Episode: Forest of the Angels
Chapter: Everybody Knows That Everybody Dies [3/4]
Summary: Amy Pond wanted to get out of this mess alive and stay with her Doctor. River Song wanted to keep Amy safe and have the Doctor accept her. Father Octavian wanted to complete the mission. The Master still wanted everything to make sense again… until he got the answers to his questions. Or the one where miracles happen, secrets are revealed and people break.
Rating: M
"I ran," the Raggedy Man answers simply with a dark grin, which makes River huff and roll her eyes.
Amy is about to insist on an explanation, because he obviously didn't escape through the forest and all the corridors were supposed to be full of Angels, but River's computer beeps at that very moment, distracting them.
The Doctor looks at the screen – and goes pale as a ghost.
"What's wrong?" River asks, and the Doctor presses a couple buttons before shoving the computer back in her hands and moving back to the controls. "Oh."
"River? What's wrong?" Amy asks, trying to see over her shoulder, but the older woman pockets the device before she can make sense of the brief flash she got of its screen.
"It's not relevant right now. Let's focus on the issue of the Angels first, alright?" River suggests with a pretty convincing reassuring smile, but Amy is more than a little suspicious.
Still, the crackling of the radio is enough to distract them from anything else.
"That was a most peculiar escape, Doctor," Angel Bob says as soon as the Doctor picks up the radio, and River takes over the controls to check over blueprints and spreadsheets of information Amy can't make sense of.
"I'm sure you enjoyed the show, but let's skip the pleasantries, shall we? Isn't this energy exactly what the Angels wanted? You have no use for us anymore, right? Are you ready to let us go?" the Raggedy Man asks mockingly, smirking sharply, and Amy frowns, wondering if he's talking about the crack.
"You know the Angels won't let you escape, Doctor. It doesn't matter how much you plead, Sir, your time is running out," Angel Bob answers, still as eerily calm as before, and the Doctor's grin vanishes, replaced by a calculating frown.
"Time is running out," he repeats softly, emotionlessly, and Amy and River exchange a look to see if any of them has any idea about what may be running through his head.
"Indeed, Sir. But the Angels have need of you still."
"Time is running out. It can shift, change, it can be rewritten," he whispers, ignoring the radio that he's slowly lowering, and, this time, even Father Octavian gives him a weird look. "Oh. That's why," he adds with the softest voice yet, shuddering and wide-eyed.
"Doctor, Sir? The Angels need you," Angel Bob repeats, and that snaps the Doctor back to the present.
"What? As a snack? I think they have more important things to worry about. They're in the forest, all of them. A forest of Angels. A forest of Angels with a spatiotemporal rift to the end of the universe going right through it, widening, casting a Time Field that destroys reality as it expands. Soon, the little Forest of the Angels will have never existed. What do the Angels need me for when they should be running for their lives?" he hisses into the radio, bristling and glaring at the bulkhead, and, this time, Amy meets River's eyes with realization.
The crack is erasing the universe. Crispin, Pedro, Phillip and Marco touched the crack and were erased, they never even existed. It's hard to wrap one's mind around such a concept, but Amy can't help but feel the truth of it. Why would Father Octavian not remember them? It's one thing to disappear without a trace, but to have never existed in the first place?
An alarm blares and, a moment later, the wall slides up to reveal the forest – and a veritable army of Angels spreading through it, all of them reaching for the Flight Deck.
"Oh my God. What just happened?" Amy asks, eyes wide as she takes a step back and tries to keep the Angels in sight.
"The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power," River announces as she steps away from the computers. "All remaining systems are failing. The teleport is dead."
"The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself in the time rupture, Doctor, it will close and they will be saved," Angel Bob finally answers, and Amy can't help but glance quickly at the wall of light shining through the trees.
It has definitely grown since they were teleported here.
"And why would I do that?" the Doctor hisses in disgust, hands clenching around the radio and the edge of the console.
"Your friends will also be saved."
"Ony for you to kill them the moment the crack closes," the Raggedy Man huffs, and Amy gulps and takes yet another slow step back.
It definitely doesn't look good.
"I've travelled in time," River blurts, and Amy sees her turn to the Doctor from the corner of her eye. "I'm a complicated space time event. Throw me in."
"No!" Amy protests, turning to grab River's hand before she can think better of it, but neither the Doctor nor Father Octavian look away from the Angels.
"Puh-lease. 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 scoffs derisively, clipping the radio to his belt.
"Okay, that's insulting, you could have definitely said it better," Amy scolds, but doesn't let go of River's hand. "You heard him, River. We'll find another way."
"And fast, if you please," Father Octavian adds, weapon once more in hand.
"Humans, seriously, do you need to dramatize everything? You could at least make it a good show. Get a grip," the Doctor repeats, waving a hand towards the handles on some of the modules.
River tenses with a soft 'oh' before immediately jerking Amy towards them and wrapping her hands around the handles with a bright smile.
Get a grip.
"The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power. All remaining systems are failing."
"And, since the ship crashed with its engines running, all systems are still online, including gravity."
Amy smiles back and looks at the Doctor, who is pushing Father Octavian to another console, which the Bishop grabs tightly with his free hand, the other still aiming a gun at the Angels.
"Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now," Angel Bob calls through the radio attached to the Doctor's belt, but the Raggedy Man doesn't bother reaching for it, simply snorting and grinning down at the Angels.
"You greedy little things. For such long-lived creatures, you have a really short memory, you know? Oh well. See you on the other side," he chirps happily, going as far as to wave a hand—
And, with a shudder, the world twists.
Amy's feet leave the floor and her stomach lurches as she watches the Angels fall backwards, into the crack—
Something grabs her ankle in a crushing grip and Amy screams in pain as a strong weight rips her hands off the handles—
"Amy!" River shouts, grabbing her wrist impossibly tight, even though that throws her off the module and leaves her hanging from just one hand from the groaning console, and Amy looks down.
Through the tears filling her eyes, Amy manages to recognize a fanged snarl on a face of stone, wings spread wide at the creature's back.
An Angel. It probably sneaked close when River tried to sacrifice herself and Amy looked away, and now Amy is going to be the one thrown into the crack instead.
"Amelia!" the Raggedy Man screams, heart-wrenching horror and despair clear in his voice, but Amy knows he's too late.
She can feel the weight of the stone Angel dragging her down, how River's grip is slipping despite how tight it is around her wrist, and how much she's straining to keep them attached to the console. In a moment, either Amy will fall or River will lose her grip on the handles and both of them will disappear into the crack.
"May God bless the path that takes you to safety!" Father Octavian shouts, attracting Amy's attention—
The Bishop lets go of his grip on the console, grabbing onto some dangling cables and, finally with a clear shot, aims his gun at the Angel.
Two, three, four bullets – and the Angel's wrist breaks, plummeting the statue into the crack.
"You idiot!" the Doctor shouts, twisting on his precarious position crouching on a console to try and turn towards the Bishop—
Father Octavian smiles even as the cables snap and he falls.
"No!"
The light vanishes. The Doctor scrambles to them at last and hefts River up to the console, grabbing onto Amy so the older woman can pull herself up the rest of the way.
Amy looks down at her ankle, the boot dirtied and scratched but with no sign of the hand that had been wrapped around it a moment ago, despite the throbs of pain she can still feel, and holds as tightly onto the Raggedy Man as he does her.
"He sacrificed himself. For me. Father Octavian sacrificed himself for me, and now no one will ever know he existed," she whispers when she finally gets her breath back, and River reaches from the console she's sitting on to squeeze Amy's shoulder.
"We remember. And we won't forget him."
"Leaving so soon, Doctor Song?" Koschei calls, approaching the group of Clerics surrounding River, unbothered by having interrupted their conversation or having all their eyes on him.
The base at the beach is busy, with another ship having come to the first's aid after they received the message of the army of Angels in the catacombs. Now, already planetary morning, the base is nothing if not a well-oiled machine thanks to Father Augustus and the hierarchy of the Church.
They took it easy when leaving the ship, deciding to climb down the way they came instead of up, since it would have been harder without power or gravity, with Koschei giving Amy a piggyback ride all the while to keep her off her broken ankle. River had proved nimble and athletic, so they had managed to get back to the Maze of the Dead with him only having to catch her once, when they had to drop from the Byzantium to the catacombs. They hadn't talked on the way down, too exhausted mentally and physically to do more than focus on their next hold or Amy's grip around Koschei's neck. Once in the catacombs, a comment about how there were absolutely no statues of the Aplans in the catacombs, and what a cultural loss it was, had finally broken the silence. That comment, as expected, was River's, archeologist that she is, but it had given Amy the strength to ask about her job, which led to them starting a conversation that cheered both of them up, so Koschei had just rolled his eyes and kept walking, instead of commenting on the uselessness of archaeology for a time traveler.
The Clerics had received them expectant and jittery like penguins on a breaking iceberg, but most surprisingly of all, they had deferred to Koschei.
Which is why, after dropping Amy with their doctors to have her ankle looked at, and practically finishing the Clerics' reserves of nutritional packages, Koschei is here now, still clad in armor, confronting River and Father Augustus.
"I'm a busy woman, Time Lord. You know how that goes. Places to go, things to do," she answers with a smile and a shrug, completely calm and unbothered by either the Clerics or Koschei's own blank look.
"Oh, I do know. So, which one is it?" he asks, and while Father Augustus frowns in confusion, River's smile turns tense. "Which prison are you locked in?"
"Time Lord, Sir, that's—"
"Did you hear me say your name?" Koschei cuts, and Father Augustus tenses, gulps, and retreats some feet away with his Clerics, giving him and River some privacy. "Wuss. Father Octavian at least had some nerve."
"How did you know," River asks softly, mostly ignoring his comment even though there's a shadow of a smile on the curl of her lips.
"You were working with the Church from the very beginning, but when we got out? Father Octavian never existed for them, but they didn't act like any of the other Clerics had been the leader of the expedition. They acted like I was in charge of the whole thing, but I was only here because you brought me in. You should have been their commanding officer, but they never even considered you," he explains, serious, and any hint of humor that had been in River's expression turns to fondness. "Father Octavian didn't let you out of his sight, not when we entered the catacombs and it was just our group. He warned you, before we went further in, didn't he? That's why they left Amy alone, to come find me, when I had given explicit instructions to keep an eye on her. He wasn't your commanding officer; he was your handler. This mission required more than the Church had, they needed your expertise and connections. That's why they let you out."
"And the third reason?" River asks, the spark of humor back in her eyes, and Koschei can't help but grin.
"One of Father Augustus' Clerics is toting around a pair of handcuffs."
River chuckles before looking over her shoulder and sending a kiss to the flabbergasted group of Clerics, while Koschei snorts.
"They love their theatrics, don't they?" she asks conversationally after facing him again, and Koschei hums in agreement before vanishing his mirth and giving her a look. "Stormcage. The prison ship's getting in orbit, they'll beam me up as soon as it is. I might have done enough to earn a pardon this time. We'll see," she explains nonchalantly, shrugging, but Koschei doesn't fall for it.
"Why did they imprison you?"
River's smile vanishes, but despite her attempts at seriousness, there's a deep sadness in her gaze.
"I killed a man. A very good man. The best man I've ever known."
"You promised we'd see the stars together. You said you'd help me. You're the Doctor, the man who makes people better. How will I get better without you? You can't go!"
Koschei flinches, and River gives him a worried look.
"Sweetie?"
"Why do you keep calling me that?" he asks perhaps a bit too quickly, looking for a way to redirect the topic away from that.
… Then again, if he really wants people to stop calling him 'Doctor', perhaps he should just tell them.
But… it hurts. It hurts so much to think about that day, about being so close and yet so far, of winning and losing and being abandoned by everything he ever thought mattered and being accepted by the only one who had ever mattered at all… and then lose him.
The Master had been Gallifrey's scapegoat, their puppet, from the very beginning. But the Doctor still had chosen him over their planet, even at the cost of his life.
How can Koschei just… How can he just look someone in the eye and tell them that the Doctor is dead while the Master lives?
"Mostly because it annoys you," River answers with a grin, tilting her head, and Koschei has to blink a couple times before he remembers what they were talking about.
"Mostly? Are you keeping secrets from me, Honey?" he asks with a grin that mirrors her own, leaning closer as she does the same.
"Always, Sweetie. I learnt from the very best," she purrs, voice lowered so that it's barely more than a whisper and with them now standing almost nose to nose.
"And who would that be? You wouldn't cheat on me, now, would you?" he asks as equally softly, glancing over her shoulder to see Father Augustus and his Clerics exchange startled, embarrassed and worried looks.
"Spoilers."
And, with a snort, they finally separate, River chuckling while Koschei grins widely enough that his cheeks hurt.
"Well, you definitely have your wits about you, Doctor Song. That's more than I can say for the majority of your species," he chuckles, making sure his words carry, and River has the gall to curtsy with a wink. "You should see their faces, they look like toddlers on the verge of a tantrum," he adds in a whisper as he bows at the waist in answer, looking over her shoulder at the indignant Clerics.
"Who says they aren't?" she retorts with a knowing look, and Koschei is the one to chuckle this time.
Their mirth doesn't last long, gone the moment they straighten. River looks at him, knowing him well enough, apparently, that she can tell when he has something in his mind.
Koschei battles with himself for a moment more before giving in with a huff, looking away at the dark gray sea before finally making up his mind and meeting River's eyes.
"Come with me."
Obviously, judging by River's wide-eyed gawk, she hadn't expected that. Koschei would find it hilarious in other circumstances, but he's too focused on everything else right now to do so – though he won't deny the spark of pride in knowing that, no matter how well she might know him in the future, he can still surprise her.
"What?" she asks softly, actually looking over her shoulder herself to make sure the Clerics are still out of hearing range, if observing them attentively, before turning to Koschei almost frantically. "Why would you say that? I thought…"
"That I hated you?" he finishes for her, and knowing he's nailed it when she gives him a what nonsense are you talking about now look to hide the holy Hell, he knows how did he do that which she's feeling inside.
Funny. Amy makes the same face, too, that attempt to be really serious that ends up being too much, with eyes slightly widening. River's better at it, probably has had more practice, since she manages to hide the faint blush Amy can't get rid of.
Meh. Probably a descendant. … Wait, does that mean Amy gets married? Whom to? Or is it just getting together with someone? Does she become a single mother? In a house that big? Raising kids all alone?
"Don't you?" River asks, lifting an eyebrow, and Koschei blinks dumbly, brain blank. "I would have said you hated me when we met, but I would like to think we've moved to mere antagonism by now."
"No. I mean – No, I don't hate you. You're a pain, but you seem to know enough to at least stay quiet about the future," he elaborates when he realizes what she's talking about, shaking his head to clear his mind. "You saved Amy. At your own risk, you saved her. And you really did look after her every step of the way, even when I wasn't around. So, at the very least, you aren't a liar."
"I'm still a murderer," River points out calmly, and Koschei has to give her points for how collected she is.
Regardless of how pained, how haunted, she is by her actions, by the death of the best man she ever knew, River accepts what she did, doesn't try to run or hide.
Koschei feels his lips twist into a humorless half-smile and doesn't stop them.
"So am I. I have killed more and better than you ever could, and for far lesser reasons than you did. And still, do you see me in a prison cell? Do you see handcuffs around my wrists?" he asks her, opening his arms to gesture around, and River's calm fills with pain and sadness directed at him instead of at her thoughts. "I thought so. So, Doctor River Song, I believe you carry punishment enough in your conscience. Come with me. I'll take you somewhere the Church can't get to you, too far back or to a future where your crimes have already prescript. Or simply to a planet beyond their jurisdiction. I'm sure you can figure out a way to erase yourself from their systems without my help."
And he offers her a hand.
Koschei knows what he looks like now, despite the armor and the face, offering this human all of time and space, but just this moment, he doesn't care if he looks like the Doctor. River has earned this chance, more than earned it, in Koschei's eyes. And how many times did the Doctor pardon the Master? If he could merit redemption, after all he did, this woman more than deserves it.
River looks down at his hand, still startled despite everything they just talked about, but huffs and meets his eyes with happiness in her eyes and a smile on her lips.
"No."
Koschei blinks, startled, and slowly lowers his hand – and River takes it, carefully, softly, in one of hers, watching as Koschei's hand curls around hers softly without permission from his brain.
She caresses his knuckles, wraps her other hand around his, and brings it to her face so she can press the palm of Koschei's hand into her warm cheek, still smiling happily and meeting his eyes once more.
"No, Sweetie. Not this time. This is a sentence I want to serve," she explains softly, pressing against his hand but keeping her mind well-shielded enough that, despite the proximity of the feelers in his hands to her brain, he doesn't catch any stray flickers of emotion.
Not that he's trying to read her mind, but there are things he can always feel even when he doesn't want to. One of the main reasons for the Master to always wear gloves was to avoid leaving anything behind that could be used to track him. The other was that they were dampener gloves, made to absorb psychic energy and turn it into artron one, much like static, unless the Master reached past them to establish a secure link. The only thing people always notice about his telepathy is how it is strong enough to be used as hypnosis with ease, but never how much of a pain that extra sensitivity can be. Then again, the Doctor's lack thereof would have been equally painful too. Extremes, the both of them, in almost all aspects.
The Master's gloves had been of Tharil make. After Romana helped them put themselves together once freed from human slavery, Tharils helped any and all Time Lords regardless of their status on Gallifrey, so, once his Gallifreyan gloves had been destroyed in an unfortunate encounter with acid rain, the Master had made sure to visit them. While Tharils themselves didn't have much need for dampeners, they had become quite adept at protective gear, to avoid getting caught again, and so it had been easy to modify their gauntlets to fit the Master's purpose.
Unfortunately, Rassilon had the Tharils exterminated on the first year of the Time War, when they threatened to use the conflict to overthrow the Time Lords, so, with Gallifrey also gone, there will be no more dampener gloves for Koschei other than those belonging to his old Time Lord uniform. Fortunately, without the need to keep the drums at bay nor their noise in his head, Koschei can concentrate a lot better now on keeping his sensitivity low.
Still, one way or another, the fact that River can block her mind so thoroughly is impressive, more so for her human nature.
"You are one intriguing woman, River Song," Koschei hums after a moment, but nods. "Alright. But the offer still stands. I'm sure you'll find a way to contact me if you change your mind."
"Definitely," she answers with a wink before letting his hand go, so he can let it hang at his side once more. "You'll see me again quite soon, when the Pandorica opens," she adds, her smile gaining a touch of mischief, and Koschei doesn't bother hiding his scoff.
"The Pandorica? That's just a legend, a fairy tale. It's no more real than—"
The Toclafane.
The Toclafane weren't real, nothing but a Gallifreyan boogeyman, but that didn't stop the Master from using the name. So, what if…?
"Oh, I know that face. Spoilers," River chuckles, amused and excited at the same time, and Koschei huffs and shakes his head.
One mystery at a time.
Which means…
River's cheer turns into a frown, wary and worried both at once, as Koschei sobers, and he can't help but think that she might know what this face is about as well.
"In the TARDIS, when we first met… You said…"
"Doctor—"
"… Why?" Koschei asks, hating how his voice breaks and how he can't bring himself to say his name, or make sense of what he's trying to say, or—
River's eyes widen as she takes a deep breath, and Koschei stops searching for words and swallows all the things he wants to say, all he wants to ask, and waits, fearful and hopeful and he doesn't even know why—
"I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so early in your timeline. I shouldn't have mentioned that name," River answers softly, taking a step closer, and Koschei shakes his head minutely, because that is not what he meant to ask— "I know the Doctor is dead," she adds, so close to him now that all Koschei can see are her gold-flecked gray eyes and the sincerity, the truth, in them. "I know you killed him," she whispers, and Koschei actually sucks in a startled breath and stumbles back a step, though River grabs his hands gently to anchor him, carefully wrapping her warm fingers around the outside of his right hand, away from the burns. "Your actions, his choices… You can't blame yourself for that," she reassures softly, bringing a hand up to caress his cheek, and then she smiles. "Let me tell you a secret. When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it will never end. But however hard you try, you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor," she whispers, bringing her other hand to his free cheek as her smile brightens. "But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever, for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day," she repeats, stronger this time yet with her voice still so soft that it just weaves itself into his mind, trailing all the assurance and hope that are practically shining in her eyes. "I'm a time traveler. I know that man, that impossible man. And you know, just as well as I do, that he just can't do it. He just can't give in," she adds with a huff of laughter that Koschei can feel escaping through his own lips as well, his hands coming up to wrap firmly but gently over hers. "Some days are special, Sweetie. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call… Everybody lives," she finishes, voice softer than ever before, just before their foreheads touch without them breaking their stare, even though Koschei doesn't know when they closed the distance that separated them. "It will be hard, my love, but don't lose hope. We won't."
"We?" Koschei repeats softly, trying to push down the ball of hope tangling around his hearts, and mischief returns to River's eyes.
"Spoilers."
"Doctor Song! Time to leave!" Father Augustus calls, breaking the bubble River and Koschei had been encased in, away from the world, and the two of them separate with a start.
"Coming!" she answers, looking at them over her shoulder, before facing Koschei once more. "I need you to let me go, Sweetie."
Koschei looks down to see his hands still wrapped around hers, and immediately lets them go as he takes a hurried step back, blushing in embarrassment and clearing his throat as he looks at the sea once more.
River chuckles, steps closer – and pinches his cheek.
"You are just so adorable this young!" she exclaims before Koschei slaps her hand away—carefully, he knows how much a Time Lord's strength can hurt a human—with a loud protest. "I'll see you at the Pandorica, alright? Take care of yourself until then."
"And how are you so sure I will be there, or that I will even want to be there knowing you'll be around? Time can be rewritten," he grumbles, rubbing his sore cheek because that stings!
"Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare," she threatens, finger pointing at his face included, but she's grinning in amusement and there's excitement in her eyes.
"Watch me, Honey," he answers, leaning towards her even though that means her finger is now poking his reddened cheek.
"Oh, I hate you," she huffs as she pushes him away, still grinning, and Koschei rocks on his heels, chuckling.
"No, you don't."
"River!" Amy's voice calls, and the two of them turn towards the camp to see her limping closer as fast as she can. "Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?"
"Oh, I wouldn't dare," River answers, opening her arms to catch Amy into as tight a hug as the younger girl is giving her.
"Liar," Koschei pokes with a grin, earning a pointed look and an eyeroll from River.
"Tattletale."
"Doctor Song!"
"Oi! Shut up!" Koschei barks as he turns to the Clerics with a snarl this time, and feels smug when they jump in surprise. "She just helped save this colony, and possibly the whole of the universe. Either you give her a minute to say goodbye, or I will go back to the past to make sure your parents never met. That's the only warning you're going to get," he tells them, putting on his best threatening frown, and though Father Augustus doesn't cower, his Clerics exchange wide-eyed looks.
"He thinks he's so hot when he does that," River whispers to Amy, who chuckles as quietly as she can, and Koschei smirks as he turns to them.
"Wrong person there, Honey."
"Get off your high horse, Sweetie."
"But I thought you liked me as your knight in shining armor," he pouts, and immediately regrets it when he's met with River's mischievousness.
"Maybe I just like bad boys in uniform. You should see me with the Time Agents, we're a riot," she answers, and Koschei frowns for a moment—
"Captain Jack Harkness."
"Stop it."
"Can't I say hello to anyone?"
A scientist, a young girl… and a man in a trench coat, an immortal man who, he'd later learned, was an ex-Time Agent turned conman who the Doctor had picked up in World War II and who, after becoming stranded from the Doctor, had joined Torchwood Three.
River Song, mind sharp as a blade, meeting—
"Ugh, please, tell me you didn't!" he exclaims, pressing his hands against his closed eyes before pulling them away when that brings back images of Captain Harkness flirting with Chantho and the guards he'd assigned to guard him aboard the Valiant, during the Year that Never Was. "Not Jack Harkness!" he adds, looking at River aghast, while a part of him hisses angrily and—protectively?
Because Jack Harkness had been the Doctor's but River is his. Well. She'll be. He's not against that thought as much now as he was before, apparently.
"Oh, sounds like an interesting story. Spoilers!" River chirps happily and, while Koschei groans in his hands and bemoans his luck in giving her ideas, River exchanges one last hug with Amy. "I'll see you at the Pandorica. Don't be late, Sweetie!" she calls over her shoulder with a grin and a wink, finally joining the Clerics.
A moment later, and with Koschei giving her a disgruntled look in a petulant attempt at revenge for the images that are now in his mind, River and the Clerics vanish.
"Aw, look at you now! You like River! Finally done being a grumpy old alien, aren't you?" Amy baby-talks while holding back laughter, and reaches for his cheek—
"Enough with the pinching! I'm 1350, I'm too old for cheek-pinching!" he protests, stepping away from her, and Amy gives him an incredulous look.
"You did not just say you're over 1300 years old."
"1350, Amelia. Pay attention," he huffs, dusting his armor with a smug grin, before looking down at her injured foot. "How's the ankle?"
"Oh, much better. They used some kind of regenerator or something after setting the bone, and put a brace around it. It's not fully fixed yet, they said it will take at least a couple more days, but I should be able to move around without problems with the brace. They gave me a painkiller too, in case I have trouble sleeping," she explains, looking down at her feet in awe.
Crude as it is, when compared to twenty-first century medicine it is amazing.
"That's alright. The TARDIS can fix the rest overnight and I'll drop you home in the morning. That pain in the ass can deal with what these dolts couldn't without a problem, at least," he explains, walking up to Amy and offering his arm. "Will this be enough or would you like me to carry you there?"
"My Guardian Angel," Amy snorts, but her smile turns sincere as she wraps her arm around his. "This will be enough, thank you. And be nice to the TARDIS, she healed you. You're coming to the infirmary with me, right? You look dead on your feet," she asks as they finally slip inside the blue box, ignored by the Clerics going around lifting their camp.
"Sure. I could do with some sleep," he answers with a grin, and Amy smiles back and relaxes into his side.
What he doesn't tell her is that, as soon as she's asleep on one of the infirmary beds after setting her ankle under the regenerator, Koschei will step back to the control room to do some research before getting that sleep.
AN: About Father Octavian: I almost saved him, and maybe one or two of the Clerics, but they just took so long talking that Father Octavian ended up sending all four Clerics to the crack. But then, he was supposed to live, I mean, he was already in the Flight Deck, how could an Angel get to him in there? So the Angel got Amy instead. And I remember thinking that I was going to have to kill her, there and then, because how do you get out of that? And Father Octavian decided that no one was dying on his watch, especially not an innocent civilian, even if that meant he was going to die instead. I actually meant to save him too, I didn't want him to die, and definitely not like that. Dying on duty? Honorable. Being erased and have no one remember your sacrifice? I didn't want that for him. But there was no way an Angel (Angel Bob, likely) wouldn't take the chance to get to Amy to use her as insurance or to take her with them to spite the Doctor, and Father Octavian wouldn't sit by if he could help. The Master wouldn't have done it either, but he had to scramble up a console and crawl to Amy first, so Father Octavian was faster. RIP Father Octavian. We'll remember you.
Tharils are a leonine time-sensitive species from the episode Warrior's Gate.
I didn't think River and the Master would get along that well once he got past the suspicion, but I'm glad they do. They're such trolls!