Birds were shrieking in the cold night air outside, except they weren't birds.
"Sit. Down."
The angel hissed at the Death, like a cornered cat. She could have easily rushed past him, or destroyed the entire house for that matter, but instead Death's words had their intended effect. She stayed as if she had no other choice. The scythe in his lap glimmered sharply.
The angel clawed at Death, but it went right through him. Death brushed it off, and pretended to yawn. He flapped a stone hand in front of his mouth.
"Are you done now? I mean, you already killed me. And you can't kill me twice… because you can't kill a belief."
The angel resumed to cover her face with her hands and cry. Death rolled his eyes.
"You did this, you know, when you gorged yourself on all of my energy. You hollowed me out. If I had been wearing a bow tie instead of a hoodie I would've been dust, but I got myself a whole new set of regenerations for Christmas, and that makes a lot of potential energy."
The angel wouldn't listen, but Death waited and went on.
"D'you like the outfit?" Death asked, pointing at his attire. "I'm not too sure of it myself. It was either this or Batman. I'm not really Death, but then again you're not really an angel."
Death smiled, adding: "The power of cosplay."
"Go away!"
"Oh, I figured you'd be scared. That's the point. Everyone is scared of Death. He's the cold hard truth while you are a comfortable lie. I represent the ultimate Certainty of all living beings. It's belief that gives you your power, faith that imbues statues with life force and makes them come alive. I don't need belief, because everyone already knows."
"That's your plan?" the angel said, sitting up. Her face was red from crying. "Dress-up?"
"Basically, yes," Death said. "What's yours?"
The angel laughed. Death laughed too.
"I'm giving you a chance," Death added. "I don't want to kill you. Not if I don't have to. I need to know if you have potential. A conscience. Just tell me what the angels are planning, and I promise I'll let you live. I'll take you somewhere nice…"
"Alone?" the angel asked, and Death sighed and bowed his head in silence.
"The other angels can't understand… You're grown up now. It can be boring at times, but it has its moments. So I'm told."
"But they will understand, yes, they will understand when I turn them into more of me. The Angels will live."
"With my energy."
The angel snarled.
"Our food!"
Death gritted his teeth. Outside the window, the dog started barking.
"That's wrong and you know it."
"What's wrong?" the angel asked.
"Hurting people, that's wrong."
The angel looked over the statues of the family she'd left behind, the people whose lives she'd gorged on for snacks.
The dog barked again. Time was running out.
"You're just bags of meat and chemicals. You're gonna die anyway. What does it matter what I do to you? We live forever. What's the point of showing mercy? The human race is just an accident. "
Death was baffled. "What's the point? Are you seriously asking me that? What kind of idiot are you?"
"We walked the ancient forests until the great Stones fell. We are the Children of Light. We were there when the foundations of the Earth were created. We lift our voices to the clouds to call upon the mighty Father to raise him from his slumber. Who are you to judge us?"
"Who am I?" Death grinned hopelessly. "I'm just a memory. The ghost of the man you killed, come back to haunt you. Yes, be scared. We are judging you."
Alexander the dog couldn't see them well in the dark, but he could smell them. They moved from place to place quickly, sometimes he could see them on the rooftops, but often he found pairs of them moving from window to window, touching the doorposts and moving on, as if marking their grounds. They smelled like gravel. They smelled like graveyards and birds and rain.
"Master! Master!" he barked at the door, but he would not come.
He ran, his tail tucked between his legs, into the shadow of the alley. When the angels came by, he could hear them 'breathing', pulsating almost, as they drew energy from the surrounding air. He could smell them. He barked into the night, then regretted it.
They smelled like old roots of ancient trees, decayed and rotten deep into the soil. Peel off the bark and there'd be maggots and bugs crawling beneath. The smell was all around him, suffocating him. He'd never smelled it like this before. It was as if he could smell the moss growing beneath the carved toenails of the Angel's feet. A shadow moved closer…
A burst of lightning shot through the night and Alexander shuddered. He turned and the sight of the Angels made him curl up his tail and run for cover, all the while barking helplessly.
Why wasn't it working?
The moment the Angel touched the scythe a surge of power entered the world, but it wasn't enough. It was an echo of energy. A whimper. The explosion was enough to shatter the windows and make his toes tingle, but it wasn't enough to reverse the process.
The Angel's claws wrapped around his now as it shrieked mere breaths away from his face. Death struggled and kept fighting to hold on. Energy crackled and flowed through the scythe. Life was returning to him, but it wasn't enough. His hand was still stone and there were cracks appearing in the skin of it.
As soon as the angel realized what was happening, she let go.
Smoke rose from the scythe's handle. Death staggered, catching his breath.
"Your tricks won't work twice, old man! Your knee will bow, and before the end, you will be sorry! You will beg for forgiveness!"
The Angel turned and leapt through the shattered window, breaking the frame as it did so. Flapping its enormous wings, it rose above the rooftops and into the dark. She was heading toward the basilica.
"Why didn't this work?" Death wondered, pacing around the place. "No no no no…"
He put a hand on the head of the father turned statue sitting at the table. When he realized, he grabbed his own face in shock, and pondered some more. He left in the shadows before anyone could catch him off-guard, but his pondering didn't end there.
"I was wrong," he said to Alexander in the alley. The dog followed him, barking and the nails on his paws tapped the cobblestones as he ran.
"Regeneration energy isn't abstract energy. They couldn't have taken it. But what if she did? Just a sliver. Just a nod in the right direction. What if it could? What if I don't know? What if I'll never know and I'll never beat the Angels? What then?"
Alexander wouldn't stop barking.
"What now, Alex? Can't you see I'm busy?"
Bark! Bark!
"What'd you mean 'you know where the Angels are'? And no, I don't know if you'll get into heaven."
Bark! Bark!
"Well, you're not exactly being a good boy now, are you? Just shut up, I need to think."
Bark! Bark!
He stared out into the distance, narrowing his eyes. The darkness of the basilica's silhouette seemed to stand in stark contrast to the white moonlight touching the clouds.
"Fear and hope and death..." he muttered to himself, "past and present and future. It has to be all connected somehow. And potential energy, that somehow rings a bell…" He looked on to the horizon and then shook his head.
"I can't stop the Angels if I don't know what I'm up against! I can't do it! I need Clara... I need…"
His eyes were drawn to the basilica's steeple, moving up to the point of the highest spire.
"…a lightning rod."
Death worked it out for a moment, then turned around. "Alex, you're a genius! Good boy! You're a very good boy indeed!"
Alexander barked proudly. Then he asked what the Doctor had in mind.
"You want to know what my plan is? It's simpler than you think. I'm actually gonna hijack theirs. But I suppose life is allowed to imitate art once in a while, no?"
He sighed.
"Let's get going. We have to move quick if we want to beat that sunrise. And I have a feeling I know exactly where Clara is right now. Trouble, most like."