#seriously I saw this randomly on my dash and I got hooked on it

[cherrymov]

Reblogging this twice to give attention to this amazing fan-comic by @jesncin . Love, love, LOVE your depiction of Martian Society, oml

Martian Manhunter, Sons of Mars [1/2]

Fancomic reimagining of J'onn J'onzz and Ma'alefa'ak's origin story.

[saiilorstars]

Stars Dance

Ch. 4: The Time of Angels // Story Masterlist

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 11th Doctor x Original Female Character

A/N: I am so excited for this one because it introduces that one character that always pops up to cause trouble with OCs (tee hee!)

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Chapter summary: The Time of Angels is upon the Doctor and his companions, whether he knows it or not. Lucky for him, he has River Song to help...or maybe that makes him even unluckier? Who knows, but what he does know is that her apparently being good friends with Avalon is a bit unsettling seeing as River knows a lot of Avalon's future...along with his.

The Doctor strode through a medieval church-like museum, randomly pointing at displays while giving his opinions on it. Behind him strolled Amy, Avalon and Lena, looking a bit bored of the location.

"Wrong! Wrong! Bit right, mostly wrong," the Doctor pointed to several displays, "I love museums."

"Yeah me too, except I don't go pointing out the errors of history," Avalon remarked, "Why are we here? You promised me an alien planet. Where is it?"

"Patience," he pointed at her and Amy scoffed.

"You have no patience," she informed.

"Where are we, Doctor?" Lena looked around, not at all upset with the location. It was a nice, calm place with lots of interesting artifacts. Leave it to Avalon and even Amy to be disappointed with it.

"It's the Delerium Archive, final resting place of the headless monks, the biggest museum ever!" the Doctor gave a whirl with his arms extended out.

"You've got a time machine, what do you need museums for?" Avalon raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that redundant? And boring?"

But the man continued pointing here and there, completely disregarding her words. In fact, he hadn't even heard her speak. He was too busy going from one display to the next. "Wrong! Very wrong! Oooh, one of mine! Also one of mine!"

"Oooh..." Avalon smirked, "I get it now. This is how you keep score. I didn't think you would be conceited about it...well...smug, but..." she trailed off when she saw the Doctor had stopped at an intriguing display holding an antique box with strange symbols on it.

"Oh great, an old box," Amy sighed this time. She might just die of boredom now. She didn't think it was possible given the fact they had time and space at their beck and call but the Doctor had found a way.

"Maybe it's important," Lena offered, moving over to stand beside the Doctor. She stared at the box, tilting her head from one side to the next as she tried to read the funny symbols on the box. He hadn't even blinked yet, but as much as Lena stared at it she couldn't decide what was so important about it. "Is it?"

The Doctor slowly nodded but was no longer as excited as earlier. "It's from one of the old starliners. A Home Box."

"What's a Home Box?" Amy asked.

"Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home, with all the flight data."

"So what's so important about this one?" Avalon questioned, making rounds on the display box.

"The writing, the graffiti - Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords."

"And let me guess, you're the only one that's supposed to know it..."

"You'd think since I am the last..." he nodded, "There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple Gods."

"What does it say?" Lena asked.

The Doctor looked up with a flat face. The women almost laughed at him. "Hello, sweetie." Next thing anyone knew, the Doctor ripped the case off and snatched the box from its place.

"What are you doing!?" Avalon stiffened as she heard the alarms blaring. "I thought you didn't steal!"

"You rubbed off, now run!" he ordered and went first. The women ran after him with two guards coming out of the door to chase them. Just barely, the group ran inside the TARDIS where the Doctor quickly sent them off and hooked up the home box to the console.

"Why did you just steal it?" Lena asked him, completely out of breath.

"Cos someone on a space ship 12,000 years ago is trying to attract my attention. And here you go by the way," he took out an asthma inhaler from his jacket's pocket and handed it to the brunette.

"You carry one now?" Avalon asked, a small smile on her face.

"Course I do, my baby sister has asthma," he shrugged casually and patted Lena's head who simply rolled her eyes in return.

For Avalon though, it was a touching gesture. He literally never stopped running and his brain - or brains, that was still left unconfirmed - was all over the place. She thought perhaps the stories had exaggerated in that part but no, they were 100% correct. He was everywhere. To stop and remember a small detail like somebody needing an inhaler every now and then was big for him, at least that's how Avalon saw it. He took great care of Lena and she couldn't be more thankful for that. It definitely made her feel better about traveling.

The Doctor had gotten the security feed from the box to start working again. He'd hooked it up to the monitor so they could all see what was on it. A grainy black and white footage of a woman with fairly big hair, wearing a party dress, appeared on the monitor. The image switched to the woman's back facing the screen and three men standing in ahead of her.

"The party's over, Doctor Song…" one of the men was saying, "…yet still you're on board."

The woman turned to face the men, "Sorry, Alistair. I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination."

"Wait till she runs," the man told the other men behind him "Don't make it look like an execution."

The woman looked at her watch and started saying slowly numbers, "Triple-seven, five…slash, three, four, nine by ten. Zero, twelve, slash, acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor."

The Doctor quickly began typing on the keyboard of the console.

"What was that, what did she say?" Amy asked, confused.

"Co-ordinates!" he exclaimed.

"Like I said on the dance floor, you might want to find something to hang on to!" the woman said over the monitor.

"Ha-" Avalon laughed loudly, "-that's a good line! I'm taking that one!"

"Seriously? That's what you paid attention to!?" the Doctor shot her an incredulous glance before dashing for the doors.

"How was I not supposed to!?" he heard her shout from behind.

He yanked the doors open and reached out. His companions saw him being toppled over by the same woman from the video.

"Doctor?" Lena called with concern. The landing sounded a bit...hurtful.

"River?" the Doctor looked up at the woman on top of him. Her bushy hair was partially covering his eyes.

"Ew, get off. And follow that ship!" River Song jumped to her feet and watched the ship fly away from them.

In a one two, River and the Doctor ran back to the console and worked the controls to follow the ship. Avalon, Amy and Lena stood back and watched the two in confusion.

"They've gone into warp drive, we're losing them! Stay close!" River said.

"I'm trying!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Use the stabilizers."

"There aren't any stabilizers!"

"The blue switches!"

"The blue ones don't do anything, they're just...blue," the Doctor gestured to the blue controls.

"Yes, they're blue. They're the blue stabilizers!" River used the stabilizers and suddenly the TARDIS went quiet, "See?"

"Yeah, well, it's just boring now, isn't it? They're boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers!" the Doctor frowned.

"That's not a real word," Avalon informed and noticed River giving her a small smile, "And how do you know how to fly this thing? Sorry, she," she quickly looked up at the rotor in apology. She'd made the mistake a couple times of calling the TARDIS 'it' and the box was always ready to remind Avalon that she was alive. Avalon had found herself touching sparks every now and then.

"You call that flying the TARDIS?" the Doctor scoffed and sat down to sulk, "Ha!"

"OK. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right along side," River informed, finishing up with the controls.

"Parked us? We haven't landed," the Doctor shot her a sharp look.

"Of course we've landed. I just landed her."

"But it didn't make the noise."

"What noise?"

"Oh! Oh! I know!" Lena raised her hands, using her inhaler once more before she imitated the TARDIS wheezing sound, making River laugh.

"Oh I'm sorry sweetie but that's cos that fool over there-" she pointed to the Doctor who mock-glared at her, "-leaves the brakes on."

"What, so it's actually not supposed to make that noise?" Lena frowned.

River shook her head, "Nope."

"Serious let down..." Avalon sarcastically whispered as she turned to the Doctor with a look. "That's always part of the stories. So what else has been a lie?" she dramatically asked.

"Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise!" the Doctor jumped to his feet, purposely ignoring Avalon. "I love that noise. Come along, baby sister," he swung his arm around Lena's shoulders, "Let's have a look."

"No, wait! Environment checks," River called but the two kept going.

"Oh, yes, sorry! Quite right. Environment checks," the Doctor stuck his head out the door, "Nice out."

"We're somewhere in the Garn Belt," River started reading off the screen, "There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest..."

"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System," Avalon declared proudly, "Oxygen-rich atmosphere, toxins in the soft band, 11-hour day."

River put her hands on her hips and gave her a sharp look, "Oh and you think you're so hot when you do that, don't you?"

"I like to think I look hot all the time," Avalon triumphantly smiled. "But also, the words on the screen are big enough to see from here," River playfully rolled her eyes at the cheeky ginger.

"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" Lena asked River as she and the Doctor returned to the console.

"Oh, I had lessons from the very best," River declared, rolling her eyes when the Doctor smugly smiled.

"Well, yeah," he fixed his jacket.

"Thank you Avalon," River then said with a hint of a smirk.

"What? I don't know how to drive this," Avalon nearly laughed while the Doctor looked from one woman to the other with a frown. He barely knew River as it was and already she was making friends with Avalon? That spelled trouble a mile away.

River was watching Avalon with a degree of confusion. "You don't?"

Avalon shook her head, "No. I just came on board a month ago."

"Ooh..." River then understood the timelines, at least with the twins, "...right then," she picked up her red shoes, "Why did they land here?" she headed for the doors.

"They didn't land," the Doctor clarified.

"Sorry?"

"You should've checked the Home Box - it crashed," he followed her then shut the doors behind her and returned to the console.

"Doctor, who is she?" Lena asked. At first glance, River looked like a highly educated woman. How could she get the perfect coordinates for the Doctor to track her? It was just a curious sight to see because Lena could tell that the Doctor was a bit reluctant with the woman.

"Yeah, and how did she do that museum thing?" Amy added.

"It's a long story and I don't know most of it," he answered as he worked the controls. A truer story had never been told. "Off we go!"

"Hold on, what are you doing?" Avalon neared him, more curious of the controls after what the woman said of driving the box.

"Leaving. She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."

"Are you basically running away?"

"Yep."

"And why?"

"Cos she's the future."

"Can you run away from that?" Amy asked.

"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me," he declared.

"Yeah but..." Avalon smirked as she looked towards the doors, "I was promised an alien planet and I do believe that-" she pointed to the doors, "-is indeed an alien planet."

The Doctor caught onto what the ginger was heading for and shook his head, "Oh no, no. No," he pointed at her.

She put her hands on her hips and sharply looked at him, "You said 'Avalon, I'll take you to any alien planet you want'. Now, you need to keep that word. I choose this one," she crossed her arms.

"Avalon, don't do that," Lena moved up beside the Doctor, "We don't even know this woman and if the Doctor wants to leave it's probably for a good reason."

"Amy?" Avalon looked at the other ginger, knowing she was just as adventurous at times as she was, "What do you say?"

"Well..." Amy played with her fingers.

"No, Amy, no," the Doctor threw his head back in frustration, "Why can't you be obedient like Lena is?"

"Because we're gingers," Avalon declared, "We're feisty. I want this planet."

He sighed, "Fine, five minutes. You get five minutes and then we're off!"

"We'll see about that," Avalon ruffled his hair and rushed for the doors, Amy right behind her.

Lena giggled, "We should go and take care of them."

~ 0 ~

The ship they had been following had crashed on the top of a large and old stone structure. It was burning in certain areas with bits of debris on the ground and around the TARDIS.

River Song stood several inches from the TARDIS. She was gazing between her handheld device and the scenery. "What caused it to crash? Not me." Avalon laughed.

"Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it," the Doctor explained, "According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase-shift. No survivors."

"A phase-shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them," River shrugged, not feeling very guilty about the matter.

"About what?"

"Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries," she started keying something into her handheld device.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Amy asked the Doctor, the twins nodding in agreement.

"Amy Pond, Avalon and Lena Reynolds, Professor River Song," the Doctor gestured.

River turned to them with a small gasp, "Ahhh, I'm going to be a professor some day, am I?" the Doctor winced at his little slip, "How exciting!" she laughed, "How exciting! Spoilers!" she turned back to what ever it had she'd been doing.

"Oh no, no, no there's something more here," Avalon looked at the Doctor with a smirk, "She left you a note in a museum...who is she?" but the Doctor walked off instead of answering.

"Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum: The Home Box of category four starliner and, sooner or later, him," River informed, "It's how he keeps score."

"I know!" Avalon laughed, moving over to the woman.

"It's hilarious, isn't it?"

Avalon nodded, "It's so stupid!"

The Doctor came up behind the two with a sarcastic laugh, "I'm nobody's taxi service! I'm not gonna be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship," he informed River.

"And you are so wrong...if you want to keep on the good side of the..." she shut her mouth and simply smiled, "There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die. Now he's listening!" she started speaking into the device, "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal," she held up the device and looked at the Doctor, "Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."

The Doctor begrudgingly took out the sonic screwdriver and used it on the woman's device.

"Ooh, Doctor! You sonicked her!" Amy teased him.

"We have a minute. Shall we?" River opened her diary and skimmed the pages, "Apparently far earlier days," she mumbled to herself based on the fact none of them seemed to know who she was. "Have we done the Bone Meadows?"

"What's the book?" Avalon asked her as she eyed the dark blue book in River's hands. It had a TARDIS cover - it was kind of cute!

"Stay away from it," the Doctor warned her specifically since she had a curious eye for books, especially journals.

"Is that a journal?" Avalon ignored him and beamed at River. "You like to write?"

"Mm, not so much. It's more a necessity," River explained.

"It's her past," the Doctor began, gesturing to the diary, "And my-"

"Not just yours," River reminded, seeing this version was much younger than the last. Oh she truly hated the man's thoughts about her in these early days.

"Yes, but you never say who else's," the Doctor rolled her eyes.

"Clearly I can't tell, now can I?" she raised an eyebrow, "We meet in the wrong order and I won't corrupt the timelines."

Four columns of swirling dust appeared behind them and emerged to be four soldiers in desert camouflage uniforms, the leader immediately walking to River, "You promised me an army, Doctor Song."

"No. I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor."

The man, Octavian, shook the Doctor's hand, "Father Octavian, sir. Bishop, second class. 20 clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?"

"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?" River asked and the Doctor immediately tensed.

~ 0 ~

Later in the night, a transport ship had arrived and more soldiers had set up a camp. Octavian strode across the ground follow by the group, "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," he showed another handheld device, "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."

"Oh, good," the Doctor mumbled.

"Good, sir?"

"Catacombs, probably dark ones. Dark catacombs, great!"

"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead."

Lena frowned, already fearing the place, "You can stop any time you like, you know."

"Father Octavian?" a soldier called.

"Excuse me, sir," Octavian said before leaving the group.

The Doctor waved him off then used his screwdriver on some of the equipment on the table.

"You're letting people call you "sir". Don't take you for a man who does that," Avalon remarked as she helped Lena sit on the table. Lena tried to hide whenever she felt tired so Avalon had trained herself to keep her eyes peeled all the time. Whenever Lena slouched, it was time for a break.

"What's a Weeping Angel?" asked Amy. "And is it bad? Like really bad?"

"Hm, now that's interesting..." the Doctor turned to the three women with an expression of sarcasm that Avalon didn't particularly like. "You're still here. Which part of 'Wait in the TARDIS till I tell you it's safe' was so confusing?"

"Which part of I don't follow orders was so confusing?" Avalon countered, a small smirk on her face.

"Ooh, are you all Mr Grumpy Face today?" Amy teased and Avalon laughed, Lena simply shaking her head with a small sigh. Those two sure loved picking at the poor man.

"A Weeping Angel is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and one is trapped inside that wreckage and I'm supposed to climb in with a screwdriver and a torch-and assuming I survive the radiation, and the whole ship doesn't blow up in my face and do something clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day, that's what I'm up to. Any questions?"

"Is River Song your wife?" Amy tilted her head, the man nearly strangling her out of frustration. She just completely decided to ignore that whole speech of dangerous things he was facing.

"Oh yeah," Avalon pointed at Amy in agreement. "I could see that - although between you and me," she leaned closer to Amy, lowering her voice, "I don't know how that happened because she's so...you know," she tried making a gesture to express how she viewed River, but she couldn't find the right way to do it.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was trying to decide which ginger to shove into the TARDIS first. Between Amy and Avalon, he really didn't know who would end up killing him out of frustration first.

Avalon hadn't even noticed the Doctor's hardening glare on her and Amy. "Cos River's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've not seen anyone do that."

"Yeah, she's kinda like, you know, "Heel, boy!"" Amy nodded, "She's Mrs Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she gonna be your wife one day?"

"You guys are being nosy," Lena scolded, hopping off the table and moving beside the Doctor. "And rude. You don't know who that woman is so we shouldn't really trust her so blindly."

"Thank you," the Doctor said to Lena. She was such a sweetheart all the time. The Doctor had yet to see Lena properly angry. He didn't think she was capable of such emotion. "And yes, I am definitely Mr Grumpy Face today."

"Don't be, it's not a good face on you," Lena wagged a finger.

"Doctor? Doctor!" River called from a transport.

"Oops! Her indoors!" Amy exclaimed and she and Avalon laughed.

"Father Octavian!" River called.

"Why do they call them Father?" Lena asked the Doctor, the two leaving the laughing gingers.

"He's their Bishop, they're his clerics. It's the 51st Century, the Church has moved on."

~ 0 ~

The group stood inside the transport ship with a large screen and monitors at the end of the room. A black and white footage of a Weeping Angel with its hands over its eyes was being watched, River controlling the video with a remote.

"What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault," she said, "I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop."

"Yeah, it's an Angel. Hands covering its face," the Doctor nodded.

"You've encountered the Angels before?" Octavian asked.

"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving."

"But this is just a statue," Amy shrugged.

"It's a statue when you see it," Lena informed, giving up on the normal human charade from now on.

"What?" Amy looked at her.

"Dad used to tell us this story to scare us," Avalon smiled and shook her head, "But it didn't scare me."

"I bet it didn't," River nudged her. That was no surprise. It took a lot to scare Avalon.

"Nothing scares me, River Song. If we're going to be meeting you with the Doctor, then it's one thing you should know."

"So where did it come from?" the Doctor asked, preferring to keep those two from getting any close.

"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since, dormant all that time," River explained.

"There's a difference between dormant and patient," the Doctor corrected.

"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Amy looked between them in confusion. Nothing anyone said was making sense, especially the twins!

"The story went that Weeping Angels could only move if they were unseen," Lena explained to her friend, understanding it could be quite confusing.

"Oh it's not a legend, baby sister," the Doctor sighed, missing the confusion one of his ginger companions wore, "It's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defense mechanism."

"What, being a stone?" Amy scoffed, "Statues can't really move, Doctor. Don't know how that went by in your place."

"It's stone, Amy, until you turn your back on them," Avalon informed, dead quiet as she cast her twin a concerned look. She wanted Lena no where near those awful creatures.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor was leading the group out of the transport while speaking to Octavian, "The hyperdrive would've split on impact. The whole ship will be flooded with radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost any living thing."

"Deadly to an Angel?" Octavian asked, well hoped.

"Dinner to an Angel. The longer we leave it, the stronger it will grow," the Doctor said.

"Is there anyone around this place?" Avalon asked suddenly, "Anyone in danger with this thing nearby?"

River was already on it and began reading what her device was saying to her, "The Aplans built the temple, the indigenous life-form. But they died out 400 years ago."

"200 years later, the planet was terraformed," Octavian added, "Currently there are six billion human colonists."

"You lot, you're everywhere! Like rabbits! I'll never get done saving you," the Doctor amusingly smiled and shook his head.

"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population..." Octavian trailed off, pausing when the Doctor nodded, his amused smile no longer on his face.

"Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load!"

Octavian nodded and started with his commands, "Verger, how we doing with those explosives? Dr Song, with me."

"Two minutes," River waved him off as he walked away, "Ava, I need you."

Avalon froze and looked after River, "Hold on..." she went after the woman, the Doctor closely behind the ginger, "...why did you call me that?"

"Call you what?" River asked as she looked through books on a desk.

"Ava, only one person calls me that and it's most certainly not you," Avalon said, quite serious.

"I know him, silly," River waved her off, still trying to find that blasted book.

"I told you, she's from the future," the Doctor explained again.

"Yeah but she's from your future," the ginger pointed at him. This woman had no business knowing anything about her unless she decided to tell.

"And you're in it," River gave Avalon a big smile.

"But so is Amy and Lena," Avalon reminded.

"Right, yes, Lena the baby sister," River told the Doctor then switched to Avalon, "And Amy, of course, you call 'Amelia' when you seriously want to anger her."

"How do you know all that?" Avalon stepped back, severely disliking the fact a woman she didn't know apparently knew all about her, her sister and friend.

River's grin only widened as she picked up the book she'd been looking for, "Don't fret. One day you'll all figure it out."

With a small irritated frown, Avalon looked back at the Doctor, "Now I get why you're so irritated with her."

The Doctor nodded silently. He wasn't very keen on River knowing his friends. He had no idea who she was except that she kept popping into his life every now and then. It was fine, he could do with a mystery but he drew the line when she tried to involve his innocent friends. They were under his protection and as of now, he was yet to decide if River was a threat.

~ 0 ~

"No one needs me," Amy paced back and forth inside the transport ship, Lena sitting in a chair with her legs crossed.

"I need you," Lena raised a hand with a small smile, getting one back from Amy, "And Rory. How is Rory, by the way?"

Amy stopped pacing and kept to the side, for some reason really hoping the topic of Rory wouldn't ever come into conversation...well not forever...maybe just...a couple more months?

"Amy?" Lena called again, "Are you okay?"

"Hm? Yes, but hey, I'd like to know something," Amy faced her, hoping to change the subject, "How do you and Avalon know about the Weeping Angels? I'm pretty sure that wasn't one of the fairy tales Avalon has in her room."

"Amy I'm going to share my family's biggest secret with you, alright? I really hope you don't get angry with us," Lena announced and Amy nodded, "We're actually humans from the future. Our parents were born on another planet called New Earth." Amy's mouth fell open, no words emerging. "Our several times grandparents were actually from a livestock in a hospital the Doctor managed to save and cure from every disease. Our specific species is actually quite immune to most diseases out there. Well, I'm not immune to the diseases which is why I'm actually weaker than Avalon and the rest of my family."

"But you said it was just a-"

"Forget everything we said cos it was a lie. My immune system didn't develop quite right and mutated. I'm prone to get more sick and tired than the normal species."

"So all this time you and Avalon...weren't humans..." Amy breathed.

"We are, just from the future," Lena shrugged, "We're evolved Humans."

"Lena that's...that's..." but Amy trailed off as she noticed the screen above the brunette where the Weeping Angel image was.

Lena followed her gaze up to the screen and frowned, "What's wrong?"

~ 0 ~

River was busy showing the Doctor and Avalon a book in her hands, "I found this. Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman, it's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages."

The Doctor took the book from her and finished it up, "Not bad, bit slow in the middle, didn't you hate his girlfriend? No, hang on, wait, wait!" and he sniffed the book.

"Why did you just sniff that? What possible information can you get from sniffing the book?" Avalon raised an eyebrow, River snickering beside her.

Amy popped her head out of the transport, "Dr. Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?" she called.

"No, just the four seconds," River answered absently. She was too amused with Avalon picking on the Doctor. At any moment, the man could just end it all but he never did. It was hilarious.

"This book is wrong! What's wrong with this book, it's wrong," the Doctor shook the book in frustration.

~ 0 ~

"Amy, what is it?" Lena insisted but the ginger just came back inside and forced her to stand away from the monitor, "Amy?"

"The Angel..." was all Amy could say as she focused on the video. The Angel was now facing forwards with its hands down at its side. Amy moved closer to the screen and bent over to see the time code.

"It just...changed..." Lena blinked as she caught the problem.

With the two so focused, neither noticed the door close and lock behind them.

~ 0 ~

"Give me that," Avalon snatched the book from the Doctor and started skimming a few pages, the Doctor frowning at her rudeness, neither noticing how River observed them both.

"That was not nice," the Doctor pointed at the ginger.

"Get that finger out of my face before I bite it," she warned quietly as she read a couple lines.

"You wouldn't dare-" but he quickly jerked his hand away from her after she suddenly leaned forwards and actually tried sinking her teeth into his finger. He took a step away from her with wide eyes, "Are you human or a Parana?"

She plainly shrugged, "Don't know. Go ahead and find out," she flashed a smirk before flipping to the next page.

"Don't you dare either of you," River playfully rolled her eyes, "Not with those baby faces."

"What are you talking about?" Avalon asked, both she and the Doctor sending River a confused glance.

River simply smiled at the pair, "How early is this for you?"

"Very early," the Doctor replied.

"Ah, so very early for you too," River nodded to Avalon, "So no one knows who I am yet?"

"How do you know who I am?" the Doctor curiously asked, "I don't always look the same."

"I've got pictures of all your faces. Neither of you ever show up in the right order though."

"Neither?" the Doctor had caught that last word, glancing at Avalon who had become too engrossed in the book to be paying attention. He blinked when River just sent him a small wink and smirk, prompting a small blush on his face.

"Dr. Song, why aren't there any pictures in this book?" Avalon suddenly asked, only seeing River still smirking at the man as she moved over to the ginger.

~ 0 ~

Amy had picked up the remote of the video and tried turning it off but the image kept coming back.

"If it's just a recording then how can it move?" Lena questioned, already moving back from it.

Amy instead moved forwards and peered at the screen, setting the remote down, "Maybe it's...not...just a recording?" she mumbled.

"Try the plug," Lena pointed and Amy went down to unplug the power source, "Amy it's moved!" Lena nearly shouted when the two had looked back up to see the Angel's face close to the camera, "We need to get out of here!" she rushed to the door first, "Avalon!" she exclaimed.

Amy tried opening the door but found it wouldn't budge. She looked back at the screen and saw the Angel with its mouth open like a predator, her eyes widening, "Doctor!"

~ 0 ~

"This whole book warns about the Weeping Angels and yet not one picture is given as a visual description," Avalon was explaining to River.

"There was a bit about images," River mumbled as she tried finding it on the page.

"Yes! I remember that, hang on..." the Doctor took the book from Avalon and flipped through it until he found the correct page, "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel.'"

"What does that mean? 'An image of a Angel becomes itself an Angel'," River looked at Avalon, knowing if anyone could figure out a quote it would definitely be her.

"Simple, they're saying an Angel can literally come to..." Avalon blinked, her eyes widening, "...life." She remembered where Lena was at the current moment. "Lena!" she dashed back for the door of the transport ship.

~ 0 ~

Amy was punching the keypad while Lena pounded on the door, desperately crying out for help, "Avalon! Avalon!"

~ 0 ~

The small trio ran to the door and found the door locked up.

"Lena? Are you alright!? What's happening!?" Avalon struggled with the door.

~ 0 ~

"It's the Angel!" Lena exclaimed.

"Doctor! Doctor, it's coming out of the television," Amy added, "The Angel is here."

~ 0 ~

"Lena, remember the story, don't take your eyes off it!" Avalon instructed and looked at the Doctor frantically, "Do something, please!"

He had already taken out his screwdriver and tried using it on the keypad, "The Angel can't move if you're looking at it," he called to the girls inside, " What's wrong? It's deadlocked."

River was busy trying to override the controls to the side, "There is no deadlock."

"Don't blink, Amy, Lina. Don't even blink!" he ordered the girls.

~ 0 ~

"What are you doing?" Avalon asked the man as he tried something new with the screwdriver.

"Cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off," he explained and then sighed, "It's no good, it's deadlocked the whole system."

"There's no deadlock," River reminded.

"Well there is one now!" Avalon snapped.

"Help us!" Amy and Lena cried together from the inside.

"Amy! Can you turn it off?" the Doctor tried asking but they kept shouting together, "The screen, can you turn it off?"

"I tried," Amy responded.

"Try again but don't take your eyes off the Angel."

"We're not!" Lena assured.

"Just don't look at the eyes," Avalon suddenly warned, " not the eyes.

"Why?" Amy asked.

'What is it, Ava?" River stopped her work, knowing there was something she and the Doctor had apparently missed in the book.

"The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there," Avalon recited and stepped back from the door, "Lena, don't look into its eyes, you too Amy!"

~ 0 ~

But Amy immediately went for the eyes while Lena made sure to look at its clothing instead.

~ 0 ~

"And step away from the door," Avalon ordered.

"What? Why?" Amy asked.

"I'm Avalon, Amy. Why do you think?"

~ 0 ~

Inside, the two women looked at each other and hurried up to the monitors, still looking at the Angel of course.

~ 0 ~

"What are you going to do..." the Doctor tried asking but River had already pulled him away from the door.

Avalon whipped out a small squarness gun from the inside of her boot and shot straight at the door, blasting a big hole inside, "Lena!" she cried and dropped the gun before running inside for her twin.

"Avalon!" Lena rushed over and encased the ginger in a tight hug, "Thank you!"

"It's okay now, it's okay," Avalon kissed her sister's head, "You didn't look at the eyes, right?" she pulled away and studied her sister for any possible injuries. She couldn't get too distracted and forget about Lena! She could never do that!

"No, I listened," Lena assured and tried to stop Avalon from so urgently checking her over.

"What the hell was that?" the Doctor entered the room with a big scolding face.

"Uh...hello..." Amy waved from her spot, still looking at the Angel for everyone's sake, "A little help would be nice."

"Anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel," Avalon recited and hurried up to the desk and picked up the remote, pausing it when static appeared, "There," River went ahead and unplugged the screen.

"Amazing!" River praised and hugged the ginger.

"I try to be," Avalon laughed, but really out of fear for her sister...though no one would ever know that.

"Uh, hello?" the Doctor waved the squareness gun in his hand, "How? What? And where?"

"I found it inside my room..." Avalon cleared her throat and innocently wrapped her fingers around her curls.

The Doctor tilted his head, his eyes hardening on the ginger's blatant lie. "Really?"

"I know what I'm doing!"

"And you just carry it around in your shoe?"

"Do I have my purse?" she gestured to her free arms.

"Yes, but...shoe? Gun?"

"Oh give it up, you carry a screwdriver. Least people know what my weapon does!"

"Okay, before we get into more bickering..." River stepped between the two, hands apart to keep those two apart, "...how's about that Angel? Was that it?"

"That was a projection of the Angel," the Doctor answered in a mutter, "It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant. And I'm keeping this," he waved to Avalon her gun.

"But that's mine!" the ginger tried lunging for it but River kept her back while the Doctor simply rose the weapon over his head. "You can't do that!"

"My TARDIS, my companion, my decision," he informed.

"I'm gonna kill you!" she declared and continued her attempts to get her hands on him.

River just laughed as she tried pushing the ginger back gently, "Oh, the first of many."

The group rushed out of the transport ship upon hearing an explosion that had managed to rock them.

"It's gone positive!" a soldier called out.

"Doctor! We're through!" Octavian announced.

"Okay, now it starts," the Doctor mumbled and headed outside, a very peeved Avalon behind him with her twin at her side.

Amy rubbed her left eye before following, River catching the action, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. There's just...something in my eye."

~ 0 ~

The group found themselves climbing down a rope ladder where Octavian and several more soldiers awaited. Once at the bottom, the Doctor and Octavian burned their torches to look around.

"Do we have a gravity globe?" the Doctor questioned.

"Grav globe," Octavian ordered and was given a sphere from one of the soldiers.

"Where are we? What is this?" Amy asked as River stood beside her.

"It's an Aplan mortarium. Sometimes called a maze of the dead," River replied.

"And what's that?" Lena, with a shaky voice, asked.

"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone..." the Doctor trailed off as he kicked the gravity sphere as if it was a football and it rise into the air where it stopped and showed the number of stone statues, "The perfect hiding place..." the Doctor mumbled.

"I guess this makes it a bit trickier," Octavian breathed as he saw the millions of statues.

"A bit, yeah," the Doctor nodded.

"A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for."

"A needle in a haystack," Avalon offered, moving closer to Lena's side. One Weeping Angel was bad enough and now she had to protect her sister from a Weeping Angel in hiding? She'd be a little more at ease if a certain alien hadn't kept her gun...

"A needle that looks like hay," the Doctor began, "A hay-like needle. Of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. No, yours was fine."

"Of course it was," Avalon waved him off.

"Right. Check every single statue in this chamber," Octavian gave the orders, "You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question - how do we fight it?

"We find it, and hope," the Doctor declared and walked off, Amy following.

"From this point on, you do not let go of my hand, got it?" Avalon had taken hold of Lena's hand and put quite a grip on it.

"Got it," Lena nodded and so they went off as well.

River had tried to go and follow the group but Octavian grabbed her by the arm and held her back, "They don't know yet, do they?" Octavian asked her, "What you are...?"

"It's too early in their time streams," River mumbled.

"Well, make sure he doesn't work it out, or he's not gonna help us," Octavian warned.

"I won't let you down. Believe you me, I have no intention of going back to prison. But you better keep your mouth shut with her, not one word, understood?"

"Suppose that's fair," Octavian let her go.

A soldier walked up to the two, "Sir? Side chamber. One visible exit."

"Check it out. Angelo, go with him."

The two soldiers nodded and walked off to check the chamber.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor was shining his torch in every direction before moving, the twins closely behind. Amy was moving to follow as well when she stopped to look at the numerous levels up above. She rubbed the corner of her eye with a finger and found a small grit. She used her entire hand and sand and grit came out through her fingers. Afraid, she stopped immediately and studied her hand to find nothing.

River had walked up beside the girl and looked at her, "You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Amy forgot the moment and shrugged, "So, what's a maze of the dead?"

"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls..." River paused and shook her head, "OK, that was fairly bad. Right give me your arm," she showed the ginger a syringe with a smile, "This won't hurt a bit."

Amy yelped upon being shot, "Ow!" she shot the woman a small glare.

That had hurt.

"There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabilise," River shrugged then turned for the others, "Oi, twins! Come here a sec," she waved the syringe.

The two Reynolds came towards the women, still hand-in-hand as Avalon had ordered, "What is it?" Avalon frowned, disliking any needles that went near her sister.

"It's a viro-stabilize," River repeated, "It stabilizes your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship, no matter how evolved you are."

Avalon held her own arm first, "Go ahead."

"Does it hurt?" Lena frowned, flinching when Avalon was shot, though the ginger only crinkled her nose.

"No," Avalon replied and gently lifted her arm for River. River injected Lena who flinched badly again. Avalon rubbed the spot where Lena had been injected and looked at River, speaking very quietly, "You know he's listening to us, right?" she made a small nod to the Doctor who was conspicuously reading off River's device a few feet ahead of them. "Does he do that a lot with you?"

River bobbed her head for an answer. "He thinks he's so clever. Ask me a question, any of you."

"Um..." Lena thought, "What's my big brother like in the future?"

"Cos you know him in the future, don't you?" Amy joined in.

"The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor," River answered, hiding her smirk from the man behind the women.

"Oh, well that's very helpful. Mind if we write that down?" Avalon asked.

"Yes, we are."

"Sorry, what?" the Doctor finally turned to them, still 'reading' from the device.

"Talking about you," River shook her head.

"I wasn't listening, I'm busy."

"Yeah, you might want to turn that the other way," Avalon swayed on her feet, "Just a suggestion."

"Oh, shut up," he frowned and turned away, this time actually focusing on his work.

"Just a heads up, he's big on eavesdropping," River nudged the ginger and walked around the three women for her own work.

"What's that got to do with me?" Avalon frowned and looked at the other two.

Lena shrugged, "You talk a lot when you write, maybe that's it."

"Still doesn't make sense," Amy mumbled, "Anything that women says, actually. She acts like his wife and then she gives these little hints..."

"Hints of what?" the twins asked together.

"Nothing," Amy moved around them as well, seemingly upset about something.

She actually liked that River person, despite the Doctor's apparent uneasy feelings on the woman. River seemed funny, she seemed sneaky and flirty. She moved around like she was practically married to the Doctor but then...she'd say these little things, like her last words to Avalon, that made Amy confused...upset. River was from the future, that was a fact, and because of that she knew exactly who ended with who in the future...

Amy had a little desire for the Doctor's 'who' to be herself...just for a tiny bit...nothing permanent.

But for some reason, River kept leaning more to Avalon and that bothered Amy. Avalon had always had a much closer relationship to Rory and Amy believed that when Rory actually confessed his feelings to her that the relationship with Avalon would sort of...waft down a bit.

That wasn't the case.

Rory and Avalon were always super-duper close, sharing laughs and whatnot, even sports! Rory hated sports! But because Avalon liked them, so did he...just to make her happy. Amy repeatedly heard from Lena that Avalon only had a platonic love for Rory, like a brother, and nothing beyond that. But there was always a bit of doubt Amy had for Lena's words...and somehow that made her shift a little more to the Doctor for some reason. Technically, he had landed in her garden, in her backyard; Avalon was only a guest at that time. She can't also take the alien, no! Amy knew she didn't want anything permanent, anything real, with the Doctor but perhaps a little...adventure...wouldn't be so bad.

Avalon couldn't have him too, no sir.

~ 0 ~

"Once hearing gunfire, the group ran back down to the main chamber where a young cleric stood, having just fired the weapon at a statue. The Doctor quickly moved up to see but only saw a regular stature.

"Sorry. Sorry, I thought... I thought it looked at me," the cleric nervously said, still shaking a bit.

"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian, rather rudely, asked.

"No, sir."

"No, sir, it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor."

"Don't be rude," Lena spoke up, getting everyone's attention.

Usually she'd be all for staying behind everyone and letting them do their things but the man had been clearly afraid and simply shot to save his life. She could empathize because she practically lived to be afraid of things. She'd never once been reprimanded for her fears, not even by Mels and that was saying something as the woman lived to make trouble.

"I bet if you were afraid you would've shot too," she said to Octavian then looked at the cleric, "Are you okay?" the cleric nodded with a small smile, appreciative that someone wasn't irritated with him.

"My baby sister has a point," the Doctor agreed, "What's your name?" he asked the cleric.

"Bob, sir."

"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob."

"It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names, they're given to us in the service of the Church," Octavian explained.

"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?" the Doctor playfully teased the cleric.

"Yes, sir."

"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron. Carry on," the Doctor declared and took Lena's hand, quite forcefully from Avalon who shot him a small glare for it.

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes," Octavian said then looked to Bob, "You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach."

~ 0 ~

"Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse? There's a whole ship up there," Amy kept looking up every time she remembered where they were.

"Incredible builders, the Aplans," River remarked, not at all perturbed.

"Had dinner with their chief architect once," the Doctor said, "Two heads are better than one."

"You mean you helped him?" Lena looked at him.

"No, I mean he had two heads. That book, the very end, what did it say?"

"Hang on," River took the book out of her backpack and handed it to Avalon while she re-closed her bag.

"Read it to me," the Doctor ordered.

Avalon rolled her eyes but did as told. She wasn't very pleased he'd taken her twin from her but did, nonetheless, know that he would protect Lena like she would. She just wasn't quite used to sharing the job with anyone else, except her family of course. Avalon flipped to the last page of the book she held and started reading aloud, "What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels."

~ 0 ~

"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb," Amy sighed as they walked. Her lights were mighty tired and it didn't look like the climb was ending anytime soon.

"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul," River explained, "Only two levels to go."

"I'm getting tired," Lena complained.

"I'd recommend a rest spot but this may not be the ideal place," the Doctor said.

"Perhaps the city?" Lena joked.

"How about the Aplans? We could visit them some time."

"I thought they were all dead?" Avalon reminded.

"So's Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's having two heads. You're never short of a snog with an extra head."

"Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is..." River trailed off as she kept looking around, something in the pit of her stomach telling her to get them out, apart from the regular danger that always came with the Doctor.

"Yeah, something wrong. Don't know what it is yet either, working on it," the Doctor casually waved her off, "Then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you. Erm, no offence, Bishop."

Octavian just made a face at those words, "Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor."

They arrived at a narrow passage lined with statues on either side.

"Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up from here. That way," Octavian pointed.

"Church had a point, if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy," Amy chuckled.

However, the Doctor suddenly stopped and closely looked at a statue, his eyes widening when he realized it, "Oh!"

"What's wrong?" Lena asked.

River also blinked as the light bulb lit up in her head, "Oh!" she looked at the Doctor.

"Exactly," he nodded, slowly pulling Lena behind him.

"How could we not notice that?" River did the same with Avalon, though that particular ginger wasn't too fond of the idea. She was never the one to go behind people's back for protection. She hated it!

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick," the Doctor said.

"Speak for yourself!" Avalon exclaimed, forcefully moving beside River.

"What's wrong, sir?" Octavian asked.

"Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are," the Doctor instructed, "Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in danger."

"What danger?" Avalon's eyes immediately fell to her twin.

"The Aplans," River began.

"What about them?" Amy asked, confused on what was so important. They were dead. They said it so many times.

"They've got two heads."

"Yes, we get that. So?"

"Oh..." Avalon's eyes widened, now realizing the problem.

"Oh what?" Amy raised an eyebrow.

"The statues-" the Doctor began, "-don't have two heads," the ginger's eyes widened, "Everyone, over there. Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak," everyone moved to a spot with no statues, "OK. I want you all to switch off your torches."

"You're kidding me?" Avalon shot him a sharp look.

"Just do it," he reiterated. Everyone turned off their torches except for him, "OK. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

"Are you sure about this?" Lena looked at him, unlike her twin with a nervous face.

"No."

"You make me feel so much better, big brother."

The Doctor shrugged and switched off his torch for only a split second. Upon turning it back on, they saw all the statues in front of them facing them unlike their previous position.

"Oh, my God! They've moved!" Amy gasped as the Doctor ran ahead.

Quickly, the rest of the group followed the Doctor and saw all the statues lining their way to the ship, "They're Angels. All of them!" he exclaimed.

"But they can't be," River breathed.

"Clerics, keep watching them," the Doctor backtracked and saw the Angels moved forward, "Every statue in this maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us."

~ 0 ~

"There was only one Angel on the ship. Just the one, I swear," River was saying to the group.

"Could they have been here already?" Lena offered.

"The Aplans, how did they die out?" the Doctor asked.

"Nobody knows..." River blinked with realization.

"We know," Avalon scoffed. How could they have missing something so huge!? Now here they were, close to death, and she had no way of protecting Lena!

"They don't look like Angels, though," Octavian pointed out, still clinging to a bit of hope that they were mistaken.

Amy nodded in agreement, "And they're not fast. You said they were fast. They should have had us by now."

"They're dying. Losing their form. They must have been down here for centuries, starving," the Doctor sighed.

"Losing their image," Amy shrugged.

"And their image is their power. Power. Power!"

"Doctor?" Lena frowned at his almost excitement. This was not the time for him to get excited over a dangerous situation!

"Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out, the drive burn. The crash wasn't an accident - it was a rescue mission, for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army and it's waking up."

"We need to get out of here fast," River snapped, almost angry. How could she be so stupid and call him and the girls in? Granted, she believed a much older version of them would come to help out. But no, to her luck the baby-faced group had turned up and now were in danger because of her miscalculation. Oh, she was just awful!

Octavian had begun speaking into his radio, "Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in!"

"It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir."

"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active!"

"I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir."

The Doctor's head snapped over to Octavian and he quickly moved to take the radio from him, "Bob, Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?"

Octavian frowned, "I'm talking to my..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up!"

"I'm on my way up to you, sir, I'm homing on your signal," Bob said.

"Well done, Bob. Scared keeps you fast, told you, didn't I? Your friends, Bob, what did the Angel do to them?"

"Snapped their necks, sir."

"That's not how Angels kill you," Avalon frowned, "At least that's not what dad used to tell us. They displace you in time."

"Unless they needed the bodies for something," the Doctor mumbled, about to speak into the radio when Octavian snatched it from him.

"Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan."

The Doctor took back the radio and gave him a look, "Don't be an idiot! The Angels don't leave you alive!" he then spoke into the radio, "Bob, keep running, but tell me, how did you escape?"

"I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too," Bob said, much to the group's shock.

Slowly, the Doctor spoke into the radio again, "What do you mean the Angel killed you too?"

"Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected but it was pretty quick, so that was something."

"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?"

"You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion."

"So when you say you're on your way up to us..."

"It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes."

"No way out."

"Then we get out through the wreckage. Go!" Octavian exclaimed, shooing the women.

"Go, go, go. All of you run!" the Doctor agreed.

"But we can't..." Lena frowned.

"Here," he took out her asthma inhaler and placed it in her palm, "Now you can. I'm coming, just go, go, go!"

The women ran off with the clerics, leaving the Doctor and Octavian alone.

"Called you an idiot. Sorry, but there's no way we could have rescued your men," the Doctor said to Octavian, genuinely sorry for his choice of words.

"I know that, sir. And when you've flown away in your little blue box, I'll explain that to their families," Octavian walked off.

The Doctor shook his head and spoke into the radio again, "Angel Bob, which Angel am I talking to? The one from the ship?"

"Yes, sir. The other Angels are still restoring."

"Ah, so the Angel is not in the wreckage. Thank you," he quickly ran along the passage and saw Amy just waiting, "Don't wait for me, go, run."

"I can't!" she cried and the Doctor hurried back to help her, "No, really I can't."

"Why not?"

"Look at it. Look at my hand. It's stone!" Amy looked down at her hand on the rail, seeming like stone.

River, Octavian, the twins and the other clerics arrived at an open chamber where they could see the ship above them.

"Well. There it is - the Byzantium," Octavian looked up.

"Well, it's got to be 30 feet. How do we get up there?" River asked.

"Check all these exits. I want them all secure."

The Doctor was flashing his torch in Amy's eyes and sighed, "You looked into the eyes of an Angel, didn't you? What did Avalon say?"

"I couldn't stop myself. I tried. I don't do orders either," the ginger frowned.

"Listen. It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone."

"It is. Look at it!" Amy nearly shouted, but really how could he not see it?

"It's in your mind. I promise you. You can move that hand. You can let go."

"I can't, OK? I've tried and I can't. It's stone."

The Doctor's torchlight began flickering, alerting him the Angel was nearing, "The Angel is gonna come and it's gonna turn this light off, and then there's nothing I can do to stop it. So do it, concentrate, move your hand!"

"I can't," the ginger whimpered.

"Then we're both going to die!"

"You're not going to die."

"They'll kill the lights," the Doctor reminded her as the light flickered off and the Angels moved closer.

"You've got to go, you know you have. You've got all that stuff with River and that's all got to happen," Amy reminded, deciding to believe that it was River who he'd end up with in the future, "You know you can't die here!"

"Time can be re-written, it doesn't work like that," the Doctor reminded as Amy looked back at the Angels, "Keep your eyes on it. Don't blink."

"Run!" Amy exclaimed.

"You see, I'm not going, I'm not leaving you here."

"I don't need you to die for me, Doctor, do I look that clingy?"

"You can move your hand," the Doctor said.

"It's stone!"

"It's not stone!"

"Those people up there will die without you. River, Avalon, your baby sister! If you stay here with me, you'll have as good as killed them."

"Amy Pond, you are magnificent. And I'm sorry."

"It's OK. I understand. You've got to leave me."

"Oh, no, I'm not leaving you, never. I'm sorry about this," and then the Doctor bit her hand, making the ginger scream in pain and jerk her hand away, "See, not stone. Now run!"

"You bit me!" she accused, rubbing her hand.

"Yep and you're alive," the Doctor reminded.

"I've got a mark! Look at my hand!" she held her hand for him yo see but he used it to yank her behind him.

"Yeah, and you're alive, did I mention?"

"Blimey, your teeth! Have you got space teeth?"

"Alive. All I'm saying," he concluded and ran off with her.

~ 0 ~

A cleric sent off to check passages returned to the group, "The statues are advancing along all corridors. And, sir, my torch keeps flickering."

"They all do," Octavian reminded.

"So does the gravity globe,' River added.

"Clerics, we're down to four men. Expect incoming," Octavian gave the warning.

"Yeah, it's the Angels. They're coming. And they're draining the power for themselves," the Doctor explained while he looked for another way out.

"Which means we won't be able to see them," Avalon mumbled, her hand gripping Lena's, "And we can't stay here so do something, please!"

"There are more incoming!" Octavian exclaimed.

"Any suggestions?" River looked around for ideas.

"The statues are advancing on all sides and we don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium," Octavian reminded.

"There's no way up, no way back, no way out," she looked at the Doctor, her heart racing as she thought of the full-on danger No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea.

"There's always a way out," he said and heard his echo. The lights flickered off again and the Angels appeared far too close for their liking, "There's always a way out," he repeated, assured.

"Doctor? Can I speak to the Doctor, please?" Angel Bob's voice came through the radio.

Bitterly, the Doctor took hold of the radio and spoke, "Hello, Angels. What's your problem?"

"Your power will not last much longer, and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir."

"Why are you telling me this?" the Doctor looked at the group, feeling awful of the horror he saw in Lena's face. The girl really wasn't up for this kind of adventures. He himself didn't like this! He assured Avalon he'd help protect her because in reality he had grown attached to the little brunette, she really did remind him of a little sister and this was not how he wanted to care for her.

"There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end," Angel Bob brought the Doctor out of his thoughts.

"Which is?"

"I died in fear."

"I'm sorry?"

"You told me my fear would keep me alive but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down."

"What are they doing?" Avalon whispered to River, seeing the Doctor tense at the words being said.

"They're trying to make him angry," River replied.

"Is that very smart?"

"Not really."

"I'm sorry, sir. The Angels were very keen for you to know that," Angel Bob said.

"Well then, the Angels have made their second mistake because I'm not going to let that pass," the Doctor snapped, "I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier."

"But you're trapped, sir, and about to die."

"Yeah, I'm trapped. Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake!"

"What mistake, sir?"

But the Doctor ignored the Angel and looked at Amy, "Trust me?"

"Yeah," the ginger nodded.

He looked at the twins, "Trust me?"

"Of course," Lena replied, Avalon nodding in agreement.

He looked at River next but before he could even repeated the question she nodded, "Oh I do," she answered.

"You lot - trust me?" he looked at Octavian and the clerics.

"Sir, two more incoming!" one of the cleris guarding the passage reported.

"We have faith, sir," Octavian answered.

"Great," he took out Avalon's gun much to the ginger's shock.

"Oi, that's mine!" she tried reaching for it but River held her back.

"You said you trusted me," he reminded.

"But not with that! You don't know the first thing about them!"

"Oh, but I do..." he mumbled quietly, his gaze falling for a moment.

Avalon stopped as she saw him, feeling there was something he was hiding and a painful something by the looks of it. She sighed, "Fine, go ahead," she motioned for him to do whatever he was planning.

"Right, I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do...jump," he jumped in place as example.

"Jump where?" Octavian questioned.

"Just jump, high as you can. Come on, leap of faith, Bishop. On my signal."

"What signal?"

"You won't miss it," the Doctor aimed the gun at the roof.

"Sorry, can I ask again? You mentioned a mistake?" Angel Bob asked from the radio.

"Oh, big mistake. Huge. There's one thing you never put in a trap, if you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap."

"And what would that be, sir?"

"Me!"

The Doctor fired at the gravity globe and made it explode...

[lifeinahole27]

CS ff: “Love So Sweetly” (Part 2 of 2) (au)

Summary: If you ask either of them, they’ll both claim it isn’t their fault. It starts with feuding musicians, a pair of handcuffs, and the evolution a relationship can go through over the course of 24 hours.

Rating: M

Warnings: handcuffs?

A/N: My goodness. It’s finally finished. AND I had to bump the rating back DOWN for once. WTF is that?! Lol. Sorry all. This is a first in my book, too. Much love to all the usual players for their help, especially @phiralovesloki and @captainstudmuffin for their phenomenal beta and proofreading duties. And to the Discord ladies for putting up with the fact that I only pop in ever three days to randomly yell something and promptly fall asleep. Special side dedication goes to @let-it-raines for the most recent time I ran in and screamed something in there. LOL. All right - without further ado... I hope you all enjoy this!

Find it on Ao3 or FFN!

-x-

Trying to sprint after a hint of Granny was maybe not his brightest idea. Now he’s even more exhausted than he was before, and he can feel Emma dragging along beside him as they turn another corner to find it barren of all humanity.

It’s only then that he becomes aware of how quiet it’s gotten. This late at night, all of the stages are shut down and even the dance parties that sometimes happen after hours seem to be missing tonight, probably due to the lurking clouds in the distance. They’re deep in the campgrounds, and he can hear music drifting from some of the different tents and yurts, various styles and levels of skill, but gentle music surrounds them.  

“Killian, we have to stop. I’m too tired. We’ll find her in the morning. Let’s just… head out.”

“Aye, love. Sorry we lost her again,” he grumbles, wanting nothing more than to sleep for days after the evening they’ve had.

“God, and all I have to look forward to after all of this is to figure out how we’ll both fit on my stupid bunk!” Emma grouses as they slowly wander through the campgrounds.

He blames the fact that the tent they’re passing has some spirited amorous activities going on it in for why it takes him so long to connect what she’s just said with their current predicament.

“You only have a bunk?” he asks with the rise of an eyebrow. He’d just assumed she was up in the swankier trailers on the top of the hill – it’s where all the other headliners seem to have congregated for the duration of the festival.

“Yeah,” she says distractedly, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. Her eyes shift over to the tent he’s been trying to avoid and her eyebrows go clear up to her hairline when she looks back at him. There’s a hint of a smile hiding in the corners of her mouth but she says nothing.

“On a bus?” he asks, trying to distract them both from a fireworks-worthy ending as they pass the lovers.

“Yeah,” she repeats a little harsher this time, and Killian suppresses the chuckle that comes unbidden. Her tone speaks of something more than frustration at the conversation, and while there’s a temptation to prod and see what responses he could elicit, he chooses the higher road. Well, sort of.

“Oh, love, for once I finally get the upper hand with you. Turn to your left up here. We’ll go find my humble abode.”

“Killian, I’m not sleeping on a pile of rocks in some flimsy tent.”

“Where on earth would you get the notion I was sleeping in a tent? Those things are bloody miserable. Unless you’re those people, of course.” He hitches his thumb at the tent that’s now almost out of view and he smiles.

“I just – “

“Assumed that’s where I would be staying with my much smaller named band?” He cuts in, more amused than offended, and takes charge in leading them away from the truly muddy path to the less-trodden grass around them. With a few searches for landmarks and a couple more turns, he gestures in front of them to the small yurt he’s rented out. “Behold! My pirate’s lair!”

“You take this pirate crap way too seriously, for one. Also, it’s not the exterior that counts, Jones. You said it yourself. I want to see the inside of this before I pass judgement.”

With a smug grin and a lift of his eyebrows, Killian unlocks the door and pushes it open, finding the switch for the lamp next to the door to bathe the area in a soft glow. Emma whimpers at the sight, clearly seeing their sleeping arrangements for the evening as acceptable.

“Bed,” she whispers, following automatically as Killian pulls her in the rest of the way and shuts the doors behind them. From outside, the soft sounds of rain begin, and Killian is thankful they didn’t have to do another soggy dash to safety this time.

He secures the latch from the inside and goes to move towards the bed, only to realize they’re still fully clothed. With one tap of his boot to hers, Emma snaps out of it and struggles to unstick the zippers from the mud that’s begun to cake them. Killian kicks off his own before holding her steady as she balances to pry each one of hers off in turn.

Funny, when he had originally decided to full-on rent a yurt, it was for the idea of bringing back a lady friend for a night or two. He had no idea this was going to be the end result.

There’s a hidden intimacy in the delicate dance they do in the doorway, trying to ready themselves for sleep when they are both so far outside their comfort zones. He imagines, suddenly, the context being different as she brushes an errant strand of hair off her face and waits for him to grab the lamp from its hook and lead her over.

He looks disparagingly down at the both of them, but reasons with himself that the bedding is all old stuff specifically brought along in case it gets dirty, so it doesn’t exactly matter. What matters is that there’s an inexpensive mattress and pillows and they’re finally about to relax for the first time since either of them woke up yesterday morning.

“Phone,” he says, holding out his free hand to her. When she doesn’t automatically do anything, Killian smiles patiently. “I have a power pack that’s fully charged. And I have any type of cord you need. Surely after a day of running around, you’ll need a charge, yeah?”

She grumbles out some response, digging her phone out of a pocket on the side of her leggings and handing it over. They both shift to the side for a moment so he can plug in their phones and set down the lantern on the side he reasons he’ll be sleeping on.

They do another shuffle to get to where they’ll need to be in order to get into the bed before they both collapse onto the foot of the bed, pushing up and maneuvering until they’re under the covers. Side by side, they both exhale in relief as their heads hit the pillows. Emma, in a fit of wanting to be comfortable, insists on removing her leggings, and Killian endures the five-minute process of having his shoulder jolted until she’s happy.

The leggings get tossed off the side of the bed, and then he makes her go through the same thing as he pulls off his jeans. He could’ve withstood wearing them, but if she’s going to make herself at home, he’s going to do the same.

“Thanks,” Emma says quietly, after they’re both settled. “And I mean, for everything. Not just the bed. This could’ve been a disaster, but it hasn’t been the worst day I’ve ever had.”

“Same to you, love.” He pauses, taking the opportunity to roll on his side the best he can to look over at her. When she shifts as well, they both bring their hands up to tuck under their pillows. It leaves them practically nose to nose with the length of the chain.

“Your first festival, huh?

“Aye, and it was luck we got into this spot.”

“How long had you been trying?”

“This was the third attempt.  The only reason we got the invite is because another band double booked for the weekend and since they’d participated a few times in the past at this one, they decided to give up their invitation.”

“It took us four tries before we made it in, and that first year, Regina was here to see another band. Once she saw us, she signed us almost immediately and the band took off. I still can’t believe it sometimes.”

“You’re a hero, Swan. I’ve seen your fans. They adore you.”

“Yeah, well, so are you. I got to see that firsthand today.”

He has no response to that, other than a flustered shrug. It’s a risk to reveal too much – he knows this, and yet, he can’t stop himself from telling her more. “You know, I rather fancy you when you’re not yelling at me.”

“Yeah?”

He hums out affirmation, letting his eyes roam over her facial features and take in all the details he’s seen in pictures. There’s different flecks of colors in her eyes that the photos just can’t capture, and he watches the faint light dance there. Her laugh lines are peeking out with the way she’s barely smiling. Barely, but still…

“Good,” she says after a moment. It’s like permission and acceptance all at once. He watches her eyes start to flutter, her body finally succumbing to the length of their day. “Goodnight, Killian.” Her quiet sentiments drift through the space between them, and he’s overtaken again by the urge to kiss her. It would be so easy, but it would mean so much more than just one night at this point.

“Sweet dreams, Swan.”

With no further preamble, he finds the switch for the lantern and flips it. It doesn’t take her long to fall asleep, and Emma is a turbulent sleeper as he soon finds out. She ends up wrapped around him shortly after her breathing evens out. Her head rests near his shoulder, and he’s thankful for the still darkness surrounding them. Unable to sleep, the best he can do is hold his breath every time she shifts and twitches next to him.

As the night chills further, he’s thankful for Emma’s improvised pullover. Or step-into. It was quite the ridiculous process but she never seemed cold from that point forward, so he’s pretty sure it was a total success. Now, that same item is keeping him warm as the summer temperatures fluctuate to their low.

Finally, after what seems like hours, Killian’s body fully relaxes and he slips into sleep, unintentionally pulling Emma closer as they both flutter through their dreams. He’s surprised then, to be awoken shortly after that, after he’d already entered a dream where they held hands without being locked together.

It’s way too early when Emma shakes him awake, and the space around them is still dark in pre-dawn bliss.

“I’m sorry,” she says when he finally wrenches open his eyes. “I have to use the bathroom.”

She’s so close, her breath fanning across his neck when she speaks, and he feels the sleepy surge of want roll through him. Instead, he clears his throat and rubs at his eyes, trying to push away the image in his head of kissing her until they both forget about the calls of their bodies.

With a yawn, Killian waves away her apology and motions her to follow him out of the bed so he can grab a pair of track shorts to slip into. He’s shoving his feet into a pair of sneakers when he turns and sees Emma, one sock lost to the covers and her legs bare. The sweatshirt from the day prior falls just to her thighs, and he swallows hard as his eyes trail back up the length of her body to meet her eyes.

“Would you like, um, for the walk?” He holds up a pair of clean boxers from his stock, trying hard to stop from transfixing on her legs some more.

She shakes her head, seemingly unaware or totally uncaring of her half-dressed state as she rips the second sock from her right foot and slips back into her boots. It’s an utterly ridiculous outfit – boots up to her knees and sweater only, from appearances, but suddenly Killian has to go through chords in his mind as he wills his body to stay neutral to the woman beside him.

“Let’s go,” she says, waiting just long enough for him to secure the lock on the outside before they wander off in search of a better bathroom than the portaloo experiences they had yesterday. All of the trips were necessary but always very uncomfortable.

After a few turns, they can see the VIP section at the top of a hill, and Killian sighs in relief. This will have stalls, where they can both stand inside, even if that’s slightly more awkward. At least they’ll be clean, with running sinks. They start the trek upward, but it doesn’t take long before Killian’s shoe loses grip on the incline.

“Oh, son of a –“

“Hey, whoa!”

The moment his footing is gone, so is Emma’s, and the both of them slide back down on their hands and knees. They stay there for a moment, the shock and the exhaustion just weighing on them for a moment.

“Fuck,” Emma exhales.

It takes three more attempts for them to get up the hill, and it’s with no lack of attitude that Emma fishes her badge out from beneath the hoodie and swipes them into one of the trailers reserved for those with the clearance for them.

First comes rinsing off their hands to avoid getting mud in places they really wouldn’t want it, and then business, of course. He hums a medley of Beatles tunes to keep them both distracted from the situation. They switch spots when she’s done, and they hum together through the last of his turn. It’s as they’re washing all their collective hands when Emma realizes there’s a shower stall where he initially thought there was another accessible toilet. She nudges him, directing his gaze with a nod in that direction.

They hadn’t come up with a plan, not really, but this might be able to get them minimally less muddy before they get back to his accommodations. There’s also some splattered along the braid that Ruby twisted her hair into sometime after their set.  

“You can go first, if you’d like,” he tells her, motioning toward the potential of being clean.

She’s slowly picking at the safety pins holding the jumper on her shoulder, but something is holding her back. For once, their hands swing un-joined between them, but as she considers something, her pinkie finger reaches out and brushes against his.

“I mean,” she starts, her eyes focusing on anything but him. “It would be easier if we were in there together.” For a moment, he thinks that yeah, it would be easier if they got in there together. And her fingers slowly slide against his, her thumb brushing along his as she shifts a little closer.

When the words and their meaning finally sink through his sleep-addled brain, Killian snorts. “Why, Emma Swan, did you just proposition me to shower with you?” He tugs at their joined hands to bring her attention back to him, and there he finds several emotions flickering through her expression.

She wants; that much is plain to see just by looking. She’s uncertain, and he doesn’t blame her. It’s a bit of a risk to sleep with someone you’re undeniably stuck with, and sometimes a risk to sleep with someone you can immediately walk away from. What strikes him most is that her eyes reflect a level of passion he was not expecting. When she looked at him at the end of their set, she set his blood pumping harder than it had been from performing. Now to see it reflected back is quite the unexpected turn.

“If you don’t think you can handle it…”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the one that couldn’t handle it,” Killian counters, his eyebrow flicking up in challenge. This is it. This will be the moment that decides their course of action. Much like the anticipation during their disagreement, he waits for her next move.

And wait he does; Emma stands there immobile for what feels like hours before she yanks him down by the collar of his shirt and kisses him. She crowds him into the outer chamber of the shower, shoving the door shut behind them as she angles her head for a kiss deeper and stronger than the last.

He has kissed all sorts of women in his lifetime, but one thing is startlingly clear very quickly: Killian Jones has never kissed a woman like Emma Swan, and he could spend the rest of his life trying to recapture the way she feels and never again find it.

There’s heat and desire in the way she moves against him, and Killian will blame it on the sleep deprivation that he doesn’t consider the thousands of outcomes this moment might have. Instead, he’s intent on pulling the band from the end of Emma’s braid and slowly unwinding the thick plait with his free hand. Their joined arms are caught between their bodies, hands clasped tightly as they dive deeper into the kiss.

Removing clothing is quite the obstacle. They work together to unpin the sweater from her shoulder, leaving it hanging from one of the hooks in the small dressing space outside of the actual shower.. The stall itself is pristine, likely unused by any of the festival participants if the walls are still this sparkling white, so neither of them take much issue with kicking off their shoes and stepping into the vinyl area after removing as much as they can. His shirt, for instance, ends up balled up along the chain, along with the top she’s wearing. His now-muddy shorts end up with their shoes, water be damned.

It’s not everything – it could be but there’s some unspoken agreement between them that it’s just not feasible right now. They’re down to just underwear, but it doesn’t leave anything to the imagination as they both find each other under the steady-but-unimpressive spray of water falling down on them. He wants to look, but he’s more interested in the way Emma’s mouth fits against his, and the way the slick skin of her back feels beneath his palm.

Their shower is stilted, interrupted by intimate touches and wandering hands, as well as figuring out the logistics of how to hold their joined arms so the clothing they can’t get rid of doesn’t weigh them down. They do the best they can, though, and struggle to dry off with the towels provided. They wring out their shirts from where they still got wet, and Killian balls up his shorts with her sweatshirt to take back to the yurt. It’ll be cold outside but if they hustle, they’ll be warm again soon enough. With as much as necessary back in place, they push out into the predawn light hand in hand.

They carefully pick their way across the campgrounds to stay as close to clean as they can. As they walk, Emma hums a familiar tune, and Killian does his best to find the harmony as she continues. It speaks volumes more than anything they could say; he resists the urge to sing the lyrics as they fit the circumstances just a little too well.

My honey I know with the dawn that you will be gone. But tonight, you belong to me...

The sun is just barely cresting over the horizon, but that doesn’t dissuade them from shutting the door to the rented space, locking themselves away from the outside world for just a few hours more.

They may currently be chained together, but Killian genuinely has no idea where the next day will take them. This far in, this far deep, he knows he may walk away with a heartache if it all fell apart in the light of day.

-x-

While everything had remained dormant on their trip back to the yurt, Emma is pleased when Killian is already meeting her halfway when she turns to him inside the door. With impatient movements, they leave their shoes by the door, and she urges him to drop the clothes he’s still holding. They make their way back to the bed, and Emma crawls into his lap and presses their linked hands into the mattress by Killian’s head as her mouth turns greedy.

She wants him bare, she wants all of him, dammit, and he growls into the kiss as if he knows this as she fists her free hand in his hair to hold him steady against her, their lips devouring. She wants, wants, wants, but Killian pulls back for a moment, halting her in her tracks.

“Emma, before this goes any further, I have to know that you’re sure about this.”

The fact that he asks makes Killian one of the most considerate men she’s ever gone to bed with. Here she is, in his lap, half-naked, chained to him, and he’s still willing to give it all up if she just says the word.

There’s some part of her that almost takes the out: this could get weird. They’re likely going to be spending the rest of this festival together if they can’t get ahold of Granny tomorrow. Not that there’s much more festival to contend with. After their set in the afternoon, her obligations are completed. She could always get him back to Storybrooke and get Billy to cut off the cuffs if she has to.

And in the meantime, she thinks, here Killian is beneath her, the hard length of his cock pressed almost exactly where she wants it to be. She doesn’t have to sleep with him, she knows this, but they can certainly have some fun. Any guy willing to track down the best onion rings at the festival for her is worthy of that, in her opinion.

Something suddenly clicks in her mind, something about the food from yesterday. “Killian,” she says, her eyes trained on his. “How did you know about the onion rings? How did you know to offer me that specific food?”

It’s equal parts totally endearing and hilarious to watch Killian’s face turn red. Right to the tips of his ears and down his neck are all a tomato red she never anticipated and he blinks several times in surprise.

“Lucky guess,” he says, but it’s a lie. She can tell just by the intonation, by the way his eyes flutter so he’s not fully meeting her gaze.

“Try again.”

He sighs, shifting his focus away from her and looking somewhere at the top of the yurt. When he does speak, it’s muttered, and she has the distinct feeling that he’s hoping she can’t hear him in the quiet stillness of the solitary space. But oh, she hears him loud and clear. “Everyone knows that Emma Swan’s favorites are grilled cheese and onion rings, and hot chocolate depending on the weather. With cinnamon,” he adds at the very end, finally chancing a look at her again.

This is the first time he’s openly admitted that he’s one of her fans – in fact, when they started arguing yesterday about whatever it was that started the argument, she was sure he was totally oblivious to who she was.

“You follow me on Instagram?”

His face morphs into something distinctly mortified, but she doesn’t wait for him to answer. Instead, she bites her lip to stop the laugh that wants to escape and leans down to kiss him again. She pushes all thoughts of his previous knowledge of her to the back of her mind, instead focusing on the way his tongue is tracing along her top row of teeth before he suddenly sits up. His free arm wraps around her waist to hold her steady as he pulls her down hard against him and she gasps at the sensation.

There’s a startling thought in her mind that she could get used to this - the push and pull of who has control. They shift the dominance often enough that her stomach swoops every time he gains it back, knowing he’ll turn to putty in her arms again in a matter of moments. There’s no chance they’ll be able to be naked for this experience, so they come to a mutual understanding that they’ll take what they can get. This can be good enough, because it has to be for now.

The real question is whether or not the “for now” part will turn into “to be continued” for them. Where the thought even comes from is beyond her, but just as suddenly, their future possibilities flee her mind because Killian lines up perfectly, his erection pressing through their underwear to slide just right against her clit and her breath hitches as she buries her head against his neck, letting her teeth graze along his skin to taste and tease.

With the blood rushing in her ears, it takes her a while to grasp that Killian is repeating her name like a mantra, perfectly timed with his thrusts, and she can feel how close the both of them are by the tension in his shoulders and the way she’s clutching tightly to any part of him she can. And then she’s there, climax quick but powerful, her thighs shaking as she sits astride his lap, and she cries out softly against him as she holds on tight. It doesn’t take more than a few more thrusts until he’s following behind her, his body going rigid for a few seconds before he coaxes her head back to kiss her again.

“You’re a bloody marvel, Swan.”

His voice, his smile, the sincere look in his eyes – it’s all too much and not enough all at once and Emma closes her eyes to kiss him again, suddenly terrified of what this all means. She hasn’t felt like this in so long, and not just the boneless pleasure of a good orgasm. Killian is the first person who hasn’t dangled her fame in her face or used that as the badge to get into bed with her. It strikes her again that it took nearly the length of a whole day for him to even admit he was a fan prior to their meeting.

All of a sudden, she’s exhausted, dealing with both the physical toll their last day has had on her and the emotional toll that she just did that with him, and so she lets Killian shift her to stand and shuffle them around until he can reach his stash of clothes. This time, she accepts the boxers he hands her in favor of swapping out her underwear. They stand side-by-side, changing in tandem, and they both seem to respect the unsaid rule of no peeking.

She doesn’t have a chance to overanalyze after that; Killian leads her back to the bed, going so far as to maneuver in a way that he’s pressed against her back, their clasped hands nestled against her chest. She’s asleep in no time again, lulled by the sound of whatever Killian is humming and the gentle pressure of his lips against her shoulder.

She wakes to the sound of their phones both ringing. She’s so tired, though, that she reaches out with her right hand and stops short when she realizes it’s still attached to Killian’s left. She grunts, then, switching hands as Killian stirs, murmuring something about shutting off their alarms as he burrows into her hair.

Without looking, she silences the ringtone and lets her arm fall back to the bed. Of course, the ringing starts right back up and Emma finally wrenches open one eye enough to look at the caller ID on her screen. She flicks at the screen, accepting the call and shoving the phone against her ear.

“What?”

“Emma, ping your damn location right now so Granny can get those cuffs off. We play in two hours. Do you hear me? Two hours.”

It takes a couple minutes for Ruby’s rushed words to connect in her brain, and then Emma’s gasping, sitting up in a tangle of arms and not even paying attention as Ruby rants on while still connected.

“I’ll ping it,” she blurts out, hurrying to end the call so she can share her location with her friend in order for her to locate the yurt in the camp. “Killian, get up,” Emma urges. She shakes him the best she can, turning in their pretzel to face him and leaning down to press her lips against his frantically. “Hey, wake up!”

He seems much happier to rejoin the land of the living when she’s kissing him, but it can’t last. She has to hurry. Besides, the intimacy of that move after such a short period of time has her rattled more than she expected it would. There’s a part of her that wants to just keep kissing him, wants to stay in this bed in this little cocoon they’ve created for themselves. And while she knows she could have that, theoretically...

“We’re about to have company,” she tells him, finally breaking through his sleep haze.

“Somebody to join for a threesome, then?”

She smacks his shoulder for that, biting her lip against the chuckle that wants to break out. “No, unless you want me to step outside while you and Granny have a good time,” she says. His eyes pop open at that.

“Oh, then we’re getting out of jail?” He lifts the chain for emphasis before he struggles to sit up. They scramble off the bed like that, and Killian unlatches the door just in time for a golf cart with Granny and Ruby to pull up right outside.

“Finally! Have a good night, lovebirds?” Ruby’s already dressed, her make-up and hair impeccable, and her smile is wide and bright. “Here,” she says, leaning off the cart to hand them the key and handing it back to Granny when they’ve each unlatched the offending metal.

Emma and Killian both take a moment to rub at their wrists before Ruby interrupts to remind Emma they’re on a deadline.

“Sure, of course, gimme just a minute, okay?”

The way Ruby’s eyebrow raises up is all Emma needs and she gives her friend a pointed look while slipping back just inside the door to find her leggings and boots. She wraps her sadly dirty hoodie around her waist before she looks at Killian.

“Well, I guess this eliminates the need to find another song to duet today,” she remarks, trying to put some humor into the moment. He does chuckle, but it’s dry and solemn.

“Aye, but that’s okay. You’ll enjoy your show more when you’re able to move around without me holding you back.”

There’s something in the way he says it that punches at her heart despite the way he smiles when he says it. So it’s only natural that she’d soothe that statement with a kiss. This one is a tinge desperate and apologetic because she’s about to dash away for her own performance and they’ve just left everything a giant question mark.

“I’ll see you around,” she breathes out, a smile tilting up her lips as she runs her fingers along the back of his ear, her thumb playing with his earring for just a second. Without further ado, she plants one last kiss directly on his lips and darts out the door. She does her best to not look back and instead focuses on the day ahead of them.

Ruby’s words are ringing through her brain as they speed back to the bus where Emma can shower and change. She flashes through the water as fast as she can, only cleaning her body and leaving her hair naturally wavy as it dried last night.

“Is Killian coming to watch?” Mary Margaret asks from her left as Emma painstakingly applies her makeup. Her hands are shaking, just the tiniest bit. It’s probably the lack of sleep, and so she pauses from applying her eyeshadow to take another deep gulp of the coffee that they had waiting for her.

“I don’t know,” she answers, trying for a dismissive tone. She doesn’t have the mental capacity to deal with anything surrounding that topic right now so she hopes that Mary Margaret drops it. Her hand shakes a little more and she takes a steadying breath before swiping on her eyeliner as carefully as she can. With practiced speed, she coats her lashes in mascara and stands, giving herself one last look.

If there’s a word to describe how she feels she looks right now, it’s “softer.” It’s more than just the hair and the lack of false eyelashes. The outfit she’s wearing is the same as she would always go on stage with. The jeans are practically painted on, her backup boots are up to her calves, and the tank top she’s wearing flows freely around her torso to give her room to breathe. So she guesses it must be something about her expression, about the small smile that won’t go away no matter how stern she tries to look as she makes one last fix to her lipstick.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Emma says, giving Mary Margaret the broadest smile she can manage as she picks up her leather jacket from the back of her chair. She doesn’t need it, not really, but it’s like armor to her. Her friend looks at her carefully, tilting her head to the side for a moment and raising her eyebrow like she’s also trying to puzzle out the difference in Emma’s demeanor. But she just smiles, holding out her hand to take Emma’s as they leave the bus and join Ruby and Mulan outside.

It’s an easy trip to the main stage, with security leading the way and Mulan assisting. It helps that they’re not making a mad dash to the other side of the festival, and that she’s not being yanked in a thousand directions. Twice now, she’s caught herself reaching for a hand that isn’t there, though.

She is surprised to find a bit of a crowd in their backstage section. There’s David with his charming smiles and supportive words, extending beyond the woman he is so clearly enamored with. And Robin and Regina are actually standing less than five inches apart which is closer than she’s ever seen her manager standing to anyone else. There’s a suspicious lack of their third, however, and Emma stifles her disappointment best she can. She wants to ask, even opens her mouth to question David, but they’re being ushered on to the stage and he gives her a shrug and a final call of encouragement.

It’s all come down to this, Emma thinks - the lights are blaring even though it’s a bright and sunny day. She’s glad she left her leather jacket back stage because she’d already be roasting if she had it on. With that in mind, she pulls deeply from the water bottle she brought with her and turns to her bandmates for the start of their show. More than once, she can hear a yell from a fan about the lack of Killian on stage, and she tries to laugh it off.

“Sorry, folks. This is a solo-Emma adventure,” she says, forcing a smile on her face when a sudden wave of loneliness comes over her.

It goes so quickly from that point forward. She takes up her guitar when it’s called for, sits down at the keyboard for one or two songs, and grabs the ukulele she uses for just two of their songs right before they make it to the halfway mark of their set.

They finish the first of those songs to wild applause and cheers, and Emma smiles as she takes the microphone off the stand. It isn’t until she brings it back up to her mouth that she realizes it’s her left hand, her right arm still dangling at her side despite her natural inclinations. She even put back on the stupid wristband that he bought them to stop the cuffs from chafing their skin. She huffs out a chuckle, closing her eyes and smiling while Ruby and Mary Margaret wait for her cue to start the next song.

She looks back to them, seeing Ruby tilt her head to call her over. Emma clips her mic back on the stand and wanders over, away from the amplifying devices. “Mulan told me that a bunch of the fans have been asking about Killian. They’d heard about some kind of publicity thing with handcuffs and were excited to see it in person.”

“Should I --?”

“Yes,” Ruby says, and Mary Margaret echoes from five feet away where she can tell what’s being said. Emma groans with nerves, bouncing on the balls of her feet for a second before going back to her place.

“I seem to have exorcised my demon too soon,” Emma says thickly into her microphone. “Turns out he may have grown on me a little. So Killian, this next song is for you.”

This wasn’t the next song on their set - not one she’s ever played in public. They mostly stick to their own original works, but sometimes she finds the best way to express herself is using someone else’s music and lyrics instead. The chords and words of “Tonight You Belong to Me” are ones she knows by heart, and it echoes their early morning trip back from the bathrooms where he hummed along right with her. Ruby and Mary Margaret both hang back, instead letting her solo with the ukulele.

When the final note rings out, the crowd cheers, the frenzied yells making her freely laugh. She glances to the side of the stage and sees both David and Robin frantically trying to text. Mulan is recording the whole thing, as she’s sure a lot of the audience members are. It’s not every day fairytales come true, apparently. Now to just hope it works.

It all gives her courage to chant the syllables of his name so they’ll all catch on. If his band members can’t get a hold of him, maybe the entire main stage can. Mary Margaret and Ruby follow suit, wide smiles on their faces as their voices join in over the sound system. She has no idea if he’s even going to hear her, hear them, but she has to try. For once in her life, she wants things to work out.

It’s astonishing to hear all these people chanting his name, and Emma can’t fight the smile that’s breaking out as she keeps it up. Not knowing if he can hear her, or if he’s on his way, or what his progress is if he is on his way, she takes a bit of a chance.

“Killian, if you can hear us, I want that second duet, after all.”

It’s like a tidal wave when it happens: the cheers start in the back - the very, very back - and she watches as the wide crowd parts little by little and the cheers get louder and closer. If she tries, she can see the figure that’s moving them, his hand shooting up once when he’s halfway back to show the matching wrist band. She watches with ever-growing fascination as he moves through the audience. As the ripples of awareness travel upwards, they move easier and suddenly he’s sprinting towards them, a look of pure determination on his face.

It takes some help from the security at the front, but then he’s there in front of her, breathless but smiling, his left hand reaching for her right to link their fingers together.

“So you missed me then, love?”

“Shut up and sing with me,” she says, smiling as he inches a little closer.

“May I kiss you hello first?”

To this, she doesn’t respond. She reaches for his t-shirt and pulls him closer, leaning up on her toes to kiss him and then laughing through it when the whole crowd goes wild behind him. “Now can we sing?” she asks.

“Aye, love. What’s your choice?”

“You know ‘Always By Your Side’?”

He flushes in clear answer to her question, and Emma smiles. It’s the first single that made it onto the radio, and even more fitting now given where they began the day.

“Good. Also? You wouldn’t have held me back, just so you know,” she says away from the microphone. There’s more to be said - this isn’t where their conversation is even close to ending - but he ducks his head in a surprisingly bashful nod. They’ll have time to discuss it all later when they’re not ticking down their stage time.

The videos of their duet on the main stage end up going viral. There are pictures everywhere of them singing, eyes locked together, matching smiles on their faces. He posts a shot of their joined hands on Instagram later that he simply captions “Best festival ever” underneath, with an emoji of chains afterwards.

The next year, when they’re both invited back, they’re booked back to back on the mainstage with one act melding into the other as they sing together to close out one set and open the next. The year after that, he posts the same picture of their hands linked together, but Emma’s left hand is clasped over top of their joined ones, the ring just catching the sparkle of the dim light of their festival lodgings. His caption this time reads “Amendment: THIS was the best festival ever.”

And really? She can’t disagree with him on that one bit.