The Vampires of Venice: The Storm
The Signora strode into the main chamber of her school, the throne room so to speak, only to find the Doctor sitting on the embellished chair with a woman she recognized as the alien applicant standing at his side, eyeing her warily, her nose crinkled as though smelling something that made her a bit ill.
The Doctor gave her a wolf whistle, "Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you...Sister of the Water?"
"No, let me guess," she glanced at him, smiling, impressed with what she saw, "The owner of the psychic paper. Then I take it you're a refugee, like me? The both of you?" for after that display of power earlier, the girl could be nothing but an alien as well.
"I'll make you a deal. An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter. It doesn't change your features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank...hence no reflection."
"Your question?"
"Why can we see your big teeth?"
She gave a small laugh, "Self-preservation overrides the mirage. The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain," she glanced at Angel as she shifted, it seemed the perception filter wasn't quite working on her though, they had the ability to appear human for a time, much like the Krillitanes, a morphic illusion, the perception filter was more...a helpful trinket to keep others from looking too closely at them, seeing the small flaws in the plan, like their teeth or smell their scent.
"Why are you here?"
"My turn," she tsked him, "Where are you from?"
"Gallifrey," Angel stated.
The Signora's eyes widened at that, "You should be in a museum. Or in a mausoleum."
"Why are you here?" the Doctor repeated.
"We ran from the Silence. Why are you here?"
"Wedding present. What..."
"Are the Silence?" Angel cut in, frowning, that name, that word...the Silence.
Zero had said it, said Silence would fall, and she couldn't help but feel uneasy about it. She was sure the Doctor had a better question coming, probably one that had to do with Venice or what the woman was planning, she'd probably just wasted his turn, but...she had to know. Something was telling her it was important, it was really very important that they find out about whatever it was.
"There were cracks," the Signora began, thinking on it, growing distant in her memories, "Some were tiny...some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw Silence...and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us...and Saturnyne was lost."
"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark II?" the Doctor frowned.
"And you can help me," she smiled, turning to him, "We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"
"Hmm," he stood up and walked to face her, Angel stopping at the top of the steps that led to the throne to watch, "How do we reverse what you've done to Isabella?"
"Isabella?"
"The girl who saved us," Angel said, frowning at how little the Signora seemed to care for the girl, to not even recall her name. What importance were any of the other girls then? They had families and the Signora had taken them away, and she didn't even know their names?
Signora sighed, "Time. If she's not fully converted her body will replenish her blood over time. Such a waste," and then she looked at the Doctor, "I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership," she reached out a hand and began to trail her finger down the line of the Doctor's buttons, tapping each of them as she spoke her next words, "Any which way you choose."
The Doctor just grabbed her wrist, not tightly, but enough for her to stop, his skin feeling like it was litearlly crawling as she touched him, if kissing Amy had felt wrong...this was torture, something inside him twisted painfully at the thought of being touched so intimately by the woman, "I don't think that's such a good idea, do you?" he smirked, stepping right before her to speak quietly to her, nearly nose-to-nose with her, but with a dangerous note in his voice that spoke of how little he was considering her offer, "I'm a Time Lord. You're a big fish. Think of the children."
Angel stiffened behind him, unnoticed by both of them, her eyes a little wide as her mouth dropped open. Slowly she lifted a hand to rest on her stomach which had, admittedly, gotten just a bit bigger the last few months…which did explain why her belt had been slightly tighter than she recalled...but...that was impossible. Wasn't it? She couldn't be. Could she? She shook her head, feeling a bit of Donna's humanity peeking through. No, no. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. She wasn't. She would have sensed THAT. No, she was sure she wasn't.
...was she?
"Carlo!" Signora yelled, pulling Angel out of her frantic thoughts, "You're right. We're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race, while YOU philosophize."
"This ends today," the Doctor promised, "I'll tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone," Carlo put a hand on his chest to get him to move, "Take your hands off me, Carlo, and don't even think about touching Angel either," and with that, he turned and headed for the door, Angel quickly following. He stopped a moment and looked back at the Signora, "And you know why? You didn't know Isabella's name," he opened the door, "You didn't know Isabella's name."
"Open the gates!" Carlo ordered as the Doctor and Angel strode out and into the street.
The Doctor shook his head at that, disgusted by what the woman was doing to the innocent humans...when he noticed something, "You alright?" he asked Angel.
Angel looked at him sharply, seeming almost startled. She was pale and shaking and looked rather...frantic and upset. She swallowed, "Fine," she whispered.
He eyed her a moment longer before nodding and continuing on.
Angel hestiated just one moment before following. She was fine. She was. Yes. Fine. Nothing wrong. Nothing at all. Fine, just fine.
She let out a silent breath, God she really hoped she was fine.
~8~
"Attend!" the Signora called, "Attend!" Francesco, Carlo, the girls and the attendants came into the courtyard, "The storm is coming!" she started down the stairs when her perception filter faltered, sending a painful jolt of electricity into her, distracting her from maintaining the morphic illusion, allowing Carlo to see the real creature beneath her for a moment.
"Mummy...what's wrong with your perception filter?" Francesco asked.
"I must have damaged it when that idiot girl attacked me..." there was another glitch that made her flinch, "Now...assemble the girls. I have a job for them."
~8~
The Doctor stood before Isabella as she sat across from her father, beside Amy at the table of her home, a thin cloth was covering the windows to dim the room for her so the sunlight wouldn't irritate her skin more than it had. He soniced her, reading the scans to see that the Signora had been telling the truth, already Isabella's blood was replenishing itself and returning her to normal, "You'll be fine," he told her happily, "Give it a few weeks and your body will start to replenish itself with your blood and not theirs."
"You've got your daughter back," Angel smiled at Guido, who couldn't stop grinning as he reached across the table and took Isabella's hand, Angel placing her own hand on his arm as she sat at the end of the table.
"Now," the Doctor started to pace, "I need to think. Come on brain, think, think. Think!" he sat down at the other end of the table, across from Angel, "Think!"
"If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun," Amy remarked.
The Doctor put a hand over her mouth, Amy sitting to his right, "Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush."
"It's the school thing I don't understand," Rory said from his left.
The Doctor put his other hand over Rory's mouth, "Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush."
"You'd be surprised how easy it is for aliens to get to children when they're locked away in a school," Angel sighed sadly, thinking of Brother Lassa and the Krillitanes.
"I say we take the fight to them," Guido replied, pounding his fist on the table, now determined to fight and get the other girls back to their families.
"Ah-ah-ah!" the Doctor looked at him.
"What?" he frowned
The Doctor shot Angel a look, "Ah!" and nodded at Guido.
"No," she shook her head, "I'm not going to cover his mouth for you. That's rude."
The Doctor sighed and nudged Rory who put his hand over Guido's mouth and then he nodded at Amy who rolled her eyes and put her hand over Isabella's mouth just to be safe, "Her planet dies," he thought out loud, "So they flee through a crack in space and time, and end up here, then she closes off the city and, one by one, changes people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool. Got it. Then what? They come from the sea, they can't survive forever on land, so what's she going to do? Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable...she said, 'I shall bend the heavens to save my race,'" he moved his hands from Amy and Rory's mouths to move their heads, making them nod, "Bend the heavens...bend...the heavens..."
"She wants to sink Venice," Angel blinked, her vision of that storm now making sense! Oh how had she not seen it sooner!?
"She's...she's going to sink Venice?" Guido asked, pulling Rory's hand away from his mouth as Isabella did the same with Amy.
"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed," the Doctor nodded, smiling though, at Angel for working it out before him. She was so clever like that, saw little things he missed, made him realize little things that were important...
"You can't repopulate somewhere with just women," Rory countered, "You need...blokes."
"She's got blokes," Amy replied.
"Where?" the Doctor looked at her.
"In the canal."
"That's right," Angel recalled, "She said 'There are 10,000 husbands waiting in the water.'"
"Only the male offspring survived the journey here!" the Doctor realized, "She's got 10,000 children swimming in the canals, waiting for mum to make them some compatible girlfriends. Ew. I mean, I've been around a bit, but, really, that's...that's...ew," there was a loud clattering from the floor above them that cut him off, "The people upstairs are very noisy."
"There aren't any people upstairs," Isabella breathed, tensing, frightened as she worked out exactly what that noise was.
"I knew you were going to say that," the Doctor looked around, "Did anyone else know she was going to say that?"
Angel raised her hand.
"Anyone who isn't able to see the future know she was going to say that?"
Angel laughed a little and lowered her hand as the wood creaked again, like someone was walking across the floor.
Rory looked up, tensing, "Is it the vampires?"
"Like I said, they're not vampires. Fish from space."
There was a loud thump and breaking glass as the converted girls pushed the curtains aside, making Isabella flinch away, and tried to get in through the window and down the stairs. They all stood up quickly, startled, the Doctor brandishing the ultraviolet light as Guido tried to pull Isabella back and shield her from the sunlight, not about to lose his daughter again after having gotten her back.
"Aren't we on the second floor?"
The girls in the window reached through and the Doctor flashed the light to keep them back. Angel ran over, taking the light as the Doctor pulled out the sonic and flashed them, revealing them to be insect-like creatures with fish heads, just like the Signora.
"What's happened to them?" Guido stared as he pulled Isabella closer.
"There's nothing left of them," the Doctor replied, "They've been fully converted. Blimey, fish from space have never been so...buxom. Ok..." he switched off the sonic and took the light from Angel, ushering her forward, ahead of him, "Move. Come on!" they ran down the stairs, Amy and Rory, then Guido and Isabella, and Angel and the Doctor, all of them heading for the door, Amy and Rory running out, disturbing the poor chickens, "Go, go, go, guys!" the Doctor urged as Guido pulled off a curtain from the window by the barrels of gunpowder and tossed it over Isabella to protect her as they ran out, knocking over a lit candle in the process, "Keep moving, go, go, go!"
"Run!" Angel shouted, before gasping and spinning around, looking at the door with horror in her eyes, "No..." she breathed.
"What are you doing?!" the Doctor ran back to her, his hearts hammering in his chest to see her standing there where the girls could get to her, and grabbing her arm, about to pull her.
"Duck!" Angel turned and quickly pulled him to the ground, moments before the barrels of gunpowder exploded, the candle that Guido had knocked over igniting them, taking the house and the girls with it, Angel looking back over her shoulder in terrible sadness that the girls had been trapped inside.
~8~
The Signora strode towards her throne, opening a device attached to the armrest, "Right, to begin, let's fill the sky with fire," and activated it. She looked out as smoke and vapor poured out from the bell tower of the school, blocking out the sky. Lighting streaked across it as the storm began, making her grin, "Yes!"
She sauntered over to a window, observing as the people on the streets began to worry and panic, "In sight of the Lord, protect and keep us!" a man shouted.
~8~
The small group of six looked over at the damage of Guido's house, "I am so sorry," Angel turned to Guido, she hadn't sensed anything till a moment before it happened and she felt so terribly. Rory had been correct in that, as a gondola driver, in a world full of them, money was tight, and now Guido had lost his home. She should have sensed it or at least seen the candle stick fall over still lit and stopped it.
But the man just laughed, beaming really, "They're gone!" he cheered, hugging Isabella close, far too overjoyed that his daughter was alive and safe and with him again and wouldn't be hunted like an animal to be upset with a small building of wood. A house was just wood and stone, his daughter was his flesh and blood, infinitely more precious to him.
And then they heard the people clamoring in the streets, all of them realizing what that had to mean, "Rosanna's initiating the final phase," the Doctor said.
"We need to stop her," Amy decided, about to dash off, "Come on!"
"No, no. Get back to the TARDIS."
"You can't stop her on your own."
"We don't discuss this! I tell you to do something, Amy, and you do it. Huh?"
Amy glared at him and stormed off, "Thank you," Rory told him before going after Amy.
"Yeah...you're welcome," he sighed.
"Guido," Angel turned to the man, "You and Isabella try to get out of the city, or at the very least find somewhere to hide till we sort this out," Guido nodded and led Isabella away.
People started screaming as the Doctor and Angel turned and ran out onto the streets, looking around for which way to go, when Angel took off to the left, the Doctor following her.
~8~
Francesco opened the gates of the school and looked up at the darkening sky just as Amy and Rory stopped across the canal, looking up as well, "Oh, my God!" he heard Amy say and looked over, "What is going on?"
"The sky, it's like it's boiling," Rory commented.
He glared at the humans, knowing it was their fault his mummy kept getting hurt by the glitch in her filter and that their plans had to be accelerated, and removed his hat and cape before diving into the canal, following them along it as they rushed off.
~8~
The Doctor and Angel ran into the throne room, Angel going directly to the chair and feeling along it, knowing there was something more to it, as the Doctor soniced it. He grinned as he opened a panel behind the back cushion to reveal alien circuitry before sonicing that.
"You're too late," the Signora smirked, entering the room with a confident stride, clearly very pleased with what was happening outside, "Such determination...just to save one city. Hard to believe it's the same man that let an entire race turn to cinders and ash," her gaze flickered to Angel, recognizing her now that she knew where they were from, "And the woman who turned them to stone and drove another alien just looking for sustenance off the planet."
"Children are not sustenance," Angel frowned, shaking her head at the woman, "The Hydrians killed everything inside them," she closed her eyes, "Like you did to those girls."
That was the only way she could get through that, through the fact that she hadn't been quick enough to help save the girls from the explosion. There was nothing left of them, the Doctor had even said so. They weren't girls any longer, they were shells, filled with alien blood. She winced though, that was almost like the Dalek experimentations in New York, human shells with alien ideals. But...she supposed, there was a difference between full conversion, blood and DNA, and simply having your mind erased and filled with another purpose.
"Now you can watch as my people take their new kingdom," the Signora just continued.
"The girls have gone, Rosanna," the Doctor stated.
"You're lying," she spat.
"Shouldn't we be dead? Hmm?"
"Rosanna," Angel called as the woman turned to storm off, "Please, you can help us save 200,000 people!"
"So save them," she sneered and left.
The Doctor looked at the throne and then Angel before she sighed and grabbed his arm, leading him out of the room.
~8~
Amy and Rory made their way through the streets, only to find their path blocked by a wet Francesco. Rory quickly picked up some candlesticks and held them up to form a cross, "Amy, run!" he shouted but Francesco just swiped them away and moved towards Amy, "This way, you freak!" he called, trying to distract him, not wanting him to get closer to Amy, to hurt her, "Don't! This...this...this way, you big, stupid, great...SpongeBob! The only thing I've seen uglier than you is...your mum! No..."
Francesco turned around instantly, "Did you just say something about mummy?"
Rory picked up a broom and brandished it like as sword…and then Francesco pulled out a real sword. He attacked Rory, who barely managed to block the blows with the handle of the broom, ducking back and jumping to the side to try and keep alive long enough to think of some way out of that...and finding himself wishing Angel or even the Doctor were there to help.
"Careful!" Amy shouted, "Hit him! This way, bring him this way! Rory!"
Francesco sliced the broom handle in two, leaving Rory defenseless. He thrust his sword through a hanging drape and Rory, thankfully, dodged out of the way. He wrapped Francesco in the drape and backed away, "Ew!" he grimaced, backing into the next courtyard, holding his arm under his nose, "You stink of fish," now he understood Angel's slightly displeased expression when they'd first entered the throne room to petition the Signora and her mild grimace when Francesco had been circling her.
"Well, I'm hardly going to smell of cheese and biscuits," the man countered, following. Rory tripped and fell backwards to the ground, hitting his head as Francesco leapt, changing form midair into his fish-like counterpart, to land on top of Rory.
"Hey!" Amy called from the stairs, "Mummy's boy," she held up a compact mirror to the sunlight, reflecting it onto Francesco till he exploded.
Rory coughed, wiping off the dust of the explosion, the...fish flakes...that were sprinkling down onto him, "Oh...oh..."
"That was lucky," Amy commented as Rory stood, "Why did you make the sign of the cross, you numpty?"
Rory rolled his eyes and walked up the stairs to Amy, "Oh, oh, right! I'm being reviewed now, am I?"
Amy just kissed him, rather passionately, "Now we go help the Doctor and Angel."
"Rightio," he agreed, just a bit dazed.
Amy smirked, she still had it, she still knew just how to get what she wanted. Let's see Angel try that! She blinked, no, no really let's NOT see Angel try to do that. No. She didn't want anyone to kiss Rory, no one but her.
~8~
Angel stopped on a balcony outside the school, looking down on the city below. The bell tolled and she looked up at it, frowning, feeling something stirring as she looked at the top of the bell tower, before nodding to the Doctor, "It's up there," she stated.
"Right," he sighed, quickly dashing back inside with her as they ran for the throne room.
~8~
Outside the school the townsfolk were screaming and running through the rain in chaos. Carlo approached the gate from the inside, dragging a bag of precious items he was stealing from the school, wanting to get out now that he knew what was really in store for everyone, "Open the gates!"
"It's the Almighty!" a man shouted, "Look at the sky!"
Amy and Rory ran through the streets, sneaking through the gate while Carlo picked up his bag. They ran into the school and headed for the throne room just as the Doctor and Angel entered from the main door to it, "Get out!" the Doctor yelled, running to the throne with Angel, "I need to stabilize the storm."
"We're not leaving you," Rory said.
"Right," the Doctor walked back to them, "So one minute it's, 'You make people a danger to themselves,' the next it's, 'We're not leaving you!' But if one of you gets squashed or blown up or eaten, who gets..."
He was cut off suddenly, by Angel half tackling him, half shoving him to the side as the ground shook, a large chunk of the ceiling falling where he'd just been standing, Amy and Rory knocked to the ground as well. He gasped, looking up to see Angel half on top of him and his breath caught in his throat as his eyes connected with hers, and...he was quite sure it wasn't because of her weight that he felt so breathless. She was...warm and...soft and...close...her hair had fallen out of its bun in all their running, the ends of it tickling the skin on his neck, making him tingle...
Angel blinked, frowning as she saw the Doctor just staring at her, "Are you ok?" she asked.
She knew he was, both a feeling and the Mating bonds telling her that, but...he was...acting rather odd at the moment. The storm was picking up, the ceiling was falling around them, the ground was shaking and the aliens were about to take over and he was just...looking at her.
"What?" he blinked, shaking his head, "What? Sorry, what?"
"Are you ok Doctor?" she repeated.
"Yes, yes fine," he nodded, glancing over at the large chunk of stone that would have crushed him, "Thanks."
She nodded and got up, blinking a bit as she got slightly lightheaded a moment, her adrenaline fading, before she held out a hand to help him up as well.
"What was that?" Rory gasped as he scrambled over to Amy, helping her up.
The Doctor looked over at them, wincing a moment, he'd actually forgotten they were there, "Nothing. Bit of an earthquake."
"An earthquake?" Amy asked.
"Manipulate the elements, it can trigger earthquakes. But don't worry about them."
"No?" Rory gave him a confused look.
"No. Worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake."
Angel shook her head at his lack of tact, "Everything will be ok Rory," she crossed her hearts, "We've honestly been through worse."
And they really had. Poisoned gas choking the Earth, the Earth stolen, the Master taking over, the Slitheen attacking, and so much more. If they could stop all that, they could stop this too.
The Doctor nodded and faced the throne, "Right," he spun to them, "Rosanna's throne is the control hub but she's locked the program, so tear out every single wire and circuit in the throne. Go crazy. Hit it with a stick, anything. But don't," he looked at Angel, pointing at her warningly, "Use the Vortex on it," she frowned, realizing he was basically telling her to stay with Rory and Amy and not go with him, "It might just end up super powering it," he added, interpreting her frown as one of confusion, before he turned and headed for the throne, checking the wires, leaving her no time to even argue that she wanted to go with him before he dashed out of the room, "We need it to shut down and reroute control to the secondary hub, which I'm guessing will also be the generator."
~8~
The Doctor ran up the stairs leading to the bell tower, holding his hands over his ears as he neared the tolling bells.
~8~
Amy, Rory, and Angel pulled all the wires they could out of the throne, causing it to spark.
~8~
The Doctor held the clapper on one of the bells, "Shut up! Shut up," it stilled and he jumped down, "That's better!" he tugged on one of the cables but it didn't budge, so he climbed up onto the rail, gripping the column as the rain poured down. He slipped but quickly regained his balance and began to climb up the outside of the tower.
~8~
Amy and Rory looked around the courtyard for the Doctor.
"There!" Angel shouted, pointing at him climbing the tower.
~8~
The Doctor climbed up to the top, using the cable, and reached a giant sphere at the pinnacle.
~8~
"Come on!" Rory murmured.
~8~
He paused, opening the sphere to reveal the device controlling the storm, examining it closely to find a way to stop it.
~8~
"Come on!" Amy breathed, "Come on!"
~8~
He flicked a simple toggle switch and the rain immediately stopped, the clouds clearing as the birds began to sing again.
~8~
Amy, Angel, and Rory looked around before laughing and hugging each other.
"I knew he'd do it!" Angel cheered, turning to hug Rory tightly.
~8~
The Doctor closed the sphere and looked down at the street with a little wave.
"You did it!" Rory shouted up to him, laughing, his arm absently winding around Angel's shoulders...which made the Doctor frown, able to see it even from up there.
~8~
The Signora walked down a small dock of the canal to the water's edge, tying to turn off her filter but the device died, leaving her stuck looking like a human. She pulled off her gloves and stripped down to her underdress. The water started to bubble the closer she got to the edge, the aliens within it seeing only a human and not their mother.
"Rosanna stop!" Angel called as she and the Doctor ran out to find her, Angel leading the way, having sensed what the woman was about to do and wanting to stop her. They could both empathize with her, with the loss one felt in losing their race, in being left alone, in thinking one was alone, "Please wait!"
"One city to save an entire species," she remarked, her voice hollow, hopeless, "Was that so much to ask?"
The Doctor motioned for Angel to stay back as he slowly approached the fish-woman, unsure of how stable she'd be to find out all she'd lost and not wanting Angel to get hurt should the woman lash out at them, "I told you, you can't go back and change time. You mourn but you live. I know, Rosanna, I did it. We both did," he gestured back at Angel.
"Tell me, Doctor..." the Signora turned to look back at him, "Can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race? Remember us. Dream of us," and with that, she fell into the water.
"No..." Angel tried to rush forward to stop her, but she was too late, the Doctor spun around and grabbed her before she could get past him, holding her back as they both looked down into the water as the bubbling stopped.
~8~
The townsfolk were cleaning up after the storm, the city still standing thanks to the small group of four now heading back to the TARDIS, "Now, then, what about you two, eh?" the Doctor grinned at Amy and Rory, "Next stop Leadworth Register Office? Maybe I can give you away."
"It's fine," Rory sighed, waving off the offer, "Drop me back where you found me. I'll just say you've..."
"Stay…with us," Amy said suddenly, "Please. Just for a bit. I want you to stay."
"Fine with me," the Doctor nodded.
"You can be my companion," Angel laughed, grinning broadly at that. Finally!
"Yeah?" Rory started to smile, actually excited at that idea, he'd seen how close Amy and the Doctor were, it would be nice to be that close to someone too, "Yes, I would like that."
"Well technically you're not Angel's companion," the Doctor cut in, "Only people bonded to the TARDIS are designated as pilots and allowed a companion."
Angel swallowed hard and smiled tensely, trying not to react to that, to the revelation that he even forgot that, well, she supposed he would have, that was the start of their Mating, "We can still pretend though, yeah?"
"Of course," he smiled.
"Nice one," Amy laughed before kissing Rory, "I will pop the kettle on," she unlocked the TARDIS, "Hey, look at this. Got my spaceship and I get both my boys. My work here is done," she smiled and stepped in, closing the door behind her.
Rory scoffed and looked at the Doctor, "We are not her boys."
The Doctor just clapped a hand on Rory's shoulder, "Yeah, we are."
"Yeah, we are."
"Of course," Angel added quietly before looking around with a frown, "Doctor…" she cut in, "Can you hear that?"
"What?" Rory looked around as well, "All I can hear is...silence," but he shook his head, it must be some sort of alien hearing thing and stepped inside.
The Doctor stood there, looking out as he recalled the Signora's words, 'There were cracks. Through some we saw silence and the end of all things.'
"Come on," he mumbled, opening the TARDIS door and allowing Angel in before he stepped inside, casting one more wary look around.
He and Angel moved to the console, getting them into the Vortex as quickly as they could, neither of them wanting to stay there around the odd quiet any longer. Angel paused, glancing at Rory as he sat on the jump seat, watching them. The Doctor didn't seem to notice as he headed up the stairs, whistling a little tune, going to check on Amy in the kitchen, Rory having lost her as soon as he stepped into the box and decided to remain there and wait instead of really getting lost.
"So…" Rory began, just looking for a topic to start a conversation, "I'm your companion now?"
She smiled softly and nodded, "It's about time I had another one."
"Another?" he asked before nodding to himself, "You and the Doctor must've had quite a few."
"I suppose the Doctor has," she remarked, "But I've only had one."
"Really?" he frowned, surprised.
She nodded, "It takes a special sort of person to be able to handle all this," she gestured around the room.
"He must have been brilliant," he remarked a bit depressed, Angel and the Doctor were incredible people even he could admit to that about the Doctor.
Angel smiled, "The Doctor," she began, "Never got his name right, kept calling him Ricky. Always called him an idiot. Tended to forget he was even there. Or he'd ignore him. Or focus on his companion, Rose. Or make fun of his lack of bravery. Because, at first, he wasn't, brave that is. Or all that clever or cool or important…nothing compared to the Doctor," Rory looked down, Angel smiling, "Or at least that's what he thought."
Rory looked at her sharply, "What?"
"Mickey Smith," she said fondly, in thought, "Was, and still is, one of the most remarkable men I've had the pleasure to know," she looked at Rory whose mouth dropped open at her openly stating the human man might be even more remarkable than the Doctor, "The Doctor tends to take any decent person who can handle this life, the ones who would enjoy the ride, and there are quite a few of them. But me, my companions are far more rare, the diamonds in the rough, I take my companions for their potential."
"You…you think I'VE got potential?" he pointed to himself as though he couldn't believe what she was saying.
"I see in you what the Doctor can't," she told him, "I see the people my companions can become if given the chance. I can see them for their strength, a strength buried deep inside, one that is rarely seen but always there, just below the surface. Take Mickey for example," she leaned against the console laughing happily as she recalled him, "He faced down robots and Cybermen and…and Daleks," she swallowed hard, "He saved a parallel world from inside a van! He travelled across dimensions with a silly little teleport button to save this world from two enemies! He shot himself out of a Dimension Cannon to help us stop the Daleks again and save all of reality!"
"Daleks…" Rory frowned in thought, the word was familiar, "Hold on, those metal things with the toilet plungers on their arms? The ones that invaded when the planets were in the sky yeah? Those things?"
Angel nodded, glad to know Rory remembered them at least, "A mutated clone race living in a metal shield, a race born to hate, with force fields around them to make them near indestructible," she sighed, "They were and still are the greatest enemies of the Time Lords."
Rory frowned, "You faced them before?"
Angle glanced at him before patting the side of the console for him to join her, and proceeded to tell him about the War. The bloodshed, the Time Lock, the loss, the survival of the Daleks, and the times they'd faced them in reverse order.
"…one of them, the first one the Doctor had ever met after the War, killed me," she finished, explaining how they never seemed to escape them.
"But you're still alive…"
"We can regenerate," she explained, "Basically change everything about ourselves as we heal, become new people. That's what happened to me. It shot me, made itself so weak that the Doctor was able to blast it to pieces," Rory nodded along with that, "Typically that never happens. The shielding around the Dalek, it only loses power after it's fired its laser at something. Their systems need a bit of time to restore in which case the area around the eyestalk is compromised, very strong blasts would probably kill one. But, usually, there are so many you never get a chance to fire."
Rory was quiet a few moments, "That Mickey Smith," he remarked, "He…he was like me?"
Angel smiled, hearing his insecurities in his voice. She'd told him more than enough about Mickey from just a few words for him to make the connection. Their girl runs off with the Doctor who, by all points in logic, was just so much more impressive than them, and they just feel all the more inadequate… "He's exactly like you," she told him, "And that's why I chose you," he looked at her, all her praises of Mickey made him seem like, in the end, he was so much more than when he began. She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, "I CAN see it in you Rory. There, just behind your eyes, the potential to be fantastically magnificent!"
"You…you really think so?"
"I'm psychic Rory, I know so," she smiled, nudging him, "The Doctor's companions are special people, but MY companions, they've got to be beyond special."
"And that's me?"
She smirked, "One day," she nodded.
He smiled, that was all he needed, just ONE person to believe in HIM, to be there for HIM, to want HIM. And in that moment, he felt like maybe he could believe that there, inside him, was this brilliant man Angel could see him becoming.
~8~
Later that night Angel laid on her bed, staring at her ceiling, in complete shock, with a hand lightly resting on her stomach, it was...not at all noticeable through the looseness of her dress. But she could feel it, it was there.
She supposed it explained a lot. Her odd craving of fish fingers and custard, how extra ill she felt when she spotted the cracks, her upset stomach when she woke never so bad as to lead to morning sickness but it was getting worse so she couldn't be sure how long that would last, why she couldn't bear to stand anywhere near Winston even when he wasn't smoking as she could still smell the cigar smoke on him, her nose burning in response, or even how sick she felt smelling all that fish earlier, her odd mood changes, the fierce protectiveness that had reared its head in the forest with the angels and then again just that night, and her belt, how it didn't fit anymore…
She should have realized.
Especially after Sarah Jane's almost-wedding, she knew what the chances were with a Mating process being completed despite her family history, the chance was still there. She should have noticed, but with everything going on with the new Doctor and Amy and Rory and the cracks and the whispers of the Silence…she just…didn't.
But it was true, it was real…
She was pregnant.
A/N: Oh snap! I think a few of you might have seen that coming? I hope it was still surprising though. I've been trying to be the most subtle I have ever been. I actually hadn't planned this when I was outlining the series, but writing it out, getting to that line 'think of the children' and with the Doctor not remembering Angel…I had an epic epiphany moment of just how much more I could possibly torture her }:) Imagine her with a baby...and the Doctor having NO memory at all of it. Well, it IS labeled under angst this time :) I'm so evil ^-^ A few people questioned about a possible pregnancy...I really tried not to give this away but also not contradicting myself, so I went for not giving a solid yes/no answer, but just talking of how difficult it was for her mother and sister ;)
Lol, I actually hinted at it WAY back in the 10-specials, with the Children of Earth. There was something...more...helping Angel stop the 456, wasn't there? She sensed it even then. She was pregnant, it was a child. She was also using her child's presence on top of her natural intuitiveness to connect to the 456 and didn't even know it.
Now, I know some of you might be disappointed that Angel is pregnant too, given Evy has a son and Proffy will/might have twins, all I can say is...please bear with me in this twist. There was nothing about a child in the Sneak Peeks. And Angel will express her fears over the child, she's already mentioned pregnancies are very, VERY hard in her family. We won't know if the child survives even past the events of the next episode or even this series with the Pandorica...I can say that Angel will, um, well let's just say there's a few twists for the Big Bang involving some key moments that shake quite a few people up. I'm not saying the baby won't survive this series, but I'm not saying it will survive either. I'm just putting it out there that it will especially be VERY dangerous for Angel now that the Doctor seems to be pushing her away and protecting her less. There will be quite a few instances where Angel will be in jeopardy and the baby as a result. I know this twist might make things seem worse for Angel, there are quite a few ways that it can go, her dealing with this. All I ask is that you trust me and see where I take it :)
On a slightly lighter note, Rory! Awww :) Did you like the little hearts-to-heart with Angel and him? I really couldn't see her NOT telling him about Mickey and the magnificent man he became through the course of his travels. I really liked the look into Rory's head. It's like, Angel just needs one person to be there for her. Rory just needs one person to believe in HIM ^-^
Next chapter is Amy's Choice, I'm going to give warning now, there's a twist that involves Angel, that will make MUCH more sense when we reach the TW episode :)
Some notes on reviews...
I'm sorry that you've come to hate Angel and feel like she is a Mary Sue and that she's whiney :( but I have said in the past I will never fault a reader for stopping reading a story if their interest fades and that I know not everyone will like my OCs, to each his/her own :) I do try my best to keep the OCs realistic and bring out Angel's heart break. I tried to make Fading a good place to either end or continue the story, but I had too much planned for Series 5-7 to stop :) I tried to explain Rose's new platonic feelings as, Angel came in before Rose developed romantic feelings for him. I took her flirting with Adam and Jack and insisting she was NOT with the Doctor in Series 1 to be her genuinely not being interested in him till near the end of that series. So having Angel appear sort of put a stop to the feelings developing in the first place :) I wouldn't have been able to show the Doctor coping just because he was firmly set to die when she did so...no coping after lol :) I'm not sure if you are going to continue reading this story (I never saw the point in people reading what they know they don't/won't like) but if you do or are reading this chapter to see my response, I'm open to any suggestions people may have on how to better my writing and make a character less Mary Sue like. I have to admit, I do feel like it is nearly impossible in the world of FF to not make a character have a hint of Mary Sue in them, in one sense, the Doctor himself could be seen as a Gary Stu so it really is impossible for hints of MSes to not pop up. People will always find ways of seeing an OC with a Mary Sue quality, but if there are any suggestions you have on how to keep her from becoming a complete MS, feel free to share and I will try my best to keep them in mind as I write :) But as for Jack/Angel...he's basically her brother so that would be VERY wrong for her to have a romance with him. To semi-quote Supernatural, family doesn't end with blood, to Angel Jack is just as much her brother as she is his sister :)
Thanks for letting me know about the possible plagiarism in the 'An Awful Lot of Running to do.' Unfortunately, I just saw the review now. I DID check out that moment you mentioned and you're right, those particular moments in Cold Blood, before the dissection, the dissection, and the Doctor finding out about it all seem a bit too similar to mine, especially how it's described, which was original to my story, seems very paraphrased and, as you mentioned, only reversed some things I wrote. I will be giving the story a better look through after work. Unfortunately that'll be in quite a few hours :( I'm hoping it's not the paraphrasing sort of plagiarism where original scenes are copied and described only slightly differently. I don't mind scenes that are similar to mine appearing like...dissecting someone...I'm sure I'm not the first to do that, have the OC be dissected, (I really and honestly can't say though, I have not read any DW fanfics beyond a chapter or two more than a year ago, and I've found myself staying away from DW fics just so things like it won't happen, so that anything that might be similar to another story would be an authentic and honest coincidence), but only if it's described in a completely different and unique way, and that's not what it appears (so far) to be. But I'll look into it. Thanks! As for the picture, I'll check it out, but I don't think I can do anything unless it's the same picture as mine with my OC replaced. I think it's great if it's like something someone saw of mine and wanted to do also :) Would be nice for a little note like 'saw LizzeXX's covers, wanted to do some too' or something (which, I'm assuming wasn't there since you said you thought it was me?).
Thank you also for letting me know about the possible plagiarism in that Separation story :( I was briefly able to check it out and, while I see a lot of similarities between their story and mine, I try to think of stories like that as being inspired by mine (if the author has read mine) even if they might not say it in an A/N or anything. I'm going to give it a deeper read through though to be sure. I don't want to be an author who reports any story that's close to mine/inspired by mine so I try to stay with ones that are word-for-word copied from mine or what seems like it's been very paraphrased in original scenes, like...they copy and pasted the chapters and replaced the OC's name or have something that only happened in mine described nearly the same way. It would be amazing if authors who were inspired by me put even a tiny blurb about it in their stories, even just like a footnote at the bottom of their first chapter and that was it, but, I feel, unless it has been copy/pasted/paraphrased, that I can't really report them for plagiarism. But thank you so much for letting me know about that story, I'll definitely keep an eye out on it for that :)
I'm sorry that someone made a rude review on your stories :( That's not nice :( And I'm very sorry your story ended :( I'm always going to try my best to keep writing no matter what and to always keep in mind the support I have from my readers, thanks :) I tried to bring a modest quality to Angel, like she's slowly becoming clever and stronger, but she doesn't see it and she thinks she's just average, which I feel is an endearing quality. Like we see the Doctor being so impressive, and he knows he is ;) But sometimes that does get him in trouble, so I wanted to have someone there, of his own people, to ground him in a way :) I wanted her to be my most human Time Lady so it's great to know I'm managing it :) And that's great! I have to admit, I'm excited to see what people will come up with for the challenge :) I can say that I DO have plans for there being a Dream Lady (besides my 'Revision: The Dream Lady' version of Amy's Choice for the Professor) at one point, not saying if it's Angel or a future TL though :)
Lol, I did hear that Matt picked out the outfit :) I think that's awesome that they gave him leeway to do that and it really suited 11 in an unexpected way. I could totally see the sales going up though, bowties are cool ;)
It breaks my heart to write the Doctor like that too :( Oh the crossover will be...big and different. I actually really like how it's turning out (now that I have to rewrite it, urg), because Torchwood still exists and Tosh/Owen/Ianto are alive AND(!) Gray makes an appearance as well! So it's definitely an AU version of the series, since, in the show TW is gone and so are our beloved characters :( So it's great to see how so much changes just by having them there :) I only hope that when I post them, I'll have done the spirit of the show justice with the changes I've made :)
When I have writer's block, what I do is...not think about the story at all :) I listen to music and watch movies and go to the mall and the park or get ice cream or the book store, anywhere I can go that would distract me :) I've found that, just...letting my mind wander and be distracted helps because, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about the parts that are giving me issues. And I've found that, I could be sitting in traffic and then BAM! Idea that helps break through the block will hit. I think it's mostly that writer's block happens when you're too focused on what you're trying to do. So taking your mind off it and letting it wander has always helped me. Not focusing on it so much almost lets the ideas just flow back :) I've also found that, if it's a particular episode of a show, that rewatching that episode, not even really focusing on the OC, but just what happens will help too. Like, I can watch it and, without even realizing, I'm starting to think, 'no, the OC would totally...' and then it hits me :)
Thanks :) I feel like the thoughts and feelings are going to be very important for this series especially, for Angel and Rory and the Doctor and Amy more than anyone else as they sort through their various issues :) I feel like we see it in the show, when Amy realizes she loves Rory, but we don't know what she's thinking as it happens, and it's fun to imagine what that might be :)
That's an excellent theory :) But we'll have to wait till the Big Bang to see...lol, I just realized it was a Big Bang theory ;)
I can definitely see Rory as the window for the reader/viewer. And I think those are very good metaphors for the Doctor and Angel in their relation to Rory :) I agree, Rory and Mickey are very similar and I think they both needed more love than they got in the show at first :) Rory will really be very important to Angel :)
Rory makes me happy too :) Lol, I could see Jack going like...mom and dad REALLY need to explain where all these fully grown kids are coming from ;) Lol, I wouldn't hunt you down, no worries :) I've heard that rumor too. I've also heard that he's the 'real' 9th Doctor, which didn't make sense to me because I also read that 10 and 11 don't believe he's them so...that makes me think they don't recognize him and therefore, can't be '9.' I like the theory that he's the Valeyard :) That happens to me all the time, but a bit reversed, I'll write a chapter and when I edit it...it ends up with like 3x more fluff :) ...well, at first :) Lol, is it bad that I'm sort of glad I've rubbed off on people? :)
I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing that Angel seems like Bella Swan to you :) I'm not much into Twilight and haven't really read much of it either so I can't really say :) If it's a good thing, then cool :) If it's a bad thing, then that's ok too, I know not everyone will like my OCs and that's fine, to each his/her own :)
I'm sorry it's hurting you :( It hurts me too to do this to Angel. It's all a part of her journey though and to help her grow stronger, if you can believe it at the moment. I can say, this will be a turning point for Angel's story and we'll see her making a few changes in her life in upcoming episodes because of it (mostly urged on by the TW crossover). Lol, I will try to work in a punch to River somewhere if it would help :) I can say that I DO envision a slap somewhere in Series 8 (depending on the episode) ;)