Necessary Evils

Chapter Ten: When Angels Die

Chapter Ten: When Angels Die

I heard the TARDIS door open down the corridor. We're in.

Closing my eyes, and reopening them, I watched the Master through her eyes. He released her, shutting the door, and she ran toward the left corridor. She turned the corner and peeked around it, but the Master just shook his head and grinned at her.

She turned and saw the angel, gasping.

Get behind it, I instructed. She obeyed. Rose, I need you to do something for me.

I can read your thoughts, Doctor. I won't let you do this.

There's little choice left.

Doctor, it's not just to save yourself from the guilt—it's to save the universe and all of space and time. You cannot kill the Master. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

But I can kill this scrap of myself that has harmed you, can't I? He has no fixed points beyond this.

Doctor. Don't, she warned.

Rose, don't watch any of this. I closed my eyes and reopened them again, ignoring her barrage of unceasing arguments. TARDIS, the lights.

The lights went out in the ship and I felt the breeze caress my hair as swift unseen creatures moved around us. My duplicate screamed, but then panted in relief. "What?"

"TARDIS, LIGHTS!" I commanded, the lights immediately returning.

The angels pinned my duplicate against the wall and blood streamed down his neck. I moved closer to him, examining the wound. "Huh..."

"What's got you so fascinated, Doctor?" my duplicate sneered.

I smiled amiably at him. "You've been bitten by an angel," I informed him.

"No," he murmured, eyes widening. He began to struggle. "No! I cahhhn—!" He coughed and I thanked the universe that minor muscles, such as vocal chords, were the first to go in the process.

"What's going to happen?" Rose asked.

I smiled at her, then turned back to my duplicate. "He's going to become a weeping angel." As we watched, his fingers stiffened and became stone. I grimaced, despite myself. "You'll spend the rest of your existence with a single purpose—to feed. This is a great act of gratitude, angels," I told them, placing a hand on one statue whose mouth was smeared with blood. "To take this burden from me, and give him a fate to fit his crimes. I could never think of such a fairness in my anger."

Sighing heavily, I turned with a strained smile at my group of companions. "Let's not waste their thank you, then. Let's sort this spacetime mess."

I started walking past Rose down the corridor when she moved in the opposite direction, toward John. She grabbed a hank of his hair and slammed his face into the wall as hard as she could. She repeated the action. Several times.

"Rose!" I grabbed her and pulled her off of him. I saw tears streaming down her cheeks. I noticed a dark bruise on the side of her neck.

It was my Rose. The Rose after Bad Wolf, the one left behind with John in that parallel universe...

I wrapped her in my arms, holding her tight. It's okay now, I sent, kissing the top of her head. He can never hurt you again.

"The four of you," I said over her head to the four angels that pinned the still transitioning John to the wall. "Please hold your places there. I want to send him somewhere that he will not be able to escape."