CHAPTER 2
Rose stepped out of the TARDIS to discover that Xios was a lot like her own planet. There were green trees that greatly resembled weeping willows, and others that were a bright golden with branches that stuck straight up to the sky, which was a vivid blue. It seemed that colors here were a bit brighter and more exaggerated.
"Right! So this is Xios, as you can see." The Doctor said from the inside of the TARDIS. "And if we're here for a long time we can eat some peaches. I picked up more than I meant to on Earth."
"Why peaches?" Rose asked.
"It was on sale." The Doctor muttered. There was a loud clang and a equally loud, "OUCH!"
Rose rolled her eyes and continued looking around. They had landed on the outside of a neighborhood, by the looks of it. Many of the houses were very much like Earth's houses; either two story or one floor. But many of the homes were bright neon yellow or orange.
"I could get used to this place." Rose said as the Doctor exited the TARDIS, eating from a tin peach can with a plastic fork.
"You say that now. Just wait until the danger begins." The Doctor shoveled more peaches into his mouth.
"Well, where do we go?" Rose asked. "I don't think there's a warehouse around here."
"There isn't. We came here so you could get filled in a bit better from one of the footage tapes. Just past this neighborhood is the main town, and in the town in I guess what you'd call a police station. Come on, we should get moving." The Doctor opened the TARDIS' door and threw the empty can and the fork into it. After locking the doors once more, they were off.
Even though it was relatively warm out, some of the trees were bright red, orange or golden; while others were still very green. "It's the type of tree," The Doctor explained. "They're naturally that color. The climate here never changes from summer temperatures."
They walked on, but not one citizen was outside. The same could be said for the city. It struck Rose as odd and a bit unnerving.
"They've been advised to stay indoors until the Angel probablem is taken care of." The Doctor noticed her looking around, trying to find any signs of life besides the trees. "Many of them actually left the city, saying they won't return until the Angels are eliminated for good."
"But I thought the Angels were dead and gone to begin with in the first place." Rose was staring at a yard that was littered with what looked like children's toys, like they had been herded inside before they could take their things with them.
"They were taken care of. I confronted them not too far back in time, in a cavern on another alien planet. There were thousands of them…and they were so old it was nearly impossible to tell their age. Their faces were eroded and crumbling, their wings had fallen off long ago." The Doctor shuddered. "I lost friends that day too. Many brave soldiers. We thought we took care of them, but…" He trailed off for a while. "When we saw that the Angels in the warehouse had wings I instantly knew something had happened. I know for a fact that at least two have wings, but I dunno about the rest, if there are even more than those two."
They walked silently past some sort of business building, with a sign in the front lawn declaring something in the alien language. It too, like the houses, was deserted.
Eventually a five story building rose into the distance. The Doctor pointed to it and said, "That's where we need to go. Remember what I told you, all right? Watch the floors and don't blink. Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier…but don't look into the Angels' eyes. And remember that the image of an Angel IS an Angel."
"What does that mean?" Rose asked, starting to get a bit nervous.
"It means what it says." The Doctor smiled like he had just told a brilliant joke.
As they approached the building, Rose made out many figures gathered around the doors. They were probably the only people not locked inside their houses during this crisis, but they had a job to do. The doors were all enforced and barricaded with steel bars and many Xians were holding some type of weapon. One of them, once he caught sight of the Doctor, ran up to him.
"Oh, Doctor! Thank God! We thought you died in there along with everyone else!" The inhabitants of Xios looked strikingly like the people of Earth, except for their high foreheads, long earlobes and bright, unnaturally colored eyes. The eyes of the Xian in front of them were a bright, worried purple. He was dressed in a black uniform with alien lettering on the front pocket under a logo that had some type of bird. His skin was deeply tanned and spotless. He turned to Rose.
"Who might this be?" He asked.
"I'm Rose." Rose said, extending her hand. "Pleased to meet you…uh…"
"I'm Detective Damian." He looked at Rose's hand like he didn't know what to do. Rose quickly shoved both hands into her pockets and looked at the ground, feeling herself blush. Apparently Xians didn't greet each other like Earthlings did.
"Anything else happen here sense we left?" The Doctor asked, glancing up at the building.
"Nothing, sir. But we have no idea which side of Xios the Angels are on now, or if they can even switch like we can." Damian's voice suggested that he hadn't slept in a long time. "They could be on this side, or the other. We've been in constant contact with the other side, but they're as clueless and worried as we are."
"Well, one thing happened right today. We didn't die yet, Rose!" The Doctor said merrily. "We're off to a good start!"
"Yes…well…until we know where exacally they are, we can't do anything." Damian said, looking confused at the Doctor's happy aura. "But in the mean time, I should hop over to the other side and check how things are."
With that, he pulled what looked like a water bottle out of his pocket and dumped half of it onto the ground, where it settled into a still puddle. Rose could of sworn that she saw a reflection of the world they were in…but with more people roaming around. When she looked behind her, there was no one there. Damian then stepped into the puddle…and completely submerged. Rose jumped backwards and was just about to dive into the puddle to pull him back out when the Doctor grabbed her arm and said, "That's how we switch between the two worlds of Xios. Look in the puddle again."
Rose glanced into the water to see Damian conversing with the invisible figures that were not behind her. She stared in disbelief until Damian noticed and waved at her. Rose awkwardly waved back and gave a small half-smile.
"Pretty neat, huh?" The Doctor prompted. "And you don't drown. You don't even go to the other side wet."
Rose could only continue to stare into the puddle with awe until The Doctor pulled her back and said, "He may be coming back soon. You don't want to be hovering over that when he does."
Indeed, not twenty seconds later, Damian seemed to shoot out of the puddle, spraying water everywhere and landing gracefully on his feet. "I'm going to guess you've never seen anyone do that." He said, laughing at Rose's shocked expression. "You'll get used to it after a while."
"I don't know…" Rose shrugged. "I've seen terrible things and I've seen glorious things. But nothing as awesome as that."
"I'm flattered." Damian took a steep bow. "Remind me later to show you how to do that."
He went to join a group of officers that were conversing around one of the entrances to the warehouse. The Doctor pulled the jar of fire out of his pocket and began throwing it into the air and catching it again. "Well, Rose, sooner or later we have to go in there. Better sooner, right?"
"Well, if we die in there, I'll be regretting it." Rose muttered. "But if you insist, we should go."
The Doctor and Rose re-joined with Damian. "If it's all right with you, could we go in?"
Damian stared wide-eyed at the jar of flames as the fire moved around the jar, bumping into the sides of the container and each other. "Where…wh…?" He stuttered. "Where did you get this?"
"Earth," The Doctor said. "and it wasn't much of a probablem, either. The real challenge will be going in there and coming out alive."
"But are there only four Angels?" Damian asked, still not taking his eyes off the flames.
"I don't even know." The Doctor shrugged. "But if there are more, we can always hop on over to Earth or Nemasis to find more fire."
"No one's been to Nemasis for years." Damian said. "No one's even heard from them in years. We…don't exacally know what happened to them. One second their Prime Minister was talking to us, and the next…silence. Nothing but silence. We can't contact them, and their planet is too far away to visit."
The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "Well, we'll keep that in mind." He turned to one of the officers guarding the door. "Excuse me, can we go in there?"
"That's up to the chief." The Xian said. Despite the horror and action in the last few days, he seemed bored. His dark skin made his bright yellow eyes stand out. "He's over at the station."
"Right, thank you." The Doctor said. "Come on, Rose. We need to pop on over there and then we can make our way into there and take out a few Angels."
Rose stumbled on her way to the station, which was a few buildings down the road. From what, she couldn't exacally tell. It could have been a stray stone, but then again she was terrified. Terrified of what they may encounter in the darkness of the warehouse… terrified of what the Angels might do to them… terrified of running out of fire and left stranded in the dark.
While she was mulling over these thoughts, the Doctor opened the doors to the station and they entered a small waiting room with an abandoned receptionist's desk in the corner. A door just beyond that had a small golden plaque with the name Murray written in dark lettering. The Doctor knocked on the wood and it opened instantly. The door wasn't latched.
"Um, hello?" Rose asked nervously.
She was suddenly staring down the barrel of a gun into the bright orange eyes of a light skinned and dark haired Xian wearing a deep green. Once he realized that they weren't any type of threat, he sighed and lowered the gun.
"Sorry about that." He muttered. "But we can't be too careful nowadays, can we?"
"Are you the chief?" The Doctor asked.
"Chief Ronald Murray at your service."
"We were sent to you before we could get into the warehouse." The Doctor held up the jar of flames. "We have the weapon that will destroy the Angels."
Murray grabbed the jar and stared in awe at the flames roaming around the inside of it. "Impossible…the only planet that has the right atmosphere for this type of flame is Nemasis!"
"And Earth." The Doctor said, reclaiming the jar. "Although that's changing. The pollution and damage to the atmosphere has taken its toll."
Murray nodded. "Well then…you seemed to understand the Angels more than my men did, and you have the weapon that will be their downfall. But before you go…" he turned to Rose. "I have something I think I need to show you."
They all entered his office, where a large desk was placed in front of a window. In front of the desk were two worn leather chairs, like Murray had short meetings with as many people as possible during his days. A flat screen TV decorated the wall next to the door, with a small chair underneath it. Murray sat behind the desk and motioned for Rose and the Doctor to take a seat in front of him.
"I have some footage before a few of the men were killed." He began. "And I believe you both need to see this."
Rose and the Doctor turned themselves so they were facing the screen, and then it began. The only light came from the flashlights the men had and their voices were full of worry. The Doctor could easily pick out Yelsh's from the others. He was by far the youngest in the group.
"Maybe he went this way." Someone was saying. The beams of light fell onto objects in the warehouse, but none seemed of importance. "He can't hide forever."
Yelsh screamed and the camera whipped around until it was facing him. Rose gasped as she recognized what was standing over him.
An Angel. Her wings were spread like she was drawing Yelsh in, and her fingers were clawed and deadly. Her face was twisted in a mask of hatred, with long fangs barred and ready to kill. Her eyes were wide and full of blank hatred.
"GET AWAY!" The Doctor screamed. The camera shuffled again until it was only facing darkness.
"Are you ok?" Someone asked.
"I'm…I'm fine…" Yelsh stammered. "Come on, go in the next room. It's just a statue, isn't it?"
"It's anything but a statue." The Doctor said harshly. "Keep staring at it. And don't blink. We need to get out of here!"
That was when one of the others gave a shout. "Over here! Over here!"
The beams of light moved erratically across the screen as the men jogged over to where their comrade had yelled. From the light, Rose could make out the shape of a dead body, covered in blood. A few of the men on tape gasped, others looked away.
"He's clearly dead, there's nothing we can do!" The Doctor's voice said from the screen. "Be ready in case more Angels come!"
They shuffled around for a few minuets, on guard, until there came a terrible noise, like nails on a chalkboard combined with a chainsaw with a wail of the dying. The camera whirled around and for a brief second Rose could make out Yelsh as he dangled, dead, at the end of the Angel's fist. The film fizzled out and went dark.
"This is what you're up against. I hope you know that." Murray said solemnly.
"I know," The Doctor was staring at the floor, like he was seeing the dead body again. "I know, and I want to stop it before it can happen again."
Murray nodded. "Well then, I wish you the best of luck. Tell Damian to let you past. He'll give you what you need."
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: Wow, cliffhanger! …Again. Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying this, because I can't wait for the later chapters and all.
Please review so I know how I'm doing, but no flames!
Hasta la Vista, Readers
Lordoftheghostking28