"It's just a statue," Rose tried to reason when the three around her stiffened.
"When you're looking at it," River said. They obviously all knew something Rose didn't.
"Weeping Angel," Ten said. "I've only encountered them once and never in this world."
"Then consider yourself lucky," Eleven said darkly.
Rose heard real pain behind the Doctor's voice. These creatures didn't frighten him, it seemed; they angered him. Who had he lost? "I don't understand," she said finally.
"It's a statue when you look at it," Eleven continued. "If you're eyes are on them, they become quantum-locked, literally turning to stone. It's a defense mechanism."
"They don't exist in this world," Ten insisted. "Keep your eyes on it and get back to the TARDIS."
"You said the two worlds could not touch," River noted.
"We're going to have to risk it and hope the TARDIS can hold the rift," Rose's husband told them. That did not sound encouraging.
They backed slowly to the TARDIS but the statue did not move. Opening the door, they all moved in. When River and the Eleventh Doctor stepped through, the lights flashed but after a moment returned to normal.
"It'll hold, and she can't get through those doors. Ha!" Eleven said triumphantly. He looked around. "I see you grew her up well enough. Did the fold-back harmonic resonance hold once you shatterfried the plasmic shell?"
"Sweetie," River said, placing a hand on Eleven's cheek. "Not now."
"But, River, another TARDIS! Aren't you curious?"
The Eleventh Doctor and this River Song were so familiar with each other; it made Rose a little uncomfortable. She wondered what the nature of their relationship was. More than a friend, she guessed. Was it fair, the hurt that wriggled its way into her belly? She had wanted happiness for him. Is this what she meant while gazing up at those stars all that time?
"How is there a second TARDIS?" River asked.
"Little piece of TARDIS coral," Ten explained. "We grew her. It wasn't simple but we managed."
Rose suspected they were going to launch into a technical discussion so she interrupted them. "What is that creature out there? I mean what does it do exactly? In all my years at Torchwood, we've never across anything like that."
"It sends you back in time. If it touches you, it send you back thirty or forty years, letting you live your life to death and feeding on the time energy that is created," Eleven told her. He talked a little different than Ten did. They were both energetic but this one seemed even more boyish, but his looks could be contributing to that.
"Seems a nice way to die," Rose told him.
The pain was back in his eyes. "Not if it takes you away from every person you hold dear only to wait decades to see them again, if ever."
"I guess I see your point." If she were taken from her Doctor now, Rose wasn't sure she could survive the loss one more time.
"The point is though," Ten said, "They shouldn't be here at all. They don't belong in this world."
"And, yet here they are," Eleven noted.
"Yes, and so are you. If you slipped through to this world, maybe they did the same way."
Eleven looked concerned. "And, what else has gotten through?"
Ten immediately began running around the console. "What are you doing?" River spoke up. "We can't just leave the TARDIS here!"
BOOM! It sounded like something hit the TARDIS hard.
"What is that?" Rose asked.
"The angel, it's trying to get in, but this old girl can hold her off," Ten said fondly. "New girl," he corrected after a moment.
BOOM!
Rose was becoming concerned. Both Doctors were running diagnostics through the TARDIS console. "I don't want to leave the TARDIS," Eleven told River. "But even more important is finding where she really is now. Separated from her mechanical shell, she won't last more than forty-eight hours."
Forty-eight hours? The TARDIS would die? "She only has two days?" Rose asked.
"Two days to get her soul back, but we need to get her back to our universe as well," Eleven said. "She can't survive here long. But all of that is irrelevant if we can't get her back."
They continued their run about the console. "What are you looking for?" River finally asked.
"Something out of the ordinary…" Ten murmured. "Something that just shouldn't be there…Oh… Oh!"
"What is it?" Rose asked. The Doctors looked at a readout and then at each other.
"Huon," her husband whispered.
"Exactly," Eleven replied.
Rose and River were looking back and forth at the Doctors, and Rose could see that the other woman was as lost as she was. The two Doctors were as irritating in their brilliance as always.
Rose sighed. "Yes, and Huon is…?"
"Huon energy!" Eleven said excitedly. "A concentration of Huon energy."
Noticing his wife's irritation, Ten explained. "Huon energy was eradicated from the universe by the Time Lords. The only particles left in existence were that which already existed within the TARDISes. Concentrations of the energy can act almost like a magnetic pull. Happened once with Donna. There was Huon energy in her and we were able to pull the entire TARDIS to us. The first time it happened, though, she was pulled into the TARDIS. It was her wedding day actually. Oh, she was not happy."
River looked from herself to Rose and then at the Doctors. "How many weddings have you been to?"
"Been to? A fair few," Eleven said.
"Been the groom in, only a couple," Ten clarified.
"And the bride only once," Eleven mused.
"But let's not go there," the Doctors said together.
Rose shook her head. She really didn't want to know. "The wedding aside, what happened this time? Because the TARDIS is still here."
"The mechanical ship is, but her soul was pulled out with the concentration of particles. See that energy reading? That is an energy transfer from the particles. We just need to follow it!" Eleven announced excitedly.
"The only trick is there are actually two different readings, so we will need to split up," Ten said.
"What about the angel?" Rose asked. The booming sound on the ship had stopped. Were they creatures that gave up?
"Nothing we can do about it now," Eleven said. "There is one energy reading showing up from an old redwood forest in North America, and the other looks like a factory in London. River and I can go explore the forest."
"I really think we need to split up the two worlds. I'm not sure alone we're seeing and experiencing everything. One person from each universe should go to each," Ten said.
"Fine," said Eleven. "Then I'll take Rose with me."
"No, you aren't taking Rose anywhere," Ten warned.
"Wasn't it your suggestion to split up? Don't you trust me?"
"You trust me to take care of River?" Ten challenged.
"I trust River to shoot you or anything else that annoys her," Eleven said confidently causing the woman to smirk.
"I can take care of myself," River suggested. "So, why don't you three go check out the factory and I'll take the forest."
"No, it's too dangerous," Eleven said. "You'll need one of us with you."
River looked irked but then smiled. "Fine, then I'll take Rose."
"No," both Doctors said together.
"Oh, no, I think this sounds like a brilliant plan," Rose jumped in. It might be interesting to have a chance to talk to this other woman. She suspected she would learn more about how the Doctor had been through River than the Doctor himself.
"This isn't a good idea," Ten said.
"Well, we don't have the time to waste if we all went to check out one location and then the other," River said. Rose and River both crossed their arms and looked at the Doctors.
"Fine, we'll even leave the TARDIS with you," Eleven said. "Just drop us off."
"Wait, how are we going to fly it?" Rose asked.
River looked smug. "Oh, can you not fly the TARDIS?"
"River," the older Doctor jumped in. "Play nice."
Oh, this would be interesting indeed, Rose couldn't help but think. "Are we just going to leave the other TARDIS on the beach?"
"Nothing we can do to move her and we need to get her soul back," Eleven said. He set the coordinates for the Doctors drop point. After only moments the ship was taking off and then landing again.
River handed the man in tweed something. "Scanner and communicator."
"Thanks."
Rose approached her Doctor and he placed his hands lightly on her neck. "Be careful. Please, Rose."
"Come back to me, Doctor," she said and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He pulled her in for a hug and then joined the other Doctor at the door. When they walked out, River set their coordinates and they took off.
The Doctors travelled through the darkened forests, torches casting a strange light around them. Ten's eyes were still stronger than a humans but he knew his older counterpart could still see better than him with his fully Gallifreyan physiology.
"So, is it as grand as we always thought it would be?" Eleven asked him.
"Is what?" Did he always jump in the middle of thoughts? Actually, yes, he probably did.
"Being human. Living the short, blazing life, doing the mundane domestic things," Eleven continued on.
The moon rose high above them, but the sky was dark, clouded. "Being human, er part human, is different than we imagined. They certainly are no stuffy Time Lords, but admittedly it was a… difficult transition at first. Rose helped," Ten admitted.
"Married her then," Eleven commented casually.
"Did you really expect any less?"
The man in tweed shrugged at that. Glancing at the scanner, the Doctors adjusted course slightly, heading uphill and to the east. "What about River, then? She knew our name when we met, and has two hearts, unless my ears are failing me in my age."
Eleven paused. Ten suspected it wasn't something he spoke of often and weighed the merit of telling him. It was a bit strange telling yourself and yet someone separate from you, these things.
"River is the daughter of two companions I travelled with recently. Don't ask me how, because I don't completely know, but conceived aboard the TARDIS, she took on some Gallifreyan qualities," he finally said.
"Can she regenerate?" Ten asked.
"She used to be able to… but not any more. A movement called the Silence kidnapped my companion while she was pregnant and cooked themselves a baby Time Lord."
"But why?" Ten did not understand why anyone would try to make one of his people or even begin to understand how.
"To kill me." Eleven said it casually, like commenting on the clouds in the sky.
"Sounds lovely. How did that turn out?"
Eleven smirked. "She succeeded once… and then brought my back to life by giving me all the regeneration energy from her remaining lives. But, that's River for you. The second time she tried to kill by a lake side and somehow we ended up married while time was dying around us. But, then that's me for you."
Ten gave him a sidelong look. "How old are you?"
"Twelve-hundred and something," he answered immediately but then paused. "No, hang on, eleven-hundred and something. Can't even keep track of my age any longer. How many clicks east have we travelled now?"
"Just two, scanner says its a little farther out. I admit, I'm not sure what we'll find out here. We may not be able to stop the TARDIS from dying," Ten warned.
"Dying. Ha. We're all doing that now, aren't we?"
"What did cause you to regenerate? Aren't you on your last life now?" he asked the older man.
"Saving Wilfred Mott's life after the Master came back. Again. But there's a long story and old history. I don't know if I can regenerate again. The energy is still there, I can feel it… but the longer I have spent in this body, the more I can feel it waning. This time, I really am dying I think."
Ten didn't bother to tell him he was sorry or offer up any other platitude. There was no point and they both knew it, so as always, they moved on. They had travelled another kilometer when something was caught in their torchlight ahead.
"What is that?" Ten asked. The light had shone on what looked like pale flesh. They sprinted over. Curled up in a crater, exactly where their scanner led them, was a young woman. She wore a dark blue knee-length dress, brown leather corset and boots. He immediately dropped down and felt for a pulse. She looked human.
He moved back as she suddenly opened her eyes. They were a startling blue-green, beneath dark brown, lightly curled hair.
"Who are you?" Eleven asked gently. And why are you sending off readings like the TARDIS, Ten finished in his head.
The girl looked bewildered. "Timeless," she suddenly spoke. "My name is Timeless."