Chapter Nine:
Scarlett's nerves shook as she climbed down a rope ladder; a shaky, unstable rope ladder. "Doctor, if I fall, I swear I will –"
"Oh, you'll be fine! Come on; no time to lose," he said, clapping his hands together in what could only be described as a patronising way. Scarlett rolled her eyes, getting so distracted by thinking of ways she could injure the Doctor that her foot missed the last rung of the ladder and she slipped; falling straight into the man himself. He stumbled backwards slightly before catching himself and wrapping his arms around her waist to ensure she didn't fall flat on her face.
They both tried to ignore the position of his hands and to break the tension; Scarlett gave him a playful shove backwards. "See what I mean? I could've died!"
The Doctor chuckled, "Oh come on, Scarlett. How many people do you know that have died from falling off the last rung of a ladder?"
"I'm sure it's happened to someone!"
He was about to retort but was cut off by Amy – who had just climbed down the ladder with River – asking them where they were.
"It's an Aplan mortarium. Sometimes called a maze of the dead," said River as the Doctor went off to grab whatever a 'gravity globe' is.
"And what's that?" Amy continued.
"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone," said the Doctor, pausing to kick the gravity ball like it was a football. It flew into the air before freezing, letting off just the right amount of light for them to see the statues lining the cave walls, "the perfect hiding place."
"I guess this makes it a bit trickier," said Octavian as Scarlett took a spare torch from Amy and switched it on in preparation.
"A bit, yeah," nodded the Doctor.
"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues... A lot harder than I'd prayed for," Octavian replied.
"A needle in a haystack," River added.
"A needle that looks like hay," started the Doctor. "A hay-like needle of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack of, er… statues," He shook his head. "No, yours was fine."
Scarlett rolled her eyes and stuck close to Amy. One statue was enough but now she was surrounded by them and the only way for them to go was up. Not only that, but her eye was still itching like crazy. Every time she tried to get the dust out; she found that there was nothing there. If I get some kind of eye infection because of this stupid cave, I will not be happy, she sulked.
"Right," said Octavian, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question – how do we fight it?"
"We find it, and hope," said the Doctor, taking off without another word.
"Oh, that's comforting," Scarlett mumbled as Amy quickly followed him.
Octavian stopped River to have a chat and Scarlett raised her eyebrows at her as if to ask 'Do I stay or do I go?' She waved her on with a small smile and Scarlett nodded once before taking off again.
When the brunette caught up with the Doctor and Amy, they were making small talk and shining their torches in every direction, looking carefully at the statues. She followed suit for a little while, before the itch in her eye got so unbearable that she had to stop. Pointing her torch downwards, Scarlett lifted her free hand and rubbed her eye gently. Normally the itch would subside and she would carry on as normal, but this time was different; as she rubbed her eye, she felt some kind of powder flow through the gaps in her fingers. Frowning, she pulled her hand away abruptly; just in time to see dark sand and grit fall to the floor.
There is no way that came out of my eye, Scarlett told herself. Maybe I just had some dust on my hands and I didn't notice it before. Yeah, that must be it.
"You all right?" said a voice from behind.
Scarlett started, and turned to see River next to her. She raised her eyebrows slightly at her reaction but Scarlett just laughed it off. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. 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," Scarlett's eyes widened and River laughed. "Okay, that was fairly bad. Right, give me your arm. This won't hurt a bit." Scarlett didn't have a chance to hesitate as River took her arm and injected her with a syringe that she had been hiding from her view until then. Sneaky River.
"Ow!" Scarlett exclaimed; rubbing the spot on her forearm that had just had a needle jabbed into it.
"There, you see? I lied. It's a viro-stabiliser. Stabilises your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship."
Scarlett nodded in understanding. She supposed she would rather have an injection than die, but that didn't make it hurt any less.
"Ssh," River said, hiding the syringe behind her back as Amy approached to try and trick her the same way she did with Scarlett. Snickering, the younger girl gave a small salute before making her way over to the Doctor. She had no idea what he was supposed to be doing so she just leant against a wall and watched.
"Yes, we are," said River suddenly.
"Sorry, what?" asked the Doctor, his gaze never leaving the device Scarlett had been watching him try to figure out for the last few minutes. She knew not to speak to him at that particular moment; not while he was trying to concentrate.
"Talking about you."
"I wasn't listening, I'm busy."
"Ah," said River. "The other way up."
The Doctor paused, turning the device the right way round before nodding slightly in embarrassment.
"You're so his wife," Amy said.
"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy! This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?"
Please no, Scarlett willed.
"Yep," she replied.
Well then.
"You're good," smiled River. "You're not exactly right… but you are very good."
Amy and River stood on one side of the cave while the Doctor and Scarlett were on the other when they heard it. After all, the sound of gunfire was hard to miss.
Their eyes widened and they followed the sound straight to the main chamber to find a young cleric with his gun out.
"Sorry. Sorry, I thought… I thought it looked at me," the cleric said, his voice shaking slightly.
Scarlett instantly felt bad for the poor man. She probably would've done the same thing he did, anyway.
Octavian stepped up then, "We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?"
"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," said Octavian sharply.
Scarlett grimaced. She had respect for the man, don't get her wrong, but it was hard to like him when he was acting like such an arse.
"Oh, leave him alone! He was just scared. Would you rather he took a chance and shot at what he thought was the Angel or not do anything at all and have him get killed?" she snapped.
Octavian looked like he wanted to retort but had the wit to stay quiet.
Scarlett sighed slightly at her outburst before turning to the younger cleric. "What's your name?"
"Bob, ma'am."
"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob," smiled the Doctor, throwing his arm around Scarlett's shoulders.
"It's a Sacred Name," explained Octavian. "We all have Sacred Names; they're given to us in the service of the Church."
"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?" the Doctor asked kindly.
"Yes, sir."
"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron. Carry on."
"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes," said Octavian before he turned to Bob. "You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach."
Bob nodded and everyone made their way back to their original spots.
On Scarlett's way out of the chamber, she turned to give Bob a reassuring smile, which he returned shakily.
When she turned the corner, Amy joined their arms and walked with her.
"That was really nice of you, you know," she said. "What you did for Bob. Octavian was bang out of order. Plus, the Doctor thought it was great."
"He did?" Scarlett asked. She had completely forgotten the Doctor was watching her when she told off Octavian.
"Are you joking? He had to fight to keep the grin off his face," she laughed as they met up with the others, leaving Scarlett feeling strangely proud.
"Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse? There's a whole ship up there," the ginger said as they reached River.
"Incredible builders, the Aplans," she replied.
"Had dinner with their chief architect once. Two heads are better than one," the Doctor added as they continued to climb through the maze.
"You mean you helped him?" Scarlett asked, letting go of Amy and moving closer to the Time Lord instead.
"No, I mean he had two heads."
Oh, of course.
He turned to River. "That book, the very end, what did it say?"
"Hang on," River told him as she pulled a worn out book out of her pack.
"Read it to me."
"What if we had ideas that could think for themselves?" River said, reading a short paragraph from the book. "What if one day our dreams no longer needed us?" As she recited the words, a drip drop of water was heard throughout the cave, adding to the formidable atmosphere. "When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us; the time of Angels."
A tense moment passed as they each absorbed the words written by the Aplans until Amy finally decided to try and lighten the mood.
"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb," she said as everyone relaxed and continued the trek through the cave.
"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go," replied River.
"Lovely species, the Aplans," said the Doctor, shining his torch in every direction. "We should visit them some time."
Scarlett nodded in agreement and copied the actions of the man in front of her, although she had to admit she was hoping she didn't run into the Angel any time soon. Trying to distract herself from the thoughts of the stone savage, she spoke up. "I thought they were all dead?"
"So's Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's having two heads. You're never short of a snog with an extra head," the Doctor concluded.
"Doctor, there's something," River said suddenly, pulling the Doctor out of his reverie. "I don't know what it is…"
"Yeah, something wrong. Don't know what it is yet either, working on it," nodded the Doctor before continuing his speech. "Then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you," He paused, "Um, no offence, Bishop."
"Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor," he replied as they walked through a narrow corridor filled with statues. "Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up from here. That way," He gestured with his gun.
"Church had a point, if you think about it," Scarlett said.
Amy nodded with a slight laugh. "I know, right? The divorces must have been messy."
They continued their journey through the corridor until the Doctor stopped abruptly, almost causing Amy and Scarlett to bang straight into his back like they usually did.
"Oh," he said, his face dropping in realisation.
"What's wrong?" Scarlett asked.
"Oh," said River, clearly noticing the same thing as the Doctor.
"Exactly."
"How could we not notice that?" she growled, angry at herself.
"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick." How could I have not noticed this before? He scolded himself. Stupid, stupid Doctor!
Octavian turned. "What's wrong, Sir?"
"Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are," the Doctor said, throwing out his arm to keep everyone back. As if they would be going anywhere anyway. "Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in danger."
"What danger?" Amy frowned.
"The Aplans," River said.
Well, that explained nothing, Amy thought, oblivious to the fact that Scarlett was thinking the exact same thing.
"The Aplans?" Octavian repeated.
"They've got two heads," she answered vaguely.
"Yes, I get that," said Octavian, practically fighting to hold back a sigh. "So?"
"So why don't the statues?" the Doctor questioned.
Oh.
"Everyone, over there. Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak," he continued, giving Scarlett a small shove backwards to a space sans statues. "I want you all to switch off your torches."
"Doctor?" Amy said, clearly thinking the man had gone mad… Which he probably had.
"Just do it," He paused and waited until the torches were all switched off. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."
River frowned. "Are you sure about this?"
"No," he admitted before switching off his torch for a split second. When he switched it back on, the statues in the cave had all turned to face them.
"Oh my God –" Scarlett started.
"– they've moved," finished Amy.
The Doctor ran ahead and they followed quickly.
You know how people pinch themselves to check if they're having a dream? Scarlett had done that. At least five times already. Yet she still found herself just hoping that this particular adventure was all just a nightmare and that she'd wake up soon on the TARDIS, safe and sound.
"They're Angels; all of them," the Doctor said.
River shook her head, placing her hand on the small of Scarlett's back and rubbing it reassuringly. "But they can't be."
God, Scarlett really hoped she was right.
"Clerics, keep watching them!" ordered the Doctor, looking behind them to see that the Angels had moved forward. "Every statue in this maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel…"
Fear gripped Scarlett's heart and she shook her head in disbelief.
"And they're coming after us."