Author's Note: Good afternoon all. So sorry this took a while to write. However, I haven't been too well this week, so everything has been put on the back burner for a while. Hopefully this chapter is good enough for everyone to forgive me!

Thanks so much to the lovely people who reviewed since the last time:- SophieQueenOfTheWorld, Vincenth, EmmaMarie, MayFairy, RandomCitizen, Still Life Fantasy, Raingirlkm, The Yoshinator, MountainLord-92, Imorgen, TheWickedHeart, XxCupcakeAssassinxX, theparthenon, silentnightDW, Ahsilaa, KatieTheBaka, TheMagentaColor, skidney, Wishfulhamadryad, Aietradaea (x 5), Son of Whitebeard, kakashifan1792, Theta'sWorstNightmare and Darling-Stardusted-Traverser (x 9).

This chapter is for all of you, for encouraging me that this fic is worthwhile continuing :) Cheers!

- Chapter Ten -

"Oh my God!" Allie gave a little gasp of fear that was almost a moan. "It's not just Charlie, it's his whole golem army. They've all come for me."

"He's decided Larry and I are a maximum threat," the Doctor muttered. "We took you away from him and that was unacceptable. Now we have to be terminated, with extreme prejudice!"

"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Larry gulped. "Nope, not good. Not good at all."

Even as he spoke, a towering shadow detached itself from the gloom and moved to stand on the other side of the glass door, a pair of burning red eyes glaring in at them. They all took an involuntary step backwards and Doctor suddenly found a cold chill trickling down his spine as he realised what had happened. The situation was even worse than he had thought. Charlie had grown again. When the Doctor had first seen him in Allie's shop, the statue had been around five feet tall. Back at Mrs Neeson's house, during their initial confrontation, the Time Lord remembered facing him eye to eye, indicating that they were more or less similar in height, just over six feet. But judging from the height of those fiery eyes, the golem was now at least nine feet tall.

"Allie, Larry, get in the TARDIS," the Doctor said, keeping his voice low and calm.

Allie didn't move. Her head was tipped back and she was staring up through the plate glass window at the blood-red eyes, as if mesmerised by horror. "He's bigger!" she choked out. "So much bigger! Doctor, how is that even possible?"

"He's been slowly assimilating the rift energy he absorbed earlier," the Doctor answered. "He's been using it to increase his body mass. Now, do as I say, Allie, and get inside the TARDIS!"

"No, this is my fault, I'm not going to leave you out here alone!"

Briefly, he tore his gaze away from the looming golem to look at her. She was trembling from head to toe, obviously terrified, but her grey eyes were stubborn, and there was a mutinous tilt to her small chin. He felt a warm flash of pride at her courage and spirit. If he hadn't known before that he wanted Allie Castiel as a companion, he would have known now. He wanted to show her the stars. He wanted her to see all that there was to see, out there in that wild, wonderful universe. But first he had to prove that he could keep her safe - not just to her but, more importantly, to himself.

You couldn't keep the others safe, a nasty voice said in the back of his head. You lost Rose, you abandoned her in a universe not her own. You turned Martha from the doctor she should have been into a soldier, transformed her from a healer into a killer. You were responsible for what happened to Jack, stealing from him the right to die, destroying his life, making him into a freak. And Donna...poor Donna...sacrificing herself to save the universe because you couldn't, her mind burning with knowledge that should never have been inside her head. You're not fit to have companions. What damage will you do to Allie, Doctor? How will you harm her?

Resolutely, he shut out the dark thoughts creeping into his head. It didn't have to be that way. He could change it. This time things would be different.

"Sorry, Allie, but that's not going to happen," he said, his voice as unyielding as steel. "Larry, take her into the TARDIS. Now."

Larry didn't stop to argue. Grabbing Allie around the waist, he began to haul her forcibly towards the open TARDIS doors. She did her best to struggle, but she was no match for the young man's strength.

"No, let me go!" she screamed. "Doctor! DOCTOR!"

At the same moment, Charlie thrust out a stone fist and punched it through the door, smashing the glass into a thousand tinkling pieces. The giant golem was far too tall to fit under the decorative lintel built into the period shop-front, so he just walked straight through it, the wooden architraves splintering and crumpling like tissue paper around him. Another avalanche of broken glass cascaded to the ground with a deafening roar as the two huge double-glazed display windows shattered under the pressure. A gust of ice-cold wind blew through the ruined shop-front, filling the room with a blinding flurry of snow as the golem army advanced, their red eyes gleaming.

"GO, Allie!" the Doctor yelled, putting himself between Charlie and the time machine. "Just go!"

Behind him, he heard her anguished protests disappear into silence, cut off by the reassuring slam of the TARDIS door. Satisfied that both his companions were safe, the Doctor returned his attention to the golem in front of him.

Charlie took a single step forward, his enormous feet crunching loudly over the broken glass and grinding it into dust beneath his weight. Looming menacingly over the waiting Time Lord, the creature glared down at him. In all his travels, the Doctor had never seen eyes quite like it before. It was as if they were dark pits, opening directly on to a hellish furnace blazing inside the golem's head, sporadically showing unsettling glimpses of the leaping flames beyond.

"Hello, Charlie," the Doctor said calmly. "We meet again."

"Doc-tor," the golem rumbled. "Where is my master? Where is Allison Castiel?"

"Oh, she's safe. Quite safe. She's inside my TARDIS. You remember my TARDIS, don't you? The tall blue box you and all your golems couldn't get into back in Mrs Neeson's garden, no matter how hard you tried?"

There was a brief silence as Charlie's huge head slowly turned towards the TARDIS. Then he looked back down at the Doctor. "You...are not human. You...look the same. But you are...other."

"I'm much more than human. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey," the Doctor said. "My people are very old and very wise, Charlie. We know many, many things. For instance, I know where you come from. I know that Reuben Loew created you to serve and protect him. And I know that he was killed by his servant – his friend – Josef Manheim, and there was nothing you could do to stop it happening."

The fires in Charlie's eyes blazed higher and his stone fists clenched. "Then you know the truth. Friends betray. Friends kill."

The Doctor knew that he should just do his best to deactivate the statue and get it over with. Now that Charlie had grown so much taller, erasing the activation word engraved on his forehead was going to be difficult enough as it was. Besides, every bit of information he had ever heard about golems told him that arguing with one was impossible. As he had told Allie, they were nothing but automatons, empty constructs without a heart or a soul, beyond logic or reason. But the jagged timbre of Charlie's voice and the way he held himself hinted at real emotion, real pain, something which should also be impossible for a golem. And the Doctor couldn't let that go, not without contravening everything he had ever believed in. He couldn't destroy Charlie without at least giving him one last chance.

"Listen to me," he said firmly. "Just listen! I'm sorry about what happened to your old master, I really am. But Josef Manheim was just one human, one out of many. Not all of them are like that. What about Allie? You chose her as your new master. Why did you do that, Charlie? What did you see in Allie that made you want to serve her? There must have been something!"

Charlie paused, as if he was considering what the Doctor had asked. Then he replied heavily and slowly, "Allison Castiel is good...and kind...and gentle. There is...no violence in her...no darkness. The sound of her voice...the soft touch of her hand...woke me from my deep sleep. My old purpose was gone, but through her, my emet was restored, to protect her from all harm, for the rest of her life."

The Doctor nodded, his theory confirmed. Allie had been the first person Charlie had encountered when he emerged from his enforced dormancy, which was why he had imprinted on her as his new master. However, the depth of the golem's explanation surprised him. If he hadn't known any better, he would have suspected that Charlie had developed real feelings for Allie, above and beyond the basic imprinting process. As if, somehow, she had become his light in a sea of darkness and despair. As if he truly cared for her.

"There are a lot of other humans in this city just like Allie," he continued, trying to shake off the unsettling, preposterous thought. "Good people, Charlie. Brilliant people. And I can't allow you to go on killing them, whatever you think your reasons might be. So this has to stop...right here, right now."

"I am a golem, Doc-tor," Charlie replied, his voice as inflexible as a stone wall. "I do not stop. Allison Castiel's safety alone is my concern. All other living humans are a potential threat to her. Therefore all other humans will be eliminated. There is no other option."

The Doctor sighed and slid his hands into his pockets. In his left hand, he held his sonic screwdriver and in his right, the can of Polyfilla. "Then you leave me no choice." The screwdriver had worked before. In the absence of any other plan, he had to hope that it would work again, throwing the golem off balance for long enough for him to somehow reach up to spray the Polyfilla across his forehead.

He turned the sonic device up to maximum and, all at once, a shrill, ear-splitting sound screamed through the air like an air raid siren. The incredible blast of sound struck the golem army, sending them staggering around the room, bumping into each other in their confusion. Charlie roared in pain, his hands clamped to his head in agony. Throwing himself sideways in a tremendous leap, the Doctor jumped up on to the seat of the rocking chair Allie had been sitting in earlier, and used one sneakered foot to catapult him with athletic grace straight up into the air, shaking the can of Polyfilla as he went.

His aim was perfect. The foam exploded with a hissing from the aerosol nozzle like a noxious white cloud, striking Charlie directly on the aleph, flooding into the deep grooves that formed the big letter 'E' on his forehead and hardening into a solid mass.

Unfortunately, the sound from the screwdriver had not incapacitated Charlie quite as much as the Doctor had hoped. Bellowing in rage, the golem instantly struck out, his stone fist swatting the Time Lord out of the air like an insect. The Doctor hit the ground hard, skidding across the floor and colliding with the sales counter, where he went limp, every last bit of breath knocked out of his body. The sonic screwdriver flew out of his hand and smashed into the wall, its screaming wail cut short, leaving behind a ringing silence. All that was left to hear was the clunking sound of the can of Polyfilla, as it slowly rolled over and over, away across to the other side of the room, until one of the golem army trod on it and ground it into the floor, leaving nothing but a flattened oval of metal.

Stars spun crazily behind the Doctor's eyes, and every muscle in his body howled in pain from his savage impact with the floor. Vaguely, he realised that Charlie had moved to stand over him.

"Golems are not stupid, Doc-tor," he intoned impassively. "We learn. Did you really think the same trick would work twice?"

Forcing himself to focus through the pain, the Doctor cracked his eyes open and peered up at the creature's face. Both his hearts sank like stones at what he saw. He had been so close. He had nearly done it. The Polyfilla had expanded and had filled nearly all the 'E', almost obliterating it. However, the small, middle bar of the letter was still there, sharp and clear, untouched by the foam. It was about one inch long – so small, but evidently still enough to keep Charlie alive.

Two of the other golems marched forward and seized the Doctor, dragging him to his feet and holding him securely between them, their malformed hands as immovable as any vice.

"Now, Doc-tor, you will return Allison Castiel to my protection," Charlie said, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and they were merely continuing their previous conversation.

"Never," the Doctor hissed through gritted teeth. "And killing me won't help you reach her, either. You can't breach the TARDIS security systems. I'm the only one who can open those doors from out here. As long as she's in there, you can't touch her."

Charlie paused, as if deliberating on the problem. "I have no need to kill you yet," he answered in his deep, unhurried voice. "To achieve my purpose, I just have to hurt you."

The silent golem on the Doctor's left tightened its grip on his arm, stretching it out stiffly from its socket. Charlie raised his head and gazed consideringly at the TARDIS.

"I know you are watching, Allison Castiel. If you do not come out, I will tear this Time Lord's arm from his body," he boomed, raising his voice to make sure he was heard. "If you still do not come out, I will rip his other arm away. If you still do not come out, I will commence the removal of his legs, one at a time. How much pain he suffers is up to you."

"Allie, you stay where you are!" the Doctor shouted desperately. "Don't you dare come out!"

For a moment there was a breathless silence, while everyone waited to see what would happen. Then, to the Doctor's despair, there was a long, drawn-out creak as the TARDIS door swung open and Allie appeared in the opening. Her short cap of blonde hair was more tousled than ever, and her pretty face was pale and drawn. She looked small and fragile and extremely vulnerable as she hesitantly stepped away from the shelter of the time machine and moved out into the room.

Charlie was right. Once inside the TARDIS, Larry had remembered the switch the Doctor had used to activate the exterior scanner, and both he and Allie had been watching and listening to everything that happened.

Allie had been furious enough at Larry for forcing her inside the time machine in the first place. But once Charlie threatened to harm the Doctor, there was no stopping her.

"Get out of my way, Larry, I'm going out there!"

Larry hovered uncertainly, still blocking her path to the door. "But the Doctor said..."

"I don't care what the Doctor said! He's about to have his arms ripped off, in case you hadn't noticed! Besides, Charlie won't hurt me. That's the whole point of this, he thinks he's protecting me. Maybe there's a chance I can make him listen!"

Larry looked anxiously at the view-screen, where he could see the two golems threatening the Doctor. "All right," he conceded. "But I'm going with you."

"No, you're not, you're staying here," Allie said emphatically. "You're nothing to Charlie. He would kill you without a second thought. And your Sally Sparrow would never forgive me. You need to trust me, Larry, and let me do this alone."

Larry fidgeted on the spot, his face tortured with indecision. However, finally he stepped wordlessly aside, allowing her to run to the doors.

Taking a deep breath, she emerged cautiously out into the frosty air of the snow-blown shop. Worriedly, she glanced across at the Doctor. He looked a bit worse for wear from where Charlie had hit him, but other than that, he seemed to be unharmed. There was a light scattering of snow in his spiky brown hair and his expression was both furious and frustrated. Allie bit her lip. Surely he couldn't expect her just to sit safely inside his ship while he was hurt? If so, he didn't know her very well.

"Leave him alone, Charlie!" she said sharply, stepping away from the shelter of the TARDIS. "I'm here now. You've got what you wanted."

The golem inclined his head to her in what was almost a bow. She could see the tiny piece of the 'E' that the Doctor had missed, glowing red beside the other three remaining letters, like a beacon on the statue's forehead. "Greetings, Allison Castiel. Your safety is my concern. Has this Doc-tor harmed you in any way?"

"No, of course he hasn't!" she cried angrily. "He's my friend, Charlie. He would never harm me."

"Friends betray. Friends kill," the golem said, repeating his usual mantra in a respectful tone, as if he was reminding her of a fact she should already know.

"No! That isn't true. Can't you see that? The Doctor and Larry both risked their lives to save me today, when neither of them had to. That's what real friends do!" She took another step forward, her hands tightly wound together, as if she was pleading with him. For all her brave words to Larry, she had no idea what she could possibly say to change the mind of such an unearthly, inhuman creature. Even so, she knew she had to try. "The Doctor says that golems can never be reasoned with, that you can never be made to understand. I'm praying that he's wrong, Charlie. Because the only person to threaten me with harm today, the only one I've seen kill...is you. You say you're doing it to protect me, but all you've done is frighten me. I don't want this. I don't want any of it!"

"Your race is violent and destructive, Allison Castiel. This will never change. I must kill all other humans to protect you," Charlie replied immovably. "That is my emet."

"And after you've killed every single person on Earth, what happens then? What's left for me? It's not possible for humans to live all alone, Charlie. We need friends to care about us, just the same as we need air, and food and water. That's just part of what being human means."

The golem's eyes glowed a dull red as he looked down at her. Slowly, he reached out one of his huge stone hands. The Doctor gave a warning shout, struggling futilely to escape his captors. Remembering how those hands had beaten Terry to death and brutally snapped Mrs Neeson's neck, Allie automatically flinched away in terror. But then, with a heart-stopping shock, she realised that the statue was merely stroking her tumbling curls back from her face, his touch cold but gentle, almost tender. Somehow, fighting back her fear, she managed to stand her ground, even though she wanted nothing more than to run for her life.

"I will be your friend, Allison Castiel," Charlie promised solemnly. "I will care for you. Golems do not betray. Golems do not age, or wither or die, like these weak humans. I will always be there for you."

Allie swallowed back her instinctive revulsion at his touch, struggling to find her voice to reply to him. "Th...thank you, Charlie. That's very kind," she stammered, unsure what to say. She had refused plenty of dates in her time, from men she wasn't attracted to, but she had never imagined having to let a murderous animated stone statue down gently. For all his supernatural size and strength, the golem suddenly reminded her of an eager child with a crush, unable to express his feelings and behaving badly to get attention. Unexpectedly, she found her heart stirring in sympathy. "And I'm sure you'd do all you could to make it up to me. B...but I'm afraid that wouldn't be enough. Without other humans around me, I would wither. I would die of loneliness and grief. And I know that's not what you want."

"What...is grief?"

"It's a pain...a terrible pain...that humans feel inside, when they lose someone they care for," she explained carefully. "That's why, if you kill the Doctor, you won't be helping me, you'll be harming me. You will cause me this pain. You will make me feel grief."

Charlie turned toward the Doctor, his red eyes burning. For a moment, his stare was so intense that it was almost as though the golem could see right through into the back of the Time Lord's skull. "This man..." he said gravely. "...this Doc-tor...is not what you think. You call him friend, but he has killed. I sense the deaths of many lying heavy on his soul. He is dangerous and is therefore a threat to you. He tried to take you from me. I cannot allow him to live."

Allie looked around and her gaze locked with the Doctor's. The deaths of many, lying on his soul. She had no idea what Charlie meant by that, but the sudden look of desolation in the Doctor's eyes made her want to cry out in sorrow. The deaths of many... Her mind went back to their talk in the shop the previous day, when she had sensed that she had been seeing only the tip of the iceberg, that there was so much more to him, carefully hidden behind his cheerful banter. There was a war. They died. What had happened? What had he done, to put such a terrible look in his eyes?

Then, all at once, she knew it didn't matter. Something deep inside told her that the Doctor was good, something strong and true that she couldn't ignore. Whatever you did in the past, I still trust you, Travelling Man, she thought to herself. Somehow, I'll get us out of this, I promise.

"No," she said aloud, pulling her eyes away from the Doctor and directing her attention back to the giant golem. "Charlie, I'm your master, and I'm ordering you not to harm him."

"I am sorry, Allison Castiel, but I must obey my emet," the golem said obdurately. "The Doc-tor must die."

Tears streaked down her face. "He's right, you just won't listen, will you?" She scrubbed at her face with the back of her hand, dashing the tears away, her soft lips tightening into a thin line. "All right, fine. Kill him then. I can't stop you. But I don't want to watch you do it. So you'd better let me go into the back room."

Charlie surveyed her suspiciously. "You cannot escape. I will find you wherever you go," he warned.

"Yeah, I figured that much out for myself," Allie snapped. "I'm not going to run off. I just can't bear to watch you murder someone, that's all."

"Very well," Charlie agreed. "You may wait in the other room, if that will cause you less...grief."

Without looking at the Doctor again, she turned away, her head bowed, as if she intended to leave the room. But she took only three steps towards the door leading into the back room before she stopped and turned around again.

"Charlie?" Her voice was soft and quivery, as helpless and as vulnerable as she could make it.

"Yes, Allison Castiel."

"One of my shoe laces is undone," she said. "It's dangerous. If I keep walking, I might trip and hurt myself. But my hands are shaking too much to tie it myself." She held out her hands to show them to him. Sure enough, she was trembling violently. "It's your emet to keep me from harm. So, please, will you tie it for me?"

The golem paused for a moment, as if considering the possible motives behind her request. Allie gazed back at him steadily, not shifting her eyes from his face. Then he said, "Of course. You are my master. Outside my emet, I obey you in all things."

Subserviently, the enormous statue knelt down in front of her and bent his head, reaching for her shoe lace. Tears were pouring down Allie's face as she looked down at him. So much like a child, she thought again with a stab of pity, simple and trusting enough to fall for such a basic trick. And yet dangerous enough to uncaringly commit genocide to keep her all to himself. Unless she stopped him. Uncurling her fingers, she produced the small, golden cylinder that had been hidden in her hand. It was her favourite peachy-brown Revlon lipstick, 'Warm Cinnamon'. Pulling the lid off, she wound the lipstick up as far as it would go. The colour was just a few shades darker than the colour of Charlie's terracotta clay. Forcing her hands to co-operate, she reached out and ground the dark brown lipstick into Charlie's head, forcing the greasy cosmetic deeply into the final groove of the letter 'E', completely obliterating it.

Charlie threw back his head and screamed, a high, unearthly sound that sent a shiver up Allie's back. She took a horrified step backwards, her hands over her mouth, feeling as if she was going to be sick. The remaining three letters glowed scarlet across Charlie's forehead. MET. Dead.

Every other golem in the room froze. A booming noise like an enormous thunderclap echoed through the room, and each and every one of Charlie's army crumbled into dust, including the two that were holding the Doctor.

Slowly, Charlie raised his gaze to Allie's face, burning with hurt and betrayal and bewilderment. "Now...I understand...what grief feels like," he said sadly. "Goodbye...Allison Castiel."

Even as she watched, her face wet with tears, the bright coals of his eyes began to fade into oblivion, until they became nothing but tiny pinpoints and winked out altogether. A strange, silver shimmering enveloped his body, and when it finally passed, she saw that his body had shrunk again, back to its original size, and he was nothing more than an inanimate statue, just as she remembered him from his days standing guard in her shop. The only difference now was that he was kneeling before her as if in homage, his head tilted up to her, and the expression on his stone face was no longer stern, but unutterably stricken with sadness.

She had won, but there was no sense of victory, no sense of triumph. Instead, there was only a feeling of tragedy and loss. Allie gave a choked cry of distress and ran towards the Doctor. He caught her in his arms and held her tightly, stroking her hair comfortingly as she wept bitterly on his shoulder.

"Oh, Allie," he murmured, his gaze fixed on Charlie's strangely pathetic, kneeling figure. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."