The Beast Below: Below
The Doctor stepped slowly over quite a collection water glasses gathered and set up on the floor of the Queen's suite, eyeing them, while Angel sat at the edge of the bed, at the foot of it, holding the woman's white mask in her hands, not really doing much with it. She wasn't fiddling with it or inspecting it, just...holding it and looking at it. She'd picked it up, seeming as though it was only so she could sit down where it had been resting, but hadn't put it to the side, which the Doctor knew meant that there was something important about it.
"Why all the glasses?" he wondered, trying to make his way to them without knocking any over, Angel watching him. She had been sure to avoid the water glasses everywhere, given how she was truly surprised she'd managed to stay standing in the creature's mouth given her lack of balance at times. She didn't want to accidently kick one of the glasses and break it.
"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what," Liz said, lying back in her bed, her frustration evident in the tone of her voice.
The Doctor watched as Angel went back to looking at the mask, gently tracing the contours of the face, before he walked over to her, the girl handing it to him automatically to look at for himself, "A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?"
"Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this, my entire reign, and you've achieved more in one afternoon."
"How old were you when you came to the throne?" the Doctor asked as he started to pace, noticing what Angel had about the mask, how old it was. He was getting slow, his head was far too small to fit all the things he knew in it. But he supposed even if it wasn't so crowded in there, Angel still would have noticed before him, she'd always had an affinity with time, guessing what time it was, how long they had, how old something was.
"40. Why?"
"What, you're 50 now?" Amy gaped as she put her hair up, now clean like the rest of them, all thankful they no longer smelled so atrocious, "No way!" she and Mandy sat on the chaise at the foot of the bed.
"I think they slowed her body clock," Angel said, leaning against the bedpost of the four-poster bed. She'd been able to tell the woman was older than she looked, it was like...when she'd seen Jack again. She knew she wasn't aging properly and she knew, given the time, that the only technology available was that sort. She thought. She wasn't sure. She'd...she'd been trying to keep it up, to keep her confidence up, to keep being sure of herself and her guesses and thoughts, but...she glanced at the Doctor, it was harder now.
Liz nodded though, "Keeps me looking like the stamps."
The Doctor sat on the bed beside Angel, though his back was to her as he held the mask up to Liz, "And you always wear this in public?"
"Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting."
"Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, 'cos it's perfectly sculpted to your face."
"Yeah. So what?"
"Oh, Liz. So everything."
The doors to the room were suddenly thrown open as four hooded men wearing clock-key necklaces stepped in, Angel recognizing one from the marketplace, the black man she'd seen watching them.
"What are you doing?" Liz cried, furious at the audacity, "How dare you come in here!?"
"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK," the black hooded man replied, "You will come with us now."
"Why would I do that?" the man's head turned all the way around to reveal an angry face, like the figures in the booths, and she flinched back, disgusted, "How can they be Smilers?"
"Half Smiler, half human," the Doctor remarked, eyeing the man as his face spun back to human.
"Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen," Liz glared at it, "On whose authority is this done?"
"The highest authority, Ma'am," it told her.
"I AM the highest authority."
"Yes, ma'am," the man nodded, "You must go now, Ma'am."
"Where?"
"The Tower, Ma'am."
~8~
The group was led to a large stone room below deck, farther down than the voting booths had been, containing quite a number of high tech machines. There was a grating on the floor, a round hole in the ground where a pink lump sat, a beam of electricity firing down at it every so often. Angel immediately walked over to it and knelt down.
"Where are we?" Amy eyed the room.
"The lowest point of Starship UK," the Doctor spun to face her, throwing his arms out, "The dungeon."
"Ma'am," the gray-haired man stepped up to the queen.
"Hawthorne!" Liz gasped, "So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do."
"There's children down here," the Doctor turned to him, seeing a few wandering, looking near traumatized and silent, Angel watching them go, heartsbroken, they could only imagine the horrors the children had endured, likely having been fed to the creature but spit up, "What's all that about?"
"Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast," Hawthorne stated, confirming his thoughts, "For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky."
"Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it?" he looked at the equipment, "Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle."
He stepped over to Angel by the pink lump, Liz and Amy walking over to look down as well, "What's that?" Liz grimaced at the sight.
"Well, like I say, depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain center of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly..."
Angel flinched, closing her eyes a moment as another beam hit the creature, the screams were so much louder now in her mind, so loud that even the Doctor heard it being so near to it.
"Or?"
"Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator, Starship UK's go-faster button."
"I don't understand."
"Don't you? Try, go on. The spaceship that could never fly, no vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving," a beam shot down at the brain, "Tell you what," he moved over to another hole and lifted the grate covering it, "Normally, it's above the range of human hearing," one of the tentacles lashed out, writhing, "This is the sound none of you wanted to hear!" he lifted the sonic and allowed them to hear the creature's screams.
Angel winced, recalling when she'd been captured by Van Statten, she could hear the Dalek screaming as it was tortured from her room. She ran over to where the Doctor was standing and knelt by the tentacle, "Shh," she reached out, putting a hand on it, trying to calm it, trying to comfort it, trying to do whatever she could to show it that it was ok, that others were here, that they'd help, just...not wanting it to hurt any longer, "Shh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered, stroking it lightly as the screams dulled to what sounded like the weeping of someone who'd just endured terrible pain.
The Doctor watched Angel soothing the creature, she'd always sort of had a...calm...about her, had always been able to diffuse situations, whether by odd comments or kind words, but...this was on another level. To be able to calm and sooth a beast like that, in the throes of such terrible pain...well that was something.
"Stop it," Liz whispered as the Doctor turned off the sonic. She turned to Hawthorne, "Who did this?"
"We act on instructions from the highest authority," Hawthorne stated grimly.
"I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now. I said now!" but no one made any sort of move, "Is anyone listening to me?"
The Doctor looked down at the mask still in his hand, "Liz. Your mask."
"What about my mask?"
He gave it back to her, "Look at it. It's old. At least 200 years old, I'd say."
"Yeah, it's an antique, so?"
"Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over 200 years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock alright, but you're not 50. Nearer 300. And it's been a long old reign."
"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years."
"Ten years. And the same ten years over and over again," he took her hand and tugged her, "Always leading you..." right over to a voting table, "Here," the buttons read 'Forget' or 'Abdicate.'
"What have you done?" Liz turned to Hawthorne, stunned.
"Only what you have ordered," the man sighed, solemn, "We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us," he pressed a button on the screen and the monitor flickered to life.
"If you are watching this..." Liz herself appeared on a recording, "If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London," the real Liz slowly moved to sit down, her gaze locked on the feed, "The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travelers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart," the Doctor, Hawthorne, Amy, and Mandy watched, quiet, Angel still kneeling by the tentacle as the Star Whale twisted in pain, seeming to move closer to her as she stroked it, needing more comfort than she could provide, "The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us, and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the 'forget' button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision."
"I voted for this?" Amy shook her head, disgusted with herself, before looking at the Doctor, "Why would I do that?"
"Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice," he told her, grim, "Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong," he gave Amy a hard look, "You don't ever decide what I need to know."
"I don't even remember doing it."
"You did it. That's what counts."
"I'm...I'm sorry."
"Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home," he walked away to the control panels.
"Why?" she moved after him, "Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!"
"Yeah. I know. You're only human."
Angel looked once more at the tentacle before getting up and walking over to the Doctor.
"What are you doing?" Liz eyed him, wary, seeing him fiddling with some of the equipment.
"The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it."
"That'll be like killing it," Amy shook her head.
"Look, three options. One: I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two: I kill everyone on this ship. Three: I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then...I find a new name, 'cos I won't be the Doctor anymore."
"There must be something we can do, some other way," Liz tried.
"Nobody talk to me," he muttered, before snapping, "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!"
"Good thing I'm not human then," Angel said softly, almost so quietly that he didn't hear her, but he did and looked at her, "If you stick by the three options, I would pick the first one."
"What?" he gaped at her, stunned that she, Angel, would want the whale to continue as it was, seeing how pained it was, feeling so pained for it.
"I know what the Star Whale is feeling," she reminded him lightly, "Van Statten's scanner was the gentlest of other tests I'd suffered. But you know what? I would have rather suffered the pain and kept my soul than not have felt anything," she glanced at Amy and Liz, her attention lingering on Amy a moment longer, "But that's if you think there's only three options," before looking back at the Doctor.
He swallowed and looked back at the controls.
Angel looked at him, not quite sure if she had just lied to him or not. Yes, in terms of physical pain, she would have rather endured it all and kept her soul, kept her mind. But right now...with the emotional, psychological, physical too, and just...pain that was everywhere...she couldn't answer truthfully if she wanted to continue, if she wouldn't want it to go away. She'd rather feel pain and know she was alive, but...this...what he was doing to her, no...what his regeneration had done to her (because clearly he had no idea what he was doing to her)...it hurt so much more than any pain she'd endured. The agony of being so connected to someone else and them...not...was crippling and so much deeper a pain than she suspected anyone else had ever suffered.
She looked at the Star Whale, unable to help letting her mind wander to...to her one option of ending her pain...
~8~
Amy and Mandy were sitting against the wall of the Tower, watching helplessly as the Doctor seemed to war with himself over what to do, Angel silently by his side, when three children entered, "Timmy!" Mandy jumped up, seeing her friend, "You made it, you're ok!"
Timmy just said nothing, it was against the rules for them to talk, and he...he didn't want to get fed to the whale again, what if it decided to eat him this time? He...he was scared.
"It's me, Mandy…"
Amy watched as one of the tentacle-things started to reach towards Mandy. The girl gasped and turned around as it tapped her on the back. She laughed though when it started to pet her gently. Amy eyed it a moment before looking over at Angel, to see her watching it, and her eyes widened as she began to understand…she could see it now! The Star Whale, the Time Lords, the children, the Doctor's inability to handle children crying, Angel's kindness of not wanting anyone else to suffer...
She looked over at Mandy and Timmy again as they pet the tentacles before rushing over to the Doctor, "Doctor, stop. Whatever you're doing, stop it now!" and then ran to Liz, grabbing her arm, "Sorry, Your Majesty, going to need a hand," she pulled her to the buttons.
"Amy, no!" the Doctor shouted, running over, "No!"
Amy forced Liz's hand down on 'Abdicate' and the whale cried out, the whole ship shaking, causing havoc on every level, but then...
Angel smiled, a moment before the ship settled down.
"Amy, what have you done?" the Doctor breathed, tense.
"Nothing at all," Amy grinned, "Am I right?"
"We've INCREASED speed!" Hawthorne gasped.
"Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Gotta help."
"It's still here?" Liz's eyes widened, seeming completely shocked that the whale, after everything they'd done to it, hadn't left them to their fate, "I don't understand.
"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago," Amy began, "It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it, that was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead, no future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind..." she glanced back at the Doctor and Angel, "You couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."
~8~
The Doctor and Angel were standing before a large window, the observation deck, gazing out at the stars. Well, the Doctor was at least, deep in thought as he was, standing a little away from the glass. Angel, on the other hand, was standing right against it a few feet to the right, just...looking out at the beauty of space, at the city that had been saved by a kind alien. She hoped, she really did, that the Star Whale wasn't the last and...she got a feeling it wasn't.
Scotland wanted their own ship hadn't they?
"From her Majesty!" Amy cheered, joining them and holding the mask out to the Doctor, "She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK."
"Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship," the Doctor began.
"You could have killed a Star Whale."
"And you saved it," he faced her, smiling, "I know, I know."
"Amazing, though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery...and loneliness," she gave him a look, "And it just made it kind."
Angel looked down, feeling...a bit afraid. If pain and misery and loneliness could make someone kind...what would happen to someone who was already kind? Would it be the reverse? She felt tears well in her eyes, so many people had told her she was kind...what would happen to her now? She...she didn't want to turn bitter or cold or...angry. That wasn't her but...she could feel it seeping in already, the loneliness. She would have thought it impossible to be with the person you loved and feel so lonely...but it seemed everything just wanted to prove her wrong all of a sudden.
She swallowed and shook her head, no, she wouldn't let it happen. She wouldn't. She...she was strong, she was smart (sort of), she'd figure out what happened to the Doctor and she'd help him like he had helped so many others including her. She had to. She...she could do it...right?
"But you couldn't have known how it would react," the Doctor tried to stress.
"YOU couldn't," Amy countered, "Maybe Angel could," she shrugged, the girl's words had put the thought in her mind that there might be another option, the girl had to have suspected the whale's true nature, she seemed like a fair judge of character, "But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?" she glanced between Angel and him, "Hey."
"What?"
"Gotcha," she laughed before pulling him into a hug.
"Ha!" he hugged her back, "Gotcha."
Angel smiled back at them sadly, a bit...hurt that Amy hadn't thought to include her in the hug, before she sighed and looked out into the stars. Her smile faded though when a white streak caught her eye and her stomach tightened, unsettling itself. She looked down, just barely managing to see the edge of the base of the city…she pressed herself closer to the glass, wanting to be sure...
There on the base of the city, was a crack, just like the one from Amy's bedroom wall…
~8~
The trio headed back to the TARDIS, through the market, "Shouldn't we say goodbye?" Amy wondered, "Won't they wonder where we went?"
"For the rest of their lives," the Doctor agreed, "Oh, the songs they'll write! Never mind them. Big day tomorrow."
"Sorry, what?"
"It's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones," he unlocked the TARDIS, "Especially Sundays, most boring day of the week!"
Angel stopped dead at the words, wondering how her hearts could possibly still be whole enough to just keep breaking. She'd been born on a Sunday, the Doctor, he'd know that, or he used to it seemed. He'd claimed once or twice it became his favorite day near the end, the most life-changing event of his life her birth. She felt her hearts thump in her chest, well, that was something at least. Broken hearts continued to beat somehow.
"You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning..." Amy started to speak, "Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just...just because you could?"
"Once...a long time ago."
"What happened?"
"Hello!" he held out his arms, laughing as he stepped into the TARDIS. Amy followed as Angel cast one more look around before following them in, shutting the doors behind her and resting against them, just as the phone began to ring.
"Right," Amy laughed, "Doctor, there's something I haven't told you. No. Hang on, is that a phone ringing? People phone you?"
"It's a phone box," Angel murmured, pushing herself off the doors to walk over to the controls to help the Doctor, whoever was calling the TARDIS...it had to be dire for the box to let it through.
"Would you mind?" the Doctor gestured at the phone, struggling to get a lever down, but the TARDIS was resisting.
Amy slowly answered it, "Hello? Sorry, who? No, seriously. Who?" she held the phone to her shoulder, watching, amused, as the Doctor literally hung from the lever with all his weight trying to pull it down, "Says he's Prime Minister. First the Queen, now the Prime Minister. Get about, don't you?"
"Which Prime Minister?" he gave up on the lever and moved to a keypad...just as Angel walked over pulled the lever easily.
He pouted at that.
"Er, which Prime Minister?" she looked at the Doctor, "The British one."
Angel smiled, Amy certainly didn't have Donna's temping skills.
"Which British one?"
"Which British one?" Amy repeated. Her eyes widened as she passed the phone to the Doctor, "Winston Churchill for you."
"Oh!" he took the phone, "Hello, dear. What's up?"
"Tricky situation, Doctor," Winston began, "Potentially very dangerous. I think I'm going to need you."
"Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister," he grinned, "We're on our way!" he laughed, hanging up and moving to twist a knob, when the TARDIS let out a big spark that had him snapping his hand away as the box disappeared from the market.
Angel watched the Doctor a moment longer, him running around the console, pulling controls here and there, or trying to as the box seemed to try and fight him at each turn, Amy trying to keep up, trying to ask him what some controls did but he just scratched his head and went back to piloting each time. She smiled a bit at that, he always was so rubbish at teaching his companions how to fly, usually SHE did that but...she just...couldn't. She looked down a moment before turning to walk out of the room...not even seeing the Doctor glance up and watch her go.
She wandered down the halls, to her room, she winced, it hurt to think that, her room, not...not their room. She swallowed and pushed her way into her room, closing the door behind her with her body, resting against it a moment before she looked at a small music box/jewelry box on the bedside table. All her belongings had been moved to the Doctor's room ages ago, but they'd all been returned to this room, in the same spots they'd always been.
She eyed the little box a moment before walking over to it and picking it up, holding it in one hand as the other lightly traced it. It was a small box, the Doctor...he'd made it for her, etched her name into the top in Gallifreyan. She let out a breath, he didn't remember this box, he didn't remember any of the gifts he'd given her now. She turned, moving to the side of her bed and sitting down on it, the box in her hands. She waited, sat in silence for a long while before she worked up the nerve to open it, feeling tears come to her eyes at the music that drifted out, a very soft, very slow version of 'All I Want For Christmas is You.' He'd made it for her after they'd met Jackson Lake, he'd claimed that if he ever talked himself hoarse he should have a way of keeping his promise to her, to dance with her to that song, not having a recording of it play, no, HE wanted to be the one singing to her, but in the off chance he couldn't he still wanted that tune for them.
She let out a shuddering breath, trying to keep the tears in her eyes, before she looked down at the box as the tune faded, there wasn't much in it. She didn't have much jewelry, just...just that diamond from San Helios that was too large to fit in it and her Whitepoint Star necklace. She wore it still, hoping maybe the light would catch it the right way and the Doctor would see it and remember but...nothing. The music box had become more a small little keepsake for treasured memories. There was a small dried rose, a photo of her and Mickey, a peace symbol key chain Martha had given her from 1969, a little toy action figure of supergirl but with the hair painted red from Donna, and two more pictures, one of the Torchwood team and another of her and Jack and Gray. She smiled at the keepsakes, before taking them out of the box and setting them beside her, looking at the very last object left there, the one hidden under all the others.
It was a bracelet.
It was a thick sort of metal shaped like a more oval U, old, almost...alien, entirely alien really, well, alien to humans that is. There were etchings on the side in Old High Gallifreyan, small computer-chip-like devices along the edges of it, so well blended in that they looked like just more etchings, humans would never notice it.
A Dampening Bracelet.
She picked it up, setting the box on her other side, and just...looked at it. It was standard issue for all Daleks when they had begun to take Time Lord prisoners during the War, wanting to try and get information out of them. They couldn't risk their captives dying should their Mates have passed in another battle.
A Dampening Bracelet...well, did what it said and more. It didn't just dampen the Mating bonds...it blocked them entirely. It didn't destroy it, it just...blocked them as long as the bracelet was worn. It made it so that one Mate couldn't hear or feel the other (though the other Mate could still hear and feel the one wearing the bracelet). It was literally the ONLY way to survive past the death of your Mate.
And it was sacrilege on Gallifrey.
The bracelets had been created during an old war, when they'd gone to war against the Racnoss actually, soldiers were dying in the middle of battle and, across the planet their Mates would drop dead as well, and their armies lost too many people not even in battle. Mates were forbidden to be stationed together as they were always more protective and worried and focused on their Mates instead of the platoon. The bracelets had been developed as a last resort, as a way to keep the double-deaths from happening till after the fight was won. It was a disgusting method, to leave the soldiers not knowing if their Mate was dead, not allowing them to follow. But it had been done. The bracelets, for the most part, had been destroyed immediately after.
Mating was sacred, it was forever, it was deep and powerful and meaningful, to block that was...horrible.
A few bracelets had been kept though, should another terrible war be waged, locked away in the deepest archives of the planet to be used as blueprints later. But they had been stolen just before the War began, by the Daleks. All the plans and details about them as well, the Time Lords had been left helpless, none of the original creators still alive, none of the schematics for the bracelets stored anywhere but in the archives, no one had wanted to even consider them again. It hadn't been till the plans and items had been stolen that they even realized what was lost. The Dalek that had attacked her sister had been issued with a bracelet and when she'd grabbed it and they'd shifted away...she'd been clinging to the alien's casing as tightly as she could, had ended up thrown away from it, the bracelet nearby, as they hit the Earth.
She'd had it all that time.
She'd worn it all through the 50 years she'd been on Earth.
Because she'd thought it was the last bit of home she had, the last bit of tech, the last etchings of their language, the last anything from Gallifreyan culture, even if it was a terrible thing to have. The humans had never noticed she'd worn it, they were all usually placed with a very low level perception filter so she'd managed to keep it with her.
But then she'd found the Doctor, and the TARDIS, and she hadn't needed it anymore. She'd wanted to throw it in a supernova but...something stopped her. Even then something had told her not to get rid of it. She'd thought it was just the fact she'd had it for 50 years, so she'd just left it in a drawer in her room, and had only ever thought of it when she moved it to the box.
But here she was.
Sitting there with the one thing that might give her relief.
It was hard, it was so hard, to bear it, to be around the Doctor, to hear his mind thinking of adventure and the dangers and all sorts of things but give almost no thought to her. It was terrible to feel what he felt, to know that there was nothing...towards her. Or at least none she could feel. He did get the odd flash of...something...but it was gone too quickly for her to be sure what it was. To still be that connected to him and have him so closed to her...
Hurt.
It hurt more than anything she'd ever felt, more than dying, more than the death of her family, more than the loss of their people. To lose someone like the Doctor...was truly the most terrible fate ever.
She ran her finger along the Gallifreyan symbols, eyeing the bracelet.
If she...if she wore it...if she just slipped it over her wrist, it would be over, till she took it off at least. She...she wouldn't have to hear the Doctor not thinking of her, she wouldn't have to feel him feeling odd around her, she wouldn't have to bear the burden of being the only one with the connection open...she might not hurt so much if she just...put it on. She never thought she'd reach this point, of actually and truly considering the bracelet, she'd tried to be strong before, tried to think that maybe he just had to settle a bit more, maybe just spending some time alone with her and not running around trying to save the world in 20 minutes might...spark something.
To hear him flat-out tell Liz 10 that they weren't Mates, realizing Liz had meant true Mates and not friends and he still denied it...it had killed her. It had actually made her think of using the bracelet it hurt that badly.
But...even as she looked at the bracelet, as she held it in one hand, almost ready to slip it on...she just...
Couldn't.
She couldn't.
Because if she did, if they were spilt up and her 'sight' missed something, she wouldn't be able to tell if the Doctor was in danger, if he needed help, if he was in pain or scared.
She closed her eyes and put the bracelet back in the box, just...sitting there in the darkness...leaning over to rest her elbows on her knees, her hands clasped and pressed to her forehead.
Even now, even after everything, she loved him too much to do that.
~8~
"In bed above, we're deep asleep, while greater love lies further deep. This dream must end, this world must know, we all depend on the beast below."
A/N: Who else died a little bit when the Doctor said Sundays were boring? :'( Oh Doctor, you take a step forward and seven back :(
:( Well now we know what that one form of blocking the bond is :( I mean as in, honestly and truly blocking the bond, the Doctor got an itching in his head when Angel tried to call him in Eleventh Hour and (we'll see) he will at times get a fluttering of Angel's emotion (at extreme moments) and yes, he WILL die if Angel dies. The bracelet is deeper than that, it blocks it entirely, no itching, no feeling, no death. But you can see why it's so against the Time Lord culture to use it.
I'm torn between feeling happy that she isn't using it...and sad that she's going to be suffering not using it. At least here she was strong enough to not use it, as for whether she'll always be that strong...well...we'll see :(
I can say next chapter will have a bit of a lighter start to it, we'll see Angel have that talk with the TARDIS about how the box is treating the Doctor :) ...and then we get, you know, Daleks... :)
Some notes on reviews...
Oh I don't think anyone'll be ready for what's coming }:)
It could be the Pandorica's light, that's a great theory :) We'll have to see which ones Angel comes up with (she's got A LOT) and which one might be right :)
I can promise (besides Rory punching the Doctor in Big Bang) Rory'll definitely hold his own against the Time Lord at some point, Rory will seriously just be too cute around Angel :) I'm thrilled to show the episodes with him in it before Amy comes around (and even after because the Doctor's reactions to her bonding with Rory are great!) :)
I'm not sure if the review got cut off. What did you want to know exactly? If it's not too spoilery, I'll try to answer :)
I know! I was completely shocked to see 100! :) Made me smile and do a little happy dance in my chair though :) And it means we might get to the next 100 just in time for a peek of Rory! ;) Angel will have a tough time during this series, mostly in the beginning. She only just started to feel sure of herself and would have grown so much if the Doctor remembered and they still had that relationship. She's going to be suffering a little (or a lot) for a few episodes, struggling to try and find a way to compensate for that lack of support. I can say that there will be two key moments (2 different episodes) that will affect her and make her realize she has to be stronger and that she has to learn to stand on her own (no matter the heartbreaking reason behind it) and that she CAN be strong :) We'll definitely see her start to grow more towards the end of this series and much more in Series 6 :)
The Dream Lord, not to be too specific, I picture as the Doctor's subconscious, all those thoughts you don't realize you have and don't remember (hint hint) you have ;) That episode was one of my favorites to write because of that. But there'll also be a twist in it for Angel too :) I can also say that that episode will see the Doctor becoming aware of his memories, or at least showing he is aware something's...off...we'll have to see just what he realizes and how he reacts to it though, but yup, a lot of questions will come up for the Doctor :)
I'm gonna keep tight lipped about the memory loss and when/if it might end :) I want it to be suspenseful as long as possible and keep you all guessing :) Angel is going to try very hard to get him to remember, but there will be a very BIG thing at the end of Cold Blood that might...well...I'm not gonna say }:)
That's a great video :) I love how the Mythbusters just keep setting things on fire :)