A/N I ain't Stephen Moffatt. He updates faster than I do.

Chapter 30

"Look up!" the Doctor insisted, bouncing on his heels. Everyone turned their head upward, but there didn't seem to be anything special above them; just a big lump of rock.

"Doctor, what exactly are we looking at?" Rose asked, still looking above them.

The Doctor frowned, but his eyes were sparkling. He sonicked a circle on the floor, giving Rose more time to come up with the answer. She didn't. "Oh, come on," he groaned, looking around. "None of you? Think about it. If the ship crashed with the power still on, what else is still on?"

Rose had no answer, but Donna seemed to. "….the air conditioning?"

"No. Good try, though. The artificial gravity! One good jump and we fell – up. Shot out the gravity globe to give us a bit of a boost. All in all it was a rather spectacular idea, if I do say so myself" the Doctor finished with false modesty, puffing his chest out.

"Look at the statues," Father Octavian told them in a hushed voice, "Don't they look more like angels now?" Rose looked up at the Angels. There were four or five of them hanging right above their heads, faces detailed and fangs no longer worn down. They were standing in the exact spot that the Doctor and his little group had been standing in no more than a moment ago.

Donna turned her face to look at them and gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "But…how've they changed?"

"They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army," he explained, poking around on the metal floor with his sonic as he spoke. A hatch slid open in the center of the space, followed by a wave of light from inside. They hadn't realized how dark it had gotten until they saw normal lighting again. "They're taking out the lights. Look at them. Look at the Angels."

"Doctor, they've mov –"

"Yes, Rose, they have. Into the ship, now. Quickly, all of you," he commanded, taking the initiative and going first himself, dropping his body into what looked like a very long tube with no definite end.

"Doctor!" Donna shouted, and he stood up, laughing. She quirked her head in confusion, because the Doctor was standing on a wall. Not just any wall, he was standing on a sideways wall.

"It's just a corridor! Come on, gravity centers downward, you're fine," the Doctor assured them, still laughing at a slightly embarrassed Donna. When no one volunteered to drop themselves into what looked like certain death despite the Doctor already having done it, Rose pushed her way to the front and sat on the edge of the hatch. She took a breath and let herself drop, trusting the Doctor not to let her fall. He caught her, though it wasn't really necessary. "Hello! Fancy seeing you here!" he joked, placing her gently on the floor beside him. He subtly didn't move his arm from around her waist and Rose smirked. Smooth.

"Thanks," she said with a grin, leaning into his side. The others soon followed her lead, though the soldiers and River landed on their own two feet without any help from the Doctor or Rose. Donna squealed a bit when she came through, and Rose reached out an arm to steady her. "Alright?"

"Yeah," she replied, looking back through the hatch, which was closing behind her. "The angels can't get through that, can they?"

The Doctor didn't answer, instead saying, "They can jump up, and we've got to keep the lights on. We're finished in the dark." He let go of Rose's waist to walk to some sort of control panel on the wall. His head shoots up and he starts to run further down the corridor, yelling for everyone to follow him. A big heavy door was slowly sliding shut, and they reached it just as it closed for good. He groaned, banging on the door. It was sort of like a lift door, Rose noticed, the kind that don't have a handle and can't be forced open without the right buttons.

"What's through there?" she asked, looking around for any buttons. There weren't any.

"Secondary flight deck," one of the soldiers replied, and she nodded, her brows scrunching together.

"Not to be pessimistic," Donna began, "but what happens if the fake gravity fails?"

He hesitated. "Thought about that."

"…and?"

"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it." He turns away from the door, going to a little screen a bit farther back. After a moment, he said, "The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them. It's impossible."

River smirked and looks up at him. "How impossible?"

"Two minutes," he replied, not even looking up.

River rolled her eyes and looked at Rose and Donna. "I'm not sure he really knows what that word means," she admitted with a little shrug. Donna laughed and Rose nodded, looking at said man with a grin.

She opened her mouth to say something, but froze when she noticed the door. "That hatch is open." The lights started to flicker, and a stone arm made its way into the opening. "Lights're goin out!" she said louder, her voice shaking slightly. They flicked off again, longer this time, and then the whole Angel was inside, reaching out for them with horrible clawed hands.

"Clerics, keep watching them," Octavian commanded, but just as he'd said this, the lights went out. For a second, maybe two.

Donna screamed when they came back on. There were now four Angels inside the corridor, and the hatch had shut behind them. The lights were still flickering. "Doctor? Can't you fix the lights?"

He made a noncommittal noise, flipping some switches and yanking a wire from the side of the panel. The lights immediately stopped flickering and he turned to them with a triumphant grin (though no one saw it – they were all looking at the four Angels). "Isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power anymore."

"No more," Rose agreed quietly, and the Doctor froze. No more. Where has he heard that before? No more. No more…

"Good work, Doc," someone cut into his thoughts. River.

"Don't call me Doc."

"Can you open the door?" Octavian asked, trying his hardest not to blink.

"Oh, you're not going to like this. Yes, I can open the door. I'll have to route all the power in this section through the door control," the Doctor said. He opened his mouth to continue, but the bishop cut him off.

"Do it."

"Including the lights. I'd need to turn off all of the lights."

"How long?" Rose asked, not looking at them.

"Fraction of a second," the Doctor replied. Then he thought for a moment. "Maybe longer." More consideration. "Maybe quite a bit longer."

"Maybe?" Father Octavian hissed at him, still keeping his eyes glued to the Angels. They hadn't moved yet.

"Oi! Leave him alone!" Donna butted in, "It's not like there's a manual for this!"

"If we turn off the lights, we'll be in total darkness," Father Octavian said slowly, like he was trying very hard to remain calm. "We haven't got the torches any longer."

"No other way, Bishop," the Doctor muttered, turning back to the panel. "Keep watching the Angels."

The Bishop turned to look at River, who stood up straighter under his scrutiny. "You trust this man?" he asked quietly, jabbing his thumb in the Doctor's direction a few feet away.

Rose had to fight the urge to look at them, but she could hear the confidence in the woman's voice as she replied, "I absolutely trust him." And despite what the Doctor had said, Rose couldn't help but wonder…who exactly was River Song? And more concerning, who was she to the Doctor?

"He's not some kind of madman, then?"

River hesitated a moment. "I absolutely trust him."

The Bishop lowered his voice, saying something that Rose could only make out as blurred murmurs. She itched to turn her head and read their lips, desperate for information and not wholly trusting the Bishop, but she stayed put, staring at the Angels before them. Only the arms. Not the eyes. She most definitely was not going to look at the eyes. "Okay, Doctor, we've got your back," the Bishop announced for everyone to hear. Then he addressed his men, barking out orders to continually shoot once the lights went out. Rose clenched her hands into fists, wishing – despite the Doctor's distaste of them – that she had a gun. Old habits die hard, she supposed, and Torchwood had definitely ingrained in her that her gun was her lifeline. UNIT had too, now that she thought about it. Hadn't had a chance to mention that to the Doctor yet. She'd tell him after. If they survived.

"Donna, could you come here?" the Doctor asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her back a few feet. "When the lights go out, this wheel should release. Spin it four times. Clockwise."

She nodded, placing her hands on the wheel. "Ten," she affirmed, and the Doctor raised a (slightly nonexistent) eyebrow.

"No. Four."

"Yeah," she said, sounding a bit confused. "Yeah, s'what I said. Ten. No – four. Sorry, bit distracted."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Right. Rose? How about you turn the wheel? Donna, you sure you're feeling alright?"

Rose backed up until she was standing beside the Doctor and Donna. She turned her back to the Angels against every one of her instincts and grabbed the wheel with both hands. "Lights out, four times, clockwise. Got it."

The Doctor looked at her for a moment, pressed a desperate kiss to her forehead, and then drew back to face the adjacent wall, sonic screwdriver held before him. "Ready?"

"On my count," the Bishop said, "Three…two…one."

Several things happened simultaneously at this moment. The lights went out, the small corridor filled with gunshots, Rose spun the wheel, and the bulkhead door began to open. "'S opening!" she shouted over the clamor, grinning excitedly at the faint lights streaming through the opening. "Go on!" she hollered once it was wide enough, "Fall back!" The Bishop slipped through, followed by River, followed by the clerics, followed by Donna, and at last followed by the Doctor, who grabbed Rose's hand and yanked her through at the last second. The bulkhead slammed shut, catching the hem of Rose's shirt. She tore the hem off and laughed nervously, trying not to think that that might have been her.

Then she jumped as the wheel began to turn. The Angels. The Doctor leapt over to the computer, still holding Rose's hand with a tight grip. He releases it, but their shoulders and hips are still touching, so he seemed satisfied she'd not run off yet. His fingers flew over the controls, his eyes darting back and forth over the screen. "What're you doing?" Donna asked, but he didn't answer, too preoccupied. Rose turned to her and shrugged, answering for him.

"Magnetized the door," Octavian announced. "Nothing can get through that door now."

The wheel slowly began to turn again and Donna snorted. "Yeah, better check again, mate."

"Dear God!"

"Yeah, now you're getting it," the Doctor said, not looking away from the controls, "But you've bought us time. That's good. Time's good."

Rose spied movement in the corner of her eye and whipped around, spotting the wheel of another door turning. "Seal the door!" she hollered, pointing at it. A cleric rushed over and slapped a little box on the wall, a red light beeping on the top of it. Another door began to open, and then another. The clerics rushed around, slapping their magnetizers onto all of the doors. "We're surrounded," Rose breathed, her eyes wide. "How long?"

"Nine," Donna said, so quietly that almost no one heard.

"No, five. If even that," the Doctor said, his hands still flying over the controls as he attempted to stop the Angels from entering their safe haven.

"There's gotta be another way out, though. Yeah?" Rose asked nervously, brushing her hair behind her ear as she looked at the controls, though she couldn't understand. She'd never been one for figuring out buttons and levers.

The Doctor finally looked away from the controls and put his hands on her shoulders, spontaneously planting a smacking kiss onto her lips. He pulled back, grinning madly. "You've given me an idea," he told her, then he turned to everyone else, taking his hands from her shoulders and flailing his arms about as he exclaimed, "Yes, we're surrounded! Angels on all sides! But we're on a galaxy class ship! They go for years without stopping on a planet. What do they need?"

River's eyes widened. "Of course," she breathed, her face alight with realization.

"Course what?" Donna asked at the same time Rose asked, "What d'they need?" They looked at each other for a moment, giggling despite the dangerous and completely serious circumstances.

"Can we get in there?" Octavian asked the Doctor, who ran over to the only wall without a door on it. There were little grates by the floor – maybe it was some sort of air conditioning?

"It's a sealed unit, but they must've installed it somehow," the Doctor muttered, his ear pressed to the wall. His hands roamed around, looking for something that could allow them access to whatever was behind that wall. "This whole partition should slide….up! There's clamps! Help me release the clamps!" The clerics rushed to his aid, releasing all of the clamps.

Donna looked on for a moment, still a bit lost. "What's behind there?" she asked, thinking of all the things it could be. None seemed very likely.

"It's an oxygen factory," River informed her. They heard the familiar buzz of the Doctor's screwdriver and all turned to look as the wall slid up and away to reveal…

"It's a forest," Rose said with a giddy little grin. "They'd need the trees to make oxygen, of course!"

"S'like a big old oxygen factory!" Donna exclaimed, smiling at the sight before them. "Eight," she added, a bit breathlessly.

"What?" Rose asked her in confusion.

Donna raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Is there another exit?" The Doctor asked loudly, clapping his hands together, "Scan the architecture; we don't have time to get lost in there."

"On it," the Bishop told him, rushing into the forest, gun in one hand, scanner in the other. "Stay where you are until I've checked the Rad levels."

"Isn't this lovely?" the Doctor asked them, stepping into the forest despite Octavian's warnings. "And not just tress," he added, pulling off the bark on one to reveal wires and blue light. Rose's eyes widened. "Treeborgs! Trees plus technology. Branches become cables become sensors on the hull. A forest sucking in starlight, breathing out air. It even rains. There's a whole mini-climate. This vault is an ecopod running right through the heart of the ship."

During his little ramble, Donna and Rose had wandered into the forest, looking around with awestruck excitement. "It's beautiful," Rose whispered, and the Doctor's mouth twitched up into a smile.

"Yeah it is," he replied, though he wasn't looking at the forest.

"Seven," Donna whispered, still looking at the trees.

"I'm sorry?" the Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes. Something was up here.

"What?" Donna asked, startled. "I didn't say nothing."

"Yeah you did," Rose told her, looking concerned, "You said 'seven." She exchanged a look with the Doctor.

"No I didn't," Donna denied, looking at them as if they'd both lost their minds.

The Doctor frowned. "Yes you did."

"Did not!"

"Doctor," Octavian interrupted, "There's an exit at the far end of the ship. Leads to the Primary Flight Deck."

"Ah, good," he said turning away from Donna. "That's where we want to go."

"Plotting a safe path now."

"Lovely," the Doctor said, walking out of the forest and sitting in the chair in the control room. "Do hurry."

"Excuse me? Doctor? Angel Bob here, sir," came a voice from somewhere around the Doctor's waist. He pulled the comm from his belt and held it up to his mouth.

"Ah, yes, there you are, Bob. How's life. No, sorry, forget I said that," he added, realizing what he'd said.

"The Angels are wondering what you'd like to achieve, sir."

"Achieve?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "We're just hanging, aren't we? Comfy chairs, consoles, a forest. Forests are cool. How're things with you?"

"The Angels are feasting, sir. Soon, they'll be able to consume this ship, this world, and every star and planet in the galaxy." There was a pause. "I think you'd better hurry with whatever you're doing, sir," not-Bob added in a slightly quieter voice.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, looking at Rose and Donna in surprise. "Do you want us to stop the Angels, Bob?"

A long pause. And then, "I…I'm not supposed to, sir."

"But you do," the Doctor breathed, looking a bit awestruck. "That's a rather impressive feat, Bob. Bet you were excessively stubborn."

"Rude," Rose mumbled, poking his arm with a little laugh. She'd moved to stand beside him without him realizing it, and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her down into his lap.

"Six," Donna said, crossing her arms.

The Doctor frowned. "Okay, Angel Bob, tell me this: what have you done to Donna?"

"There's something in her eye."

"What is it?" Rose asked, looking at Donna with concern.

"The Angels."

"What's he goin' on about? There's nothing in my eye. I'm five, look!" Donna said, a bit desperately. "I mean – I meant fine. I'm fine," she said louder, more final.

"You're counting," Rose said, looking up at the Doctor, who nodded, confirming her suspicions. "You're counting down from ten. Why?"

"But I'm not….." she trailed off. "What am I counting down to then? End of the world?"

"Close enough. The Angels want to take this ship and its power. They'll rule over entire galaxies," Bob said from the comm, his voice still hushed, as though he were trying to hide what he said from anyone near him. Rose wondered briefly if he still looked like Bob or if he had been put into a statue, but she shoved those thoughts away. She'd rather not dwell on that.

"This ship hasn't got that much power," the Doctor scoffed, looking around. "It's nearly dead!"

"With respect, sir, there's more power on this ship than you yet understand."

Rose's hands flew to her ears as a terrible screeching noise filled the air and slowly tapered off after a moment or two. She lowered her hands. "Dear God, what was that?" River asked, coming up behind them.

"It's hard to put it how you'd understand, Doctor Song, but I think that was the Angels laughing," Bob informed them calmly, as if the sound hadn't bothered him at all.

"Why?" River asked, lost.

"They said it's because the Doctor doesn't know. They know something the Doctor doesn't."

"Doctor," Donna said, but he shushed her.

"No, I'm missing something. I know that I am. I just have to…"

"Doctor," Donna said again, tugging on his sleeve. He turned his head to her and she pointed up. There, on the wall, was a very familiar crack, pouring out blindingly white light. "What's that?" she asked.

The Doctor jumped to his feet, making Rose stand up as well, and walked over to it, standing with his face merely a hair's breadth away. "But….that's the crack that was in Amy's house," Rose said, coming to stand beside him.

"Enough. We're moving out," Octavian announced. "Doctor?"

"Yeah. Yeah, fine."

"What're you doing?" River asked as he began to scan the crack. "We're not leaving without you."

He didn't look away from the wall. "Yes, you are. You too, Rose," he added when she wrapped her arm around his, clinging to her Doctor. She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off with a kiss. "Please," he said softly and she nodded, reluctantly releasing his arm.

Donna frowned – she didn't want to leave the Doctor either – but she figured that if Rose thought it was alright, it must be. So they followed the Bishop and his clerics out of the room, only looking back once. But by then they were too far to see anything but trees and the faint reflections off of the metal inside the control room. Donna began to stumble, and she paused for a moment, rubbing at her eyes. Her head was hurting. It hurt….pretty badly…..maybe she'd just lay down. Just rest here for a moment and then catch up after she'd had a nice kip. She laid her head down, her cheek pressing up against the wet moss on the fallen tree. She didn't remember sitting down.

"Donna? Donna, what's wrong?" Who was that? River? It was River.

"Four," she mumbled, her mouth sluggish. Her lips didn't seem to want to move to form the word. The word. What had she said again?

"Med scanner, now," River ordered. Donna hoped it wasn't her that was supposed to have a med scanner. All she had was a couple of band-aids. She felt something touch her head. Her vision was going blurry. Did she need glasses?

"We've got to keep moving. We can't stop here." That was a man. Bishop Octavian.

"Does it look like she can go anywhere right now?" someone snapped at him. That was Rose. Donna could see her hair. It was very blonde. Blurry, but blonde. "And we gotta wait for the Doctor."

"Ah, yes. Hello. Donna, are you alright?" The Doctor asked. Donna's vision had cleared slightly. Very slightly.

"I think I need to get my eyes checked," she mumbled, still laying on the mossy tree. "What happened?"

"Angels."

"How'd you escape?" River asked, looking at some sort of little box. Maybe it was the med scanner.

"Told the Angels the crack was the end of the universe," he said nonchalantly. If she felt better, Donna might have laughed.

"Was it?"

There was a pause. "So, let's have a look. What's wrong with Donna then, eh?" He took the med scanner from River and looked at it for a few moments, Rose peering over his shoulder.

"What's wrong with me?" Donna prompted when he said nothing.

"You're fine," River said, trying to comfort her. Donna almost rolled her eyes.

"Everything. You're dying."

"Thanks," she mumbled, throwing an arm over her head in a vain attempt to stop the pounding she felt. "Why?"

The Doctor knelt beside her and moved her arm, looking at her face. He was still very blurry, even up close. "I don't know yet. What happened? You looked into the eyes of the Angel. That's when you thought your hand had turned to stone. Remember?"

"Yeah, course I remember."

He took a breath, looking at Rose and River and then back to Donna. "A living mental image in a living human mind. But we stare at them to stop them getting closer. We don't even blink, and that is exactly what they want. Because as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel….in your mind." He looked into her eyes and a shudder went down his spine when he saw that an Angel was looking back at him from inside.

"I'm going to die," she said. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"No. Shut up; I'm thinking. What do I know – Rose!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and pointing a finger at her. "I can't think correctly, tell me what I know. What do I already know?"

She faltered for a moment, but then snapped to attention, listing everything they knew. "The Weeping Angels. Image of an Angel becomes an Angel. Umm…don't look at the eyes. Counting….Donna's been counting!"

He snapped. "Yes. Alright, Angel Bob, why is Donna counting?" he asked, pulling the comm from his belt again.

"To scare her, sir."

"Why?"

"The Angels…they think it's fun, sir."

He dropped the comm in aggravation, hands tearing at his hair. "Doctor," Rose said calmly, hoping that if she was level-headed it might wear off on him. "Doctor, what's happening to her?"

"Inside her head, in the vision centers of the brain, there's an Angel. It's like there's a screen, a virtual screen inside her mind and the Angel is climbing out of it, and it's coming to shut her off," he explained, slightly calmer than he'd been.

"How do we stop it?" she asked, her voice calm but her mind racing and fearful.

His hands flapped about, his mouth struggling for an answer. "I….if it were a real screen, we'd just pull the plug, shut it off, but it's in her head. If we just knock her out, the Angels would take over and then…."

"What do we do then?" River asked, her voice nowhere near calm, "Think, Doctor, quickly!"

"Right, right, right! We….we've got to pull the plug. Shut down the vision centers of her brain. Starve the Angel."

"How? Vision centers…could she just shut her eyes?" Rose asked, her own voice becoming much less than calm as well.

"Three," Donna said weakly, and the Doctor's head snapped to her.

He dropped to the ground beside her, holding her face in his hands. "Close your eyes," he ordered, and she fought it, trying to keep them open. "Donna, listen to me. The Angels won't want you to, but close your eyes or you will die."

She closed her eyes.

A/N So umm….thanks for being concerned, I guess, but please don't send me messages asking why I haven't updated. Some of you thought that I was sick or dead, so thanks for caring, but I've just been REALLY busy and fanfiction isn't really the most important thing right now. Terribly sorry bout the long wait though :( And sorry if this sucks, this episode is like, plot-twisty and hard for me to change without screwing up things that have already happened because you know, time travel. *shrugs* what can you do?