Chapter 4: Stowaways and Stone Angels

Rulan remembered why the Doctor hated Vortex Manipulators so much the moment her feet hit the ground. Or rather, the moment her feet were swept out from under her as she landed, face-first, onto cold marble stairs. She pushed herself up, grumbling to herself all the while about shoddy, 'off-brand' travel. Looking around, Rulan found she was outside of some sort of museum. The moment her feet carried her through the heavy oak doors, a familiar brilliantly blue TARDIS caught her eye.

"I can't get rid of him, can I?" She exclaimed fondly, crossing over to stroking the blue box, which was mentally purring. "He doesn't give you enough attention, does he?" She cooed some more. "Always off with his companions and leaving no time for you."

That's when the alarms started. Without even giving it a second thought, Rulan quickly rushed into the TARDIS. The interior had changed, it was be a different regeneration of her Doctor; though whether it was before or after the one she'd just seen was beyond her.
The timelady heard footsteps from outside the door and she quickly crouched behind a set of couches.

That's when the situation hit her. Oh no. Look where she was, right back in the spot she'd just left, no progress made whatsoever. Could she handle an adventure? Would it help her heal? What made up her mind in the end was the comfort that she could leave at any point with her V. Man (she'd begun to call the Vortex Manipulator that, sort of like a Walkman, but not). Also, teleporting out now would leave a blast of blue light that Theta would surely be curious about. Especially since someone was coming in now. Yes, Rulan decided, she would stay, and leave if need be. It all made her big blowup on her best friend moments before seem a bit pointless, she mused sheepishly. Oh well, it was all in the past now. . . or possibly the future depending on where she was. Instead of dwelling, the timelady fixed her attention on the man who was walking in.

He looked absolutely ridiculous. With his loud red bow tie, bright suspenders, and patchy tweed jacket, he looked like some sort of school teacher-gone-wrong, especially with the coat. Everything about him either screamed 'crazy' or 'two-year-old'.

And Rulan loved it.

He was carrying a black box with etchings all over its exterior. Upon closer examination, Rulan recognized it as Circular Galifreyan. 'Hello sweetie' was all it read, a message clearly meant for the Doctor. Ooh, had he finally gotten himself a new girl? It had taken long enough.

Hooking the box up to the console, the Doctor turned as his current companion, a stunning willowy woman with fiery hair. Her best friend seemed to have an affinity for gingers, he always had.

"Why are we doing this?" Red-head questioned him, looking aggravated and a little lost.

" 'Cause someone on a space ship 12,000 years ago is trying to attract my attention. Let's see if we can get the security playback working." The way the Doctor said 'someone' sounded familiar, like he knew who it was and was avoiding confronting the reality.

The TARDIS monitor gave a slight crackle and a grainy image of a woman winking appeared. It quickly switched to another image of her again, this time with her back turned On screen an ominous voice spoke. "The party's over, Doctor Song, yet still you're on board."

The woman, 'Doctor Song', turned to face him with a hard look. "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."

A few more threatening statements were exchanged, Rulan had trouble hearing the low audio from so far away, and then Doctor Song began to spit out the most random things.

"Triple-seven, five. . ."

No, not random.

". . . slash, three, four, nine by ten. Zero, twelve, slash, acorn."

Co-ordinates.

The ginger companion shot Theta a look as Doctor Song concluded, "Oh, and I could do with an air corridor."

The Doctor crossed the room and began clacking away on the keyboard.

"What was that, what did she say?" His companion asked curioisly.

"Co-ordinates!" The Doctor had arrived at the same answer Rulan had.

The timelady stayed carefully hidden as the TARDIS shook and traveled to wherever that woman's co-ordinates had pointed. However, Rulan was greatly confused when the Doctor let out a yell and threw open the doors, just in time to catch a disheveled Doctor Song. Her momentum carried the two onto the floor, where they stayed, staring at one another.

The companion was the first to speak, confusedly calling out. "Doctor?"

"River?" Was all he said in reply, though whether he was talking to the red-head or Doctor Song, Rulan couldn't tell.

They three stood and watched the ship disappear before Doctor Song uttered a command. "Follow that ship."

Nodding quickly, the Doctor got up, brushed off his pants and walked over to the console.

His companion smirked and muttered, "Whipped." as the timelord checked the monitor dutifully.

"Hold on." He paused. "We've got another person on this ship, the TARDIS is saying someone else's on board."

Doctor Song pulled out her gun and Rulan shot the wall next her a slight glare before getting up.

"It's seems I've been outed," Rulan complained with a sigh. "And here I thought I could trust her." She could almost picture the TARDIS shrugging unapologetically.

"My sexy's loyal to me and me alone!" The Doctor bragged exuberantly, before a puff of air from the console shot him in the face. Wiping it with his hands, the timelord offered his friend a smile, though he was eyeing her carefully. His tone was slightly wary as he asked, "Still early days then? Back when your taste was absolutely rubbish."

"Says you!" Rulan laughed (after which he immediately relaxed). "You look like you're fresh out of day care, need a change in your nappie?"

The two hugged tightly before the Doctor kissed her lightly on the head (behind him, Doctor Song looked like she'd swallowed something unpleasant). "You need to visit more often, I haven't seen you in ages."

"I just saw you a few minutes ago," Rulan commented. "And I must admit, I like this style better than sand shoes'."

A wide, goofy grin worked its way into the Doctor's face.

"But his hair's better," His friend concluded thoughtfully, knowing she was at risk of inflating the man's gigantic ego. "Anyway, going to introduce me to your friends, Thete."

"Yeah, Thete," The ginger spoke up scornfully. "Care to introduce?"

The Doctor, painfully oblivious as always, nodded happily. "Sure! Guys, this is my companion, Amelia Pond."

"Amelia." Rulan mused. "What a very whimsical name.

"I go by Amy now," The Scottish girl explained, still looking slightly peeved.

"Good to know, I'm Rulan Delta, an old friend of the Doctor's."

Doctor Song's eyes widened and a huge smile made its way onto her face. "Ruly! Why didn't you say so? You look so young, like you're fresh out the proverbial oven! Ooh, I love the trashy look; so rebellious, so chic!"

Rulan was immensely confused. "Have we met before?"

"I've met you, but you haven't met me. It's confusing, but basically mine and the Doctor's time streams are backwards, the first time he meets me is the last time I meet him and vice-versa. You tag along on a few adventures, just last month we went skydiving with Euan Abercrombie on Yuiten's third moon Adrius."

"Fascinating," Rulan breathed out. "It's ever so nice to meet you."

"This is River Song," The Doctor continued, now speaking mostly to Amy. "She's a. . ."

He trailed off and River sighed before clapping her hands together. "Well, c'mon! We've got a ship to follow."

•••
River and Rulan spent nearly the entire time in the TARDIS mocking the Doctor's driving.

"Use the stabilizers!" River commanded agitatedly, fed up with his incompetence.

"There aren't any stabilisers!" The Doctor yelled back at her, brushing back a stray hair.

"They're the blue switches," Rulan commented boredly, though she was watching their argument like a sports match.

"The blue ones don't do anything, they're just. . . blue." The man's protests sounded a bit pathetic even to himself.

"Yes, they're blue, good job stating the obvious." River mocked. "They're the blue stabilisers! See?" She used the two blue devices and the ship fell into silence.

Rulan's delighted peal of laughter was the first sound anyone heard. Doubled over, the timelady continued to crack up at the Doctor's put out face.

"Yeah, well, it's just boring now, isn't it? They're boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers," The Doctor exclaimed, throwing his hands up.

"Doctor, how come she can fly the TARDIS?" Amy spoke next, a slight smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"You call that flying the TARDIS? Ha!" The sulky Doctor sat down and pouted while River continued to fly the TARDIS.

She flipped one last switch and said, "Okay, 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."

Amy frowned at her technical jargon.

The Doctor gave her a puzzled look. "Parked us? We haven't landed."

"Of course we've landed. I just landed her," River replied slowly, as if talking to a a child.

"But it didn't make the noise." The Doctor's frown was so deep it looked painted on.

"What noise?"

"You know, the. . ." He made an awful impression of the TARDIS' wheezing sound.

"Theta we just went over this," Rulan reminded him gently. "It's not supposed to make that noise. You leave the brakes on."

"Well, why don't you just drive it then?" The Doctor snapped back.

"That's a low blow, sweetie," River chastised him with furrowed brows, "You know why she can't. Just accept that you've been leaving the brakes on and deal with it."

The Doctor didn't respond, he just made his way towards the door with his head up, not making eye contact with any of them except an amused Amy. Not even mentioning about his hurtful comment towards Rulan, which made the timelady frown. 'I haven't seen you in ages' the Doctor had said. Had the two really grown apart with this regeneration? It saddened her, he was her best friend, but was she no longer his? He was obviously quite smitten with River, but somehow Rulan felt that that had nothing to do with it. Something had happened, and she intended to find out.

"No, wait!" River stopped yelled out, effectively cutting off both Rulan's thoughts and the Doctor's walk towards the TARDIS door. "Environment checks."

The Doctor slapped his forehead as if he were the biggest idiot in all of the universes. "Oh, yes, sorry! Quite right. Environment checks."

Rulan smirked, knowing what was coming next. He was still her same Doctor, even if something had happened between them in her future. And sure enough, the Doctor just stuck his head out of the door and simply said, "Nice out."

River ignored him. "We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest--"

The Doctor interrupted her, ever a show-off. "We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System. Oxygen-rich atmosphere, toxins in the soft band, 11-hour day, and. . ." He stuck his head out once more, "Chances of rain later."

River scoffed, looking at Amy and Rulan, "He thinks he's so hot when he does that." Rulan did her best to hide her grin, while Amy frowned thoughtfully.

"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" The ginger repeated.

"Oh, I had lessons from the very best," River replied breezily, shooting a discreet look at Rulan.

The Doctor, having meandered back over to them, smiled smugly, his chest puffed out and hands in his pockets. "Well, yeah."

His best friend raised an eyebrow, doubting he could teach anyone to pilot his time machine, not when he could barely do it himself. And her doubts were founded, because River's next words rung out scathingly.

"Yes, it's really a shame you were busy that day." The woman picked up her heels and headed for the door. "Right then, why did they land here?"

"They didn't land." Rulan's declaration cut through the TARDIS, causing the Doctor to smile proudly at her, he had evidently been about to say something of a similar caliber.

"Sorry?" River had definitely heard her.

"You should've checked the Home Box," The Doctor said, getting up and walked towards River. "It crashed."

River frowned deeply and stepped outside to verify what the Doctor had said, and explore a bit. As soon as she was completely out, the Doctor snapped the door shut behind her and headed back to the console.

Amy loudly interjected as the doctor fiddled with some levers. "Explain! Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"

Rulan just gave a sigh and followed River outside to the barren terrain of Alfava Metraxis. It look cartoonishly barren; as if any moment, a tumbleweed would blow past, followed by the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. The wreckage of the ship they had followed lay on top of a huge stone structure, debris littering the surrounding area. A slightly metallic scent filled the air and clung to Rulan's skin. Her eyes misted up, though from the smell or the sight before her, she couldn't tell.

River gave her the barest hint of a smile, before walking over to the Doctor and Amy, who were exiting the TARDIS. Rulan stayed put, thinking. Had the captain and his crew suffered much? Did they deserve to crash on an uninhabited planet, so far from anyone they loved or cared for? Did anyone deserve that?

Getting a little to philosophical, Ruly, one of her voices commented. It was the one who spoke the most; the dry, sarcastic one.

Rulan nodded, took a deep breath, and made her way by to the other three. River was explaining something to the others as they listened attentively.

"--you are so wrong. There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die. Now he's listening!" She spoke into a small decive she was holding. "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal." Holding up the machine, she cast a pleading look at the timelord next to her. "Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."

"I can do it," Rulan offered before the Doctor could say anything. Amy didn't really seem to like her, maybe the glorious mystery that was her sonic duck would win the ginger over. Theta grinned in anticipation and River nodded quickly. All looked on excitedly as the timelady pulled out her small metal duck.

"QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCKK!"

They all laughed at Amy's shocked expression.

"Doctor! What was that?"

"A thing of beauty and majesty," River replied for him, before pulling out her diary. "Where were we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?"

"What's the book?" Rulan piped up.

"Stay away from it." Was all the Doctor said.

"What is it though?" Amy asked curiously, still looking a little rattled from her experience with the duck.

"Her diary."

Rulan sighed, he'd answered when Amy had asked, but not when she had. Something was definitely up. . . or was she reading into the situation too much?

"Our diary," River corrected gently, looking saddened.

"Her past, my. . . future." The Doctor waved his arms about senselessly to help make his point. "Time travel! We keep meeting in the wrong order."

River nodded, before four swirling beams appeared, transporting several soldiers onto the ground, all in camouflage. The one in front, presumably the group's leader, approached River.

"You promised me an army, Doctor Song."

She shook her head. "No. I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor."

The Doctor gave a tiny salute, "That'd be me!"

". . . And Rulan," River added, almost as an afterthought. Or like a shitty fanfic writer who was inserting her OC into a canon episode because she lacks the creativity to write her own.

The same man smiled politely, as if the fourth wall hadn't just been broken, and 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?"

"I was getting to that," River cut in. "Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?"

"No!" The cry had come from Rulan, a determined expression on her face. "Not again. Never again."

The Doctor shot his friend a sympathetic look, before facing River. "What do we have to do?"

•••
Rulan stood protectively in front of Amy, her eyes watering as she tries to keep herself from blinking. "Keep watching it Ames, and don't blink."

She remembered the Doctor's video, back when she was still human. Just her luck that'd she's come fresh out of an adventure with the stone aliens, and fall straight into another!

Her and Amy has been wandering about while the Doctor and River flirted. The video River had of a Weeping Angel had been behaving mysteriously. Rulan and the Doctor's  ginger companion had been so curious, they hadn't noticed the door closing behind them. And of course, the is turned out the video of the Angel wasn't so harmless after all, especially when it began to climb out of the the tiny video screen.

They'd at once tried to open the door, but the stupid thing didn't budge, it was locked. The two were now backed up against the far wall, Amy was pushed behind Rulan as the timelady attempted to put her out of harms way, both facing an angry stone angel in full predatory mode.

"Doctor!" Amy called for about the fifth time. Thankfully, her friend finally heard her. He ran to the door and franticly pounded on it.

"Are you all right? What's happening?

"The Angel is here," Rulan responded gravely, taking turns winking one eye at a time.

"Don't take your eyes off it! It can't move if you're looking." His next words were slightly muffled, he had evidently turned his head away. "What's wrong? It's deadlocked."

There was a pause, then they heard his voice once more. "Rulan? Keep her safe, okay? I'm going to get both of you out if there. Just don't blink! Don't even blink!"

"Try to see if you can unplug the screen," Rulan commanded softly yet firmly to Amy, heeding the other timelord's wishes. "I know we already tried, but it won't hurt to do it once more. I'll keep watch on the angel."

Amy grimaced and gingerly tiptoed around the back of the Angel. Crouching down, she attempted to yank the cord out. A shower of sparks filled the room, but when the cleared, the cord was plugged in, and the statue was still there, only this time, she seemed even angrier. And if things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, the television flicked back on

"Doctor!" Any yelled in a panicked tone. "I tried to turn it off, but it just switched back on!"

"Yeah, it's the Angel," The Doctor replied darkly. "It's messing with the system."

"But it's just a recording." Amy slowly made her way back over to where Rulan stood, and joined her in looking at the angel.

"No, anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel." His voice quivered slightly. His best friend, and his amazing companion were both trapped in a tiny room with a stone killing machine. If he didn't save them soon, the inevitable was bound to happen.

"Doctor! What will it do to us?" Rulan asked in a faux-calm voice. She had to keep it together for Amy. "She doesn't appear to be at full strength, so what happens if she touches us?"

There was a pause from the man outside. "Just keep looking at it. Don't stop looking!"

"Just tell us." Amy persisted, panic creeping into her voice.

All they heard in response was the pounding of footsteps, getting quieter each second. The Doctor had left.

"I'll stay in front then Ames," Rulan said cheerfully. "Nothing's going to happen to you."

"Amy, Rulan, not the eyes!" The Doctor was back. "Look anywhere but don't look at the eyes."

Rulan nodded, but Amy's gaze unwillingly flicked upward. "Why?" The woman asked, staring directly onto the stone creature's eyes.

"The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there," The Doctor muttered quietly, as if reciting something.

"Theta, what did you say?" Rulan asked, a chill creeping down her spine.

"Don't look at the eyes!" He shouted hurriedly, "Don't look at the Angel's eyes!"

"No, about images, what did you say about images?"

"Whatever holds the image," The feminine voice of River spoke up. "Of an Angel, is an Angel."

An idea suddenly struck Rulan. "Amy, grab the remote!" The ginger fumbled with the TV's controls grasping it tightly. "Okay, four second long video of an angel, it's out of the screen but still an angel! Amy I need you to pause it at the static, can you do that? One, two, three, four. . ."

Amy nodded hesitantly before a determined look filled her eyes. Slight static covered the Angel and she jumped on the opportunity, slamming the pause button. "Boom!"

The Angel froze before turning off, and the door swung open. River and the Doctor rushed in, the Doctor quickly unplugging he screen before sighing.

"That was brilliant!" Amy crowed happily. "We froze it! There was a sort of blip on the tape and we froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel any more. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? We worked together and beat it! That was pretty good."

"That was amazing!" River beamed at Amy.

"We make a pretty good team." Rulan grinned and high-fived her.

"One of you, hug Amy!" The Doctor commanded, engrossed in some sort of tech-y thing.

"Why?" River asked, while Rulan nodded and embraced her friend.

" 'Cause I'm busy."

"I'm fine," Amy insisted, shrugging out of Rulan's hug.

"You're brilliant!" River exclaimed happily. "Both of you are."

"Thanks. Yeah. I kind of creamed it, didn't I?" Amy lifted her chin cockily.

River and Rulan just shared knowing smiles. "So it was here? That was the Angel?"

"That was a projection of the Angel," The Doctor corrected River. "It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant."

His ominous statement was met with uneasy silence, before a huge explosion rang through the air.

The four all jumped, before running outside. A soldier was speaking happily to Father Octavian. "It's gone positive!"

"Doctor! We're through!" Octavian pointed at the huge pit they'd opened up on the ground. It was a maze of catacombs, one that no one was looking forward to exploring.

"And so it begins." The Doctor rubbed his hands together and walked towards the soldiers, River following close behind.

It was time to enter the maze of the dead.