A little while later, they were back at Guido's house. Alex sat perched on the table. Next to her was Amy, who had just been assured that the bite on her neck wouldn't do her any harm. Across from them were Rory and Guido. All of them watched as the Doctor rapidly paced around the room.

"Argh! I need to think!" he ground out to himself. "Come on, brain, think, think, think!" He sat down at the head of the table.

"If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun," Amy suggested, her speech a little hard to understand due to the candy in her mouth that the Doctor had given her.

The Doctor swiftly put his hand over her mouth. "Stop talking, brain thinking, hush," he ordered.

"It's the school thing that I don't understand," Rory confessed.

The Doctor covered his mouth as well. "Stop talking, brain thinking, hush," he ordered again.

"I say we take the fight to them!" Guido jumped in. Alex rolled her eyes. Yeah, that'll work! She thought.

"Ah, ah, ah!" the Doctor interrupted him, giving him a warning look.

"What?"

"Ah!" This time, the Doctor gave Rory a pointed look. Rory, rolling his eyes, placed his own hand over Guido's mouth.

"Her planet dies, so they flee through a crack in time and space and end up here, then she closes off the city, and one by one, starts changing the people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool," the Doctor summarized. "Got it, but then what?"

Alex was deep in thought, too. "Well, they're from the sea so they can't survive on land forever. Not without adapting, at least, but I doubt they'll do that."

Rory wrenched the Doctor's hand away from his mouth. "Why aren't you telling her to shut up?" he demanded.

"Because she's actually making a very good point," the Doctor smiled at her, placing his hand back over Rory's mouth.

Alex beamed. "Thank you, Doc!" she chirped.

"Don't call me Doc. Anyway, if she's not going to adapt to our conditions, what is she going to do?"

"She'd want to make the city habitable," Alex said, thinking out loud. She caught the Doctor's eye. "Don't you remember that she said I shall bend the heavens to save my race?"

"Bend the heavens. . ." the Doctor recalled. He placed his hands on top of Rory and Amy's heads and moved them down, then right back up again. "Bend the heavens."

The Doctor and Alex came to the same conclusion at the exact same time. "She's going to sink Venice!" they both breathed, eyes wide.

"She . . . she's going to sink Venice?" Guido repeated in disbelief as the Doctor lowered his hands from Amy and Rory's heads.

"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed," the Doctor confirmed.

"You can't repopulate somewhere with just women," Rory objected. "You need . . . blokes."

Alex and Amy turned to look at each-other, remembering what Rosanna had said to them. "She's got blokes!" Alex cried, causing all eyes to shoot to her.

"Where?" the Doctor questioned.

"In the canal," Amy replied. "She said to us there are ten thousand husbands waiting in the water."

"Only the male offspring survived the journey here," Alex theorized.

The Doctor nodded, agreeing with her. "She's got ten thousand children swimming around the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends!" He and the others grimaced. "Ugh. I mean, I've been around a bit, but really that's . . . that's . . . ugh."

Alex felt a little bile rise up in her throat. "One hell of an arranged marriage," she joked, jumping off the table and going over to the Doctor's side.

Above them came the sounds of clattering and thumping. Alex scooted closer to the Doctor, knowing from her viewing of horror movies what was about to happen. "The people upstairs are very noisy," the Doctor chuckled, trying to relieve the tension as everyone looked up at the ceiling.

"There aren't any people upstairs," Guido slowly corrected.

"I knew you were going to say that," Alex groaned.

"Me too," the Doctor nodded. "Did anyone else know he was gonna say that?"

"Is it the vampires?" Rory whispered.

"Like I said," the Doctor said as he stood and pulled out his UV torch, "they're not vampires. Fish from space."

"Or Sisters of the Water if you want to be more technical," Alex quipped. At least her wit wasn't frightened by fish vampires.

Right at that moment, the window closest to the table shattered. Everyone jumped up to see several of the girls from the school at the window, hissing at them as they bared their fangs. "Aren't we on the second floor?!" Rory cried just as another window shattered. The Doctor ran over to it, baring his UV light to keep the girls back. He then grabbed the sonic screwdriver and waved it across the girls. Just as Alex's mind bypassed the perception filter, the sonic revealed the true forms of the girls.

"What's happened to them?" Guido questioned.

"There's nothing left of them. They've been fully converted," the Doctor explained. He stared at the girls in shock, as this was the first time he had actually seen their true form. "Blimey, fish from space have never been so . . . buxom."

BUXOM?! Alex mentally shrieked, her jealousy activating almost automatically. Dear God, why am I feeling jealous over a bloody fish?!

"Okay, move!" the Doctor shouted. He looked over at Rory. "Rory, make Alex go before me!"

"What—" Alex began, but she quickly found herself being pushed down the stairs, nearly plunging down them in the process. Amy was in front of her, Rory just a step behind. Behind Rory was the Doctor, with Guido behind him. As they ran, Alex vaguely heard Guido demand the Doctor give him the lamp, which he did. Alex looked back briefly to see Guido keeping the converted girls chasing them at bay.

Once reaching the bottom of the stairs, everyone practically threw themselves out the door . . . except for one person. "Stay away from the door, Doctor, Alex!" Guido shouted once they were out before slamming the door shut.

Alex and the Doctor immediately ran back over to it. "No!" the Doctor objected, pounding on the door. "Guido! What are you doing?"

"We're not leaving you!" Alex screamed, furiously trying to kick the door open. "What are you doing?" She whirled over to the Doctor. "Use the sonic!"

The Doctor did just as she asked. "Argh, bolted!" he complained, forced to pounding on the door again. "Guido!" Suddenly, the possibility of what Guido was about to do occurred to them. "Gunpowder," they breathed, looking at each-other.

Instantly, the Doctor grabbed Alex's arm and the two ran as fast as they could away from the house. They reached an archway just as the house exploded with a loud KABOOM, sending ash, smoke, and debris everywhere. Just as the house exploded, the Doctor threw Alex to the ground, planting himself on top of her, shielding her from the debris.

"Doctor! Alex!" Amy cried frightfully as she and Rory darted over to them. The Doctor rolled off of Alex while she grunted in pain from hitting the concrete so hard. "Are you okay?"

"I think I broke a few ribs," Alex said sarcastically.

Rory shook his head at her. "Don't even joke about that," he said, helping her to her feet as the Doctor got up beside her.

As she was helped to her feet, Alex happened to look up at the sky. She watched as the sky turned from bright blue to dark gray, thunder clouds rumbling out of nowhere. "Look!" she cried, pointing upwards. The others followed her gaze and the Doctor grimly remarked, "Rosanna's initiating the final phase."

"We need to stop her," Amy said, looking over at the ruined house sadly. "Come on!"

"No, no, no," the Doctor shot back. "Get back to the TARDIS." He turned and gave Alex a pointed look. "All of you."

"You can't stop her on your own!" Amy argued.

"You need us there!" Alex pointed out.

The Doctor glowered at them. "We don't discuss this!" he shouted, approaching them. "I tell you to do something, Amy, Alex, and you do it!"

Both Amy and Alex glared venomously at him. Amy stomped away a moment later and Alex stayed a moment afterwards, her eyes narrowed at the Doctor before quickly marching off, making sure that the last thing he saw of her was her stormy, angry eyes.

Amy and Alex headed towards the TARDIS, Rory coming up behind them a moment later. Suddenly, Alex stopped. Ducking behind a pillar, she watched as the Doctor strode back in the direction of the Calvierri fortress.

Amy stared at her. "You're going to follow him," she realized, shaking her head. "I don't know whether I should hug you or not."

"Don't," Rory advised, wondering what the Doctor's reaction would be when he saw Alex in a place he had specifically ordered her not to go to.

"I'll be fine," Alex assured them, though even she knew that the Doctor's reaction would not be pretty. She stepped out from behind the pillar and ran out into the street. "I saw on Guido's map another shortcut to the Calvierri School. If I go by it now, I can get there before the Doctor."

"Good luck!" Amy wished, knowing that Alex's mind could never be changed. The two watched as Alex raced off down a side-street.

Once she had disappeared from view, they looked up at the sky. "Oh my God, what's it doing?" Amy wondered. Above them, the sky seemed to be pulsing and vibrating with clouds.

"The sky, it's like it's boiling," Rory observed.

As they stared at the sky, both hoped that the Doctor and Alex could somehow fix it.

~Living the Life of Ally~

Alex darted into the throne room and immediately dove behind the throne. She wasn't sure what drew her towards the throne; it was just a hunch. She searched around a little before finally pulling the back part off, revealing a complex system of machinery that even she couldn't figure out. As she studied the machinery, she heard footsteps coming into the room. She cautiously peeked out and saw the Doctor standing there. And he didn't look very happy. Alex mentally groaned. Of course. Because of their body chemistry, he'd easily be able to detect her.

But just as he was about to speak, Rosanna came in. "You're too late," she said, strolling towards him. "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." Is she talking about the Time Lords? Alex wondered.

"Now you can watch as my people take their new kingdom," Rosanna finished, her voice smug and boastful.

"The girls have gone, Rosanna," the Doctor revealed.

Alex ducked back to the machinery, but she could still hear Rosanna's footsteps backing away in shock. "You're lying," she accused, voice breathless.

"Shouldn't I be dead, hmm?" the Doctor asked. There was silence and then a furious clicking towards the door. "Rosanna, please, help me!" the Doctor begged. "There are two hundred thousand people in this city!"

"So save them," Rosanna shot back coldly before marching out the door.

The Doctor sighed and the next thing Alex knew, he was right next to her. "Didn't I tell you to wait in the TARDIS?" he cried, glaring at her.

Alex refused to move her eyes away from the machinery. "Yes, but as I said before, I figure things out for myself, and that includes making decisions for myself." She pulled herself away from the machinery just long enough to slap the Doctor across the face.

"Ow!" the Doctor cried, rubbing the spot where she had slapped him. "What was that for?"

"For yelling at me and Amy earlier," Alex responded. She turned back to the machinery and gently tugged on a wire. "Now, what do we do with this thing?"

"I suppose I deserved that," the Doctor muttered, referring to the slap. He looked over the machinery with interest. "Now, we have to figure out what this thing is and stop it."

"Well, it's obviously controlling the storm," Alex said, sending a fleeting look outside at the thunder and lightning.

"Correct," the Doctor affirmed. He took his own look out of the high windows surrounding the perimeter of the throne room. "But where are the clouds coming from? This technology needs a source to make the clouds appear."

As the Doctor examined the machinery, Alex jumped up and ran to the windows. Flinching back from the rain, Alex looked at the skyline. She could feel a hunch burning in her stomach and when that happened, she was usually correct. "Doctor!" she cried once she caught sight of something. Upon her outburst, the Doctor jumped up and hurried over beside her.

Alex pointed to a high bell tower, which towered over the rest of the city. "It's coming from the bell tower! It's the only thing high enough!"

She watched the Doctor's face as he processed this information. First there was excitement, then nervousness, followed by a serious expression of pondering that could only mean he was thinking up a plan. Suddenly, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back over to the throne. As they came upon the throne, none other than Amy and Rory came racing in. The Doctor released Alex so that he could duck behind the chair.

"Get out!" he ordered Amy and Rory. "I need to stabilize the storm!"

"We're not leaving you!" Rory defied. Alex smiled. It seemed she wasn't the only girl here who could get her way.

"Right," the Doctor droned. He marched around the chair over to Rory and fixed him with a steely glare. "So one minute it's all 'You make people a danger to themselves' and the next it's 'We're not leaving you'. But if one of you gets squashed or blown up or eaten, who gets the—"

But he was interrupted as the room spontaneously began to shake, bits of ceiling tumbling down. Everyone toppled to the floor trying to retain their balance and Alex yelped a little in spite of herself as a ceiling chunk fell two feet away from her.

Once the shaking stopped a few seconds later, Rory asked, "What was that?"

"Nothing," the Doctor answered, obviously lying. As he helped Alex up, he added, "Bit of an earthquake."

"An earthquake?!" Amy cried.

"Manipulate the elements, it can trigger earthquakes," the Doctor explained. "But don't worry about them."

"No?" Rory wondered, expecting something bad if the Doctor had told them not to worry about something as horrific as earthquakes.

"No. Worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake," the Doctor replied casually before running back to the throne, Alex hot on his heels. "Right! 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 with a stick!" Alex finished.

"We need to shut it down and re-route control to the secondary hub," the Doctor added.

"Which I'm guessing will also be the generator, correct?" Alex jumped in. The Doctor nodded and Alex beamed, pleased with herself. As she did this, Amy and Rory stared at each-other in bafflement at the weird habit the Doctor and Alex had of finishing each-other's sentences.

The Doctor ran out of the room as Amy and Rory set to begin their work. Alex followed him and nearly banged into him when he suddenly stopped. He whirled around and looked at her curiously. "Let me guess," he said dryly. "If I tell you to stay and help them, you probably won't?"

"Lovely to see that you're finally figuring out how my brain works," Alex chirped.

He smirked down at her. "I doubt I'm touching more than the surface," he quipped. He nodded and grabbed her hand. "Here's something I never thought I'd say again; allons-y, Alex!"

The two sprinted up the stairs, pumped on adrenaline and a sense of saving others. Upon reaching the bottom of the bell-tower, the two spotted a strange alien machine that had two tubes running up the columns of the tower. The two staggered upon hearing the deafening bell above them, Alex even clutching her ears in pain as the Doctor ran the sonic screwdriver over the weird contraption.

"Please get that bell to stop ringing!" Alex begged, her eyes tightly shut as if to block out the noise.

"Come on!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing her hand before whisking her up another flight of stairs.

The bell was even louder up here, which made sense as it was directly above them, its cord long since gone. Alex could feel her ears ringing in pain. "Lift me up there!" she commanded.

The Doctor knelt down, entwining his fingers with the palms facing upwards, creating a step for Alex. Placing her hands on his shoulders for balance, Alex squeaked slightly as she felt the Doctor hoist her up by the waist before going down to her legs. She felt a rush in heartbeat when she felt his contact with her skin, but tried to ignore it. She grabbed the pendulum and nearly swung out sideways before the Doctor's grip on her tightened.

Alex clenched the pendulum tightly, keeping it still. "Shut the hell up!" she screeched at it, and it listened. Alex laughed as the Doctor helped her down. "That's better!" she chirped as she hit the floor.

"Much," he agreed, grinning at her. "Now," he looked over to one of the tubes that led up to the bell, "let's see what damage this is doing." Without another word, he climbed up onto the edge of a window and shimmied around a column, gripping it all the while. Alex gaped at him.

"Doctor!" she shrieked. She dove over to the window, but didn't try to pull him back in. She really didn't want to cause him to fall to the ground below. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The Doctor didn't answer her, instead focusing on climbing up to the roof. Alex leaned out the window as far as she could get without the rain hitting her, and watched him until he vanished out of sight. She sighed and hurried back down the stairs. She knew that the only way to get any answers was to watch him herself.

Alex cringed as the rain pelted against her skin and she quickly ducked under the awning of a flower shop. Around her, people were screaming and running and she caught a bit of somebody saying that it was the Almighty. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. A little distance ahead, she could see Amy and Rory staring up at something high above. Alex followed their gaze and her heart jumped into her throat.

The Doctor was right on the roof, in the very heart of the storm. Alex tensely watched as he fiddled with a giant gold ball on the roof. Squinting, she saw that the ball had opened up, revealing something she couldn't see from her distance. Whatever it was had to be key in stopping the storm though, as she could see the Doctor hesitantly studying it. Then, a second later, the Doctor did something, for the rain suddenly ceased, the clouds vanished, and birds began chirping. Alex grinned as the people around her began cheering and clapping, Amy and Rory included.

Once the Doctor got back in the bell-tower again, Alex raced out of her little haven and back over to the Calvierri school. Carefully side-stepping puddles and hordes of celebrating people, she raced over to the bell-tower steps and launched herself at the Doctor when he came down.

"You did it!" she cried, fiercely hugging him. He responded by lifting her off the ground a little.

"Did you really think I wouldn't?" he asked playfully, pulling back a little to look at her.

Alex shook her head and the Doctor saw the truth in her eyes. "No, I know you," she said. "You'd do anything to save others, regardless of whether or not you endanger yourself in the process."

He stared at her for a full minute before putting her back down. How could she know me so well already? He wondered. Knowing that pondering this would take a very long while which would waste precious time, he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to a nearby door.

"Where are we going?" Alex asked as he pulled her along.

He didn't answer for they soon came to another door that led outside. He let go of her hand and raced over to an open archway. Alex followed him and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw a thin walkway going over the canal. At the end of it was Rosanna, now only dressed in a thin white nightdress, the rest of her perception-filtered clothes tossed beside her. Alex looked at her, surprised to see that her mind wasn't pushing past the perception filter, until she noticed the non-working device lying on the ground. Rosanna was permanently stuck in human form.

"Rosanna!" the Doctor called out.

Rosanna didn't turn around, instead staring vacantly into the water. "One city to save an entire species," she said, sounding defeated. "Was that so much to ask?"

The Doctor stepped towards her. "I told you, you can't go back and change time. You mourn . . . but you live. I know, Rosanna, I did it."

Alex stared at him. Are all his people dead? Everyone? Is he the very last? She thought about the night after the Starship U.K. adventure, when they had been talking and when she had looked so deeply into his eyes. She remembered thinking they looked old and haunted and that they exposed his many years. She also remembered seeing regret in them. Does that regret have something to do with the Time Lords?

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she saw Rosanna look over her shoulder at the Doctor, her eyes filled with tears and unimaginable sadness. "Tell me, Doctor," she called. "Can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race?" He said nothing and Rosanna turned back to the water, spreading her arms and staring straight ahead.

"Remember us," she said, the weight of her words hanging in the air like stones. "Dream of us."

"No!" the Doctor shouted as Rosanna threw herself into the canal. Alex gasped as the water began churning, caused by Rosanna's doomed children devouring her. The Doctor threw himself onto the edge of the walkway to help Rosanna, but he was too late. "No!"

"Doctor!" Alex cried. Ignoring her own fears, she ran across the walkway and fell down beside him. He looked over at her in anguish and Alex longed to ease the guilt and misery that was surely eating him alive. She swallowed roughly before saying, "What she said . . . none of that's your fault. She was the selfish one." She closed her eyes and leaned against his forehead, trying to get this truth to settle in his mind. "It wasn't your fault."

The Doctor was perfectly silent as she said this. Her words rang in his ears and repeated themselves over and over. It wasn't your fault. He wondered how she could be so sure of this so soon after meeting him. If this had happened a long time ago without her here, the blame and fault would have settled into him automatically, plunging him into a dark period for less than a second before he pushed it aside, shoving fake happiness and cheer over it. Before, he would have masked his pain. Now, he had nothing to hide. It wasn't your fault.

He stood and pulled her to her feet, pulling her close as he kept in mind that they were on a narrow walkway overlooking water and carnivorous aliens. "I know," he said slowly, allowing the magnitude of his words to settle in around them. "Thank you."

Alex smiled at him, her eyes shimmering. "I'm just saying the truth," she replied. She then looked down and was reminded of where she was standing. As she dragged him off the walkway, she called over her shoulder, "Let's go find the lovebirds!"

~Living the Life of Ally~

Less than five minutes later, they found Amy and Rory and were currently strolling back over to the TARDIS. As they walked, the inspector from earlier appeared and gave the duo a deep, respectful bow. Alex giggled. She still thought it funny that the Doctor had pretended to be the Pope and passed her off as a princess. His comment from before about her possibly playing his wife if he hadn't disguised himself as the Pope rang in her mind. She blushed and focused back on the conversation surrounding her.

"Now then!" the Doctor cheered, linking arms with Alex. "What about you two, eh? Next stop Leadworth Registry Office? Maybe I can give you away!"

Rory looked over at Amy and sighed deeply. "No, it's fine," he said sadly. "Drop me back where you found me. I'll just say you've. . ."

"Stay," Amy requested when Rory trailed off. The Doctor and Alex's eyes shot over to her while Rory looked at her in surprise. "With us. Please. Just for a bit. I want you to stay."

"Fine with me!" the Doctor grinned. "Ally?"

"Yes!" Alex cheered, jumping up and down. She bounded over to Rory like a deranged puppy. "Say you'll stay!" she begged.

Amy shook her head at her. "How are you twenty?" she asked sarcastically, chuckling when Alex stuck her tongue out at her.

"Yeah?" Rory said, smiling between all of them. "Yes, I would like that!"

"Nice one!" Amy chirped before swiftly kissing him on the lips. "I will pop the kettle on!" She skipped over to the TARDIS and as she opened the door, called out, "Hey, look at this, Alex! Got our spaceship, got our boys! Our work here is done!" As she dramatically entered the TARDIS, Alex laughed hysterically, mainly at the identical looks on the Doctor and Rory's faces.

"Uh, we are not your boys," Rory told Alex, which only served to make her laugh harder.

"Yeah, we are," the Doctor admitted.

"Yeah, we are," Rory agreed, defeat in his voice before he went to the door.

Rory stepped into the doorway, Alex right behind him, but the Doctor stopped them from heading in. "Rory, Alex, listen to that!" he commanded.

Rory frowned in confusion. "Er, what? All I can hear is . . . silence."

As Rory stepped into the TARDIS, the Doctor and Alex exchanged nervous and partially terrified looks. Rosanna's words echoed in their heads. There were cracks. Through some we saw Silence and the end of all things.

A/N: And there's 'The Vampires of Venice'! Such a fun episode with all the cute and fluffy bits with the Doctor and Alex, and even a few surprises. Several of the reviews I read showed that you all were shocked when the Doctor punched that guard. I'm glad I shocked you all a little. There will be more of those sudden shocks to come. ;)

Just as a reminder, tomorrow we start an original adventure. This adventure will be titled 'Bristol, KY Stop' and is roughly nine chapters long. This adventure has A LOT of stuff in it and I'm both excited and nervous to start it. :)

Also, in the reviews, some of you have expressed excitement for 'The Impossible Astronaut.' BIG plans for those episodes but I can't say anything! :)

Some notes on reviews. . .

grapejuice101 - I know, I love them too! :) And you're right; 'Amy's Choice' is going to be very different from the original episode. In what ways though, I won't say. :)

TheUltimateGuest - Yep, he punched the guard. Alex just brings the protectiveness out in him, doesn't she? :)

AshlynTheGuest - Thank you! That means a lot! Trust me, I'm not stopping anytime soon. :)

rycbar15 - The cream part was cute, wasn't it? That scene just popped into my head as I was writing this and I knew it had to go in here. And poor Doctor, getting all flustered. He's so cute when he does that! And thanks for the compliment. It means a lot! :)

jesterlover - I love those moments too. And I can promise there will be a bunch more jealous Doctor moments to come. :)

Thank you to ElysiumPhoenix, jesterlover, Great job of the, grapjuice101, TheGirlWhoWaited, TheUltimateGuest, AshlynTheGuest, rycbar15, Gwilwillith, and Guest for reviewing and thank you to those who favored/followed this story. Please review and see you tomorrow!