FLESH AND STONE PART TWO
edited as of January 4th, 2020
In the Primary Flight Deck, River was attempting to fix a teleport in the center of the room when the Doctor enters from the outside with a look of dread yet determination. "Octavian's dead so is that teleport," he tells her. "You're wasting your time. I'm going to need your communicator." Holding out his hand, River gives him her communicator.
Charlotte turns away from the light switch. Standing up straight as she moves to stand beside River while she works on the console and as the Doctor on the communicator. In moments like these, where she knew what needed to be done but didn't know how to get to that goal, Charlotte felt useless.
The communicator, while beginning overrun by static, turned on. "Hello?" called a familiar Scottish accent. "Hello!"
"Amy, is that you?" asked the Doctor.
"Doctor?"
Becoming focused, the Doctor's eyes narrow in the distance. "Where are you? Is Aino with you? And the Clerics?"
"Aino's here," Amy reassured him. "But the Clerics, they've gone. There was a light and they walked into the light. Doctor, they didn't even remember each other."
"No. They wouldn't."
River walks from the console back to the teleport. "What is that light?" she asked.
"Time running out," he answers, before saying back to Amy, "I'm sorry. I should never have left you there."
On the other end, neither Amy nor Aino seems mad. "Well, what do I do now?"
"You come to us," he replies. "Primary Flight Deck, at the other end of the forest."
"I can't see!" Amy reminded. "I can't open my eyes."
Buzzing the screwdriver at the communicator, he says, "Turn on the spot."
This time, Aino spoke up, "I'm sorry, what?"
"Just do it, alright? Turn on the spot," the Doctor tells her. "When the communicator sounds like my screwdriver, you're facing the right way. Follow the sound." When they turn to face the right sound, he continues, "You have to start moving now, there's time energy spilling out of that crack and you have to stay ahead of it."
Aino gritted her teeth. "But the Angels, Amy can't see and they're everywhere."
"I'm sorry, I really am, but the Angels can really kill you."
Sighing as they began walking down, in one hand Aino held Amy's for her not to trip, and in the other, she still carried the communicator. "What does the time energy do?"
The Doctor rubbed his forehead. "Just keep moving."
"I am," she stressed."What would it do?"
Despite not wanting to worry them, the Doctor finally revealed what would happen. "If the time energy catches up to you, you'll never have been born. It'll erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all." And he couldn't have that. "Now, keep her eyes shut and keep moving!"
Becoming frustrated, River said, "It's never going to work."
"What else have you got?!" shouts the Doctor in response. "River, tell me!"
River went quiet, glancing back to Charlotte beside her before going back to work on the console again. However, soon after, the sounds of clanging come from the roof.
"What's that?" questioned Charlotte.
"The Angels running from the fire," answered the Doctor. "They came here to feed on the time energy, now it's going to feed on them." He takes out the radio again. "Aino, Amy, listen to me. I'm sending a proximity detector to your communicator." With the screwdriver, he sonics the communicator again. "It'll beep if something's in your way. You just maneuver until the beeping stops because this is important. The forest is full of Angels, and, Amy, you'll have to walk like you can see."
Amy stopped. "What does that mean?"
"Look, just keep moving." He turns off the communicator for a moment.
"The time energy," began River, "what's it going to do?"
The Doctor rubs his face. "Er, keep eating."
Charlotte scrunched her eyebrows. "And how can we stop it?"
"Feed it," he said.
Looking back over to him, River furthered the query, "Feed it what?"
"A big complicated space-time event should shut it up for a while."
"Like what, for instance?"
"Like me, for instance!" he shouts back at her.
Charlotte stopped everything she was thinking. Multiple times she has risked her own life to save someone else's, yet when the Doctor threatened to do the same it only brought betrayal in Charlotte's heart. Would he actually? Of course, he won't have to, she knows, but if things didn't go to plan... would he?
No matter what, Charlotte wouldn't take it. Shaking her head, she glared at him as she shouts in response, "You aren't the only one who can feed it!" After saying it, Charlotte paused altogether; she didn't realize how it would sound coming out. Her shoulders drop.
This stops when a beep echoes in the Flight Deck. "What's that?" asked Amy.
"It's a warning," the Doctor answers her. "There are Angels 'round you now. Listen to me, this is going to be hard but I know you can do it. The Angels are scared and running and right now they aren't interested in you." He closed his eyes tight. "They'll assume you can see them and their instincts will kick in. All you've got to do is walk like you can see. Just don't open your eyes. Walk like you can see. You're not moving. You have to do this, now." Not getting a response, he hits his palms against the console. "You have to do this!"
Back in the forest, Aino aids Amy in swerving between the Angels. But, as Aino kept an eye on the group of Angels, Amy trips over a tree root and the communicator is knocked into a bush.
"Pretend you're looking at them," Aino orders her. "I'll get the radio." As Amy does that, sitting on the ground, Aino struggles to find the radio in the prickly bush with thick outer branches. Pushing past the leaves, she sees the light blue wires hidden inside.
As she pushes past the wires to find the radio, Amy struggles to stand up. Falling back down, she found herself looking back down at the ground. With her hands shaky, Amy struggles to find her balance to stand up when she doesn't even know where she is.
"Found it!" announced Aino, taking the radio in hand before beginning to slide her head out before her hair was pulled roughly when she took her head out. Of course, with their luck, her hair got knotted around one of the bush's thorns. "My hair's stuck!" she calls to Amy.
The red-head, now standing up, was stuck. She could continue pretending to watch the Angels, or she could try and help Aino get her hair untangled from the bush.
"Amy, take the radio," Aino ordered her, holding up the radio behind her while her hair was still stuck around the branch. Surprisingly easy, considering their series of unfortunate events in the past minute, Amy took the radio.
Aino, grabbing scissors from her pocket, was close to cutting her hair when she and Amy were suddenly teleported into the Primary Flight Deck.
Kneeling on the ground, Aino stood up as River eased Amy from the teleportation. "See?" River said to the Doctor. "Told you I could get it working."
Aino grins. Standing in front of her friend, Aino put her hands on both sides of River's face before kissing her. Catching her off guard, Aino could clearly see River was flustered when she pulled away.
"I, Aino, am in your debt, River Song."
"Already paid it off, dear." An alarm in the Byzantium blares and River held onto Amy again. "What's that?"
"The Angels draining the last of the ships power," answered the Doctor, "which means... the shields going to release!" The Doctor runs forward to the wall where they came in through, standing by as it rose to show the army of Angels in front of them. At the head of the army stands one holding a radio.
"Angel Bob, I presume," greeted the Doctor.
"The Time Field is ending," Angel Bob says, the actual Angel's mouth doesn't move, yet they still somehow hear his voice. "It will destroy our reality."
"Yeah, and look at you," comments the Doctor, "all running away. What can I do for you?"
"There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself in, it will close and they will be saved."
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do that. But why?"
"Your friends will also be saved," Angel Bob reminds him.
He frowns. "Well, there is that."
River stormed up to him. "I've traveled in time. I'm a complicated space-time event, too. Throw me in."
"Oh, be serious!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Compared to me, these are more complicated than you, and it takes every one of them to add up to me. So, get a grip."
River glares up at him. "Doctor, I can't let you do this."
"No, seriously, get a grip."
"You're not going to die here!" she replied, trying to pull him back, only for him to be glued in his spot.
The Doctor glances over to her. "No, I mean it. Charlotte, Aino, River, Amy, get a grip." Looking back at the Angels, he gave a proud grin.
River's mouth drops. "You genius," she whispered before going telling Amy to keep hold of a handle and just as Aino and Charlotte get a grip on the console's emergency handles.
"Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now," Angel Bob told the Doctor.
However, the man, despite the threats of sacrificing himself, was still a grinning mess. "Thing is, Bob, the Angels are draining all the power from this ship, every last bit of it. And you know what? I think you've forgot where you're standing. I think they've forgotten the gravity of the situation. Or, to put it another way, Angels, night-night." The Doctor turns around to hold onto a bar.
Finally, with loss of power, the gravity fails in the ship. With the five of them holding on with a tight grip, the Byzantium turns on the side. Watching over her shoulder, Charlotte holds on as the Angels plunge through the forest to meet their end in the crack.
Once every Angel has fallen in, and with them being such a complex time-space even, the crack gives a burst of light before closing off for now. But, in this specific time, hanging in the Primary Flight Deck, they all let out a breath of relief when the crack and its light are nowhere to be seen. Now, their only problem is climbing out.
---
While a seagull cawed its life away and the waves made their way to the beach's shoreline, Charlotte sat on a rock with her eyes on the Doctor and Aino as they talked one-on-one just outside of the TARDIS. Glancing up, she sees River standing beside her with her hands now in handcuffs and Stormcage soldiers standing in a half-circle around the two.
"This is my first time meeting you, y'know," Charlotte told her.
River hums. "I already had that idea, dear. And stop staring at them, it's creepy."
In all honesty, Charlotte forgot she was watching the Doctor and Aino. "Who is she?"
"An old friend."
While already having a feeling she was going to receive that answer if she asked, Charlotte groaned before putting a hand to her head. "Forget about it, I'm not going to meet her again, yeah?" At least, she hoped she didn't.
"Oh, she'll be back soon," River filled her in, causing Charlotte to swing her head back up to her.
"How soon?"
The woman being questioned frowned. "It depends on how you look at it, but no need to worry." River squints her eyes. "How long have you been here?"
That causes Charlotte to grimace. She hates to admit it, but she lost track of time a while ago. "Er, two months or three? Not more than that, I don't think." Still looking in Aino's direction, she watched as she typed something on a device on her wrist before giving the Doctor a mock-salute and teleporting off the beach.
God, Charlotte could taste the teleportation and her nose scrunched.
After talking to Amy, the Doctor joins Charlotte and River. "You two, me... handcuffs," says River when the Doctor stopped in front of her. "Must it always end this way?"
He looks down. "What now?"
"The prison ship's in orbit," she tells him. "They'll beam me up any second. Might've done enough to get a pardon. We'll see."
The Doctor nods. "Octavian said you killed a man."
"Yes, I did." At the reminder, she paused. "A good man. A very good man. The best man I've ever known."
The Doctor rose his eyebrows. "Who?"
Giving him a soft smile, Charlotte stands up from the rock. "C'mon, no need to ruin the surprise, yeah? No sneak previews."
Nudging her a little, River adds on what she said, "Except for this one: you'll see me again quite soon when the Pandorica opens."
The Doctor couldn't help but grin as he looked up at the sky. "The Pandorica..." he leans to River's ear, whispering, "That's a fairytale."
Swatting his elbow, Charlotte replies, "You aren't one to talk."
River laughs. "I'll see you there."
"I look forward to it."
"I remember it well."
Charlotte smiled. While she figures she'll be there in the future, and it won't be soon, she couldn't help but wonder what it'll be like. When Amy comes up to them, wrapped up in a blanket, Charlotte found she didn't want to begin their goodbyes to River.
"Bye, River," Amy says to her.
"See you, Amy," River said to her with a fond smile before the handcuffs give a series of beeps. "Oh! I think that's my ride."
To give her room for the teleport, the three of them stepped aside. "Can I trust you, River Song?" the Doctor asks.
In full honesty, River shrugs. "If you like, but where's the fun in that?" Laughing, she was teleported up to the prison ship alongside the guards.
And the trio was alone again. Without Aino and River, none of them had any reason to be confused by someone near them because these three know each other- some more than others and some less than others.
Charlotte leans her head on Amy's shoulder while they looked back at the ocean in front of them. At the end of the day, there are always moments like these... when the true danger ends and there is no longer anything to worry about. Moments where they can just admire an ocean without fear.
To her right, Charlotte saw the Doctor standing silently. "What are you thinking about?" she asks him.
"Time can be rewritten."
---
Charlotte doesn't like to change things, it makes her nervous. But, when things should be changed, she isn't just on the bandwagon, she built the bandwagon from an idea and a purpose. So, for Rory's sake, she went into Amy's bedroom instead of the Doctor- to the redhead's obvious disappointment.
Later, she plans to tell the Doctor what would've happened if he went in here. But, that is later. No need to worry about that now. Right now, though, from her bed, Charlotte took a once over of Amy's wedding dress hanging in her wardrobe. "Good Lord, Amy."
"It is a good dress, isn't it?"
Charlotte sighed, rubbing her hands over her face. "It is, but no. You're getting married in the morning." Amy nodded, and Charlotte continued, "You're getting married and you ran away."
"I didn't run away," Amy corrected. "I just put it on pause."
Charlotte fell back on the bed, groaning. "Why did you go?"
"...You know."
Charlotte turned her eyes to the ring box on Amy's nightstand. "And you left your ring."
"I know."
"And why?"
Amy crosses her arms, becoming uncomfortable. "You know why."
Sitting back up, Charlotte nodded her head slowly. "I want to hear it from you, just in case I've got it wrong." She gave a tight smile to her friend. Throughout the day, she knew this part was coming closer, but up until she asked to go home, Charlotte hoped she wouldn't.
Amy groans, grimacing at the thought of saying it to, of all people, Charlotte. "I just wanted to get to know the Doctor, I guess. And you."
Charlotte hums. "Get to know the Doctor, or to get to know the Doctor's mouth?"
Covering her face, Amy cringes. "Not at first, but, yeah, the second one... I'm just scared, you know, about the wedding. And you two appeared. So, yeah, I took a break."
Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Sontarans- those are all things Charlotte has gone up against, and yet this drama was the one that made her want to throw her hands in the air and leave it to the fates to decide what happens. "Alright, alright," she muttered. "I'll give you the rest of the night in the TARDIS, but you try nothing and I can tell him."
As Charlotte stands up, Amy nods. "Okay." And the two went back into the TARDIS. While one was slightly disappointed it didn't go as planned, the other was proud it went exactly to her plan. However, the disappointed red-head was still aware she was far from right and entering the TARDIS, Amy immediately went in the direction of her room knowing tomorrow was going to be a long day.
_______
Next up: The Dumbbell Nebula
GIF IS FROM leocompanion ON TUMBLR
a/n: alright the title of the last two chapters is a BIT misleading, but I swear you'll know what she did in the next chapter- which is superrrrr important in the doctor + charlotte's relationship. And: what were the Doctor and Aino talking about when they stood alone together? Find out in like 18 chapters (wink)