It took seven minutes to reach a final rise to the underground city. Before they had quite topped it, the Doctor said,

"I'm now certain the angels have taken everyone."

Katie said nothing for a few moments. Then she gave a little start and turned to him. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"The angels ate everyone in the city. They must have, because this road should be filled with people, and we should be hearing city sounds everywhere."

"Maybe it's just night time for them."

The Doctor hid his worry over her emotionless, bored tone with a slightly sarcastic comment. "Have you ever been in a city that was quiet at night?"

"Dunno. Haven't really been in any cities. Lived in the country mostly, and whenever I was in Texas it was nothing but open land." She sighed quietly. "Seems as though the angels have cleared out though."

"You sound disappointed."

She glanced at him. "Why would I be disappointed? It's just an observation. Now we can move more freely. Come on, we have to find those parts. What store would they be in?"

"Hard to say," the Doctor answered, lying through his teeth. "I'll know when I see it."

"Oh, well that's a great help," Katie said, a small flash of her usual sarcasm showing through. "You ought to lead. I do not wish to take a turn I needn't take."

"You must be upset," he said, brushing past her. "You're using your most formal mode of speech."

"Stop."

The Doctor paused. Katie circled around him, her goggles off and in her hand. She had her eyes closed as she reached out with her free hand and made a motion as though wiping something off his coat, but she didn't touch him. She brought her hand up close to her face, rubbing her fingers together.

"What is this?" Katie jerked her head back, flipping her hand over as though looking for something. Turning her face towards him again, she continued circling, making the same motion at his shoulder.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I don't know, but you are simply covered in it." She opened her eyes again. "It has to be some kind of energy. I can't see it if my eyes are open."

"Is it on you as well?"

"No." She swiped again. "It isn't even on you. It's coming out of you." Katie made a face and danced awkwardly backwards, shaking her hand furiously. "Oh gross, is this some kind of Time Lord sweat?"

The Doctor looked at Katie indignantly. "No, it isn't. What are you looking at?"

"There's this odd silver stuff all over you. It acts like mud; really watery slimly mud, but feels the way you'd imagine mercury to feel. Sort of solid and liquidic at the same time. It has to be energy, because it soaks right into my skin." She scrapped her hand at the air half a centimeter from his back and stared at her hand, presumably watching it run down her arm. "Reminds me of...eh, doesn't matter." She looked back at the Doctor and smiled. For some reason, the smile made him uneasy.

"Well, we'll figure it out at some point. Lead on, those parts won't come to us."

The city was a sight. Completely chiseled out of the surrounding gray rock, it was a little depressing, but definitely solid. The buildings were rather plain, but the Doctor figured that miners wouldn't be too worried about exterior design. Still, some decoration would have been nice.

He was watching out for several places, among them a store that would sell wiring, colored glass, a particle stabilizer, and sun-dry other items that he could easily fashion into a vortex manipulator.

"Why don't you just tell me what we're looking for? We'd find it twice as fast."

"Do you know what a self-insulating compartmentalized giptheorium thermos looks like?"

"Pardon?"

"Precisely."

The Doctor gave a small smile and pointed at a building up ahead. "There's our first stop. Basic hardware. Well, as basic as an underground mining city ever gets."

A small bell over the door rung as they stepped inside the store. Dust was beginning to layer up over what was otherwise a tidy store. It still carried the faint oily smell that one might expect, but it was well kept.

"Right," the Doctor said, nodding appreciatively. "I need you to find me some colored glass. I don't know if they'd sell it here, but it doesn't hurt to look. I'll be in wiring if you need me. Oh, and if you happen to come across any five-hundred watt bulbs, hold onto it."

He stepped forward and disappeared among the isles, his step quick and determined.

Katie's was less sure. She browed the shelves aimlessly, not really looking at anything as she wandered in a dreamlike state. Her mind was still back with the angels.

She understood that the Doctor called them dangerous, and she supposed that they were frightening, in a way. But they were so lonely! They couldn't ever look at each other, ever. If they did, they would die, frozen forever and ever. Wasn't that a sad thing? The Doctor always felt sad for everything else. Why not them?

Maybe they had done something to him long ago. Maybe the pretty angels were the ones that had made him so sad and angry. He was always sad and usually very angry too, though he never showed it. It was always hidden. Mostly always. Sometimes he was happy.

The angels. They had spoken to her, the energy that went into them and out of them and through them and around them and from them, shaping words somehow. Emotions, pictures of a life of travel and speed, a life like the one she had now, but better. Better because she would never have to hurt anybody, and no one could ever hurt her. She could be with people that were like her, going forever and ever. Wouldn't that just be a wonderful life, to be like those lovely creatures?

Katie closed her eyes, trying to recall to memory the sight of the angels. Instead, she saw a whole lot of silver, with splashes of purple mixed in.

help

The word was so faint Katie thought she had imagined it.

help

The purple splashes were starting to become a line. It pulsed with the quiet word, like it was a glowing thread twisting through the silver wind.

Momentarily distracted from her previous musings, Katie started walking in the direction the pulse was coming from, weaving among vast collections of screws and light fixtures and mats and piping and chains and cans. The purple pulse went through a wall, where Katie could not follow.

Katie opened her eyes, the dull color of the stone making her depressed again. She was in some kind of back office. There were ledgers on shelves, boxes on the floor, and sketches on the wall. Open on the desk was a book. It seemed to be lists of shipments. Katie glanced through it, thinking that she could save time by finding out if they even sold glass here.

They lists went on for several pages, about three weeks between each delivery, each delivery proceeded by a list of what was ordered. Notes on whether or not something had been brought, the condition it was delivered in, and novelties that hadn't been ordered yet were still purchased were each in their own columns. Neat and orderly, just like the store.

An entry in the novelties section for the last shipment caught her eye.

Weeping Angel Statue: Stone, 5 feet 6 inches tall

"Only one? Then how did they all get here?"

Opening drawers in the desk, Katie searched until she found a small leather book. She thumbed through it with a pleased smile growing across her features.

"Journal. Same writing as the ledger. Last entries might say where they all came from."

Skimming the writing, she found a paragraph from the day the statue arrived.

Didn't order it, but a stone angel came with the last shipment. Looked interesting, good detail, so I bought it. Someone might buy it.

A few entries later, another paragraph.

I keep going back to the statue. It's extremely captivating somehow. My hire-on, Roald, spends even more time looking at it then I do.

I would swear it moves when my back is turned. When I came in this morning, it had shifted ten feet to the right, next to the computer system. Odd.

The next entry was really interesting.

Another statue showed up by the other one. Crazy! I only purchased one. And I can't stop drawing pictures of them. I stuck them around my office. I feel as though they're moving when my back is turned.

There was nothing else written after that. Katie closed the book.

"Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice said."

Stepping back from the desk, Katie's foot bumped something. She heard a thin, crackly tinkle. Looking down, she saw a box full of broken glass, in all sorts of colors. It appeared as though it was pieces of a broken stain glass window.

"Woo hoo! Luck strikes again!"

Katie crouched down and carefully picked up a rather large shard.

"Pretty jagged. Meh, the Doctor's pretty smart. He'll figure out how best to use it."

Suddenly, Katie felt as though she was being watched. But she didn't feel scared. The voices of the angels stirred in her head again.

She stood slowly, lifting her head at the same speed. Her hand tightened around the glass shard. Purple blood started to drip onto the floor, but she ignored it.

The angels were singing.

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*