocked." He thought aloud, eyes scanning the area around him. Koschei looked up at Amy questioningly as he heard this.
"But you can find a way out." River prompted. The Doctor nodded distractedly as he considered a possible solution.
"Who are you?" Amy asked after pulling Koschei to his feet, studying him carefully.
"Koschei again. Sorry for whatever he may have done in my absence. I shouldn't have run."
"Sir!" A soldier exclaimed as his radio crackled to life. "I don't understand. I turned it off."
"It's the Angels." The Doctor explained quickly, holding a hand out for the offending device which the man instantly handed over. "This is this is the Doctor. What's your problem?"
"Your power's running out Sir. We will be with you shortly, Sir. Sorry Sir." The Angel using Bob's voice informed him blandly.
"So why the call then? Why are you telling me this?"
"There's something the Angels wish to tell you Sir."
"Which is?"
"I died afraid." The Doctor's expression froze at this. "You told me that my fear would help me, Sir, but you were wrong and I died afraid and alone. I died in pain, Sir."
Koschei let out a deep feral growl, sounding more like one of Earth's big cats than any human. A couple of the soldiers flinched slightly at the sound.
"Why is it doing that?" Amy asked quietly.
"It's trying to distract him. It wants to make him angry." River explained, her voice equally quiet.
"Sorry?" The Doctor questioned.
"I trusted you, Sir. I trusted you, and when it really mattered, you let me down. The Angels were quite keen for you to know."
"That was the Angel's second mistake. I am not going to let that pass." The Doctor said before turning back to the others.
"Mistake Sir?" The Angel asked, but the Doctor just ignored it. The Doctor looked at Amy.
"Do you trust me?" Amy smiled slightly and nodded. He turned to River.
"Trust me?"
"Always."
He looked at the soldiers, who nodded.
"We have faith, Sir." The Bishop affirmed.
"And I already know you do." The Doctor told Koschei, who winked at him. The Doctor held out a hand toward the Bishop. "Alright, give me your gun. I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous, and when I do, I want you to jump as high as you possibly can."
"What's the signal?" Father Octavian asked, looking a bit dubious.
"Oh!" Koschei said as he caught on. "Believe me, you won't miss it."
"Sir. Come in, sir." The Angel called over the radio.
"Here I am. What is it?" The Doctor replied pointing the gun at something up above.
"You mentioned a mistake, Sir. What mistake would that be?"
The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but Koschei beat him to it.
"Oh, in my experience it's pretty much impossible to keep Theta anywhere he doesn't want to be." He remarked with just the faintest hint of bitterness lacing his voice. The Doctor looked a bit annoyed by this. "What, did I ruin your dramatic moment?"
The Doctor huffed and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'yes' and then fired the gun.
A few moments later Amy was rubbing her head and watching as the others got back up off the ground, except Koschei who had somehow, annoyingly, landed quite gracefully on his feet, and the Doctor, who had simply popped back up the moment he'd landed, completely uneffected by the fall. ~Of course he did. That's just what he's like, isn't it?~ The Doctor held out a hand to help her up and she took it as Koschei went over to help the others with something that looked suspiciously hatchlike.
"You alright?" The Doctor asked.
"I think so. Where are we?" The Doctor smiled and pointed up at the ceiling - no, not the ceiling. "The ships gravity field is still active. All I had to do is cause a power surge, and with one big jump, we all fell up here."
"Doctor!" River called from the now open hatch, and they hurried over and climbed in. "Tell me we've lost them."
Just then the lights flickered.
"No, sorry. They're still chasing us. I just gave us a head start." The Doctor informed them. A moment later an alarm sounded and the door at the end of the corridor began to slide shut with alarming speed.
"No!" Both Timelords exclaimed, darting for the closing door, but it shut before either could stop it. The Doctor tried to sonic it, then shook his head. "Sorry."
"Zi'jaien!" Koschei cursed, hitting the door in frustration.
"Language." The Doctor told him sternly. There was an ominous slamming sound quickly following that admonition as the Angels landed on the other side of the outer hatch. "Okay, nobody panic."
The lights flickered as they all looked at him for a moment before the soldiers silently moved into a defensive position, pointing their guns at the now partially open hatch.
"So, just me then." The Doctor remarked before pulling open the panel on the wall to River's right. The lights flickered again and now an Angel leaned in through the open hatch.
"Doctor! The lights!" Amy exclaimed.
"What's down there?" Koschei asked, indicating the sealed door with a nod as he pried open the console by the door. The Doctor sonic-ed a few wires as the lights flickered again, and there were three Angels now in front of them.
"The secondary flight deck." River replied, still staring wide-eyed at the Angels, and he nodded. The lights stopped flickering as the Doctor turned and crossed over to study the circuitry Koschei had exposed.
"What did you do?" Father Octavian asked, not taking his eyes off the three intruders.
"I isolated the circuit." The Doctor replied as he and Koschei studied the door controls. "The Angels can't drain any more power from the locking system."
"Good work Doctor." The Bishop replied approvingly. Koschei made a suspicious sounding noncommital noise in his throat.
"Well..." The Doctor began, exchanging a look with the other alien.
"What is it?" River asked tensely. Koschei looked grimly over at them.
"The only way to get the door open is to reroute all the power to the door release."
"So-" The Bishop began.
"Including the lights." The Doctor added. There was a brief, though seemingly never-ending silence as everyone digested this new information.
"We've lost the torches! We'll be defenseless!" Amy pointed out nervously.
"It's either that or wait here, trapped, until the power runs out." Koschei supplied evenly.
"All you need to do is hold them off until I can get the door open." The Doctor assured Octavian and his men. The Bishop looked over at River.
"Do you trust this man?"
"I absolutely trust him." Was her immediate response.
"So he's not some sort of madman then."
"I absolutely trust him." She repeated. He paused for a moment, thinking it over before he turned to the Doctor.
"Do it." He said moving back into possition. "Clerics take aim."
"You can see in the dark, right?" Amy asked Koschei hopefully.
"Sorry, Bhai. Just very dim light. I'm a mutant, not a magician." The lights went out and the soldiers began to fire with the Angels slowly inching closer in between shots. Amy and Koschei pushed the door open as soon as they could manage and they all hurried through with the Doctor sealing the door shut behind them and rushing over to unseal the door to the flight deck. They ran in, this time with Father Octavian bringing up their tail and the soldiers hurried to magnetically seal all three doors as soon as they were all inside.
"There that should keep them back. Nothing could-" Father Octavian's mouth fell open as the latch very slowly and gradually began to turn.
"Humans." Koschei remarked, shaking his head.
"But how can they?" Father Octavian questioned in amazement.
"Time and patience." The Doctor replied, flitting about the main control center.
"We're surrounded." River observed as the latches on the other two doors began to turn.
"Clerics, guard those doors." Octavian ordered before turning to the Doctor. "How long have we got?"
"Five minutes, max."
"Ten." said Amy rather abruptly.
"No, five." The Doctor insisted.
"Okay five." She said, giving him a funny look.
"You said, 'ten.'"
"No I didn't."
"We need to find a way out of here." River reminded them.
"There isn't one." The Bishop replied darkly.
"Yes there is." The Doctor countered.
"Do tell." Koschei prompted as the Doctor fluttered about excitedly.
"Galaxy class ships are designed to go years without planet fall which means they would need..." The Doctor explained animatedly, trailing of as he moved a crate and then humming happily as he exposed a hidden clamp.
"Oh! Of course!" River gasped and leapt forward to help him move the crates.
"Of course what?" Amy asked, still not following. "Nine."
"What?" Koschei asked.
"What would they need?" Amy clarified, Koschei studied her for a moment before answering.
"Oxygen. Humans need oxygen." Koschei stated moving past her to join in.
"So?"
"You are going to love this." The Doctor told her with a grin. "Got all the clamps?"
Koschei nodded and the Doctor and River pulled up the large door revealing the seemingly endless cavern full of trees and moss.
"It's a forest!" Amy exclaimed.
"It's an oxygen factory." River corrected.
"But it's a forest!"
"Cool isn't it?" The Doctor responded brightly. Amy smiled and nodded.
"Eight." The Doctor narrowed his eyes.
"Eight?"
"Doctor?" Amy questioned
"You just said, 'eight.' Why did you do that?"
"I didn't."
"Yes, actually, you did." River contradicted.
"And just a moment before we undid the clamps you said, 'nine.'" Koschei added.
"What? I..."Amy muttered "That's seven."
Amy's brow furrowed.
"I meant seven." Her eyes widened. "No! Silly! I meant silly."
The radio crackled.
"Doctor. Come in Doctor."
"I'm here." The Doctor answered not looking away from Amy.
"We'll soon have drained all the power and when we do you won't be able to keep us out any longer."
"How nice for you. Not a terribly interesting topic, though. Tell me what've you done to Amy?" The Doctor said, taking a seat in the captain's chair.
"There's an Angel in her mind."
"Yes, right, I know that, but why is it making her count down?"
"To frighten her, Sir."
"Why?" Koschei asked sounding extremely annoyed.
"For fun, Sir." Koschei let out an impatient sigh at the response, as if he found this conversation to be entirely beneath him. "Any other reasons, perhaps?"
"We will be with you shortly, Sir. You are surrounded. You can't keep us out forever, Sir. When we get in we will absorb enough power to spread across the galaxy, Sir, and you will not be able to stop us."
"What? That's ridiculous. Even if you absorb all the energy from this Spaceliner you won't come close to that amount of power." The Doctor replied incredulously.
"There is, Sir. You haven't noticed it, Sir? The Angels sense it right there with you."
"What does six mean?" Amy asked then closed her eyes for a moment, correcting herself and beginning to scan their surroundings. "It. I meant what does it...Oh. Oh no."
There it was in the plating above the doors. A big glowing crack.
.
A/N: Thanks to all of you for reading. Special thanks to Yanna and Jim Moriarty for reviewing. My apologies for the wait. It's been a busy week though. Hopefully the next will be easier. Much love goes out to those of you that spot the old-school Star Trek reference. I just had to put it in. It was simply necessary. Please, do review. I'd like to hear what you think.
Zi'jaien (Zee-jeye-yen)- A curse word, literal meaning rancid. Closest cultural equivalent would be shit, though it's culturally a bit harsher putting it a little closer to fuck on the profanity scale.