Chapter 12: The Angels Have The Ship
I don't own Doctor Who or Torchwood whatsoever, BBC does, and I'm just a fan with an idea.
Special Note: I want to thank those of you who have just favorite/follow the story as well the few who have reviewed. You guys make me excited to check my email and see that there has been a favorite, a follow, or a review. You make me feel loved and encourage me to write the next chapter and actually get it up on time even if it means I stay up late. You guys are wonderful and I hope this series goes on for awhile.
RECAP:
"Why?" Amy asked
"Cos she's the future, my future." The Doctor replied. I stepped back from them. One question somewhat answered. How she knew him? There was a chance I had no chance with him. That this path of feelings would just end up in heartbreak especially if I had to watch him fall for River. River who was a lot sexier and hotter than I was, and a lot more woman. I pressed my palms to my eyes as I backed into the railing, shaking my head, I could not let my insecurities get control of me this time, not again. I took a few deep shuddering breaths as I took back control and I looked back at the two in front of me with their backs facing me. They hadn't a clue what had just happened, though it wasn't as if Amy had been around for the time I had lost control to the insecurities, and it wasn't like I could go find Rory if I did lose control. I gave myself one last shake before returning to my spot at the console as if nothing had just happened.
Avery's POV
We exited the TARDIS, bits of debris from the ship we had been following that crashed on top of a very large and very old stone structure that was burning in areas. Amy, the Doctor, and I stood next to River looking up at it.
"What caused it to crash? Not me." River questioned
"Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it. According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase-shift. No survivors." The Doctor answered
"A phase-shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them." River responded
"About what?" The Doctor asked
"Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries." River replied before beginning to key something into a handheld device.
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Amy said
"Amy Pond, Professor River Song. Avery Pond, Professor River Song." The Doctor introduced
"Ahhh, I'm going to be a Professor some day, am I?" River said facing us, I noticed the Doctor wincing at his slip beside me. "How exciting!" She chuckled "Spoilers!" She turned her attention back to waht she was doing.
"Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum!" Amy whispered, though the Doctor walked off. I had a choice to either go after him or stay and listen to what the mysterious River Song had to say next about the Doctor.
"Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum: The Home Box of category four starliner and, sooner or later, him. It's how he keeps score." River answered Amy
"I know." Amy laughed
"It's hilarious, isn't it?" River replied
"I'm nobody's taxi service!" The Doctor said coming up behind them with a sarcastic laugh, before saying to River "I'm not gonna be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship."
"And you are so wrong. There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die. Now he's listening!" River said to us before speaking into a device "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal." She walked away a bit holding us the device, before yelling at the Doctor "Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon." He took out his sonic screwdriver and used it on River's communication device. River did a small curtsey in reply. I rolled my eyes.
"Ooh, Doctor! You soniced her" Amy said in basically her gossipy tone. I rolled my eyes once again, because it was clear from this that we may be twins, but we were in no way the same.
"We have a minute. Shall we?" River called, opening a blue book that looked very familiar. "Where were we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?" River asked the Doctor as she got close to us.
"What's the book?" Amy asked
"Stay away from it." Both the Doctor and I said sharply to Amy. I recognized that book now, I touched the purple version I had in the back pocket. The book that held the future, present, and past.
"What is it though?" Amy asked
"Her diary." The Doctor answered
"Our diary." River interjected, I felt my hands curl up into fists though I took a deep breath, we would only be here for a few minutes. Probably wait for her convoy to show up before we took our leave, as long as Amy didn't open her trap again.
"Her past, my... future. Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order." He cleared up for us. I felt a slight breeze and turned to look at four columns of swirling "dust" appear then turn into four soldiers in desert camouflage uniforms. One of the soldiers approached River. The rest of her party was here, she was no longer alone here, we could leave. I took the Doctor's hand and got ready to tug at him to return on our tour of space and time, away from that woman. There was something about that woman I didn't like.
"You promised me an army, Doctor Song." The Soldier said to River
"No. I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor." River said gesturing to us. The Doctor gave a lighthearted salute with the hand that wasn't grasped in mine.
"Father Octavian, sir. Bishop, second class. 20 clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?" The Soldier introduced himself shaking the Doctor's free hand.
"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?" River asked. Information ran through my brain. The Angels had a file at Torchwood. We never ran into them but we had heard of them from a woman named Sally Sparrow, she owned a video rental that I used to go to sometimes. The Doctor faced her quickly, immediately tense. Clearly, I was not the only one who had heard of them, and I suddenly knew then that we would not be leaving anytime soon.
It was night, we were still there, a transport ship arrived and the soldiers have already set up camp not far from the crashed ship. We were following Father Octavian as he walked across the camp. "The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralise it. We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives. According to this," He showed us a handheld device" behind the cliff face, there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up."
"Oh, good." The Doctor replied
"Good, sir?" Father Octavian asked
"Catacombs, probably dark ones. Dark catacombs, great!" The Doctor answered. It was starting to be clear that the Doctor wasn't really listening.
"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead." Father Octavian added
"You can stop any time you like." The Doctor said, staring up at the building distracted.
"Father Octavian?" A Soldier called
"Excuse me, sir." Father Octavian said. The Doctor waved off Father Octavian as he left. I looked behind me to make sure he was gone before smacking the Doctor's arm, "That was rude!" I hissed at him, though he waved me off too as he thought. He used the screwdriver on some of the equipment set up on the table.
"You're letting people call you "sir". You never do that." Amy said as she sat on the table, "So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?"
"Now that's interesting..." The Doctor said as he snapped out of his thoughts. He looked at both of us. "You're still here. Which part of "Wait in the TARDIS till I tell you it's safe" was so confusing?"
I raised my eyebrow with a dull look, "How about the part where I know how to deal with Weeping Angels." The Doctor gave me a look that was a mix of confusion and curiosity. I just gave him a shrug, "I have a job and a life Doctor. Ran into a lady at a video store who knew of them awhile back." He had a brief look of nostalgia on his face before turning to Amy, to see her explanation.
"Ooh, are you all Mr Grumpy Face today?" Amy said to the Doctor with a pout and a baby tone.
"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and one is trapped inside that wreckage and I'm supposed to climb in with a screwdriver and a torch-and assuming I survive the radiation, and the whole ship doesn't blow up in my face-do something clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day, that's what I'm up to. Any questions?" He replied
"I'm coming with." I chirped in. He looked at me with a resigned look, knowing he couldn't stop me from going.
"Is River Song your wife? Cos she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that. She's kinda like, you know, "Heel, boy!" She's Mrs Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she gonna be your wife one day?" Amy asked, I quietly groaned, I didn't need to constantly hear about how River should be his wife, especially from my own sister, my TWIN sister. Who should of caught on by now of how I felt about this, or even my jealousy of River. But there was nothing I could do, she was my sister, and the sister who was more confident. I closed my eyes waiting for the Doctor's answer.
"Yes. You're right." I felt my heart and soul drop at the answer, and then he added "I am definitely Mr Grumpy Face today." He replied, not answering Amy's question. My eyes shot open and I gave a brief quiet smile, I still had a chance with him.
"Doctor? Doctor!" River called from inside the transport.
"Oops! Her indoors!" Amy said
"Father Octavian!" River called, all of us walked to the transport.
"Why do they call them Father?" Amy asked, I gave the Doctor a questioning look, I was wondering about this as well.
"He's their Bishop, they're his clerics. It's the 51st Century, the Church has moved on." The Doctor answered.
We entered the transport ship, and we saw a screen with a black and white footage of a Weeping Angel. Its body was at an angel to us, hands over its eyes. River was controlling the video with a remote. I stared at the angel, not wanting to blink. Even though it was only footage, it should be harmless but one could not be too careful.
"What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop." River said
"Yeah, it's an Angel. Hands covering its face." The Doctor confirmed, I nodded not taking my eyes off the screen.
"You've encountered the Angels before?" Father Octavian asked
"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving." He answered
"It's just a statue." Amy stated. I was about to argue Amy when River replied "It's a statue when you see it."
"Where did it come from?" The Doctor questioned
"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since, dormant all that time." River answered
"There's a difference between dormant and patient." He replied, and I nodded agreeing.
"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Amy asked.
"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen. So legend has it." River answered
"No, it's not legend, it's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defence mechanism." The Doctor corrected
"What, being a stone?" Amy said skeptic.
"Being a stone... until you turn your back." The Doctor said simultaneously as I muttered it, still not taking my eyes off the statue, I didn't trust it and it definitely wasn't dormant, I had a feeling of it, a bad one. The Doctor led River and Father Octavian out of the transport. I backed to the door until I felt the doorframe, and I quickly turned and got out of the transport, following the Doctor leaving Amy in the doorway.
"The hyperdrive would've split on impact. The whole ship will be flooded with radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost any living thing." The Doctor said
"Deadly to an Angel?" Father Octavian questioned
"Dinner to an Angel. The longer we leave it, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple? Are they still around?" The Doctor corrected
"The Aplans. The indigenous life-form. They died out 400 years ago." River reported reading her handheld.
"200 years later, the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists." Father Octavian added
"You lot, you're everywhere! Like rabbits! I'll never get done saving you." The Doctor said
"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population..." Father Octavian responded
"Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load!" The Doctor replied
"Verger, how we doing with those explosives? Dr Song, with me." Octavian said as he walked off.
"Two minutes. Sweetie, I need you." River said to the Doctor. I glared at her back as I stood just outside of the ship. The Doctor mouthed "Sweetie" then realized River had meant him and he went to her. I was annoyed and jealous. I kept glaring at River.
"Anybody need me? Nobody?" Amy said as she stood in the transport entry, crossing her arms. She went back inside and looked at the Angel on the screen, entranced. I poked my head in to see what she was doing, and I saw that the Angel had now moved its hands away from its face. I knew it! It wasn't dormant, it was just waiting. Waiting for us. I warned Amy "Amy... get away from the screen. And come back out here."
She shooed at me "In a minute." I looked around for the Doctor and River. Something bad was going to happen soon, I knew it.
Third POV
River showed the Doctor a book, a very old book on the Angels. "I found this. Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman, it's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages." She said
The Doctor flipped through the book and finished it "Not bad, bit slow in the middle, didn't you hate his girlfriend? No, hang on, wait, wait!" He replied and sniffed the book.
Amy popped her head out of the transport and yelled "Dr. Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?"
"No, just the four seconds." River answered. With a puzzled look Amy went back inside of the transport ship, Avery gave Amy an annoyed look before waiting.
"This book is wrong! What's wrong with this book, it's wrong." The Doctor said
Avery's POV
I popped my head into the transport ship and noticed the Angel changed once again and was facing forward, hands down at its side. I popped my head out and started heading over to River and the Doctor to tell them about the Angel moving. I heard the door close and lock to the transport ship, I turned back around and tried to open the door. "Shit!" I gave up on opening the door and started running to River and the Doctor.
River was observing the Doctor as he examined the book. I leaned down trying to catch my breath.
"Oh, it's so strange when you go all baby-face. How early is this for you?" River asked holding her journal.
"Very early." He replied
"So you don't know who I am yet?" She asked
"How do you know who I am? I don't always look the same." He questioned
"I've got pictures of all your faces. You never show up in the right order though. I need the spotter's guide." She answered
"Pictures? Why aren't there pictures?" He said as found something odd.
I could hear Amy distantly calling for the Doctor.
"This whole book - it's a warning, about the Weeping Angels. So why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?" He thought aloud
"There was a bit about images." River responded
"Yes! Hang on.." He flipped through the book once more. "'That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel.'"
"What does that mean? 'An image of an angel becomes itself an angel." River asked
I caught my breath and said "Amy is stuck in the transport with that angel Doctor. It's not dormant."
"Amy!" The Doctor yelled as he ran to the transport with River and I following.
"Doctor!" I could hear Amy reply
He ran up to the door "Are you all right? What's happening?" He asked
"Doctor! Doctor, it's coming out of the television. The Angel is here." Amy replied scared
"Don't take your eyes off it!" He told her as he took out his sonic screwdriver and used it on the keypad "It can't move if you're looking. What's wrong? It's deadlocked."
"There is no deadlock." River replied trying to override controls.
"Don't blink, Amy! Don't even blink!" The Doctor ordered Amy.
I muttered "Don't blink, blink and you're dead." The Doctor looked over at me, as though he remembered the words. Sally told me them when I had talked to her, she told me that the Doctor had told her that through a set of extras on video tapes when he was sent back to 1969. I didn't think that was my Doctor who had said that.
"Doctor!" Amy yelled
"What are you doing?" River asked
"Cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off. It's no good, it's deadlocked the whole system." The Doctor answered
"There's no deadlock." River replied
"There is now!" The Doctor retorted
"Help me!" Amy said from inside
"Amy! Can you turn it off?" The Doctor asked her
"Doctor!" Amy said
"The screen, can you turn it off?" The Doctor asked again
"I tried." Amy responded
"Try again but don't take your eyes off the Angel." He told her
"I'm not!" Amy answered.
I spoke up "Amy, the remote. Try that!"
"Each time it moves, it'll move faster. Don't even blink." The Doctor said
"I'm not blinking! Have you ever tried not blinking?" Amy answered stressed. I rolled my eyes. "It just keeps switching back on!"
"Yeah, it's the Angel." The Doctor responded
"But it's just a recording." Amy replied
"No, anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel." He told her, before turning to River and asking "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to cut through. It's not even warm." She replied using a small blowtorch.
"There is no way in, it's not physically possible." He said, at that I pushed and pulled at the door, as though that might help.
"Doctor! What's it gonna do to me?" Amy asked
"Just keep looking at it. Don't stop looking!" The Doctor said
"Just tell me. Tell me. Tell me!" Amy whined
The Doctor ran for the book and brings it back to just outside the transport door where he sits. I look over his shoulder. "Amy, not the eyes. Look anywhere but don't look at the eyes." He told Amy, I shook my head because I knew as soon as he said that, she was looking the angel in the eyes because he said not to.
"Why?" Amy replied
"What is it?" River asked
"'The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there.'" The Doctor recited from the book.
"Doctor, what did you say?" Amy asked
"Don't look at the eyes!" The Doctor responded
"No, about images, what did you say about images?" Amy said
"Whatever holds the image of an angel, is an angel." I replied just as River was about to.
"Ok... Hold this. One, two, three, four..." I could hear Amy saying. The door popped open and I ran in to hug Amy tightly, the Doctor and River right behind me. The Doctor unplugged the screen.
"I froze it! There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an angel any more. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good." Amy said
"That was amazing!" River told her.
"River, hug Amy." The Doctor said, I rolled my eyes as I knew what he was doing.
"Why?" Amy asked
"Cos I'm busy." He answered
"I'm fine." Amy responded
"You're brilliant!" River said as she hugged Amy and I moved over to the Doctor where he was sonicing the plug.
"Thanks. Yeah. I kind of creamed it, didn't I?" Amy said
"So it was here? That was the Angel?" River said
"That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." The Doctor responded, giving me a look and nod of recognition as I had told him it wasn't dormant. At least someone was listening to me around here. I smiled at him. The moment didn't last long as the transport ship shook with a shockwave of an explosion from outside. The Doctor ran to the door, I was right behind him. "Doctor! We're through!" Father Octavian shouted to us.
The Doctor looked at us "OK. Now it starts." He went outside and I followed, briefly noticing Amy rubbing her left eye as we left.
"Coming?" I heard River ask Amy
"Yeah, coming. There's just... something in my eye." Amy responded.
The Doctor climbed down a rope ladder and joined Father Octavian at the bottom, both turning on their torches looking around inside of the main chamber of The Maze Of The Dead. I was right behind the Doctor looking around. Amy and River with the other soldiers joined us.
"Do we have a gravity globe?" The Doctor asked
"Grav globe." Father Octavian requested, one of the soldiers took out a sphere from his pack and handed it to Father Octavian.
"Where are we? What is this?" Amy asked, I shook my head, didn't that girl listen to anything.
"It's an Aplan mortarium. Sometimes called a maze of the dead." River answered
"And what's that?" Amy wondered
"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone..." The Doctor responded, he kicked the gravity sphere like a football and it rises into the air, stops and then lights up the cave showing a large number of stone statues. He adds "The perfect hiding place."