The Doctor sat, shackled to a chair as they built the perfect prison around him, just like they'd planned. It was all going to plan. Well, all except for the fact that his mate had actually disappeared. Not to mention the fact that Shadow hadn't been able to calm down for a single moment since Haylen had been gone.

He honestly had no idea where the Angel had gotten off to. Back in the warehouse, before everything went mad, things had been tense. It hadn't been made any better by bringing Canton with them, but it had been for the best in the end.

He did have some regret for the way that his plan had had to be applied to Shadow. The winged panther had gone mad when Haylen's grace had overwhelmed them, and they'd ended up having to restrain her bodily to stop her from going after her best friend. When they'd chained him up, they'd also had to chain her up, and it had gone about as well as one might imagine trying to chain a panther would.

Some of the despairing attitude he was projecting to the world was real, he could admit. He was really very worried about his mate. The other man had gone completely mad when he'd seen one of the skeletal creatures, or so they could only assume, since his grace had exploded outward and blinded the lot of them. Even outside the tunnel, they'd seen it. It had thoroughly distracted him from Amy's surprise declaration that she was pregnant.

Which was just one more thing to worry about, he thought as he tried not to let it get to him.

A low growl from beside him had him lifting his head in time to see the door unsealing once more.

The Doctor blinked as the cell door opened, and two body bags were dragged in. Canton followed, a swagger to his step that looked more than real. Kudos to Canton, he thought with just a touch of irritation.

'Is there a reason you're doing this?' he asked sharply, like he didn't already know.

Canton took a moment, a mean little smile forming on his face as he did. 'I want you to know where you stand.'

'In a cell,' the Doctor shot back.

'In the perfect cell,' Canton corrected with a nod to the walls surrounding them. 'Nothing can penetrate these walls. Not a sound, not a radio wave, not the tiniest particle of anything.'

The Doctor tried very hard not to roll his eyes. He knew all of this, in fact, it had been his idea, and they were very close to having it work out just the way he wanted it to.

The last of the soldiers filed out of the door, and Canton shut it behind them, not even reacting to the way it disappeared once it was shut.

'In here, you're literally cut off from the rest of the universe.' He paused, a bit dramatically, if you asked the Doctor. 'So I guess they can't hear us, right?'

'Good work, Canton!' the Doctor cheered, 'Door sealed?'

'You bet,' the man agreed quickly.

With those words, the Doctor jumped up, shaking off the shackles and pulling the straight-jacket off as quickly as he could. There wasn't a moment to waste, not when his Angel was properly missing - not fake missing, the way that his other companions had been, and River still was, but missing-missing.

He discarded those rambling thoughts as the body bags sat up, rushing over to help unzip them while their occupants gasped for breath. The head of dirty blond hair that appeared as he pulled the zipper down the first body bag had more than a little relief settling his harried movement, and he looked into the human's eyes, a hand on the man's cheek to get his attention.

'Are you okay?' he asked quickly.

Rory's answer was lost as Amy's body bag was unzipped by Canton, but that didn't bother either of them. The Doctor pulled his companion against him for a moment to reassure himself that he hadn't been hurt.

'Finally!' Amy's annoyed accented voice made him smile despite the situation they'd found themselves in.

He turned and made his way over to where Shadow was sitting in a loaf of panther, a betrayed look still on her face when their eyes met. He didn't stop, even when she hissed at him as he approached. He'd have a lot to make up for when this was over.

The Doctor winced in sympathy when he took in the amount of blood that was coating the fur below the collar. With a whir of his sonic, the metal contraption was popping off her neck, and he yanked it away.

Shadow yowled at the action and snarled at him, swiping at his hands with vicious claws, hurt dancing in her eyes.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' he said, feeling even worse as he spotted the fresh blood welling up in the now fur-less section around the base of her neck.

It must've rubbed deeper than he'd thought in the time that they'd been held 'captive'. Three months was a long time to be trying to escape from metal shackles, and in her case, it had been a real struggle. In fact, he could see the stress marks on the chains closer to the spot that they'd been bolted to the floor.

She hissed at him again, not bothering to talk to the person that was responsible for not only the fact that she hadn't been able to go to her best friend's side when he'd needed her, but also the pain she'd been dealing with this whole time.

'I know,' he said, eyes straying back to the dried blood that had dripped down into the fur around where the collar had sat. 'I'm sorry. Let's get you cleaned up, hmm?'

Shadow growled at him, distrust in her eyes and her demeanor.

That was probably fair, he thought as he sighed, but it didn't help them. They had things they needed to do, and that wound on her neck looked truly painful.

She slunk away from him when he put a hand out to pet her head, those fire-filled eyes narrowing at him as she did. He watched, his hearts sinking as she paused by Amy's side for a moment before sneezing. She gave the human a very odd look before slinking away as soon as Amy tried to pet her.

She snarled at Canton, and the man was smart enough to not try and interact with the irate panther.

'She's not gonna eat me,' he asked, hands held up and out of immediate reach, 'is she?'

Don't tempt me, she replied with yet another growl.

The Doctor had a moment of something close to fear as he wondered what might happen if she decided she didn't trust any of them.

He let out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding a moment later as she came to a stop beside Rory, rubbing her head against his leg with a wince at the way her neck moved. The double-take Rory did when he spotted the bloody ring around her neck was almost funny. Or it would have been funny, in any other situation.

'What happened to you?' Rory asked, kneeling to get a closer look. 'Oh, that looks painful.'

The other man stood, turning back to face him before he spoke again.

'I'm going to take her to the infirmary.' He said, clearly in full nurse mode. He turned back to Shadow's form at his side and directed his next words at her. 'Come on, let's get you sorted.'

The Doctor brought his hand up, and with a single snap, opened the doors to the still invisible Tardis. He watched Rory lead Shadow into the time machine, guiding her with a gentle hand on one of her wings.

'What was that about?' Amy asked, looking to him for answers that he didn't have, or that he didn't want to give.

'She's in pain, Amy,' he said finally. 'Pain does awful things to people. Imagine what it could do to a fully grown panther.'

'Right... What does that mean?' She asked, a crease on her brow as she tried to make sense of his words.

'It means,' he said as he pulled his suspenders back up over his shoulders, 'that we're probably lucky to still be breathing.'

'Wha-' Amy cut herself off, fear radiating off her as she looked at where her husband had disappeared inside the Tardis with the winged panther. 'Rory's in there with her. Is he going to be alright?'

'Yes,' he caught her arm as she tried to follow them, not really listening to any of them anymore. 'Amy! He's fine. You saw it yourself. She didn't want any of the rest of us near her, but she let Rory get close. She chose him to go to.'

He caught her eyes, the stark fear breaking his hearts all over again. 'He's fine. He'll be fine.'

She drew in a shaky breath, but nodded. It did very little to lessen the concern in her eyes, though.

'Right!' He said, spinning to look at both of his remaining companions at once. 'Things to do, people to save. An Angel to find. Shall we?'

He gestured to the still open doors to the Tardis, giving both Amy and Canton a questioning look, half dare, half goading. It worked, and a smile grew on Amy's face, the energy catching in a way that carried his enthusiasm to the others easily. Canton just shook his head, a half smile of his own coming over his features as he followed them into the time machine.

'What about Doctor Song?' The man asked, all of a few feet behind him. 'She dove off a rooftop.'

'Don't worry, she does that,' he responded as he rushed over to the controls. He looked up as he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, a smile forming before he realised it was just Rory coming back, and not the Angel he'd thought (hoped) it was. 'Amy, Rory, open all the doors to the swimming pool.'

He piloted his beloved ship to the time and space that Canton obediently parroted for him when asked, but he didn't bother explaining. River's entrance would be explanation enough, no doubt.

Just moments after he parked her, the Tardis' doors swung open on their own, and a blur whizzed past them, clearly landing in the swimming pool, judging from the splash of water that flooded past them and up and out of the doors that had yet to close.

The woman in question was quick to join them, even though she'd taken the time to change and grab a towel, he noted somewhere in the back of his mind. She was rubbing furiously at her hair, as she walked back through the doorway that led into the console room with quick steps.

'So, we know they're everywhere,' he said, spinning to look at each of his companions, ignoring the way that pain stuttered in his chest when his gaze wandered on its own to the spot that his Angel usually occupied. 'Not just a landing party, an occupying force, and they have been here a very, very long time. But nobody knows that, because nobody can remember them.'

'So what are they up to?' Canton asked, which was a good question.

He took a moment, just looking at the human, letting his thoughts whir. 'No idea,' he said at last, giving up on trying to figure it out at this early stage. 'But the good news is, we've got a secret weapon.'

He gave them a sly smile as he slammed a lever up with that comment, setting the Tardis to travel. The way she shifted with the slightest groan had him giving her a quick look. Was she going to need a tune up, or had he been a bit rough on the controls, he wondered with a frown.

They all piled out as soon as she landed, and the Doctor couldn't help the smile that came onto his face as he took in the rocket that was preparing to launch. Humans really were quite ingenious, he thought fondly.

'Apollo 11's your secret weapon?,' River asked incredulously, bringing the towel she'd still been using to dry her hair down in her shock.

'No, no. It's not Apollo 11. That would be silly,' he said, giving her a look as he did. He always enjoyed the reactions that came from his companions when he said ridiculous things. 'It's Neil Armstrong's foot.'

She didn't disappoint, turning to give him an unimpressed look as she shook her head.

'Wait, your secret weapon isn't Haylen?' Amy asked, a frown sitting heavily on her face. 'Doctor, tell me you know where he is.'

He eyed her for a moment, not really wanting to admit it. The truth of the matter was, he really didn't know where the Angel was, or why he'd lost control of himself. Sure, he could probably guess. No doubt, it had to do with the effect these creatures had on their prey.

They stole the memories of themselves from the minds of all those who'd seen them. It must ignite the Angel's sense of justice, an act of mental violation like that.

Now that he was thinking about it, they didn't seem to have the same effect on Haylen. Back in the oval office, when he and Shadow had reacted so strongly to nothing but empty air, the other man had recalled seeing someone's foot as they walked past. Even that should have been erased if their abilities worked on the Angel, but it hadn't been.

'Doctor...' Amy growled, her eyes flashing with the anger she so often felt when her brother was in trouble. The love she held for the Angel was so incredibly strong, and he'd been on the other side of her temper when he'd unwittingly hurt the other man in the past.

He'd do quite a bit not to be threatened with his own shoes, or strangled with his own bow tie again.

'No, I don't know where he is,' he admitted when she lifted a hand that was already posed to smack him one. 'But, I suspect he'll be alright. His grace is the most powerful weapon in the universe, and Angels are nigh on indestructible.'

'If he gets hurt, I'm holding you responsible,' she growled, her eyes narrowed threateningly at him before she spun, her long red hair spinning out around her like a fiery halo.

The Doctor followed her back into the Tardis with a sigh. It wasn't his fault that Haylen had gone off on his own, but then again, it wasn't really the Angel's fault either. Circumstances had conspired against them, with Haylen feeling trapped by the Doctor's close scrutiny after the event that they'd all witnessed before he got there - it had been all but confirmed that it had to have been his death at this point. What else could cause such a drastic change in the normally stoic being?

He moved back over to the console, distantly registering the time machine closing her own doors again, and the warmth that radiated out from the middle of her controls. He gave her a small thankful smile, petting her controls as he soaked up the encouraging feelings she was pushing toward him. He might have tried to reassure Amy, but he really was worried about her brother. Everything he said was true, and the Angel had been getting stronger and better at controlling his grace with every passing day. There was something about the broken way he'd looked at him back in that diner, though. The way he'd snarled at River when she'd slapped him.

He loaded up the nanorecorders in the injector gun he'd stashed nearby who knew how long ago as he thought. Try as he might, he couldn't think of a way to catch up with the missing Angel. There wasn't so much as a whisper of a hint as to where he was. They just had to hope that Haylen could find a way back to them.

'Right, Canton,' he said, turning to face the suspiciously quiet bunch of humans. 'Come here. I need your hand.'

The man was so used to following orders that he did exactly as he asked, putting his hand out without even asking why he wanted it. Which was lucky, because no one tended to react well to getting an injection from a large painful looking gun.

He pressed the device into the middle of the man's hand, and injected the nanorecorder quickly.

'Ow!' The American protested, looking at him with an almost hurt expression.

'Ha,' he exclaimed. Oops, he thought, he hadn't meant to let that out, but sometimes the looks on the human's faces were just too funny. 'So, three months. What have we found out?'

'Well, they are everywhere.' Rory said, putting his hand out as the Doctor moved over to him despite the knowledge that it would most likely hurt. 'Every state in America. Ahh.'

He winced, pulling his hand back to cradle it to his chest once the nanorecorder was inserted.

The Doctor put a hand on the other man's shoulder, a gesture of support, before turning to the others.

'Not just America, the entire world,' he corrected.

'There's a greater concentration here, though,' River countered, eyeing him as he moved over to Amy.

'Ow!' Amy scowled at him, rubbing her hand after her own injection.

He paused next to her, his voice lowering as he spoke, a question that was just for her.

'Are you okay?'

'All better,' she said, nodding easily. There was some complicated emotion in her eyes that he thought might be pain.

'Better?'

'Turns out I was wrong. I'm not pregnant,' she said, the smile no less complicated than it had been a moment before.

'What's up?' Rory asked, coming to stand near them with a strange look of his own. If he had to guess, he might've thought there was some jealousy lingering in the way the other man looked at them. He couldn't see how, what with the Doctor's very clear interest in the woman's brother. What could he possibly be reading into their interactions that would lead him to think there was anything between them?

'Nothing,' Amy smiled at her husband, and the Doctor watched as it turned from brittle and pained, to something soft as she met his eyes. When she looked at him like that, how could the other man ever have his doubts, the alien wondered. 'Really, nothing. Seriously.'

'So you've seen them, but you don't remember them,' Canton's voice cut through the moment, and he turned to look at him once more.

'You've seen them, too,' River said before he could. 'That night at the warehouse, remember? While you were pretending to hunt us down, we saw hundreds of those things. We still don't know what they look like.'

The Doctor made his way over to River as subtly as he could. There really wouldn't be any surprising her, not after seeing what he'd done to the rest of the group, but he very much did not want to be shot - or hit again. By either woman.

It hurt when they did that, he thought with a pout.

'It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away.' Rory shook his head. The Doctor happened to agree with the sentiment. It did sound a bit ridiculous. 'The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything.'

'Sometimes you feel a bit sick, though, but not always,' Amy said with a half shrug.

'So that's why you marked your skin,' Canton said with a frown.

'Only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter,' Amy returned grimly.

'How long have they been here?' Canton asked, some measure of fear finally entering his eyes.

'That's what we've spent the last three months trying to find out,' Amy replied, her gaze fixed on the only one of them who didn't seem to remember this.

'Not easy, if you can't remember anything you discover.' Rory's words were flat, and a little bit blunt in a way that the Doctor hoped wasn't still in any reaction to the jealousy he'd apparently still been feeling.

'How long do you think?' Canton asked, turning his head to look between Amy and Rory.

'As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye,' the Doctor cut in, moving over to stand next to the human and meeting his eyes with his own serious look. 'Or creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall.'

He turned to look at each of them, sharing a grim look with each of his regular companions. 'They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head. We are not fighting an alien invasion, we're leading a revolution. And today, the battle begins.'

If he wasn't mistaken, the battle had begun about three months ago for at least one of them. A shiver ran down his spine as he thought of the sheer hate that had rolled through the bond that he shared with his Angel back in that warehouse. It had been fleeting, a bit like the impression of a cricket bat just before it smacks into your face, he thought, rolling his eyes at the memory.

And then nothing.

There had been nothing from the other man ever since. Just silence in the space that should have been a warm presence - that had been a warm presence ever since he'd accidentally created the circumstances necessary for the Angel's mental abilities to surface.

Maybe it was selfish, but he'd been so very alone in his mind for so long, and he didn't want to go back to that ringing silence ever again if he could help it. More than that, he didn't want to know what had to have happened to the powerful being that his mate was to have made his mind so incredibly frozen.

'How?' Canton asked, shattering the Doctor's thoughts and bringing him back to the moment he stood in.

His eyes flickered to River's for all of a moment, but it was enough to be able to see that her thoughts had followed his. It was yet another reminder of what she was to them, but he tossed it aside to focus on what actually mattered in that moment.

'Like this,' he said, turning quickly and injecting the nanorecorder into the unsuspecting woman's hand.

'Ow!' She yelped, giving him a look that promised violence as his actions registered.

'Haha!' he exclaimed, unable to keep the laugh inside at that reaction. Sometimes it didn't matter how well you knew someone. They could still surprise you. 'Nanorecorder. Fuses with the cartilage in your hand.'

He loaded another of the recorders into the gun and injected himself.

'Ow.' He shook his hand to calm the sting before continuing. 'And it tunes itself directly to the speech centers in your brain. It'll pick up your voice, no matter what. Telepathic connection. So, the moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it, and describe aloud exactly what you're seeing.'

He'd pressed down on the center of his palm in the middle of his sentence, activating the nanorecorder to give them a live demonstration. His voice echoed around the Tardis' console room as he played it back.

'And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing.'

He could see them exchanging glances with each other. As amusing as it could be to see the shock and awe on their faces as they realised just what some technology could be used for, they were doing this for a reason.

'Because the moment you break contact,' he said, pulling their attention once more back to the matter at hand, 'you're going to forget it happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message. You keep checking your hand to see if you've had an encounter. That's the first you'll know about it.'

'Why didn't you tell me this before we started?' Canton asked, confusion clear on his face.

'I did,' he replied shortly, 'but even information about these creatures erases itself over time. I couldn't refresh it because I couldn't talk to you. Right, look over there for a minute.'

He pressed a couple of buttons on the console, projecting the image of the skeletal creature the Tardis had created for him from a picture Amy had taken when she'd encountered one in the bathroom back in the white house. It would be a good example for all of them, he acknowledged to himself, what these creatures were capable of.

He told the human to turn around, and fix his bow-tie when he did, watching as the man did so without a single clue as to why. It was a theory he'd had for some time, and this confirmed it. They had used this ability to guide the human race in whatever direction they wanted for as long as they'd been on the planet, but where had they come from? For that matter, was this why the Silurians had gone into their long hibernation? Had they been influenced in order for the humans to be able to grow to this point on a planet that would never have allowed the two species to co-exist?

'What? What are you staring at?' Canton asked, clearly confused.

'Look at your hand,' River said, an answer in and of itself. But he could hear the knowledge of just what they were fighting in her words. She was afraid.

That was good, he thought briefly. It might even be enough to keep her alive.

They watched as Canton turned his hand over, despite clearly not wanting to. Something about what the creatures do to them must also compel them to not do things that would lead to their discovery. Interesting.

Not to mention, since this wasn't a real creature, and therefore it couldn't have done anything to any of their memories, it had to be a subliminal order that forced their own brains to do the erasing. It wasn't something the creatures did, but something they'd ordered their victims to do!

The light on the nanorecorder was flashing on Canton's palm, just like they all knew it would be. Well, all of them but Canton, since he was the only one who'd turned away from the creature's image.

'Why is it doing that?' Canton asked blankly. Was it just him, or did he hear a hint of fear in the words as well?

'What does it mean if the light's flashing? What did I just tell you?' He prompted when it didn't immediately click for the human. It was a problem, he thought with an unconscious dip of his head, that humans had little to no defenses against mental manipulation.

His eyes widened as he followed that thought to its natural conclusion. What if it was because of these creatures that the humans had no defenses? What if it was a result of the constant subliminal commands to do one thing or another? Or maybe they'd been ordered not to have any defenses? Wasn't that a scary thought?

'I haven't-' Canton started only to be cut off by the Doctor, his mouth on a different track from his mind as ever.

'Play it.'

Canton, excellently trained soldier that he was, played the file as soon as he registered the tone, and they all listened to the conversation they'd just had.

'My God, how did it get in here?' Canton asked, some unholy union of shock and horror in his voice as he looked at the very solid looking projection.

'Keep eye contact with the creature and, when I say, turn back, and when you do, straighten my bow tie.' That was his voice, sounding strangely tinny in the recorder.

'What? What are you staring at?' Canton asked again.

'Look at your hand.' River said again, sounding just as quietly terrified as she had when she'd said it only moments before.

Canton spun back around, clearly taking in the still solid looking projection with the same shock as the rest of them. Of course, it was his second time seeing it, but not to his mind, which had already obediently erased that memory for its masters.

'It's a hologram,' the Doctor explained, again. 'Extrapolated from the photo on Amy's phone. Take a good, long look.'

He tapped a single button on the Tardis' console, and the hologram disappeared.

'You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting,' he reminded the man. 'Describe it to me.'

The man struggled visibly for a moment before giving up. He slumped, defeat in every line of his body.

'I can't.'

'No,' he replied, pausing for thought. It was better for him, he'd wager. Probably because he hadn't been around them for as long as the humans around him had. 'Neither can I. You straightened my bow tie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature.'

Amy straightened, looking like she'd been poked in the ribs.

'So they could do that to people. You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it.'

He could read the horror in her face as easily as if it was written down in a book. She wasn't wrong, and it was a terrifying thought. No one liked to think they were being controlled.

'Like posthypnotic suggestion,' Rory added, looking just as worried as his wife.

'Ruling the world with posthypnotic suggestion?' There was a part of her that wanted to be skeptical, but mostly she just sounded afraid. After all, if that was true, then who knew which - if any - of their actions were their own?

'Now then, a little girl in a spacesuit,' the Doctor continued, following his own train of thought, rather than the one that they'd just about finished with. 'They got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?'

'It could be anywhere,' Canton replied with a shake of his head.

It was a thought, but it wasn't right, he was almost certain.

'Except they'd probably stay close to that warehouse,' he rebutted bluntly, 'because why bother doing anything else? And they'd take her from somewhere that would cause the least amount of attention. But you'll have to find her. I'm off to NASA.'

'Find her? Where do we look?' Canton asked, confusion once again painted across his face as the Doctor changed the goal posts mid conversation.

He missed his Angel. The other man was the only one who seemed to be able to follow his quickly changing thoughts. Sure, the others tried, but more often than not, they ended up standing there with a somewhat stunned look on their faces while he bounded off to start on yet another plan.

'Children's homes,' he answered, his own thoughts already on the device he was going to need to create. Then there was the pesky little fact that he was going to need to attach it to the rocket of all places. After all, how else could one combat posthypnotic orders from masters you didn't know you had?

'Look, I hate to bring it up,' Canton said, sounding uncomfortable. It pulled the Doctor back out of his planning, and he turned to look at the other man as he continued. 'Really, I don't fancy getting mauled the next time we meet - but what about your angel?'

The Doctor paused, spotting the way Amy stiffened up out of the corner of his eye. She'd asked a similar question not long ago, and if he hadn't missed his guess, she hadn't been overly happy with the response.

'Yes, that's a problem,' he said, eyes skating over each of his companions until they came to rest on River's worried expression. 'One I haven't quite figured out yet. One thing at a time.'

'Doctor, what happened to him? Back in the warehouse?'

He knew it would be her that would ask, he realised as he eyed her for a moment. He knew that she probably already knew the answer, or parts of it, thanks to being from their future. It wasn't fair to bring it up all the time, though, since it was his own rule that was stopping her from telling him.

It really wasn't a good idea to know too much about your own future.

That didn't stop him from wishing he could ask her exactly what she knew about his Angel's future.

'I'd be lying if I said I knew,' he said finally, all too aware of Amy's eyes boring into the back of his skull. 'But... If I had to guess, I'd say too much has been happening, too quickly for him to be able to process it properly.'

He paused again, eyes distant as he thought of that wave of Haylen's grace as it overcame them back in that warehouse. He'd felt the intention in the force, the need to destroy, to kill, but it hadn't so much as touched them. He'd even felt like it had cradled him for a moment before moving on. He cleared his throat, looking up at River again.

'Then, I don't know. Something about those creatures set him off. Set Shadow off, too, for that matter. Probably for the same reason, whatever it is.'

River rolled her eyes, an impatient sort of gesture, like she thought he was being particularly slow about something.

'Well, did you ask her?' She asked pointedly when he didn't immediately catch on.

His eyes flicked away from hers, hands fidgeting awkwardly on the device he'd started to put together. He very much did not want to admit what had happened to Shadow, nor the fact that it was entirely his own fault.

'No. She's busy.'

'Busy.' It was flat, and very much not a question.

He busied himself with the random pieces of what would become a device used to free the humans from the alien's who'd been in charge of their lives for as long as they'd existed, but only if River didn't kill him first.

'In the infirmary.' He said quietly, not daring to look up and see the same blame that he already felt for her predicament. He could still see the raw section of blistered and bloodied skin where the collar had sat for three months in his mind's eye.

There was silence for a moment, which was not a good sound. He was sure she was trying and failing to process that concept. Shadow was an alien creature from Vita Aeterna, and while she was much more susceptible to injury than a literal Angel, she was a force to be reckoned with in her own right. There shouldn't be very much on Earth in this time period that could hurt her that she couldn't kill before it hurt her.

'Why is Shadow in the infirmary?' She finally asked, the threat in her words more than implied.

'The collar they had to put on her to keep her in place... it rubbed right down past her skin.'

It was said just as quietly as his previous answer, but it echoed around the Tardis for all of them to hear.

'You let them put a collar on her?' River hissed.

His eyes flicked up to meet hers without his say-so, and he knew she could see exactly how he felt about it. He could also see that she didn't care. It didn't matter that he felt awful about it. It only mattered that he'd let it happen.

'We didn't have another choice, River,' he said, a silent plea in the words, the hope that she'd understand. 'She went mad about the same time that Haylen did. You remember. You were there.'

The look she gave him made him feel about two inches tall, and he had to look away. She was right to blame him, he thought as she swept out of the console room, most likely headed straight for the infirmary to check on her friend.

After all, it was no one's fault but his own.

The walls of the building he'd been called to were dank. He'd followed the call of his grace inside, as helpless to its demands now as he'd been when it had first developed. His life for the last three months had been one fight after another, a bloodbath that he'd been doing his best not to revel in after how useless he'd been back on that beach.

When it would have actually been useful.

Blood dribbled slowly down his forehead as he panted. His body was beginning to wear out, unable to keep up with the demands of constant fighting. There'd been no break longer than about an hour since he'd started, determined to destroy this menace that had been living in the shadows of the human race for as long as history could record.

At first, he'd been mindless. His grace had exploded out of him, disintegrating the skeletal creatures on contact. When he'd come back to himself, he'd been standing alone, in absolute darkness. That darkness had seemed so much thicker when he'd sent a question to his mate through their bond only to get nothing back. Not an echo, not a twinge.

Just silence.

His mind had been silent ever since. Not even his own thoughts made a sound.

The creatures were still coming. It didn't seem to matter how many he killed, they just walked over their fallen, or kicked them out the way to get to him. They'd learned, through some sort of hive mind he assumed, that he could only do one of those waves of grace that destroyed the atoms that made them up at a time.

They'd also learned that if they wanted to be able to build up any sort of electrical charge, the ones in the front couldn't start it, or he'd have killed them before it could. Unfortunately, all that meant was that the ones he was fighting now were the faster ones. The smarter ones.

And they'd been learning how to fight him all the while he'd been learning to fight them.

They paused their onslaught, heads tilting creepily to the side as though studying him.

He didn't want to know what they were learning now.

Not with the way he was breathing so heavily, and his wings were shuddering as he tried to hold them out in warning. His shirt had long ago become bloodstained and ripped. He might be strong, but non-stop battle would take its toll on anyone.

He was tired. And it showed in the shake of his hands when he swiped at the closest creature.

It showed in the way he slipped in a pool of sticky blood and couldn't right himself before he landed on one knee, his breath escaping him with the force of the landing.

And most importantly, it showed in the blood trailing out of more wounds than he could count anymore. At the start of all this, his grace had healed him as quickly as he was injured, but after months of fighting for his life, his grace was all but used up.

He needed to rest.

'Well?' He demanded, eyes burning with the hatred he felt for the very nature of these creatures and the blood that had mixed with sweat and dripped down into his eyes. 'What are you waiting for?!'

'You are weak,' one of the creatures wheezed. 'Your power dwindles away to nothing when you need it the most.'

Haylen very nearly laughed, a bubble of the hysterical sound trying to escape him at the words. It sounded like something a cartoon villain would say to the hero when they had nearly defeated them.

'Why are you doing this?' he asked as he dragged in stuttering breaths. 'What could you possibly hope to gain?'

'We have guided the ingenuity of the human race for as long as they have existed,' it gloated.

'Yeah, I got that,' he returned, still trying to catch his breath. 'But why?'

'Why does the shepherd tend his flock?'

Haylen's thoughts stopped. He'd never liked metaphors, and this one made even less sense than most of the ones he'd heard before.

'But you aren't the shepherd,' he said, shaking his head at the absurdity of the situation. 'You're the wolves.'

'And what does that make you?' It taunted in its slow, wheezing way, its head tilting to the other side as it shifted closer creepily.

'A stronger wolf,' he said, letting his grace pool once more between his palms, as he shifted back into a fighting stance.

Memories flooded his thoughts, all the people he'd grown up with. The ones who'd bullied him. The ones who'd stood by and watched, completely uncaring. The ones who'd cheered as he'd been attacked by his bullies.

Better than those, though, were the ones with his family.

The ones of Amy and Mels dropping their school bags on the ground and racing into the fray, hair and fists flying as they defended him from people who hated him just because he was different. The ones of Rory patching them all up afterward as Amy ranted and raved at the stupidity of people, Mels just sitting there with bright eyes and heavy breathing, lost in the thrill of bloodlust, or so she'd told him once when he'd asked.

The ones of Amy and Mels standing shoulder to shoulder in-between him and whatever would try to harm him. Of Rory pulling him behind him in case the bullies got past the two terrifying women.

They weren't here now, but he knew with every fiber of his being that if they were, they'd still be standing boldly between him and the danger. It wouldn't matter that he'd become so much stronger than he'd ever been as a child. It wouldn't matter that these creatures could kill them. The only thing that would matter to them was that they loved him.

If there was one thing he'd learned from his time on Earth, it was that you protect the people you love, no matter the cost.

It was his turn now, to save the people he loved from this threat.

'I am the wolf who grew up thinking he was a lamb,' he said, his hand coming down in an arc, grace following the movement and slicing through a good ten of the creatures before they could move. 'I am a wolf who was bullied by the sheep, and in turn protected by the sheep.'

The crackle of their electricity was building even as the ones nearer to him shifted uneasily. They knew their attack wouldn't get to him before he got to them. So did he.

'But I've shed my sheep-skin,' he continued, eyes lighting up with his fractured grace as he held them on the skeletal creature who'd been talking to him. 'And I won't hesitate to remove any threat that presents itself, because these are my sheep, and I am their wolf.'

He threw himself at them, bearing bloody teeth in a snarl, grace at his fingertips, leaving bloody tears in whatever skin he touched. He knew he wouldn't win this fight. There were too many of them, and his grace was waning with every swipe of his claws. But if this was his last stand, then he was going to make it count.

The Doctor was laying on his back inside the Apollo 11 rocket. It wouldn't be long until he had company, the type that liked to ask a whole lot of questions and point guns menacingly at him, so he was trying to be as quick as he could. That was not the way he liked to spend an afternoon, and he'd already spent enough time being threatened in this adventure. Which wasn't to say that it wasn't entertaining to listen to the way that his mouth could get him out of (or into, if he was being honest) trouble, but there wasn't even anyone around to listen to how clever he was being.

The communicator he'd rigged up before separating from his companions chirped in his jacket pocket, effectively distracting him from his thoughts. He only spared one hand to go looking for it, the other still busily working away at incorporating his device into the insides of the rocket.

'Amy,' he said once his communicator was wedged between his ear and his shoulder. He went back to the wiring before she even had a chance to reply. There really wouldn't be much time before he'd be discovered.

'I think we've found the place she was taken from,' Amy said.

The grim tone in her voice wasn't very heartening, but it did lead credence to her words. He didn't think it was going to be pretty. Children's homes never were.

'How do you know?' He asked quickly.

'Because those things have been here,' she replied, probably looking around her with no small amount of horror if he had to guess. 'But the whole place is deserted. There's just one guy here and I think he's lost it.'

The Doctor nodded once. That would happen with repeated exposure to these things. Anything that messed with the mind was to be avoided at all costs, especially with their serious lack of mental defenses, he thought absently.

'Repeated memory wipes fry your head eventually,' he said instead. 'Find out what you can, but don't hang around.'

'Where are you?' Amy asked.

He could hear the confusion in her voice, but he didn't have time for that. His predictions had just come true. Luckily, he'd finally finished installing his device and putting all the pieces back together. Well, most of the pieces.

'Got to go. Got company.' He rang off the communicator with a tap, not bothering to wait for a reply. Americans were well known for being impatient and letting their guns ask the questions. If at all possible, he'd like to not be held at gun point again. There was no telling when his Angel would turn back up.

The bloodbath that would ensue wasn't something he wanted to see.

He sat up quickly, surprising the men who'd come to check on the disturbance judging from the way they recoiled very slightly. He didn't let the laughter that bubbled up at that action get out, knowing that would be a step too far for how twitchy the humans on this continent could be.

'Don't worry, I've put everything back the way I found it,' he said confidently. It faltered as he realised he was still holding a piece of the rocket's insides in one hand. 'Except this. There's always a bit left over, isn't there?'

The sheepish look he shot them didn't seem to do him any favours, he lamented as the scientists 'escorted' him away from the rocket. It didn't really matter. The device was in place, and when the time came, it would be instrumental in removing the threat that the skeletal creatures had proven themselves to be.

It was a very pointed silence that surrounded them as they marched the Doctor back to their command module. He thought briefly about trying to escape. The only thing that held him back was that, as River had pointed out, these were Americans. They'd absolutely shoot him.

They might do it even if he didn't try to escape, and then where would they be? No doubt, his Angel would find out and who knew what would happen. They'd be lucky if there wasn't just a giant smoking crater left where this country had once been.

They'd been going round and round in circles for some minutes, and the Doctor was losing his patience. It wasn't their fault, he had to remind himself for the nth time. They were just doing their job, stopping threats to their project, and to be fair, it was a very long term project that they were very nearly finished.

He could see where they were coming from, but that didn't mean that he could be honest with them. They'd never believe him, and worse, they'd probably lock him up in some insane asylum.

'Now, one more time, sir,' one of the scientists said, leaning down a little to try and intimidate him. 'How the hell did you get into the command module?'

The Doctor sighed. He'd already told them. Why couldn't they just believe his lie? It would make things so much easier.

'I told you. I'm on a top secret mission for the President.' He brought his hands up and bit the metal links holding the handcuffs together. It would be all too easy to bite right through them, but it was never a good idea to show off just how different he was from the humans, especially not when they were already upset with him.

'Well, maybe if you just get President Nixon to assure us of that, sir, that would be swell.'

'I sent him a message,' he replied with a pout. It wasn't his fault that River was late!

The doors opened in the middle of his thought, and he felt his shoulders relax from their tense position as the President himself strode through, River and Rory a few steps behind. He tried very hard not to raise an eyebrow at the way that they'd dressed. It had to be River's suggestion. After all, Rory had gone to ancient Venice in the clothes he'd been wearing to his stag party.

It was definitely odd to see River Song in a 1960's get-up, and he very nearly laughed at the fact that Rory was wearing those thick plastic black-rimmed glasses that were so popular at the time.

'Hello,' the President said, moving confidently over to the men holding the Doctor captive. 'I believe it's Mister Gardner. Is that correct? Head of Security?'

The man in question was gob-smacked. The Doctor briefly distracted himself with the thought that he had literally been gob-smacked by Amy, which just made the term make so much more sense to him. He'd never really given it much thought, but it tracked. Anyone who'd been smacked in the face would have that sort of stunned look before their thoughts caught up to what had happened.

'Er, yes sir. Yes, Mister President.'

No doubt, the man had thought he was lying, and yet, here was proof that he hadn't.

'Mister Grant, is it?' The President asked, turning to the other man.

'Yes, Mister President.' The man was blinking quite a lot, the Doctor noticed with some amusement.

'The hopes and dreams of millions of Americans stand here today at Cape Kennedy,' Nixon said, 'and you're the men who guard those dreams. On behalf of the American people, I thank you.'

If nothing else, the Doctor could see why this man had been elected President. He could spin a nice little speech when necessary, which was lucky for their purposes. Although, he could do without the smug look that River was trying very hard not to let cross her face. Despite her best efforts, he could still see it.

'You're welcome, Mister President.' Mr Gardner replied, stars all but in his eyes.

'I understand you have a baby on the way, Mister Grant.' Nixon really had come prepared.

'Yes, Mister President.' The man was surprised, which was fair, the Doctor conceded. It wasn't every day that you came face to face with the most powerful man in your country, and even less often, said man actually knew anything about you.

'What are you hoping for,' Nixon asked, a bright smile on his face, 'a boy or a girl?'

'Just a healthy American, sir,' Mr Grant said, obviously still a little in awe.

The President laughed, a practiced political sound.

'A healthy American will do just nicely,' he repeated, the joy still clear in his voice before continuing more seriously. 'Now, fellows, listen. This man, here, code name the Doctor, is doing some work for me personally. Could you cut him a little slack?'

They exchanged glances, which he really felt was a little much. Where they really not going to listen to their President, he wondered?

'Er, Mister President, he did break in to Apollo 11,' Mr Gardner said, an apology in his voice at the implied refusal.

The President turned to look at the Doctor, a look on his face that he really didn't want to look into too closely. He shrugged a little, mouthing his own apology. Needs must, after all. They had something they needed to do. Unfortunately, humans didn't really respond well to finding people where they shouldn't be.

'Well,' Nixon started, looking and sounding a bit unsure, 'I'm sure he had a very good reason for that. But I need you to release him now so he can get on with some very important work for the American people. Could you do that for me?'

'Well,' Mr Grant started, looking pretty uncomfortable.

The Doctor thought he could understand. After all, they had found him messing about with something that very few people in this time could actually understand. No doubt, they were worried that he'd changed something vital in the wiring, or that he was a spy for any of the other countries currently in the space race.

'Son, I am your Commander in Chief,' the President said mildly. It was the gentlest rank pulling that he'd ever seen, and he had to hand it to the other man. River had been right, he thought ruefully. He wasn't all bad, or so it seemed.

'Then I guess that would be fine, Mister President,' Gardner said, obviously recognising an order when he heard one.

Nixon nodded, a please look coming over his face before he spoke.

'Glad to hear it.'

With a nod toward the member of the military police standing behind him, the man was moving over to release the cuffs finally.

The Doctor didn't bother standing around to ask if they were sure, just smiled brightly and started walking out of the room. There were things still to do.

'Thank you. Bye, bye.' So what if it was rude, he was a busy man.

'Carry on, gentlemen,' Nixon was saying behind him, but he wasn't really listening anymore, his mind already whirring faster than he was moving. He still had an Angel to find. It was worrying that he hadn't even had a hint from their bond that the other man even still existed.

The only thing he could do was keep going as though he did, and that they'd eventually find each other again.

His thoughts carried him all the way to the Tardis, and he let out a long, if somewhat unsteady breath as he felt the rush of warmth she blew at him upon entering. It was her way of welcoming him back home, but he couldn't properly enjoy it when his Angel was still missing.

The others joined him not long after, but he was too busy typing into the computer on the console to pay them any attention. He was trying to find anything in history that might be a sign that the other man was trying to get his attention.

Another sigh left him when nothing stood out. He leaned his forehead against the monitor for a moment, trying to reassure himself that Haylen would be fine. The man was an Angel. There wasn't much that could hurt him.

The thought was hollow in the face of his worry, though.

The Tardis whirred softly before starting up, her usual flight noises both a balm and something that should have caused some concern since he wasn't the one flying her. He knew without looking, however, that it was River piloting her. She'd be bringing the President back to the White House, he figured, still not doing anything more than pressing the occasional button to help.

With a sniff, he pulled himself away from his useless thoughts, pretending he didn't see the way that the humans were looking at him. There was a measure of worry in all of their faces, even the President, who didn't even know the whole story.

He walked over to the doors, flinging them open to reveal that River had parked them once more (still without the breaks, he thought a little petulantly) in the oval office.

'Right,' he said, ignoring his little moment back there with the ease of experience. 'This is you.'

He turned to look at the President, gesturing for the man to go back to his office.

Nixon shook his head, but followed the Doctor none the less.

'You have to tape everything that happens in this office,' he said, knowing both how confused the man was, and how that particular fact would be looked on once it came out. History didn't know everything, but it was always funny once he found out how many little things ended up being because of him. 'Every word, or you won't know if you're under the influence.'

The President turned to face him, giving a helpless shake of his head as he did.

'Doctor, you have to give me more than this. What were you doing to Apollo 11?'

It was a valid concern, but there wasn't really much point going into it. The man would never remember it, since even information about the Silence erased itself over time.

'A Thing,' he said, pointing at the man as though that cleared anything up. 'A clever thing. Now, no more questions. You have to trust me and nobody else.'

Before the man could argue with that, the Tardis' doors opened again, and River poked her head out.

'Doctor, it's Canton,' she said, holding up his phone. 'Quick, he needs us.'

Melody Pond sat in the only chair in her room, the monitor in front of her paused. It was the only entertainment in her sparse room, and entertainment was a generous description. Rooms like this one had become her whole life, ever since she'd been kidnapped by that creepy spacesuit. The only glimpse of the world outside happened when she was rushed from one facility to another, her handlers speaking in hushed tones and shooting fearful glances this way and that.

She looked at stark white walls, desperate for something, anything to break up the monotony that was her life.

When nothing appeared, she sighed and turned back to the frozen image on the screen in front of her. The video whirred to life as soon as the computer recognised her face pointing in its direction.

These videos were the most outside interaction that she got, outside of the people who came by to teach her different ways to maim or kill. Madame Kovarian, one of her regular instructors, was on the screen, a familiar smug look on her face as she spoke.

'The anger of a good man is not a problem,' she said in that self-satisfied way that Melody was so familiar with. 'Good men have too many rules.'

The tall skinny man in the bow tie opened his mouth to respond, the fire of a deep-seated anger obvious in every line of his face. Whatever words he was going to say didn't make it out of his mouth before another noise caught their attention, and everyone on the screen turned to face the newcomer.

This was someone Melody was coming to have very strong emotions about. They were complicated. Too complicated for the young girl to fully understand. All she knew, was that whenever this man appeared in any of the videos, something in her chest swelled to life.

He didn't ever seem to change his face, but she could tell roughly how old he was by his grace, the same way she did with the Doctor's different faces.

Azharian, the Doctor's protector, the only thing standing between her and her mission. Each time she thought of the coming meeting, she felt a little thrill.

It was sometimes hard to tell how old the Angel was, she'd found, until his grace came out. Sure, his wings were there whether his other abilities were apparent or not, but they changed so often that it was hard to keep up. She'd come to think of them like mood rings, more than anything.

The deep midnight black that coated them in this video had a shiver sliding down her spine, and she felt that thrill build up in her chest once more. The way his eyes glowed with the promise of death as they settled on her handler was something she'd always secretly wanted to see in person.

'People always seem to make that mistake,' the Angel growled as his feathers shifted, a decisive flick that had blood splattering off of them and hitting the walls and floor around him particularly loudly in the near silence that followed his words.

The white form that materialised out of the shadows thrown by Azharian's grace had Melody sucking in an anticipatory breath. Shadow had always been a source of interest for her. She'd seen this creature over and over, since almost all of her instructional videos were centered around Azharian's most dangerous moments. Almost all of them had the winged panther by the Angel's side.

If Melody was being honest, which she only ever did in the privacy of her own thoughts, she couldn't see how they expected her to be able to defeat such forces of nature. Either opponent on their own would be difficult to take down, but together? She wasn't very sure how well this plan had been thought out.

The panther snarled, her own wings snapping at the air like a violent promise. It was completely unnecessary, in her opinion, given the way that her previous victims blood had spattered all over her, and was still dripping from her muzzle. What could be more fear inducing that seeing that, and then having her molten gaze settle on you? Knowing that she was sizing you up for her next meal.

She'd seen this particular video several times now, and this part that was coming, where the camera flickered back to the others, was her favourite. The stark fear that flashed across both Madame Kovarian and Colonel Manton's faces gave her life. In fact, the longer that she watched these videos, the more times that she saw Azharian's enemies quake in fear at the very mention of his name, the more she yearned to meet the Angel.

She looked away, the screen automatically freezing when her face no longer registered, and looked as surreptitiously around as she could. There was still no one there, so she squeezed her eyes closed, crossed her fingers and hid them under the folds of her plain white dress, and wished the same wish she'd been wishing for as long as she'd been watching these videos.

I wish he'd come and save me. Come and take me away from this so I don't have to kill his mate.

She opened her eyes after a minute, and they darted around the still silent room carefully. She'd be punished if they saw her doing something so incredibly childish, but she couldn't help herself.

When nothing happened once again, she sighed heavily, and turned her focus back onto the monitor in front of her yet again.

The Doctor spoke next, the camera coming to rest on the storm so clearly settling over his face.

'Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.'

Melody watched as her handler's eyes widened in recognition. She worked hard to keep the savage enjoyment off her face, worried as ever that they were watching her through the camera they'd claimed was in every one of these machines.

'Give the order. Give the order, Colonel Run Away,' Madame Kovarian said, her eyes still wide in very obvious fear.

The camera shifted again when the Angel spoke. He'd come to stand by his mate's side sometime while the camera was focusing somewhere else.

'You think that will be enough to save you?' Azharian asked, death in his eyes. 'You took my sister from me.'

Her breath stuttered in her chest as his grace began to radiate out from him, the mild glow burning brighter as he flexed his power enough to force the change to overcome his features. Small pointed bumps had begun to form around the crown of his head, the horns that he'd have at some point not yet fully formed. Those distinctive black veins growing out from the same colour taking over the whites of his eyes. The blue of his iris shifting to make room for molten gold. Finally, the taloned hands that disappeared into the darkness dripping off his wings.

No matter how many times she'd seen this transformation - or ones just like it - it always took her breath away. The breath she'd unconsciously held punched out of her little body when the Angel spoke again.

'I'm going to enjoy showing you your intestines as you choke on your own blood' Azharian hissed, eyes flashing with every emotion she'd been taught to fear. She might not understand the words, but there was no mistaking the promise in his eyes.

The unspoken conversation going on in the moments after the Angel's declaration was something she'd been drilled in over and over, so Melody had no trouble reading each emotion in their eyes as they spoke silently. In his early years, before he'd become Azharian, the Angel had been completely unable to understand subtext, or so they'd been informed. Which was why she'd been taught to practically understand it in her sleep.

Madame Kovarian's face had drained of almost all blood, or so Melody always liked to imagine as she saw the milky white sheen of her skin. There was a very clear plea in her eyes as she turned to the Doctor, begging him to reign in the outraged Angel.

This was the spot where they always differed. Melody loved nothing more than to watch the Angel lose control and destroy everything around him. The Doctor almost never let it get to that, much to her disappointment.

The Angel stalked forward when his mate made no effort to stop him, a cruel smile curving his lips. Melody felt a similar smile form on her own face, despite knowing that the Doctor was about to stop the Angel from doing what she'd always wanted him to do.

'That's enough, Anhellev,' the Doctor said quietly, eyeing the predatory way that the Angel was moving as he approached their enemies. 'This is a message, and dead men don't tell tales.'

Azharian's head turned slowly, his gold and blue eyes ringed in black seemed to swirl with power as he visibly tried to reign himself in. She'd always thought that it was a tell of how powerful he was that it was so hard to stop himself from tearing everything to shreds.

He always did, though. One word from the Time Lord, and the Angel was pulling back his immense power like a well trained attack dog.

A large (but secret) part of her wished the man had let his mate rip them to pieces and paint with their lifeblood like he so wanted to. She'd gathered, after some time and several not very secret conversations that had happened near her, that this video had been taken at the same time that she had been. They'd stolen her, and this was the moment that it had happened.

A part of her hated the Doctor for stopping Azharian from stopping them.

'It might be more correct to say that dead men only tell one tale - that of their death.' The Angel turned once again, smiling at their captive enemies. It was not a nice smile, but Melody only wanted to see more. 'And it's going to be messy.'

It was whispered, Azharian leaning in with a halted lunge like he couldn't hold himself back, and like someone sharing a secret they were bursting to tell.

The screen shifted, the camera moving to focus on her handler's face once more. This was both a good thing and not, since Melody knew it meant that one of her favourite videos was coming to an end. As always, however, it was overshadowed by the way the remaining blood drained out of the woman's face on the monitor.

The screen flickered to a still image of the Doctor's face, and Madame Kovarian's voice spoke as the little girl drank in the face of the man that she would one day kill, if only to free her Angel from the shackles of his bond.

'The Doctor is more than dangerous, but with this creature,' the word was spat, the disgust that she'd tried to project failing in the face of the kind of knowledge that experience lent, 'by his side, nothing can touch him. Your goal is to kill the Doctor. To remove him from the equation once and for all.'

Melody tried very hard not to roll her eyes. She already knew what her mission was. It had been drilled into her over and over that this was the meaning of her life. It was what she'd been born to do. More than that, though, she knew she'd been born to free Azharian from the Time Lord's hold.

They raced up the stairs to the attic, Amy's voice echoing off the darkened walls and leading them to where they needed to be. It was harrowing, listening to the normally strong woman beg for someone to save her.

'Help me. Please, I can't. I can't see. Somebody help me.'

The Doctor pushed himself to go faster. She was only here in this time because he'd brought her there, and then stupidly let them go off on their own. If anything happened to her because of that, he'd never forgive himself.

'Amy! Amy, can you hear me?' Canton's voice echoed down to them, his own fear so very evident in the words. 'Amy, I'm going to try to blow the lock. I need you to stand back.'

The Doctor ran faster at that. There was no need to bring guns into it, not when they were so close to the others now.

'Okay, gun down,' he said, shoving past Canton as gently as he could in the circumstances. 'I've got it.'

He brought his sonic screwdriver up to the door knob, not even stopping to think about the sheer luck that it wasn't coated in wood. The lock sprang apart at his urging and they all piled into the room.

'Amy, we're here,' Rory called hurriedly, his words just about tripping over each other. 'Are you okay?'

She was nowhere to be seen. That was the first thing he noted, much to his concern. So many thoughts flashed through his mind; how would they get her back? Was she okay? What would he tell Haylen when they found him again? How was he going to be able to face Rory?

'I can't see,' Amy's voice said, sounding like she was standing in another room.

'Where is she, Doctor?' Rory asked, turning to him for answers that he didn't have yet.

He stepped up the spacesuit laying on the ground, something clearly designed for a fully grown human. He scanned it with his sonic, and frowned when it told him the tech was completely dormant. He lifted the visor for confirmation, shoulders sinking at the sight of the empty helmet.

'It's empty.' River sounded... something. He didn't have the time to put that into thoughts and analyse them the way he normally would. Amy was missing, but somehow, they were still hearing her pleas as though she was still in the room with them - or close by at least.

'It's dark. So dark. I don't know where I am. Please, can anybody hear me?' She begged again.

Her words brought their attention to the flashing nanorecorder laying innocently on the rug. The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment, not wanting to watch the way that Rory's hand shook as he reached down to pick the device up.

'They took this out of her,' Rory said softly, the pain so clear in his voice. 'How did they do that, Doctor? Why can I still hear her?'

The other man held it out to him, and the Doctor took the little flashing device without turning to look at the human he'd so badly let down.

'Is it a recording?' River asked from behind him.

He swallowed hard. No, it was definitely not a recording, and that was going to be so hard to hear. There was no way he could lie to them about that, though.

'Um,' he said numbly, 'it defaults to live. This is current. Wherever she is right now, this is what she's saying.'

Rory snatched the device back from him, holding it up to his face to try and reassure his wife with his words.

'Amy, can you hear me?' he asked desperately. 'We're coming for you. Wherever you are, we're coming, I swear.'

The Doctor shook his head, turning pained eyes on the other man finally. He didn't want to burst his bubble, but there would be no softening the blow, since it wouldn't take long to figure it out even without his intervention.

'She can't hear you,' he said softly. 'I'm so sorry. It's one way.'

Rory's head turned fast, faster than looked natural, a fire of hurt and anger erupting in his eyes.

'She can always hear me, Doctor,' he said, voice hard in a way that he'd only heard a few times. 'Always. Wherever she is, and she always knows that I am coming for her. Do you understand me? Always.'

He nodded, appeasing the human enough for him to turn back to the only thing he had left of his wife at this moment. He closed his eyes at the way the life drained out of the man's eyes at her next words.

'Doctor, are you out there?' she asked, voice shaking with her fear. 'Can you hear me? Doctor? Oh, God. Please, please, Doctor, just get me out of this.'

Rory clenched his jaw, pain of a different kind flashing through his eyes before he spoke again.

'He's coming,' he promised, once again speaking into the device like she could hear him. 'I'll bring him, I swear.'

'Hello?' The caretaker's sudden appearance had them all turning as one. He was a bit vague, but that would happen with so many mind wipes. 'Is somebody there? I think someone has been shot. I think we should help. We c. I can't re. I can't remember.'

They followed after the man, the Doctor and River exchanging a look as they left the child's room. There really was no denying how much like a trap this whole thing had been, and this newest development was no exception.

The man's office was cluttered, various bits of paperwork piled up on every surface, but that wasn't the bit that drew his attention as soon as they walked in. In the back of the room, one of those skeletal creatures was slowly trying to move. It wasn't having much luck, but it redoubled its efforts when it spotted them.

The Doctor moved toward it slowly, a hand coming up as though to reassure the fearful creature that he wouldn't hurt it. It was an entirely thoughtless gesture, because he honestly didn't know what he'd do with the creature if it was responsible for taking Amy away from them.

'Okay,' he said, the word barely making it past his lips. 'Who and what are you?'

That demand was much more forceful. A hint of how upset he really was in the words for all to hear.

'Silence, Doctor,' the creature said in that hoarse sort of way that they had. 'We are the Silence.'

The Silence. What a name, he thought absently as part of his mind switched track and continued to whir along, worrying away at the problem of his missing Angel and the Angel's sister. Memories hit him, flickering by faster than he'd like. Prisoner zero's worm-like form waving in front of him back in the hospital in Leadworth - 'Silence, Doctor.' The moment before they left ancient Venice, he and Rory standing outside the Tardis, listening to dead silence in a bustling city. Rosanna telling him that they'd run from the silence.
'And Silence will fall,' the creature rasped ominously.

They'd overwhelmed him.

Haylen had expected death once they'd gotten close enough. Instead, they'd built up one of those electrical charges they were so fond of, and held him down to force the charge to enter him through that spot right between his wings. Once he'd realised what they were aiming for, he'd started struggling again, but he'd been so worn out from months of constant fighting that it had been worse than useless.

All it had done was wear him out even more.

He'd blacked out after just moments of the torturous feeling, grateful for the reprieve.

Now that he was awake again, he was less grateful. His unconsciousness had given them the chance to transport him somewhere else. Not to mention, he thought sourly as he fingered the heavy metal collar they'd apparently put on him sometime while he'd been out of it, the way they'd chained him up.

The collar was just one smooth piece. There was no latch, so he had to assume that it was some sort of alien technology, and he'd need to either destroy it once his grace came back, or get his mate to remove it once he got back to the man.

Either way, it was already annoying him. The thick chain that it was attached to was short, forcing him to stay sitting, his wings slumped on either side in a very obvious show of his dejection.

He was sitting on the grimy floor facing the heavy steel door, waiting for something to happen. It was quiet, the only sound the pounding of his heart, beating so loudly in his ears that he worried he'd somehow damaged it. Those creatures did like to throw electricity around, and it really wasn't very good to overwhelm the body with it. Although, he realised with a huff, that was in humans. Who knew if it would have the same affect on him.

Haylen picked weakly at the rip running across the middle of his shirt. The wound under it had started to heal, a good sign that his grace was finally returning, but it still stung when he moved too quickly. Flakes of dry blood came off the material as he worried at it absently, but his thoughts were a million miles away.

As they so often did, his thoughts had returned to his mate. Now that the fighting was over, all he could think about was the other man. Sure, he worried about his sister, and Rory, and even River, but the Doctor was the one that his thoughts always returned to first. He valiantly tried to fight off the misery that wanted to pull him down and drown him as he shifted and felt that heavy collar pull on his neck once more.

All he wanted was to see his mate. To have the man come bursting in and save him from whatever awaited him when these creatures came back for him. It was such a stupid thought. He should be able to save himself. Heck, he'd gotten himself into this mess. It wasn't fair to want his mate to come and fix it for him.

But he just felt so alone in this tiny stone cell made all the smaller for the short length of chain keeping him on the ground like an animal. He scoffed silently, berating himself for the accusation that he'd slung at his mate to the same effect when he'd first come into himself. Being left alone in a massive forest-like room inside the Tardis with no contact was starting to seem like the much better option.

He scooted backward until he could lean against the wall, his head falling back to land against its unforgiving surface with a miserable thump. Just because he wanted someone to come and save him, that didn't mean it was going to happen. Sometimes, you have to save yourself, but that didn't make it any easier to swallow.

He wanted to cry, which just made a helpless anger rise up inside him.

He was an Angel. One of the most powerful beings in the universe. He'd proven that, over and over in the last three months, and yet, when he was captured all he wanted was for someone else to come and save him.

Footsteps echoed around the cell for a moment before they came to a stop outside. Electronic beeping cut through the silence, and then the door to his cell swung open surprisingly easily. It must have some sort of technology running behind the scenes, he realised. There was no way that such a seemingly heavy steel door should move so smoothly.

A woman stepped through the threshold of his cell, a smug look on her face.

'So, this is the all powerful angel...' she said, quite literally looking down her nose at him. 'Not very impressive, are you?'

Haylen stayed silent, staring impassively back for a long moment. He wasn't really in the mood to be answering questions, not when he'd woken up in an unfamiliar room that was more cell than room, chained to the floor. It didn't occur to him that the question might have been rhetorical.

'With a reputation like yours, we were really starting to worry,' the woman said, still looking down her nose at him. 'But you were surprisingly easy to defeat. And now you're going to stay here, safely out of the way until we get what we want.'

Haylen frowned. That sounded bad. What could they want that he might object to? It was the only reason for him to get in their way, and they seemed sure that he'd do just that if he was free.

'What do you want?' he asked, head tilting to the side a little stiffly. His muscles twinged in protest. His grace might have finally started returning, but it was focused on healing the more life threatening wounds. The way his whole body ached from overuse was annoying, but not important enough to be healed yet.

The woman laughed, the sound some strange combination of surprise and condescension.

'Wouldn't you like to know?' she taunted before turning on her heel.

'Yes,' he replied. He would very much like to know. That was why he'd asked.

Dark eyes focused back on his slumped form, having turned back at his answer. There was such a large amount of disbelief on her face that Haylen was easily able to understand it. That, and it was a familiar exchange. Someone asked a question, he answered, and they turned and gave him a look like he'd grown another head.

Why did people insist on asking questions that they didn't want answers to?

'Are you serious?' she asked, disbelief still clear on her face.

'Yes,' he said, his frown deepening.

She paused for a moment, trying to figure him out, or so he assumed when her eyes stared into his the whole time. She didn't even blink.

The moment ended, and she shook herself, a familiar action that people usually did when they'd just decided that he was an idiot. Haylen stared up at the human looking woman, wondering what she was doing with the skeletal creatures. She wasn't one of them, so had they stolen her from somewhere? What could they possibly offer to have her working alongside them?

'Why are you doing this?' he asked when she turned to leave again.

'I told you,' she replied, without stopping this time, 'you have a bad habit of getting in the way, and we can't have that. Not when things are finally starting to go the way we want.'

The door swung shut behind her, the sound carrying a dreadful finality that he did not like one little bit.

Time passed by at an agonising pace, or so it seemed to Haylen. The metal collar very quickly began to chafe at the soft skin of his neck, even with how little he could move thanks to the short length of chain keeping him tethered to his spot near the back of the cell. The only real tell of how much time was in fact passing, was the slow return of his grace.

It felt sluggish in a way that he hadn't ever felt before, even when he'd worn himself out training. In all honesty, though, he'd never once worn himself out to the same level that he'd unwittingly done this time. Three full months of battle after battle as the sole combatant on his side was more than he should've attempted. The call of his grace had been too strong to ignore, and he'd been helpless, unable to resist it as it demanded he appear and remove the alien threat that had been lurking in the shadows.

He shifted, wincing at the ache in his stiff muscles. Being forced to hold a singular position for days or even hours wasn't fun, and he had no way of knowing just how long he'd been chained to the stone floor already. A testing flex of his shoulders told him that he'd been there long enough for the burn between his wings to have healed at least enough that it no longer paralysed him when he moved his wings. Those skeletal creatures hadn't been holding back when they'd shot that electrical charge into him in such a sensitive place. If he wasn't mistaken, a charge that strong would have killed a human.

In a weak moment that he wasn't particularly proud of, he wished he was human. At least then he wouldn't be in pain any more.

He sighed, feeling bad for even having the idea in the first place as his thoughts once more wandered to his mate. If he was human, he doubted the Doctor would've been interested in him. He frowned as a thought struck him. If he had just been human, would the Doctor have even brought him along? If he hadn't needed to bring him with them, would the man have only taken his sister traveling the universe? Back when he'd thought he was human, he'd only ever been worth the effort to three people.

It wasn't a thought he wanted to linger on, because the answer seemed all too obvious to him.

He was almost grateful for the footsteps that broke him out of his thoughts, even though it was the same clicking sound from before. The woman who'd come to gloat at him whenever he'd last seen the outside of the cell had been heralded by the sound of high heels on the same stone flooring that he sat on in his cell.

That same beeping from what was clearly a keypad came from the outside, and Haylen braced himself for what she wanted this time. It wasn't ever fun to interact with people who didn't understand him, and he wasn't looking forward to it anymore now when even his thoughts seemed to be against him.

The door swung open just as easily this time as the last, reinforcing his thoughts of alien technology. There was no way that such a heavy door should move that smoothly.

When his eyes adjusted to the brighter lights of the corridor, the Angel was treated to the sight of the woman from before. The one eye that he could see was dark, and glittered with a superiority that he felt was unjustified. The other eye was, as before, obscured by a silver eye-patch that seemed to be contoured to the shape of her eye. He wondered not the first time, what it was for. It couldn't help her see, or so he assumed.

'Bring the girl,' the woman said, not looking away from him. She wasn't addressing him, that much he was sure of. 'And stay back. You know what he's capable of.'

Haylen frowned, eyeing her with no small amount of distrust. Who was she talking to? What girl? His heart leapt into his chest as his thoughts immediately went to his sister. They hadn't managed to capture her as well, had they?

A low growl came from his throat without his permission at the thought. It was so clearly a warning that he wasn't at all surprised to see the woman raise an eyebrow at him.

'What do you think that's going to do?' she asked, looking at down her nose at him again. 'You can't even stand.'

'If you've hurt my sister there won't be a rock big enough to hide under,' he promised her.

The woman's face betrayed her shock for all of a moment. It was long enough to have doubt creep into the recesses of his mind, but before it could take hold, the expression was gone, hidden behind a haughty look that he was beginning to think was her default.

'You won't be doing much from where you are right now, will you?' It's taunting, and had him pulling once more at the links of the chain holding him to the ground.

He continued to eye the woman with a look of deep dislike as he did, and felt a dark little thrill go through him when she dropped her own eyes to watch his action with some trepidation. It melted away when his actions proved to be ultimately fruitless, replaced once more with that haughty, superior look that he wanted to wipe off her stupid face permanently.

The sound of approaching footsteps ended their stare down, both turning to look at the doorway. For Haylen, it was a short movement of his head, but the woman had to turn around so that her back was facing him in order to see the people who were approaching.

He yanked once more at the chain in a futile attempted to break the damned thing. The distraction that these people had provided would be the perfect moment to try to escape, but his luck must have run out, because the chain held just as stubbornly as it had every other time he'd tried to pull it apart in the time he'd been sitting in his cell.

He forgot all about the chain, and the cell, and literally everything else as someone appeared in the cell's doorway. At the first hint of a humanoid form, his body began to react on its own. His wings rose as high as they could, each feather bristling with rage, puffing his wings out in a dangerous show of power.

Despite the general lack of windows in the cell, it wasn't dark. Or, it hadn't been, until his grace started leaking out of his body, shadows slinking across the stone walls and floor, eagerly eating up the bright light of the corridor as it stretched out around them.

He was running on nothing but instinct, fuelled once more by a righteous indignation that these creatures existed in the first place. He snarled, and lunged forward, fully intending to remove the blight that was their lives from this universe.

The chain that his instincts didn't take into account before lunging pulled him up short, cutting his snarl off as he found himself yanked down by the cruel grasp of physics.

His head snapped back up, shadowy eyes staring intently at the two creatures standing in the doorway. He growled low in his throat, a very clear warning of what was to come if they got within arms reach of his unfortunately chained position. His attention was firmly caught on the skeletal creatures, so much so that he didn't notice the way his fingers, warped by his grace once more, were leaving long claw marks in the stone floor as he tried to pull himself closer to the abomination that was their very nature.

He might not have noticed the claw marks, but the rest of the cell's inhabitants certainly did. The creatures shifted uneasily as he tilted his head to the side, eyeing them without blinking for far longer than a human could. It was in moments like this that his non-human traits were made all the more obvious, not that he could know that.

A small shocked inhale had his stare dropping to the short figure standing between the creatures he so hated. It was a child, and he hadn't even seen her, his Angel side so very focused on the beings that didn't deserve to continue breathing in and out that he didn't see anything else.

Now that he could see her, he realised he could hear the way her heart was pounding in her chest, even from his spot a good ten feet away. The part of him that still remembered who he used to be was horrified. It didn't matter what the girl was there for, why she was with these people who had him chained up like an animal. All that mattered was that he was acting like the animal they claimed he was.

And he'd terrified a child with his actions.

One of the still silent creatures shifted, and his gaze eyes shot to its, pinning it in place with a growl that made his chest vibrate from the force.

Much to his surprise, the little girl took a step toward him, her eyes oddly wide as she breathed so shallowly that Haylen almost thought she wasn't breathing at all.

His body reacted without bothering to consult his mind, a snarl forming on his lips that grew more the closer she got.

'He's-' she started, her face doing something strange that Haylen didn't understand. She cut herself off as quickly as she started, swallowing hard before the strange look disappeared from everywhere other than her eyes. Her face was blank in a way, but he could still see that expression so very clearly in her wide eyes.

'What?' he asked, part question, part taunt. He did want to know what she had been going to say, but he doubted any of them would be giving him an answer any time soon. More than that, though, was the way his body sang with the need to move, to destroy. He needed to be free.

His grace flexed, and he just knew it was working its magic on his form again, giving him that demonic appearance that was a mockery of his Angelic heritage. He couldn't see himself, but he could just about feel the black bleeding through the whites of his eyes as his grace swelled. He could feel the tense position of his wings as they flared even wider in warning.

The little girl's blank facade slipped as she drank in the way that his form shifted and transformed as his grace writhed around them.

'You're here,' she breathed. Haylen recoiled as he realised that the expression he hadn't been able to recognise moments ago had been awe. It was back, now, and he was as horrified as she'd seemed when she'd first seen him. She was awed by his terrible power? By his deformed features that were a testament to what he'd nearly done to the world? To what he'd had to do to survive the worst thing he'd ever had to experience?

'I wished for you.'

Everything stopped as he registered the words. They were near silent, and even though the room was quiet, he doubted anyone else had heard them.

What did they mean, though? She'd wished for him? Why would she do that? Not to mention, how had she known he existed, to know to wish for him in the first place? For that matter, the woman had mentioned a reputation that he had, the last time he'd been bothered by her.

His mind whirred as he tried to make sense of the words. It had to be a future version of him that had a reputation, but what could he do to get it? Was it this? The things he'd done in the last three months? Would that have been enough to be classed a threat to whatever plans these creatures might have?

'I- I don't understand,' he said finally, a halting admission that he didn't want to let out.

The child sucked in a shocked breath, almost identical to the one she'd pulled in when she'd first laid eyes on him. Haylen barely noticed, though, as he felt a rush of strength return to him at long last. He worked hard not to let the relief show, not wanting to put his captors on their guard. For the moment, they thought his grace was mostly gone.

It was singing in his veins though, finally putting itself to good use and healing the last of the aches and pains that had lingered while it had been healing his more dangerous wounds. It was like the first breath of clear air after being stuck in a burning building; painful, but so incredibly life affirming.

In an effort not to give into the practically giddy feeling building inside him, he turned his gaze back to the dark haired woman with the silver eye-patch. His eyes darkened as he pulled his mind back to the matter at hand.

'What is this?' he demanded, his voice stronger in a way that he hoped they didn't notice. 'What does a child have to do with any of this?'

The woman's confidence faltered in the face of his damning expression, but she pulled it back up after all of a single moment.

'If you must know,' she began haughtily, 'this is a lesson that's been a long time coming.'

'I don't understand,' he admitted after a long moment. His brow furrowed as confusion won over the sweet relief of his grace coming back to him.

'No, I don't suppose you do,' she said, a barely visible softening about her expression. It hardened again just as quickly as he'd seen it come. 'But you will.'

She turned away from him, looking down her nose at the child with a disgusted look that he recognised easily.

'Did you really think we wouldn't realise what was happening?' she asked, a hint of disbelieving laughter in the words.

Haylen frowned again, his eyes on the child. Her heart had literally skipped a beat at the question, and he wasn't so far gone as to not understand fear when he saw it. She was terrified. Even more than when he'd been growling at her, which was saying something.

'This creature,' the woman continued, turning to eye Haylen with a surprising amount of disgust before she continued, 'is not something to be in awe of, and it's certainly not going to take you away from all of this. You were born to kill the Doctor. It would sooner see you dead than help you.'

His confusion drained out of him as fast as his grace had finally returned, everything fading away as the words born to kill the Doctor echoed around his still silent mind. There hadn't been a single sound in his mind since he'd killed that first pack of the creatures, and now there was, but he'd do anything to go back to the silence if it meant he didn't have to hear those words anymore - or ever again.

He lunged for the child thoughtlessly, his higher intelligence unable to comprehend the fact that she was obviously there under duress if she wanted to get away. All he could do was feel. And what he felt was hopeless rage, and mindless fear. He couldn't do forever without his mate, and he'd already seen him die once.

The child squeaked, and tried to hide behind the woman, but she was ruthlessly held just out of arms reach of the enraged Angel. Her eyes were far wider now than they'd been when she'd been looking at him in awe, but that amazed expression was long since gone. Now there was pure terror in the face of the strongest thing in the universe who was dead set on ending her life.

'Come near him and I will paint the stars with your lifeblood!' he promised her in a voice that boomed with the full force of the ruler of the Angels. There might only be one left in existence, but that was what he was.

The words left his mouth in a language that he didn't know, but that was etched into his bones. He knew there was no way they understood the lost language of the Angels, but he could see it in the little girl's eyes that she got it. She could understand death when it looked her in the eye.

He saw the shiver than ran up her spine, and something feral in the back of his mind settled, knowing she understood where they stood. He might've been chained to the floor while she stood there free to move, but he was in no way the prey in this situation.

'They'll be finding bits of you for the rest of eternity.' He strained at his chains again, a grin slowly forming as he felt the way the stone shifted under him. After all the stress on it, and his newly returned grace, it was finally giving way.

With a deafening crack, the earth split, sending debris and dust in every direction. As his captors reeled, he stood, stretching almost languidly, reveling in being able to move properly at long last.

The collar gave way like melted butter under his taloned hands. He discarded the pieces, mangled and useless now that he was done with them, and felt his eyes home in on the child once more.

She was the closest to the site of the break, barring Haylen himself, but she hadn't looked away from his form. She was still drinking him in, although there was a new fear mixed with the awe now, he noted.

His eyes darkened again as he stalked toward her, wings flaring in warning as he did. The shadows flickered and grew as his grace leaked out of his eyes in a fire of promises for the future.

'Find a new reason for living,' he said, stopping all of a foot away from where she stood and craning his head down to let his eyes bore into hers, 'because the day you come for my mate is the day you die.'

His words didn't come in Enochian this time, but their impact was the same as if they had. He could see that much in her eyes as her pupils contracted in fear. She nodded, the slightest movement that he'd ever seen, and he returned it, a deal sealed in the silence that surrounded them despite the chaos happening outside the cloud of stone dust.

With a snap of his wings, he disappeared, letting his grace pull him through time and space to his mate's side once more.

Finally.

The Doctor pulled a lever on the Tardis' console, rushing through the last few buttons that needed to be pressed in a particular order so that he could land her safely. He'd set his beloved time machine to search for Amy using one of the scans he'd taken the last time she'd been inside. It was just lucky that he hadn't done any other scans in the mean time, or the data would've been erased before now, and he'd have had to come up with something else clever in order to find his wayward companion.

Speaking of wayward companions, he thought as his eyes flicked up to the spot his Angel usually stood in, he still had no idea where his mate was. Or when. Or on which planet. He had less than nothing to go on, and it had been slowly breaking his hearts the more time that went on with no word from the Angel. His hand hovered over the last button, his eyes stuck on the empty space that was Haylen's spot.

The man usually stood near the stairs, his head tilted slightly to the side, either in thought, in the grip of emotions that he needed time to work through, or deep in conversation with someone mentally. He couldn't count the number of times he'd found himself looking up for the Angel, only to find him already looking at him with one expression or another settled over his face. Whether the Angel was aware of it or not, the Doctor had caught him checking him out or giving him an almost lovesick look more than once, and he treasured each and every one of those moments.

None of which helped him in the least in the moment he found himself in. With a violent shake of his head, he pulled himself out of his thoughts and slammed his hand down on the final button.

The Tardis, now able to finish her landing, started making her iconic breaking noise. The grin that he knew would normally have spread across his face was notably absent. In its place was a pained smile that didn't last for more than a few seconds, and then he was moving toward the doors that had helpfully opened for him just as he reached them, and stepping out into an oddly familiar spaceship interior.

It looked just like the one he'd found back when he and Haylen had been stranded on Earth, and he wasn't backward in letting the Silence standing inside it know how he felt about that.

'Oh, interesting,' he said blankly as he looked around. 'Very Aickman Road. I've seen one of these before. Abandoned. I wonder how that happened? Oh, well I suppose I'm about to find out.'

He paused, shrugging at the inevitability of what was about to happen. If they were very lucky, a certain Angel might turn back up and help, but if not, then they'd still be fine. The Silence had already lost. They just didn't know it yet.

'Rory, River, keep one Silent in eyeshot at all times,' he said sharply as the creatures started forward, intent of removing him from the picture. 'Oh, hello. Sorry, you were in the middle of something. I just had to say, though, have you seen what's on the telly? Oh, hello, Amy. Are you all right? Want to watch some television? Ah. Now, stay where you are. Because look at me, I'm confident. You want to watch that, me, when I'm confident.'

They just were not understanding the situation they stood in. Yes, he was confident, but more than that, he was angry. So very angry. He still didn't know where his Angel was, and it was their fault that the man was missing. They'd tried to take Amy away from them, and they'd failed.

'Oh, and this is my friend River,' he continued, gesturing to his side where the woman had come to stand, her gun held at the ready, hands calm in a terrible way that they needed in this moment. 'Nice hair, clever, has her own gun, and unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kind of do, a bit. Reminds me of someone.'

'Thank you, sweetie,' River said smugly, not once taking her eyes off the creatures.

'I know you're team players and everything, but she'll definitely kill at least the first three of you.' It was a low estimate, honestly, but he was just trying to scare them at this point. There was no way that any of them were getting out of this, not when he was standing here, entirely without his mate.

'Well, the first seven, easily,' River corrected, a calculating look on her face as she eyed the skeletal creatures who'd stilled at his words.

'Seven? Really?' he asked, turning to look at her finally.

'Oh, eight for you, honey,' she purred, flashing a wink at him before training her eyes back on the Silence in front of her.

'Stop it,' he said with a smile.

'Make me,' was the half smug, half taunting reply.

It made him roll his eyes. He might not have liked her when she'd first shown up, but she was growing on him. At the very least, she was good to have around in a crisis. There was a part of him that hated what he was going to let her do, but he ruthlessly shut that part down. These creatures were directly responsible for the fact that the most important person in all of time and space was missing from his side.

'Oi, that is the wrong person to be flirting with!'

Amy's voice cut through his thoughts, and he pulled a face at the mental image that gave him. The idea of flirting with anyone who wasn't his mate made him very uncomfortable. Not that Haylen would have considered that exchange to be flirting. Although, as far as he could tell, the Angel didn't really do flirting.

'As I was saying,' he said, clearing his throat awkwardly, 'my good friend here is going to kill the first three of you to attack, plus him behind, so maybe you want to draw lots or have a quiz.'

In the corner of his eye, he could see Rory working desperately on the bonds that held Amy on the chair she was still half laying on.

'What's he got?' she asked quietly. None of them ever seemed to remember in the moments that mattered, that he would hear their words either way.

'Something,' Rory said, before pausing consideringly, 'I hope.'

Well that was nice, he thought sourly. Of course, he had something. He was doing that thing where he acted like he knew what was happening, but with the added benefit this time that he actually did know what was about to happen!

'Or maybe you could just listen a minute,' he said loudly, to bring their attention back onto him, having lost it sometime while Amy and Rory reunited in a very dangerous place. 'Because all I really want to do is accept your total surrender, and then I'll let you go in peace.'

He paused again, ignoring the confounded looks that Amy and Rory shot him at his words.

'Yes, you've been interfering in human history for thousands of years,' he said. 'Yes, people have suffered and died, but what's the point in two hearts, if you can't be a bit forgiving, now and then?'

Yet another pause, waiting for something. Anything, to let him know that his words would be taken seriously. Maybe it was a bit mean, to let them think they could get away with what they were planning, but the oncoming storm had well and truly taken control of him. He wanted them to suffer just a bit before their inevitable end.

'Ooo, the Silence,' he mocked when none of them spoke. 'You guys take that seriously, don't you? Okay, you got me. I'm lying. I'm not really going to let you go that easily. Nice thought, but it's not Christmas. First, you tell me about the girl. Who is she? Why is she important? What's she for?'

Silence reigned once again, and he closed his eyes in defeat for all of a half second. If he wasn't going to be getting an answer, then there was no point in dragging this out. Not to mention, the way that history was about to handle it for him. He couldn't miss his cue.

'Guys, sorry, but you're way out of time.' He might've said sorry, but he was in no way actually apologetic about what was about to happen. It was what he did. Make a decision, and then stick to it. 'Now, come on. A bit of history for you.'

He paused, again, and pointed to the television that was sitting conveniently in the room.

'Aren't you proud? Because you helped. Now, do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly?' he asked. It was a little wild to know just how many humans would one day see this particular piece of history, let alone how many were currently watching it happen. 'Half a billion. And that's nothing, because the human race will spread out among the stars. You just watch them fly. Billions and billions of them, for billions and billions of years, and every single one of them at some point in their lives, will look back at this man, taking that very first step, and they will never, ever forget it.'

He didn't bother watching the descent to the moon's surface, his eyes glued to the figures in front of him instead. He wanted to see the moment that they understood. Better than that, he wanted to see the superiority drain from their eyes and be replaced with fear. Fear was a hell of a drug, but they wouldn't be getting the chance to use it to fuel them. Not one of them would be escaping this trap they'd created for themselves.

Not if he had a say in it.

'Okay, engine stop,' the tinny sound of words from the TV sounded through the room, and the silence that had fallen when he'd stopped speaking. 'ATA on the descent. Modes control both auto. Descent engine command off.'

He pulled out his phone, and pressed a button, the one he'd preprogrammed to call Canton when the time came. So sue him, he was a little dramatic.

'Oh,' he said, like he'd forgotten, 'but don't forget this bit. Ready?'

He spoke into the phone, letting Canton know it was time to finally put the last piece in place.

'Ready.' The confirmation was short and to the point, much like the man himself.

The television sounded once again, a short static burst as the transmission from the moon was sent to earth.

'That's one small step for a man,' Neil Armstrong said through the television.

The picture on the television flickered before it changed abruptly to the recording Canton had made, the creature clearly in pain, afraid, and alone.

'You should kill us all on sight,' it spat. The words and video repeated, over and over, a command that the human race would follow for the rest of time. The best part, the Doctor thought privately, was that they'd given it themselves. 'You should kill us all on sight. You should kill us all on sight. You should kill us all on sight.'

'You've given the order for your own execution,' he said, pulling the creature's attention back to him. 'And the whole planet just heard you.'

The video looped through once more before it flickered away again, bringing the moon landing back into view.

'You should kill us all on sight.'

'One giant leap for mankind,' Neil Armstrong continued, having no idea what he'd just been a part of.

'And one whacking great kick up the backside for the Silence,' the Doctor shouted, unable to keep the storm inside him from the words. 'You just raised an army against yourself and now, for a thousand generations, you're going to be ordering them to destroy you every day. How fast can you run? Because today's the day the human race throw you off their planet. They won't even know they're doing it. I think, quite possibly, the word you're looking for right now is oops.'

He didn't pause this time, between speaking to them, and his companions, just kept on speaking.

'Run! Guys, I mean us. Run.'

The Silence, enraged at the way they'd just been thwarted, started sparking with their electricity. It was the cue that River had been waiting for, and she started shooting, all the while trying not to catch any of them with friendly fire.

There was chaos for all of a moment, before the room fell into a complete darkness. The only light that they could see for a long moment was the white light shining out of the Tardis' windows, and the words lit from within.

Then fractals of colour lit the shadows they were standing in, revealing a very familiar silhouette. The Doctor felt his hearts leap in his chest, and very nearly bolted for the person he'd been missing with every fibre of his being. He didn't know what held him back, but he was glad for it when some of the electrical charge allowed some light to flicker across his Angel's face.

His eyes, from what he could see, were black once again, not a scrap of white left to be seen, and those black veins where growing further out and down across his pale skin. Whatever the Angel had been through in the last three months, it had destroyed the flimsy clothing he'd been wearing, leaving massive bloody rips in the fabric that was just barely clinging to his form.

Those blackened claws dripped with a thick liquid that he didn't want to know about, but the most striking thing was the look on the Angel's face. It was some terrible combination of resignation, and a rage so deep that he didn't have a word for it.

The massive black and red wings rose once more as a feral, wordless roar left his throat at the sight that met him.

'My warnings thus far have done little to prepare the universe, it would seem,' the Angel said, his words ringing with a heavenly choir mixed with the screams of the damned.

The Doctor stood stock-still, unable to draw in breath, let alone move, in the face of the end of all things. He knew no one else would be able to understand the creature that stood before them, speaking in the lost language of the Angels. It wouldn't matter, though. The sentiment was more than clear.

'There will be no more,' the Angel thundered, unknowingly echoing the words that haunted his dreams. 'No more taking my family from me.'

Azharian, for that was undoubtedly the being who stood before them, snapped his fingers, and the alien technology holding his sister captive burst open, smoking lightly from the grace that had destroyed it so thoroughly.

'No more hunting the people I have claimed as my own.'

His black rimmed eyes stared unblinkingly at the Silence, fury literally radiating out from him. The Doctor couldn't help but snort as the skeletal creatures backed up nervously.

'No more death,' he said, taking a step toward the place where they'd unintentionally backed themselves into a wall. 'I've already told you. These are my sheep, and I am their wolf. I do not tolerate threats to my flock.'

The Angel's grace flooded out from him, a shadow of night that flickered with every colour in the rainbow, shattered, just like he had been. The part of the Doctor that he didn't like to admit to, the oncoming storm that wanted the end of all things, couldn't look away. He watched, eyes drinking in every moment as the Silence in the room choked on the grace that seeped into every corner of the room.

It was not a quick death, the way that River's gun would have delivered. The last one to die managed to reach out a pleading hand to one of them, almost begging them to call off the Angel, and let him live.

It was Amy, sweet, kind Amelia Pond, who responded. But she didn't respond the way he had thought she would've. She crouched before the creature, putting its face between her hands gently as it continued to choke.

'No,' she said sweetly. 'No one is coming to save you. You brought this on yourselves.'

He finally got what he wanted, but it didn't bring the relief he'd thought it would. As he watched the creature fail to draw another breath, the hope dying in it's eyes as the light of life faded, he wasn't sure if maybe they hadn't gone too far.

He knew that if the Angel hadn't shown up, nothing would have changed. All of the Silence would have died, more than likely, all by River's hand. But that would have at least seemed fair, like they'd had a chance. This hadn't even been that. There was no fighting. No chance for any of them to get away, or change their minds, not that he thought they would have.

This wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter.

The part of him that was the oncoming storm had been pushed away by the sight of his mate removing the air from the alien creatures throats, and replacing it with his grace, stopping them from drawing new air in.

He took a single step forward, almost hesitant in the face of this new version of Haylen, one that was more Angel than human, despite the fact that he'd had all of one interaction with an Angel before, and a stone one at that.

Before he managed more than the one step, Azharian turned, his eyes pinning the Doctor in place as they met his. The grace that had forced the change in his body fading away now that the threat was gone once again.

'I'm sorry, Doctor,' he said, not looking sorry at all. 'I can't be brave.'

The Angel looked down, but it wasn't in shame, the way he might've expected Haylen to react to having just killed. In fact, he didn't recognise the look on the other man's face, and the fact that their bond was silent didn't help matters one little bit.

'I'm sorry if I've somehow deceived you,' the man went on, 'or tricked you into thinking I am. I've never been brave.'

The Doctor had no idea where this was coming from. He didn't think he'd ever asked the other man to be brave.

He watched, a little unsure, as Haylen looked back up, a fierce promise in his eyes as he continued.

'What I am, is selfish,' the Angel said fiercely. 'I am a selfish, selfish man. And I am not prepared to let any one of you leave me.'

His gaze finally left the Doctor's, turning to include Amy, River, and Rory in his statement. It was followed closely by something so incredibly vulnerable flashing across his face. Something that had his hearts going out to the man in sympathy.

'Maybe this isn't the family I was born into, but its the only one I have,' the Angel said, his eyes closing on a pained expression. It didn't last more than a moment, before he shook his head, as though to shake the thought away, and a grim determination won out as he opened his eyes again. 'I won't give it up. No matter who tries to take it from me.'

There wasn't even a moment between the Angel's last word, and the response. The words came from Rory, much to the Doctor's surprise.

'Haylen,' Rory said, his voice breaking on the word, and the Doctor had to look away from the pain that he could see in the human's eyes as he looked at his friend. 'You don't have to be anything other than you. We love you for who you are. We always have.'

'Yeah!' Amy agreed vehemently, almost before her husband's words were finished. It was a beautiful moment between the family, but the Doctor almost couldn't believe it was happening over the corpses of the enemies that the Angel had just killed. 'And don't you ever say something so stupid again! Not brave, what a load of-'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her, his head swiveling to see her being pulled back into a somewhat shaky embrace by Rory, managing to calm the irate woman with his presence alone.

'I think what Amy's trying to say,' River said, with a look to the embrace that the two humans were still in, 'is that there isn't anyone alive who would say you aren't brave. Not after trying to take on an entire alien invasion by yourself. Maybe not particularly smart, but...'

River trailed off with a smirk, shrugging as though he was hopeless. Her eyes twinkled through it, though, the Doctor noted with a surge of jealousy that he valiantly tried to push away. It wasn't a helpful thing to be feeling in that moment, when all eyes were turning expectantly toward him.

All but the Angel, who was looking at his family, his eyes suspiciously wet.

The Doctor could only look on as the black veins that had been creeping their way across his skin started to reverse their tracks, the darkness fading back into nothing at their words. He tilted his head to the side in thought, wondering at the sudden change.

It started to creep back down suddenly, and it took longer than he'd ever admit, to realise that the Angel was once more looking at him. He wanted to facepalm as he realised that the Angel was waiting for his reaction, and no doubt thinking the worst, given the way that his grace had started to shake the room.

As he looked into the Angel's eyes, he couldn't care less about what he'd just done, other than the fact that it had saved their lives. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and pulled the Angel into his arms again, holding him close in the place that he belonged once more.

'I'm so glad you're okay,' he said, his eyes closing as he felt the pain and fear he'd been drowning in drain away at long last. 'Don't ever do that again. You were gone, and I couldn't find you!'

He knew that the rest of his companions were watching them, but he didn't care. His Angel was back where he belonged, in his arms, right next to his hearts.

He never wanted to let go again.

It was Amy who eventually broke the moment, as usual, clearing her throat loudly and shooting a pointed look at him that he returns with narrowed eyes. They were just hugging, he thought with a pout, why did she feel the need to stick her nose in where it wasn't wanted?

It worked, though, like it always did, and Haylen pulled away a little awkwardly, giving him a small smile despite how uncomfortable he obviously was with his sister either witnessing their moment, or breaking it up. It was hard to tell which was the issue.

'Well come on, then,' he said, smiling back at the Angel so wide that his cheeks hurt. He held out a hand in silent question, wondering if the other man was still mad at him. He needn't have worried, as Haylen immediately answered by joining their hands in an achingly familiar way.

He smiled again, a soft one that he reserved for the Angel alone, before leading the way back over, and then into, the Tardis once more. It had been a long three months, for all of them. He'd been alone in that cell -well, alone except for Shadow, who hadn't been speaking to him for the majority of it, but that felt like nothing compared to what his Angel had to have been through.

As they stood inside the Tardis, a warm burst of air rushed over them, his time machine welcoming them back in the only way she could. He smiled at the way Haylen seemed to slump in relief at being home again.

The Doctor found himself oddly unwilling to let the other man go as they came to a stop by the Tardis' console. He just stood there for a moment, willing himself to let go and release the Angel's hand.

He noted, somewhere in the back of his mind, that River had pulled Amy and Rory away, and was talking to them near the stairs.

'Doctor,' his mate said in his native tongue. This time, though, the sounds of screaming was missing. It sounded like the tolling of church bells and a heavenly choir singing a siren song to him.

He looked up, helplessly drawn to the other at the sound of his chosen name in Enochian.

Theta, his mind replied without meaning to, the thought escaping him without his permission. There was a part of him that so wanted to know what his name would sound like in the Angel's language.

The smile that came over his mate's face was a wondrous thing, and the Doctor felt his hearts stutter in his chest at the look alone.

'Theta,' his mate whispered, the word seemed to fill the space between them with the sound of doves taking flight. It felt fitting, in a way, he thought, as the other man shifted toward him, his intent more than clear in the way his eyes dropped to his lips and stayed there.

The Angel kissed him gently, more a promise than anything else.

When he pulled back, the Doctor had to open his eyes. He didn't know when he'd closed them, and he couldn't help but watch as the other man smiled at him again, before extracting his hand from the now lax hold he had on him. He turned and walked over to where Rory was standing, now alone and trying to look at just about anything else other than the mates, who he had obviously caught kissing, judging from the look on his face.

The Doctor shook himself after a moment of just watching his mate walk away, and, ignoring the flickering of the lights that told him the Tardis was laughing at him, he started the process to fly them away from the place they'd finally all been reunited in.

He was sitting in his old room when River came to find him. He'd known she would, but that hadn't stopped him from seeking out the room that the Tardis had originally made for him. There was something so odd about being back there, now that he was a completely different person. He wasn't sure the person he used to be would like him very much.

'How are you going?' she asked, standing just inside the doorway. She was looking at him with such a knowing look.

He didn't like it.

'I wish people would stop asking me that,' he said, emotions flashing through him faster than he could get a handle on. 'I'm... alive.'

It was the best he could do in the circumstances. He really didn't know how he was, so when people asked him, what could he really say?

River paused, and tilted her head to the side to give him a once over, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

'I can see that,' she said, that knowing look still lurking behind the amusement that she so clearly felt.

Haylen didn't feel amused, though. He looked up, but he wasn't seeing the ceiling. He was seeing that beach in Utah, and his mate walking away from him. He was seeing his mate standing there and letting something kill him, after asking him to be brave, of all things.

'How am I supposed to continue on without him?' he asked, feeling tears beginning to form in his eyes at not just the idea, but the knowledge of the future that awaited him in such a short amount of time.

He felt the bed beside him dip, but he didn't look at his friend. He was too busy trying to calm his thoughts and emotions.

River was silent for long enough that Haylen finally pulled his gaze from the ceiling, turning to see her thoughts playing out across her face. There was pity there, he noted, as well as understanding. That was the only thing that stopped him from yelling at her. He didn't need pity.

'It might feel like the end of the world,' she said slowly, her eyes on her hands, which she'd folded together in her lap when she'd sat beside him, 'when you eventually get back to that moment. When he's gone, and this time for good.'

She opened her mouth to continue, but hesitated, her eyes finally coming up to meet his.

'But you'll move on - not like that,' she said, cutting herself off to calm the anger that coursed through him at the idea that he would ever love another the way he loved his mate. 'You'll never take another mate, and it will be hard, but one day, you'll learn to live with it. It'll always hurt, but eventually, you'll learn how to get up and keep going anyway.'

He turned away from her oh-so knowing, understanding eyes, not wanting to be understood.

'I don't want to,' he said plaintively.

'I know,' she answered plainly.

He could feel her gaze on the side of his face, but he didn't want to. He wanted to rage, and scream, to beg the universe not to let this happen to them. Not to take his mate away from him.

It wasn't fair.

'How do you do this?' he asked, instead of giving life to any of those thoughts.

His words must have surprised her, he thought, because she started like she'd been poked in the ribs. Not that he had any experience with what that might look like in regard to her. His mind helpfully pulled up the time when someone had explained the concept to him, and he'd tried it out on everyone he knew. Their reactions had been funny, until Mels. She'd punched him.

He didn't poke anyone in the ribs again after that.

'What do you mean?' River asked, clearly pretending not to know what he was talking about. They both knew that she did, though.

'How do you keep it straight?' he asked again. 'How do you not just tell people about the bad things that are coming for them, when you know you can save them from that pain?'

He turned hurt eyes on her, the pain of knowing that she'd known, all those times they'd met since he'd joined the Doctor, just what was waiting for them.

'Why didn't you warn me?' he asked, his voice small and hurt.

'I'm sorry,' she said, just as quietly, unable to meet his eyes for a moment. When she did, he could see just as much pain in them as he was feeling. 'I haven't been to those points in your past yet, so I can't answer for who I am in the future. But, as for the rest... well, no one should know too much about their future.'

'I'm pre-cognitive,' he reminded her, still hurt. 'I already know most of what's going to happen anyway.'

She smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was just as sad as her eyes.

'No, you know what might happen,' she said gently, her shoulder pushing against his to make him sway off to the side, in an achingly familiar way. 'That's very different from what actually happens, and you know it.'

Haylen sighed, feeling the weight of everything that lay between himself and the Doctor settle heavily on his shoulders.

'How can I face him?' he asked, though he doubted that River had the answers. 'When I know what he's going to willingly walk toward in all of two hundred odd years? When I know what he chose to put me through? Look at me!'

With all of a single flex of his grace, his form rippled, and though he couldn't see it, he knew what River would be seeing. The whites of his eyes bleeding black, veins of sludge growing out from them and down his face. He lifted his blacked hands up, showing off the deadly sharp claws that his fingers ended in, shaking his head in silent horror.

He really was a monster.

River was looking at him with tears in her eyes now, he noted humorlessly. Obviously, she thought so, too.

'He hasn't done it yet,' she whispered.

'But he will! And that's worse,' he exclaimed, jumping up from his spot on the bed next to her. 'He's lived through the fallout, now. Why wouldn't he chose not to do it? To spare us all this feeling, if nothing else?!'

He shot a look at her when silence was his only response, and saw her visibly holding back. When she saw him looking, she shook her head, an apology on her lips, but he cut her off, shaking his head.

'What doesn't kill us-' she started, still sounding apologetic.

He wasn't interested in hearing it, though. The amount of times he'd heard something similar growing up, well. To say he'd heard it all before was an understatement.

'Makes us stronger, I know,' he said, his shoulders falling as he deflated. His wings slumped, a sure sign of his dejection.

'I was going to say leaves us flinching at shadows, but let's go with yours.' River smiled, something halfway between a smirk, and knowing.

'I nearly killed you all,' he whispered in reply. It was something that he didn't think he'd ever get over. He'd very nearly killed everyone he loved in a fit of despair.

'But you didn't,' she countered, her words ringing with something he didn't understand.

He shook his head, denying the responsibility in her argument.

'Because of you.'

'No. I just showed you the way,' she said, something deep, and vulnerable in her eyes. 'You were the one who had to make the decision to come back to yourself.'

He didn't have it in him to try to decipher her expressions, not when he was caught in the grip of his own pain at what he now knew was waiting for him, somewhere in time and space.

'It didn't feel that way,' he said dully, finally dropping back down into his spot beside her.

'You're so much stronger than you know, Angel,' she whispered, her voice thick with some emotion that he couldn't place.

'That's the problem, isn't it?'

'That's not what I meant,' she whispered, her voice struggling not to break with the tears that were swimming in her eyes.

He looked around the room, somewhat wistfully. There was something so odd about being back in this room, and knowing that he wasn't the same person that had inhabited it before. There was an innocence that was missing from him now, and in this moment, he ached at it's loss.

'I want to go back,' he said, the admission wrenched out of his being without his permission.

'You can't,' she said, apparently having followed his train of thought as easily as she often did. 'He's gone, and there's no going back to the way things were before. Not really.'

Haylen closed his eyes against the harsh light of reality and let himself fall back onto the bed with a thump. He regretted it immediately, as his wings twinged painfully, having taken the brunt of the impact, soft though it was.

'I know.' He sighed, wishing once more that he could go back to the person he'd once been. 'Ugh, that hurt.'

River snorted, and the moment must have caught her as particularly funny, because she laughed. And she kept laughing. The sort of laughter that had her falling off the side of the bed and hitting the unforgiving floor with a smack, which did pause the laughter for a bit, while she blinked uncomprehendingly. Then she burst back into a fit of giggles.

Haylen smiled, both at the situation and his friend. They'd been here before, one of them doing something stupid, and the other laughing at them for it. It was never malicious, that much he'd known, even back when he hadn't understood the majority of emotions that existed.

The fluffy haired woman finally got her giggles under control, letting out a breathless huff as she hauled herself back onto the bed next to where he'd sat back up to watch her.

'Oh, I needed that,' she said, still smiling a wide unburdened smile that he hadn't seen in a while.

The moment caught back up to them at about the same time, their smiles fading, but this time, it didn't feel as hopeless as it had before.

'It's hard, I know,' River said, continuing their conversation from where they'd left off unintentionally, 'but trust me, you're so much better off going through this. Avoiding your feelings is never the answer. They don't ever go away, they just build up inside.'

She leaned forward, resting her hand on his, a gentle, if unfamiliar touch. Most of the touches that they'd exchanged in the past had been shoulder to shoulder, one of them leaning into the other, or even the odd punch to the shoulder. For all that she was the same person, there was something softer about River. Kinder.

Not that Mels hadn't been kind - to him.

'I know,' he said hollowly, 'and that makes me dangerous.'

'That makes anyone dangerous, not just you,' River corrected bluntly.

Haylen looked down to where her hand still lay on top of his, a frown forming as his thoughts wandered.

'River, how did you end up in Leadworth?' he asked, shifting to look at her curiously. She'd promised to explain how she existed, and his question was at least related to that. Maybe she'd even answer him.

She took her hand back, folding it with the other in her lap again, and looked up with a sniff. Haylen almost thought he'd caught the glimmer of wetness in her eyes, but when he looked again, they were dry. Still not looking at him, but dry none the less.

'You know, when we met for the first time, you were...' she paused, obviously searching for the right word, 'magnificent. I'd learned all about you before then, of course, but... meeting you face to face was...'

He frowned, unsure where this was going, or even why she was telling him this. It didn't exactly answer the question he'd asked. There was something uncomfortably close to awe on her face, and he was hit with a flash of the little girl he'd met back with the Silence. It was the same look.

He shook his head, pushing the memory away. Awe probably looked the same on every face, he reasoned.

'They thought about taking you, you know?' She looked at him with a look that he didn't know how to interpret. 'When you were still a child, but they couldn't find you. Something stopped anyone from finding you when you were still vulnerable.'

Haylen stayed silent, watching her as she swallowed, unable to look him in the eyes for some reason.

'It probably saved your life.'

He shook his head, in denial or confusion, he couldn't have said. He didn't really understand what she was telling him, let alone why.

River took a deep breath, pulling it in shakily before holding it a moment. When she looked at him, it didn't so much burst out of her as dissipate entirely.

'The universe corrected around you,' she said, 'when you fell through that crack in time. I don't know what it would have looked like without you, and I don't want to. You're such a presence, and you don't even know it.'

She laughed, but it wasn't the same happy sound as before. There was something so painful behind it that he didn't know what to do. She continued before he could think of a response that seemed to fit the moment.

'The Doctor and his Angel, a love story written in the stars,' she said. That time, he knew he was seeing tears, but he didn't know why.

He thought of his mate, though. The love that he had for the other alien, the way he'd felt when he'd seen the other man slaughtered before him. He thought of the way that the man couldn't help but smile when they looked at each other, and the feel of his mate's arms around him, his hearts beating against his chest when they lay in their nest.

Unknown to him, some of the darkness began to fade from his eyes, the fracturing of his heart and soul starting to heal. River smiled at the sight, but didn't comment on it.

'That was it, for me - meeting you like that,' she said, still looking at him with that look that he didn't understand. 'The person I was, the person I would become, was forever changed by that meeting. And you did it again, the next time we met. You remember it, I suppose?'

Haylen frowned, thrown. He wasn't sure he understood what they'd been talking about. His head tilted to the side, a sure sign that he was confused.

River picked up on it, thanks in large part to having grown up with him. She chuckled, but continued, prompting him for a memory that she was apparently sure that he had.

'When we were both children...' She raised an eyebrow, trailing off to see if he'd remember the moment she was talking about.

Haylen blinked, taken back to the day that he'd met Mels for the first time. He blinked again, wondering when it was that River had met him for the first time if that wasn't what she was talking about.

'You challenged me to a duel,' he said, still confused as to where she was going with this.

River laughed, the sound joyful this time.

'Yes, I did. And you said-'

'No thank you.' He cut her off, having remembered the image of a young Mels throwing her school bag down between them like the proverbial gauntlet, demanding that he fight her, eyes flashing with barely held back excitement.

River nodded. 'I grabbed your arm, and you had a meltdown.'

Haylen looked down, the shame that he felt for his actions as real today as it had been as soon as he'd finished having his meltdown. It was one of the things that had separated him from the other kids his age. He also remembered Amy's reaction to someone causing his meltdown, the shouting match that she'd had with Mels had seen the two girls separated for the entire year.

'I was so confused,' River continued, unaware of where Haylen's thoughts had taken him. 'How could someone change so much from the general I'd learned about - the warrior I'd met who was capable of tearing an empire apart with his bare hands - to the child that couldn't even stand a single touch?'

He couldn't look at her. The way that she described him was not at all flattering. While he knew that he was strong, he also knew that strength without discipline was more likely to burn itself out than do any good for anyone. It seemed to him that no matter who he was, he was someone to be looked down on.

Either he was a child who couldn't control himself enough not to gnaw on his own limbs, or he was a fully fledged Angel who couldn't control himself enough not to destroy the universe when threatened.

'I learned something that day,' River said, waiting for him to look up before she continued. She held his gaze steadily as she spoke, making sure that he understood who the words were for. 'You don't have to start strong, to turn out that way.'

He frowned, waiting for the rest. There had to be more.

River relented after a moment, obviously seeing that he wasn't getting it.

'And,' she allowed with a nod, 'it was the choices that I would make that could make or break that for you.'

That cleared up exactly nothing, he thought with some irritation.

'I couldn't stand the idea of seeing you grow up to become anyone other than the man I'd met,' she said, her eyes so incredibly knowing that it made him think that somehow, she thought he'd already lived the moment she was talking about. 'A man with the strength of countless armies at his fingertips. A good man, who would never abuse that strength.'

Haylen's frown faded, as did the life in his eyes as he thought of the countless bodies he'd left behind him in the last three months. His thoughts flitted from battlefield to battlefield, bloodied body to bloodied body. And then to that beach in Utah, and how he'd very nearly killed everyone he loved in his anger. How he'd nearly lost it and destroyed the universe in his grief.

'I am not a good man.' He stared her down, daring her to argue with him in the face of just how many lives had been ended at his hand.

River shook her head, a helpless sort of knowing still so clear on her face as she watched him.

'You are,' she said, denying his thoughts stubbornly. 'You always have been, and you always will be.'

He opened his mouth to argue the point, knowing far better than she did, exactly what he was, but she cut him off with an angry look that reminded him once again that this was Amy's daughter sitting beside him.

'Don't argue with me, Haylen,' she said, more sharply than she'd ever spoken to him before. 'I've already lived it. I know who you are.'

He might not have liked it, but River had managed to drag him out of his old room and back to the console room, where they could hear his mate moving about. There was also the odd sound of metal on metal, so Haylen had to assume that the Time Lord was doing some sort of work on the Tardis' configuration.

Whether or not she'd asked for it.

'Go on,' River said, nudging his shoulder when he'd come to an unwilling halt just inside the doorway. He looked back at her, fear very obviously written across his face, because she softened for a moment, putting a hand on the same shoulder she'd pushed. 'He's your mate, Haylen. It'll be alright.'

He nodded, and pulled in a stuttering breath as his wings ruffled in discomfort at the idea of facing the man after everything that had happened since bringing River to those co-ordinates. He wanted to forgive him, for everything to go back to the way it had been before. Back when he'd only known of the Doctor's death as a concept for the future. A future that wouldn't come for them for many, many years.

He hadn't even taken the first step down the stairs before the sound of River's footsteps retreated back the way they'd come. Haylen was grateful, knowing that she knew just how uncomfortable he was. It would only make it worse, to know that they had an audience.

When he made it down the clear stairs, he already knew that his mate wasn't in the upper floor of the console room. The sounds were coming from below, where he'd seen the man sitting in a sling of some type, working busily away so many times in the past.

This time was no different, and he took a second to take in this moment; his mate so very alive, arms held up above him as he worked, once more, on some internal issue he'd identified. He stood back, listening to the sound of the other man existing, drinking in every movement and expression.

If he had what he wanted, this moment would never end.

It took less than five seconds before he broke, unable to hold himself back from going to his mate and wrapping him up in his arms once more. The Doctor stiffened for all of a half second, before recognising the embrace and the person attached to it.

Haylen had pulled his mate into him, both of them facing the same direction, his chest to the Doctor's back. The other man sighed, sinking into the Angel's hold easily, bringing an arm up to hold his mate's head to his, cheek to cheek, both so clearly needing the reassurance of each other in this one secluded moment that they'd stolen after the madness of their last adventure.

'Oh, Angel,' he said, the words were a whisper, his throat too tight for anything louder. He'd been so scared that he'd never see the Angel again. 'Please, don't ever do that again. I can't do this without you.'

Haylen pulled back reluctantly, with his own sigh that felt as though it had come from the depths of his soul.

'You can't do this without me?' he asked, the cruel irony not at all lost on him. He looked up, just taking in the metal of the walkway above them as he struggled with his emotions. 'What about me? How am I supposed to do forever without you?'

'I'm sorry.' The words were whispered once again, and hoarse in a helpless sort of way. 'I don't know what he was thinking, letting you see that. I don't know why he tried to destroy you. I'm not him yet.'

The man had turned to face him while he was looking away, his eyes so incredibly sad as they filled with tears. But Haylen didn't want apologies. He wanted reality to leave them alone. For that moment on that beach to never have happened in the first place.

'But you will be,' he accused, giving the other man a hurt look of his own.

'I know,' the Doctor said, a single tear slipping free and making it's way down his face as they looked at each other. 'I don't want to be. I don't ever want to turn into someone who would do that - to anyone, let alone you.'

In the face of his mate's distress, his own emotions faded away, leaving him just feeling heavy, and empty.

'Well, whatever your intention...' he trailed off, shaking his head, his eyes falling to the side rather than continuing to look at the pain on his mate's face. 'This is where we find ourselves.'

The Doctor was silent, and Haylen could feel the caress of his eyes on his face, trying to make up for the distance standing between them. They were all of two feet from each other, and nothing stood between them but their choices.

Sometimes, he thought it might just be enough to tear them apart permanently.

He swallowed, the memory of what his mate had told him back on that beach coming to him out of nowhere.

''You're going to have to be very brave for me now',' he parroted for the other man, his head tilted to the side, expression wavering between confusion and hurt. The man in front of him, for all that he looked the same, was not the one who'd said it. But he would be.

'What?' It was a whisper, and if Haylen had been looking at him, he might've been able to see the moment he understood, and seen his mate's hearts break.

'That's what you said to me - or thought,' he answered, still not looking at his mate's face. He knew that if he did, he'd never get the words out. Maybe River was right, and he shouldn't be telling the Doctor, but this was his mate, and he wasn't River. He couldn't know about something this big, and not tell the other man. 'It doesn't matter. That's what you said to me, before it happened. You told me to be brave.'

'I'm sorry,' the Doctor said, pain so clear in his voice. It didn't stop the Angel, though. All it did was make anger course through him. He was sorry? He was sorry?!

His eyes snapped back up to the Doctor's, horror and anger transforming his features once more into a burning hellscape of damnation.

'You're sorry? You're sorry?! Look at what you did to me!' His control snapped, and he let his grace ripple through the room, bringing the change that he still hadn't accepted was his new normal.

'I-' the Doctor cut himself off, obviously thinking better of speaking whatever words he'd been going to, in the face of his mate's wrath.

'What?' Haylen demanded, those intense eyes boring into his in a way that they normally didn't.

'I don't think it was me,' the Doctor said gently. He had to rush to explain himself, though, at the rage that ignited in the Angel's expression at his words. 'I caused it, yes - or a future version of me did - but I think you did this to yourself. This is coming out wrong.'

Haylen privately thought that the man was absolutely correct. This was definitely coming out wrong. The parts of him that were all Angel didn't like the implication one little bit.

'You told me,' the Doctor continued, having apparently managed to corral his wayward thoughts, even in the face of Haylen's anger, 'all the things that could have happened. What you saw in the crystal on your home planet, you remember?'

His grace flared for a moment, but his curiosity got the better of him as his irritation bubbled away, leaving him feeling dizzy. What on earth was the Time Lord getting at?

'I think, some part of you,' the other man went on, moving closer to take one of his hands in his, bending ever so slightly to make eye contact, 'maybe something very deep inside, knew what was going to happen.'

Haylen opened his mouth, ready to refute the idea. It was fanciful at best, and outright wrong at worst. Of course, he knew what was going to happen. He'd seen it so many times. Hell, he'd lived it. Over and over, until it was the only experience that he knew, until he'd literally driven himself out of his own mind to get away from the pain.

But that didn't mean anything in the face of it happening in reality.

'Yes, I know you could tell what was going to happen as soon as you saw familiar surroundings,' his mate went on, steam rolling over any words he might have given voice to, 'but this is different. This part of you couldn't let you kill everyone you knew when you lost control. This part remembered all the ways you killed your family in those visions. It remembered, and couldn't let it happen. I think, it turned the destructive force of your pain inward, and this was the result.'

He crumpled, the truth in the statement too much to bear. His mate caught him before he could hit the ground, pulling him into a warm embrace that they'd both felt before. He buried his face in the other man's shirt, absently realising that he hadn't even noticed that his mate had removed his jacket sometime before he'd even joined him, most likely to more easily attempt his Tardis repairs.

None of that mattered, though. Not when it was really his own fault that he'd become this tainted joke of a creature who was supposed to be something holy. Something divine. And yet, here he stood, more demonic than angelic, entirely of his own actions.

'I don't have words to tell you what that means.' A hand settled against the side of his head, holding him more firmly into him, and he let the soothing drum beat under his ear wash over him.

After a moment, that hand managed to pry its way between him and the shirt he was buried in, and pull him away from the safety of his hiding place. He didn't want to face the harshness of the reality they stood in.

'This,' his mate said softly, stroking a finger lightly down Haylen's cheek and the black veins that coated it, 'is proof of your love. Of your bravery. You were prepared to sacrifice yourself for your family.'

Haylen tried to pull away, his eyes dark in a way that had little to do with the deep shadows that had taken the place of the white.

'It's proof of what I almost did,' he refuted, trying to put some space between them again. 'The fact that I'm a monster.'

The Doctor pulled him back in, gently enough that he could have escaped the hold if he'd actually wanted to. There was something so soft in his eyes, and Haylen wasn't sure that he deserved the look.

'No,' the Doctor said, that look doing things to the Angel's heart that didn't feel healthy. 'It's proof of what you didn't do.'

The taller man brought his hand back up, the one he'd stroked down the Angel's cheek moments before, and tipped his chin up ever so gently. Their eyes met again, and a shiver of electricity wiggled down his spine at the contact. He blinked as the other man's eyes slipped down to his lips, telegraphing his next move even to the sometimes oblivious Angel.

'Can I kiss you?'

Haylen's breath left him in a rush. He didn't think he'd ever heard a tone like that before. It left him with burning cheeks and a racing heart. A part of him was more than confused. He mate still wanted him? Looking like this?

The part of him that could reason, knew though. It knew what the man was really asking, and so he let his grace fade with a thought. He didn't feel it, other than a shiver that ran through him from head to foot, but he knew that his features would have all returned to the ones that looked human.

He nodded, his breath stuttering in his chest as his mate took his face in both hands, holding him like he was something so incredibly precious. He wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve it.

Haylen's eyes slipped shut as the other man leaned in, fulling expecting the touch of his mouth on his. It didn't happen, and he was almost startled enough to open his eyes when he felt the feather light touch of the Time Lord's lips on his eyelid. It was repeated on the other side, much to his confusion, and then one cheek, and then the next.

'I meant the real you.'

The words had him recoiling before he'd even fully registered them, or so it seemed to him as he blinked his confusion at the other alien.

'What?' he asked, gaping at the other man with more than a little horror. Why did he want to touch, let alone kiss the monster that he'd so clearly become.

'I told you, you aren't a monster,' the Doctor said, a sad little smile on his lips.

Haylen could barely get a proper breath in, too much in shock, and a sick amount of hope, he admitted to himself in the recesses of his mind, that the other man was serious, and it wasn't all a horrible joke.

With all of a thought, his grace rippled across his features again, allowing the transformation from Angel to demon to show for his mate. It was a long moment before he could bring himself to meet the Doctor's gaze, afraid to see everything that he thought written across his face. With his photographic memory, he'd never forget it. It wasn't a memory that he wanted.

In the end, his eyes rose to meet his mate's without his permission, but he didn't see horror inside them. His wonderful mate was smiling at him, in exactly the same way that he had been since before they'd formed their bond. It was soft, and sweet, and reserved entirely for him.

His breath left him again when the man leaned back in and kissed him, on the mouth finally. Haylen gasped as their bond burst back open, forced wide with the love they felt for one another. It was more than he could handle, and tears that he hadn't realised were forming fell, racing unchecked down his cheeks as he wrapped his arms around his mate's solid form, holding him tight, his wings coming up to wrap them in their own private world, there under the walkway of the Tardis' console room.