The Hungry Earth: Down Below

Tony and Nasreen stood inside the church, looking around as the light dimmed and the earth shook slightly. They glanced at each other, knowing what that meant, the attack the Doctor had warned about was coming, and soon. Tony shook his head, not wanting to think about that and what might happen as he turned on one of the hand lights and joined Nasreen by the computers she was monitoring.

"They're close to the surface now," she remarked, staring at the blinking dots coming closer and closer. She looked down a moment before reaching out, putting her hand on Tony's. He smiled at the action, gripping her hand tightly before pulling her to him and kissing her quickly. She pulled back, a bit surprised, "Tony!" though the smile on her face told him she was more than a bit pleased as well.

"Like you didn't know," he smirked at her.

She gave him a knowing grin and kissed him again just as the countdown reached 0.

~8~

The Doctor, Rory, and Amy headed back to the church, only to see Ambrose having trouble with the door, "I can't open it!" she grunted, trying to push it, but nothing happened, "It keeps sticking! The wood's warped."

The Doctor stepped forward with Amy to help shove against it, "Any time you want to help!" he called back to Rory.

"Can't you use the sonic?" Rory asked.

"Not on wood," Amy remarked with a roll of her eyes, how rubbish was that? The little metal wand could do anything...except work on wood?

"That is rubbish!" Rory said, making Amy nod in agreement.

"Oi!" the Doctor spun around and pointed at him as the women continued to try and open the door, "Don't diss the sonic!"

Rory sighed and shook his head, joining them in shoving the door, the four of them managing to get it open. They stepped into the dark church, seeing Tony and Nasreen standing there as the door slammed shut behind them. The ground shook even worse than before, nearly knocking them over.

"See if we can get a fix," the Doctor rushed to a computer as things began to fall off the walls, Rory pulling Amy closer to protect her, secretly glad, for the moment at least, that Angel wasn't there, the middle of an earthquake was not a safe place for a pregnant woman to be. The Doctor flashed the sonic on the monitor and typed quickly, narrowing down the area with the program Tony set up...when the computer sparked and the power went off.

Rory rolled his eyes at that luck.

"No power," Tony reported, checking the backs of the computers and the power lines.

"It's deliberate."

"What do we do now?" Amy asked, looking around as Tony turned on a bright torch.

"Nothing. We've got nothing! They sent an energy surge to wreck our systems," he rubbed his head, "If Angel were here she'd have warned us about this."

"And been able to power the computers," Amy added, thinking of how the girl had powered the lights on the Byzantium.

Rory frowned at them, "She's not a battery!" he reminded them, "She's not just your walk-talking fortune booth either!" he pointed at the Doctor, "She's a person and she's in more danger right now than we are!"

"I didn't..." Amy began as Rory looked at her in disappointment, "I didn't mean it like that," she took his hand, "I'm worried about her too Rory, but...if she were here, she'd want to do whatever she could to help. She does that," she smiled, "Helps people all the time in tiny little ways," she leaned in, seeing Rory calm down a bit, and kissed his cheek, "I want her back too."

Rory sighed, he was just...he felt so useless, like he'd failed her. Angel was always taking care of everyone, and he'd JUST told her he'd take care of her in her pregnancy, and he'd...he'd already failed to do that. He'd let Angel go off with the Doctor, something his gut had told him not to do, and he hadn't been there to help, and she'd gotten taken into the earth because of it. He nodded to himself, as soon as they got her back, he was going to stick to her side like they were tied together. He wouldn't leave her alone for a moment, not till the baby was born, it didn't matter if it would be a little more than 2 years from now (he supposed that would be something Amy would enjoy, two more years on the TARDIS as a definite), but he'd be with her every step of the way.

He'd protect her when the Doctor couldn't.

No one was going to hurt his Pilot as long as he was there.

He looked around the room, realizing Amy was right and, if Angel were there, she'd be worrying and fretting about everyone. He had to smile at that, he was the same, came with being a nurse. Like Pilot like companion it seemed, "Is everyone ok?" he asked, moving to help Tony stand, "Is anyone hurt?"

"I'm fine," Nasreen nodded.

"I'm good," Tony patted Rory's back in thanks.

"Me too," Ambrose agreed as another loud rumbling sounded.

"Doctor, what was that?" Amy turned to the Doctor.

"It's like the holes at the drill station," Tony murmured.

"Is this how they happened?" Nasreen frowned.

The Doctor knelt down and bent over to press his ear to the ground, "It's coming through the final layer of earth."

"What is?!"

The Doctor stood quickly when the noise cut off.

"The banging's stopped," Tony tensed.

Ambrose looked around the room and her heart stopped, "Where's Elliot? Has anyone seen Elliot? Did he come in? Was he in when the door was shut? Who counted him back in? Who saw him last?"

"I did," the Doctor realized, swallowing hard as it hit him.

He'd been at the computer and the boy had muttered something about headphones before rushing off. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, he'd thought the boy left them in the Meals on Wheels van and just gone round the back. He...he hadn't even really noticed, hadn't taken his eyes off the monitor. He was just...to focused on getting everyone safe, stopping whatever was about to attack so that he could concentrate completely on getting Angel back without worrying about the humans. He closed his eyes...and now Elliot was missing because of his inability to focus on that.

It was...weird, he felt at odds with himself, ever since Angel had been taken into the earth it was like there were two warring factions within his own mind.

One part of him desperately wanted to get her back, it had completely lost all sense of control when she'd been taken, had left him little more than a desperate man digging through dirt even knowing it wouldn't help. It just...wanted her back beside him, wanted her safe, wanted to see that she was ok and unharmed. It was, admittedly, a side of himself he was slowly growing more familiar with. It happened each and every time Angel was in danger, felt even more strongly when she wasn't right beside him but somewhere else. And it kept...growing more and more powerful each time it happened, along with the crushing guilt and disappointment in himself that it had happened, that Angel was in danger again. He didn't like when she was in danger or hurt, he tried his best to protect everyone, companions, guests, even enemies, so of course he'd try harder for Angel, but...he just kept failing her didn't he? How many times had she been put in danger because of him? Quite a bit if the intense feeling that arose to get her back was anything to go by. Each time she was taken away or hurt or in danger made him feel like she was that much closer to a danger he wouldn't be able to save her from. Each time he was apart from her longer than the time before and each time the danger was greater. How long would it be before she was facing a danger without him, because of him, that she wouldn't be able to walk away from? And that bothered him, that...scared him, the thought of her being hurt, of losing her like that.

And then there was another part of him that seemed to almost push those thoughts away, to hold them back. He liked to think it was the rational part of his mind...if he had a rational part...many people would argue he did not. But that side of him, it seemed to try and let him focus. It seemed to try and reassure him Angel would be fine for a short while, that she was a Time Lady, she was more than capable of handling herself, and she had the Vortex to protect her till he could get there. That part...it made him feel...wrong. It felt like it didn't fit. Like it just...didn't belong with him. Yet that was the part that often won out when she was in danger. That was the part that had made him leave her and Amy in the forest with the angels, had let her enter the Calvierri school, had led him to fortifying the old church and protect the humans while Angel waited below ground. It was probably a blessing to be able to think calmly when he was so worried, to be able to focus despite the dangers to others, but...it still felt wrong, so SO wrong that this part of his mind seemed almost...dismissive of Angel's plight. Like it just...brushed the danger to her off and didn't worry about her any more than he'd worry about any old companion.

And that was wrong, because she wasn't just any old companion, she was a Time Lady, she was his friend, his mate...

He winced again at that word, feeling his hearts ping painfully at that notion...

"Where is he?" Ambrose demanded, tears in her eyes, pulling him out of his warring thoughts.

He looked at her, already able to feel that part of his mind focusing on the task at hand, at the danger to the humans instead of Angel, the...tendrils of fear and concern for her slowly fading as he was reminded of what might be coming for them, "He said he was going to get headphones."

"And you let him go? He was out there on his own?!" Tony put a hand on her shoulder as she took a step towards him, hysterical.

~8~

Elliot ran towards the church in the dark, stopping when he heard a whoosh before turning around and looking. Seeing nothing there he continued on, running to the old wooden door and pounding on it, "Mum! Grandpa Tony! Let me in!"

~8~

Ambrose's eyes widened, hearing him, "Elliot!" she ran to the door.

"Let me in!" Elliot shouted.

"He's out there! Help me."

"Open the door!" he banged on it, "Mum! There's something out here!"

Everyone worked on opening the door but it didn't seem to work, the wood was just too warped to be pulled open, it was much easier to..., "Push, Elliot, push, Elliot!"

"Mum!"

"Hurry up!"

"Mummy…"

"Come on!" Tony groaned, hearing the fear in his grandson's voice, pulling the door open.

"Elliot!" Ambrose shouted, rushing outside, only to see Elliot was gone, "Where is he?" she ran out to the front steps, "He was here. He was here! Elliot!" she ran off into the graveyard.

"Ambrose, don't go running off!" the Doctor yelled.

"Ambrose!" Tony darted off after her.

~8~

"Elliot!" Ambrose shouted, running through the gravestones to try and find her son, but he was nowhere, "It's mum!" she stopped short, seeing Elliot's headphones on the ground, "No!" she breathed, kneeling down, about to pick them up, when suddenly a creature knocked her down to the ground. She looked up, wide eyed, at the reptilian creature looming over her, "Get off me!"

The creature just scanned her with some sort of device when Tony came bounding down and knocked the creature away. It lashed out with its tongue, nicking Tony in the neck before running away.

"Dad!" Ambrose cried as Tony fell down onto a gravestone in pain, clutching at his neck.

"What happened?" the Doctor ran over with Rory and Amy.

"My dad's hurt."

"Get him into the church now!"

"Elliot's gone. They've killed him, haven't they?"

"I don't think so. They've taken three people, when they could've just killed them up here. There's still hope, Ambrose. There is always hope. Especially with Angel there."

Ambrose started to cry, "Then why've they taken him?"

"I don't know. I'll find Elliot, I promise. But first I've gotta stop this attack. Please, get inside the church."

"Come on, dad," Ambrose helped Tony up, Amy coming to help her support the man as they walked back to the church.

"So, what now?" Rory looked at him.

~8~

The Doctor walked down the path that led around the church, wearing sunglasses. He looked around, seeing the heat signature of everything around him through the lenses. He glanced down at his hand and smiled, seeing it glowing red with heat. He stiffened, straightening when he spotted something in the bushes that wasn't giving off heat.

"Cold blood," he muttered before calling out in a sing-song, "I know who they are!" he walked around the Meals on Wheels van, whistling a merry tune before pulling the fire extinguisher from the front seat and shutting the door. In the window's reflection he could see one of the creatures running towards him. He spun around and attacked it using the fire extinguisher, spraying it down with the chilling mist. The creature screamed as Rory jumped out of the van's back with a cry, throwing a blanket over its head. They grabbed the creature and shoved it into the refrigerated back, locking the door.

"We got it!" Rory grinned.

He'd insisted on helping the Doctor on this little mission, despite Amy claiming she should go. He wanted to be the one to help capture whatever it was they'd just captured. If this creature was one of the ones who took Angel he wanted to have a hand in stopping it and getting her back.

"Defending the planet with Meals on Wheels!"

They raised their hands to high-five but were distracted by another rumbling, "What was that?" Rory tensed, half expecting a horde of creatures to attack them.

"Sounds like they're leaving."

"Without this one?" he jerked a thumb at the van as the darkness disappeared and the sun peeked through, "Looks like we scared them off!"

"I don't think so. Now both sides have hostages."

~8~

Angel woke slowly and rather groggily to find herself encased in a clear white box, more like a clear glass box that had streaks of milky white in it, which made everything through it rather hazy. She took a few breaths, trying not to completely panic and not wanting to use the Vortex to break out. If whoever had taken her discovered her powers…she didn't want to think about what that could mean as she didn't even know why she'd been taken. No, it was best to play dumb, play helpless, which, if she had to admit she was probably rather good at. It would add more evidence to her one theory that the Doctor regretted Mating to her and was trying to block her out.

Why would anyone want to tie themselves to her for the rest of their lives anyway? She couldn't even workout how to help a simple case of amnesia! She couldn't stop herself from being pulled under the ground. She really only had her visions and her fixing the TARDIS to her name.

Nothing spectacular at all.

Nothing, she could think, that would interest whoever had taken her.

"Is anyone there?" she called, knocking gently on the glass above her, "Please, let me out! Hello? Please, if you can hear me, I need to get out of here!" she tensed though when a distorted figure approached her and leaned over the glass, not very visible though she could make out a white surgical mask over its nose and mouth and...green skin, "Please…can you et me out of here?"

"Shh!" the figure hissed quietly, bringing a finger to its lips.

"Please," she swallowed hard, her hand on her stomach, her panic slowly rising, "Let me go! Please I can't be in here. You need to let me go!"

The figure just turned and pushed something and suddenly a gas started to fill the box.

"NO!" she screamed, her hearts going crazy as she tried to bang on the glass around her, she didn't know what it was, what the gas was, what it would do, how her body would react to it, how...how the baby would react, "No! No no, don't do that. Please stop! Not gas!" she started coughing heavily, curling up on her side, her hand resting on her stomach as it clenched in pain, terrifying her more than anything else, "Please...stop..." she begged for the sake of the baby, until the gas had gotten her and she fell unconscious.

The masked figure tilted its head to the side, confused by the rather extreme reaction the specimen had displayed.

~8~

The Doctor stiffened as he stood outside the church with Rory and Amy, Ambrose grieving inside with Tony and Nasreen, the human companions sitting on a toppled grave marker.

"Doctor?" Amy called, noticing his sudden tensing and the look on his face.

"That's…odd…" he placed a hand on his right heart.

"What is?" Rory asked.

"I think I just…felt Angel…" he frowned, thinking on it.

He had. For a brief second...he'd felt a terrible flash of fear before it fizzled away. And he knew...it wasn't his fear that he'd felt. His hearts started to pound even after the flash faded. Something inside him reacting to the sensation.

"So?" Rory shook his head, "Why's that odd?"

"Because that's impossible. That can only happen when…" he trailed off, his mind flashing back to the Dream Lord's words.

'...a friend who also happens to be bonded to your TARDIS...'

And then a ghost-like whisper filtered through him and he winced...

'...the ONLY time two people bond to the same TARDIS is when...'

And he could see her, Angel, standing before him in the console room, the first regeneration after Van Statten, the adorable blonde that had been just so innocent and not at all understanding of humans, with a look of absolute shock in her eyes…

He shook his head sharply at that. No, he knew she was bonded to the TARDIS, he'd checked, but she wasn't bonded to him, Mated to him. It was impossible. He'd certainly remember something as monumental as a Mating. No, no, no, no, no Angel was NOT his Mate. She didn't act like it, he didn't act like it to her either, no they were just friends, the last of their kind them. They were just...close...

"Maybe it's because you're both the last of your kind?" Amy suggested, as though reading his mind, "You're more…I don't know…aware?"

"Yes…" he nodded, blinking a bit, "That probably it."

Their people WERE mildly telepathic, it made sense that, if Angel was truly and deeply frightened, so much so that it was that powerful, that he might get a small flash of it. Yes...that had to be it, because the other alternative was impossible. But...that also meant that, Angel was truly and deeply afraid at that very moment and that alarmed him.

He'd waited long enough, he had to find out what was going on and get her back.

"So these creatures…" Rory began, not wanting to think of Angel being afraid somewhere, especially in her condition, otherwise he knew he was likely to punch the Doctor for it, no they needed to know what the creatures were and how to fight them, "What are they?"

"I've met them before. Different branch of the species, but all the same..." he turned and headed towards the church, "Let's see if our friend's thawed out!"

~8~

"Doctor, are you sure about this?" Amy asked as she and Rory followed him down to the church's basement, "By yourself?"

They paused in the doorway, looking out at the creature sitting on the floor in the back of the room in the shadows, "Very sure," he nodded.

"But the sting..." Rory began, thinking of the thing they'd seen strike Tony earlier.

"Venom gland takes at least 24 hours to recharge. Am I right?" he called to the creature, before glancing at them, "I know what I'm doing. I'll be fine."

Rory and Amy exchanged an uncertain glance at that, clearly not believing him, before Amy took Rory's hand and led him out.

The Doctor walked down the remaining steps to the floor and looked at the reptilian creature staring at him with large dark eyes, wearing a sort of chainmail. The hands were bound and it moved along the floor towards the Doctor. He held his hands up, "I'm the Doctor. I've come to talk. I'm going to remove your mask," he squatted before it and pulled off the mask, revealing a scaled, though humanoid and female, face beneath, "You are beautiful. Remnant of a bygone age on planet Earth. And by the way, lovely mode of travel! Geothermal currents, projecting you up through a network of tunnels. Gorgeous! Mind if I sit?" he stood up and grabbed a folding chair from the side of the room, placing it before her and sitting, "Now, your people have a very good, very special friend of mine. I want her back," he said, a firm note in his voice, an edge to his tone that made the creature narrow her eyes at him, "Why did you come to the surface? What do you want?" but she just glared at him, "Oh, I do hate a monologue. Give us a bit back. How many are you?"

"I'm the last of my species," she stated.

"Really? No. 'Last of the species,' the Klempari Defense. As an interrogation defense, it's a bit old hat, I'm afraid."

"I'm the last of my species."

"No. You're really not. Because me and the girl you took are the last of our species and I know how it sits in a heart. So don't insult me," he took a breath, feeling a flash of fear strike him again, but his own this time, Angel and him...they were the last, and if they had done anything to her, hurt her...he swallowed, if she wasn't alright...he really didn't know what he'd do, "Let's start again. Tell me your name."

"Alaya."

"How long has your tribe been sleeping under the earth, Alaya? It's not difficult to work out. You're 300 million years out of your comfort zone. Question is, what woke you now?"

"We were attacked."

"The drill," he guessed.

"Our sensors detected a threat to our life support systems. The warrior class was activated to prevent the assault. We will wipe the vermin from the surface and reclaim our planet!"

"Do we have to say vermin? They're really very nice. Angel just loves them, quite a bit of her family are humans you know."

"Primitive apes."

"Extraordinary species if they've managed to earn her love and my respect. You attack them, they'll fight back. Which is not something Angel would be happy with. Fighting means war, war means death, and Angel hates death. So, for her, I'm willing to broker a peace between your species and the humans even though you've taken her from me," his jaw tensed at that, reminded once more he was dealing with the creature that had pulled her right out of his grip.

"This land is ours. We lived here long before the apes."

"Doesn't give you automatic rights to it now, I'm afraid. Humans won't give up the planet."

"So we destroy them."

"You underestimate them."

"You underestimate us."

"One tribe of homo-reptilia against six billion humans and me, you've got your work cut out," he leaned back, watching her.

Normally he wouldn't take sides, he'd try to be the peacekeeper, the neutral party but...they'd taken Angel. That was already a strike against them. And, he supposed, the Dream Lord was right, Angel was the peacekeeper of the two of them, how she managed to keep him so calm was a miracle given his temperament. He could count at least a dozen wars he'd nearly started on accident, either being rude or arrogant or jesting when he shouldn't, all wars Angel had prevented just by being her kind old self and pointing out his rude behavior or apologizing for him or turning the jest into an actual joke by her natural confusion over some topics. She just...made everything lighter, brighter, kinder...she made him kinder.

When she wasn't there he could feel it, that darkness that had been in him since the War clawing to the surface...

~oOo~

"I know there's a darkness in you," Angel said gently.

He looked up at her sharply, stunned, he'd...he'd tried to hide it, as best he could. He...he didn't want to scare her, didn't want her to see just how terrible he could be deep down. She was just...so sweet and kind, the thought that he...wasn't, or at least not always, that he was capable of such awful things, that his temper could sometimes get the best of him...it scared him. What if she saw the darkness in him and was disgusted by it? What if she hated him because of it? What if...what if she was scared of him? He couldn't bear that. So he'd tried so hard to not let her see that deeply into him, to see how dark that pit in him truly was. To know she saw it despite all that...

Angel squeezed his hands, cutting off his thoughts, "I understand and I don't blame you, I don't hate you for it either. After everything that happened in the War, everything you've been through, everything you lost, everything you had to do…" she shook her head, "I'd be completely surprised if you didn't have a darkness in you."

He looked down and she could see the shame in his eyes this time, "You don't."

"I have no desire for revenge and no wish to change things," she explained, shrugging lightly, unable to really express why she felt that way given all that had happened, "I don't know if it's hindsight or maybe just an affect of being a precog, but..." she shook her head, taking a breath, "What happened to our people wasn't your fault. It was going to happen anyway. Our civilization could only last so long before becoming corrupt by its own power. Everything, all things, must die at some point," she reminded him lightly, "And I didn't lose nearly as much as you did," she reached out and put a hand on his cheek, lifting his face to look at her, "But I'll always be here to pull you out of that darkness, always."

He looked her in the eye for quite a while before smiling gently, seeing nothing of the feared hate in her eyes but simply genuine love, "You truly are an angel you know," he told her, reaching out to stroke her cheek, "My guardian angel, guiding my way."

"Always," she promised, taking the hand on her cheek to kiss the scars on his knuckles gently.

~oOo~

Alaya stood, making him look up at her, "We did not initiate combat," she spat, "But we can still win."

"Tell me where my friend is. You give her back to me, you give us back the people who were taken..."

"No."

He sighed and shook his head, slowly getting up, "I'm not going let you provoke a war, Alaya," he told her, folding up the chair and putting it away, "There'll be no battle here today," he turned and headed for the door.

"The fire of war is already lit. A massacre is due."

He looked back at her, "Not while I'm here, not while Angel is alive."

"I'll gladly die for my cause. What will you sacrifice for yours?"

Without another word, the Doctor turned and left.

~8~

The Doctor, Tony, and Rory were sitting, Amy beside Rory, while Ambrose stood and Nasreen leaned on some equipment, all of them gathered in the church as the Doctor explained what Alaya had revealed and what he was planning to do about it.

"You're going to what?!" Tony shook his head at the mad plan.

"Amy and I are going to go down below the surface, to find the rest of the tribe," the Doctor said, "To talk to them."

Rory turned to Amy, "Why do you get to go with him?!" he couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to go help HIS Pilot. But Amy was insistent that it be her just as he'd insisted it be him to capture Alaya.

"I was going to help Tony," Amy admitted quietly, squeezing Rory's hand, "But Angel told me to go instead. She took my place. She's trapped down there because of me. I have to go help her."

"And we're going to need someone to keep things calm up here," the Doctor nodded at Rory, trusting the man, as Angel's companion, to be able to keep things under control and peaceful.

"You're going to negotiate with these aliens?" Ambrose scoffed.

"They're not aliens!" the Doctor cut in, "They're Earth...liens! Once known as the Silurian race, or, some would argue, Eocenes, or homo-reptilia. Not monsters, not evil," he stood, "Well, only as evil as you are. The previous owners of the planet, that's all. Look, from their point of view, you're the invaders. Your drill was threatening their settlement. Now, the creature in the crypt, her name's Alaya. She's one of their warriors and she's my best bargaining chip. I need her alive. If she lives, so does Angel, and Elliot and Mo," Amy frowned, eyeing him, the tone of his voice...it was almost like he was saying that was the only reason Alaya was alive, as a bargaining chip and not because she was a living and breathing being, "Because I will find Angel and the others. While I'm gone, you four people, in this church, in this corner of planet Earth, you have to be the best of humanity."

"What if they come back?" Tony worried, "Shouldn't we be examining this creature, dissecting it, finding its weak points?"

"No dissecting! No examining! We return their hostage, they return ours. Nobody gets harmed. We can land this, together. If you are the best you can be. If you are the decent, brilliant, amazing people Angel believes you are at heart. Nobody dies today. Understand?"

Everyone nodded as Nasreen applauded quietly but stopped when no one else did it as well. Amy, though, just smiled at her, understanding the woman's actions.

~8~

The Doctor and Amy had just reached the TARDIS while Nasreen ran up behind them, "No, sorry, no, what're you doing?" he turned to her.

"Coming with you, of course!" she smiled, before eyeing the TARDIS, "What is it, some kind of transport pod?"

"Sort of, but you're not...coming with us," the Doctor shook his head as Tony came up.

"He's right, you're not," Tony nodded.

"I have spent all my life excavating the layers of this planet," Nasreen crossed her arms, "And now you want me to stand back while you head down into it? I don't think so!"

The Doctor checked his watch, "I don't have time to argue!"

"I thought we were in a rush."

"It won't be safe Nasreen," Amy warned.

"Neither is crossing the road."

"Oh, for goodness sake," the Doctor huffed, growing more agitated by the second that Angel was down there, alone and afraid, "Alright, then! Come on!" he unlocked the TARDIS and he and Amy ran in.

"Come back safe," Tony stopped Nasreen for a moment.

"Of course," she smiled at him and entered, doing a double take when she saw the size of it.

"Welcome aboard the TARDIS," the Doctor said quickly from the console, "Now don't touch anything! Very precious. And Angel might just kill me if you break something."

Nasreen walked over from the doorway, "No way! But that's...this is..." she whacked him on the arm, "Fantastic! What does it do?"

"Pretty much everything!" Amy laughed at the woman's reaction.

"I'm hoping, if we're going down, that barricade won't interfere," the Doctor mumbled a moment before the TARDIS pitched drastically. They all clung to the console, "Did either of you touch something?!"

"No!" Nasreen and Amy shouted.

"Isn't this what it does?!" Nasreen asked.

"I'm not doing anything!" the Doctor said, "We've been hijacked! I can't stop it! They must've sensed the electro-magnetic field!" he looked at the monitor, watching as dirt flew past it, "They're pulling the TARDIS down into the Earth!"

~8~

Rory, Tony, and Ambrose stopped at the bottom of the steps to the cellar to look at Alaya as she stood and sneered at them, "You had to come and see me."

"We are going to keep you safe," Rory told her.

"Your tribe are going to give us back our people, in exchange for you," Ambrose added.

"No," Alaya walked forward as far as the chains allowed, "Shall I tell you what's really going to happen, apes? One of you will kill me. My death shall ignite a war. And every stinking ape shall be wiped from the surface of my beloved planet."

"We won't allow that to happen," Tony glared.

"I know apes better than you know yourselves. I know which one of you will kill me. Do you?"

Rory sighed, watching the woman-like creature before him, thinking back on Angel's words, he would have to keep very close eye on Alaya, lest she cause them even more trouble and unease.

~8~

Tony collapsed on a chair in the church's basement only a few minutes after they had left Alaya, holding a small mirror to his neck, looking at the wound from Alaya's venom, the green poison spreading through his blood, turning the veins on his chest green.

~8~

The Doctor, Amy, and Nasreen held onto the console, yelling as the TARDIS landed with a crash, sending them to the ground.

"Where are we?" Nasreen breathed.

The Doctor and Amy just scrambled to their feet and ran for the doors, all too familiar with that sort of landing, Nasreen following after them. Her eyes widened even more when she saw the cavernous room they'd landed in, roots and fungus covering the walls. A bit of water dripped on her and she dodged to the side.

The Doctor whistled in amazement, looking up at the way they came, "Looks like we fell through the bottom of their tunnel system. Don't suppose it was designed for handling something like this."

"How far down did we go?" Amy squinted up as well.

"A lot more than 21 kilometers."

"So why aren't we burning alive?" Nasreen wondered.

"Don't know. Interesting, isn't it?"

"It's like this is everyday to you!"

"Not every day."

"Every other day," Amy joked before grabbing the Doctor's arm, "Now let's find Angel and the others and get them out of here!" she pulled him ahead and down one of the tunnels, Nasreen shaking her head as she followed.

~8~

Angel groaned as she woke up, her head pounding from the lingering affects of the gas, to find herself standing upright against an examining board, her arms and legs were clasped down against it. Feeling far too much like she was back in Van Statten's museum and the other hospitals she'd been held at she struggled, trying to get out, about ready to use the Vortex when...

"Don't struggle," someone whispered, startling her. She looked over to see a man in a similar predicament beside her, his shirt opened, "Close your eyes and don't struggle."

"Why?" Angel breathed, "What going to happen?"

"Decontamination, they call it. They did it to me. While I was conscious."

"Did what?" she swallowed, feeling herself starting to shake at what might be coming.

"Dissected me," he looked down at his stomach where there was a long, straight, healing scar.

"No…" Angel gasped, looking down at her stomach, the tiny bump invisible under her flowy dress.

Oh dear God no...

"He's coming!" the man tensed, hearing footsteps approaching, "I'm sorry. I wish I could help you."

Angel looked over as one of the reptilian creatures approached her, a surgeon's mask over his nose and mouth, and she knew it was the same man that she'd seen through the glass of the box before. Now though, he was wearing an operating apron and holding up a large syringe, which made her hearts freeze...

~8~

The Doctor had taken the lead, walking past an opening with Amy while Nasreen stopped to look back at that path, spotting an odd glow, "We're looking for a small tribal settlement," the Doctor told them, "Probably housing around a dozen homo-reptilia. Maybe less."

"One small tribe?" Nasreen called, looking out at something bathed in a warm light down the second path.

The Doctor and Amy made their way back, "Yeah."

"Maybe a dozen?"

"What is it?" Amy frowned as they joined her.

"Ah…" the Doctor let out a breath at the sight beyond the carved out window Nasreen was peering through. Out there was a large community, verging on a city, with their own buildings and monuments, "Maybe more than a dozen. Maybe more like an entire civilization living beneath the earth."

To be continued...

A/N: I know that technically, when you're alive, it's called vivisection, but I'm just following the episode in terms of referring to it as dissection :) But aww, who loved the Rory moment of him reminding them Angel's not a battery, he's so protective! Lol, I can imagine him pulling a River and 'handcuffing' himself to Angel to make sure she'll always be ok. I feel like she was really the first person to not only notice him, but see him as an amazing person and that it'll stick with him much more, her faith in him, and make him that much closer to her :) But oh Rory, misinterpreting Angel's warning :( I suppose that's the downside of unclear visions/prophecies, you might think it's one thing and it ends up being another :(

But oh no...Angel felt a sharp pain when the gas hit her... :( And now she may or may not be 'dissected!' I can't even promise she won't be, I did it to Evy }:) We'll have to wait and see, though I can say that I DO have an epic twist planned for Cold Blood that actually won't appear till much, much later in the saga...which might sound confusing at the moment lol, but it'll work itself out in time :)

In other news...the Lunar Cycle spin-off, Impossibly Yours, Captain will be up shortly :) AND! We've got another amazing submission for the HOTS challenge (I seriously am LOVING them all SO much!)

The Big Bang Two, by evilpinklollipop, (the fanfiction site)s/9543245/1/The-Big-Bang-Two

And, I'm also going to post a note/shout-out for any multi-chapter submissions once they are completed so we know when they start and when they've finished :) So...we've got a shout out to jordan. reed. 9480's multi-chapter Revelations story, (the fanfiction site)s/9534619/1/revelation which has been completed :)

Some notes on reviews...

We'll have to wait and see if Angel will be dissected or not. I did it to Evy, so we all know I'm fully prepared to do that to a Time Lady }:) As for whether or not I'm evil enough to do it to a pregnant Time Lady, well...we'll have to see :) Lol, you should be scared, very, very scared }:D And that's great that you're doing an OC too :) Some advice I can give, (idk if it'll be good though lol), would be to try and have a solid idea of their personality/history before you start writing them. I think, if you really know what sort of person they are (how they talk/act/react/what they believe/think/feel) that the OC almost writes itself because that's just how they'd be if they actually existed :) I also think that giving them a fear or shortcoming that can really hold them back or be a present thing to deal with at times helps to make them realistic :) I would also say that slowly revealing more of the OC's history helps to explain any unique skills/abilities they might have and hopefully allow it to be believable within the scope of the world you're writing in :) I'm not sure if that actually helps though, that's what I try to do to keep the OCs from being Mary Sues but there will always be readers who feel that the OC is one no matter what you do :) And that's cool, I think as long as you try your best to keep them believable and realistic and have justified reasons/explanations for things that make them unique that it'll all work out. I hope that helped even a little bit and I wish you the very best of luck with your OC and story! :)

I can say that Angel won't disappear with Rory, nope, she's still got the TW crossover after Cold Blood :) Which may or may not be a worse fate to lose the one person who semi-knew what was going on :(

We'll have to wait and see when the Doctor remembers :) I can say that he won't remember by the time the cracks close, but afterwards, you never know :)

Poor Rory, he misinterpreted Angel's warning :( I can sort of understand why, Angel only said to keep an eye on her but not who the 'her' was and Alaya is the one making all the trouble so he probably wouldn't even think Ambrose would do anything after the Doctor's speech on being the best of humanity :) Angel's conscious now at the moment so we'll have to see whether she uses the Vortex to escape or if she'll try to think of something else. I can say that there's a few thoughts of hers about the Vortex and the pregnancy in the next chapter :)

Lol, it could be her that gets shot, or it could be both her and the Doctor :) I sort of meant it as a future Angel in a general sense, like her future self, who could be there with the Doctor's future self, depending on how the story goes ;) Gotta love the wibbly wobblyness though ^-^ I can say that the teaser for Series 6...might worry quite a few of you }:)

I can say that Angel won't be forgotten in Cold Blood, but as for whether or not she'll be forgotten later in the story, we'll have to wait and see :) I love Rory too, I would SO hug him and never let him go :) Lol, that's great that Angel's sneaking into other stories, that happens to me when I listen to the radio on the way to/from work, I'll hear a song and imagine the story behind it...and then randomly Angel (or Evy or Proffy) pop up :) Thanks, I've never really done this much angst before so it's good to know I'm doing it well :)

We'll have to see what the gender would be, if the baby even survives }:) Yup, Keta will be having fraternal twins though (there's a picture on my Academic Series page of my tumblr of the Sergeant and Matron as children and adults if you're interested ;)) I could see a little girl that's a mixture of the Doctor and Angel (adorable!) but we'll have to wait and see for sure :)

I'm glad I could help :) lol, I can't think of trench coats without imaging Castiel anymore ;) You could always start the seeing Angels thing at the start of Season 2. I think (but I might be completely wrong since I haven't seen Season 1 or 2 in a LONG time) that's just after that car accident where John dies? She could always be injured badly, not as bad as Dean, but have flatlined for a moment or two before coming back? Just a thought :) And thanks, I do a lot of editing (probably WAY too much of it lol)...I really have no explanation for where the twists come from though lol. Not Moffat though :) If I was, I think a Time Lady would have returned in the very first episode I wrote :)