the hourglass (doctor who fan fiction)

Time of the Angels pt. 2

"The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralise it. We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives. According to this, behind the cliff face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up." Octavian explained. Night was upon us. "Oh, good." the Doctor said sarcastically. "Good, sir?" Octavian questioned. "Catacombs. Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great." I added to the sarcasm. "Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead." Octavian corrected. "You can stop any time you like." I said.

"Father Octavian?" a soldier called. "Excuse me, ma'am, sir." He left. "You're letting people call you sir and ma'am. You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?" Amy pointed out. "Now that's interesting. You're still here. Which part of wait in the tardis till I tell you it's safe was so confusing?" the Doctor turned to Amy. "Ooo, you are all Mister and Miss Grumpy Face today." she said looking at me and the Doctor.

"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and right now one of them is trapped inside that wreckage and we're supposed to climb in after it with his screwdriver and a torch, and assuming we survive the radiation long enough and assuming the whole ship doesn't explode in our face, he does something incredibly clever which he probably hasn't actually thought of yet. That's our day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?" I explained.

"Is River Song your wife? Because she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you two, I've never seen anyone do that. She's kind of like, you know, heel, boy. She's Mrs Doctor Juno from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?" she nudged my shoulder. I crossed my arms. "Yes, you're right. We are definitely Mister and Miss Grumpy Face today." I frowned. River called to us from the drop module. She had changed into combat fatigues. "Doctor! Juno?" she called out, "Father Octavian." River said. "Why do they call him Father?" Amy asked. "He's their Bishop, they're his Clerics. It's the fifty first Century. The Church has moved on."

A grainy image of a Weeping Angel with its back towards us was on a monitor on the far wall. "What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop." River informed. "Yeah, it's an Angel. Hands covering its face." I said. "You've encountered the Angels before?" Octavian asked me. "Well not me exactly, but he has." I pointed to the Doctor. "Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving." the Doctor said. "But it's just a statue." Amy didn't understand. "It's a statue when you see it." River turned to Amy.

"Where did it come from?" the Doctor asked. "Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time." River replied. "There's a difference between dormant and patient." the Doctor muttered. "What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Amy questioned. "The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen. So legend has it." River explained. "No, it's not legend, it's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defence mechanism." I corrected. "What, being a stone?"

"Being a stone until you turn your back."

"The hyperdrive would've split on impact. That whole ship's going to be flooded with drive burn radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms. Deadly to almost any living thing." the Doctor explained. "Deadly to an Angel?" Octavian questioned. "Dinner to an Angel. The longer we leave it there, the stronger it will grow." he turned his head, "Who built that temple? Are they still around?" the Doctor asked. "The Aplans. Indigenous life form. They died out four hundred years ago." River informed. "Two hundred years later, the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists." My eyes widened at Octavians statement. "Whoo! You lot, you're everywhere. You're like rabbits." I nudged the Doctor, "He'll never get done saving you."

"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population-" Octavian began, "Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load." the Doctor said. "Verger, how are we doing with those explosives? Doctor Song, with me." Octavian said to River before walking off. "Two minutes. Sweeties, I need you." she said to us. "How about the Doctor and Amy go with you, I want a closer look at the angel." I turned back to the Module, "Be careful, Juno!" I heard the Doctor yell. "Alright!" I yelled back. When I turned around, the angels face was raised from its hands and started to look over its shoulder.

"River?" I called, looking back towards the door. "Yes love?" I heard her respond. "Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?" I asked. "No, just the four seconds." I turned around, the angel was now looking straight at me. I turned around to look at the door, but quickly turned back. The angel was closer to the camera. I heard the module door close and locks behind me. "Shit..." I mumbled, grabbing the remote nearby, but when I tried turning the monitor off, it came back on again. I tried again, it didn't work. "But you're just a recording. You can't move." I said, thinking the angel could hear me. I tried pulling out the wire to the monitor. When I looked back up, the angel was up close to the camera.

I turned around quickly trying to open the door. "Doctor?" I called, I turned around. The angel's mouth was open. "Doctor!" I yelled. I tried my best to keep my eyes open while trying to open the door. "Doctor!" I blinked. A image of the angel was projected. "Doctor! It's in the room!" I yelled as loud as I could. "Juno!" I heard him on the other side of the door. "Doctor!" I yelled, staring at the angel, "Are you all right? What's happening?" the Doctor asked. "It's coming out of the television. The Angel is here." I informed. I heard the Doctor try to use his sonic. "Don't take your eyes off it. Keep looking. It can't move if you're looking." the Doctor said. "Doctor, what do you think I've been doing this whole time!" I shouted, my eyes growing watery as I struggled to keep my eyes open.

"Don't blink, Juno. Don't even blink." the Doctor said. "I know Doctor!" I shouted. "What are you doing?" I heard River say. "Cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off." he paused, "No good, it's deadlocked the whole system." I blinked my eyes singularly. "There is no deadlock." River said. "There is now." I heard the Doctor say. "Help me." I whispered. I could feel the Doctors worry seeping through the door. "Can you turn it off?" he asked. "I already tried that! I even cut the monitor off." I said. "Try again, but don't take your eyes off the Angel." he warned. "I'm not." tears rolled down my eyes. I tried the remote again. "Each time it moves, it'll move faster. Don't even blink."

"I'm not blinking. Have you ever tried not blinking?" I continued using the remote. "It just keeps switching back on again." I said. "Yeah, it's the Angel." I heard the Doctor say. "But the angel, I thought it was just a recording?" I questioned. "No, anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel." I heard him pause, "What are you doing?" he asked. "I'm trying to cut through. It's not even warm." I heard River reply. "There is no way in. It's not physically possible." the Doctor said loud enough for me to hear. "Well that doesn't get my hopes up." I sighed. "Keep looking at it. Don't stop looking." the Doctor said. "That's what I've been doing." I responded. "Juno, not the eyes." he said. "Look at the Angel, but don't look at the eyes." I had been looking at its eyes, not on purpose, but by habit. "Why?"

"The eyes are not the windows of the soul. They are the doors. Beware what may enter there." I heard him say. It sounded like he read it off a book. "Doctor, what did you say?" I asked. "Don't look at the eyes!" he yelled. "No, about images. What did you say about images?" I questioned. "Whatever holds the image of an Angel, is an Angel." River said. I smiled. I had been watching the same four seconds on loop, and I finally thought of something brilliant. "One, two, three, four." I counted. I quickly pressed the pause button on the remote just as the tape loop returned to the start. The image went to static.

The Doctor and River bursted in as the monitor turned off. The Doctor pulled me to him, giving me a warm hug. "I froze it. There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel any more. That was pretty good." I said, muffled by the Doctors shoulder. "That was amazing." River said. "You're brilliant." the Doctor whispered. "Thanks. Yeah, I kind of creamed it, didn't I?" I grinned in his shoulder. "So it was here? That was the Angel?" River asked. "That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." the Doctor explained.

There was an explosion outside. "Doctor? We're through." Octavian informed. "Okay, now it starts." the Doctor said. "Hey, Doctor? You can let go of me now." I told him. "Right. Sorry." he let go, gave me an embarrassed smile, and walked off. I stood there and scratched my eye, "Coming?" River asked. "Yeah, coming. There's just something in my eye."