Chapter Twelve:

Scarlett was getting weaker by the second. Her whole body felt like lead and it was taking all her strength to just put one foot in front of the other. You know when you've missed breakfast and are only running on a few hours of sleep? It felt like that, times by a trillion. Not only that, but her head was pounding. Like there was something inside her trying to fight its way out.

After around 10 minutes of walking, she knew she wouldn't be able to make it much further. Her pace had slowed considerably and she was starting to feel nauseous. Amy seemed to notice her condition as her knees buckled and she almost fell straight into one of the clerics. Luckily, River was quick; she ran over and gripped Scarlett's arms in an attempt to hold her up, all while dragging her over to a flat rock a few inches in front of them.

"Scarlett? Scarlett, what's wrong?" River asked as the girl sat down shakily.

"Scarlett?" Amy frowned when her friend didn't answer. The look on her face was of pure worry. Everybody was looking at Scarlett anxiously while the clerics glanced between her and their surroundings.

"Four," Scarlett said weakly before lowering herself down so that she was curled up on top of the moss-covered rock.

"Med-scanner, now!" River ordered.

"Doctor Song, we can't stay here," said Octavian hesitantly. "We've got to keep moving."

"We wait for the Doctor," River replied simply, all while scanning Scarlett with the device she had taken from one of the clerics.

"Our mission is to make this wreckage safe and neutralise the Angels. Until that is achieved –" Octavian started.

"Father Octavian," River cut in. "When the Doctor is in the room, your only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home. And trust me; it's not easy. Now, if he's dead back there, I'll never forgive myself, and if he's alive, I'll never forgive him. And, Doctor, you're standing right behind me, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah," grinned the Doctor from behind River.

"I hate you," River said, although she was doing her best to fight off a smile.

"No, you don't. Bishop, the Angels are in the forest," the Doctor said, making his way over to the rock. Between all of the conversations, Amy had sat beside her friend and by now, Scarlett's head was in her lap while she stroked her hair comfortingly.

"We need visual contact on every line of approach," Octavian told his clerics.

"How did you get past them?" River asked the Doctor.

"Found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe."

"What was it?" Amy asked.

"The end of the universe," he answered simply before taking the med-scanner from River. "Let's have a look then."

"What's wrong with me?" Scarlett croaked; causing Amy to gently shush her and tell her she'll be okay.

"Nothing, you're fine," said River.

"Everything, you're dying," the Doctor corrected her.

"Doctor!" River snapped.

"Yes, you're right, if we lie to her, she'll get all better!" he snapped back, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Right. Scarlie! Scarlie; what's the matter with Scarlett? Something's in her eye. What does that mean? Does it mean anything?"

Scarlett wanted to smile at the use of the nickname Amy first gave her when they were little – the Doctor had heard Amy say it on the TARDIS one day and had been using it ever since – but it was like her body wouldn't co-operate with her. Plus there was the whole dying thing to worry about. Yeah, maybe now wasn't the best time to smile after all.

"Doctor," Amy said.

"Busy."

"She's scared!"

"'Course she's scared, she's dying, shut up!"

"Okay, let him think," River said calmly, when really, she was just trying to seem relaxed for their sake.

"What happened?" the Doctor said, mainly to himself as the cogs in his brain turned, trying to search for an explanation. "She stared at the Angel; she looked into the eyes of an Angel for too long…"

"Sir! Angel, incoming!" yelled one of the clerics before another confirmed that he, too, could see an Angel approaching.

"Keep visual contact, do not let it move!" Octavian ordered.

The Doctor started to pace and slapped his head to stimulate his brain like he had the first time Scarlett met him. "Come on, come on, wakey wakey! She watched an Angel climb out of the screen. She stared at the Angel and… and…"

"The image of an Angel is an Angel," Scarlett mumbled, reciting what she had heard just an hour or so before all of this happened. Every alarm bell inside of her was ringing at once and she knew she didn't have long left.

"A living image in a human mind," he added. "We stare at them to stop them getting closer, we don't even blink, and that's exactly what they want, because as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel in her mind!" the Doctor slapped his hand over his mouth immediately. He had a small smile on his face once he realised he was close to an epiphany, but when he remembered the severity of the situation, he stopped abruptly.

"Three," Scarlett said involuntarily, before regaining control of her speech. "Doctor, am I going to die?"

"Please just shut up, I'm thinking," he replied. If she had had the strength, Scarlett would've slapped him; but unfortunately, she didn't. "Now counting, what's that about?" He lifted the communicator and held it to his mouth. "Bob, why are they making her count?"

"To make her afraid, sir."

"Okay, but why? What for?"

"For fun, sir."

The Doctor paused before letting out a growl and throwing his communicator with such force that it hit a tree and cracked, falling to the ground in pieces.

"Doctor, what's happening to me?" Scarlett tried again. "Explain!"

"Inside your head, in the vision centres of your brain, there's an Angel," There was a slight crunching sound as the Doctor knelt down to sit in front of Amy and Scarlett. "It's like there's a screen – a virtual screen inside your mind – and the Angel is climbing out of it… and it's coming to shut you off."

If she wasn't panicking before, Scarlett definitely was now. She didn't want to cry in front of everyone – the only person there that had seen her in tears before was Amy – but at that moment, her tear ducts were betraying her.

"Then what do I do?"

"If it was a real screen, what would we do? We'd pull the plug. But we can't just knock her out, the Angel would take over!" the Doctor said, directing his conversation elsewhere.

"Then what? Quickly!" River urged.

"We've got to shut down the vision centres of her brain. We've got to pull the plug, starve the Angel."

Glancing down at the med-scanner, River spoke again. "Doctor, she's got seconds."

"How would you starve your lungs?" he asked her.

"Uh, I'd stop breathing."

"Scarlett, close your eyes!" the Doctor said, turning back to the girl.

"No," Scarlett mumbled, using her little strength to shake her head slightly. "No, I don't want to."

"Good, because that's not you, that's the Angel inside you, it's afraid! Do it! Close your eyes!"

She hesitated slightly, but when the Doctor nodded with a small yet reassuring smile, she complied, shutting her eyes like he wanted.

There was a beep, and River sighed in relief.

"She's normalising. You did it! You did it!"

"Sir? Two more incoming," said a cleric.

"Three more over here," another one added.

"Still weak," River said, in reference to Scarlett, "Dangerous to move her."

Scarlett hated not being able to see what was going on around her and with the help of Amy; she managed to sit up straight on the rock. She still didn't feel great, but compared to how she was before, she could run a marathon. "So, can I open my eyes now?"

"Scarlett, listen to me," the Doctor said and his voice sounded closer than it had before. "If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just sort of... paused it. You've used up your countdown. You cannot open your eyes."

"Doctor, we're too exposed here. We have to move on," Octavian tried.

The Doctor spoke again and Scarlett could tell he had moved away. "We're exposed everywhere, and Scarlett can't move, and anyway, that's not the plan."

"There's a plan?" River asked, placing a hand on Scarlett's shoulder. She jumped at first, not having seen her coming, but relaxed instantly once she realised who it was.

"I don't know yet, I haven't finished talking. Right! Father, you and your Clerics will stay here, look after Scarlett. If anything happens to her, I'll hold each of you personally responsible, twice! River, me, you and Amy, we're going to find the Primary Flight Deck which is… a quarter mile straight ahead. We'll stabilise the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Scarlett."

"How?" River frowned, sounding sceptical.

"I'll do a thing," he answered simply. Truthfully he had no idea what he was going to do, but he would get to that eventually.

"What thing?"

"I don't know; it's a thing in progress. Respect the thing. Moving out!"

Scarlett felt anxious about being left there without the people she trusted. She knew that the clerics wouldn't let anything bad happen to her if they could help it, but she would still feel a lot better if someone else stayed, too.

"Doctor, I'm coming with you," said Octavian, his voice being followed by crunching footsteps. "My clerics can look after Miss Watkins. These are my best men; they'd lay down their lives in her protection."

"I don't need you," the Doctor said, quite rudely in Scarlett's opinion.

"I don't care. Where Doctor Song goes, I go," Now, Scarlett may not have been able to see him but she could just imagine the look on his face at that moment. She'd like to think it was similar to the one he had on when he yelled at Bob earlier.

"What; you two engaged or something?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, in a manner of speaking. Marco, you're in charge 'till I get back."

"Doctor… Please, can't I come with you?" Scarlett pleaded.

"You'd slow us down, Miss Watkins," replied Octavian.

"I don't want to sound selfish or anything, but you'd really speed me up," she retorted.

"You'll be safer here," the Doctor's voice said. "We can't protect you on the move. I'll be back for you soon as I can. I promise."

"You have a thing for saying that," Scarlett answered, remembering how he had left Amy for twelve years when he really intended to be gone for only five minutes.

"I always come back," he said, ignoring the slight pang in his heart at the thought of leaving Scarlett alone. "Good luck everyone. Behave. Do not let that girl open her eyes! And keep watching the forest. Stop those Angels advancing. Scarlett, later! River, going to need your computer."

"Yeah," Scarlett mumbled, wishing she was able to open her eyes just so she could roll them. "Later."

Scarlett found herself fidgeting with her hands, just to give herself something to do instead of worrying about everything that was happening. Her hands froze in their ministrations suddenly when she felt a pair of warm, strong, yet slightly shaky hands grip her own. It took a moment for her brain to realise that it was the Doctor, and she relaxed slightly. But wait, what just brushed against my hand? Is that a jacket? Scarlett frowned. I could've sworn the Doctor had lost his by the time he caught up with us earlier.

"Scarlett," the Doctor said suddenly and she could tell by the loudness of his voice that he was only an inch or so away from her. "You need to start trusting me. It's never been more important."

"But you don't always tell me the truth," Scarlett replied. "You tell Amy."

"If I always told you the truth, I wouldn't need you to trust me."

"Doctor… the crack in Amy's wall, how can it be here?" she asked. She could remember the first time she saw the crack. Beforehand, she would just tell Amy that it was probably made when the house was first built and settling into its foundation, but then she showed it to her and Scarlett told her to forget everything she had said prior to this event. Something about it just freaked her out. And Amy evidently felt the same… and she still did.

"I don't know yet, but I'm working it out. Now, listen. Remember what I told you when we first met?"

Scarlett frowned. "What did you tell me?"

The Doctor sighed in frustration and leaned closer, resting his forehead against Scarlett's. He had to get her to trust him. To remember him. "No, no… That's not the point. You have to remember."

"Remember what? Doctor?" Scarlett called. "Doctor?"

He didn't reply. Instead, he just pressed a kiss to Scarlett's forehead gently, before leaving her alone with the clerics.