It was a beautiful day with the sun shining from a clear, blue sky. There was birdsong as a young man span slowly in the middle of the field. His eyes had a glassy, drugged appearance and there was an imprint of a kiss in red lipstick is just above his lips on the right side. He was approached by three men, two were armed and the third was an older man in an evening jacket.
The older man used his handkerchief to wipe at the lipstick. The men were actually on a galaxy class ship.
"Hallucinogenic lipstick. She's here." he turned and walked away in another corridor on the ship. A woman was striding along the corridor in red high heels, her black dress swirling at her ankles. She stopped in front of a door, pulled a gun from her small bag and fired out the lock. The door slid open to reveal a black cube with a hole through its centre. She tilted the cube so the top was facing towards her, changed the setting on the gun so it became a blowtorch and began to write on the cube.
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twelve thousand years in the future three timelords and Amy were walking through the start of a museum which looked more like a medieval church with sunlight shining through the windows
"Wrong! Wrong! Bit right, mostly wrong. I love museums." Spoke the Doctor with enthusiasm Harry and the Master were following behind also looking at the displays.
"Yeah, great. Can we go to a planet now? Big spaceship, Churchill's bunker...? You promised me a planet next."
"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid. It's the Delerium Archive, final resting place of the headless monks, the biggest museum ever."
You've got a time machine, what do you need museums for?" asked Amy
"Wrong! Very wrong! Oooh, one of mine. Also one of mine" He carried on speaking while looking into a display case.
"Oh, I see. It's how you keep score." Announced Amy as though she had just figured out what they were doing there. Something in the next display case caught the Doctor's eye. It was an antique version of the box we saw with the woman. Intrigued, the Doctor looked at the top which bore strange symbols.
"Oh great, an old box!" spoke Amy sarcastically
"It's from one of the old starliners. A Home Box."
"What's a Home Box?" asked Amy confused
"Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home, with all the flight data." Explained Harry to her
"So?" asked Amy
"The writing, the graffiti it is Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords." Spoke the Master slightly shocked.
"There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple Gods." Spoke the Doctor with some reverence in his voice
"What does it say?" asked Amy
"Hello, sweetie." Replied the doctor looking at the other two timelords
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At the ship in the past A door slid open to reveal the woman it was River Song. She looked straight into a security camera and winked before walking away.
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Back at the museum, alarm bells rang as all four of them ran through the museum, the home box tucked under the Doctors arm. Harry was racing beside him, Amy and the Master behind them. They rushed into the TARDIS as two guards chased after them.
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Back on the ship two armed guards turned a corner and stopped, rifles raised, as the same man from before approached more sedately. He stood between the two guards.
"Party's over, Doctor Song."
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Back inside the TARDIS the two older timelords were hooking up the home box up to the console.
"Why are you doing this?
"Cos someone on a spaceship 12,000 years ago is trying to attract my attention. Let's see if we can get the security playback working." Grainy black and white footage of River winking at the camera appeared on the monitor. It then switched to River with her back to the camera facing a door.
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"Still, you're on board. After the part is over Doctor?" River turned to face him.
"Sorry darling, I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination."
"Wait till she runs. Don't make it look like an execution." Spoke the older man
"Triple-seven, five slash, three, four, nine by ten. Zero, twelve, slash, acorn. Oh and I could so with an air corridor" Spoke River everyone in the TARDIS could see everything that the Home box had recorded.
"What was that? What did she say?" asked Amy
"Co-ordinates! Son get them laid into the navigator this is going to have to be timed perfectly" spoke the Master
"Like I said on the dance floor, you might want to find something to hang on to!" As a timer began to beep frantically, the older man realized what was about to happen and grabbed hold of one of the pipes on the wall. The two guards did the same. River blew a kiss just before the door behind her blew open and she was carried into space—and directly to the TARDIS as it materialized. The Doctor has the doors open and caught her and dragged her in before slamming the door shut behind them, they fell onto the floor ungracefully
"Doctor?"
"River?" asked the Doctor pulling her up. They stood and watched the ship start to fly away.
"Follow that ship Harry don't lose it" demanded River of Harry as soon as she saw it moving away from them on the monitors around the console unit. Both her and the Doctor ran to the console to help the other two timelords
"They've gone into warp drive, we're losing them! Stay close!" Spoke Harry
"OK. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right along side." Said River as she finished helping the other three.
"You can drive the TARDIS?" asked Amy shocked
"Yes, it's quite easy especially since Harry designed the new control room and console." She answered while smiling at Harry, he gave her a grin back.
"Come along, Pond, and the rest of you let's have a look." Spoke the Doctor to the other four now in the TARDIS
"No, wait! Environment checks." Spoke River stopping him for a second and looking at her.
"Oh, yes, sorry! Quite right. Environment checks. Nice out." He spoke as he leaned his head out of the TARDIS door.
"We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest..." spoke Harry to them all
"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System. Oxygen-rich atmosphere, toxins in the soft band, 11-hour day, and….Chances of rain later." Announced the Doctor while sticking his head back out of the door. The Doctor joined them all at the console.
"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" asked Amy
"Oh, I had lessons from the very best."
"Well, yeah." Spoke the Doctor with a big grin
"It's a shame you were busy that day. It took harry twelve hours to teach me everything I needed to know…Right then, why did they land here?"
"They didn't land." Spoke the Master
"Sorry?" asked River shocked
"You should've checked the Home Box - it crashed." Spoke the Master as they all watched River moving off to the door the Doctor following her both timelord well aware of what he intended. River stepped outside and the Doctor closed the door behind her before heading back to the console.
"Explain! Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"
"It's a long story and I don't know most of it. Off we go!"
"Pere we can't leave family like this you know that"
"She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."
"Are you basically running away?" asked Amy
"Yep."
"Why? Can you run away from that? Hang on, is that a planet out there?" asked Amy at last
"Yes, of course it's a planet." Spoke Harry seeing where the timeline was going
"You promised me a planet. Five minutes?" asked Amy almost begging, the Doctor looked at the other two and Harry nodded, the Doctor sighed and gave in.
"OK, five minutes!"
"Yes!" spoke Amy loudly and all of them started to make for the door
"But that's all, cos I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging us back into anything!" Spoke the Doctor with firmness knowing he was saying it for Harrys benefit as much as Amy's. the four of them caught up with River who was looking over the crash site
"What caused it to crash? Not me."
"No, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it. According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase-shift. No survivors." Spoke the Master reassuring her it wasn't her fault they had promised Harry they would be there for her if she ever needed them, and the Master was going to remind him of it
"A phase-shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them. Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries." Explained River as she began to type into a hand held device as the Doctor walked back to the others
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" asked Amy unsure why the Doctor seemed annoyed at River
"Amy Pond, Professor River Song."
"Ahhh, I'm going to be a Professor some day, am I? how exciting spoilers" asked River and the Doctor winced at his slip.
"Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum!" asked Amy to the others but none of the Timelords answered.
"Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum: The Home Box of category four starliner and, sooner or later, them. It's how the Doctor and Master keep score." Explained River to Amy.
"I know." Laughed Amy to Rivers response
"It's hilarious, isn't it?" asked River
"I'm nobody's taxi service! We're not gonna be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a spaceship."
"And you are so wrong. There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die. Now he's listening!...You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal….Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon." Asked River showing him the device she needed boosting. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and uses it on River's communication device. She dropped a small curtsey.
"Ooh, Doctor! You soniced her! And you're a married man with a son" spoke up Amy with a laugh in her eyes
"We have a minute. Shall we? Where were we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?" asked River taking out the blue book and was looking through it
"What's the book?" asked Amy intrigued
"Stay away from it." Spoke Harry very seriously to Amy actually shocking her he was always so laid back.
"What is it though?" asked Amy confused
"Her diary." Spoke the Master with just as much seriousness in his voice
"Our diary!" Corrected River
"Her past, our...future. Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order with her. Hence the diary" explained the Doctor
Four columns of swirling 'dust' appeared then turn into four soldiers in desert camouflage uniforms. One of the soldiers approached River
"You promised me an army, Doctor Song."
"No. I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor, Master and the Son with their companion Amy" the bishop looked up at the four and shook first the Doctors then the Masters, the Son's and then Amy's hand
"Father Octavian, sirs. Bishop, second class. 20 clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?" asked the Bishop
"What do you know of the Weeping Angels?" asked River, the Doctor and Master faced her quickly, immediately both tenses. A transport ship had arrived, and the soldiers had already set up camp.
"The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralise it. We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives. According to this, (Showed a handheld device) behind the cliff face, there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up." Explained River
"Oh, good." Spoke the Doctor
"Good, sir?" asked Octavian
"Catacombs, probably dark ones. Dark catacombs, great" spoke the Master in his I am really annoyed now
"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead."
"You can stop any time you like." Spoke Harry joining the conversation for the first time
"Father Octavian?" Asked a soldier coming up to him but keeping a bit of distance
"Excuse me, sirs". The Doctor just waved off Octavian as he left. He then used the screwdriver on some of the equipment set up on the table.
"You're letting people call you "sir". You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?" asked Amy while she sat next to where he was working actually on the table.
"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and one is trapped inside that wreckage, and we're supposed to climb in with a screwdriver and a torch-and assuming we survive the radiation, and the whole ship doesn't blow up in our face-do something clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's our day, that's what we're up to. Any questions?" asked the Doctor actually looking at her so she could see just how serious he was.
"Father Octavian!" shouted River while leading the four with her to the transport ship which has been turned into base camp.
"Why do they call them Father?" asked Amy to the others
"He's their Bishop, they're his clerics. It's the 51st Century, the Church has moved on." Spoke the Master
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Inside the transport on a screen showed black and white footage of a Weeping Angel, its body at an angle, hands over its eyes. River was controlling the video with a remote.
"What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop." Spoke up River to them all
"Yeah, it's an Angel. Hands covering its face." Agreed the Doctor
"You've encountered the Angels before?" asked Octavian
"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving."
"It's just a statue." Spoke up Amy
"It's a statue when you see it." Answered Harry for her
"Where did it come from?" asked the Master
"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since, dormant all that time." Explained River
"There's a difference between dormant and patient" spoke up the Master watching the loop
"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Asked Amy
"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen. So legend has it." Spoke up River explaining
"No, it's not legend, it's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defence mechanism."
"What, being a stone?" asked Amy not thinking that was such a good defence mechanism
"Being a stone...until you turn your back." Explained the Doctor. They stayed in the transport until it turned dark. The Doctor led the others out of the transport.
"The hyperdrive would've split on impact. The whole ship will be flooded with radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost any living thing." Explained the Doctor further.
"Deadly to an Angel?" asked Octavian
"Dinner to an Angel. The longer we leave it, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple? Are they still around?" asked the Master
"The Aplans. The indigenous life-form. They died out 400 years ago. 200 years later, the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists." Spoke River as she read from her hand held device obviously all the information known was on there.
"You lot, you're everywhere! Like rabbits! I'll never get done saving you." Spoke the Doctor with his arms folded
"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population." Spoke Octavian
"Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load!" Spoke the Doctor
"Verger, how we doing with those explosives? Dr Song, with me."
"Two minutes. Sweeties, I need you."
"I found this. Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman, it's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages."
"Not bad, bit slow in the middle, didn't you hate his girlfriend? No, hang on, wait, wait!" spoke the Doctor before sniffing the book
"Dr. Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?" asked Amy after poking her head out of the transport door
No, just the four seconds." She replied. Puzzled, Amy went back inside.
"This book is wrong! What's wrong with this book, it's wrong." Spoke the Doctor passing it over to the Master who also read it then sniffed it before passing it to Harry who did exactly the same but pulled his probe out also and sent a psionic spell at it to see if he could get any more information
Inside the transport ship Amy was looking at the video again but now the Angel was facing forward, hands down at its side. Amy bent over and peered closely at the time code. It looped from 11:24 to 11:28 yet the position of the Angel changed. Engrossed, Amy didn't notice the door close and lock behind her.
"Oh, it's so strange when you go all baby-face. How early is this for you?" asked River looking at what the Doctor was doing now he had the book back off Harry she held her journal up to them
"Very early."
"So you don't know who I am yet?" asked River
"How do you know who I am? I don't always look the same. And yes, we know who you are to us well a rough idea anyway"
"I've got pictures of all your faces. You never show up in the right order though. I need the spotter's guide."
"Pictures? Why aren't there pictures?" asked the Doctor
"What?" asked River
"There are no pictures in the book why warn you about the angels but not show you what they look like." Asked the Doctor
"Doctor there was a bit in there about pictures, it said that the picture can become the angel." Spoke up Harry
"Yes but what does that mean?" asked the Doctor
"That any picture of an angel can become an angel….Where's Amy?" Suddenly asked the Master. The four of them ran back to the transport door only to find it dead locked when there shouldn't have been one.
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Things inside the transport weren't going well for Amy either the angel moved more and more as Amy took her eyes off it until it eventually actually came out of the television right into the transport Amy was shouting for the Doctor and he was shouting for her not to blink or take her eyes off the angel while they tried to get in through the door.
The commentary wasn't funny but it seemed to be the way Amy argued with all the advice the Doctor and Master gave her at one point after both had reiterated for her not to blink just how hard that actually was.
The Doctor ran for the book and brought it back to just outside the transport door where he sat.
"Amy, not the eyes. Look anywhere but don't look at the eyes." The Doctor shouted out to her
"Why?" she shouted back as she got caught looking into its eyes
"What is it?" asked River with a slight panicked voice
"The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there."
"Doctor, what did you say?" asked Amy
"Don't look at the eyes!" He shouted back through the door
"No, about images, what did you say about images?"
"Whatever holds the image of an angel, is an angel." Shouted Harry
"OK... Hold this…..One, two, three, four... " she hit the pause button while there was static. The image of the Angel freezed before turning off, the door opened and all four of them went running into the transport the Master quicky unplugged all the monitors and screens so no more images could appear while the Doctor checked over Amy.
"I froze it! There was a sort of blip on the tape, and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an angel anymore. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good." Spoke Amy to them all
"That was amazing! You're brilliant!" spoke River pulling her into a hug
"Thanks. Yeah. I kind of creamed it, didn't I?" spoke Amy pleased her plan had worked
"So it was here? That was the Angel?" asked River
"That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." Spoke the Doctor in a deadly serious voice
"It's gone positive!" called out one of the soldiers to Octavian
"Everyone! We're through!"
"OK. Now it starts." Spoke the Master and taking Harry's hand, led them all out of the transport ship Amy rubbed her left eye.
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The three timelords Amy and River climbed down a rope ladder and joined Octavian at the bottom. They all turned on their torches and looked around. Amy and River joined them and the other soldiers.
"Do we have a gravity globe?" asked the Doctor
"Grav globe." Spoke Octavian to one of the soldiers who took out a sphere from his pack and handed it to Octavian
"Where are we? What is this?" asked Amy
"It's an Aplan mortarium. Sometimes called a maze of the dead." Explained River
"And what's that?" asked Amy
"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone...The perfect hiding place" the Doctor kicked the gravity sphere like a football and it rose into the air, stopped and then light up the cave showing a large number of stone statues.
"I guess this makes it a bit trickier." Spoke Octavian
"A bit, yeah."
"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for."
"A needle in a haystack." Spoke up Harry
"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle. Of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. No, yours was fine."
"Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question - how do we fight it?" instructed then asked Octavian to the Timelords.
"We find it, and hope." The Doctor spoke and the three with him including River moved off as River went to go past Octavian he grabbed her
"He doesn't know yet, does he? Who and what you are?"
"It's too early in his time stream." Spoke up River in explanation
"Well, make sure he doesn't work it out, or he's not gonna help us." Spoke Octavian as if giving her an order.
"I won't let you down. Believe you me, I have no intention of going back to prison" was her only response
One of the soldiers reported back that there was only one exit and Octavian ordered all his men to start searching the statures, Amy still seemed to have something in her eye and when she rubbed it, it felt like sand only for her to see nothing when she pulled her hand away.
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"Can you believe this? We're hunting statues." Spoke one of the soldiers as they checked the section they had been assigned
"Better than chasing lava snakes." Spoke the second soldier all solders were searching in pairs.
"Actually, lava snakes weren't that bad." Countered the first soldier.
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The three timelords, Amy and River were examining the statues when they heard gun fire. They all ran back down to the main chamber. In the main chamber A young cleric had fired his weapon at one of the statues. The five stopped to look at it.
"Sorry. Sorry, I thought... I thought it looked at me." Spoke a young cleric
"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" asked Octavian
"No, sir." Replied the young soldier to his commander's question knowing he was wanting an answer
"No, sir, it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor." Spoke Octavian with a hint of anger in his voice
"What's your name?" asked Harry to the young soldier gently
"Bob, sir."
"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob." Spoke the Doctor in a cheerful mood or so it seemed
"It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names, they're given to us in the service of the Church." Spoke up Octavian.
"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes. Bob you stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach." Spoke Octavian walking off with the other five
"Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse? There's a whole ship up there." Asked Amy a bit worried
"Incredible builders, the Aplans." Spoke up the Master to her
"Had dinner with their chief architect once. Two heads are better than one."
"You mean you helped him?"
"No, I mean he had two heads. That book, the very end, what did it say? Read it to me." Demanded the Doctor of River
"What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels." She read from the book looking at the three Timelords.
"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb." Spoke Amy
"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go." Explained Rvier
"Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time." Spoke the Doctor
"I thought they were all dead?"
"So's Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's having two heads. You're never short of a snog with an extra head."
"Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is..." spoke up River
"Yeah, something wrong. Don't know what it is yet either, working on it. Then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you. Erm, no offence, Bishop."
"Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor." Spoke Octavian they were now in a narrow passage lined with statues.
"Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up from here. That way."
"Church had a point, if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy."
"Oh!" said Harry as he stopped to look at a statue the others stopping with him
"What's wrong?" asked a confused Amy
"Oh…How could we not notice that?" spoke up River
"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick." Spoke the Doctor
"What's wrong, sir?" asked Octavian
"Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, we're truly sorry. We've made a mistake and we are all in danger." Spoke the Master
"What danger?" asked Octavian
"The Aplans!" spoke Harry.
"The Aplans?" asked Octavian
"They've got two heads." Spoke up River
"Yes, I get that. So?" spoke Octavian
"So why don't the statues? Everyone, over there. Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak." Spoke the Doctor to all the soldiers everyone moved to a spot where there we're no statues.