The Doctor sat in a throne in the Calvierri house, lounging. Shortly after waking up, he left Sarah Jane, El, and Guido while he went to the house. The place was empty, the inhabitants off throwing one of their own into the proverbial meat grinder.

The Doctor sat patiently, waiting, fiddling with the arms of the chair. Before long, Rosanna turned the corner, stopping.

The Doctor whistled loudly, drawing her attention onto him. "Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you? Sister of the Water." He named, looking up from the arms of the chair to her.

The moment El said fish people, the Doctor put that image together with the long fang-like teeth and came up with the answer.

The woman tilted her head. "Who are you, sir, with such knowledge of my homeland?"

"I'll make you a deal." The Doctor threw one leg over the other. "An answer for an answer." The woman smiled, beginning to walk. "You're using a perception filter. Manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in a mirror, no reflection. The brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so it leaves it blank. But, what're the fangs about?"

Rosanna laughed quietly. "Self-preservation overrides the mirage. The subconscious recognizes the threat and alerts the conscious."

The Doctor nodded. "Where's Isabella?"

"Ah, my turn." Rosanna replied, the Doctor granting her that. "Where are you from?"

The Doctor remained silent and still for a few seconds. "Gallifrey."

Rosanna looked the Doctor up and down, like an art connoisseur. "You should be in a museum… or in a mausoleum."

The Doctor threw his hands out theatrically, before dropping them. "Why are you here?"

Rosanna looked down mournfully. "We ran from the Silence. Why are you here?"

"Taking my daughter to a nice quiet place." The Doctor tilted his head. "The Silence?"

Rosanna swallowed. "There were cracks. Some were tiny, others as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people, others… nothing but silence, the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours, and the crack snapped shut behind us and Saturnyne was lost."

The Doctor's emerald green eyes searched the woman. "So, Earth is to become Saturnyne mark two?"

Rosanna looked up, hopefully. "And you can help me." The Doctor huffed. "We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"

"Mmm." The Doctor stood up, approaching her. "Where's Isabella?"

"Isabella?" Rosanna repeated. She'd already forgotten the girl's name… mistake number one.

"The girl who led us out of there." The Doctor turned to look at Rosanna, glaring.

"Oh, deserters must be executed." Rosanna answered, as the Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Any general will tell you that. I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership… any which way you choose."

The thing about Rosanna's offer, it wasn't like the Doctor hadn't ever considered such a thing. Turn humans into Time Lords, make Earth into a Gallifrey 2.0… on the contrary, he'd considered it lots of times. And every time, he resisted that urge. For all his grief, all his pain, the Time Lords were all dead for a very good reason. And to stamp out humanity's potential, just to make them into replacement goldfish for an entire species… The Doctor would never forgive himself.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, do you?" The Doctor asked in response to Rosanna. "I'm a Time Lord, you're a big fish. The children would be hideous."

Rosanna's face twisted furiously. "Carlo!" She ordered, stepping back from the Doctor. "You're right, we're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race, while you philosophize!"

"This ends today." The Doctor growled as Carlo marched into the room. "I will tear down this house stone by stone." The steward tried to grab onto the Doctor. The Time Lord let his kindly mask slip for just a moment. "Take your hands off me, Carlo." He commanded, space rippling around the Doctor like it was bending to hide something far larger than him.

The steward gulped, as the Doctor began to walk to the exit.

"And you know why?" The Doctor posited to Rosanna. "You didn't know Isabella's name." The door opened, and the Doctor stepped out, officially on the warpath.


"I need to think." The Doctor smacked himself in the head, slamming down in a chair at the table, next to Guido, Sarah Jane, and El. "Come on, brain, work! Work!"

"If they're aquatic creatures it explains why they don't like the sunlight." Sarah Jane commented.

"Stop talking. Brain thinking. Hush." The Doctor commanded, gently putting a hand over her mouth, earning a glare from her.

"But…" El frowned. "Why school?"

"Stop talking," The Doctor put a hand over her mouth as well, "Brain thinking, hush."

"I say we take the fight to them." Guido stated, slamming a finger on the table.

"Ah-ah-ah!" The Doctor raised his voice.

"What?" Guido asked in response.

"Ah!" The Doctor glanced at El.

The girl rolled her eyes and put a hand over Guido's mouth.

"Her planet dies, so they flee through a crack in space and time." The Doctor thought aloud. "She ends up here, closes off the city, and one by one starts converting the girls into more of her species, got that, but what after? They come from the sea, they can't survive forever on land, so what's she going to do? …Unless, she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable." The Doctor realized. "She said she'd bend the heavens to save her race. Bend the heavens," He removed his hands, placing them on the top of Sarah Jane and El's heads. "Bend the heavens… She's going to sink Venice."

Guido did a double take. "She's going to sink Venice?"

"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed." The Doctor realized with a chuckle.

"But," Sarah Jane held up a finger, "You can't repopulate with just women. You need males."

"Yes, I'm aware." The Doctor laid his head on the table.

"So, where are the males?" Sarah Jane questioned.

"In the canals, obviously." The Doctor answered, not looking up. "It's the perfect hiding spot. Close enough to the city for them to emerge quickly if needed, but deep enough so they can't be spotted without assistance. They've been waiting down there for God knows how long, waiting for mum to find them suitable suitors. …Eugh." The Doctor made like he had a bad taste in his mouth. "El, you're not dating until you're forty."

El frowned. "What's dating?"

Something rumbled, and the ceiling began to creak, footsteps coming in from the surface above.

Everybody's heads shot up.

"The people upstairs are very noisy." The Doctor commented.

Guido shook his head, even as he kept looking up. "There is no upstairs."

"There is no upstairs." The Doctor repeated, pointing with an anxious smile. "See, how did I know you were going to say that?"

El leaned close to the Doctor. "Vampires?"

"No." The Doctor denied, reaching into his coat for the portable UV lamp. "They're not vampires. Fish people, remember?"

A window exploded, glass flying all over the place, as the vampires swarmed outside a window. The window exploded, and the four inside shot to their feet.

"Oh, they can fly, lovely." Sarah Jane muttered, protectively grabbing onto El's shoulders.

The Doctor waved the light at the window, the girls hissing in response to it. The Doctor produced the sonic screwdriver in his other hand, and pressed down the button, the human forms of the girls turning to tall, fish-like bipeds.

"What's happened to them?" Guido asked.

"There's nothing left of them." The Doctor replied, looking at the former humans empathetically. "They've been fully converted. Blimey, fish from space have never been so… buxom."

Sarah Jane smacked him on the shoulder.

"Augh, right, move!" The Doctor ordered, Sarah Jane and El moving down the stairs first, followed by Guido and the Doctor.

"Give me the lamp!" The Italian man shouted, grabbing it, as they hit the bottom floor.

El made it outside first, Sarah Jane following in the girl's wake, then the Doctor. Guido, however, stopped, before going back inside, slamming the door.

The Doctor caught this and ran back over. "Guido!"

"Stay away from the door, Doctor!" He commanded.

"Guido!" The Doctor banged his hand on the door. The Time Lord sniffed the air, and with a sinking stomach and widening eyes, realized what he was about to do.

The Doctor turned on his heel and ran, before the entire area was rocked with a thunderous bang, wood splinters and smoke flying everywhere, as the Time Lord dove to the ground.

The Doctor rolled onto his back, looking up, as the sky began to darken, clouds pouring out of the top spire of the Calvierri house.

It had started.

The Doctor scowled, getting to his feet. "You two… go wait in the TARDIS."

"Dad," El tried to grab his hand, but he gently shook it off.

"I'll only be a few minutes." The Doctor replied, turning to walk down an alleyway.

Sarah Jane took the girl's hand and began leading her back to the TARDIS.

Thunder clapped and people screamed, as the city of Venice stood poised on the brink of destruction.


The Doctor walked intently through the halls of the Calvierri House, straight to Rosanna's 'throne.' He should've taken the chance to sabotage it while he was there, but at the time, he was focused on talking the woman down, something that would've been difficult if he'd been caught sabotaging.

The Time Lord opened the back panel of the chair, revealing a series of wires and blinking blue lights. Trying to sonic them, the Doctor was interrupted by Rosanna's arrival.

"You're too late." She said to the Doctor.

The Doctor stood tall, turning to face her.

"Such determination…" Rosanna remarked, looking up. "Just to save one city. Hard to believe it's the same man who pulled the trigger on his own species."

"If you know that," The Doctor put the sonic screwdriver away. "Then you'd know I'd do whatever it takes to stop you… Didn't you realize the girls were gone?"

Rosanna recoiled from the Doctor, eyes looking around frantically. "You're lying."

"Shouldn't I be dead?" He asked in response. "Hmm?"

Rosanna shook in rage, turning on her heel, walking away.

"Rosanna, it's not too late to help me." The Doctor called. "There are twenty-thousand people in this city."

"So save them." She retorted, not looking back as she made for the exit.

The Doctor shook his head, and quickly turned back to the throne. The weather control device Rosanna was using to generate the storm. He had to shut it down, now.


Sarah Jane and El ran down one of the alleyways, and turned a corner, freezing.

Rosanna's son, Francesco, was standing there, waiting for them.

Francesco let a predatory smile overtake him, as he drew his sword.

Sarah Jane took a step back, going for the broom sat against the wall, but El?

El just rolled her eyes, and threw out her arm, Francesco being sent flying across the alleyway, as El wiped blood from her nose. The Vampire man landed in a small patch of sunlight, and screamed, trying to shield himself, before he exploded into a cloud of ash.

Sarah Jane looked on, horrified, and then to El.

"Shouldn't have messed with my aunt." El stated. "Let's go help dad."


The bell chimed as the Doctor stood at the top of the tower of Calvierri House, clouds darkening faster and faster as they approached the point where they would be ready to let it rain down enough water to sink Venice.

And the water began to fall, boiling hot, right onto Venice.

The Doctor sprinted back down the tower, into the throne room.

"Get out!" The Doctor ordered, as Sarah Jane and El came running in. "I need to stabilize the storm!"

"We're not leaving you." Sarah Jane replied.

The Doctor turned to look at her. "I said-" He was cut off as the building shook, all of them being sent to the ground.

"What was that?" El asked, looking around fearfully.

"Earthquake." The Doctor answered, "Manipulating weather like this can cause the ground to shake. But don't worry about them."

"Don't worry?" Sarah Jane incredulously repeated.

"No, worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake." The Doctor replied.

"Doctor, stop it, now!" Sarah Jane commanded.

"Right," The Doctor pointed, "Rosanna's throne is the control hub, but she's locked the program. So, tear out every wire and circuit in that thing you can find, go crazy." The Doctor ran over to it, El and Sarah Jane following. "We need it to shut down and reroute control to the secondary hub, the generator I'm guessing."

"What are you going to do?" Sarah Jane asked, she and El pulling out the wires, as the Doctor moved to exit.

"I'm going to find it!"


The bell chimed loudly overhead as the generator ran, the Doctor climbing up the steps, trying to shield his ears from the tolling of the enormous brass construct.

"Shut up!" The Doctor snarled, grabbing onto the bell's innards to stop its ringing. "Ah, much better. Right, now where…"

The Doctor's eyes followed a length of cable running into the ceiling, and the Doctor, very carefully (he didn't want a repeat of his fourth death) climbed out onto the edge of the tower, and climbed onto the sloped roof, towards the emitter disguised as a roof ornament.

Sarah Jane and El looked on from the ground, El ready to catch the Doctor should he fall, and Sarah Jane thinking about how much hell she should give him for such a stupid move for when he did fall.

The Doctor climbed to the top, opening a section of the large golden sphere, revealing an array of moving gears and blinking lights on the hollow inside.

He scrambled around, trying to find something, before he spotted the small switch on one of the gears, and flicked it, the entire mechanism shutting down in response.

Almost instantly, the boiling rain ceased, and the clouds vanished, birds chirping happily as the sun returned in full force.

"Ah…" The Doctor let out a sigh of relief, closing the sphere, as the crowd of Venetians below cheered him on, thankful.

The Doctor bashfully smiled, but his mood was still not quite happy.

There was still one more thing to take care of.


"Rosanna!" The Doctor shouted, running out onto a small pier, watching as the woman stood, clad only in her long white underdress, standing on the very edge of the pier.

"One city to save an entire species…" Rosanna sniffled. "Was that so much to ask?" She questioned in despair, looking at the bubbling water below.

"Rosanna, you can't go back and change time." The Doctor slowly tried to approach. "You mourn… and you live. I know, Rosanna, I did it."

"Tell me, Doctor," Rosanna turned to face him, "Can your conscience bear the weight of another dead race? …Remember us." She turned back around. "Dream of us…" She stated, before walking off the edge.

"No!" The Doctor ran over to the edge.

For what it was worth… he could hear the scream of the males in the water, but not her.

The bubbling water died down, going still.

The Doctor sighed, standing up.

Another life he'd failed to save.


"Now then," The Doctor smiled as they walked back through the busy market towards the TARDIS, "Where to next, eh?"

"Dreamland, I should hope." Sarah Jane replied, rubbing at her eyes. Now that the adrenaline had died down… She felt like she hadn't slept in days.

El yawned. "Tired." She agreed.

The Doctor huffed, unlocking the TARDIS. "You humans and your eight hours of sleep." He shook his head, pushing the door open. "Alright, you, get to it. Bedtime routine, you know the drill." He said to El, the girl going inside.

Sarah Jane crossed her arms, smiling.

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"Look at you." She said. "Being all parental."

"Yeah, yeah." The Doctor rolled his eyes as Sarah Jane entered. "Wait." The Doctor held up a finger, listening around. Something was wrong, here… "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Sarah Jane asked in response. "It's just silent." She said, going deeper into the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked out onto Venice, the only sound from the busy market being the gentle crashing of water on stone.

As he stepped into the TARDIS, he remembered Rosanna's words.

"There were cracks. Through some we saw worlds and people, others… nothing but silence, the end of all things…"