Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

The Fires of Pompeii (Part 3)

A/N: Tell me ^that face^ doesn't make you giggle. Because it makes me giggle.

"Put this one... there. This one... there. Er, keep that one upside down, and what have we got?" the Doctor said, arranging the stone circuits.

"Enlighten me," Lucius said dryly.

"What, the soothsayer doesn't know?"

"A seed may float on the breeze in any direction."

"Yeah, I knew you would say that. But it's an energy converter."

"An energy converter of what?" Lucius queried.

"I don't know!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Isn't that brilliant? I love not knowing. Keeps me on my toes. It must be awful being a prophet, waking up every morning, 'Is it raining? Yes, it is, I said so.' Takes all the fun out of life. But who designed this, Lucius? Hmm? Who gave you these instructions?"

"I think you've babbled enough," Lucius snapped.

"Yeah, but no matter how many times you tell him that, he never actually stops," Matt said dryly.

"Lucius, really, honestly, I'm on your side," the Doctor said. "I can help."

"You insult the gods. There can only be one sentence. At arms!" Lucius ordered his bodyguards.

"Oh, morituri te salutant," the Doctor said, removing his specs as he back away from Lucius.

"Celtic prayers won't help you now."

"But it was him, sir, he made me do it!" Quintus said. "Mr. Dextrus, please don't."

"Come on now, Quintus, dignity in death," the Doctor chided. "Take a page from Matt's book."

"Oh, the irony of using me for an example of how to die gracefully," Matt said with a roll of his eyes.

The Doctor ignored him. "I respect your victory, Lucius," he said, reaching out his hand for a shake. "Shake on it? Come on. Dying man's wish?" He darted forward suddenly, grabbing Lucius's arm under the cloak...

And yanking it clean off.

Matt and Quintus both stared wide eyed at the arm in the Doctor's hand, stone like Evelina's but far more advanced.

"But he's..." Quintus said, trailing off.

"Show me," the Doctor said, and Lucius threw aside his cloak, showing the crack in his stone shoulder where his arm once was.

"The work of the gods," he said proudly.

"He's stone!" Quintus said.

"Noticed that, yeah," Matt put in.

"'Armless enough, though," the Doctor said cheekily. "Whoops!" He tossed Lucius's arm back at him, before calling, "Quintus!"

The boy threw his torch at the guards before darting after Matt to the window. The Doctor aimed his sonic at the circuits, knocking them over and making Lucius yell in dismay.

"Run!" the Time Lord said as he leapt through the window.

"My carvings!" Lucius wailed, kneeling on the ground. "The work is unbroken," he said, letting out a sigh of relief, before moving to the hypocaust. "Oh, Lord of the Mountain, I beseech you! This man would prevent the rise of Pompeii. Lord, I beg of you, show yourself. Show yourself!"

The three, meanwhile, darted through the streets, finally pulling up. "No sign of them," the Doctor said, patting Quintus on the back. "Nice little bit of allons-y, I think we're all right."