Here it is guys, hope you like it. Thanks to readers who read and dont review and a special thanks to Guest (sorry, didnt know your name but if you have questions, PM me), my good friend Brownbug, new comer JayceeJade, and ToxicSoap04. Thank you for all your support and for liking/lovining my story, it means the world to me and guess what? 11 reviews for the 11th Doctor ;)

Flesh and Stone

Immediately after jumping as hard as she could Amber felt gravity shift and bring her back down to the ground again. It seemed pointless but she had meant it when she had told the Doctor she trusted him; he was the most remarkable man she had ever met.

The Doctor was still holding on to Winter's hand when they had jumped and when he looked at her he noticed she still had her eyes shut. That won't do, he thought and shook her shoulder slightly. "Up! Look up!"

"You ok?" River asked her as Amber opened her eyes and looked up as the Doctor had told her to do.

"Yeh, but what happened?" She asked. "Did your plan work?" The Doctor grinned and pointed upwards. When she looked up again she noticed they weren't where they used to be; in fact the ceiling looked completely different. "Where are we?"

"We jumped." River told her but she was still slightly confused as to where they had landed.

"Jumped where?" She asked. "And before you say look up," she pointed to the Doctor, "I already know where not where we used to be cause the ground feels different."

"Move your feet!" He told her and she did so. He sonic-ed something at her feet and Amber looked up again.

"Nope. You're going to have to give me a little more to go on." She told him folding her arms over her chest.

"Oh, come on, Winter, think!" She punched him in the arm. "Ow! Sorry. The ship crashed with the power still on, yeah? So what else is still on?" Amber thought for a moment, looking up at the ceiling again.

She thought: what is it? It's on the tip of my tongue. She saw the Doctor open his mouth and she ran over and clamped her hand over his mouth to stop him talking. "Hush! I've almost got it!" From the corner of her eye she saw River smile largely.

Come on, come on. Ship crashed. Power still on. Come on physics, don't let me down now…Aha!"The artificial gravity is still on so we needed to get high enough for it to be able to register us. That was why you shot the gravity Globe! To give us that boost!" When the Doctor nodded she grinned broadly at the prospect of figuring it out.

Unfortunately, Octavian decided to put a damper on her happiness as he informed the Doctor what he could see. "Doctor. The statues, they look more like Angels now."

"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!" Just as he said that two things occurred; 1) the hatch in the bottom of the ship opened and 2) the lights began flickering again. "They're taking out the lights." He said. "Look at them, look at the Angels. Into the ship, now, quickly all of you!" Without thinking Amber followed him, not realizing there was a drop. Before she could gasp or scream she found that she had fallen on her feet.

"Hah, I'm like a cat." She said grinning.

"It's just a corridor. The gravity orientates to the floor." He told her grinning as well. "Now, in here, all of you. Don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move!"

"OK, men, go, go, go! The Angels, presumably they can jump up too?" Octavian asked the Doctor slightly worriedly. The answer was given to him when the door suddenly slammed closed once they were all in there.

"They're here. Now. In the dark, we're finished. Run!" They turned to run out the door behind them but it too closed in front of them effectively blocking them from their only escape thus trapping them.

"This whole place is a death trap." Octavian said.

"No, it's a time bomb. Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb. And now it's a dead end. Nobody panic." Amber turned to look at him, glaring in the process.

"That is not helping!" She hissed to him. She jumped as a bang sounded from outside. She felt her heart race as she realised that it was the Angels trying to get through the door.

"Oh, just me then." He said realising that Winter was trying to keep from hyperventilating as she clutched hold off his jacket. "What's through here?" He asked out loud. It was River that answered.

"Secondary flight deck."

Something suddenly occurred to Amber. Something worrying. "I don't mean to worry anyone with all that's going on but uhh…Doctor…what happens if the gravity fails?"

"I've thought about that." He told her hurriedly whilst trying to open the door.

"And?"

"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See. I've thought about it. The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them, it's impossible." Amber gaped at him and at the thought of becoming a pancake. It was nota pleasant idea.

"How impossible?" River asked bringing her back to the conversation.

"Two minutes." The hum of the engines powered down and their way in had reopened. Looking out they could see the cavern outside.

"The hull is breached and the power's failing." As he said it the lights went out. Suddenly the arm of an Angel could be seen through the door.

"Sir! Incoming!" A Cleric shouted.

"Doctor! We need lights." Amber shouted. The Doctor used the sonic to help River. The lights came on briefly and they saw an Angel making its way inside. The lights went out again and when they came on they were brighter. There were now four Angels where there had only been one.

"Clerics, keep watching them." Octavian ordered.

"And don't look at their eyes. Anywhere else. Not the eyes. I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now." The Doctor told them.

"Good work, Doctor."

"Yes. Good. Good in many ways, good you like it so far..." Amber's head cocked to the side at that.

"So far?" She asked him timidly, not sure she wanted the answer to the question.

"Well, there's only one way to open this door. I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control."

"But doesn't that mean…"

"I have to turn off the lights. All of them." Amber bit her lip and frowned. This was not good. It was the opposite of good; it was bad, very, very bad.

"How long for?" Octavian asked him. The Doctor wasted no time in answering.

"Fraction of a second, maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer." That was not the answer Octavian wanted to hear. If he was honest – and he always tried to be – he would have preferred to not have to turn the lights off at all.

"Maybe?"

"I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship; there isn't a manual for this!" He had begun to worry, and to panic but there was no way for Amber to help except be there.

"Doctor, we lost the torches. We'll be in total darkness." River told him from where she was.

"Wait!" Amber called remembering the small light she kept on her key chain. She always had it, it was a necessity. "I have a small light here…" She took it off the key chain, getting it ready and making sure it still works.

"There ya go! But that's the only source of light there'll be. No other way. Bishop?" There really was no other choice but it still seemed like the choice hung with Octavian.

"Dr Song, I've lost good Clerics today. You trust this man?"

"I absolutely trust him." She said confidently. Amber smiled at her gently, looking at the Doctor she noticed he was smiling at her as well.

"He's not some kind of madman then?" Amber's eyes widened. Oh dear.

"I absolutely trust him." Amber would have laughed at the look of both River and the Doctor's face as she said those words. She would have…but there was impending death on their doorstep. Literally. The Doctor excused himself and began working on the panel again but Amber stayed behind and listened.

"I'm taking your word, because you're the only one who can manage this guy. But that only works so long as he doesn't know who you are. You cost me any more men, and I might just tell him. Understood?" Amber frowned, trying to piece together what that may have meant but no matter how she put it, it didn't make sense.

"OK. Doctor, we've got your back." He said but Amber couldn't get her mind off the conversation she had over head mere seconds ago.

"Bless you Bishop." He then called Winter over to him. Before she went she handed the torch to River who stood in her place. "Winter, when the lights go down, the wheel should release. Spin it clockwise, four turns."

"Ten."

"No, four, four turns."

"Yeah, four, I know, I heard you." She took her place at the door and waited for her signal still thinking about what Octavian had said to River.

"On my count then. God be with us all. Three... two...one." The lights went out but Amber could see her flashlight go on. "Fire!"

Amber heard her signal and began turning but it was harder than she thought and had to push even harder. She heard River's voice barely over the gun fire, she pushed harder. "It's opening, it's working."

She climbed through the hole and looked back waiting to see who would follow. River followed after then the Clerics, Octavian and the Doctor. They moved down a similar corridor to another door. The Doctor held the door open with the sonic as the others went through.

"Doctor, quickly." River and Amber shouted together. They watched as the Doctor ran to join them and the door closed as soon as he was through it. Amber sighed in relief. That was too close for comfort.

When they got to the control deck, the Doctor immediately went to one of the controls. Amber watched him interestedly. "What are you doing?"

"Magnetized the door. Nothing could turn that wheel now." Octavian told them all. The Doctor looked at the door and then Octavian. It was as if he was silently saying you-wanna-bet? The Wheel began turning behind them. "Dear God!"

"Ah, now you're getting it! You've bought us time though, that's good. I am good with time."

"Doctor!" He span around to see that another door wheel was turning.

"Seal that door. Seal it now!" Yeh like that's gonna help. Amber thought to herself and just like she predicted, it didn't. They were now trapped with nowhere left to run. Things were not looking good for them. "Doctor, how long have we got?" Octavian asked.

"Five minutes, max." The Doctor looked at Winter worriedly. "Five." He said again. This time she repeated the number he said. "Why'd you say nine?" He asked her.

"I didn't." She said looking at him with confusion. What was he talking about? She had said five…hadn't she?

"We need another way out of here." River shouted to the Doctor.

"There isn't one." Octavian told her harshly.

"Yeah, there is, course there is. This is a galaxy class ship, goes for years between planet-falls. So…" he snapped his fingers, "what do they need?"

"Of course." River exclaimed. The Doctor snapped his fingers again and Amber looked between the two of them feeling thoroughly confused.

"Once again, human brain here. What would they need?" She asked them both.

"Can we get in there?" Great! Even Octavian knows what it is they 'need.'

"Well, it's a sealed unit, but they must have installed it somehow. This whole wall should slide up." The Doctor pressed against the back wall. "There's clamps. Release the clamps!" He pointed his sonic towards the wall and activated it.

"What's through there? What do they need?"

"They need to breathe." The door rose and Amber looked through it – almost not believing what she was seeing. Seeing her reaction, the Doctor couldn't help but smile at the awe-struck look on her face.

"But that's... That's a..." She trailed off not quite knowing what she was looking at. It looked like a forest but…having a forest on a spaceship…it was unheard of. Traveling with the Doctor is just getting weirder and weirder.

"It's an oxygen factory." Explained to the girl, smiling happily at her.

"It's a forest!" She exclaimed in childlike wonder and amazement. There were literally trees everywhere she looked through the door.

"And, if we're lucky, an escape route." The Doctor told them all. Amber just carried on staring at it in amazement. Wow. Just…wow!

"What did you say?" River asked Amber, frowning slightly.

Is she talking to me? Amber wondered. She decided she was, and answered the question. "Nothing."

"Is there another exit? Scan the architecture, we don't have time to get lost in there." Octavian nodded and motioned to his Clerics to go into the 'oxygen factory.'

"Stay where you are until I've checked the Rad levels." He told them.

"No but trees! There are trees on a space ship?"

"Oh, more than trees, way better than trees." The Doctor began. "You're going to love this." He went through the door and opened a section of the moss to show intricate designs of circuitry. "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. It is an eco-pod running through the heart of the ship; a forest in a bottle, on a space ship, in a maze." He turned to grin at her. "Have I impressed you yet, Winter Swann?

She chuckled at his antics. Of course you have! You impressed me on the first trip."Seven?" He asked joining her back on the flight deck.

"Sorry, what?"

"You said seven." He told her. The Doctor walked up to her, staring at her intently – examining her.

"No, no I didn't." Amber said, confused.

River who had been watching the pair intently frowned largely. "Yes, you did." She insisted gently but neither her nor the Doctor had time to say anything else because at that moment Octavian's voice could be heard.

"Doctor! There's an exit, far end of the ship, into the Primary Flight Deck."

"Good, that's where we need to go."

"Were plotting a safe path now." But he wasn't paying his full attention to the words being said by the Bishop. Instead, he was still studying Winter closely.

"Quick as you like!" He told him, still not paying attention.

Then, a new voice sounded through the air. "Doctor? Excuse me. Hello, Doctor? Angel Bob here, sir."

The Doctor tore himself away from Winter and sat down in one of the vacated chairs, radio in hand. "Ah there you are, Angel Bob. How's life? Sorry, bad subject."

"The Angels are wondering what you hope to achieve."His soft voice came from the radio. It was one thing Amber could not understand; why keep the soft tones of the voice when the Angel was stalking - hunting them?

"Achieve? We're not achieving anything. We're just hanging. It's nice in here, consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?"

"The Angels are feasting, sir. Soon we will be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world, and all the stars and worlds beyond."

"Well, we've got comfy chairs, did I mention?" What?

"We have no need of comfy chairs." What?

"I made him say comfy chairs!" okay, fine that was slightly funny. Amber thought whilst laughing at the Doctor.

Something suddenly changed.

The Doctor stood quickly and his voice changed from sort of light, to business like. "Okay, well, enough chat. Here's what I want to know: what have you done to Winter?" He asked harshly.

"There is something in her eye."Panic began to creep over Amber and the Doctor could see it slowly happening, as much as she tried not showing it, the fear was in her eyes.

"What's in her eye?" He asked.

"We are!"

Panic turned onto full blown fear as Amber heard the last sentence uttered. What was going on? There wasn't anything in her eye. But still, she needed…something. "What's he talking about? Doctor, I'm five." Everyone stared at her and she realised what she had just said. She tried to amend it. "I mean five. Fine! I'm fine."

"You're counting." River told her softly.

"Counting?"

"You're counting down. From ten. You have been for a couple of minutes." She bit her lip and looked at him. She could feel her heart racing, feel her breathing become shallow.

"Why?"

"I don't know." Oh that is not good! Very, very bad!

"Well, counting down to what?" She asked trying not to shake.

"I don't know." Amber swallowed. What was she going to do? The Doctor hardly ever didn't know something and when he did he played it off. But he wasn't this time.

"We shall take her." The Angel said over the radio. "We shall take all of you. We shall have dominion over all time and space."

Sitting down with her spoke into the radio again. "Get a life, Bob. Oops, sorry again. There's power on this ship, but nowhere near that much." The Doctor's voice hadn't changed at all from the cold tone he held. The Angels were doing somethingto Winter and whatever it was, they were going to stop it!

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

A horrible screeching sound filled the air. It was loud enough that even covering their ears had not effect and for a second, Amber was reminded of a teacher raking her nails down a blackboard.

"Dear God, what is it?" River asked over the noise. All at once, the noise stopped and there was a ringing silence that followed.

"It's hard to put in your terms, Dr Song, but as best I understand it, the Angels are laughing."

"Laughing?" The Doctor and Amber said together. The question isn't what the sound was; it was what have we missed so that they're making the sound? As the Doctor wondered, he felt a shiver come up through him.

"Because you haven't noticed yet." There was a certain amount of glee in its voice which made the people in the room feel sick to the stomach. "The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed." A flashback sounded through Amber's voice:

'The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know…'The sing song voice of the Atraxi played through her mind and as she remembered what it was talking about she gasped. She gasped because there, on the wall next to the Doctor, a white-blue light was slipping through a tiny crack that seemed to be getting bigger with each second.

"Doctor!"

"No, wait, there's something...I've..." Slowly he turned to where Amber's eyes were looking and saw the crack. "…missed.

"That's... That's like the crack from my bedroom wall from when I was a girl." Amber whispered.

"Yes." He remembered that crack alright. 'Two parts of space and time that should never have touched.'

"OK, enough, we're moving out!" Octavian shouted drawing everyone's attention back to the problem at hand.

"Agreed. Doctor?" She asked.

"Yeah. Fine!" He told her whilst using his Sonic on the crack.

"What are you doing?" River asked him slightly worried. He could get so into something and the next thing he knew, he was about to be killed.

"Right with you." He muttered nonchalantly.

"We're not leaving without you!" Amber told him fiercely.

"Oh. Yes you are. Bishop?" Amber felt someone pull on her and she struggled against it but the grip was too strong. When she turned around she expected to see Bishop or one of his Clerics but it wasn't. It was River! Dear God that woman is strong!

She tried one more time. "Doctor, come on!" but she was pulled into the forest quicker than she could say 'fish fingers and custard.' They pulled her into the forest making sure she was okay before going off to do something else.

Then something went wrong.

River, who had been looking at Amber intently, noticed she had begun slowing down. She looked sickly, almost white, and her skin began to look papery and thin. "Amber?" She called, walking over to her and gripping her arm. "Amber, what's wrong?"

She said nothing so River asked again. "Amber, what's wrong?" This time her voice showed her worry.

"Four." Amber was aware she had said something this time, though she didn't know why. All she knew was that there was a blinding pain in her head and she felt like she was going to throw up.

She folded in on herself – hoping it would lessen the pain.

"Med-scanner, now!" She faintly heard River call but then that was it. It was like everything around her had become muffled; she couldn't hear anything properly.

All she wanted to do was curl up into herself and fall asleep. She wanted the Doctor to hold her closely but she didn't know why. A small part of her was calling out for him to be near her but until that happened, she wanted to sleep.

She closed her eyes for a mere second but then terror flew through her. No! Don't sleep! It isn't safe to close your eyes! She groaned and snapped her eyes open, this time trying to keep them open.

Unaware that this was going on, River's anger was flaring up. "Father Octavian, when the Doctor is in the room, your only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home. When he isn't, your sole purpose is to keep Amber alive and trust me. It's not easy.

"Now, if he's dead back there, Amber will never forgive me, and if he's alive, I'll never forgive him. And, Doctor, you're standing right behind me, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah." He said amused. It didn't bother him that River knew; she always had it seemed. When he had first met her, she had told him not to worry, that it was alright to feel that way about her, and he had never told her, but he thanked her for it with all his hearts.

"I hate you!" She growled to him.

"You don't. Bishop, the Angels are in the forest." He said going to Amber's side.

"How did you get past them?" River asked him, pausing to look between the two of them.

"Found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe."

"What was it?"

"The end of the universe. Let's have a look then." He picked up the medical scanner River had left beside her and checked it. He felt his hearts drop to his stomach. "Winter? Winter can you hear me?" He asked checking her eye.

"Doctor why isn't she responding?" River asked. When she had looked at Amber, it was like she could see her, but she couldn't; like Amber was looking through misted glass.

"I don't know." He took out his Screwdriver and aimed it at her, using it as a more developed med-scanner. He pulled it back and looked at the results. "Oh Winter. What have they done to you?" He whispered, stroking her hair softly.

"What? What's wrong?"

"The Angel has taken over her. It's killing her but it's also preventing her from being able to hear anything. Why?"

"Three." He heard her whisper. He focused on her again, thinking as hard as he could as he felt her heart rate slow down further.

"Doctor!" River exclaimed noticing what was happening to her via medical scanner.

"What's the matter with Winter? Something's in her eye. What does that mean? Doesn't mean anything." He frantically thought, holding on to her hand and stroking her hair with the other. "What happened? She stared at the Angel, she looked into the eyes of an angel for too long..."

"Sir! Angel, incoming!" A Cleric shouted but the Doctor didn't even bother looking.

"Come on, come on, wakey, wakey! She watched an Angel climb out of the screen. She stared at the Angel and…and..."

"The image of an Angel is an Angel." His head snapped up. That was Winter's voice…but she couldn't hear him…could she? Ignoring it for the meantime he carried on thinking out loud.

"A living image in a human mind. We stare at them to stop them getting closer, we don't even blink and that's exactly what they want, cos as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel in her mind!" He heard River gasp from behind him but all he could feel was blind rage.

He looked into her eye and sure enough, there in plain sight, there was an Angel staring back at him.

"Two." Amber felt like she was going to die. No, she didn't feel it, she knew it. She was going to die unless the Doctor found a way to save her in time. Focusing on him as much as she could, she listened in on what he was thinking.

"Now counting, what's that about? Bob, why are they making her count?"

"To make her afraid, sir."

"OK. But why? What for?" Her persisted.

"For fun, sir."

The Doctor growled in frustration and threw the radio into one of the bushes. He didn't want to listen to anything the Angel said from that moment on.

"Doctor?" River was looking between the two worriedly.

"Inside the vision centres of her brain, there's an Angel." He went to sit next to Amber, once again holding her hand. "It's like there's a screen, a virtual screen inside your mind, and the Angel is climbing out of it, to kill her."

"Then what do we do?" She asked him.

"If it was a real screen, what would we do, we'd pull the plug. But we can't just knock her out, the Angel would take over!"

"Then what? Quickly!"

"We've got to shut down the vision centres of her brain. We've got to pull the plug, starve the Angel."

"One." They both looked at her and the Doctor grinned.

"That's it! I'm right so the Angels speeding up the countdown!" He knelt beside her and took her head in his hands, resting his forehead onto hers.

"Winter, close your eyes!"

"No, no, I don't want to." She moaned back to him telepathically.

"Good, because that's not you, that's the Angel inside you, it's afraid! Do it! Close your eyes!" He could feel her hesitation, but then a moment later he could feel the absolute trust she held in him. She trusted him to be right, and so she took a leap of faith.

The Doctor felt her force her eyes shut and the monitor beside her began beeping at a normal speed.

"She's normalizing." She sighed in relief. "You did it! You did it!"

"Sir? Two more incoming." They heard a Cleric say.

"Three more over here." Another shouted.

"She's still weak, dangerous to move her." River told them putting the scanner away.

Amber sat up slowly, "So, can I open my eyes now?" She was appalled at how shaky her voice was and she frowned at herself for showing a weakness.

"Winter, listen to me. If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just sort of...paused it. You've used up your countdown. You cannot open your eyes!" She nodded at him, thinking about the absolute fear he had felt for her to be in that position just a few seconds ago and she wondered…she had felt the Doctor's mind. She had been given a small glimpse of the wonderful things he had done. But then she had also seen some of the most horrible.

But the strange thing was that Amber found that she didn't care what he had done. The Doctor was the Doctor; an amazing, brilliant spectacular man but like everyone, he had a darker side and just like everyone else, he had given into it before.

But that was the point. So had everyone!

She was brought back to the conversation when she heard her name…well sort of her name being mentioned. "…stay here Winter?"

"What?" She asked keeping her eyes closed but turning towards the Doctor's voice. "I do not want to stay here!" She told him firmly.

"You'd slow us down, Miss Swan." She turned towards Octavian and frowned at him.

"Or the opposite would happen and you lot would speed me up." She almost hissed. She felt someone move and sit next to her and take her hand.

"You'll be safer here." It was the Doctor. "We can't protect you on the move. I'll be back for you soon as I can. I promise."

"You said that last time." She said quietly. "And you were late."

"But I came back. I always come back." She felt him let go of her hands. "Good luck everyone. Behave. Do not let that girl open her eyes. And keep watching the forest. Stop those Angels advancing. Winter, I will be back, I promise."

"Yeah. Later." She said dejectedly. She began to fidget nervously, she didn't want to be left alone, and she wanted to stay with the Doctor. She didn't even have River with her. She felt someone move a small strand of hair from her face and she turned to whoever it was.

"I didn't thank you for trusting me so completely did I?" It was the Doctor, he was back but…there was something different about him. Amber couldn't put her finger on it, but something about him seemed...not off just...more.

"You don't need to." She said truthfully. "I'll always trust you."

"I know…and maybe you shouldn't." She was about to say something to stop him but he carried on. "Winter, you need to do whatever you have to protect yourself okay? Don't worry about me, just…stay alive."

"What do you mean?" She asked confused.

"You won't understand yet, but you will. Just remember that everything will turn out right in the end."

"How do you know?" She whispered.

"Trust me. I'm the Doctor." With that she felt him kiss her on her forehead and move away leaving her more confused than ever.

"Wait a minute Doctor. Doctor? Doctor?" Only silence answered her.

Boredom that rivalled watching football with her cousin spread through Amber and she was seriously contemplating going to sleep to rival it but that would be bad; something could happen and if she was half asleep as well as blind…that wouldn't be a good thing. "So, what's happening? Anything happening out there?" Better to ask and know than be oblivious.

"The Angels are still grouping." One of the Clerics said. I think his name is…Matthew? She decided to ask.

"Uhh, what's your name?"

"Marco." Oh, not Matthew. Oh well, it began with 'M.'

While she was temporarily bind, she noticed that her other senses became sharper. She could hear rustling and behind her lids, the colour changed from light red to a darker one.

"What's wrong with the trees?" Amber asked. The Clerics looked at her and then between them. She was smart, and she was observant and they had a feeling that they couldn't lie because she would be able to figure it out.

"They're ripping the Treeborgs apart." Another Cleric answered.

"They're taking out the lights." Oh crap! That was not good. No light equalled no-see and no see meant the Angels could attack, and Amber wasn't sure what had happened to the flashlight.

Somewhere further up in the forest, the Doctor, Octavian and River were conversing. "It doesn't open it from here, but it's the Primary Flight Deck. This has got to be a service hatch or something." Octavian told them.

"Hurry up and open it, time's running out." River said rushed.

"What? What did you say? 'Times running out', is that what you said?" Something about that sentence was making him stop and think.

"Yeah. I just meant..."

"I know what you meant, hush! But what if it could?" Bits and pieces were all coming together and they were only forming a bigger piece of a puzzle, and the Doctor hated it when that happened.

"What if what could?" River would have sighed if it made any difference. The only person who could keep up with him when he was like this was in another world. And even then, she sometimes had trouble understanding him too.

"Time. What if time could run out?"

"Got it!"

Back in the clearing, they were not having as good luck as then Doctor was. "Angels advancing, sir." A Cleric Amber didn't know the name of said.

"Over here, again."

"Weapons primed. Combat distance five feet. Wait for it!" Marco ordered. He momentarily looked over towards Miss Swann and noticed that she was looking everywhere. He assumed she was trying to figure out what was going on but at the moment, there was nothing she could do to help.

"What is it? What's happening, just tell me!" She shouted from where she was.

"Keep your position and, ma'am, keep your eyes shut!" Amber huffed. There was nothing she could do to help and it sounded like the Angels were getting closer. Then she heard him say something else. "The ship's not on fire. Is it?"

"It can't be." Someone answered. "The compressors would have taken care of it. Marco, the Angels have gone. Where'd they go?"

"Hey! Oi! Where have the Angels gone?" Amber asked. They ignored her.

"This side's clear too, sir."

"Dude! Where have they gone?" She practically shouted. Still, they didn't answer her.

Marco read over the hand held, looking at the information it was giving them. "There's still movement out there, but away from us now. It's like they're running."

"Running from what? Because if the Angels are running, then maybe we should too!"

"Phillip, Crispin, need to get a closer look at that. " Amber assumed that the two Clerics Marco had called to had begun to head towards whatever was there but she couldn't be sure.

"What are you all looking at? What's there?"

In the clearing outside the primary flight deck, the Doctor was putting the pieces together slowly in his head. "Cracks in time, time running out... No, couldn't be. How is a duck pond a duck pond if there aren't any ducks? And she didn't recognise the Daleks! OK, time can shift. Time can change. Time can be rewritten. Ah! Oh!"

Hope you enjoyed it. One more chapter and then it'll be original chapter. Yay!