A/N: There's trouble brewing. Read on to find out more…
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is this story and my OC. Please review and no flaming will be tolerated.
Enjoy :)
I PREDICT A RIOT
"Watching the people get lairy.
It's not very pretty I tell thee.
Walking through town is quite scary.
It's not very sensible either."
– Kaiser Chiefs: 'I Predict a Riot' (The Bands 05 [2004])
Evelina's Room
By now, Evelina had recovered from her fainting spell and was laughing as she and the Heart watch as Donna puts on one of Evelina's purple toga dresses and a matching shawl.
"You're not supposed to laugh," Donna playfully scolds both of them. "Thanks for that." She then strikes a pose, flipping the shawl over her shoulder dramatically. "What do you think? The Goddess Venus?" She grinned and Evelina giggles.
"Oh, that's sacrilege." She chides in between laughter. Donna pulls off the shawl and lays it down on a nearby chair before lounging next to the Heart on the bed.
"It's nice to see you laughing, though." The Heart approved.
"So, what do you do in old Pompeii, then, girls your age?" Donna asked, eager to gossip like she did back in 2008 with her own girlfriends. "You got mates? Do you go hanging about round the shops? TK Maximus?" She joked and Evelina smiles but shakes her head, looking slightly melancholy.
"I am promised to the Sisterhood for the rest of my life." She explains to both women, who frown a little in disappointment.
"Do you get any choice in that?" the Heart pondered, but Evelina seemed unconcerned.
"It's not my decision. The Sisters chose for me. I have the gift of sight." She insisted and both Donna and the Heart exchange grave expression with each other. Both believing that having your life dictated to you, wasn't really a life at all. Donna decides to try once again in her attempt to rescue at least someone from being burnt to death the following day.
"Then what can you see happening tomorrow?" She asks slyly, much to the Heart's disgust.
"Donna…" He chides her, but Evelina takes the bait and responds anyway.
"Is tomorrow special?"
"You tell me. What do you see?" Donna pushes the point, ignoring the Heart's attempts to stop her from her attempt to change a fixed point in history. Evelina pauses for a moment and shuts her eyes, as though humouring Donna.
"The sun will rise; the sun will set." She responded, much to the Heart's relief. "Nothing special at all." However, Donna isn't satisfied with that answer and decides to take a different approach. The Heart immediately senses Donna's determination and becomes frustrated.
"Donna, enough." She growls at the redhead who glares back. Evelina's smile fades a little at the expressions on their faces.
"What's wrong?" She asks, as Donna stubbornly defies the Heart.
"Someone's gotta warn her." She hisses angrily.
"You can't change what's going to happen, Donna. The Doctor and I told you this already!" The Heart insisted.
"Change what?" Evelina prompted them, and Donna decides to break the rules.
"I've got a prophecy too." She tells Evelina who flinches away and instinctively covers her eyes with her hands.
Sibylline Temple
The Sisters suddenly sense that Evelina is trying to unconsciously communicate with them and put their hands over their eyes also.
"Evelina, I'm sorry, but you've got to hear me out." Donna insists and the Heart begins to lose her temper with her stubborn friend.
"Donna!"
"Sisters…" Spurrina encourages the others to listen in. It is obvious that Evelina does not want to know Donna's so-called prophecy.
"Evelina, can you hear me? Listen." Donna is persistent.
Evelina's Room
"There is only one prophecy…" Evelina insists, urgently. Donna continues with her 'prophecy' unaware that her every word is being monitored by the Sisters.
"But everything I'm about to say is true, I swear. Just listen to me. Tomorrow, that mountain is going to explode."
"Donna, leave her alone!" the Heart growls, angrily. But Donna ignores her.
"The air is going to fill with ash and rocks, tons and tons of it, and this whole town is going to be buried." Donna reveals, sadly.
"That's not true!" Evelina denies, vehemently.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, but everyone's going to die." Donna stated.
Sibylline Temple
The Sisters were shocked by this new knowledge.
"A new prophecy!" Spurrina exclaimed.
"Impossible. There is only one!" Thalina denies.
Evelina's Room
Donna was determined to make the young soothsayer understand and believe what she was saying, with the naïve assumption that if she did believe her, that she'd be able to spread the word around town and save lives.
"Even if you don't believe me, just tell your family to get out of town. Just for one day. Just for tomorrow. But you've got to get out. You've got to leave Pompeii!" Donna urged her, conveniently forgetting what the Doctor and the Heart had told her earlier, that her 'prophecy' was likely to be dismissed as a hoax.
"This is false prophecy!" Evelina was tearful and disbelieving and the Heart had seen and heard enough.
"Alright, that is enough!" She snarled at Donna. "You have gone too far, Donna." The Heart gets up from the bed and starts pacing the length of the room, furious that Donna had deliberately disobeyed what the Doctor and she had warned her not to do but did it anyway. She also knew that the Doctor was going to have kittens the very second he learned what had just taken place. There was some serious damage control that needed to be done.
Sibylline Temple
The Heart was unaware that everything that Donna had just tried to tell Evelina had been overheard by the entire Sisterhood of the Sibylline. Donna had no idea the danger that she was currently in.
"The noble woman. She spoke of a new prophecy. The fall of Pompeii." Spurrina was reporting into the High Priestess.
"Pompeii will last forever." The High Priestess naturally denied Donna's claims.
"Then what must we do?" Spurrina asked, urgently.
"The false prophet must die. Sacrifice her, and anyone who tries to stop you!" The High Priestess instructs her.
Lucius's Villa
Unaware of the chaos that Donna was inflicting back at Caecilius's villa, the Doctor was busy rearranging the circuit boards Lucius had specifically ordered.
"Put this one here. This one here. Er, keep that one upside down, and what you got?" He ponders out loud to himself, while nearby Lucius observes coldly.
"Enlighten me."
"What the soothsayer doesn't know?" the Doctor mocks him.
"The seed may float on the breeze in any direction," Lucius responds and the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I knew you were going to say that." He muttered, sarcastically. "But it's an energy converter." He confirms, and Lucius cocks an eyebrow at this discovery.
"An energy converter of what?"
"I don't know." The Doctor confesses with a slightly manic grin. "Isn't that brilliant? I love not knowing. Keeps me on my toes." He then continues to ramble on, mocking Lucius at the same time. "It must be awful being a prophet, waking up every morning, is it raining? Yes, it is, I said so." He makes a distasteful face. "Takes all the fun out of life." He spins and addresses Lucius while thumbing over his shoulder at the restored energy converter. "But who designed this, Lucius, hmm? Who gave you these instructions?"
"I think you've babbled enough." Lucius insisted. However, the Doctor saw the deflection coming a mile away.
"Lucius, really, tell me." He wheedled. "Honestly, I'm on your side. I can help." However, Lucius's lip curled unpleasantly.
"You insult the gods. There can only be one sentence." He glances over at some assembled guards nearby. "At arms!" The guards immediately draw their swords, and the Doctor curses in Latin.
"Oh, morituri te salutant." He mumbled disgruntledly, standing beside Quintus with his hands raised in surrender.
"Celtic prayers won't help you now." Lucius promises him.
"But it was him, sir. He made me do it. Mister Dextrus, please don't." Quintus begged fearfully, and the Doctor looks slightly insulted by the betrayal.
"Oh, come on now, Quintus, dignity in death." He lightly chides the teenager before refocusing on Lucius. "I respect your victory, Lucius." He offers his hand to him. "Shake on it?" Lucius doesn't budge. The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Come on. Dying man's wish?" He leaps forward without warning and grabs at Lucius's right arm beneath the cloak and pulls on it. Something breaks away.
"Argh!" Lucius hisses in pain, as both the Doctor and Quintus blink at the discovery in a mingled combination of shock and intrigue. Turns out the Doctor was holding a stone hand and forearm. Lucius was suffering from the same ailment as Evelina was, but on an obviously longer term.
"But he's…" Quintus was at a loss for words. The Doctor studies Lucius gravely.
"Show me." He requests and Lucius throws back his cloak. The entire right side of his body had calcified.
"The work of the gods." Lucius states, looking almost proud.
"He's stone." Quintus was baffled, where the Doctor was unperturbed.
"Meh. Armless enough, though." He makes a bad pun. "Whoops!" The Doctor throws Lucius back his arm, before grabbing Quintus by his arm and booking it for the window. "Quintus!" Improvising, the teen throws the torch he and the Doctor had brought along to light their way at a guard, as the Doctor sonics the circuit boards, before they literally swan dive through the window to safety.
"The carvings!" Lucius panicked, before looking furious.
"Run!" The Doctor shouts at Quintus.
"My carvings!" Lucius ambles over to the fallen stone carvings and inspects them for damages. None of them were damaged. "The work is unbroken." He goes over to the hypocaust and looks down into the pit. "Oh, Lord of the Mountain, I beseech you. This man would prevent the rise of Pompeii." He warns a hidden entity lurking down below. "Lord, I beg of you, show yourself. Show yourself." A creature of stone and flame appears, roaring ferociously.
Street
The Doctor and Quintus were running like their lives depended on them down the street, looking back occasionally to make sure that they weren't being followed by one of Lucius's guards. Thankfully, the coast was clear. The Doctor lets out a sigh of relief.
"No sign of them." He grinned triumphantly. "Nice little bit of allons-y. I think we're all right." He reassures Quintus who still looked very unsure and more than a little bit scared.
"But his arm, Doctor. Is that what's happening to Evelina?" He asked, worried for the wellbeing of his sister. But before the Doctor could respond, a deep rumble came from underground, causing a nearby dog to start barking.
"What was that?" the Doctor questioned, nervously. The rumble starts up again.
"The mountain?" Quintus suggested. But the Doctor disagreed with that suggestion as the rumbles sounded rhythmical. His eyes narrowed cautiously.
"No, it's closer." The Doctor realises and stiffens when both of them noticed objects falling over as the ground shakes and the rumbling noises get louder and louder. "Footsteps." Quintus looked like this was all a bad dream that he desperately needed to wake up from.
"It can't be." He stated, glancing around for the owner of the heavy footsteps. The footsteps continued coming closer to where there were.
"Footsteps underground…" the Doctor confirmed with dread. Quintus paled.
"What is it? What is it?" He asked, fearfully. The Doctor wordlessly starts running again in the direction of Caecilius's villa with Quintus hot on his heels as the grills blow of hypocaust vents as they run past.
Caecilius's Villa
The same rumbling noises were being heard at the same moment in the villa, which allowed the Heart to momentarily forget how angry she was at Donna to focus on the situation at hand so she could protect this innocent family.
"What is it? What's that noise?" Metella exclaimed going over to her husband who looked just as concerned as she did.
"Doesn't sound like Vesuvius." He reasoned, then jumped back in surprise when the Doctor suddenly ran in from nowhere followed closely by Quintus who looked out of breath, but otherwise unharmed.
"Caecilius? All of you, get out." The Doctor warns, as he looked around frantically for Donna and especially the Heart to make sure they were safe.
"Doctor, what is it?" Donna rushed over to him, making the Doctor sag with relief when she sees her and the Heart lingering in the doorway behind her looking as alert and serious as he did during a crisis.
"I think we're being followed." The Doctor explained. The hypocaust grill suddenly blows off, alarming everyone. "Just get out!" the Doctor shouted fiercely. However instead of listening to him, the family and their servants just stand and stare as the floor around the hypocaust cracks and react when a stone and fire creature appeared. At its full height, the creature nearly touches the ceiling with its head.
"The gods are with us." Evelina cried out in both wonder and fear. The Doctor had no time to stand and gawk at the creature like the rest of them. He immediately takes charge.
"Water. We need water. Quintus," the boy looks over at him. "All of you, get water. Donna! Heart!" They nod without question and move off to grab buckets of water wherever they could find it. One of the servants foolishly approaches the creature; in complete awe of what he was seeing.
"Blessed are we to see the gods." He intoned reverently. But before the Doctor could do anything, the so-called 'god' breathes on the man, turning him into ash instantly. The Doctor curses underneath his breath and attempts to grab the creature's attention.
"Talk to me." He pleaded beseechingly. "That's all I want. Talk to me. Just tell me what you are. Don't hurt these people." Behind him, Donna followed by the Heart, returns with buckets of water. But Donna is suddenly grabbed by one of the Sisterhood. The Heart instantly protests, but before she could sound the alarm, a second Sister grabs her and drags her off in the same direction they had taken Donna. The last thing she sees as she's taken from the villa was a shocked Evelina, who hesitates to follow them.
"Talk to me." The Doctor, unaware that his tether and companion had just been kidnapped, continues attempting to reason with the creature. "I'm the Doctor. Just tell me who you are." The creature lets out another roar but before the Doctor could become charbroiled like the servant did, Quintus and another servant barrel in with buckets, scoop up water from the indoor fishpond and throw it at the creature. Its fire goes out, causing the creature to solidify then crack and crumble to the floor.
"What was it?" A bewildered Caecilius demanded. The Doctor approaches the remains of the fire creature and studies it with a cold look on his face.
"Carapace of stone, held together by internal magma." The Doctor muttered with distaste. "Not too difficult to stop, but I reckon that's just the foot soldier." He stated. Metella fixes him a disapproving scowl.
"Doctor, or whatever your name is, you bring bad luck on this house." She condemns him and the Doctor gives her a contemptuous glare.
"I thought your son was brilliant." He reminds her of Quintus's heroic actions. "Aren't you going to thank him?" Both Metella and Caecilius immediately remember what their son had just done and hug him tightly in their relief. "Still, if there are aliens at work in Pompeii, it's a good thing we stayed. Don't you think?" He questioned his tether and Donna, but when neither of them responded, the Doctor became incredibly alert. "Donna? Heart?!" He yelled frantically.
Sibylline Temple
The Heart couldn't tell if she was more irritated or worried about the current situation. The moment she and Donna had been brought to the temple, she had been tied up, gagged and restrained by two of the priestesses, while she watched helplessly as Donna was tied spreadeagled on the altar. Her sonic had been confiscated from her and was currently being held by one of her captors, so she was unable to zap away both hers or Donna's bindings. The redhead, naturally, had a lot to say on the matter.
"You have got to be kidding me." Donna seethed, glaring up at Spurrina who was standing over head with a sacrificial knife in her hands.
"The false prophet will surrender both her blood and her breath." Spurrina began the ritual sacrificial act.
"I'll surrender you in a minute. Don't you dare!" Donna warned, as Spurrina glared down at her.
"You will be silent." She orders Donna, and the Heart just rolled her eyes. Asking Donna to stay quiet was a near impossible task. Something that she and the Doctor had to learn the hard way.
"Listen, sister, you might have eyes on the back of your hands, but you'll have eyes in the back of your head by the time I'm finished with you. Let me and the Heart GO!" Donna raged. Spurrina raises the knife into the air.
"This prattling voice will cease forever—"
"Oh, that'll be the day." A familiar voice rings out, and the Heart glances over to see the Doctor leaning casually against the entrance to the temple. She sagged with relief but knew that these women were in for a world of pain, judging by the expression on her tether's face. While his face may looked cool, calm and collected; his eyes told a different story: they were cold, unforgiving and promised retribution. Particularly when he spotted how his tether was being restrained.
"No man is allowed to enter the Temple of Sibyl." Spurrina protested, looking offended.
"Well, that's alright. Just us girls." He mocked her, light-heartedly. The Doctor straightened up and sauntered into the room, his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket as he rubbernecked about the room, taking it all in. He made his way over to where the Heart was being restrained by the two priestesses. "Do you know, I met the Sibyl once. Yeah, hell of a woman. Bilmey, she could dance the Tarantella—may I cut in?" He asked the two bemused women rhetorically as he easily pulled the Heart away and used his sonic to break apart the rope tied around her wrists. The Heart pulled the gag from her mouth.
"Ugh. That's better…" She mumbled.
"You okay?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
"I will be." The Heart reassured him, before retrieving her sonic from one of the priestesses. "I'll take that, thanks." She replaces it into her pocket, as the Doctor resumes talking to Spurrina.
"Sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah. She had nice teeth too. Truth be told, I think she had a bit of a thing for me." The Doctor babbled on, ignoring the possessive frown the Heart threw at him. "I said it would never last. She said, I know. Well, she would." He shrugged before leaning over Donna and giving her a smile. "You all right there?"
"Oh, never better." Donna responded, sarcastically.
"I like the toga."
"Thank you. And the ropes?" Donna indicated to her bindings.
"Yeah, not so much." The Doctor once again uses the sonic to cut the ropes binding Donna to the altar. She immediately sits up and scrambles off the altar to stand with the Heart who wraps a protective arm around her shoulders.
"What magic is this?" Spurrina demanded, shocked.
"I think that's the least of your worries right now, don't you think?" The Heart retorted with a sarcastic little smile on her face as she and Donna came over to stand beside the Doctor.
"Let me tell you about the Sibyl, the founder of this religion." The Doctor had a disapproving frown on his face. "She would be ashamed of you. All her wisdom and insight turned sour. Is that how you spread the word, hey? On the blade of a knife?"
"Yes," Spurrina snarls. "A knife that now welcomes you."
"Show me this man…" The High Priestess demanded, grabbing everyone's attention as the Priestesses except for Spurrina prostrated before her.
"High Priestess, the stranger would defile us." Spurrina protested in an effort to protect her, but the High Priestess was adamant.
"Let me see. This one is different. He carries starlight in his wake, as does the blonde one." She insisted, and the Doctor was impressed where the Heart was more wary.
"Oh, very perceptive. Where do these words of wisdom come from?" He wondered.
"The gods whisper to me…"
"Oh, I doubt that." The Heart strongly disagreed. "We wish to pay homage. Look upon the High Priestess?" Spurrina nodded reluctantly, and two of the sisters draw aside the veil separating the High Priestess from everyone else. The Doctor, The Heart and Donna nearly rear back in horror when they see that the High Priestess is actually living stone.
"Oh, my God. What happened to you?" Donna questioned, horrified.
"The heavens have blessed me…" the High Priestess confirmed. The Doctor recovers from his shock and gestures towards her.
"If I might?" He requested and she holds out her hand towards him for his examination. "Does it hurt?" The Doctor gingerly rubs his fingers against the rough texture of the stone.
"It is necessary," the High Priestess insisted, and the Heart grimaces at the bold-faced lie.
"Who told you that?" She asked, looking appalled.
"The voices."
"Is that what's going to happen to Evelina?" Donna's voice was very small. "Is this what's going to happen to all of you?" Spurrina goes over to Donna to show her stone forearm.
"The blessings are manifold." Spurrina insists, but none of the trio are buying it.
"But they're stone…" Donna stated.
"Exactly," the Doctor looked grim. "The people of Pompeii are turning to stone before the volcano erupts."
"But why?" the Heart was perplexed. The High Priestess studies the Time Couple with confusion.
"This word, this image in your mind. This 'volcano'. What is that?" She demanded. The Heart frowned at her.
"The real question here, is why don't you know it? Who exactly are you?"
"The High Priestess of the Sibylline."
"No, no, no, no. She's referring to the creature inside you. The thing that's seeding itself into a human body, in the dust, in the lungs, taking over the flesh and turning it into, what?" the Doctor probed.
"Your knowledge … is impossible." The High Priestess looked visibly frightened.
"Oh, but you can read my mind. Both our minds." The Doctor gestures between them both. "You know it's not. We demand you tell us who you are." The Doctor's words were forceful, and it was obviously having an effect upon the High Priestess, or at least on the entity that was residing within her body. She started getting agitated.
"We are awakening…" A deeper voice starts to overlap the High Priestess's voice. Spurrina's eye widen in awe.
"The voice of the gods."
"Words of wisdom, words of power." The Sisters chant over and over behind the trio, making Donna look uncomfortable. The Doctor was clearly on the right track, so he decided to press the point just a little bit more.
"Name yourself. Planet of origin. Galactic coordinates. Species designation according to the universal ratification of the Shadow Proclamation."
"We are rising…"
"Tell us your name!" the Heart demanded fiercely.
"PYROVILE!" The entity residing within the High Priestess roared inhumanly. Both the Doctor and the Heart looked stunned by this knowledge. Behind them and Donna, the Sisters begin rocking back and forth on their knees chanting:
"Pyrovile. Pyrovile. Pyrovile."
"What's a Pyrovile?" Donna frowned. The Doctor swallowed hard, trying to figure out the best way of answering the question.
"Well, that's a Pyrovile. Growing inside her. She's a halfway stage." He explained.
"What, and that turns into?"
"The creature we saw back at Caecilius's villa? That was an adult Pyrovile." The Heart tells Donna.
"AND THE BREATH OF A PYROVILE WILL INCINERATE YOU!" the partially transformed High Priestess threatens them, to which the Doctor responded by withdrawing a yellow water pistol from one of his bigger-on-the-inside suit jacket pockets.
"I warn you; I'm armed." He stated and the Heart looks at the harmless children's toy dubiously.
"You can't be serious…" She muttered at him, but the Doctor ignores her, keeping his eyes on the High Priestess as he addressed Donna.
"Donna, get that grill open. Heart, go help her. I'll hold her off." The Doctor instructed, and the Heart just rolled her eyes and headed for the nearest hypocaust while Donna looks at him questioningly.
"What for?"
"Just come on." The Heart gently grabs Donna's arm and pulls her towards the hypocaust as the Doctor continues to question the High Priestess.
"What are the Pyrovile doing here?" He probed.
"WE FELL FROM THE HEAVENS. WE FELL SO FAR AND SO FAST, WE WERE RENDERED INTO DUST." She explained and the Doctor did a mental calculation in his head.
"Right, creatures of stone shattered on impact. When was that, seventeen years ago?" He took a gamble, but the High Priestess shook her head.
"WE HAVE SLEPT BENEATH FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS."
"Okay, so seventeen years ago woke you up, and now you're using human bodies to reconstitute yourselves." The Doctor pieced it all together. "But why the psychic powers?"
"WE OPENED THEIR MINDS AND FOUND SUCH GIFTS."
"Okay, that's fine." It actually wasn't, but details. The Doctor continued brainstorming. Meanwhile, the Heart and Donna were still struggling to push open the grill on the hypocaust due to the extreme heat. "So you force yourself inside a human brain, use the latent psychic talent to bond. I get that, I get that, yeah. But seeing the future? That is way beyond psychic." The Doctor pointed out, looking sceptical. "You can see through time. Where does the gift of prophecy come from?"
"Got it!" Donna calls out. The Heart immediately jumps down into the pit, alarming Donna who looked at her like she was crazy. She gestures insistently at her.
"Come on!"
"What, down there?" Donna looked doubtful, much to the Heart's impatience.
"Yes, down there!" the Doctor insisted. Donna threw the Time Couple a dirty look, but followed their instructions, nonetheless. The Doctor refocuses on the High Priestess for one more second. "Why can't this lot predict a volcano? Why is it being hidden?"
"Sisters, I see into his mind." Spurrina unexpectedly interrupts. "The weapon is harmless." The Doctor winces a little about being caught out but shrugged.
"Yeah, but it's got to sting…" He acknowledged nonchalantly and squirts the water at the High Priestess who howls in agony. While she was distracted, the Doctor sprinted for the hypocaust and quickly crawls inside of it, down into the pit that was like the equivalent of stepping into a steaming sauna.
Hypocaust
The Sisters attend to their High Priestess while the Doctor escapes down the Hypocaust, meeting up with an exhausted, but impressed Donna, and an alert Heart who had been keeping watch for trouble while they were waiting for the Doctor to join them.
"You fought her off with a water pistol. I bloody love you!" Donna complimented the Doctor who barely acknowledged her, more preoccupied with keeping not only her, but also himself and the Heart alive long enough to get the hell out of Pompeii before Vesuvius blew its top.
"This way!" the Doctor gestures down a rocky incline, which both Donna and the Heart quickly make their way down.
"Where are we going now?" Donna questioned.
"Into the Volcano," the Heart replied and Donna looked at the back of her head like she was nuts.
"No way." She protested, but the Doctor gave her a little nudge to get her moving after the Heart.
"Yes, way. Appian way." He punned badly, and the Heart paused and looked back at him with an unamused glare.
"Not cool, Doctor." She complained.
"Oh, you noticed, huh?" the Doctor smirked at her as he went past, and the Heart looked at him strangely until she realised exactly what she had just said and mentally chastised herself for her own pun. The three of them stumble their way through the rocky terrain, trying to avoid potentially more pyroviles and pockets of boiling hot steam, which was rising from the ground.
"But if it's aliens setting off the volcano, doesn't that make it all right for you to stop it?" Donna reasoned, but the Doctor shook his head.
"Still part of history."
"But I'm history to you," Donna pointed out. "You saved me in 2008. You saved us all. Why is that different?" She questioned him.
"Because some things are fixed, and some things are in flux." The Heart intervened, using her own knowledge of time and space to fill in the gaps of Donna's knowledge. If the redhead was going to be traveling around with them for the foreseeable future, there were certain rules about history and time that she needed to know and understand. "Pompeii is fixed."
"How do you know which is which?" Donna still didn't get it, and the Time Couple's patience was getting thin. The Doctor spun on Donna.
"Because that's how we see the universe." He was blunt. "Every waking second. The Heart and I were born to see what is, what was, what could be, what must not." The Heart could see that he was struggling to hold back his tears and walked over to him and took his hand. He immediately latched on to it tightly; seeking the comfort that she was trying to provide for him.
"That's our burden, Donna. And we're the only ones left." She tells the redhead, trying not to think about the loss of her brother, who should've been here with them, if she had had her own way. Donna looked sympathetic, but no less determined.
"How many people died?" She questioned them, and the Heart recoiled like Donna had slapped her. The Doctor noticed this and glared at Donna.
"Stop it." He said, firmly.
"No, I want to know." Donna insisted. "How many people died?"
"Twenty thousand." The Doctor eventually revealed.
"Is that what you can see, Doctor? All twenty thousand?" Donna looked disgusted. "And you think that's all right, do you?" She accused them. Something roars off in the distance.
"They know we're here. Come on." The Doctor took off at a run, followed by the Heart and a silent Donna.
Cavern
The trio eventually come across a cavern and arrive at a large space that was populated by Pyroviles. Both the Doctor and the Heart had maintained a grave silence, still upset and resentful that Donna had forced them to acknowledge the imminent twenty-thousand deaths that were about to occur.
"It's the heart of Vesuvius. We're right inside the mountain." The Doctor realised and Donna's eyes widened at the sight.
"There's tons of them."
"What do you think that is?" the Heart nudges the Doctor and points towards a distant construct. He uses a monocular to check it out properly.
"You both better think of something. Rocky fall's on its way." Donna doesn't hesitate to remind them.
"I think that's how they arrived," the Doctor tells the Heart what he believed the construct was. "Or what's left of it. Escape pod? Prison ship? Gene bank?"
"But why do they need a volcano? Maybe it erupts, and they launch themselves back into space or something?" Donna hypothesises, but the Heart shakes her head, looking grim.
"I don't think so. I think it's worse than we think."
"What could be worse?" Donna despaired, then shuddered when the roar they heard earlier resonates loudly around them. "It's getting closer."
"Heathens defile us!" All three of them start and look back to see Lucius, who was standing on a ridge on the other side of the cavern looking right at them. "They would desecrate your temple, my lord gods."
"Oh, I'm getting sick of his fire and brimstone nonsense." The Heart grumbled. The Doctor seizes both women by their hands and takes off towards the construct.
"Come on!"
"Wait, we can't go in." Donna pointed out.
"Well, it's not like we can go back." The Heart countered.
"Crush them! Burn them!" Lucius urges the Pyroviles, one of which rears up in front of the trio. However, the Doctor extinguishes it with his water pistol before they clamber into the escape pod. "There is nowhere to run, Doctor, Heart, and daughter of London." Lucius taunts them. The Doctor attempts a last-ditch effort to get more information.
"Now then, Lucius. My lords Pyrovillian, don't get yourselves in a lather. In a lava? No?" He looks at the Heart and Donna who look unamused at this attempt of light-hearted banter. "No. But if I might beg the wisdom of the gods before we perish. Once this new race of creatures is complete, then what?" He questioned.
"My masters will follow the example of Rome itself. An almighty empire, bestriding the whole of civilisation." Lucius bit the bait the Doctor was hovering underneath his nose.
"But if you've crashed, and you've got all this technology, why don't you just go home?" Donna reasoned.
"The Heaven of Pyrovillia is gone." Lucius stated and both the Doctor and the Heart were surprised.
"What do you mean, gone? Where's it gone?" the Heart blinked.
"It was taken," Lucius explained. "Pyrovillia is lost. But there is heat enough in this world for a new species to rise." But the Doctor could spot a flaw in this plan of theirs.
"Yeah, I should warn you, it's seventy percent water out there—"
"Water can boil," Lucius interjected smugly. "And everything will burn." The Heart and Donna paled, while the Doctor grimaced when he realised the seriousness of the situation.
"Then the whole planet is at stake." The Doctor confirmed.
"Oh, God…." The Heart despaired.
"Thank you. That's all we needed to know. Let's go!" The Doctor tells Donna and the Heart before he uses the sonic to close the door behind them. Lucius looked triumphant.
"You have them, my lords."
Inside the Escape Pod
The Pyroviles breathe a stream of fire at the escape pod, increasing the temperature inside uncomfortably for the trio.
"Could we be any more trapped?" Donna quipped, as she fanned herself because of the increased temperature. "Oh, bit hot in here…" The escape pod contained the circuit boards that Lucius so painstakingly had made, and the Doctor had a eureka moment when he realised exactly why they had been created.
"Oh, I see. The energy converter takes the lava, uses the power to create a fusion matrix, which welds Pyrovile to human. Now it's complete, they can convert millions." He explains to a bemused Donna.
"But can't it be changed with these controls?" Donna asked, trying to be helpful.
"Yeah, it can." The Heart confirmed. "It makes sense now. That's why the soothsayers can't see the volcano. There is no volcano. Vesuvius is never going to erupt." She realised.
"The Pyrovile are stealing all its power, and they're going to use it to take over the world." The Doctor added.
"Can it be changed back?" Donna asked. The Time Couple nodded.
"It's just a simple case of inverting the system. It will set off the volcano and blow up the town…" Then the Heart trailed off when she realised something dreadful, and when she glanced over and saw the exact same expression on the Doctor's face; she knew he had come to the same conclusion. And neither of them wanted the choice. Donna noticed the sorrowful looks.
"What's the problem?"
"There's a choice, Donna. It's Pompeii or the world." The Doctor confirmed, and Donna's eyes widened.
"Oh, my God."
"If Pompeii is destroyed then it's not just history, it's us. We make it happen."
"Doctor, the Pyrovile are made of rocks. Maybe they can't be blown up." Donna suggested, but the Heart shook her head sadly.
"History said that Vesuvius exploded with force of twenty-four nuclear bombs." She stated. "Nothing can survive it. Definitely not us."
"Never mind us." Donna exclaimed, impatiently. The Time Couple glanced down at a stone lever in front of them and rested their hands on top of it. There was a difficult choice to make.
"Push this lever and it's over. Twenty thousand people." The Doctor confirmed.
Donna glanced between the Time Couple and realised that the fate of the planet rested on their shoulders. They didn't need to be entirely responsible for what was to happen next. So she slowly puts her hands over theirs. The trio looked at each other, then push. All the soothsayers connected to the Pyroviles stiffen. Vesuvius erupts its pyroclastic flow, shooting the escape pod containing the Doctor, the Heart and Donna out of the caldera; Donna screaming as it flew.
Mountainside
The escape pod lands hard on the rocky mountainside, flipping the trio out of it. They run as fast as their legs could carry them as an avalanche of ash rolls down the mountainside towards them. The eruption blocks out the sunlight.
The Streets of Pompeii
The volcanic ash is falling on the town, and people are screaming and running about in an attempt to escape the oncoming danger. A tearful Donna was desperately trying to shepherd people to safety.
"Don't. Don't go to the beach. Don't go to the beach, go to the hills." She pleaded, but nobody was listening to her. "Don't go to the beach, it's not safe. Listen to me!" A lost little boy stood nearby, crying and frightened and Donna goes over to him to comfort him. "Come here…" She wheedles.
"Give him to me!" A woman, presumably his mother, snatches the boy from Donna's grasp and runs off. The Heart comes over to the weeping Donna and wraps an arm around her shoulders.
"I know, sweetheart. I know." She consoles Donna, just as the Doctor rushes up to them and grabs the Heart's hand.
"Come on!" He urges frantically and leads them quickly towards Foss Street.
Caecilius's Villa
Caecilius and his family were cowering in a corner nearby where the Tardis was standing. The Doctor bursts into the room, with Donna and the Heart at his heels. He pauses for a moment and stares at them.
"Gods save us, Doctor!" Caecilius pleaded with the Doctor fearfully. But the Doctor ignores him and heads straight into the Tardis with a reluctant, guilty Heart following suit. Donna just stands there, aghast. She couldn't believe what she had just seen the couple do.
"No! Doctor, Heart, you can't!" She shouts out at them, despairingly. The Tardis engines start up and she quickly runs inside to avoid being left behind. Caecilius and his family curl up tighter as the Tardis dematerialises away.
Tardis
Donna stands at the threshold of the closed double doors of the Tardis and glares angrily at the Time Couple. The Doctor was standing at the console; just leaning against it and avoiding direct eye contact with the redhead, while the Heart was standing at the top of the staircase that led to the lower parts of the ship, tears slowly sliding down her face. She was also avoiding eye contact as well.
"You can't just leave them!" Donna seethed. The Doctor's head snapped up as he tearfully glares at Donna.
"Don't you think we've done enough?" He remarked scornfully. "History's back in place, and everyone dies." Donna storms over to the console.
"You've got to go back. Doctor, I am telling you, take this thing back." He still won't budge. Donna's lip quivers in her anguish. "It's not fair…" She whispered.
"No, it's not." The Heart agrees, quietly.
"But your own planet. It burned…" She trailed off and the Doctor loses his temper, angry about the entire situation.
"But that's just it. Don't you see, Donna? Can't you understand? If I could go back and save them, then I would. But I can't. I can never go back. We can never go back." He gestures between himself and the Heart. "I can't. I just can't, I can't…" Tears were falling down Donna's face.
"Just someone. Please. Not the whole town. Just save someone." Donna pleaded, and the Doctor paused and glanced at the Heart, who had a look of determination on her face.
Maybe, just this once, they could break the rules…
Caecilius's Villa
The family had just about given up hope of surviving until the next day. Then they paused when they hear the strangest noise. The sound of groaning and wheezing. Of chains being dragged across the floor…
… then the blue box reappeared. The door opened and there stood the Doctor, looking like an avenging angel as he looked at Caecilius with a fierce determination. He holds out his hand.
"Come with me." He said, firmly. Caecilius reaches out and takes the Doctor's hand.
He pulls him inside the Tardis…
Hillside
Seven people stand and look on as Pompeii is filled with volcanic ash. It is a devastating sight.
"It's never forgotten, Caecilius." The Doctor consoles him. "Oh, time will pass, men'll move on, and stories will fade. But one day, Pompeii will be found again. In thousands of years. And everyone will remember you." Donna turns towards Evelina who was standing beside her brother, watching the destruction below.
"What about you, Evelina? Can you see anything?" She asks the girl, gently. But Evelina shakes her head, looking a bit confused.
"The visions have gone."
"The explosion was so powerful that it cracked open a rift in time, just for a second." The Heart explains to her. "That's what gave you the gift of prophecy. It echoed back into the Pyrovillian alternative. But not anymore. You're free." She gives the teenager a congratulatory smile. This meant that the girl was able to live the normal life of a teenager on her own terms.
"But tell me. Who are you people? With your words, and your temple containing such size within?" Metella was grateful, but wary of the Doctor, the Heart and Donna.
"Oh, we were never here. Don't tell anyone." The Doctor requested, as the Heart breaks away from Evelina and Donna and comes over to stand with her tether. They link hands together, grateful that they still had each other and that they were safe.
"The great god Vulcan must be enraged." Caecilius decided. "It's so volcanic. It's like some sort of volcano." The trio gave very subtle smiles. Donna's prediction came true; they did learn a new word, but at a terrible price. "All those people…" Caecilius was horrified and Metella came over to seek out comfort from her husband, while Quintus reaches out and takes his sister's hand as they solemnly watch Pompeii become engulfed by fire.
The Doctor, the Heart, and Donna quietly withdraw and return back into the Tardis which materialises away.
Tardis
The Doctor resumes his position back at the console, while the Heart chooses to lean against one of the coral supporting beams. Donna quietly strides up to the console and smiles gratefully at the Time Couple.
"Thank you." She tells them, gratefully. The Doctor looks up at Donna and gives her a warm smile.
"Yeah. You were right." He admitted.
"Welcome aboard, Donna." The Heart added, and Donna smiles back.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review. TTFN xx