The Time of Angels - Part Two
Night had fallen not long after the impending question had been asked. Amy and I were sent to the TARDIS soon after, but we simply weren't having it and tagged along with the Doctor and Ocatvian instead. Plenty more troops arrived along with supplies in a drop ship, and camp had been set up around it.
"The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralize it. We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives," Octavian explained, then brought out a device with a 3D display of the catacombs, "According to this, behind the cliff face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up."
"Oh, good," the Doctor said, being sort of sarcastically excited, if that's what pretending to be happy about something your terrified of is called.
"Good, sir?" Octavian asked.
"Catacombs. Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great," the Time Lord rambled.
"Technically I think it's called a Maze of the Dead," Octavian said.
"Well, that's just the icing on this morbidly creepy cake, isn't it?" I responded, "Mind you, I would not want a slice of it."
"Father Octavian?" a soldier off in the distance called.
"Excuse me, sir," the bishop dismissed himself to deal with another problem.
I was too caught up in my surroundings to notice River calling my name at first, but soon became aware of it when a cleric tapped my shoulder and pointed to the drop ship. I thanked him and entered the ship to find River browsing through the different surveillance footage of the Byzantium. She looked pretty engrossed in the footage, so I started to exit.
"How early is this for you?" she asked, stopping me in my tracks. The archeologist hadn't even looked away from the screen.
"This is only my third adventure in person, so I'd say the earliest you've seen me," I said, "How long have you been in Stormcage?" She laughed a bit.
"Long enough to walk out like the walls aren't even there," she replied, "I'm sorry I can't tell you any more, but you told me not to yourself."
"I did?" I asked.
"Spoilers, dear," she found the footage of the Weeping Angel, "Did you bring the screwdriver with you?" I knew fully well that I had left it on my nightstand, but when I fished around in my jean pocket, it was there. I pulled it out and switched it on, "Excellent. I need you to use the second setting and place the footage on a loop. Can you do that?" I nodded, "Thanks, dear." With that, River stepped out the drop ship's door to call the Doctor, Amy, and Father Octavian inside. In actuality, I had no idea what I was supposed to do, so I just pointed at the screen and pressed the button. Thankfully it worked by the time everyone piled in. Immediately, the Doctor snatched my screwdriver from me.
"Where and when did you get this?" he asked, scanning it with his own.
"I had it in my pocket when I was taken by the crack. It was originally a toy, but I guess the trip here made it into a real one. It's even got a setting for wood, so go ahead and be jealous," I answered, wiggling my eyebrows a bit.
He tossed it back to me, "I'll be jealous when we aren't in danger." The Doctor then set to observing the footage of the Angel.
"What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was onboard. Sorry about the quality," River said, "It's four seconds. Ginny placed it on a loop."
"Yeah, it's an angel. Hands covering its face," he said.
"You've encountered the angels before," Octavian noticed.
"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers. Barely surviving."
"But it's just a statue," Amy pointed out.
"It's a statue when you see it," River briefly explained.
"Where did it come from?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, pulled from the Ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time."
"There's a difference between dormant and patient."
"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Amy asked.
"As long as you're looking at a Weeping Angel, it will stay a stone sculpture, but when you blink or look away, it can and will get closer to you. A very effective and very creepy defense system," I explained.
"What, being a stone?" she asked.
"Being a stone until you turn your back," the Doctor replied. While we all had rather frightened looks on our faces, the Doctor was grinning, which kind of set me on edge even more than I already was.
Not long afterwards, I was left in the drop ship with Amy and the Angel footage. Everyone else had gone off to deal with other events.
"Anybody need us? Nobody?" Amy called out to the rest of the camp, then turned back to me, "Are you all right? You seem a bit on edge."
I was actually almost off edge. This moment was what scared me the most in the whole episode. I slowly turned my head to the screen, and I saw that the Angel had turned its head to get a glimpse of us.
"Amy, was there more than one clip of the angel?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"I don't know. I'll ask Doctor Song," she replied, then did just that. I made the mistake of looking out the drop ship door and not keeping my eyes on what needed to be kept at bay.
"No, just the four seconds," River replied quickly, then got back to looking at a book with the Doctor. We came back into the ship to find that the Angel was now facing us full frame, its arms outspread and eyes blankly staring.
"Did you do this to scare us?" Amy accused, looking to me. I raised my hands in defense.
"I did absolutely nothing. Companion's honor!" I promised, crossing my heart. We looked back at the screen to find the Angel even closer than before. The two of us were so concentrated on it that we didn't notice the door locking behind us. Amy reached for the remote and turned the power off for the screen, only for the Angel to turn it back on again. This continued for a few more cycles until she gave up and placed the remote back.
"But it's just a recording. It can't move, right?" she said to no one in particular, "Ginny, give me a hand. I'm going to try and pull the plug." I nodded and came over to where she was standing. We tried to pull the plug, but it was stuck.
"It's no use," I said, throwing my hands out of their grip and sighing. Oh how I regretted looking up. The Angel was considerably closer to us from the screen, causing me to jump back and scream a bit. Amy called for the Doctor but he didn't hear. We both stepped to the back of the drop ship and tried our luck at the door handle, which wouldn't you know it, was deadlocked; even my screwdriver was rendered useless.
At this point we were reduced to shouting for the Doctor and trying to break the door down. And it was at this point as well that the Angel was wearing a rather feral face and had climbed out of the television, still as gritty as its image.
"Doctor! It's in the room!" Amy cried out.
"Amy!" the Doctor returned the cry for help.
"Well it's about dang time!" I yelled.
"Are you two all right? What's happening?" he asked.
"The Angel's here in the room. It climbed out of the screen!" I shrieked.
"Don't take your eyes off it. Keep looking. It can't move if you're looking," he reminded.
"Oh, I know how to deal with them!" I shouted, both stressed and scared. Thank goodness I was a champion at staring contests. Suddenly I realized I had the power to cut this fright short; I just needed the remote.
"Amy, could you hand me the remote? It's important," I said, "I'll keep my eyes on the Angel, but try to keep yours on it as well."
"But it'll just switch back on!" she retorted.
"Not if I have any say in it. Now don't blink, and don't look at the eyes," I said.
"Have you ever tried not blinking?" she asked, shuffling to the desk and trying to feel for the remote. I didn't give her an answer.
Once she had a grip on the remote, she handed it to me. I felt for the power button in the top right corner, then pointed the remote at the screen and counted when the timer restarted.
"One...Two...Three...Four," I said, and on the four successfully turned the power off, causing the door to unlock and the Angel to disperse. The Doctor and River ran into the ship, concern clear on their faces. The Doctor went right to unplugging and sonicing the screen while River checked on us to see if we were all right.
"How did you do that?" Amy asked me, a bit dumbfounded.
"Sometimes it actually helps to know what's coming," I replied, tossing the remote into the air, only for it to fall to the ground before I caught it, "But I didn't know that would be coming." I picked the remote up from the floor and handed it to Amy who placed it on the table.
"Yes, but what did you do?" she asked again. I sighed.
"Whenever the counter on the clip restarted, there was a small blip which caused the screen to buzz. I timed the power button for the blip, clicked it, and presto," I explained.
"That was amazing," River complimented, to which I thanked.
"River, hug Amy and Ginny," the Doctor ordered, too busy with the power cable.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because I'm busy," was his short reply. I gladly accepted a hug, but Amy tried to wave it off, claiming that she was fine. River on the other hand, was having none of it, so we all just sort of group hugged in the middle of the drop ship.
"So it was here? That was the Angel?" she asked, letting us out of the embrace.
"That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out, getting a good look at us," the Doctor said, "It's no longer dormant."
Suddenly there was a series of explosions from outside. The clerics must've gotten through to the Maze of the Dead.
"Okay, now it starts," he said, then ran out of the ship, "Ginny, a word, please."
Following the Time Lord towards the newly made hole in the ground, I was a bit surprised when he stopped and turned on his screwdriver right in my eyes, temporarily blinding me with green light.
"What are you doing?" I asked, swiping the screwdriver from his hand, and blinking the spots in my eyes away.
"Did you look into the eyes?" he asked in return, taking it back from me. I shook my head as a response. "Good," he looked down into the hole at the rickety string ladder, "Um, ladies first."
"Age before beauty," I countered, stepping behind him. He visually deflated and grudgingly started to climb down. Once he was all the way to the ground, he gestured for me to come down as well. I stood there skittishly and offered to let Amy and River go down before me, and thankfully they accepted. It was only when all of them were down there beckoning for me to join them my goose was cooked.
I had always been a bit afraid of going down into caves and spelunking because of a bad incident at a summer camp I went to a few years ago. Long story short I had a miserable time and a spider crawled up my leg to top it off, so I had plenty of reason to be hesitant. And on top of that, I'd be crawling into a Weeping Angel death trap! But still, they were all waiting for me, so what choice did I have really?
I started my shaky descent with a bit of confidence, which soon dwindled away when I nearly lost my grip. I then quickly shot down the ladder and practically latched myself onto the closet living thing down there, shaking like a leaf. What were the odds of said person being the Doctor? Pretty high.
"Finally decided to join the party, have we?" he asked. I couldn't bring myself to respond. "You okay?"
"I-I've never really been a big fan of caves. That's all," I stammered.
"That's fine. Neither have I," he admitted, then turned to Father Octavian, "Do we have a gravity globe?"
"Grav globe," the bishop requested. One of the clerics handed a white orb with a handle to him, and he handed it to the Doctor. I took this moment to detach from him and pull myself together.
"Where are we? What is this?" Amy asked, turning on her flashlight.
"It's an Aplan Mortarium, sometimes called a Maze of the Dead," River said.
"What's that?" Amy asked.
"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone," the Doctor kicked the globe up into the air, causing it to illuminate the surrounding stone structure and crumbling statues, "The perfect hiding place." We all took a moment to take in the sight before our eyes.
"I guess this makes it a bit trickier," Octavian commented.
The Doctor laughed, "A bit, yeah."
"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for," the bishop said.
"A needle in a haystack," River suggested.
"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack of, er, angels," the Doctor rambled, then looked to River for a moment, "No, your's was fine."
"And less complicated," I added.
"Right. Check every statue in this chamber," Octavian ordered his clerics, "You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question. How do we fight it?"
"We find it, and hope," the Doctor replied, before running right into a nearby tunnel, Amy and me following behind him.