Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

The Fires of Pompeii

"I'm not an expert." Donna remarked, looking at something in the distance, "But there's seven hills in Rome, aren't there?" The Time Lords followed her gaze to see a mountain looming over the city. "How come they've only got one?" Donna asked them.

Before they could answer, the ground shook suddenly. "Here we go again." a vendor said nonchalantly as he and others worked to save their merchandise.

"Wait a minute." Donna said as the trembling stopped, "One mountain, with smoke, which makes this..."

"Pompeii." the Artist breathed in horror, cursing herself for not having done an environment check before leaving the TARDIS. She'd gotten rather lax about that after Martha had left.

"We're in Pompeii." the Doctor realised, "And it's volcano day!"

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The trio raced through the streets back to the spot where they'd landed. The Doctor shoved the curtain aside, only to find that the TARDIS had gone. "You're kidding." Donna panted, "You're not telling me the TARDIS has gone."

"Okay." the Doctor said simply.

"Where is it, then?" Donna asked.

"You told me not to tell you." the Doctor replied.

"Oi, don't get clever in Latin." Donna retorted. She was in no mood for the Doctor's nonsense right now.

"We don't have time for this." the Artist cut in and went over to the vendor Donna had spoken to earlier. "Excuse me?" she said to him, "There was a box. Big, blue and wooden, just over there. Do you know where it's gone?"

"Sold it, didn't I?" the man replied smugly.

"But it wasn't yours to sell." the Doctor glared.

"It was on my patch, wasn't it?" the man shrugged, "I got 15 seserce for it!"

"Tell me, who did you sell it to?" the Artist demanded.

"Old Caecilius." the man replied, "Look, if ya wanna argue, why don't ya take it out with him? He's on Foss Street. Big fella, can't miss him."

"Thanks." the Doctor said, and began to run off, only to come back. "Why did he buy a big blue wooden box for?" he asked the man.

"Let's ask him ourselves, come on." the Artist said, grabbing the Doctor's arm and dragging him away.

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They split up for a while, then reunited at an intersection. "Ha! Got it." the Doctor said, "Foss Street, this way."

"No." Donna replied, "I've found this big sorta amphitheatre thing. We can start there, we could gather everyone together. Then maybe they've got a great big bell or something like that, we could ring. Have they invented bells yet?"

"What d'ya want a bell for?" the Doctor frowned.

"To warn everyone." Donna replied, "Start the evacuation. What time does Vesuvius erupt? When's it due?"

"Today's August 23rd 79AD." the Artist replied, checking her watch, "The eruption's tomorrow."

"Plenty of time." Donna smiled, "We'll get everyone out easy."

"Yeah, except we're not going to." the Doctor told her.

"But that's what you two do." Donna stared, "You save people."

"We can't this time." the Artist said, though it killed her to say so, "Pompeii is a fixed point in history. We have to let it play out. No interference from us."