It's been so long, and yet you are still there, still wanting to know how it's all going to end. I cannot believe the incredible patience you've all had with me. The notes you send me reminding me that you still read, still look forward to whatever is next completely humble me. I cannot promise that I will end it this chapter. I will not promise that I will be able to write fast. I will promise you that there WILL be an ending. It is the only thing I can give to all of you who have, like Amy, waited.

Oh mama don't leave me alone

with my soul sat down so tight it's like a stone cold tomb

Ain't it clear when I'm near you

I'm just dying to hear you

Calling my name one more time

Oh so don't pay no mind

To my watering eyes

Must be something in the air

That I'm breathing

Yes'n I try to ignore

All this blood on the floor

It's just this heart on my sleeve that's a bleeding

"Burn" ~ Ray Lamontagne

I.

The Doctor looked at the Dragon King for long moments. Then he sighed impatiently, running his hand through his hair.

Of course it means going back there. Of course it means the Citadel of the Moon. Of course we're just going in great bloody circles. Of course.

"Right. Had to happen, I suppose. Let's get on with it, shall we?"

The Dragon King said nothing, but raised his hand and lazily drew a circle with his long, slender index finger. The portal immediately shimmered into being. The Doctor turned and looked over his shoulder at Irial. The High Lord's expression was one of pure hungry covetousness as he studied the shifting emptiness of the portal. The Dragon King, finished now with the portal's construction, followed the Doctor's gaze, and as he took in the hunger in Irial's eyes, his silver features molded themselves into a smile that had no humor in it at all.

Irial shifted lightly, moving his weight more firmly onto the balls of his feet. His hands fell loosely at his sides, one coming to rest with contrived casualness on the hilt of the large curving dagger he wore at his waist.

The Dragon King's smile somehow managed to grow even wider, expose even more perfect curving teeth. The fingers on both hands moved slowly, and the movement might have been meaningless but for the brief, brilliant sparks of flame-colored light that followed each gesture.

The Doctor growled. "Hello? HELLO? Amelia? The Triple Bloody Goddess or whatever she is? End of the world? Gentlemen, we simply do not have time for this right now."

Neither the High Lord nor the Dragon King seemed willing to break the confrontation of gazes first, but then the Doctor stepped between them. "No. TIME. Do you hear me? NO. TIME." There was something very like desperation in his tone.

Both beings looked away, visibly resettled themselves. The Dragon King focused on the Doctor. "You are right, Doctor. Such other….concerns….as we have can wait. The portal and all that is beyond it await." He bowed, waving the other two toward the shimmering gate, and this time, no trails of fire accompanied the movement.

Irial made no comment. He walked past the other two into the rift and disappeared instantly. The Doctor and the Dragon King exchanged a long look. Then the Doctor rolled his shoulders as if to loosen tension there.

"Right. Here we go then."

And he stepped into the gate.

II.

Everything spun unpleasantly, and then the Doctor found himself stumbling as he went from something made of gossamer and light to something heavy with slightly uneven stone paving under his feet. He caught himself against the damp surface of a stone wall and tried to calm the nausea that surged in waves through him.

Moments later, the Dragon King appeared. He had not been there a second before, but he winked into existence as though that space had always been his. He immediately came to the Doctor's side and placed his hand on the Doctor's back in what could have been interpreted as a gesture of support. The instant the long platinum fingers pressed against the Doctor, the rolling nausea and disorientation abated. It was as though a switch had been thrown. He looked around, straightening his bowtie and his jacket lapels. Irial stood a few feet away watching the Doctor's recovery with an unreadable expression on his face.

The Dragon King rested his hand on the Doctor a moment longer, and it seemed that he was satisfied with what he saw. With a small grunt, he nodded and his hand disappeared again as his voluminous sleeves slipped back into place.

The Doctor looked around the chamber as best he could in the light that feebly illuminated a tall staircase winding upwards gracefully behind them only to end abruptly at the ceiling. It was impossible to determine the source of the glow at first, but gradually he recognized that it was coming from some of the stones themselves, something like starlight leaking out here and there from some of the huge blocks composing the walls. He knew that above him stretched the huge Citadel of the Moon with all its thousands of inhabitants and visitors. In this place, however, everything was tomb silent.

Not going to keep going down *that* particular thought path….

He slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and withdrew his sonic screwdriver, a small flick of his thumb bringing it to life to give a beam of light that did little to penetrate the thick dark cloaking them.

Irial looked askance at the instrument in the Doctor's hands, and the Doctor opened his mouth to defend his beloved tool when he heard a soft snort on his other side.

"Alright, then. Let's see one of you two do better."

Irial's eyebrow raised, and a sardonic smile turned up the corners of his lips.

"If you insist."

He reached into his pocket and removed a small crystal. He held his other hand over it for a moment like a show magician, and then he suddenly snapped his fingers. The crystal was now a ball of blue light balanced on his palm. He drew it to his lips and gently blew on it, and the circumference of the glowing orb expanded. Their small group was encased in a pool of light.

The Dragon King laughed. "Good, but again, somehow not quite adequate to our task if it is what I think it is, elf."

Irial scowled. "I have the discipline to maintain it for as long as it is needed."

The Dragon King made no reply. He had walked over to the darkness beneath the staircase and was rummaging around in something he'd found there. Irial's irritated expression deepened.

"You doubt me, dragon? I have trained since I was a child to wield the anam cloch…"

His words were cut off as green fire exploded through the darkness. At first, the brilliance of it was blinding, and both the Doctor and Irial reflexively shielded their eyes from the blast. When they could see again, the Dragon King was standing before them with three lit torches in his large hands. Their regular orange flames drove back the gloom as he handed one to Irial and one to the Doctor. Irial looked intensely irritated as he closed his fingers over the glowing crystal and its light died. The Doctor simply chuckled as he tucked away his own screwdriver. He studied the Dragon King with distinct interest.

"So that one's true, too, eh?"

The Dragon King slid his eyes to the Doctor and from the corners of his smile curled the faintest wisps of smoke. "Indeed."

"Some kind of exothermic reaction I suppose? How do you ignite…."

The Dragon King's gently shook his head. "Later, my friend. Later. For now, I think the more pressing matters lie there…." He pointed at the door at the far end of the chamber. In the steady illumination of the torches, the Doctor could see two all-too-familiar black stone birds on either side of it.

"Alright. Here we go, then."

III.

They approached the door cautiously. Something about the birds was disquieting. Maybe it was the way they seemed to watch the small group approach. Maybe it was the way they seemed to move ever so slightly whenever one had to blink. Maybe it was the way the black stone from which they'd been carved seemed to suck in the light hungrily, no reflection coming from any curve or facet. By the time they reached the door, none of them could pretend the heads of the birds weren't turned and watching them, that the wings were still smooth and calm against the stone ravens' sides.

For a moment, the trio simply stood staring at the menacing statues. Then the Doctor sighed.

"Right. My turn then, is it? Hello boys or girls, whichever the case may be. Excuse me. I'm just going to try a little something here…."

As he'd been chattering, he'd slowly slid closer to the door, removing his sonic screwdriver again in the process. He extended it toward the huge iron lock and moved to press the activation switch when suddenly the Dragon King's big hand wrapped in the Doctor's tweed jacket and yanked him backwards.

The Doctor spun to see a sharp black stone beak now occupied the place where just moments ago his head had been. The other was angled low, as though to rip upwards through the soft tissues of the belly.

"Hm. Not going to be as easy as that, I suppose. No. Never is." He looked at Irial and the Dragon King. "Ideas, chaps?"

The Dragon King looked past him and subtly tilted his head toward the door. When the Doctor looked, the birds had both resumed their upright position, almost as they'd been when the little group first approached them, but now their heads were unmistakably turned toward Irial. As for Irial himself, he was staring back at them with an expression of tortured loathing on his face. The Dragon King and the Doctor exchanged glances.

"Yes," murmured the Doctor. "Yes. Let's try that, then."

IV.

"This is not a sound stratagem." Irial's voice was full of barely-leashed fury.

"Oh, come now. While they're obviously here to guard the door, I think they have a rather more active interest in you at the present."

They'd tested the theory by having Irial walk from one side of the chamber to the other. The eerie stone gaze of the birds had followed him. He'd stepped closer to them, and they'd suddenly been in a position to lunge, beaks open, wings mantled.

"It's not that I argue," Irial said, glaring at the Dragon King.

The Doctor sighed impatiently, "Look. If I could see them moving like he does, I'd be the one holding the rope. But since I can't and unless you'd like to be their dinner companion…"

Irial laughed bitterly. "Why would I trust you any more than I do him? No. I think you would both be all too content to let me be the bait on the hook, the sacrifice necessary to achieve your goals. I think this is about vengeance."

The Doctor was suddenly standing nose to nose with Irial. "And you find no irony whatsoever in what you've just said, do you? DO YOU? Bait on a hook? The necessary sacrifice?" His teeth were bared in a feral grimace, and he grabbed fistfuls of the High Lord's elegant black doublet. "Don't you even remember her? What you've done to her? Who you've given her to?"

The Dragon King murmured something, and with effort, he released Irial, who stood still, his pale complexion somehow even whiter. He made no reply. The Doctor turned away abruptly and raked his fingers through his hair, making it stand up in wild disorder.

"No," he said softly. "No." It was louder this time. "I think you'd actually better be quite glad that it's your mortal enemy instead of me manning that rope, Irial."

V.

Irial inched forward until the stone birds started to change their positions. What happened next happened quickly. Irial's face hardened, and with a cry, he lunged forward as though he would ram the door with his shoulder. Suddenly, he was flying through the air like a yoyo recalled to its owner's hand, and the ravens were away from the door, wings out, beaks open, frozen in pursuit. Irial dashed back toward them as if he planned now to leap over them, and once again, he was pulled to safety with a mighty tug from behind him. Now the obsidian statues were halfway across the room as they tried to capture the source of their fury.

The Doctor slid along the wall behind them and quickly pointed the sonic screwdriver at the lock once more.

"Don't fail me now," he murmured as the piercing buzz of the tool joined the sound of the eerie pursuit behind him.

VI.

The raven on the left noticed the Doctor's activities first. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder at one moment, and both statues were in their strange invisible pursuit of Irial who was still being forced to fly through the air rather unceremoniously as the Dragon King used the rope around his waist to keep him from danger. The next time he looked around, though, one of the birds was staring back at him.

He shuddered. Damn things are entirely too much like the Angels for my comfort….

"Well, that can't be good," he whispered. He jiggled the sonic futilely. "Come on, will you? Just come on!" The green light of the screwdriver flickered as though it were irritated by his rough handling of it. From inside the big iron lock, a grinding and reluctant movement of metal on metal could be heard, and the Doctor laughed in surprise and happiness.

"Doctor!" The cry from the Dragon King made him look back over his shoulder, and now that left raven was more than halfway back to him. If the lock didn't open momentarily, he was going to know up close and personally exactly how sharp its black stone beak really was. He reached down and pounded on the door handle frantically, and to his great surprise, with the squeal of rusted metal, the massive door swung open in front of him.

VII.

He leaped across the threshold and promptly stumbled over an unseen obstacle and landed facedown. From behind him came a sound like massive slabs of stone grinding against each other. He quickly rolled over, pointing his sonic screwdriver toward the door, and was just in time to see the raven that had been pursuing him shudder massively and crumble into a fine black sand.

He lay panting for a long moment until he heard the sound of the Dragon King's voice calling his name.

"Doctor? Doctor? Are you okay?"

"Absolutely fantastic. And you?"

The light from the Dragon King and Irial's reclaimed torches filtered into the room, and the flickering glow illuminated multiple gilt frames on every wall. The two entered, Irial slipping the wicked blade of his curving dagger beneath the rope still around his waist to remove it. The Dragon King looked around slowly and sighed as an almost imperceptible whisper darted from frame to frame like a very subtle wind rustling leaves on distant trees. Every painting in this room was a waygate.

"I've probably had better days, to be honest," the Dragon King said, reaching down to offer the Doctor a hand.

"Join the club," replied the Doctor, wincing as he came to his feet.

VIII.

"It couldn't just be obvious which one we want, could it? I mean just once, it couldn't be lit up with neon or a big flashing yellow arrow or have a marching brass band in front of it or something?"

The Doctor's mood was foul. They'd been looking over the paintings for quite some time now trying to find the hidden backdoor into the Maze. He restlessly turned his attention to another frame hoping that this one might be the one he needed.

He was trying not to think about what might be happening to Amy. As long as he was moving, doing, plotting, scheming, he was mostly okay. But when he stopped, when the wheels of his mind began to turn, all he could think about was that last surge he'd felt, the sickening silence inside him where she should be….

He forcibly redirected his thoughts.

No. I'd know it if….if… I'd know. If she were gone, really irretrievably gone, it would all be over. I have to keep that in mind.

Irial and the Dragon King were arguing over something on the other wall, but it didn't register with him.

They say that while there's life, there's hope. Of course, the universe has been teaching me that so many of the grand old clichés are riddled with falsehood, so…. That one, though, I'm going to believe until I'm proven wrong. I choose the hope. Because without it….

The hand holding his torch gripped tighter.

Because there is no 'without it.' Because there can be no without her. Because….

The Dragon King's voice cut through his increasingly frantic thoughts.

"Doctor. I think we've found it."

IX.

They three of them stood looking at a painting of a formal garden. A table had been laid in the middle of an area paved with white stones or shells. What looked for all the world to be high tea was spread across the table, and three chairs were waiting for the guests to claim them.

Since it was a waygate, out of the corners of one's eyes the tablecloth moved ever so slightly in a wayward breeze. A leaf from one of the tall trees at the edge of the painting fell and spiraled down to rest on the otherwise spotless green lawn surrounding the shell/stone paving.

"What are you seeing that makes you so sure?" the Doctor asked.

Irial pointed to a decorative statue standing at a branching of the path that seemed to lead out of the place with the tea table. "I have seen these lightbearers in the maze near its heart. Unless they exist elsewhere, this will take us there."

The Dragon King nodded. "I have also seen them when we entered to seal the Triple Goddess in before. And then there is this…" He traced subtle patterns on the frame, but the Doctor noticed that he did not allow his skin to touch the gilded wood.

"This is in the old language of my people. It names the place as hers."

"Here's something I've been wondering. Why are these things here instead of in the keeping of your people? Didn't you say that your lot had taken all these back that you possibly could?"

The Dragon King's hand paused, and he sighed. "Yes. All that we could." He looked at Irial, and there was something tired in his expression. "This gate cannot be moved. Some of the earliest waygates were created in this crude fashion. They are permanently attached to two points. To try to take this gate from this place would destroy it."

"But if everyone was so frightened of the Triple Goddess rising again, why didn't everyone take all precautions to get rid of access to her, including destroying this gate?"

"It was not as simple as that. You have been only in the stable portions of the Ways. I told you that they could not be destroyed, that the damage done by them could not be corrected." The Dragon King looked away, out into the chamber beyond and the piles of black sand. The Doctor had the feeling that he wasn't really seeing any of it, though.

"We tried, Doctor. In the beginning, when the Rishellians and other races began to try to use the Ways against us, we tried. We knew that it was dangerous, especially when it came to those first paths, the crudest of our creations, but desperation will bring a people to try all sorts of things..."

The Dragon King seemed to gather himself from some painful memory before continuing.

"We found that it was better to leave be what was and fight in other ways. This gate," he said, pointing to the frame before them, "is one of the oldest I have ever seen. It must have been one of the first. You can see the warning here, though, if you read the script. Something hungry was waiting on the ones who used it, something ancient and terrible and beautiful and endlessly hungry. We barricaded it off, posted warnings, and abandoned it. When the Rishellians took this place and made of it the beginnings of their own fortress, we saw to it that this place was sealed shut. None of them even know it is here."

"And you lot put up those ravens as part of the protection?"

The Dragon King raised his eyes, eyebrows arched in surprise at the question. "No, Doctor. We had absolutely nothing to do with them. But it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out who did…."

The Doctor looked at the innocuous tea scene before him on the canvas and sighed.

"Right. Well. Something in there that even dragons are afraid of. Something hungry and ancient and dangerous. Be all that as it may, Pond is also in there. And that means there's really only one thing left to say."

Irial and the Dragon King both looked at him.

"Geronimo."

Please don't throw things. It took me a very long time to get them there. There will be more, and I will try very hard not to make you wait so long for it. I hope you enjoyed the story line moving forward even a tiny little bit, even if there was no Amy at all. She's coming back. Trust me. Oh, boy, is she ever coming back….