"Alright then, everyone here? Everyone accounted for. No one is missing…bits?" The Doctor's voice echoed off the walls of the small room, bringing everyone to their senses. Rory patted himself frantically at the suggestion that there might be 'bits' missing. Rose found John's hand again, next to hers; it was reassuring to find that she could hold it again. The lights flickered on around them, sensing the motion of their movements. They were in a stone cave of some sort, the marks on the wall implied that it had been carved out of the ground as opposed to naturally formed.
"Doctor, what are we going to do? There's no way he's going to give us a fair trial." Donna asked in a whisper, the man that was Rassilon now had shocked her, this was not the man the Doctor remembered, this was something darker.
"I don't plan on sticking around that long, truth be told. We've got another," He peered at his watch in the dim light. "Oh, forty minutes before the Dalek fleet arrives. First, we need to find Amy. She'll be furious if we leave her behind." He clapped his hands together and smiled encouragingly. "Let's try this hall, shall we?" He started his march down the only path they could take, the path lit up as they walked, two trails of lights following the edge of the caves.
"Doctor." River's voice was uncharacteristically hollow. "It's the angels. This is a prison for weeping angels." They turned back to see she had stopped in the back, the Doctor pushed back through the group to see what she was staring so intently at.
"Well that's interesting." He commented as he came up behind where River stood, staring stock still in front of the stone wall. Except this wall was not stone, it was glass, and upon closer inspection most of the walls seemed to be lined with them. There were small cubbies within the cave where a pane of glass had been laid across like a door. Within the glass was the faint outline of a weeping angel, the stone statue seemingly harmless, holding its hands up to its eyes.
"River." He said cautiously as he began to step forward.
"Yes, sweetie?" She said in a strained sort of way.
"Don't blink."
"Wouldn't dream of it." She said determinedly. He scanned the wall with the sonic screwdriver and with a bit of groaning and hissing the glass slid up into the ceiling, the light within the cell flickered on and illuminated the angel fully then. It was fairly crumbled looking, a few fingers had broken off, and the stone was worn away badly; it was clear it had been in this prison for a long time. He stepped into the cell and looked up toward the ceiling, careful not to step in the path of River's gaze. "Oh, brilliant. Mirrored glass, that'll keep them occupied." He wiped his finger across the glass and tasted it carefully. "Motion sensors turn the light on, so if they move, they can see themselves."
"Well that's quite clever." James conceded.
"Yes, it is." The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "So is the liquid nitrogen encased in the glass. To escape they'd be doused in it."
"What would the liquid nitrogen do? They're already stone?" River asked irritably, her eyes starting to water with the intensity of her staring.
"Yes, but they're living stone. Nitrogen would get into their cracks, their crevices, making them very brittle stone."
"And they would shatter if they moved." River said with understanding.
"Yes, exactly." He stepped back out of the cell and made the door shut behind him. He put his hand reassuringly on River's shoulder. "We're quite safe now, blink as much as you'd like."
"My hero." River muttered as they continued down the hallway. It was impressive how far the network seemed to stretch, there were crossroads often that seemed to stretch out just as far as the rest of them did, there were clearly many cells.
"How many could there be?" Donna asked in a hushed tone as her gaze lingered on more of the prisoners.
"I have no idea. I didn't know we had started to do this, to our own people. It looks like we've been doing it much longer than the war." The Doctor's voice was angry at the thought. "I was too busy exploring the rest of the universe to give Gallifrey a careful look."
"How do we know where she is?" Rory asked, peering down each hall as they passed. The lights on the floor reacted to their presence but shut off as they got a few more paces away. So they all ended in blackness and he dreaded the thought of being trapped in this place in the oppressive darkness, surrounded by the angels, and still not finding Amy among them.
"Have you noticed the lights?" The Doctor asked over his shoulder, continuing to move forward.
"Yeah, but they keep going out." Rory kept looking down each hall they passed, having no idea what guided the Doctor.
"Well, there's one up ahead of us. It hasn't turned off yet." He pointed down the same path they had been traveling and they all saw it then, a small square of light in the endless dark. "So I'm betting that's where we'll find Pond." He turned back to reassure Rory once more. "And I promise, we will find her." Rory nodded and they all set off again, a little more quickly now that they had a destination in mind, and the angels in the corner of their eyes. They finally reached the end of the hall and a room expanded before them. The light they had followed came from a large globe that hung from the center of the room. A second light hung down from the globe, but this one was red, and the light it produced only fell in a specific place. It illuminated four patches of floor in front of them, where four stone figures stood silently.
"Amy!" Rory cried out, rushing forward but the Doctor snagged his shirt bringing him to an abrupt stop.
"Wait. Just wait." He looked up at the red light above them. "And stay out of the light." He warned them all very seriously. Certain that Rory wasn't going to run toward Amy again, he stepped forward, very cautious to stay out of the red beam of light. Amy was there, she was wearing the simple robes that all the angels wore, and they had tucked back her hair as well. She held her hand up against the light, trying to block it, but it had been useless. Her other hand was already trying to cover her weeping face. The process wasn't quite complete, but it had definitely made her stone. There were four others, each further along than the next. The last one didn't even have any original features of the person it once was. The face had changed to the same blank porcelain mask that the others in the cells had.
"Can't we just turn off the light?" Donna looked around desperately. "If that's what does it, surely they've got a way to change it back. The time lord's wouldn't make something so awful without a way to switch it back."
"Maybe not the time lords of old. I'm not sure what Rassilon is capable of now." The Doctor said darkly. He circled to room, looking for the controls and found them quickly enough, lowering the red beam that radiated across the statues. "Have you still got the vortex manipulator?" He asked River.
She held up her wrist where it was still attached. "Sure, but it's been disabled. Your lot took care of that."
"That's easily fixed." The Doctor shrugged stepping toward John.
"But how? They've got your sonic?" River looked confused.
"Well, technically, they took my sonic." James shrugged.
"And I've been hanging onto the Doctor's," John pulled the green tipped screwdriver from his pocket.
"Hah!" Donna laughed. "You're just a stupid human, what harm could you possibly do? That'll teach em."
"Oi, watch it." John leveled the sonic at her before flipping it to the Doctor. "I've got human friends who'd take offense." He smirked at Rose and squeezed her hands once.
"Fortunately for us," The Doctor spoke while he hovered over River's wrist, using the sonic to repair the pieces the time lords had damaged. "Rassilon doesn't know any of them."
"But that will just get us out of here, not off the planet. Where will we go?" River asked him.
"We will go to the TARDIS. Which will get us off the planet. And I've just happen to have a bit of the TARDIS right here," He wagged the sonic in his hand. "Plug in those coordinates for me, will you?" He tossed the sonic to River who nodded and went to work.
"Now," He clapped his hands together, facing Rory. "As to Amy. I am terribly, terribly sorry." His voice had a touch of guilt to it.
"What do you mean sorry?" Rory shook his head disbelieving. "You're going to help her aren't you? You have to help her!"
"Yes, of course." The Doctor scoffed. "You're just not going to like it. So save that great wallop you have planned for me, maybe after we get everything settled, right? Yes? Okay, here it goes." Rory didn't understand most of what he had just said, but the Doctor was already striding toward Amy's statue.
"Now, Amelia Pond. Can you hear me?" He bent down and cradled her neck with his hand. "Course you can. That's the point isn't it? Imprison you this way so all you can do is watch and listen. Bear witness. Well, I'm afraid we'll have to put a stop to that." He ruffled her hair with his other hand like he would have if it hadn't been stone. "And I'm sorry, but I'm about to make Rory very cross with the both of us." He flashed an apologetic smile as he swooped in and kissed her, her stone lips cold and unyielding. As he did, he breathed out, feeling the life force leaving him as he did so. It could have been a year, it could have been one hundred years, he didn't know, but he knew he couldn't stop until she was back. He started to feel the changed then, her hair crumbled in his hand, dust falling away to reveal red strands. Stone became skin and warmth; he exhaled just a moment longer to be sure all of the damage had been undone before opening his eyes. Amy's own stared back at him, wide and stunned as he released her, a smirk on his lips.
"There now, everything less stony?" He grinned at her, wiping the last of her stone tears away with his thumb.
"Yes," She swallowed. "I suppose we're even now." Her gaze was still startled, but she had a glint of that mischievous look she had given him once in her bedroom, seemingly ages ago.
"Yes," He let relief flood through him then and stood up. "I suppose we are."
"Hey!" The Doctor turned at the tug on his shoulder and spun around just in time to see Rory swing his arm back and connect with his jaw, sending him sprawling to the floor. "That's my wife you're snogging!" He shouted at the dazed Doctor.
"Rory!" Amy cried out, but instead of scolding him she rushed into his arms, the last of her tears falling as she pressed her face into his chest. "I thought I'd never see you again." Rory hugged her tightly and buried his face in her hair.
"It's alright, the Doctor got you back. You're safe." Rory pressed his eyes tightly shut and tried not to think about what might have happened. Amy finally stepped back and Rory stood over the Doctor with a sheepish look. He offered his hand, which the Doctor took. "I'm sorry, I know you said to wait. Thank you, for saving her."
"No trouble at all." He grinned as he hopped back up, dusting himself off and adjusting his bow tie once. "River, you got that manipulator ready to go?"
"Yes Doctor." She confirmed.
"Excellent, let's have the sonic back." She handed it over and watched as he pointed it at the transporter Rassilon had given them.
"Doctor, what are you doing? You don't need that, we've got the vortex," River held up her wrist.
"Yes," He squinted at the transporter and seemed satisfied with the work he had done. "There we are then." He turned back down the hall they had come down and knelt down, swinging back with his arm and sliding it across the stone floor like a puck. "They haven't got one."
"Are you honestly telling me that you're going to release the weeping angels? A completely new race of monsters that will be around for thousands of years? River's voice shook as she stared at the Doctor.
"Yes," He pointed his sonic down the hall and the sound of the glass doors all sliding open echoed deep into the darkness. "It's impressive how much easier it is to make a bad decision when I already know I've done it." The Doctor grinned and waggled his eyebrows as he turned the sonic to the lights and with a fizzling explosion, darkness fell again. There was only silence, and then the slow sound of stone grating against stone, raising the hairs on the back of everyone's neck.
"Alright then, you lot. Don't forget who released you!"
"Doctor?" Amy said, her voice now very alarmed in the claustrophobic darkness.
"Yes yes, we're going. River, if you will."
"Already pressed it." River confirmed.
"Alright everyone, away we-"