They gathered at the bottom of the crypt, listening to the distant cries of the Reapers.

They did not bring provisions or equipment. The only light was the Doctor's torch as she examined the wall. It didn't have the message, which made sense if it wasn't the key to unlocking the black sarcophagus. The Doctor tried to sort through the new memories of the crown, seeing if her speaking the words would open the sarcophagus.

Of course, as I have said, there was no great, golden age of enlightenment. The city spires did not reach the same heights, and there was a great riot when the housing space ran out and the limitations of how many children were permitted to be born were put in place.

Yet quite quickly after that revolution, the poor were given their houses in the different time. They harvested three crops before the first had run out. Their numbers swelled and became middle class enough to be indignant that they could not be the elite in slower time and order about the scum in their quick time.

There was no data to work from, no history to work from other than the fluid one she was experiencing as the crown itself shifted. She was no more certain than Joshua.

Joshua and Diana constructed the crown after the sarcophagus. The Doctor had no way of knowing whether it would work as she intended it to.

If only they had followed her lead, if it went to plan everyone would be safe.

Icrel could not process the loss of his peers and tutor, so he curled himself into the corner to control his breathing and thinking of what deity to pray to for salvation.

Dr. Chen and Gesto stayed by the entrance, listening up the spiral. They could hear something clawing at the black stone doors of the door. They imagined a Reaper was hovered there, waiting, sometimes pawing at the narrow passage trying to get in.

Lt. Castillo watched the Doctor who was examining the message and then the sarcophagus. The message was gone, but the sarcophagus was still with the death mask of Aumegden holding the reeds. The Doctor tapped it a few times and put her ear to it.

'Was there ever a message written on this?' Lt. Castillo asked to the others, pointing to the spot on the wall.

'Doctor, Doctor, I think I'm a Weeping Angel—and don't give me that look,' said Icrel.

'What does it mean?' asked Lt. Castillo. 'Why do we remember?' She asked this to anyone, but turned to face the Doctor for answers.

The Doctor shrugged.

'You know exactly what it means,' said Lt. Castillo, she did not put her gun—guns now—to the Doctor, but she did step back a little so that if she did the Doctor wouldn't just knock it out of her hand.

'What? No I don't.'

She didn't. She was technically only speculating.

Lt. Castillo raised her gun. 'Highest setting, you better not be lying, Doctor… Doctor.' Her grip tightened as her eyes moved to where the message should have been. 'Do the Reapers eat the dead?'

'Yes… they aren't eating anyone in the past because they taste of the time vortex. But as soon as the time bubble ends, as soon as the paradox resolves and the past catches up to us then they can eat.'

'I don't want to die,' said Icrel.

Gesto went to him to cradle him.

Lt. Castillo looked at the pathetic child, lowered her gun and spoke quietly to the Doctor. 'We have lost everyone. I will not be losing another child. I will not orphan and widow a family… I don't know what Gesto's got going on, but she has a life outside of this room. Find a way out.'

'I can't.'

Lt. Castillo brought the gun to the Doctor's chin.

'Find one.' Her tone was flat, her eyes held fire. That speech, that plea for the needs of others, was not her own injustice, but because she knew the Doctor cared. 'Find a way for us to get out right now.'

'My wife is pregnant,' said Dr. Chen quietly.

'Tell her about your family,' said Lt. Castillo, 'make her heart bleed to fix this.'

'What are you doing?' asked Gesto.

Lt. Castillo kept her gun at the Doctor's face. Her finger was not on the trigger, but it was a matter of a moment to do so. 'The Doctor knows a way out and won't tell us. We could die here and she would—she could just leave.'

'I can't just leave. If I could I would have taken you all with me, but even if it did do that, was clever enough to take you away, there would have been paradoxes, you wouldn't have been able to see your family ever again.'

'Why not?' asked Dr. Chen.

Lt. Castillo put her finger on the trigger. 'I knew you knew something, you bitch.'

'Commander… Doctor Chen… Doctor Chen, do you have a mood patch?' asked Gesto. Icrel was quietly sobbing into her chest.

Dr. Chen checked her pockets and did not have one.

'It's okay. I think we should maybe be very calm and not hurt anyone,' said Gesto. She gestured for Dr. Chen to take over.

'Good practise for being a mum,' she teased.

'I already have three children.'

'I was joking around.'

'Oh. Haha.' Dr. Chen took Icrel and cradled him, gently rocking him back and forth.

Gesto approached Lt. Castillo.

'Lower the gun, commander. I'm sure if we wait, these things will give up, go hunt somewhere else. Yeah?'

The Doctor shook her head. 'Not likely. This planet is dead and they've manifested. This is a bootstrap that became unstable. They're hungry.'

'Doctor, I have four shots left.' Lt. Castillo let the pause hang there, enough for everyone to count that there were five people in the room. 'I will fire on you. I will kill you unless you let us escape.'

'You can't escape.'

And we are dead either way, she thought.

Lt. Castillo once looked into a black hole, she watched as the magnetic wave she unleashed destabilised the enemy ship's gravity. It was a supply ship, containing some injured. Nothing major, no one major, but on the way to an important hold the enemy hand. When it fell into the black hole the war had effectively been won. When something falls into a black hole its image hangs there, stretching a little, the light bending, as it has already fallen in, but the light fights to escape and so very slowly the blackness consumes everything.

Lt. Castillo had that same feeling now. Everything was already going to happen, she just had to let it, she controlled nothing and no one. Well, there was one thing she controlled.

She lowered her gun.

'Get in the coffin and say nothing.'

The Doctor did, at gunpoint, but with no trigger-ready finger. She opened it to find it empty. She stepped in backwards and had the lid closed by Gesto and Lt. Castillo.

I don't want to tell you what happened next, I am sure you can guess. Icrel had no idea what happened. Dr. Chen didn't either, but she at least got to face down the barrel and try to think serene thoughts about seeing her children and wives again. Gesto requested she do it herself, but couldn't. Lt. Castillo did it for her without having to be asked, and took a week before she could do it herself. She almost opened the coffin for the Doctor to do it to her, but the void loomed and she rose to meet it with a scream.

And woke up. In another time, in another life. A little rift in time-space pulled their bodies back into the past. The Time Vortex, in its own way of being alive, is ineffable, even a TARDIS operates with a bit of luck and what might as well be positive thinking. Their corpses, since rejuvenated by the magic of temporal mechanics, were not immortal but were there to watch the ages of the fleeting floral people

Lt. Castillo found herself mad with the visions of the Vortex, unaffected by the time barriers. She adapted to the faster times, and returned to how she was when she re-entered the slow time. She confessed to her war crimes and cruelties to anyone who would listen, still sharp and distant, her life was given into the care of others. Their bountiful kindness was never something she could have accepted in her old life.

Dr. Chen was grateful to be in an age of peace and prosperity, of ingenuity. A brief heaven that she could not stop from ending. She longed for her wives and their children, but over time was able to find other loves and other children.

Icrel and Gesto, required the attention of Aumegden. Their own decay did not matter, but the vortex changed them. When they revived it was with impressions of other lives, a foundation to build from and if not forget, not dwell on. They lived longer than most, and were wise enough to understand death is and was and will not be the end.

Elsewhere and elsewhen:

The black sarcophagus opened in a lush parlour. The quiet clamour of the auction house had died, only the few socialite bidders remained to discuss their winnings. It was a private parlour, a private auction, one for the richest of the rich and their black market tastes. Such as the black sarcophagus found on the lost planet Kessas Aen after the original expedition party mysteriously vanished some hundreds of years ago.

The Doctor stepped forward with Gat standing with two other Division operatives. This was Gat's new body, rounded and pronounced features, her dark eyes frames with touches of magenta shadow.

'Well, fix the little CIA problem?'

The Doctor saluted. 'Mission complete commander.'

'Good, good. CIA clowns don't know the meaning of black ops.' Gat laughed as did the other operatives. The Doctor didn't laugh. 'Time for a de-briefing, though I imagine you'll be debriefing us this time.'

'Yes sir.'

'Good. So how did you survive the coffin? Even a Time Lord needs to drink and eat.'

'Stasis chamber, sir. Taken from the crashed ship and worked into the inside of the coffin. Powered by the last energy of the ship and some solar panels.' The Doctor did not disclose the memories of the crown that were fading, she did not confess to Gat that she understood how those trapped in the past knew they could only get one person to escape, one person to tell the story, so made the crown and the sarcophagus. And then, when the timeline caught up to itself, when the barrier fell some hundreds of years ago, the Reapers ate those who remained.

The Doctor stared into the distance, not wanting to meet the superior officer's eye.

'What's wrong, agent? Did you get attached again?'

'No sir.'

'You did.' Gat rolled her eyes and dismissed the other two. She was alone with the Doctor. 'Come get a drink, decompress. The debrief can wait.'

'Yes sir.' There was a pause and Gat knew there was something else coming. 'They… they all died and then were removed from time. Everyone. An entire civilisation. Sir.'

'Well don't blame me, blame the fool of a CIA co-ordinator who will let it happen.'

'Why didn't we just stop it, sir? Stop the intervention in the first place?'

'You know why.'

'I need reminding.'

'Because it leads to a pile on. Intervening the invention's intervention. Too messy. Clean up is where we Time Lords thrive. This is what the Division is for, smoothing out the ugly edges.'

'Hundreds died.'

'Not our problem any more.' Gat turned and the Doctor reached for a gun she didn't have and Gat didn't realise how lucky she was. 'You were just following orders, agent. If you ever feel some mortal conscience, just remember it wasn't your fault, you were following orders.'

I won't for long, thought the Doctor.