Angels if Shadow chapter 5

Chapter

5

Amy was being shaken about. She thought it was very sweet of Rory to give her a lift but it wasn’t very smooth. She shouldn’t complain, but she had to. About to speak, they stopped beside the lake in front of a space ship. Amy’s mouth hung open like a cave. The ship was a vast contrast to the violet forest of crystals. It was a pure, snowy white, save for the crystals that had started to grow on it. In the doorway stood a man, a man with wings of all things! Amy, jumping off Wolf Rory’s back, ran over to the Doctor, confused. Amy was about to ask the Doctor what was going on but the man spoke first.

“Doctor, I presume,” he spoke as he stepped into the moonlight. “How nice for the last of the Time Lords to pay humble, little me a visit.” Amy was struck by the man’s eyes immediately but Rory, his strong will changing him human again, covered her eyes.

“Don’t look. Amy, I don’t want this to happen to you too,” whispered Rory, wings fading as he spoke. Belle, now also human, looked around them for Tom as the Doctor spoke. “Well, Gortail. Long time, no see. Still up to your old tricks are you? Last time I saw you, you let your clan kill me. Well, they didn’t succeed. I’m still alive and well. Tell me, where are the humans you took? Hmm?”

“These two are strong,” he said, indicating Rory and Belle. “But the others are not. You are too late. They have turned already. The midnight solar storm was all I needed....” The Doctor looked at his watch. He flinched. It read 12:03. Three minutes too late to save the villagers. But he could still save Belle and Rory, maybe even Tom’s parents, if they were alive.

“But I wouldn’t worry about what I could do to your friends right now. I’d worry about that gun pointed at your head...”

Belle, Rory and the Doctor turned their heads as one, to see Tom aiming a gun at the Doctor’s head.

“Doctor? Rory?” Rory realised he still had his hands over his wife’s eyes. He released  his hands and Amy saw what Tom was doing. He had his crosshairs between the Doctor’s eyes.

“Tom! Stop it! He’s trying to help!”

“So he says. Look at the evidence. He’s an alien, he turns up at the time when villagers are vanishing, he know this, this, thing and he’s done NOTHING TO HELP US!!!” Tom’s shouts reverberated through the night, birds flying scared from their roosts.

“Tom, no! He is a good man. When Gortail turned me like this I saw his past. The Doctor nearly died to save a whole planet.” Tom didn’t care. His anger couldn’t control itself any more and Tom pulled the trigger.

The last thing the Doctor knew was happening was that Tom had fired at gun at his head and Amy was screaming. Then, blackness. But he was alive. Someone had threw the Doctor out of the way, into the ground, as Tom pulled the trigger. A man, someone different from Gortail, had saved the Doctor’s life and was struggling for his own.

“Oh, son. What has happened to you? You were such a bright child...” Tom dropped the gun. He looked at his hands, then to the (once again) unconscious Doctor, and finally at the Time Lord’s saviour.

“Dad? What... What’s going on?”

“We weren’t taking them , they volunteered. And Gortail only came to get us back.”

“But why Belle?”

“And why me?” Interjected Rory. Amy hushed him with a kiss. The Doctor came round, rubbing his head then pulling out his screwdriver. He was going to scan the bullet-wounded Forbaith but he pushed him away. “That was me. I was trying to save them. I got the others to volunteer but no more. Gortail wanted to take more people by force. Doctor, you’ve seen our war and I saw you be nearly killed by my brothers...”

“Raze, thanks again. This is the second time you’ve saved my life from him and his clan,” he looked sadly at Tom. “You’re half Forbaith. You dad was a brother of the Black Wolf Clan and your mm was human and...”

“Doctor, his mother was killed by Gortail. He wouldn’t allow her into the clan... I’m sorry son, I’m so...,” but he spoke no more. Nor did he breath. Rory and Belle felt a weight be lifted from them and knew when this Forbaith had just died, his control died with him. Belle’s eyes were brimming, Tom’s dad was the best man she knew. Even better than her own father, who left her. Tom again picked up the gun and aimed straight at the Doctor again.

Tom was shaking. This only made his anger worse. There was no-one left for him to go to now, and he knew his true self. Gortail smiled grimly at Tom, who had his finger tightly round the trigger.

“You could have saved him, but you didn’t! You coward!!!” Amy looked to Belle and Belle winked at her. She mouthed to Amy and she nodded back.

“Tom, he’s not a coward. He once sacrificed his life for the universe, was only able to come back because I remembered him, he’s been travelling the universe for centuries and seen many lives lost. And he’s saved unimaginable amounts of people.”

“And I has seen what war does to people. Tom, I’ve been there. You mourn but you live. My friends and family, gone. Lost in the time war. Like I said, last of my kind.” Tom believed none of this and tightened his finger just that much more.

“RUN!!!!” Yelled the Doctor in the nick of time. He had darted away into the depths of the forest as Tom fired. Amy, Rory and Belle all ran behind the Doctor, Tom still shooting from the clearing. A sudden silence washed over the forest as Tom stopped shooting. All bullets gone, he turned to Gortail and uttered his last words as a human. “I want to join you.” Gortail just looked at him, and then Tom changed. But Tom was different from the rest of the clan. His eyes were scarlet and he was thirsty for blood. Time Lord blood.