Chapter 13: The Statues Are Alive

I don't own Doctor Who or Torchwood whatsoever, BBC does, and I'm just a fan with an idea.

RECAP:

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."

Avery's POV

Weeping Angels could be anywhere among those statues, majority of those statues could be. I bit my lip, surely there only had to be a few actual creatures of stone that could whisk you back in time and kill you by a death of old age. They were kind in a way, but they sucked up the potentials you could of had in this lifetime. I guess we'd find out soon.

Father Octavian spoke from beside us "I guess this makes it a bit trickier."

The Doctor replied "A bit, yeah."

"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for." Father Octavian added.

"A needle in a haystack." River added

"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle. Of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystackof, er, statues. No, yours was fine." The Doctor said

"Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question - how do we fight it?" Father Octavian asked

"We find it, and hope." The Doctor answered before walking off, Amy followed right behind him. I was right behind them when I noticed that when River went to follow, Father Octavian stopped her. I slowed down to hear what had to be said, River was hiding something and Father Octavian knew what it was.

"He doesn't know yet, does he? Who and what you are." Father Octavian asked River

"It's too early in his time stream." River answered

"Well, make sure he doesn't work it out, or he's not gonna help us." Father Octavian ordered River.

"I won't let you down. Believe you me, I have no intention of going back to prison." River replied. PRISON?! I thought in my head, before picking up speed to catch up with the Doctor and Amy before River noticed I had been eavesdropping. That woman was a felon. Criminal. Reminded me of Mel for sure... But what was River in prison for? I guess I would have to find out.

I caught up with the Doctor and Amy in the upward passage of The Maze Of The Dead. The Doctor was shining his torch in every direction. Amy was following, though she stopped and looked at the many levels above us and all the statues lining the way. I noticed her rubbing the corner of her eye with one finger before using her full hand to rub that eye. There was something wrong, I knew there was, once I noticed her face looking scared after stopping and looking at her hand. Clearly she saw something that we couldn't see. River came up beside us.

"You all right?" River asked Amy

"Yeah, I'm fine. So, what's a maze of the dead?" Amy replied

"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls. OK, that was fairly bad. Right give me your arm." River said as she showed Amy the syringe "This won't hurt a bit." She gave Amy a shot.

"Ow!" Amy shrieked

"There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabiliser. Stabilises your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship." River told her as she came over to me, not saying a word to me as she gave me the shot.

"So what's he like? In the future, I mean. Cos you know him in the future, don't you?" Amy asked

"The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor." River answered

"Oh, well that's very helpful. Mind if I write that down?" Amy said sarcastically

"Yes, we are." River said out of the blue.

"Sorry, what?" The Doctor asked as he took reading with River's device.

"Talking about you." River answered

"I wasn't listening, I'm busy." The Doctor said

"Ah. The other way up." River told him. He turned the device the other way round and looks over at River who merely raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah." He replied

"You're so his wife." Amy said

"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy! This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?" River replied. I didn't want to hear anymore of this conversation as the monster in the pit of my stomach growled and clawed in jealousy. I walked over to the Doctor and looked at the device that I couldn't make heads or tails of but I still tried to understand it.

We were examining the statues when we heard gunfire. We ran back down to the main chamber. We found a young cleric had fired his weapon at one of the statues. The Doctor stopped to look at it.

"Sorry. Sorry, I thought... I thought it looked at me." The young cleric said

"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Father Octavian scolded

"No, sir." The young cleric replied. I walked up beside the cleric and put my hand on his shoulder. They may have been looking for the Angel. But I had a gut feeling that there were more and they may not looking like angels and may just be statues. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

"No, sir, it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor." Father Octavian said

"What's your name?" The Doctor asked the young cleric

"Bob, sir." Bob replied

"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob." The Doctor said

"It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names, they're given to us in the service of the Church." Father Octavian added in.

"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?" The Doctor said

"Yes, sir." Bob replied

"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron. Carry on." The Doctor said.

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes." Father Octavian reported before ordering Bob "You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach."

They left and I turned to Bob to introduce myself "I'm Avery by the way. The Doctor is right, it's better to be scared than not. Especially here. I would say it was better to shoot that statue than not. I have a feeling there is more Angels around, and they may just look like statues. Better safe and sorry than not. Anyways, I got to go catch up with them before they leave me behind." Bob nodded at me as I left giving him a slight wave, which he returned.

I caught up to the rest of the group thankfully without running into any Angels. "Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse? There's a whole ship up there." I heard Amy ask from behind my spot beside the Doctor.

"Incredible builders, the Aplans." River replied

"Had dinner with their chief architect once. Two heads are better than one." The Doctor added

"You mean you helped him?" Amy asked

"No, I mean he had two heads. That book, the very end, what did it say?" The Doctor said, as I laughed.

"Hang on." River replied getting the book out of the pack.

"Read it to me." The Doctor said

""What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels."" River read out to us.

A few minutes later

"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb." Amy asked, basically complaining. I was enjoying the walk, it was sort of refreshing to do a climb in a cave.

"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go." River replied

"Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time." The Doctor said absent-minded.

"I thought they were all dead?" Amy asked

"So's Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's having two heads. You're never short of a snog with an extra head." The Doctor said

"Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is... " River said

"Yeah, something wrong. Don't know what it is yet either, working on it. Then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you. Erm, no offence, Bishop." The Doctor replied

"Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor" Father Octavian answered.

We arrived in a narrow passage lined with statues.

"Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up from here. That way." Father Octavian said

"Church had a point, if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy." Amy said adding to the previous conversation.

"Oh!" The Doctor said as he stopped and looked closely at a statue. I came over and looked at the statue too. I think they noticed, that we were surrounded by Angels.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked

"Oh." River said in realization staring at the Doctor.

"Exactly." The Doctor replied

"How could we not notice that?" River asked

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick." The Doctor answered

"I noticed... Nobody listened to me." I mumbled crossing my arms.

"What's wrong, sir?" Father Octavian asked

"Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in danger." The Doctor ordered

"What danger?" Father Octavian asked

"The Aplans." River answered

"The Aplans?" Father Octavian said

"They've got two heads." River pointed out

"Yes, I get that. So?" Father Octavian said

"So why don't the statues? Everyone, over there. Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak." The Doctor pointed out before ordering everyone. Everyone moved to a spot where there were no statues. "OK. I want you all to switch off your torches."

"Sir?" Father Octavian asked

"Just do it."The Doctor ordered as we all turned off our torches except for the single one left by the Doctor "OK. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

"Are you sure about this?" River asked

"No." The Doctor admitted as he turned off his torch for a split second and the statues in front of us are now facing us. The Doctor ran ahead.

"Oh, my God! They've moved." Amy said

"No shit Sherlock." I said to Amy as I ran after the Doctor. Everyone following behind the Doctor as he looked at all of the statues lining our way to the ship.

"They're Angels. All of them!" The Doctor reported

"But they can't be." River said

"But they can." I replied

"Clerics, keep watching them." The Doctor ordered as he backtracked and saw the Angels have moved forward. "Every statue in this maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us."