Chapter Thirteen:
It felt like hours had passed when in reality; it had only been around 20 minutes. However, from the perspective of someone who couldn't open their eyes in fear of dropping dead, sitting by yourself on a rock while nobody says anything to give you an indication that they're still there, 20 minutes is like an eternity.
"So, what's happening?" Scarlett asked, finally voicing her thoughts. "Anything happening out there?"
"The Angels are still grouping," Marco replied, his voice sounding distant. "Are you getting this too?"
"The trees?" asked a cleric, "Yeah."
"What's wrong with the trees?" Scarlett asked. Why are they talking about trees at a time like this?
"Here too, sir. They're ripping the Treeborgs apart," said another cleric, as if Scarlett wasn't there.
"And here. They're taking out the lights," added another.
"What is it? What's happening? Tell me. I can't see," Scarlett tried again, the last part sounding more like a growl than anything else.
"It's the trees, ma'am. The trees are going out," answered Marco.
Scarlett was trying her best to imagine what trees going out would even look like when the clerics spoke again.
"Angels advancing, sir."
"Over here, again."
"Weapons primed. Combat distance five feet. Wait for it!" ordered Marco.
Scarlett jumped to her feet. She wasn't sure why. It wasn't like she could provide much help but she was getting so frustrated that she felt the need to do something. "What is it? What's happening? Just tell me!"
"Keep your position and, ma'am, keep your eyes shut!"
Like I even have a choice in the matter, anyway. Scarlett was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the clerics talk amongst themselves until she finally tuned back in.
"Marco, the Angels have gone. Where'd they go?"
"What? The Angels?" Scarlett frowned.
"This side's clear too, sir," another cleric confirmed.
"The Angels have gone?" Scarlett repeated. They wouldn't just leave like that, would they?
"There's still movement out there, but away from us now. It's like they're running."
"Running from what?"
"Phillip, Crispin, need to get a closer look at that," he said.
His voice was followed by a crunching sound, as if the clerics were moving further away.
"What are you all looking at? What's there?" Scarlett asked anxiously, getting tired of being ignored.
"It's like, I don't know..." Marco said and Scarlett was sure that if she could've seen him, he would've been shaking his head in disbelief. "A curtain of energy, sort of shifting… Makes you feel weird, sick."
Scarlett nodded slowly. "And you think it scared the Angels?"
One of the clerics scoffed. "What could scare those things?"
He had a point. Scarlett hadn't seen those Angels become scared of anything and if the Doctor knew of something, she was pretty sure he would have used it already. Shakily, Scarlett turned on the spot, trying to find the source of the commotion.
"What are you doing?" Marco asked, and Scarlett felt his eyes on her.
"Point me in the right direction," she ordered.
"You can't open your eyes," Marco retorted.
"Not for more than a second, that's what the Doctor said. I've still got a bit of countdown left; I only got to three."
"Ma'am, you can't."
"I need to see it. I need to see what's making them so scared," Scarlett pleaded. "Am I looking the right way? I have to be quick."
"Very quick," Marco moved closer and placed his hands on her arms, turning her in a semi-circle so that she was facing in the right direction.
"Okay," Scarlett nodded before finally opening her eyes. She was met with the sight of a bright light, in the shape of the crack that she had seen many times before in Amy's bedroom wall. "It's the same shape! It's the crack in Amy's wall."
"Close your eyes. Now!" Marco urged.
"It's following her! How can it be following her?" The fear for her friend's life and her own, combined with her rapidly decreasing health became too much and she fell to her knees with only Marco holding onto her to keep her steady. He placed his hand over Scarlett's eyes and she closed them quickly, knowing that she had to obey the Doctor's previous orders.
"Are you okay?" Marco asked.
"Yeah… It was the same shape," Scarlett said weakly.
"Marco, you want me to get a closer look at that?" A cleric asked.
"Go for it," nodded Marco. "Don't get too close."
"Hang on, what about the other two?" Scarlett frowned, remembering that two other clerics had already gone off towards the crack. "Why not just wait 'till they're back?"
Marco paused. "What other two?"
"The ones you sent before."
"I didn't send anyone before."
Scarlett shook her head, letting out a small scoff. The stress must have gotten to him. "Yeah, you did. I heard you; Crispin and Phillip."
"Crispin and who? Scarlett, there never was a Crispin or a Phillip on this mission, I promise you."
She sighed in frustration. Was he even listening at all? "No, I heard you. Before you sent Pedro, you sent Crispin and Phillip, and now you can't even remember them. Something happened. I don't know what, and you don't even remember!"
"Pedro?" Marco asked.
"Yeah, before you sent Pedro," Scarlett nodded.
"Who's Pedro?"
"Something's happening!" Scarlett told him. "Pedro was here a second ago and now you can't even remember him!"
"There never was a Pedro," he insisted. "There's only ever been the two of us here!"
"No, there were five of us. Why can't you remember?"
"Listen, listen. I need to get a closer look at that light, whatever it is. Don't worry, I won't get too close."
"No, you can't! You mustn't!"
"Here," he paused to press a communicator into Scarlett's hand. "Spare communicator. I'll stay in touch the whole time."
"You won't. If you go back there what happened to the others will happen to you!"
"There weren't any others!" Marco said again.
"There won't be any you if you go back there!"
"Two minutes, I promise," said Marco before standing up and walking towards his inevitable death.
"Please, just listen to me!" Scarlett yelled after him, but he didn't reply. He was already walking off, leaving her alone in the clearing.
Scarlett sat by herself for a moment, trying to calm down her beating heart.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Two minutes had most definitely passed and Marco still hadn't returned. Lifting the spare communicator to her mouth, Scarlett spoke softly, trying to keep her voice steady.
"Hello, are you there? Hello?" No answer. "Hello?"
"I'm here. I'm fine," Marco's voice came from the speaker and Scarlett sighed in relief. "I'm quite close to it now."
"Then come back! Come back now, please."
"It's weird looking at it. It feels really..." His voice was cut off by the sound of static and she felt her heart skip a beat.
"Really what? Hello? Really what?" There was no reply and though Scarlett knew what must have happened, she kept trying anyway. "Hello? Hello? Hello? Marco, please say you're there. Hello? Marco!"
Someone finally replied, but it wasn't Marco. It was the Doctor.
"Is that you?" he asked.
"Doctor?" Scarlett replied hopefully.
"Where are you? Are the clerics with you?"
"No, they've gone. There was a kind of light and they went towards it and… Doctor, they didn't even remember each other," she explained.
"No, they wouldn't," he replied before pausing to speak to someone – who Scarlett assumed was River – in the background. "Scarlett, I'm sorry. I should never have left you there."
"What do I do now?"
"You come to us," he said simply, "Primary Flight Deck, other end of the forest."
"Doctor, that's not possible. I can't see!"
"Turn on the spot."
Scarlett frowned slightly, "Sorry, what?"
"Just do it. Turn on the spot," she obeyed and slowly climbed to her feet, turning hesitantly as the Doctor continued to speak. "When the communicator sounds like my screwdriver, you're facing the right way. Follow the sound."
Scarlett turned in a circle, listening to the familiar sound of the Doctor's screwdriver.
"You have to start moving now," he said, the panic evident in his voice. "There's time energy spilling out of that crack and you have to stay ahead of it."
"But the Angels, they're everywhere," Scarlett mumbled.
"I'm sorry, I really am, but the Angels can only kill you."
"Well, that's reassuring," she replied, slowly starting to walk. "What does the Time Energy do?"
"Just keep moving!"
Scarlett sighed in frustration but obeyed his orders. "Just tell me!"
"If the Time Energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born. It will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all."
"I sort of wish I hadn't asked now."
"You'll be fine as long as you can get to us, I promise. Now, keep your eyes shut and keep moving!"
Scarlett used her feet to check in front of herself for objects in fear of falling over, because she could assure you; walking with your eyes closed is not an easy thing to do.
"Scarlett, listen to me," said the Doctor after a few minutes of walking. "I'm sending a bit of software to your communicator. It's a proximity detector. It'll beep if there's something in your way. You just manoeuvre 'till the beeping stops, because Scarlett, this is important… The forest is full of Angels. You're going to have to walk like you can see."
"What does that mean?" Scarlett asked weakly.
"Look, just keep moving," he said, clearly not wanting to explain any further.
Clutching onto the communicator tightly, Scarlett kept walking, and she could only hope that she was almost there. She felt like she was making good progress when a high-pitched beeping sound was heard.
"What's that?" Scarlett asked the Doctor.
"It's a warning. There are Angels round you now."
She froze. It was bad enough not being able to see, but now she was surrounded by Angels? She told herself not to panic but in this situation, it was the only thing she could do.
"Scarlett, listen to me. This is going to be hard but I know you can do it. The Angels are scared and running and right now, they're not that interested in you. They'll assume you can see them and their instincts will kick in. All you've got to do is walk like you can see. Just don't open your eyes… Walk like you can see."
Scarlett shook her head even though he couldn't see her. She couldn't do this. It was like her fear had paralysed her whole body, leaving her frozen in place.
"You're not moving. You have to do this," he tried again. "Now." There's a banging noise as if the Doctor was hitting something in frustration. "You have to do this!"
Swallowing her fear, Scarlett started to move again, slower than before. There was a beeping noise and she turned back quickly to where she was. Alright, so there's an Angel to my left. I'll just avoid that and I'll be fine, she told herself. She continued forward for a few steps until she heard the beep again. Changing direction, she moved forward, wanting nothing more than to get out of there. Unfortunately, due to her panic, she tripped over a root and fell straight to the ground, dropping the communicator on the way. She extended her hands slightly and felt around in the dirt to try and find the only thing keeping her close to the Doctor at that moment.
"Doctor, I can't find the communicator!" Scarlett yelled, despite the fact that he wasn't with her. "I dropped it and I can't find it. Doctor!" She heard a sound behind her and it sounded like… stone. The Angels were moving and she couldn't see them. She couldn't keep walking because she didn't have the communicator to guide her. Tears sprang to her eyes and she slowly turned onto her back, only to fall into someone's arms a second later.
"Don't open your eyes," said a voice and Scarlett recognised it as River's. "You're on the Flight Deck, the Doctor's here, and so is Amy. I teleported you," she turned to the Doctor and smirked "See? Told you I could get it working."
"River Song, I could bloody kiss you!" he replied, causing Scarlett to frown. Hello, girl fearing for her life over here!
"Ah well, I don't think darling would appreciate that," River smiled.
Who the bloody hell is darling? Both the Doctor and Scarlett thought.
Scarlett opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by an alarm blaring.
"What's that?" asked River.
"The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power, which means... the shield's going to release!" the Doctor explained.
Scarlett wasn't sure what was happening around her, but the Doctor's next sentence explained part of it.
"Angel Bob, I presume."
"The Time Field is coming," said Angel Bob. "It will destroy our reality."
"Yeah, and look at you all; running away. What can I do for you?"
"There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close and they will be saved."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do, could do that. But why?" the Doctor asked.
"Your friends will also be saved."
"Well, there is that."
River carefully removed her arms from around Scarlett and – after making sure the young girl was steady on her feet – stepped forward. "I've travelled in time. I'm a complicated space/time event, too. Throw me in."
"Oh, be serious!" the Doctor practically laughed, "Compared to me, these Angels are more complicated than you and it would take every one of them to amount to me, so, get a grip."
"Doctor, I can't let you do this," River said.
"No, seriously, get a grip," he repeated.
"You're not going to die here!"
"No, I mean it. River, Scarlett, Amy, get a grip."
There was a slight pause before River gasped in realisation, "Oh, you genius!"
She made her way back to Scarlett as the Doctor continued to speak to Angel Bob. "You hold on tight and don't you let go for anything," she explained before placing Scarlett's hands on a handle attached to the panel. Scarlett's fingers curled around the bar and she held on tight as the Doctor finished his speech.
"Night night."
Scarlett sat outside on a rock, a blanket draped over her shoulders and Amy sitting next to her. Scarlett adjusted her position and let out a slight groan at the pain. "Ah, bruised everywhere."
"Me too," the Doctor said from in front of the brunette, remembering how, after a few minutes of climbing out of the cave, she had given up and made him give her a piggy-back ride for the rest of the journey.
"You didn't have to climb out with your eyes shut!" Scarlett said.
"Neither did you," he explained. "I kept saying; the Angels all fell into the time field. The Angel in your memory never existed. It can't harm you now."
"I was scared," Scarlett told him.
"I know," he nodded, a look of understanding on his face.
"So why do I remember it at all? Those guys on the ship didn't remember each other."
"You're a time traveller now, Scarlie. Changes the way you see the universe forever. Good, isn't it?"
Scarlett smiled softly as Amy spoke up, "And the crack. Is that gone too?"
"Yeah, for now. But the explosion that caused it is still happening... somewhere out there, somewhere in time," he glanced out at the ocean before making his way over to River to say goodbye.
Amy and Scarlett talked for a little while about what they should do once they got back to the TARDIS, just biding their time until Doctor had finished, before walking over to River.
"Bye, River," smiled Amy.
"Goodbye honey," she smiled with a nod before her gaze turned to Scarlett. "Darling," her right eye dropped into a wink before a beep emitted from her handcuffs. "Oh! I think that's my ride."
"Can I trust you, River Song?" the Doctor asked from behind them.
"If you like… but where's the fun in that?" River let out a small laugh before she was teleported away.
A fond smile makes its way onto Scarlett's lips. She really liked River Song.
"What are you thinking?" Amy asked the Doctor, who was looking out at the ocean.
"Time can be rewritten," he answered simply.
The Doctor was at the console, fiddling with the controls as Amy and Scarlett sat in the jump seat.
"I want to go home," said Amy.
The Doctor froze before nodding slightly. "Okay."
"She doesn't mean it like that," Scarlett smiled.
Amy nodded in agreement and jumped up to join the Doctor. "I just… I just want to show you something. You're running from River... I'm running too."
A/N: Hello, hello! So I reached 50+ follows this week and that makes me very,very happy. Thank you to everyone who has read this story so far. It really means a lot to me. I actually made a tumblr for this story which is basically just a place for me to answer any questions you might have, or just to post edits that I make of Scarlett and co. If you're interested in checking it out, the URL is raggedywrites. Xx