"You killed them."

Katie straightened, ignoring the Doctor's words, as well as the accusation behind them. She walked past him up to Katrina. Reaching into a pocket of the coat, she pulled out a letter.

"He left this for you. I found it in the drilling laser, stuffed inside the coat. He left that behind as well. It seems he wasn't moved too far out, lived on to become a technician or something."

Katrina accepted it silently. "I'm sorry," Katie said, her voice quiet. Katrina didn't, or couldn't, answer. Turning away, she walked into TARDIS, leaving Katie and the Doctor alone.

Katie took off the coat and tossed it to the Doctor, who was now standing. "Not a single tear on it."

"Katie, that was genocide."

"You think I don't know that?"

"Why?"

"I couldn't let it happen to anyone else."

"You didn't have to kill them!"

"What would you have done then!" she yelled, angry tears on her face. "Tell me, Doctor, what grand plan would you have used to lock them down here? Sealing the entrance would have done absolutely nothing. The surface dwellers would have opened it right back up. Reason with them maybe? It would have done nothing!"

"Better than killing them all!"

"So you would have just let them run wild, taking out everything in their path?" Katie took two long strides to the Doctor, her eyes like green flames. "I've seen them Doctor. I've heard them inside my head. They would have never stopped. Never. There was no alternative, no matter what kind of high ideals you have. Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that you've never made the same choice I just did?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He looked down at her, trying to read the emotions in her eyes. Fury, determination, pain, and self-loathing shone back at him. It disturbed him how much they resembled his own.

"Death solves nothing. Those aren't the only Angels."

"I know. But at least these won't be eating anyone."

The Doctor stepped backwards. "You would have taken them all, wouldn't you? If those had been the last of their species, you would have taken them anyway."

"Yes. I would have."

The Doctor's face hardened until it looked carved from stone. "Then you need to see what you've done."

Katie didn't move as the Doctor threw open the doors. The tunnel was filled with gray rubble. Silver blood ran out from the rocks, proof of how alive they had once been.

"They're gone Kathryn," the Doctor said tightly. "Completely gone. An entire race, destroyed. Genocide." He whirled around, still talking. "And you did—" He froze, shocked by the new sight in front of him.

Katie was flat on her back, limbs shaking, jaw clenched, eyes rolled back, blood and saliva dribbling from her mouth. She looked like she was having the mother of all grand mal seizures.

The Doctor was by her side in an instant, but as soon as he touched her, he felt energy surge into him. He nearly passed out from it.

Katie started talking, but not in her voice. "My name is Lux, have you seen my mummy? My name is Ron. The angels destroyed us. We are the Galospy family." Katie's voice changed with every sentence. After several more agonizing seconds of this, a scream tore from Katie's throat.

"Stop the voices! Too many voices! Help me!"

The Doctor realized in an instant what must have happened. The potential energy the Weeping Angels had created still contained the mental waves of their victims. Katie had been able to see it. While the Angels were still alive, they had worked as a buffer, eating the energy. Now they were gone, and Katie was the only place for the scattered remains of an entire city's psyche to go. And it was killing her.

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair, his mind racing for a solution. He couldn't help Katie until the excess energy had a place to go. Ripping up a floor panel on the TARDIS, he pulled out a large power cord. Its end crackled and glowed with energy from the time vortex. The Doctor set the live end against Katie's neck, praying it would work in syphoning the energy out of her.

The Doctor placed his hands on Katie's temples. He still felt a shock, but not as bad as before. He closed his eyes and was in her mind in an instant. Utter confusion reigned.

Katie's mind had been completely empty earlier. Now the halls were filled with people; clamoring, shouting, screaming, crying people. It hurt his head, even as an echo. It must be killing Katie, whose mind was accustomed to only one voice.

"Kathryn!" he called, his voice only being drowned out by the thousands already calling. He used what he remembered from earlier to cut through memories, run through thoughts, and dash over ideas, looking for the one place Katie might be.

As he ran, he did his best to ignore her memories, trying to give her some semblance of privacy. But one kept returning, as though it haunted her constantly. He never saw all of it; no, those doors were well locked. However, feelings and noises filtered out, always the same. Sensations of agony, loss, regret, sickening knowledge, and self-loathing. The sounds were few, but always the same; shots being fired, muffled words, an anguished scream of torment.

As the Doctor crisscrossed Katie's memories, he came closer and closer to the present day. He thought Katie would be in a recent one, one of her room on TARDIS or with her plants. Instead, he found her curled under the covers on a bed in a messy room on Earth, trying to block out the sounds. She looked the same as she had before, making her almost seem to be a stranger.

"Kathryn!"

She raised her head a fraction to look at him, terror in her eyes. Then she curled up even tighter. "Go away! Your voice is the worst. It holds too much! Too many lives in your head. Go away!"

"Kathryn, you have to let me help you."

"Stop the voices. Too many voices, too many people, too many memories. Stop them, stop them!" Katie started to sob. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me, please! I had to do it. I had no choice. I'm sorry I missed…I'm sorry!"

The Doctor said nothing. He had greater crimes to his name, but Katie couldn't find forgiveness for this act. Not from him. He wasn't the one wronged.

"But he never said it. He never said it!"

The crossing memories were getting worse, the Doctor decided. The Doctor opened his thoughts fully to that of the voices. They surged into his mind, though not all of them did. A few dozen hid in the corners of Katie's mind, refusing to let go. There was nothing he could do about it now. He had to pull out, or risk Katie's sanity. She was right; his mind contained too much for her to handle with this kind of intimacy.

The Doctor opened his eyes and took his hands away from Katie's temples. She lay still for a moment then took a deep, gasping breath, nearly choking in the process.

"It's alright Kathryn, just breath. Long, deep breaths."

Katie jerked her head up, staring wildly at him. She rolled herself onto all fours and scrambled up and away, putting the console between them.

"Don't touch me. I saw them, and you can't have them back." Katie swayed, reminding the Doctor of the first time they had met.

"Kathryn, I had to take the people," he said, misunderstanding.

"No, not that! I saw them. I saw there. And I won't give them back, whatever you may say. I won't, I won't!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You!" she said, clinging to the console for support. "Your mind, your memories. I saw them Doctor."

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