A/N: Um. So this should have been two chapters, but I wrote them together because it made sense to do so for the first draft. And then when everything was edited I was getting ready to go through and chop this in half somewhere and I whispered 'screw it'. And that's why this is a freaking long chapter. Because it's two. Fused together. Like those freak M&M's you sometimes get in a pack.

I chewed at my lip nervously. We'd managed to survive the ocean journey and now it was a good distance away. Apparently the Professor had been right, and I was going to be just fine and would I bloody well calm down. But I could see it there, down at the bottom of the freaking mountain we had hiked up. Waiting for me. Because we had to make a trip back, didn't we? Only a matter of time.

Don't worry Fitz, It said. I'm still just as capable of killing you any ole time. I just wanted to give you a false sense of security this first go round. Good luck not sinking to my murky depths on the way back and dying a horrible death.

I really needed to stop giving inanimate things voices. And homicidal tendencies. That kind of shit was exactly what got me into trouble when I was young enough to have imaginary friends.

"They've been gone a while."

We'd been sitting there in complete silence when Ailla finally spoke up. Having run out of things to say an hour ago. It wasn't that we were incapable of having a conversation; it was just that this place had been slowly wearing down on us, every little noise or flash of light a source of paranoia. Well, that was my reason for having gone quiet. Who knew what Ailla's was. Maybe she didn't like the idea of leaving Rhysik and Donna behind to watch the ships. Or the fact that the Doctor and the Professor both had wandered into the deepest and darkest most ominous looking cave that ever existed several hours ago, and hadn't been heard from since. And then Jack had decided to follow them. Who, we'd also never heard from again.

Yeah. I was definitely getting paranoid. But for good reason.

"Maybe?" I tried shrugging, you know, to make the frantic thoughts in my head less likely to be the truth. It did seem like it'd been a while, but it also seemed like it hadn't been long at all. Well, in a weird sort of way. I hadn't been hungry since we left the TARDIS. Wasn't even tired. And we'd gone through quite a hike to get up here. But I could feel time passing, even if I had no way of quantifying it. It was all generally upsetting, just like the sun that sat up there in the sky, unmoving. Hovering like it didn't have anything better to do with its time than remind us that it was really just a string of computer code and not an actual star.

"Yes." Ailla said more determined. "They have." She looked over her shoulder and I followed her gaze, we both watched the wall of darkness that managed to suck away any kind of cheery thought I'd ever planned on having. Ever again. "There's something wrong."

"That doesn't surprise me." I muttered. The sunlight, however artificial it was, should have kept the monsters at bay. That's what we had been relying on to keep us safe while we made good with our escape. We hadn't been thinking about the cave though, or at least, I hadn't. So what happens in the spooky pit of doom where there is no light? What keeps them safe in there? The Professor's sunny disposition? Somehow, I doubted it. The Doctor had said something about shafts of light built into the mountain itself.

It seriously didn't look like it from here. It looked like the light went for about twenty feet before the darkness snuffed it out like a candle, along with everything that was happy in the world.

"You think they ran into trouble?" Ailla asked me with a grim look.

"When do they not get into trouble?" The Doctor had a way of exceeding everyone's expectations in that department. And the Professor was just second in line on the list of 'people most likely to get into a terrible situation'. And we had sent them in together. Which sort of just seemed like playing Russian roulette with six bullets.

"Should we check it out?" The irresponsible deviant in Ailla was showing. I kind of liked it. Not a whole lot, because there was nothing in me that really wanted to explore the nightmare behind us. But then, our only means of escape was supposed to be in there. Along with three people who'd become fairly important to me. Some more than others.

"Can't hurt to take a look." I said with a sigh. Of course it could. It could hurt a lot. It could hurt so bad we'd all die screaming. But it wasn't like we had much of a choice. Or at least I didn't. Maybe Ailla would be perfectly happy to spend the rest of her day's beach side in the Matrix. But I kind of doubted it.

"If you want to stay…" She suggested as we stood up. I don't think she meant it condescendingly. Didn't mean it wasn't hard to see it that way. She was probably just recalling how white-faced and furiously terrified I'd looked earlier when we had finally gotten off the boats. The Doctor had to explain about my fear of water, because I had been too busy reconnecting with sand. Spiritually. By falling face-first into it and laughing hysterically. The Doctor also had to explain what a 'panic attack' was. It was a fun learning experience for everyone.

But I was better now. Totally recovered. Hopefully.

"It's alright. If I stay here, I'll just freak out." Which wasn't really a great reason, but it was all I had.

"I'm sure they're fine." She said with a reassuring smile. "And it's not really as dark as it looks." She turned and took the first few steps into what I was going to start affectionately calling 'the crypt' or maybe more accurately 'our crypt'. I'm sure we'd find out shortly. I sucked in a deep breath, convinced the air outside was less dangerous and let my feet carry me along toward the darkness. She was right, it wasn't as dark as it looked.

It was darker.

"Ow." My first meeting with one of the walls was more abrupt than I'd been expecting.

"There's a turn here." Ailla's voice said, floating somewhere in front of me and to the left.

"Yeah. I found it." My hands scrabbled against the slimy walls, cringing as I did so. Who knows what the hell was all over this place, but as much as I didn't want to be groping the walls, I wanted even less to be smacking into it with my face. Ailla's footsteps hurried along confidently, while mine scuffed against the gravel below, with my own muttered curses echoing in the dark. It did gradually grow lighter, like, enough that the shape of Ailla was slightly grayer than the wall in front of her. Or I had strained my eyes so hard I'd burst a blood vessel.

"Look, there's one up ahead." Ailla said cheerfully as her slightly less disembodied voice started to grow a shape. A pinprick of light just around the corner outlined her completely and I almost started to sprint toward it. "There'll be more as we go."

I tried to keep my cool as the walls grew lighter, but a particularly nasty looking blob of fungus kind of ruined it for me. The other side looked a bit drier, so I made my way in that direction, hoping maybe shortly here, I'd be able to see well enough that I wouldn't have to feel my way forward. My hand grasped the wall, but it crumbled like chalk.

"That's weird…" My eyes struggled to see what made this rock so different, but I was so focused on that that I'd failed to take in any other sensory input. Like, the fact that there was a hole in the floor. One I'd stepped directly into.

"Oh sh-" Well, not a hole, a staircase. Leading down. The same direction my body was tumbling. They were narrow though, and winding, so there was no dramatic plummet to my death. More of a painful, multifaceted, bounce down, and sideways, and backward. Just slow enough that I had time to try and catch my balance before dropping another step and bruising a new part of my body. When I finally hit the ground, I just lay there. Grateful the ride had stopped.

"Fitz? Fitz!" Her voice sounded far off until she found the stairs. "Are you okay?" She called from somewhere above me as she took the stairs with more grace than I had managed.

"Murgh." It hadn't actually been that bad. Well, it had. It hurt like hell. But it could have been much worse. Everything ached, but my ego was probably more permanently damaged than my body. Not to say either was in a happy place right now.

"I'm so sorry Fitz, I didn't see them." She said as she appeared at the foot of the stairs, taking in the lower level. It was actually better illuminated than above, but I was having a hard time appreciating that at the moment.

"Yeah, me neither." It would have made me perfectly happy to just lay there until someone came by with a stretcher to carry me away, but Ailla insisted on hauling me to my feet.

"It looks like they tried to block this way." She looked down at the floor that was littered with rocks and my broken bones. Okay, there weren't any bones. "But someone had broken through a bit, do you think they came this way?"

"Maybe? Might as well check them both. He said it was just a big loop inside, didn't he?" Apparently, the big spooky cave had been some kind of religious site for the time lords, so we had the advantage of knowing a bit how it was set up. Or at least everyone other than me did.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. You keep looking down here and I'll check out the one above."

What? No. No. Every horror movie I'd ever watched screamed at me at once. Never split up. It's the golden rule. NEVER. EVER. Split up. Especially not in the creepy dark cave where there might be homicidal time lords lurking. Why was she saying it was my idea? Because that is not an idea I'd put forth ever. No. No, no, nono. No.

"It'll be fine." Ailla patted my shoulder, sensing my inner terror level rising up again. "We'll just circle around and meet up. This way we'll find everyone twice as fast." She seemed so confident, so completely unfazed by the fact that she was shortly going to be wandering the cave all by herself. So pretty much, the opposite of me.

"Okay," My voice came out as a squeak but I was determined to sound less like the needy and nervous human I so obviously was. "Okay, that's fine."

"Great, be safe." She said, turning to the stairs and disappearing up them. Hah. That was a laugh. I'd just thrown myself down a flight of stairs, how safe could I really be? Whatever, it's fine. This didn't have to be scary, this was just a normal little stroll down a creepy tunnel. Checking things out. Only a matter of time before I run into someone else. Well, hopefully someone I know. Definitely not something crazy or scary. Like a clown. With jagged teeth. And crazy eyes he uses to hypnotize children and eat their brain-

Moving on.

I pressed my hand against the wall, more as a reassurance than a need for the light, there were several shafts that went from the cave to the outside world, illuminating the corridor in dusty patches. The whole place had a yellowy gray haze that was comforting until I realized that just made it easier to hide in the shadows. So far, nothing had jumped out at me, but that didn't mean nothing could. Or would. Like NOW.

Okay, not that time either. Well, I probably wouldn't be this lucky forever.

A muffled noise caught my attention. In the sort of way that froze my blood and caused a small squeak to come out of my throat. But nothing in the shadows moved and I heard it more clearly. Scuffling, and a muttered handful of curse words. From a voice I recognized. The Professor.

"Alright," he said irritably, the voice growing louder as I continued down my path. "Alright you've got me you bloody moron. Get it over with." Well, that didn't sound reassuring. My feet rushed forward until I came to a carved out doorway to my right. My head poked around the side, super sleuthing the situation.

"Get on with it." The Professor was in a headlock, his face turning red as he struggled in his position. Another man, lighter haired, but just as tall, was hunched over him and had his forearm across the Professor's throat.

"You know I can't kill you." His voice sounded raspy from disuse and it sent a chill down my spine. I felt for my pocket, the weight of the gun suddenly a reassurance rather than another concern. I made sure the safety was off before I marched in there with just my attitude and a glare.

"Am I interrupting something?" They both froze at my voice, but the Professor used the opportunity to gain some leverage, throwing back his shoulders. The other man recovered quickly, still holding him by the throat. Well, so much for that. We were just going to have to do this the old fashion way.

"Did you miss me sweetie?" Other than a little ruffled, the Professor looked fine, at least that was something.

"Emphatically." He still managed to sound rude despite the fact that I might be the only thing between him and a swift death at the hands of his new pal.

"Brought me a snack, have you? Who's your little friend?" The man grinned at me, his teeth much longer than they had any right to be. Much sharper looking too. Like they had been specially built for one purpose, and I didn't think it was fighting off gingivitis.

"I'm cranky. And a little trigger-happy. Why don't you let him go?"

"You'll watch your tone with me." He glared, his eyes flicking down to the Professor. "I'm not quite done with him. Perhaps you can have him after I've bled him dry." He took his free hand and deliberately started to dig his fingers into the Professor's shoulder. He wasn't just gripping him tighter, he was literally using his fingers, which would be more accurately identified as claws, to bore holes into the Professor's shoulder. If the look on the Professor's face was anything to go by, I'd say the process was painful. "Tell her to put the weapon down," he hissed into his ear. "And I'll let you keep your arm."

"Thought you said killing me was out of the question." The Professor grimaced as he spoke and it was hard to tell if he was just trying to be an asshole.

"Perhaps," he squeezed his hand tighter and the color drained from the Professor's face. "They didn't mention anything specific about how many limbs you're required to have."

"Well," the Professor sucked in a deep breath. It was obvious that he was struggling at this point. "You are welcome to try. She's not much for listening. Or obeying for that matter." It was nice that he still managed to keep his sense of humor despite the five finger sized holes that were puncturing their way through his flesh.

He bared his teeth, apparently not in the mood for sass.

"He's right." He needed reminding that I was around, and that I was dangerous. Even if I didn't really look it. "I'm a crap listener. No need to take it out on him. Not his fault you brought knives to a gun fight." My hand was trembling a little, but I was trying not to make it so obvious. "Why don't you let him go. I'll give you to the count of five. One…"

His face turned vicious as he snarled at me, convinced that it might change my mind. It certainly turned my legs to jelly and gave me an unpleasant queasy feeling, but there was no way in hell I was putting the gun down now. When he saw I was still ready to fire, he released his grip on the Professor's shoulder, flicking crimson drops as he raised his bloodied claw up to the side of his throat, apparently not willing to wait until I reached five. Which was fine, because neither was I.

"Two…" I let out a slow breath, keeping both eyes open, and squeezed my finger against the trigger. The loud CRACK had me jumping out of my skin as I struggled to keep the gun level, but it didn't really matter, because I'd already fired. The bullet had flown straight, burying itself deep into the man's shoulder as he fell backward, the force of the impact causing him to lose his grip on the Professor. He staggered on his feet and I watched a deep red flower blossom at his shoulder. "Three." I said, marching forward and not lowering the gun.

"I'll kill you both before this is over!" He spat at me, turning for the door that was opposite of us.

"Looking forward to it princess!" I fired twice more, but only managed to hit the wall behind him. Not much of a shot while on the move. Oh well, I'd just have to be happy that I hadn't shot the Professor. Small victories.

"You alright?" I closed the remaining distance between me and the Professor, realizing he had slumped sideways, swaying on his feet. Blood was trickling down the side of his face from where the man had left him with a parting gift, but more was coming off his hand, dripping to the floor.

"Thought you were going to count to five." He said mildly as I helped him stand upright again. His left arm hung down at his side and he winced in pain as the rest of his body moved.

"Yeah, that was the point. Thanks for illustrating my clever plan." He muttered something in annoyance as he reached up to brush away at his throat where the blood was still oozing down from his temple.

"Oi," I batted at his hand. "Here," I reached into my pocket and, miracle of miracles, there happened to be a handkerchief. It probably had more to do with my unusual jacket and it coming from the TARDIS than any kind of planning I had done. The scouts and 'being prepared' just wasn't really my thing. I dabbed at the spill down his throat, which he tolerated with a surprising amount of patience. That was probably just a sign that he'd lost too much blood. When I finished, I folded it up and pressed it against the side of his face.

"Hold it there. It doesn't look too deep." He nodded and reached up, his hand covering my own for a moment before I snatched it away nervously. Not really the time to be thinking about that sort of thing, idiot. Then my eyes fell to his shoulder, and the now very visible damp spot on the jacket. That looked deep.

"I don't think I have anything big enough for that…" but he did, always had that stupid scarf of his. I dug into his pocket and found it quickly. Thought about warning him, and then decided against it. Wrapping the scarf under his armpit and over his shoulder, tying a knot tight against the wound, hopefully enough to slow the bleeding. He hissed in a sharp breath, but he didn't move as I adjusted it once more.

"Sorry."

"It's fine." He grunted, his jaw unclenching once I'd finally stopped.

"Whatever you say, Rambo." I snorted, wiping the worst of the mess on my hands off on my jeans.

"Didn't take you for a sharpshooter." He swallowed and his voice resembled something close to normal.

"Yeah. I'm not." The giddy laughter and relief at not having shot the Professor was probably something that didn't need to be shared just then, so I tried to keep my tone even.

"What do you mean you're not?" His eyes narrowed.

"I mean I haven't really done that before. Jack and Ailla taught me yesterday. Or…the day before yesterday. Still."

"I see," he said, the reality of me being just as likely to shoot him, as I was the enemy started to sink in. "Remind me to thank them both later. We should find the Doctor. Perhaps he's had better luck." That was as good an idea as any, so I nodded, letting him use my shoulder to stay upright.

"Wait, is that important? That looks important." There was a portion of the wall far from the exit that was swirling, and definitely purple. It was a bit hard to tell because it was in the shadows, but there seemed to be an edge to it. It was good that I hadn't seen it earlier, because that shit was mesmerizing.

"No, that's just the Untempered Schism. Or at least, it represents it here. No idea what purpose it serves…" He trailed off and frowned. "Unless it's-" a smile pulled at the corner of his lips and he beamed down at me. "Oh, you're almost brilliant. That's got to be where it's hidden."

I was going to let the almost thing slide. "What's hidden?"

"The TARDIS matrices, they're inside the Schism. That's why we couldn't track the signal, it's blocked by the time vortex itself." He started to walk forward, not needing extra support until he got within ten feet of it. That's when he stopped completely. "Stars." He gasped, turning back to me and finally looking more like a man who'd just nearly had his arm torn off. "What is that infernal noise?" Sounding like one too, since I was hearing absolutely nothing.

"Um. What noise?"

"Are you joking?" He looked a little ridiculous trying to block his ears with one good hand. "The drumming, obviously."

Yep. This was definitely a bad sign. It smacked of crazy. At least it wasn't the especially worrisome crazy, the kind where I had to agonize about him turning into an alarming psychopath. Not yet, anyway.

"Okay… you sit here. I'll go grab our…thingy that we need." I patted his back and stepped past him. This was just like Stargate or something, just had to walk through a purple swirly door. I'm sure it would be fine. It needed to be fine, because it sounded like the Professor had a full five minutes of sanity left, and we probably needed that to get back out of the cave.

"What? No Fitzg-" His voice cut to silence as soon as I walked through it. The whole room was actually an unpleasantly quiet place. There were no ambient echoes, my shoes didn't squeak as they crossed the sparkling white floor. I couldn't even hear myself breathe except for inside my own head. Well, that was unsettling.

The whole room was the same brilliant white, but it was impossible to tell how big it was because there didn't seem to be an edge to it. Just endless white. Except for the narrow black column in front of me that rose about three feet in the air. On top of it was a metal cube. Polished bright and not any wider than my palm. It was the only thing there, so I took it. Flinching at my stupidity, I waited for the column to sink into the floor, or some kind of mechanism to start turning as a signal that I had set off every booby-trap in the place and I'd now have to race a giant boulder to survive. But nothing happened. Well, this better be what we needed, because otherwise we went through a lot of trouble for a pretty mediocre looking paperweight. I stepped back through the gate and was relieved to hear something other than the oppressive silence.

"Where the hell have you been?" The Professor sounded more irritable than he had when I'd left him a moment before. I turned around and frowned at him, he was down on his hands and knees, slightly closer than before. And his nose was bleeding.

"What do you mean- Jesus, you look like crap." He was sweating and trembling too, my eyes searched the room as I crouched down next to him, but as far as I could see, we were alone.

"The drumming." He mumbled, now both his hands were over his head, trying to block out the imaginary noise. At least that meant his arm wasn't broken. That was some good news.

"Alright, hey, let's just get out of…the bad room, yeah?" He looked up with haunted eyes and that was especially worrying, because he looked so terrifyingly vulnerable. He nodded and let me help him stand up, staggering as we walked away from the Untempered Schism. The further from it we got, the more I could feel his body relax, even his breathing became normal as we walked out into the corridor.

"I just. I need a moment." He said, half slumping against the wall and he pressed his forehead against the stone. I stood there fidgeting, because what else was I going to do?

"Good news," I piped up. He spared me a glance without leaning away from the wall. "I got the thing." I held up the polished cube. Trying to distract from the possibility that the Professor was having a total mental breakdown that was adversely affecting his heath.

"Well done." He said, finally straightening. "What took you so bloody long?" It was nice he'd gotten his second wind just in time to scold me.

"Yeah, sorry it took me ten whole seconds. If you were so worried about it, you could have dropped in."

"I tried." He leveled me with that look of his and I swallowed. Right. The whole, hands and knees on the floor, nose bleeding. There had been an effort made trying to get to the portal, it had just been a failed one.

"Okay, well. It's fine. I'm fine. I walked right in and back out."

"You were gone for ten minutes." He frowned, although I didn't know how seriously I could take him. He was the one going crazy.

"Maybe that had something to do with your…erm. Those noises you were hearing? You know, the imaginary ones?" I supplied helpfully. He shot me a look.

"I'm not imagining them. They might only be in my head, but they're real." His glare suggested I keep my mouth shut if I felt differently about it. "Perhaps the matrices are effecting how time moves within these walls." Right, it's definitely the rooms fault. Not Mr. I'm hearing a conga line in my head. That's ridiculous. "You still shouldn't have gone. It was dangerous."

"Dangerous smangerous. It was just a portal." There was a small hysterical voice in my head that wondered if I could have said that so nonchalantly six months ago.

"It's not supposed to be a portal. It's the Untempered Schism." I raised an eyebrow at him. It hadn't meant anything to me before, and him emphasizing it differently still didn't mean anything to me. "It's an open window into the time vortex itself. You could have been trapped, or torn apart. You could have been killed Fitzgerald."

"Oh, is that all?" My voice didn't sound as lighthearted as I would have liked it to.

"You are infuriatingly trouble prone, do you know that?" Please, he hardly knew the half of it.

"That's part of my charm." I smiled.

"I'm sure." He said with a shake of his head, finally pushing himself away from the wall. "You said you retrieved it?"

"Yep." I pulled the cube out for him to get a look at. He scanned it carefully with his screwdriver before nodding with approval. "This seems to be it. Which means the Doctor is probably walking into a trap."

"Where did he end up?" And where was Jack for that matter. Or Ailla. Lots of missing people in the mountain of doom.

"Only one way to find out." He took a step forward, but when he stumbled I caught him.

"Maybe we should wait…" While he seemed better off, now that he was away from the Untempered Schism, he certainly didn't look healthy.

"No, the longer we wait the more likely they'll come back. I can walk, it's just going to be…slower." He said the word as though it were a disease. The mighty Professor, reduced to slow. Bet he'd be a real hoot to be around when he was actually old and feeble.

"Alright, let's go then." I tucked his arm across my shoulder and while he fixed me with a curious stare, he also didn't shove me away. Probably because he knew this was the only way we'd get anywhere before next year. Our progress was slow, but not as slow as it could be, and while the ground started to rise at an incline, we managed anyway.

"How did you find the stairs?" He asked, surprising me that he had the breath for conversation. "They were quite well hidden and I tried to leave them unmarked with my passing."

Dumb luck, would be how I'd describe it. But it wasn't really 'luck' to fall down stairs. So just dumb then. "Oh…I just kind of, noticed them." There was a moment of silence where I thought maybe he'd bought my explanation.

"Did you fall into them?" There was no laughter in his voice but it didn't make it any less humiliating. I looked over at him with a scowl, he appeared to be inspecting the scrapes across my forehead, or possibly the ones across my knuckles.

"No. I more of…did…I sort of-" Nothing. I had nothing. "Yes, I fell down them." I finally admitted. Careful not to look at him directly, but it didn't matter, because I could see the half smile out of the corner of my eye anyway. Smug bastard.

He sighed. "If you stayed out of trouble for more than five seconds, it'd be a bloody miracle."

"Hey," I snapped. No one needed to be reminded of my seemingly subconscious desire to die in a horrible and violent way, least of all me. "Of the two of us, try to remember who's bleeding profusely. And hearing things. And while we're at it, let's remember who saved your ass. Me. The answer is me."

"You're right." He admitted, doing that annoying 'staring at me' thing again. "Thank you."

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it." I shot him a look but quickly avoided those uncomfortable eyes of his. Despite the dimly lit corridors, I was certain he could spot the flood of blood rushing to my face. Genuinely meant gratitude was enough to shame anyone. "Because I'm not very good at it."

"Nonsense. You're shooting is remarkable for less than a day of training. And your timing was quite good too." He didn't even sound snide about it, which is why I decided not to mention that I'd actually been aiming for the man's head, and not his shoulder. It really was a minor detail and what was important in this context, was that I'd shot him at all. And that I hadn't shot the Professor. That's all anyone would need to know. "We should find-" We both came to a stop, because we were about to run out of space. The faint light illuminated just enough of the cavern to make it clear that it had caved in.

"Well, that's not good." The thick lump in my throat agreed with me. Don't panic. There's another way out, we'll just have to go back. That didn't mean there wouldn't just be another collapsed pile of rubble that way, but it was probably best not to think about that right now.

"About time someone showed up." The Doctor's voice called from near the ground. "Is that you Fitz? What are you doing here? Didn't we leave you with instructions to wait outside?"

"You took too long, idiot." My voice was giddy with relief as I abandoned the Professor and ran forward. The bow-tie wearing moron was on the ground, but largely unburied. Of course, I say 'largely' because where his legs should have been, there was a pile of rocks. That was slightly less reassuring. "Doctor, are you…is everything okay?" Don't think about mangled limbs. Definitely don't think about that right now.

"Yes. Absolutely. Well," he patted a large boulder that was behind his back. "Other than a rather unpleasant drop in with some time lords. And being trapped under these rocks, completely fine. Nothing broken anyway. Although I can't feel my toes…" He brought out his sonic and beamed the transmitter down toward where his legs might be if they weren't buried. "Yes. Not to worry. Just fallen asleep. A bit tight, and lifting rocks is somewhat more difficult when you're pinned under them. Not many people know that."

"Right." I hunched down and started to peel away the loose rocks, making sure I didn't move any that looked like they would bring down the whole mountain. The Professor joined in shortly, though he moved decidedly slower.

"And what do you mean 'took too long' we've hardly been down here for more than…Ah." He said, tapping the screwdriver against his skull. "Times a bit wobbly down here. Probably due to fluctuations in the vortex itself. And the added confusion of the matrices. Speaking of which, have we had any luck finding ours?"

"Yes. Fitzgerald tracked it down."

"Oh brilliant," the Doctor beamed at me, and then to my dismay, reached out with his hand and ruffled my hair like a dog. It crossed my mind to leave him trapped here. Forever. "Well done! Now if we can just get-" He stopped, his mouth hanging open as he listened for something.

"Er… is there-"

"Shh." He pressed a finger against my lips and listened even harder. We both stopped pushing rocks and that's when I could hear it. The 'pop pop pop' of gunfire. It was faint, but very distinct. It was followed by shouting, and a scream. I looked up toward the ceiling and could see how the noise was reaching us, through tiny gaps between the rocks. Somewhere on the other side of this giant pile of rubble, Ailla was in a shit ton of trouble.

"Ailla." The Professor said, coming to the same conclusion as me. He turned to the Doctor. "When you mentioned time lords, I imagine they weren't friendly?"

"No." The Doctor said with a frown, finally lowering his finger from my face. "Rather the opposite I'm afraid. Several of them were caught beneath the cave-in, but it wouldn't surprise me if a few were left. And they're not likely to be in a good mood."

"I've got it." I said, dusting my hands off. Not that I actually wanted to handle it, but it wasn't like there were loads of options.

"Got it?" The Doctor looked at me incredulously. "By what? Providing another target? Hardly a good idea, Fitz." I was about to open my mouth to argue when I realized that he still didn't know I was packing heat. There was a part of me that wanted to show it to him, prove that it had actually saved our ass. But there was a much larger part that didn't want to disappoint the Doctor by admitting I'd brought one after the scathing lecture he'd given Jack. So I just kept my mouth shut.

"It's alright. I'll go." The Professor said with a groan as he stood up.

"What are you going to do? Crawl to the rescue?" I snorted.

"I'll be fine."

"Okay, but don't try and get yourself killed just so I can't lord it over you that I saved you." That was as close as I was going to get to admitting that I might have been a little worried letting him out of my sight in the condition he was in.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he put a hand on my shoulder before he left. "Work quickly and…don't do anything stupid." As he walked away, I was somewhat reassured that he didn't look as much like the car wreck victim he had resembled earlier.

"Quite reasonable advice," the Doctor commented as I returned to my task of hauling rocks. Now it became clearer why the Professor might have wanted to save the day instead of stay behind. Damn him. "You two seem to be getting along." He added, careful to look like he was busy with his screwdriver.

"Yeah. He always says such sweet things." I rolled my eyes as a particularly stubborn boulder tried to smash my fingers.

"Think he fancies you." He said with certainty. It caught me off guard, but it wasn't really that embarrassing coming from the TARDIS passenger who was the least likely to catch onto that sort of thing.

"He said 'don't do anything stupid'. The 'because you're an idiot' was thinly veiled subtext."

"Well, it is good advice. The best advice really. And I only give it to the very best." I paused my efforts to level the Doctor with a stare. "Alright, I give it to everyone. But I'm a people person. I generally like humanity. The Professor…well. He doesn't. That's all I'm trying to say. He might well be worried after you."

"Yeah, thanks for that. I'll jot that down in my diary." With a grunt I managed to move the last heavy rock out of the way, beneath it, were two, fairly healthy, if dusty, looking legs.

"You've got a diary?" The Doctor's interest was piqued.

"No I don't have a- Why don't we not talk about this. And get up, you're free to go."

"Ah, excellent work!" The Doctor chose to ignore my attitude and instead, rejoiced in his newfound freedom. "Let's get moving then, shall we? Love a good adventure, but I'm about tapped out on this one." He let me help hoist him to his feet, and then with a few jumps and leg flails, he was ready to go. Running, as per usual, back down the way me and the Professor had come. Trying to ignore the fact that maybe the Professor might not have reached Ailla in time. Or the fact that I was a lot more nervous than I had rights to be, and not just for Ailla's sake. Sure, he was a jackass, and I was always annoyed with him, but he was my jackass. Well. Not my jackass. But a jackass I worried about, so he made my priority list. Just barely. But no one else needed to know about that.

The Doctor was making excellent time for someone who'd nearly had his legs crushed off, or maybe I was just glaringly out of shape. But we finally made it back to the stairs and I thought I heard the laser screwdriver carving a path through the air. That had to mean he was still alive. Or he was dead and someone was using his device. Right, that's what I needed to do right now, freak myself out.

As we both turned the corner, he kind of swan-dove off that priority list of mine completely.

The path near the stairs was littered with bodies, well, like four, but that was still a lot more than I was used to. But that wasn't really what had caught my eye, because the ones on the ground were clearly dead, and no longer my concern. No, what I found interesting, were the two figures standing just below the beam of light shining down on them. Loads closer than they needed to be. Specifically, in their mouth region. Where they seemed to be attached.

This is probably exactly why Jack should have never given me a gun.

Ailla pulled back and threw her arms around the Professor's neck, apparently finished. "Thank Gallifrey you came when you did." She sounded pretty relieved, and a small part of me could understand why. Behind them, there were a few more bodies, one of them still smoldering. More than half a dozen in total, which was at least seven more than I could have handled. And probably at least three more than Ailla could have managed on her own. Couldn't say I was excessively happy about her survival, just now.

The Doctor and I stood there awkwardly for a moment as the Professor finally noticed our presence. It was made easier now that he wasn't sucking face with combat Barbie.

"Um. Ailla." He said, pulling at her arms gently. I'm sure he was really suffering with her wrapped around him like a scarf. Though I did notice him wince as he shifted his bleeding shoulder. Good. She spun around and smiled as she saw us.

"Did you get it?" She didn't even bother to apologize for the really unnecessary PDA that the Doctor, and more importantly, I had suffered through. I gave a sharp nod and she grinned even wider. "That's a relief, great job." She ran forward and threw her arms around me. Hugs for everyone today. To my credit, I stood there and didn't reach for my weapon. If that didn't put me up for sainthood, nothing would. "We better get moving, I don't know if there's more coming. Only a matter of time before they realize what we've done and they organize." The smile faded from her face as she looked over my shoulder. "Only, I…I found Jack." She swallowed. That's when I followed her gaze and saw that one of the bodies wasn't actually a defeated time lord. It was Jack, the crook of his neck looking torn and bloodied.

Well shit.

"I'm so sorry." Ailla whispered, I jerked my hand out of her grip and knelt down next to Jack. He sure looked dead. But he had said that was impossible. Long term, anyway. I slapped at his face, gently, and then once with some real gusto. His eyes flickered and finally opened, a groan emerging from his mouth.

"Fitz? That you?" There was an effort made to smile, but it was a pretty weak one. "Did I just get juice-boxed by a deranged time lord?"

"Sounds about right." I let out a short, but relieved breath. Sure, he was immortal. Everything was immortal. Until something killed it. But apparently, Captain Jack Harkness had another 'last stand' at some point in the future. "Come on, we're going home." I said, helping him to sit upright, and then stand. Ailla made little annoying mewling noises of happiness, but I ignored her.

"Atta boy, Jack." The Doctor smiled as he dusted of Jack's lapels for him. Which were also soaked in blood. But it was the thought that counted. Jack was heavy, but as we moved forward, he seemed better able to carry his own weight. The Professor caught up with us and started to try to help.

No. Not having any of that.

"I got it. Why don't you just make sure you can get yourself down the hill." I glared at him. Like a child. Especially since there was no earthy reason why he should know what the hell I was so pissed off about. Whatever, now really wasn't the time to deal with the fact that maybe I wasn't okay with the idea of Ailla-

Nope. Really not the time. Just because I wanted to pull her hair and call her names didn't mean she was wrong. If we stuck around, we would be in trouble, and a lot of it.

"Let's go." I said over my shoulder, intently not looking at the Professor, despite the fact that I could feel those pale eyes of his begging me to do so. Right now, we needed to get the hell out of dodge. And that's all I was going to worry about.