Part two of our four part finale.

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The Doctor was breathing like one who had never breathed before.
Like one who had only just learned to breathe after years of having lungs starved of cleans of oxygen.

As Clara moved closer to the Doctor in the partial darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of his face but utterly failing as the Time Lord's head slowly moved back and forth.
Usually, at this point in their (mis)adventures, Clara's heart was beating fast but now it was beating slow.
Slower than she could have ever imagined possible for a human being as a terrible numbness overtook her entire body.

Normally, she could look at the Doctor in the midst of all the chaos and know without any need to doubt that the two of them were going to survive. Even in their worst instances of panic and confusion and turmoil, the Doctor would always have that one furrow in his brow or glint in his eye that would certainly and definitively assure her that everything was going to be fine.
However, that was not the case right now.

She could see that he was unsteady where he stood and that he was grasping agitatedly at the folds of his clothes. Still, the small gas lights around them were all flickering dangerously, teetering on the brink of extinguishing; they needed to keep moving.

"So," she petitioned him in a whisper. "What's the plan?"

"…it was her."
The Doctor's response was immediate and a lot gruffer than she had anticipated.

"Sorry?" she dared herself to query the statement, only to have the Doctor turn his head to stare at her.

Even in the dark, the Doctor's scleras were stark white and glaring- burning like lit ivory.

"It was her." The Time Lord's voice began its initial proclamation in a harsh, raspy whisper but slowly climbed in volume with each syllable, galvanised with rage. "It was her, Clara! She was the one! She was the one who killed them!"

The Doctor's suddenly struck the nearby stone wall with a noise that was positively stomach-turning.
Clara could do nothing but stare at the point of impact.
In the dim light, she could see that his knuckles were now split and bloodied, gleaming beads of red now appliqued to the curve of his fist.

Before the young woman could offer any input or consolation, the Doctor verbally exploded once more.

"Sh-She killed them…! Sh-she-she…was the Weeping Angel who killed them…in the graveyard…she took them away….I told Amy not to go…and sh-…she…"

Clara's eyes widened with sudden realisation. "That Angel is the one who killed Amy and Rory?"

"I took her family so she took mine…that's what she said!" The Doctor was definitely speaking more to himself than to his now very-concerned, very-afraid companion. "And it was Raggedy Man, goodbye!" He all but roared. "Not goodbye Raggedy Man! She couldn't even get the words right! That's what it meant to her! It meant nothing! Less than nothing!"

Clara looked up and around the walls, noticing that the small gas lamps were starting to shudder again, some of them going out entirely.
"Doctor, I really, really am sorry about your loss but we have to keep moving. The Angels are coming and I don't fancy being here when the rest of these lights go out."

Both of his hands slammed into the wall, supporting his shaking frame as buckling elbows served as unwilling crutches. "She…murdered my friends…and it meant nothing to her…"

One of the lights dangling just over Clara's head suddenly went out prompting her to seize the Doctor by one of his shoulders. "Another of your friends is going to very definitely get murdered if we don't come up with a plan. Or at least start moving…"

The Doctor only breathed hoarsely in response, his head hanging limply in the rapidly fading light.
His companion could hear something moving in the nearby corridor and was far too scared to focus on deducing how far away it was.
"Please," she beseeched him, realising that her own breathing was far from under control. "Please. We have to go now…"

His jaw clenched, he finally replied to her with gritted teeth. "Why? Why? What's the point? The only way to defeat them is to create a paradox and even if we managed to do it, one of them would just survive and swear revenge and more people will die…"

"Oh, snap out of it!" she whispered furiously, her knuckles turning milky as she continued to grasp at his shoulder. "Don't you dare talk like that! You have to get it together…"

"…why do I always have to be the one to "get it together?" Why can't I just be the one to want to give up for once?"
The heavy note of defeat in his voice added further terror to the situation and Clara was slowly being pushed further and further to the edge of her nerves watching her dear friend all but fall apart right in front of her.

"Do you..? Do you hear yourself?"
Her mouth suddenly turned barren at the sight of a long, pearl-grey limb wrapping around a nearby cavern wall and words tumbled so quickly out of her mouth, they were slurring. "Doctor. I want to help you. Really, I do. But I have no idea how to get us out of this. You've been here before, you know what to do…you need to help us. To help Abbie!" She looked up to see a ghoulish stone face peering around the corner. "Doctor!"

"Don't take it personally, dearie, he switches off from time to time."

Clara let out an involuntary shriek as River Song stepped out from the darkness beside them, wearing what appeared to be military jumpsuit and a pair of mirror-lens glasses.
"R-?!" Fear, it appeared, was starting to get the better of Clara too.

The Professor frowned as she fingered the collar of the Doctor's shirt. "Aren't you lucky that you've got a devoted posse always ready to pull you out of these little slumps?" she murmured. "Oh, sweetie. Clara's right. Now's really not the time for one of your stroppy little fits…" River rolled her eyes and handed Clara another pair of mirror glasses. "Here, put these on and keep your eyes on that one over there. There'll be more coming behind."

Clara immediately did as she was told, River continuing to prod the unresponsive Time Lord.

Eventually the Doctor slowly turned his head to regard the unexpected guest with a twitching mouth and wide, staring eyes. "…she killed Amy and Rory…"

"That Angel sent them somewhere else to die. There are vastly worse ways they could have gone and you know that better than anyone."

"River." He looked at her, tremulous with fury and eyes that were once hollow and were now ablaze. "Thanks to that Angel…I lost two of my dearest friends…"

"And I lost my parents," River returned, voice fast, crisp and harsh as a whip-crack. "But you don't see me crying about it right now because I know that right now isn't the time for tears. If we lose it now, we lose even more friends…Clara, Abbie…who knows how many more will have to suffer if the Angels get into the TARDIS? Now, with all due respect, my love, get your act together and follow me…"

She seized him by the arm, practically dragging him away from the wall.

He didn't struggle but spoke in initial protest. "What do you propose I do? I don't exactly have a plan…" His voice was still slightly faraway, still slightly hollow- as though he wasn't fully aware of his own surroundings.

"Oh, but I do," River informed him, handing Clara a long, red baton. With a click of her fingers, a purplish flame was ignited at the tip of the strange wand, revealing it to be some kind of flare. "And I'm not asking you to come up with anything on the spot, sweetie…I'm telling you, not to get in my way…"

Her other hand came to take Clara by the wrist. "Keep that Illuminator raised at all times and keep close. We need to move quickly." She lifted Clara's arm to examine her watch. "The good news is that we're going to have a distraction to keep the Angels busy arriving in the next five minutes."

Clara nodded affirmatively, keeping the light source directed at the advancing Angel. "Ok…can do…what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that our distraction is Cassidy."

The Doctor's head suddenly lifted. "Cassidy? What's Cassidy doing here?"

River clapped him on the back, handing him another Illuminator from her belt. "Ah, now you're awake!" She beckoned for them both to follow her further into the caverns. "Move backwards but keep up the pace…"

After a few seconds of awkward frantic movement through rapidly darkening hallways, the Doctor seemed to have returned to his normal self, muttering under his breath.

"River doesn't always pop up in my times of need but when she does, I rarely need her more…I feel like I might need to buy her something this time…"

"Well," Clara murmured back. "Showing up when you need them is what good spouses tend to do…"

The Doctor just about dropped his Illuminator. "…how did you find out that Ri-? Who told you-?"

"Like your wife said, Doctor. Now isn't the time for this sort of thing…is it?"

The rounded another corner, only to come to a central cavern with several varying tunnels leading away from it. The mining lamps only illuminated partial elements of these tunnels and as such, none of them looked like a viable means of complete escape.
And every single one of them had an Angel standing in its mouth.

"…no," the Doctor replied hoarsely. "No, it most certainly is not."

Cassidy slowly brought herself to stand, her knees shaking as she brushed the damp, dead leaves from the denim of her jeans. Her breathing was laboured but she fought to keep her speech steady.

"You're…his mother?"

It was when she had drawn herself up to a fully vertical position that she noticed the woman who had been lying beside her.
She clapped a hand over her mouth as her stomach strained, the woman's jogging pants stained a deep scarlet. The same blood, Cassidy registered with mounting horror, that was probably spattered across her face.
She thanked her lucky stars that the dead jogger's face was covered with the pale, browning, wet leaves, each filament partially plastered to her bluish cheeks as she frantically scraped the rust-like substance from her own.

"I needed her voice," the Angel stated, perhaps sensing her immediate discomfort and practically reading her mind when she added: "You shall not meet the same fate. You need not worry."

White, watery bile was already tippling forth from behind Cassidy's lips, prompting her to hunch over slightly as she attempted to turn to face the speaking Angel.
She was a little shorter than most of the other female Weeping Angels that she'd seen and dealt with before but her arms, while still lithe and grateful, were lined with the kind of lean muscle that she could vividly remember being used to hold her against a wall.

Before any more mental images of Summer Bank could work their way into her mind, Cassidy wiped her mouth with her soiled sleeve and decided to get straight to the point. "Why did you bring me here? What are you going to do to me?"

She redirected her line of vision from the seraph's face to her torso, marking the fact that her chiton appeared slightly less defined than the other Angels'; it had sustained a lot more wear and tear.

"It is of greatest importance that you do as I say, Cassidy Albright. Not for my sake or your own but for that of my son, Iblis."

So the human woman hadn't heard wrong: this Angel was most definitely his mother.
Or at least purported to be.
Althea. That was the name that she had identified herself with.

Cassidy wracked her brains for any information that Michael had ever offered her regarding his mother. She couldn't remember much about what he had said at all past the fact that he did not have a good relationship with his mother and hadn't seen her for over two centuries.

In fact based on what the Archangel had ever offhandedly said about her, Cassidy was slightly taken aback by the fact that his mother wanted to help him at all.
This confusion was comforting in comparison to the mental typhoon brought on by the fact that there was a woman's mutilated body only a few feet away from her and that remnants of this body were probably still smeared across her face.

Cassidy, truthfully unable to come up with some kind of rational response to the Angel's words, only nodded slowly.

"Has he harmed you?" Althea queried, the question crisp and dry. "Has he harmed you in any way? Physically or otherwise?"
Worry was difficult to detect in the Angel's voice but the questioning most certainly served a clear purpose. She could tell immediately that Althea was expecting her to say yes and whether or not that was the truth, listing all of Michael's wrongdoings and forcing his mother to apologise for them was going to get them nowhere.

"I can move," Cassidy said eventually. "I can walk. I can speak. I can understand what you're saying…that's enough, isn't it? And…something tells me that you didn't take me here just to ask about my wellbeing."

She blinked and the Angel moved closer, leaning forwards slightly, as though scrutinising her. "You were wearing this exact garb when we first met…"

Cassidy found herself instinctively leaning backwards, as she stared back at the stone creature. "I don't think I've ever met you before. Or at least, you didn't exactly introduce yours- …"

"It was in this very forest. In my youth. Over four centuries ago."

The human woman took a definite step backwards. "There is no way that I've met you before. Not here in this place and definitely not four hundred years ago. It must have been a different person."

"It was you. Your face is unmistakable."

"I wasn't alive over four hundred years ago. There is absolutely no way that you possibly could have…" Then it dawned on her.
What was she saying?
She was talking to a creature versed in time travel.
And it wasn't as though she was unfamiliar with the concept anymore.

"…I must have travelled into the past somehow," she murmured, slightly incredulous as her eyes travelled away from the Angel for a moment.

Althea had moved closer still, one of her arms slightly raised as though trying to beckon Cassidy to come near her.
"You appeared before me with time energy surrounding you…and I recognised the imprint being my own. This confirms that it was I who displaced you."

Cassidy suddenly reeled backwards, almost stumbling over her own face as she tried to evade the Angel's compass of reach. "Woah…no, no, no…you're displacing me nowhere…"

"I will do what I must to protect my son," Althea told her firmly, in a tone not unlike Michael's when he tried to be domineering but lacking in any kind of aggression.

"Look…at least tell me how me going into the past will do anything to help Mich- your son right now," Cassidy replied, her back now pressed against the trunk of a nearby tree. "Your daughter and her lackeys are most likely the ones who took him, so why don't you ask her where he is?"

"Karida plays no role in what I am asking of you. I am not asking you to save Iblis as he currently is. I am asking you to save Iblis when he was still an infant. In both his past and mine."

"Save him? Save him from what? Right now, he seems to be in a bit more potential danger…"
Cassidy couldn't help but feel a wave of worry wash over her, at the thought of what could be happening to Michael at that moment in time.

"You must save him from the Archangel Nathaniel. From his father. Nathaniel tried to kill Iblis only days after I gave birth to him," the Angel responded, her voice ragged as she told Cassidy the sad, sad story that Michael had relayed to her once before. "My first born son was killed by Nathaniel because he saw him has too weak but in reality, it was because he feared another Archangel growing to challenge him. My first daughter was later slaughtered for refusing to follow Nathaniel's order…these two children of mine…the two that Iblis never met….I could not protect them from my mate's rage." The words sounded odd in a human voice but the manner in which the voice spoke was thick with emotion. "But with your help, I saved Iblis. I convinced Nathaniel to allow him to live…but if he had found me with Iblis that day, he would have killed him before my eyes…"

"How did you convince him?" Cassidy asked, shaking as he kept her eyes firmly on the Angel. She could understand that this was an emotional situation for Althea but she wanted to know all the facts before she agreed to anything. Or at least, she wanted to keep the Angel distracted whilst she tried to figure out a possible escape route.

"I am Nathaniel's primary mate. Any Archangel that I were to bear him would have claim to being our group's superior male. I convinced Nathaniel that I could raise Iblis away from the tribe and train him to be a docile, timid individual who would follow his orders without question…"

"So he'll kill his own kids on a whim? Why do you even stay with him?" The words had only just barely left Cassidy's mouth when she realised how painfully fruitless her question was, particularly when she had such intimate knowledge of such a similar situation.

In fact, hearing Althea's answer was nothing short of harrowing.

"I did not choose Nathaniel. Nathaniel chose me."

"So I saved Mich-Iblis as a baby by keeping him hidden? How did I go about that?"
Changing the subject seemed like the best option.

"You told me that you knew what to do and that all would be well. You seemed so assured; that was part of the reason that I did not attack you."

"Me? Self-assured?" Cassidy thought, her scepticism regarding this entire situation starting to mount once more.
"What else stopped you from attacking me?" she asked aloud. "How do I know you won't attack me in the past? If I'm going to do this, I want complete peace of mind…and I don't mean to cause any kind of offence but the last few Angels I've met with haven't exactly proved entirely trustworthy. Your daughter tried to kill me. You know that right?"

"Clever child. You ask the opportune questions," the Angel murmured slightly before speaking a lot more affirmatively. "A mother in any form of desperation will resort to trusting even her natural enemies…and you did show me something that aided in convincing me."

"…yeah?"
Her breathing was less shallow now but her heartbeat was still pacey.

"Please close your eyes, Cassidy Albright."

The human woman hesitated for a moment and then willingly allowed her eyelids to droop.
She felt an object being forcibly thrust into one of her hands, something fibrous, slender and oddly pliable.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw it was a feather of sorts and was so immediately taken by the object that she completely forgot about her battle plan not to take her eyes from the Angel.
It was nothing like the feather of any bird that the hand of a younger Cassidy might have plucked from the grass of her garden.
The centre tendril of the feather wasn't hollow or light as most avian feathers.
It was flexible but oddly heavy- almost like some kind of metal alloy. The filaments of the feather- as Cassidy had often noticed with Michael- were not at all delicate.

But what amazed the human woman however was its colour.
At first, it was seemingly a beauteous ivory white- almost iridescent in the weak winter sunlight. However as Cassidy turned the feather in her palm, its hue began to change to a soft greenish tint.
Verdant colours turned to blue and then a hazy violet.
It was one of the most surreal, positively awe-evoking sights that she had ever seen. She ran her finger over the filaments, finding further amazement as the colours began to change beneath her touch.

"From your wings?" she managed, finally tearing her eyes from the feather and placing it gingerly in the pocket sewn into her jumper.

"Yes," Althea responded. "This is the proof that you showed me. My kind do not typically gift our feathers to other species nor do we allow them to be taken from us with ease either." The Angel made a noise akin to a sigh. "I had further proof in that I could detect my very own scent all over you…I noticed that immediately…" Her human voice stilted for a moment before she went on. "I noticed a second strong essence upon you. At first I could not place it, knowing only that it was another of my kind. I now know that the heavy scent upon you is that of my son…"

Cassidy felt her face heat up slightly and felt obliged to immediately stated: "I…well, I looked after your son for a very long time…I wouldn't be surprised if his smell had started to rub off on me…"

"The scent that Iblis has left upon you is exceptionally strong."

This was all Althea said on the matter but Cassidy could tell exactly what she was trying to imply. A primal, rather absurd feeling of embarrassment suddenly overtook her.
Michael's mother knew exactly what they had done.

"How did I get back? T-To the future, I mean?" Cassidy said quickly, stammering as she decided that the topic needed changing as soon as possible. "Did you send me back or?"

"You seemed to have a manner of decisiveness about you. You appeared to have a means by which you could travel alone."

Cassidy habitually ran her hands through her hair, trying to wrap her head around the current situation. She winced as her hair snagged on something, only to realise that it was the watch device that River had given her.
"Three trips…" Cassidy murmured to herself, realising that the power to time travel was quite frighteningly at her personal disposal. Weighing up her options, she looked up at Althea. "I'm going to be honest here and say that I'm a little surprised that you're giving me a choice in the matter..."

"I am not my mate," Althea responded quite sharply. "I believe that all sentient creatures are defined by their choices and deserve to make those choices. Regardless of your species and mine, I am desperate to save my son. If I must trust one of my natural prey in order to ensure his safety, then so be it."

"Ensure his safety, eh?" Cassidy repeated, Michael's own testimonies starting to suddenly come to mind. "So…when you left him chained up in a forest for a few centuries…that was part of ensuring his safet-?"

"That was not my decision and not a choice that I stood by."
Cassidy definitely did not imagine a very notable growl in the Angel's voice and it brought a shake to her shoulders. However what subsequently surprised the human was the sudden note of vulnerability that crept into Althea's voice when she spoke again. "I need to save my living son…and my living daughter. Thus, I need you, Cassidy Albright."

The named woman stared at the Angel for a moment, trying to steel her nerves once again. After a few moments of letting the weight of the situation seep in, she managed to say: "Fine, I'll do it."

"You have my gratitude," Althea replied. "Be wary in the past. When I encounter you, Nathaniel will be in pursuit of Iblis and I. You convince me to give Iblis to you and you bring him into hiding whilst I distract my mate. "

"Wait, you give him to me…even if I manage to convince you to do that, how on Earth do I stop Iblis from-?"

"He will be too young to displace you in time. I do not know what you did but you managed to keep Iblis hidden in the forest until I came back for him…"

"Ok, ok…" Cassidy muttered, replaying the situation over and over in her mind until it made sense. "Save him in the past to save him in the present…"
Her eyes lowered for a moment, giving Althea the opportunity to move closer and followingly giving the human a reason to flinch away in surprise.

"You told me that I was the one who sent you back," the Weeping Angel told her in apparent explanation. "It is important by the laws of time and continuation that we keep to the original account…"

Cassidy contemplated the decision she was about to make for the hundredth time and mentally attempted to talk herself out of it. However, there was something about Althea that she could not help but trust.
"If I do choose not to do this," she thought. "It would be solely based on the fact that she's a Weeping Angel because she's given me no other reason to distrust her…"

Slowly but definitively, Cassidy offered her hand to the Althea. "Ok…fine…I guess I'll be back…"
She closed her eyes.

What took her by surprise was that unlike with Michael's displacing her in time, she actually felt Althea's hand in hers for a moment before the sudden, familiar rush of cold air.

Before she opened her eyes once more, she was struck by the sudden change of the air around her.
It was still positively frigid but the air felt less stingingly cold and far more weighty, more humid. When she finally opened her eyes, she was greeted by the cottony-grey haze of a low-hanging fog.
The trees in her immediate surroundings provided a recognisable backdrop- not too different from the one she had just come from.

"Right," Cassidy murmured, looking around. "First objective…find a Weeping Angel…in the woods…"
She chewed the inside of her mouth a little, her nails digging into her palms as she slipped her hands into her pockets. "Maybe I should've asked her for a meeting point first…"

These words were barely out of her mouth when she heard the chorusing crackling of foliage behind her.
When she turned, Cassidy's heart began to drum against the inside of her chest.

There was an Angel standing only a few feet behind her.
The bizarre thing was that, even though she may have been primed by her expectations, she instantly recognised that the stone seraph was undoubtedly a much younger, much more dishevelled looking Althea.

In stark contrast to the worn-down but demure older Angel that she had spoken to only minutes ago, this Angel had a much more even complexion, a much stronger looking body but an expression that was confused and agitated.

However Cassidy's eyes were immediately drawn to the small, curled-up object that the younger Althea clutched against her chest.

It was Michael.
As a cherub.

His little face was hidden, pressed against his mother's bosom but his pudgy limbs were still visible, as were the tiny wings prying out over the crook of Althea's arms.

Briefly overtaken by shock, Cassidy was careless with her blink-control but Althea suddenly wearing an utterly feral expression immediately switched her mind back into survival mode.
The human settled her eyes upon the centre of Althea's chin- her go-to spot for looking at an Angel- and careful to settle into her no-blinking rhythm, began to speak in the calmest voice she could manage.

"Ok…I know your name is Althea. I know that's your son and his name is Iblis. I also know you're being chased. I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous but I can help you…"

Cassidy hadn't realised that she was slowly moving backwards until her jeans snagged on a root and caused her to stumble. She managed to recover her step in a split second but by the time she re-focused her stare, Althea was only centimetres away from where she stood.

Althea was fast.
Far faster than her son or daughter.

And the expression upon her face was now one of absolute fury that Cassidy had never herself seen on a real, human face- let alone upon an Angel.

The human woman was desperately trying not to shudder as she slowly lifted her hands in surrender. It was an automatic response of sorts to indicate that she posed no threat- even though she had honestly accepted that even if she had a weapon, Althea would not be deterred from attacking her.

"I know your mate is trying to attack you and your son and I'm seriously trying to help you…." She swallowed. "You're actually the one who sent me back from the future to help you because you knew I could. Look, I have proof…" She pulled the feather from her pocket, brandishing it like a jousting lance. "This is yours. You gave it to me…you know I'm telling the truth, right? You can feel your…essence…coming off of me? Right?" Cassidy, at the worst time possible, just realised that she still had very little knowledge regarding how the Angels actually detected time energy. Now, unfortunately, was not the time to lament her own ignorance. "You can…sense your son's essence on me too, right?"

She was actually expecting a response initially but then she remembered that Angels only had voices if they reanimated the brain stem of a human being.
The silence was a little bit unnerving and she knew that Althea couldn't give any kind of physical response until she blinked. That, however, presented danger in itself.

In the distance, a loud, uneven rumbling echoed.
Cassidy looked up, in the direction of noise and when she returned her eyes to Althea, the Angel was worriedly peering towards the source of the noise.
Her eyes had gone from tyrannical to terrified.

Cassidy could only imagine that if Althea currently had the power of speech, her voice would be as breathless as the human woman's.

"I know that he's going to hurt your baby and I know that all you want to do is save your son. Please. You know I'm not lying…"

Another rumbling sounded off.
Closer this time.
Cassidy blinked out of instinct and young Althea's expression descended further into anxiety.

"Ple-Please…I…I'm going to close my eyes now…look, you can trust me, Althea. You know you can't. I can't explain it very well but I know both you and your son in the future…and I want to help you…I mean it…"

Taking what had to be the very literal mother of all Weeping Angel related risks, Cassidy trusted future-Althea's word and shut her eyes tight. Part of her expected to feel the harshness edge of the pseudo statue's claws so her surprise was positively immeasurable when she suddenly felt a squirming, lukewarm bundle being forcibly pushed into her arms.

She opened her eyes, looking down in shock to see a cherub that looked as though it was carved from marble rock. She doubled backwards slightly at the sudden weight of holding the child from stone but held on to the little creature tightly.
"Thank you for trusting me," Cassidy said breathlessly, bowing her head to the young Althea.

The mother Angel's face was now lit with a kind of hesitant determination that strengthened Cassidy's resolve to honour her next words:

"I promise, I won't betray that trust. I'll take care of him."

The ground beneath their feet shook slightly, heralding the coming of Althea's chaser.

"Ok, I'm going to hide now," she told the Angel. "You can come find me later. I promise everything is going to be fine…"

Slightly cursing her own over confidence as she parted ways with Althea, Cassidy started to dart through the woods, drunkenly overstepping creeping ivy and warping her ankles painfully against uneven terrain.
The hanging fog couldn't have been a more unfortunate feature of her surroundings, limiting her field of vision to only about a foot in front of her and thus, making it impossible for her properly plan her movements.

She darted behind a tree, her eyes desperately examining the forests surrounding her.
"Wait a minute," she thought. "This is Sherwood Forest, isn't it? Maybe it's not quite my time, I've mapped this place before. Right, Cass…" Her gaze scanned across the forest floor for fissures and cracks. "I know this place…I'm an archaeologist…I can do this…"
Even if it was a good century or so earlier than the Museum's first dig in Nottingham, features like open mouths and caverns would still be at least partially formed and the mighty spruces that towered above her could live for hundreds of years.

"Just remember your charts," she told herself, carefully examining the ground beneath her feet as she chose one of the nearest downtrodden paths.
The maps were etched out across her memories and recalling each gapped line of altitude and each darkening point of incline.

Clutching the cherub close to her chest, Cassidy soon came across the open slit in the rocks and realising that it was the opening of a small cave, she took no time darting inside. She dropped to the floor of the cave, letting out a dry heave of pain when her rear end connected with the hard, damp stone.

After stilling her breath for a good four or five minutes, the human came to the slow realisation that she was holding a baby Weeping Angel.
Baby Michael no less.

His little grey arms were quite a bit chubbier and quite a bit heavier than a standard human baby's.
His face bore Michael's low brow and dimpled chin but it was distinctly that of an infant, his cheeks round and pudgy. She couldn't help but feel slightly as though she was holding a ghoulish, rather sizeable lawn ornament and her arms were starting to feel strained.
Whenever she looked away from him, she could feel a coarse tongue of his curly hair lap at her chin.

She flinched when tiny squealing noises started to emit from the little Angel's torso.
"I didn't think that Angels could speak on their own," Cassidy muttered incredulously, immediately looking down at the curled-up cherub. "Or is that something that only babies can do?"

She was careful to keep her voice low- very aware of the fact that Angels were remarkably good hunters.

The little noises turned from squealing to a kind of stuttered chirping- almost akin to giggles- and the infant Michael's hands grabbed at Cassidy's cardigan in the manner of a human baby. The human woman smirked faintly, letting him play with her hair and clothes, her eyes obligingly shut.

"You know, you're kind of cute when you're not-ah!"
She recoiled sharply, at the feeling of something sharp grazing against her wrist.

She had forgotten that this baby had a predator's teeth and claws.
Annoyed, she gave the cherub a light tap on the forehead to which he responded with an squeaky little growl.
"Wow, even as baby, you find a way to leave your mark on me, Michael? Geez, it's a good thing you're not old enough to do any real damage...ah right, Iblis…I haven't renamed you yet. Well, one day, your name is going to be Michael…"

She leaned forwards, trying to adjust him in her arms so that he couldn't take another snap at her hands or fingers, in the process, managing to cradle him against her forearm. After a few more seconds of adjusting, the cherub let out a loud shriek, sending Cassidy into panic stations.
Fortunately, it only took her a few seconds to realise that the source of the baby's discomfort was the fact that she had awkwardly twisted one of his wings against the crook of her arm.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry…" she whispered frantically, settling him. "Sorry, I forgot they were sensitive…"
His squeals became longer and lower, slightly underpinned by throaty little growls. It had been difficult at first to view the cherub as an ordinary infant but now, little Michael was obviously in distressed. "You must miss your mummy, right?" She hesitantly moved him a little closer to her tummy, letting his head fall down on to her collarbone. "You know, when my mum used to drop me off with a babysitter, I used to think it was because that she was trying to get rid of me...so I'd cry and cry and cry…but I learned after time that she had a very important reason for dropping me off with Mrs Ellison from down the road. Your mummy has the very same reason for leaving you with me- the reason is that is she loves you and she wants you to be safe while she takes care of something…she'll be back soon…I promise…"

But the little Angel continued to squirm and weep and in a desperate attempt to quieten him, Cassidy began to hum a little tune to settle him down.
Her mildly out of tune crooning kept him occupied for a few minutes, the infant settling against her with a fine spool of her hair wrapped around his little fist.

It wasn't long before her lips started to ache faintly from the humming and noting that birdsong was all that she had heard for quite a while, she dared herself to start speaking properly. "So…not only will your name be Michael when you grow up…but you'll also really learn to like my stories too. My Greek mythology stories specifically. Do you wanna hear one now?"

The infant Michael only made a gurgling noise in response, his head readjusting against her bosom.

"I'll take that as a yes. Well, I feel like a very opportune story to tell you right now, might be the myth of Rhea. See, Rhea was one of the Titans. The Titans were a group of seriously powerful, god-like beings and they ruled over all of the world from a mountain called Olympus. Rhea was the wife- or mate if we're using your terminology- of Kronos. Kronos was the King of the gods and he was very fierce, very ambitious and also…the universe's biggest asshole. Seriously. And he was a coward. He was so afraid that one of his children was going to overthrow him that he ate them…"

She paused for a moment, originally intending to take dramatic effect but keeping silent at the sound of some foliage crackling in the distance. It was rhythmic; it could have been the wind.
Then again, it might not have been.
The absence of Cassidy's voice prompted the baby Michael to start whining again.

Hesitantly and bringing her lips closer to the little Angel's head, she continued her story:
"Fortunately for everyone on Olympus, Rhea was very, very clever. She had just given birth to her youngest son, Zeus. Zeus would later- unfortunately- take after his daddy but we'll forget about that for this story. Rhea wanted to make sure that Zeus didn't suffer the same Fate as his siblings so she hid Zeus in the forest and tricked Kronos into eating a rock instead." She paused for a moment before lowering her voice to a whisper. "Because of Rhea's clever plan, Zeus was able to grow into a strong, powerful god who cut his father open, rescued his siblings and liberated Mount Olympus once and for all of eternity…"

The little infant Michael's arms reached upward, seeming to be seeking purchase at her shoulders, as though trying to embrace her.
Cassidy gave into the silent request, holding the cherub a little closer to her body.

"Zeus lived to fight another day because he had a strong and loving mother who was willing to do anything for him…" She closed her eyes, pressing her nose to the crown of the cherub's head. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, this entire story is a metaphor. Your mum is Rhea. You're Zeus. Your dad is Kronos." Her brow furrowed. "I'm not sure who I'm supposed to be in this story…maybe I'm the rock? I hope I'm not the rock…"

She looked down at the little cherub, watching as he froze into stone in her arms. "Is that kind of racist? Sorry if that's kind of racist…" Cassidy closed her eyes once more, grimacing at the pins and needles slowly starting to creep up and along her lower back. "Ugh…the things I do for you…and trust me, Michael…you don't exactly pay me back for any of these things during our first few meetings…not at all….in fact…" Her voice hovered for a second. "…you make my life a misery…for a long time actually…"

Cassidy's eyes slowly opened, lifting upwards towards the dripping cave ceiling, bearing into the cracks and crevices that lined their place of hiding.
"You know what? You'll make my life so hard…that I'll want to kill myself. You'll terrorise the place where I loved to work…you'll kill my co-workers, my best friend, so many innocent people…you'll stalk me, kidnap me, attack me, hurt me, attempt to rape me…" Her voice slowly mounted in volume, shaking with rage.

Her fingernails started to very-slightly press into the infant's back, little Michael's squeals suddenly returning as Cassidy continued to speak. "You'll fill me with so much hatred, so much paranoia, so much fear…" Her shoulders were starting to heave now, her chest becoming tight as her mind began to dance the tumultuous waltz that it had only begun to learn very recently. "And then I'll find out it's because you really don't know any better…and you'll do everything you can to repair the damage you've done…and even when it's not enough, you won't stop trying…"
A tear rolled down her nose, skimming her lips as it dripped from her chin.

"And you'll make me get involved in all of this crazy drama with your family." Cassidy coughed slightly. "Well, you won't make me but I'll feel like I have to, all because of you…"

Her eyes wandered over to a nearby abscess in the floor and her grip on the cherub started to loosen quite a bit. "Y'know I could drop you right now…right down into that crack over there…it would be so, so easy…I could kill you and none of this would ever happen…"

She closed her eyes, feeling the baby Angel's scared, sporadic movements against her chest and stomach.
Hearing his anxious little noises.

When she opened her eyes once more, her first movement was to lift little Michael so that little round eyes were level with hers.
"But I'm not going to. And it's not just because I'm scared of what this'll do to the time-stream or whatever. It's not because everything we went through together helped me to realise that I am a smart, strong, insanely brave person…" She sniffed a little, not dropping her gaze. "And it's not even because maybe one day I learn to love you a little…a bit…maybe…" Cassidy drew Michael back into her arms and hugged him tightly, his cries stilling and his little fists clutching at the material of shirt. "It's because I made a promise to your mother. I couldn't live with myself if I put a mother through the torture of finding out that her baby had been murdered…and my grudges are not against you."

The little cherub's nose found a bare patch of skin near Cassidy's neck, burrowing into the human's warmth. She flinched a little at the slightly damp, slightly cold feeling made her flinch a little but brought a smile to her lips.

Briefly.

For that smile all but evaporated from her lips when the soft smattering of birdsong abruptly spiked to a cacophony of disturbed crowing.
She held on to Michael tightly, rocking him gently to dissuade him from making any more noise.

There was someone, (or something), moving just outside the mouth of the cave.
Due to her back being against a slab of stone, Cassidy couldn't see the point where daylight met the dark.
Light, rhythmic thudding gave way to scratching and her heart leapt into her mouth.
"Shhh…" she almost voicelessly bade the squealing cherub in her arms.

Cassidy very slowly gathered herself to her feet and started to stand up, hunched over and knees trembling. If this turned out to be Nathaniel, she would have to at least try to escape.
She knew enough about time travel at this stage to know that just because Althea had told her that she would succeed in the future, didn't mean her faith was sealed.

Despite her eyes being her most useful weapon against an oncoming Lonely Assassin, Cassidy was suddenly to short of nerves to turn her head.

The advancing intruder was getting closer.

Sharpening her wits, the archaeologist slowly moved her chin to her left shoulder, opening her eyes a fraction. The light from the outer part of the cave was being obscured.
Her mouth dry and her arms shaking around the little cherub, Cassidy slowly moved her head to look around the boulder that hid them.

And she was immediately greeted by a grey, stone face.

Karida had always been inclined to wonder things from time to time.
Particularly when she was anxious. Or bored. Or both.

Occasionally wonder things about humans.
While they were truly pitiful creatures, outside of using them as a food source, Karida had never been too finely acquainted with their customs and habits.

The first and one of the few times she had ever seen a human in close quarters was well over three hundred years ago.
She had been stalking a young human female in the forests that her tribe held dominion over, all completely without the girl's knowledge. It was her first time hunting alone and were she to be truthful to herself, it was quite nerve-wracking to be so close to one of her prey without any kind of backup.

Now, of course, this kind of fear seemed useless and trivial.

The little human girl had trudged through the undergrowth to make it to the small estuary of a river.
Not very unlike the small vein of water that Karida currently stood over.

She could remember watching as she ashen-skinned girl slowly stooping down to the river's edge, a bright, unassuming, unaware smile across her little face as she eagerly scooped up a handful of the glittering liquid. Cold, fresh rivulets sluiced like crystalline pearls down her cheeks, over-pouring from her hawthorn lips as she guffawed excitedly.
Karida had been quietly amazed at the human's fascination with the water.
It was as though the sight of the river and the taste of the water had instantly cured of her of all that was ailing her.

A fledgling of little over a century, Karida had not dwelled upon this during her first solo kill but she had allowed the memory to stay with her.

The Weeping Angel, now reaching her prime years and cloaked in darkness, allowed the scene to play through her mind once more.
She crouched down beside the river at her feet- the one that flowed straight through the cave where she had been born and raised.

Karida dropped to her knees and imitating what she had seen the little human do, filled her outstretched hand with water. The liquid felt quite sensationless and was markedly odourless too.

"I wonder…why do humans crave you with such vigour?"
Experimentally and suddenly feeling rather impulsive, Karida lifted her hand to her mouth and tipped the liquid between her lips.

It was cold.
It had no immediate taste.
She swilled it around in her mouth for a moment, unable to understand what her first ever victim might have loved so much about the water.
Her brow furrowing, she attempted to swallow the rather bland liquid, only to have her powerful gag reflex send it spurting from her lips with frightening immediacy.

An Angel's teeth were for fighting and their sense of taste was developed for detecting air-based anomalies. Everything about her was specifically evolved for a fighting survival; the Lonely Assassins were not made to eat or drink.

"Idiot humans," she snarled, wiping her mouth with the back of her hands though feeling quite a bit angrier at herself for attempting such a foolish feat than the memory that had inspired her to do so.
That's all the human girl was at this stage: a memory.

What had her name been?
Karida could remember having immediately known it as soon as she had drained her life years.
A flower of some kind?
Lily…Violet…Iris…Hyacinth…

"Angel Karida."

The sudden appearance of one of her seekers immediately brought her back to reality.
The lesser-ranking seraph kept her eyes averted.
Rightly so.

"Yes. What?"

"We are ready to embark on the next stage of our assignment at your discretion."

Karida growled a little under her breath, straightening up and wincing as she tried to move her newly unbound wings back to their usual position at her back.

It was time to stop dwelling on the past.

"We leave now."
"…Angel Karida, if you still require more time to-?"

"We leave now."

Cassidy gave a half-strangled scream but managed to swallow it at the realisation that the intruder was Althea.
The Weeping Angel now had a deeply entrenched scratch along her collar bone, (that made Cassidy wince at the mere sight of it) and she looked quite a bit more dishevelled than before.

But it was undoubtedly Althea.
Returned and relieved.

The human immediately shut her eyes to return the baby Angel to his mother.
"Here he is, safe and sound. He loves you so much, you know, he-…"

Her garbled rambling immediately stopped when she opened her eyes, fully standing and saw that younger Althea was already at the mouth of the cave once more.
She held her son tightly against her chest, still looking slightly fearful.

Cassidy couldn't blame her in the slightest.
She probably couldn't imagine the nightmare that Althea had just undergone in order to keep Nathaniel at bay. True, she had never met the Archangel before but everything that she had heard about him had only strengthened her resolve never to do so.

"Thank you for trusting me," Cassidy told her. "I'm so, so sorry for what you've gone through and I'm glad I could help somehow…"
At her next blink, the human was surprised to see that Althea had bent her head in Cassidy's direction, in an unmistakable bow.

A definite show of heartfelt gratitude that made Cassidy smile as she hadn't smiled in a long time.

At her next blink, however, the Angel and her son were both gone.

Sorry about the delay again, folks!
Real life got in the way and of course, unlike fanfiction, real life waits for no one!

But I am back to finish up our little games once and for all!

The segment about Karida drinking water was actually an idea given to me by the amazing SquirrelCanHandleRandomness. She's a fantastic writer that everyone really, really needs to check out!

As always if you ever have any questions, comments or critiques, drop me a review or a PM !

And a big thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed and/or favourited!