The Time of Angels pt. 2
The Doctor rushes to the door and sticks his head out.
"Doctor! We're through!" We hear Octavian say. The Doctor pulls his head back inside.
"Okay. Now it starts." He walks out the door. River and I head for the door. I notice Amy is still standing there.
"Coming?" I ask as River continues out the door.
"Yeah, coming. There's just something in my eye." Amy rubs the corner of her eye with her finger.
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We each take a turn climbing down a rope ladder. When I reach the bottom, one of Octavian's men hands me a torch. I turn it on and look around.
"Do we have a gravity globe?" The Doctor questions.
"Grav globe," Octavian calls.
"Where are we? What is this?" Amy questions as we continue to look around us.
"It's an Aplan mortarium-sometimes called a maze of the dead." River explains.
"What's that?" I ask.
"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone…" The Doctor kicks the globe and it soars high before lighting up the cavern. "Ha, ha…the perfect hiding place." Looking around, I see statues everywhere.
"I guess this makes it a bit trickier." Octavian comments and I laugh in agreement.
"A bit, yeah." I comment.
"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I prayed for." Octavian mentions.
"A needle in a haystack," River uses the age old saying.
"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle. Of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues." The Doctor turns to Octavian. "No, yours was fine."
"Right, check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection." Octavian's men spread out and check the statues. "One question-how do we fight it?"
"We find it, and hope." The Doctor takes off and Amy and I follow him.
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Dripping water is heard all around us as we travel through the maze. The Doctor and Amy are ahead of me a little ways and I walk alone. River catches me and we walk together. She pulls something out of her pocket.
"Give me your arm," she says and I do. "This will stabilize your immune system." I flinch as she injects me.
"Thanks." She smiles and we continue walking. We come upon Amy, who is looking weirdly at her hand.
"You all right?" I ask as she turns around startled.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She laughs off before turning to River, "So what's a maze of the dead?"
"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls." We both give her a strange look. "Okay, that was fairly bad. Right, give me your arm. This won't hurt a bit." I hide a grin knowing Amy's going to hate it.
"Ow!" Amy cries. River and I laugh.
"There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabilizer. Stabilizes your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship." Amy glances up at the Doctor.
"So what's he like? In the future, I mean. Cos you know him in the future, don't you?"
"The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor." Amy looks at her incredulously.
"Oh, well, that's, um, very helpful. Mind if I write that down?" I laugh at Amy's reaction. River looks to the Doctor.
"Yes, we are."
"Sorry, what?" He questions tapping on a computer pad.
"Talking about you." River clarifies.
"I wasn't listening, I'm busy."
"Ah." River states before adding. "The other way up." He flips it over.
"Yeah." He says reading.
"You're so his wife," Amy whispers to River.
"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy! This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?" The Doctor looks at us.
"Yep," we both say at the same time.
"You're good. I'm not saying you're right, but you are very good." River says as we stare up at the top of the maze.
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A burst of rapid gunfire attracts our attention. We sprint off in the direction of the noise. When we arrive one of the clerics is holding his gun and looking at a statue. There are several marks on the statue from the bullets.
"Sorry. Sorry, I thought…I thought it looked at me." The cleric says. He looks to be around Amy's age.
"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian demands of the young cleric.
"No, sir."
"No, sir, it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of décor."
"What's your name?" the Doctor asks of him.
"Bob, sir."
"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob."
"It's a Scared Name. We all have Sacred Names. They're given to us in the service of the Church." Octavian explains to us. The Doctor walks over to them. Amy and River take a closer look at the statue.
"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?"
"Yes, sir," Bob says shamefully. Octavian looks at him incredulously.
"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron." Octavian gives the Doctor a sideways glance. "Carry on," he finishes as he walks back over to us.
"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes." Octavian directs to the rest of his clerics. He turns back to Bob, "You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach."
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"Isn't there a chance this lot's just going to collapse? There's a whole ship up there." Amy questions a little out of breath.
"Incredible builders, the Aplans." River replies.
"Had dinner with their chief architect once; two heads are better than one." The Doctor tells us.
"What, you me you helped him?" I ask as the Doctor pauses again.
"No, I mean he had two heads. That book, the very end, what did it say?" he asks River.
"Hang on," she replies as she opens it.
"Read it to me."
"'What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels.'" I shiver involuntarily at those words. The Doctor continues and we follow, Octavian and his men right behind.
"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb." Amy complains out of breath.
"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go." River replies.
"Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them sometime." The Doctor suggests to us.
"I thought they were all dead," Amy states matter-of-factly.
"So is Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's having two heads, of course. You're never short of a snog with an extra head." The Doctor replies jokingly. I feel like there is something I should notice about the statues.
"Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is…" River voices my same concerns as they gaze intently at one of the statues.
"Yeah, there's something wrong. Don't know what it is yet, either. Working on it. Course, then they had laws against self-marrying and what was that about?" The Doctor flows seamlessly between topics. "But that's the Church for you. Er, no offence, Bishop."
"Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor," Octavian replies before stalking away. We watch for a moment before following.
"Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up form here. That way." Octavian directs.
"Church had a point, if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy." Amy states and I roll my eyes.
"Oh!" the Doctor suddenly interjects.
"What's wrong?" Amy asks fearfully. Everyone stops and looks at each other, before River and I speak at the same time.
"Oh," River and the Doctor look at me but I am staring at the statue in front of me. We look around at the other statues. They all have only one head. The Aplans are supposed to have two heads.
"Exactly."
"How could we not notice that?" River whispers a little freaked out.
"Low-level perception filter, or maybe we're thick," the Doctor says pointing his light at a statue.
"What's wrong, sir?" Octavian asks concerned.
"Nobody move. Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in terrible danger."
"What danger?" he replies as Amy and I look around fearfully.
"The Aplans," River answers.
"The Aplans?" he questions.
"They've got two heads."
"Yes, I get that. So?"
"So why don't the statues?" I ask him.
"Everyone, over there. Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak." The Doctor directs us. We quickly move to where he directs. He joins us, torch still on the statue. "Okay. I want you all to switch off your torches."
"Sir?" Octavian asks skeptically.
"Just do it." Amy switches her torch off first and the rest of us follow suit. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one, too, just for a moment."
"Are you sure about this?" River asks in a serious tone.
"No," he replies truthfully. He shuts his torch off for a moment. When he turns the light back on, the statues have moved. The Doctor takes off down the passage.
"Oh, my God! They've moved." Amy says in shocked surprise. We shine the torches at all the statues. They are all looking at us. We race off after the Doctor. We catch up as he is shining his torch on a statue that looks like it is crawling.
"They're Angels. All of them!"
"But they can't be!" River says trying to counteract her gut feeling.
"Clerics, keep watching them." The Doctor says as he takes off back down the passage. River, Amy, and I follow after him. Every statue is coming after us. "Every statue in this maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us." The Doctor looks at us and Amy glances at me a little freaked out.
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"There was only one Angel on the ship. Just the one, I swear." River defends her initial findings.
"Could they have been here already?" Amy puts out the question.
"The Aplans. What happened, how did they die out?" The Doctor questions River.
"Nobody knows."
"We know."
"They don't look like Angels," Octavian says looking at them.
"And they're not fast. You said they were fast. They should have had us by now." Amy reasons with the Doctor.
"Look at them. They're dying. Losing their form. They've been down here for centuries, starving."
"Losing their image," I finish for him.
"And their image is their power. Power…" he pauses as a thought comes to him. "Power!" he exclaims.
"Doctor?" Amy questions his reaction.
"Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out of the drive burn; the crash of the Byzantium wasn't an accident-it was a rescue mission for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army and it's waking up."
"We need to get out of here fast," River exclaims.
"Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in!" Octavian says into his communicator.
"It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir."
"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active!"
"I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir." The Doctor takes the communicator from Octavian.
"Bob, Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?"
"I'm on my way up to you, sir. I'm homing in on your signal."
"Well done, Bob. Scared keep you fast. Told you, didn't I. Your friends, Bob, what did the Angel do to them?"
"Snapped their necks, sir." River and a cleric share a look as Amy grabs my arm and squeezes.
"That's odd. That's not how the Angels kill you they displace you in time; unless they needed bodies for something." The Doctor states as Octavian takes the communicator from his hand.
"Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan." The Doctor takes the communicator back/
"Don't be an idiot! The Angels don't leave you alive!" He speaks into the communicator again, "Bob, keep running, but tell me, how did you escape?"
"I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too." Amy's grip on my arm tightens as she looks at River. I gasp a little in pain and Amy eases her grip.
"What do you mean, the Angel killed you, too?"
"Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something."
"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?"
"You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion."
"So when you say you're on your way up to us…"
"It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes."
"No way out," the Doctor says.
"Then we get out through the wreckage," Octavian says as he motions his men forward. River looks at me and Amy as she heads off.
"Go, go. All of you, run!" The Doctor instructs. Amy hangs back.
"Doctor?"
"Yes, I'm coming, just go, go, go!" He gives her a nudge and she takes off.
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Amy is following right behind me, but she stops suddenly. I turn around to look at her and see she is frozen in fear with her hand still on the railing. On my way back to her the Doctor comes.
"Don't wait for me. Go, run." He says as he rushes back.
"I can't!" Amy cries and the Doctor comes back looking her over. "No, really, I can't."
"Why not?" I ask seeing nothing keeping her from moving.
"Look at it. Look at my hand. It's stone!" the Doctor and I look at her hand. It isn't stone. He shines the torch in her eyes.
"You looked into the eyes of an Angel, didn't you?"
"I couldn't stop myself. I tried."
"Listen to me. It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone."
"It is. Look at it!" she replies determinedly. I look at the Doctor helplessly.
"It's in your mind. I promise you. You can move that hand. You can let go."
"I can't, okay? I've tried and I can't. It's stone." Our torches flicker.
"The Angel is going to come and it's going to turn these lights off, and then there's nothing I can do to stop it. So do it, concentrate, move your hand."
"I can't," she replies again.
"Then we're all going to die," I tell her.
"You're not going to die," she says in her big sister tone.
"They'll kill the lights," he tells her. The torches flicker again.
"You've got to go, you know you have. You've got all that stuff with River and that's all got to happen. You know you can't die here!" she pleads with the Doctor.
"Time can be re-written, it doesn't work like that." The light flickers out for a second. We all stare at the incoming Angels. "Keep your eyes on it. Don't blink."
"Run!" she demands us.
"You see, I'm not going," I glare at the Doctor's words and he understands.
"We're not leaving you here," I tell her defiantly.
"I don't need you to die for me, Doctor, do I look that clingy?"
"You can move your hand," he tells her.
"It's stone."
"It's not stone!" I yell at her stubbornness.
"You've got to go." The lights flicker again. "Jaz, please go. Doctor, those people up there will die without you. If you stay here with me, you'll have as good as killed them."
"Amy Pond, you are magnificent," he tells her putting his head to hers. "And I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I understand. You've got to leave me."
"Oh, no, I'm not leaving you, never. I'm sorry about this." He bends down and bites her hand.
"Ow!" she cries in pain as she moves her hand.
"See, not stone! Now run!" She turns on him.
"You bit me!"
"Yeah, and you're alive." He says pointing the torch at the Angel.
"I've got a mark! Look at my hand!" Amy laments wiping her hand. I grab her by the arm and try to pull her along.
"Yeah, and you're alive, did I mention?"
"Blimey, your teeth! Have you got space teeth?"
"Alive. All I'm saying." I pull Amy one more time and she finally follows. We take off running with the Doctor right behind us.
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"Yeah, it's the Angels. They're coming and they're draining the power for themselves." The Doctor states as we come within earshot of the others.
"Which means we won't be able to see them," Octavian laments.
"Which means we can't stay here," the Doctor replies to his comment.
"There are two more incoming!" One of the clerics calls out. After the lights flicker again.
"Any suggestions?" River questions the Doctor.
"The statues are advancing on all sides and we don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium." Octavian gives us the bad news.
"There's no way up, no way back, no way out. No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea." The torches are flickering continuously now as the Doctor thinks.
"There's always a way out." The lights go out again. "There's always a way out." He says looking around for another passage.
"Doctor? Can I speak to the Doctor, please?"
"Hello, Angels. What's your problem?"
"Your power will not last much longer, and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir." Amy inches closer to River and pulls me in close to her. We look around at the approaching Angels as the lights continue to flicker.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end."
"Which is?"
"I died in fear."
"I'm sorry?"
"You told me my fear would keep me alive, but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down."
"What are they doing?" Amy questions River.
"They're trying to make him angry."
"I'm sorry, sir. The Angels were very keen for you to know that."
"Well, then, the Angels have made their second mistake, because I'm not going to let that pass. I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier."
"But you're trapped, sir, and about to die."
"Yeah. I'm trapped. You know what? Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great, big mistake in it. A great, big, whopping mistake!"
"What mistake, sir?" The Doctor turns to look at us.
"Trust me," he says to Amy and me.
"Yeah," we answer immediately. He turns to River.
"Trust me?"
"Always," River answers after a pause. He turns to Octavian and the clerics.
"You lot-trust me?" The others look at each other. One cleric turns back to the tunnel and calls out.
"Sir, two more incoming!" Octavian turns to the Doctor.
"We have faith, sir."
"Then give me your gun." Amy watches as the Doctor takes the gun. "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do…" He jumps while saying, "Jump!"
"Jump where?" Octavian asks.
"Just jump, high as you can. Come on, leap of faith, Bishop. On my signal," the Doctor warns.
"What signal?" he asks again.
"You won't miss it." The Doctor raises the gun and aims at the grav-globe. Amy takes my hand.
"Sorry, can I ask again? You mentioned a mistake we've made?"
"Oh, a big, big mistake. Really huge. Didn't anyone ever tell you, there's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap."
"And what would that be, sir?" We all look at the Doctor before he replies.
"Me," he says and then fires the gun. The grav-globe bursts and we jump.