#nine saying sonic's world is gone/lost. to nine that is just the place sonic used to live in. it's in the past & the grim it's their future

[howcouldtheyletmebeanadult]

Situation: Grim/Ghost Of A Chance

"Clean slate"

2. Physically reaching out (or at least trying to)

3. Nine gets angry, then withdraws.

4. One of them leaves through a portal.

[animatedjunkfood]

Sonic Prime Spoiler - Sonic and Nine Episode 6

I have the scene symbolism comprehension of a monkey so excuse me if it was already SUPER obvious but-

The Grim had an orange VS blue color scheme. A very common color scheme overall but used here to reference the clashing of Sonic’s and Nine’s endgame goals and contrary ideologies that come to the forefront in this scene.

Sonic wants to make it back home, to his real home. But he’s also not the kind of guy to just sit back and watch others suffer; so, regardless of if it helps him accomplish his main desire or not, he’s going to meddle in every world where he sees trouble.

Nine wants to make a new home, his first home, and he wants Sonic to be a part of it. He grew up in a world that never cared about him, so he’s long past given up on caring about it. Anyone and everyone can go burn for all he cares as long as he gets what he wants.

While they both express themselves to each other here, it doesn’t feel like either of them are actually accepting it. They’ve both put blinders on.

Sonic doesn’t want to accept the kind of person Nine is. For example, he was told Nine betrayed the Rebels, but Sonic vehemently defends him because the kinds of actions they claim he did isn’t something Tails would do. 

But guess what Sonic?

Did Nine take the Paradox Shard for himself? Yes. Did Nine leave the Rebel, Knux, and Rusty Rose for dead? Yes. Did Nine swoop into the middle of a desperate struggle just to grab Sonic and leave without helping? Yes. When Sonic outright asks him to come join the fight, what does Nine say? He says no.

On the other hand, Nine won’t acknowledge that there is zero chance Sonic would choose to stay with him (and only him) forever. While Sonic never says anything outright, Nine isn’t an idiot. It’s clear by his facial and body expressions what Sonic thinks of the Grim plan. That, and he knows Sonic is desperate to put his own reality back together (he said so right before getting warped away in ep3).

But after this Sonic goes back to New Yolk first with Nine joining in later, and what do they say to each other?

Sonic says he knew Nine would come back - there was no way Tails Nine would abandon people in need (even if he hated them.)

Nine says once this is over he’s going back home and Sonic is free to join - he wouldn’t have come if he didn’t feel like there was still a possibility of Sonic saying ‘yes’ just because Sonic technically never said ‘no’. 

Besides that, Nine also has one more thing going for his ‘new home plan’. Even if Sonic’s main goal is to get back to his original home, Nine doesn’t think that it’s possible or never considered how to ‘fix’ it in the first place. It shows in the way he calls it “the home you lost”. It’s lost. It’s already gone, there is no saving it. Sonic has no where to go back to, so why wouldn’t he stay with Nine?

[thatninjacat27]

The Problem With Meeting Your Heroes (Again)

-Spoilers and slight cursing

-Scene rewrite of Nine showing Sonic ‘The Grim’

(Ao3 link above if you want to read it there but it’s the same below)

Sonic and Nine stepped out of the inter-dimensional traveling plane. Nine had landed on a world within the Shatteredverse that he wanted to show Sonic. 

“Tada!”, the fox exclaimed with jazz hands as Sonic looked out towards the world in front of him. 

“What is this place?”, Sonic asks his companion. The world that they were on was completely empty, deprived of any life. There was no nature, no structures, no people, or much natural resources. “Where is everyone?”

“I call it ‘The Grim’. And that the best part of all of this. There’s no one on this planet. It’s just the two of us right now. Isn’t that awesome?”, Nine said excitedly. It had taken him weeks to find this place and that was one of his top requirements for his ideal world. 

“Well that’s one way to putting it.”, Sonic nodded inwardly concerned but tried not to let it show too much. It was strange thing to say but it wasn’t really the time to go an unpack it. “So why did you want to show me this now, little buddy? We were kinda in the middle of a fight between the rebels and the Eggheads a minute ago.

“Well isn’t it obvious? This place is our new home.”, Nine said still looking happy. 

“Home? Nine, you’re kinda losing me here. What do you mean by that?”, the spiky hedgehog asked. 

"The Grim, this world, this place could be home.”, Nine extends his arms out. “The one you lost. The one I never had. I can make that hope a reality, for both of us.", the fox put his hand on Sonic shoulder.

“Okay but what about the others? They are still currently fighting for their lives and freedom from The Chaos Council. We have to go and help.” Sonic said with concern and worry dripping from his voice. 

Nine removed his hand. “Just forget about them. It’s not our problem now. We don’t even need those people anymore. That city has give me nothing but pain, suffering, and misery. Let it all burn down.” The fox kicks a nearby pebble. “Fuck the People. I don’t give two shits about them anyways.”

“Language.” Sonic pointed out at him. Nine just huffed. “Also we can’t just abandon them. A lot of those people are innocent and in danger with those robots running rampant under the Council’s control. Not to mention that the main people fight, Rebel, Knucks, and give or take Rusty, are our friends, Tails.”

”My name is Nine!”, the fox yelled out in anger. He was upset at being called that nickname again. Nine thought they’ve gone over that already. He wasn’t the ‘Tails’ that Sonic had known for all those years and didn’t want to be referred to as such. Sonic then realized his mistake. He took a moment of silence and then apologized. “I’m sorry.”

The fox looked at the blue hedgehog. Sonic looked and sounded so sincere and it made Nine feel worse about yelling. It wasn’t Sonic’s fault that he reminded him of lost(most likely dead) little brother. God he couldn’t stand the look of his sad face or those ears drooping down. Nine’s tails involuntarily slightly dipped down.

Taking a deep breath, Nine said,“You know what. Fine. I’ll go back and help just this once. But then I’m out.”, Nine began to walk fast back to the plane and Sonic dashed to keep pace with him. “Whether I come back here alone is completely up to you.”

Sonic tried to reach out a hand but stop. The look Nine gave him when he turn back to face him, the cold tone, and from what he knew already, it wasn’t the right moment for it. The spiky blue hedgehog sighed. “Okay.”

Getting situated inside the plane, the duo flew out through the portal back to New Yoke City, a place where the fight was only just beginning.

[bananaofswifts]

By Paul Tingen

From sketches to final mixes, engineer Jonathan Low spent 2020 overseeing Taylor Swift’s hit lockdown albums folklore and evermore.

“I think the theme of a lot of my work nowadays, and especially with these two records, is that everything is getting mixed all the time. I always try to get the songs to sound as finalised as they can be. Obviously that’s hard when you’re not sure yet what all the elements will be. Tracks morph all the time, and yet everything is always moving forwards towards completion in some way. Everything should sound fun and inspiring to listen to all the time.”

Speaking is Jonathan Low, and the two records he refers to are, of course, Taylor Swift’s 2020 albums folklore and evermore, both of which reached number one in the UK and the US. Swift’s main producer and co‑writer on the two albums was the National’s Aaron Dessner, also interviewed in this issue. Low is the engineer, mixer and general right‑hand man at Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, where he and Dessner spent most of 2020 working on folklore and evermore, with Swift in Los Angeles for much of the time.

“In the beginning it did not feel real,” recalls Low. “There was this brand‑new collaboration, and it was amazing how quickly Aaron made these instrumental sketches and Taylor wrote lyrics and melodies to them, which she initially sent to us as iPhone voice memos. During our nightly family dinners in lockdown, Aaron would regularly pull up his phone and say, ‘Listen to this!’ and there would be another voice memo from Taylor with this beautiful song that she had written over a sketch of Aaron’s in a matter of hours. The rate at which it was happening was mind‑blowing. There was constant elevation, inspiration and just wanting to continue the momentum.

“We put her voice memos straight into Pro Tools. They had tons of character, because of the weird phone compression and cutting midrange quality you just would not get when you put someone in front of a pristine recording chain. Plus there was all this bleed. It’s interesting how that dictates the attitude of the vocal and of the song. Even though none of the original voice memos ended up on the albums, they often gave us unexpected hints. These voice memos were such on‑a‑whim things, they were really telling. Taylor had certain phrasings and inflections that we often returned to later on. They became our reference points.”

Sketching Sessions

“The instrumental sketches Aaron makes come into being in different ways,” elaborates Low. “Sometimes they are more fleshed‑out ideas, sometimes they are less formed. But normally Aaron will set himself up in the studio, surrounded by instruments and synths, and he’ll construct a track. Once he feels it makes some kind of sense I’ll come in and take a listen and then we together develop what’s there.

“I don’t call his sketches demos, because while many instruments are added and replaced later on, most of the original parts end up in the final version of the song. We try to get the sketches to a place where they are already very engaging as instrumental tracks. Aaron and I are always obsessively listening, because we constantly want to hear things that feel inspiring and musical, not just a bed of music in the background. It takes longer to create, but in this case also gave Taylor more to latch onto, both emotionally and in terms of musical inspiration. Hearing melodies woven in the music triggered new melodies.”

Not long after Dessner and Low sent each sketch to Swift, they would receive her voice memos in return, and they’d load them into the Pro Tools session of the sketch in question. Dessner and Low then continued to develop the songs, in close collaboration with Swift. “Taylor’s voice memos often came with suggestions for how to edit the sketches: maybe throw in a bridge somewhere, shorten a section, change the chords or arrangement somewhere, and so on. Aaron would have similar ideas, and he then developed the arrangements, often with his brother Bryce, adding or replacing instruments. This happened fast, and became very interactive between us and Taylor, even though we were working remotely. When we added instruments, we were reacting to the way my rough mixes felt at the very beginning. Of course, it was also dictated by how Taylor wrote and sang to the tracks.”

Dessner supplied sketches for nine and produced 10 of folklore’s 16 songs, playing many different types of guitars, keyboards and synths as well as percusion and programmed drums. Instruments that were added later include live strings, drums, trombone, accordion, clarinet, harpsichord and more, with his brother Bryce doing many of the orchestrations. Most overdubs by other musicians were done remotely as well. Throughout, Low was keeping an overview of everything that was going on and mixing the material, so it was as presentable and inspiring as possible.

Mixing folklore

Although Dessner has called folklore an “anti‑pop album”, the world’s number‑one pop mixer Serban Ghenea was drafted in to mix seven tracks, while Low did the remainder.

“It was exciting to have Serban involved,” explains Low, “because he did things I’d never do or be able to do. The way the vocal sits always at the forefront, along with the clarity he gets in his mixes, is remarkable. A great example of this is on the song ‘epiphany’. There is so much beautiful space and the vocal feels effortlessly placed. It was really interesting to hear where he took things, because we were so close to the entire process in every way. Hearing a totally new perspective was eye‑opening and refreshing.

“Throughout the entire process we were trying to maintain the original feel. Sometimes this was hard, because that initial rawness would get lost in large arrangements and additional layering. With revisions of folklore in particular we sometimes were losing the emotional weight from earlier more casual mixes. Because I was always mixing, there was also always the danger of over‑mixing.

“We were trying to get the best of each mix version, and sometimes that meant stepping backwards, and grabbing a piano chain from an earlier mix, or going three versions back to before we added orchestration. There were definitely moments of thinking, ‘Is this going to compete sonically? Is this loud enough?’ We knew we loved the way the songs sounded as we were building them, so we stuck with what we knew. There were times where I tried to keep pushing a mix forward but it didn’t improve the song — ‘cardigan’ is an example of a song where we ended up choosing a very early mix.”

Onward & Upward

folklore was finished and released in July 2020. In a normal world everyone might have gone on to do other things, but without the option of touring, they simply continued writing songs, with Low holding the fort. In September, many of the musicians who played on the album gathered at Long Pond for the shooting of a making‑of documentary, folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which is streamed on Disney+.

The temporary presence of Swift at Long Pond changed the working methods somewhat, as she could work with Dessner in the room, and Low was able record her vocals. After Swift left again, sessions continued until December, when evermore was released, with Dessner producing or co‑producing all tracks, apart from ‘gold rush’ which was co‑written and co‑produced by Swift and Antonoff. Low recorded many of Swift’s vocals for evermore, and mixed the entire album. The lead single ‘willow’ became the biggest hit from the album, reaching number one in the US and number three in the UK.

“Before Taylor came to Long Pond,” remembers Low, “she had always recorded her vocals for folklore remotely in Los Angeles or Nashville. When I recorded, I used a modern Telefunken U47, which is our go‑to vocal mic — we record all the National stuff with that — going straight into the Siemens desk, and then into a Lisson Grove AR‑1 tube compressor, and via a Burl A‑D converter into Pro Tools. Taylor creates and lays down her vocal arrangements very quickly, and it sounds like a finished record in very few takes.”

Devils In The Detail

In his mixes, Low wanted listeners to share his own initial response to these vocal performances. “The element that draws me in is always Taylor’s vocals. The first time I received files with her properly recorded but premixed vocals I was just floored. They sounded great, even with minimal EQ and compression. They were not the way I’m used to hearing her voice in her pop songs, with the vocal soaring and sitting at the very front edge of the soundscape. In these raw performances, I heard so much more intimacy and interaction with the music. It was wonderful to hear her voice with tons of detail and nuances in place: her phrasing, her tonality, her pitch, all very deliberate. We wanted to maintain that. It’s more emotional, and it sounds so much more personal to me. Then there was the music...”

The arrangements on evermore are even more ‘chamber pop’ than on folklore, with instruments like glockenspiel, crotales, flute, French horn, celeste and harmonium in evidence. “As listeners of the National may know, Aaron’s and Bryce’s arrangements can be quite dense. They love lush orchestration, all sorts of percusion, synths and other electronic sounds. The challenge was trying to get them to speak, without getting in the way of the vocals. I want a casual listener to be drawn in by the vocal, but sense that something special is happening in the music as well. At the same time, someone who really is digging in can fully immerse themselves and take in all the beauty deeper in the details of the sound and arrangement. Finding the balance between presenting all the musical elements that were happening in the arrangement and this really beautiful, upfront, real‑sounding vocal was the ticket.

“A particular challenge is that a lot of the detail that Aaron gravitates towards happens in the low mids, which is a very warm part of our hearing spectrum that can quickly become too muddy or too woolly. A lot of the tonal and musical information lives in the low mids, and then the vocal sits more in the midrange and high mids. There’s not too much in the higher frequency range, except the top of the guitars, and some elements like a shaker and the higher buzzy parts of the synths. Maintaining clarity and separation in those often complex arrangements was a major challenge.”

[crusherthedoctor]

As someone who plays games and enjoys stories that aren't terrible, I always love it when the setting of a tale is allowed to truly manifest. That is to say, when there's just as much attention put into it as there is for the characters, to the point where the setting might as well be its own character. It doesn't always have to be completely in-your-face mind you, but generally speaking, if you can feel the amount of personality given to the location, there's a nine out of ten chance that I'm going to appreciate it. Bonus points if it's really pretty.

Naturally, this extends to the world of Sonic. Though the level of backstory varies when not taking Japanese manuals into account, the many islands/planets/theme parks in space/parallel dimensions Sonic has visited over the years nonetheless tend to hold a lot of charm with the way their zones and stages are presented. And when it comes to Sonic in particular - when they're at their best - his style of environments have the perfect aesthetic for my personal tastes: full of whimiscal, cartoony character, yet beautiful and sincere at the same time (or ominous and sincere, in the case of Eggman's moodier fortresses and the like).

So it goes without saying that this has been one major focus of mine while writing for Sonic & Tails: Beyond the Stars, my own little fanfic adventure for the blue hedgehog. From the moment I started putting my story into words, I wanted to make an effort to give the land of Viridonia the same love and focus that was given to the likes of Angel Island and the Little Planet in the official installments. Granted, it helps that the nature of my story already relies on a considerable amount of presence for my setting, but that alone would be insufficient. We have to go deeper. We have to go... advanced.

Long story short, I spend far too much time imagining locations in my head for my oh-so-epic fanfic where a 90's caricature confronts his breakfast mascot arch-nemesis for the nth time. Seriously, do not underestimate me on this. I think about the colour schemes. I think about the architecture. I think about not only what type of music would fit each location, but also the specific mood to go along with it. “No guys, it would have THIS kind of icy music, not THAT kind of icy music.”

Hell, I even make crappy MSPaint flags that represent each of the zones, Unleashed-style, which are “proudly” displayed in the appropriate chapters. I'm on a drug, and that drug is making Sonic settings come to life despite existing purely in written form. Please help me.

So I figured I might as well expand a bit on some details that may interest those of you who read my fic, that couldn't be acknowledged too much in the fic itself without severely ruining the pacing of the story in the process. Note that you will NOT miss anything important in the fic proper if you skip on these posts. It's just a fun bit of behind-the-scene elaboration on the thought and inspiration involved, if you're into that sort of thing. Nothing more, nothing less.

Oh, and by the way? I hope you like Spyro the Dragon comparisons, because there's gonna be a lot of them as this series goes on, and I won’t be sorry for any of it. :] Yes, it's hardly surprising that my equal love for Spyro's environments (specifically Classic/Reignited Spyro, as I was never a Legend or Skylanders fan) plays a recurring influence in the way I visualize my Sonic zones, mainly with the way colour contrast is often used. That's not to say that the Sonicy aspects are lost or forgotten, though. After all, their universes are already pretty similar in terms of general aesthetic, so it's not too much of a stretch anyway IMO.

Anyhow, this intro has gone on long enough, so let's begin with the central hub of Viridonia, shall we? (I was originally gonna lump in Trudy’s castle and Gleaming Meadows in the one part, but each of them ended up being even longer than I expected, so uh, guess they’ll have to be separate.)

Creating the Hub: Lime Shores

Right off the bat, my goal with Lime Shores was very simple: to make it different from Station Square. No disrespect to Station Square, I love it as much as the next SA1 fan (especially its music!), but considering that a recurring motif of Beyond the Stars is to mirror certain aspects of SA1's story WITHOUT completely copying the whole routine, it was doubly important for the central town of Viridonia to have its own identity to help further that point. And since Lutrudis - and the rest of the folk on the island - are all inexplicably English to varying degrees and varying stereotypes, I knew what had to be done.

I’d make it look like Solihull, of course.

What? You thought it'd be based on London? HA. That comes later, in more Eggmanian territory. No, for Lime Shores, I wanted something a bit more gentle, something more quiet, something that looks rustic yet refined in equal measures... and something that contrasts greatly with the unique oddity that's been placed upon it.

Because let's not forget, as an everlasting side-effect of the Ethereal Zone's lingering power, much of the stony architecture has been given a nice gleam that causes it to change colour depending on the time of the day. Whereas in the daytime it looks suitably turquoise, the tones change to purple and pink by nighttime.

This might also explain why some occasional buildings look a bit... SEGA World-y...

It was important to make the town down-to-earth (for Sonic standards), because that way the Ethereal effects would be more striking. If it was a big proud metropolis like Station Square or Empire City, it wouldn't have the same impact. You'd still probably notice it, sure, but the contrast between the quaint vibe of the town with the increasing wonder if it was touched by aliens or some shit would be lost. (But don’t worry, a big proud metropolis is indeed featured in this story. You’ll get your Speed Highway fix in due time, though as expected, that too has an identity of its own...)

And of course, no area with Shore in the title is complete without, well, a shore. And sure enough, the waters near the shore are a slightly deeper sea green than average, even without the help of its nearby shiny rocks...

But what sort of music, pray tell, would accompany this unique town that kicks off Sonic's latest adventure? Well it may have a gentle disposition in spite of the Ethereal alterations, but it's still a Sonic adventure we're talking about, and Sonic is obviously going to be excited as hell to explore this new land with or without Eggman shenanigans in the mix. So to reflect his particular brand of upbeat passion, I think something along these lines will do nicely. (NOTE: I’ve decided to include two tracks for each location - some of them not even being Sonic-related - for the sake of more comparison and for driving the intended tone home all the more.)

But then, that's for the daytime. When it's night, however, we'll need something a little more relaxing and calm, yet still capturing a similarly mysterious atmosphere...

Also, there's a (completely optional) training simulator set up by Tails in Lime Shores. Should you ever try it out to brush up your skills in beating all those Eggman robots, the simulation would appear very reminiscent of the Colosseum from Sonic Battle, if it decided to trade in its green for blue. This is apparently the only noteworthy visual change in this piece of Miles Prower technology since 2004. Go figure.

And finally, yes, the town comes with such charmingly English luxuries like a post office, a tavern, a museum, a spa, and... a Chao Garden.

Yes, they would all have different music tracks of their own.

No, I'm not going to list what I have in mind for each one. That would make this post longer - and sadder - than it already is.

[post-itpenny]

(lap) for Peregrine and Phoebe

Thistle

This turned out so much longer than I planned and is quite full of angst and a good few flashbacks. Enjoy!

Vespers always loved visiting the D’Vitt family home. So much life and family filled the place, whenever he visited even before marrying Cosmos he always felt so welcomed my Stripes and Mama Carol. Vespers could guarantee whenever he came he could feel excepted and at ease.

Except today.

Vespers was a nervous wreck, pacing the floor and giving updates as one of the few allowed inside the room. The baby was coming.

More than once Stripes had to give Vespers a firm shake just to make sure the poor guy had not passed out standing up and Maggie had to stop him from demanding a fifth cup of coffee to steady his nerves. Eventually he did not leave the room and they all knew it must be time.

So everyone waited.

Including the three who had just arrived.

Peregrine did not like the D’Vitt family home. So noisy and full of people. He kept getting odd looks and did not understand why the rudeness. He did not feel welcomed in the least bit.

Juno quickly left to go find someone who could give an update and Lyra was pulled aside by Lydia.

Peregrine frowned, he had never really been one for intermixing however it would be hypocritical to say otherwise. He had not originally approved of his sister-in-law’s choice of mate but Lyra would have defended her twin to the bitter end. If he was being honest in the end of it all came his nephew whom Peregrine has to admit he had a soft spot for, the whole family did really.

Peregrine sat in a chair away from the other’s, not really wishing to speak with anyone. They were all caught in their own conversations anyways. Maggie walked into the room and took one look at him before bolting back out. At one point his sister of all people came into the room. Magpie gave a small smile and moved as if to come sit by him, Peregrine in turn glared, he had no desire to be anywhere near her still. Not if he could help it.

Magpie seemed to deflate a little before a tall woman took her elbow and guided Magpie off to another group.

Peregrine tried his best to ignore his sister’s chatter. How did she fit so well here?

Peregrine left the room without a glance towards Magpie, soon finding himself in an empty hallway with a single chair across from a mirror.

Peregrine slumped down into the chair with a huff, looking across at the clown that stared back, his reflection. Peregrine grimaced, he couldn’t stand his reflection, couldn’t stand the scare that ran up one side of his face. He had Magpie to thank for that.

She had gone mad, there was no other way to describe the thing that was charging at him. Magpie was a thousand things at once and all of them raving mad. Scales, fur, eyes, teeth, many legs, or only wings, as if she was every creature in existence but then none at all. Peregrine braced himself as she crashed into him. Every sinew of muscle fighting to keep her in place.

There was a hand waving in Peregrine’s face.

“Hey there! What’s got you over here all by yourself?”

Peregrine looked up to the smiling face of Aster. They had not really ever talked though he had heard from Vespers via his phone calls to Juno and Lyra that he was a clown of cheerful disposition and more importantly Vespers’ father-in-law.

Peregrine straightened up, “I’m waiting, same as everyone else of course.”

Aster chuckled as he scratched the back of his head, “I mean by yourself though. You seem like a guy with something on your mind.”

Peregrine glanced away, “nothing is on my mind that makes for conversation.”

Aster’s smile seemed to falter a little, “well if you would like you can join us if you would like. I’m sure it won’t be too much longer of a wait. That’s a nice tattoo by the way.”

Peregrine looked down at his hand, the outline of a thistle on his left hand. “It’s the family tattoo…. the baby will be allowed one…. when it’s ready of course. You have to earn it, a symbol of adulthood.”

“But Maggie has one doesn’t she? Jelly told me she did.”

Peregrine flinched, “my sister vouched for her” he sneered.”

He found the red headed thing under Juno’s bed. He had heard his daughter talking to someone and opened the bedroom door to find her. The thing reeked of Magpie, how? She was so human yet so not. A deadlight in a human body, an abomination.

Peregrine closed his eyes at the memory. That was the first time Vespers had ever argued with anyone actually. The first time and it was with his father. Peregrine learning his children had been visiting their aunt, sneaking her ward into his home. He felt so betrayed.

Juno had enough respect to listen to her father. Vespers wouldn’t speak to him for a week after.

“You don’t particularly care for your sister do you?” Aster questioned.

Peregrine snorted, “not particularly no I don’t. I see you all do however.”

Aster’s smile wavered again. So much venom in Peregrine’s voice, so much bitterness.

“I understand you have a history, but today is not about that, isn't it?”

Peregrine looked to Aster in surprise, seeming like he was somewhat offended.

“It’s not about any of us,” Aster continued, “it’s bout the boys. We’re going to be grandfather’s Peri- well I already am one but I get to be a grandfather to someone new!”

Peregrine flinched at the nickname. Only three had ever been allowed to call him that, and one of them was dead now.

Aster brightened, reaching up one sleeve to produce of all things a thistle. It was beautiful in color, a rich purple.

“Nobility, courage, and loyalty-“

“In the face of treachery.” Peregrine finished, “how did you know?”

Aster smiled and handed Peregrine the flower. “Well flowers are a thing for me. Got to pass that down to my son Pepper, Cosmos takes after his mom a bit more if I’m honest. What do you think this one will be like? The baby I mean.”

“....... I just hope she’s not like her great aunt.”

“Oh.” Aster said, unsure how to really respond.

“No I mean my sister’s talent for creation runs in the family. Our elder will actually be visiting soon I expect, you’ll see what I mean then….. most of them die young, the one’s like him….. or just… are lost.”

“Was Magpie lost? Was that the problem?”

Peregrine was struggling to hold the thing that was once Magpie in place. The ground cracked around them, the sky seemed to warp and change colors like a glass prism. Around them were loud booms like a crack of sonic thunder and he found himself wondering in that moment if she was trying to tear the world apart in her insanity. But he had to stop her, keep her from getting to their father again. His broken body behind Peregrine as their mother held tightly to him. Claws reached out and raked down his face, it felt like fire burning into his skin.

Aster had a hand on Peregrine’s shoulder, but he did not say anything. Peregrine shook in anger. He knew their parents forgave her but why? She ruined their father’s leg, she tried to kill him. Their mother-

Peregrine had a mouth full of dust, gravel cutting into his hands. She towered over their parents, reaching to take hold of their mother’s mask and pull it off.

Magpie shrieked in pain. The skin of her hands burning black as if set on fire. It was a good thing really, it brought her back to her senses, but not before the world was crashing down on them.

His best friend died that day. He had come to help bring Magpie home, and he died.

All his children did was cry to see their aunt.

His son grew to be bitter with him, leave home and visit that killer whenever he wished. Feed her and keep her company in a prison when she should have vanished to nothing.

But now here she was. Magpie was living and happy. His son couldn’t stand him, his wife was at the end of her patience, his daughter going against his wishes at every turn.

Peregrine looked up to the mirror in front of him and wondered when he had started crying.

“I guess she was lost.” He said at long last.

“But she’s found now,” Aster observed.

Peregrine gave a deep sigh, feeling the weight of many long years with it. “Yes….. I guess she is.”

Peregrine stood up and smoothed his hair before frowning at his reflection. “I need a haircut.”

“Or this,” Aster said as he offered Peregrine a hair tie.

Yes that would work.

Lyra, as it turned out, liked his ponytail. Peregrine has been brought back to the others by Aster. Lydia and her mother-in-law having gone to help with the delivery. Peregrine was not one for conversation, he used to be he vaguely remembered. Far more than Magpie who seemed to be eager to be friends with everyone. Peregrine eyed the long red gloves she wore that hid her scars from the world. He felt a twinge of jealousy, he could never hide his.

Vespers eventually emerged looking as if on cloud nine, and covered in coffee.

“I thought you were cut off?” Juno questioned.

Vespers grinned as his wings unfolded and he proceeded to unbutton his shirt from the back. It was a clever trick when a normal shirt was not an easy option.

Vespers took his shirt off to reveal a thistle tattooed directly over his heart. A member of the D’Vitt’s questioned the tattoo before Juno proudly pulled her own shirt up just enough to see the thistle that graced the side of her ribcage. Magpie took off her own jacket to show the thistle on her shoulder and Cosmos’ sister convinced Maggie to unbutton her dress just enough to show the thistle that was etched up her spine.

Peregrine could see just the edge of a nasty scar on Maggie’s back. He looked away to Lyra and his eyes fell on the high collar of her dress, hiding the scars on her neck.

Peregrine, in that single moment, felt ... ashamed.

He had done that, not directly but it was ultimately his fault. Magpie might have scarred herself and him. But he, Peregrine, has caused scars of his own.

And Magpie had the decency to be sorry about her’s….. was she the bigger person then? When did that happen?

“Dad show yours!” Vespers demanded.

Peregrine looked at his son and was surprised to see a smile being directed at him. No anger, no persecution, his son was genuinely smiling at him.

Peregrine held out his hand to show off his tattoo. Five thistles, there was something about it that made him feel a swell of pride.

Vespers as it turned out, was there to bring back the grandfathers.

It was a girl.

A tiny little girl that was curled up in her father’s arms. Peregrine cried for the second time that day.

Later, after Blackwood had come and gone along with everything that was a result of his visit. Peregrine found himself with his granddaughter in his arms, resting in his lap. They had named her Phoebe, it was perfect. And for the first time in a very, very long time. Peregrine felt at peace.

[thecomicsnexus]

UNCANNY X-MEN #107-108 OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1977 BY CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, DAN GREEN, JOHN BYRNE AND TERRY AUSTIN

SYNOPSIS (FROM MARVEL WIKIA)

After being transported through a star-gate by Phoenix, the X-Men find themselves on an ancient planet that is home to the M'Kraan Crystal, surrounded by several members of the Shi’ar Legion of Super-Heroes Imperial Guard serving the evil Emperor D’Ken. When Cyclops announces that they are there for Lilandra, an enormous battle commences between the two sides. Despite the number of Imperial Guardsmen, the two teams are evenly matched.

When Lilandra is saved from The Soul Drinker unleashed on her by D’Ken, she reveals that he plans to use the M’Kraan Crystal to gain power absolute and that is why she escaped to Earth, having learned of Professor Xavier when he used his mental powers to thwart an alien invasion by the Z'Nox. The tide of the battle is turned by the arrival of the Starjammers, a group of interstellar pirates who aid the X-Men against the Guardsmen. Jean mind-probes their leader Corsair, and is shocked to learn what she finds there, finding it impossible to consider.

Suddenly the M’Kraan Crystal powers up and reality for a fraction of a second ceases to exist. On Earth Peter Corbeau warns the Fantastic Four that should the cosmic blinks continue, the universe will die.

With Emperor D'Ken threatening to destroy the universe by trying to utilize the power of the M'Kraan Crystal, the X-Men and the Starjammers compare notes and come to the conclusion when the specific stars come into alignment the crystal will become available to D'Ken. While on Earth, Peter Corbeau connects with President Carter, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four and tells them some grim news: some strange force is threatening to destroy the universe. Most affected by this is the Wasp, who feels helpless when faced with a crisis even Earth's mightiest heroes cannot stop.

Back on the M'Kraan world, the X-Men approach the crystal and are confronted by its defender, a small being named Jahf. Jahf warns them that he will defend the crystal to his death, and if he is destroyed a being twice as powerful would appear to defend the crystal next. Wolverine mocks the small android and finds himself knocked high into the atmosphere, only saved by the quick thinking of the Starjammer's robot Waldo who teleports Wolverine aboard the ship. Soon Jahf is upon the X-Men and the Starjammers, easily thrashing them with his superior strength. When brute force doesn't work, the X-Men pool their abilities to fight the creature. Storm clouds Jahf in a pea-soup fog allowing Banshee to get close enough to unleash the full fury of his sonic scream. While he manages to destroy Jahf, he strains his vocal chords so raw he can barely talk.

The two teams don't get a moments reprieve, however, they are attacked by the second guardian of the crystal, a giant robot named Modt. During the fight, Raza finds Emperor D'Ken and tosses the despot into the M'Kraan Crystal, causing D'Ken and both groups to be transported within. There they find themselves in a large abandoned city. In the middle a sphere of pure light that Phoenix finds herself drawn to. Upon touching it, everyone present is struck by a bolt of energy that awakens in their mind their greatest fears. Jean manages to shake off the effects on herself, and when Cyclops goes berserk as a result of his illusions she knocks him out. Seeing the sphere being to crack, she channels the full power of her Phoenix powers to it and learns that it is a keeping the birth of a neutron universe at bay, and should the barrier break the universe as they know it would be destroyed to make way for this new universe.

Phoenix attempts to use her powers to repair the damage, however it is not enough as she needs additional life forces to help repair the damage. With only Storm and Corsair free from the sphere's influence, she convinces both to give a portion of their life forces, revealing to Corsair that she knows that he is Christopher Summers. As Jean repairs the damage, Corsair realizes that Cyclops is his long lost son Scott and goes to the unconscious man's side. However, Cyclops never wakes up to learn the truth, as soon as Jean repairs the damage she transports all the X-Men back home through the warp gate that brought them to the crystal.

There they find Professor X, Misty Knight and the Greys waiting and are confronted by Firelord, who explains that he has no quarrel with them anymore after Xavier explained how he was manipulated by Erik the Red. Following after the X-Men is Empress Lilandra, who's coming burns out the warp gate keeping her on Earth. She explains to Charles and the X-Men that while her brother was driven insane by the M'Kraan Crystal she is now the ruler of the Shi'Ar, however there must be time to sort out the red tape to have her rightful place put on the Shi'Ar throne, and until then she is staying on Earth.

CONTEXT

Dave Cockrum was an integral part of the All-New X-Men. Together with Len Wein (and I believe the help of Roy Thomas), they created all the new x-men. The costume designs are pretty much his. And this is what Dave Cockrum enjoyed the most in life, designing and creating characters. These are some quotes from an interview done by Jon B. Cooke:

CBA: Mike Friedrich told me a story that back in 1972 you had an idea for an international team book that eventually turned into the new X-Men. Is that true?

Dave: It wasn't my idea. Roy brought up the idea that he wanted to do a new X-Men book but he was talking about approaching it as "Mutant Blackhawks." That was Roy's suggestion when he took us to a fancy restaurant, telling us to order whatever we wanted—he had a hamburger. That was Roy's proposal: He wanted them international and to operate out of a secret base. Part of the rationale, as I understand it, was that Marvel was looking for foreign markets. And then, ultimately, we picked a bunch of nationalities whose countries weren't liable to buy the book! It never wound up fitting that proposal anyway.

CBA: After that, how long did you work on the proposal?

Dave: I had gone home and started designing some characters, but for some reason, there was a pause in the development, and they just hung fire for months. When it came back, Mike Friedrich wasn't involved any more but Len Wein was. I had drawn up a number of characters: The original black female in the group was to have been called The Black Cat. She had Storm's costume but without the cape, and a cat-like haircut with tufts for ears. Her power was that she could turn into a humanoid cat or a tabby. She wore a collar with a bell on it. When we came back to the project, after the hiatus, all of a sudden all of these other female cat characters had sprung up—Tigra, The Cat, Pantha—so I figured that we'd better overhaul this one! She wound up getting white hair, the cape, and becoming Storm.

CBA: Where did Nightcrawler come from?

Dave: When I was still a fan and in the Navy, my first wife and I were living on Guam in a house in the boonies (which was infested with roaches and rats). There was a terrible storm going on overhead, we had no lights, it was noisy and loud and raining like hell with thunder and lightning. To keep ourselves occupied and keeping ourselves from being scared to death, we sat around making up characters. We made up this duo, a guy I called the Intruder (a cross between the Punisher and Batman, with a chrome skull and black jumpsuit) and his demon sidekick, Nightcrawler. The original concept was a lot different in that Nightcrawler would howl at the moon, run up the sides of buildings and do all kinds of weird sh*t. He really was a demon who had screwed up on a mission from hell and, rather than go back and face punishment, he hung around up here with this do-gooder. So he was considerably overhauled when he wound up in the X-Men.

CBA: What input did you have with Colossus?

Dave: I drew him up and brought him in, saying, "Here's Colossus, our muscle guy." Len came up with the civilian name and origin. So it was my visual. Storm was pretty much the same, though when I wanted to put the white hair on her, everybody said that she'd wind up looking like somebody's grandmother. I said, "Trust me."

CBA: Was Thunderbird your character?

Dave: Yes. When I brought in the first design, everybody said, "He looks like an Air Force pilot!" I had this strange helmet on him that was an Indian design but nobody liked it, so I went back and re-did it.

CBA: So you stayed with the book for two years?

Dave: I stayed through to #107. I couldn't stay with it because I was on staff by that time—my job was to design covers—and I just couldn't handle it anymore. I was tired and I gave it up. Later on, they asked me to do that Marvel Fanfare with the X-Men in the Savage Land and it was fun! I called up Chris and said, "This is really fun! If Byrne ever wants to leave the book, give me another chance at it." And Byrne left the book that following Monday. That was a weird juxtaposition! So I got the book back and I was enthusiastic again. It was fun for a long time.

The only reason I left the book the second time was because I had previously put in a proposal for The Futurians. It sat on Jim Shooter's desk for about a year, and he finally said, "Yeah, you can do this if you want." I was in some doubt whether I should quit the X-Men and do that but I really wanted to do it. Chris and Louise Simonson, the editor, talked me into giving up the X-Men because they thought I was more enthused about The Futurians. That was probably the biggest mistake of my life! That was about the time they started paying the royalties and reprint money. It takes nine months after an issue goes on sale before you get a royalty check so I hadn't received one yet by the time I quit the X-Men. When the first one came it was $2000 right out of the air! I thought, "Geez!" And it got better, and from what I heard, people like Jim Lee were making $40,000 a month on royalties. (That's why they could afford to go off and start Image.) If I had known about that kind of money coming in—even the $2000 a month—you couldn't have pried me off that book with a crowbar. The Futurians was never that successful.

CBA: Did you get to meet Jack Kirby?

Dave: Only once or twice. I had a run-in with him of sorts when I was designing covers. I would normally sketch out a rough and attach a logo to it, and send it out to the artist who was supposed to do it. They were doing "What If Jane Foster had the hammer of Thor?" and they wanted Kirby to do the cover for that. Well, me being me with the peculiar twist of mind that I sometimes have, the logo I put on said, "What if Thor wore a bra?" I sent it out and Jack and Mrs. Kirby were totally scandalized, sent it back, and refused to have anything to do with it. The powers-that-be demanded, "What are you doing to Kirby?! You've pissed off Jack Kirby!" I said, "But, but, but..." and they wound up having the cover done by John Buscema.

There was another time when I was working with Stan on the Fantastic Four cartoon. For whatever reason, they couldn't use the Human Torch, so I had the task of designing Herbie the Robot. I thought the whole notion of replacing the Torch with a robot was so lame, all I would come up with were stupid ideas: One of them looked like a trash can on wheels with a "4" on it, another was a lamp on wheels with a "4" on it. After a half-dozen of these, Stan says, "You know, you're really hard to work with!" And he called up Jack and had him do it.

So we know the reason for his departure may not have been caused by the impossibility of the this team to deliver on time, but because it was too much (it may still be that though). So who can replace Dave Cockrum on X-Men?

With Byrne there, a man known for being prolific (and high quality at being that), the title didn’t get monthly right away. So I am not sure what was the defining factor for Byrne being in this title, but I can tell you this... THE REST IS HISTORY!

REVIEW

So now to the issues in question. I have been explaining before how much I didn’t enjoy Cockrum as interior artist. His last issue, though... is very good. I don’t know if it is the experience with the characters, the Legion of Super-heroes rip-off or what... but he was on fire in that issue. Sure, Colossal Boy rip-off is the most obvious thing even on the cover... but Wolverine takes down Timberwolf rip-off and puts on his costume.

As for the last issue of this saga... what happened to Claremont all of a sudden? I noticed he liked to write funny, but he is a poet all of a sudden. And Byrne really elevates his writing. John Byrne is not the kind of person that usually just does his job (sometimes he just draws for the fun of it, though), so I can imagine that the X-Men as we know them wouldn’t be possible without the collaboration of these two legends.

With this classic issues I feel tempted to see the art with the originals, and the re-colored (usually for digital) versions. The Batman digital comics were recolored in an awful way so I usually try to avoid those... but this run... I don’t know. The coloring would probably get in the way of Terry Austin’s inks.

Welcome to the X-men, folks!

I give these issues a score of 8

[blueboxshenanigans11]

Calming the Storm

Nine x Reader

Request: @spacedreamfighter asked: Thanks for answering, would you every do angry Doctor. AKA The Oncoming Storm?

Hello again! Here is some angry Doctor! I wrote this with Nine in mind since he was the first one to say he was the Oncoming Storm, however I think you could see any of the regenerations of the Doctor’s in this one. I hope you enjoy, and I hope to see you drop in my ask box again in the future! Thank you for your patience and support!! xoxo

Title: Calming the Storm

Word Count: 2,562

You knew you were on the planet Skaro. You knew that you and the Doctor had been separated. You didn’t remember being knocked out, and you didn’t recognize the room you had been put in once you had woken up. You had lost track of time not being able to even have a glimpse of the outside world. Had it been three days? Four? Five? You were tired. All you wanted to do was to lay down, but your restraints kept you in place against the wall. The best you could do was sit, but even that was painful with your arms chained above you. You struggled against the chains, helplessly hoping that you may just be able to wiggle your wrists out. You knew it was silly to think that, but you still hoped there was a slight chance, and you weren’t going to quit. You were worried. You worried that the Doctor was in another room somewhere also chained up, maybe being tortured…you didn’t want to think about that, and you really didn’t want to think that there was a possibility of him being dead…No. No he was still alive. He had to be. He was the Doctor.

You knew he would be coming for you if he wasn’t already captured, but you knew that there would be a trap set for him if he did come back. You couldn’t bear to see him get caught because he was trying to save you. As your thoughts continued to run on loop of what could happen, you found yourself pulling and twisting harder against your restraints. When another wave of fatigue hit you, you slumped to the floor, suffering through your arm pain to let your body rest even for just a minute. “Doctor…Doctor please be all right.” You whispered to yourself, shutting your eyes to press the tears that had been threatening to fall for a while. As hopeless as it might be, you couldn’t help but feel the Doctor could sense your plea, and hoped that he would be listening to it.

The Daleks had gone too far this time. They had taken you. They had taken his companion. The Doctor felt his hearts feel hollow as he thought of what the Daleks might be doing to do, or what they planned to do. He knew they would try to trap him if he came to save you, but he didn’t care. You meant more than all the stars in the millions of universes in the time space continuum to him, and he wasn’t going to lose the one person that meant more than life itself. He was going to get you back, even if it meant destroying Skaro itself.

As he paced throughout the Tardis, trying to figure out where you were and how he could get you back safely, an incoming transmission came pinging onto one of the pulldown screens by the giant console. Without question, the Doctor knew who this incoming message was from. He snagged the overhanging screen and yanked it down in front of him to see listen to what the Daleks had decided to say. “Doctor! We have your companion! If you wish to see her not harmed, you will surrender to the Daleks! You have twenty-four hours to surrender! Surrender or you will be exterminated! She will be exterminated!” As the Doctor heard the all too familiar gritty mechanical voice ring through his ears, he felt his blood toil from fire hot and ice cold. He had been threatened more times than he could count throughout his hundred’s years of life, but when someone threatened you, it flipped a switch in the Doctor that made him feel erratic, but unstoppable.

He quickly pulled levers, and pressed buttons along the circular control system of the Tardis, until one of the many building of the Dalek stronghold appeared on the screen in front of him. The Tardis had such a strong connection with you as well, and was able to find you swiftly feeling the new danger the Daleks had sent only moments before. The Doctor felt like he could kiss his beloved spaceship for discovering your location, it was the first glimmer of hope he felt since you had been taken from him. “I’ll be there soon Y/N. Hold on just a little bit longer…” The Doctor uttered before grabbing his leather jacket, and rushing out the Tardis doors. He was out in Skaro, completely vulnerable to an attack but he didn’t care. He began to run towards an odd shaped building that was tucked within the large city scape that would be beautiful if death loving alien machines hadn’t inhabited it. You were being held in there. The seventh floor. He may not have fancy weapons or large guns, but he not only had his sonic screwdriver, but his hatred for the Daleks that fueled him. Hatred and love blinded him, and at this point, he didn’t care what or who may lay destructed within his path.

“Where is the Doctor!? Speak! Speak!” A large black Dalek screeched at you. You were looking at the ground, wishing more than anything that you could cover your ears to protect them from the awful voices of the Daleks. You were breathing slower than usual being deprived from as much as you had been, it took everything in you to utter any words. “Fuck…you…” You managed. And the Dalek spun and yelled in anger. You were shot with a non-deathly shot of electric energy from another, deep red Dalek also standing in the room they held you in. “Answer us! Answer us!” “I don’t know…Even if I did…I wouldn’t tell…any of you.” You panted, trying to keep yourself in consciousness. “You lie! You lie! Where is the Doctor!?” You couldn’t help but think that as intelligent and deathly as these creatures were, they couldn’t grasp the simplest of concepts. “You’ve had me here, how would I know where he is?!” You yelled back, “I hope he left! I hope he doesn’t come back! You won’t be able to follow through with your plan!” “He will come! He always comes for his companions!” “Nice try then, he won’t come for me. I bet you anything he’s already in the time space continuum and is millions of miles away from Skaro. Your plan is a failure. All of you failed.” You weren’t expecting anything less than to get electrocuted again for your outburst, but it was worth it. The more doubt you put in their head, you hoped the sloppier they would be and maybe, just maybe you could find an opening to escape.

“TELL US! TELL US OR BE EXTERMINATED!” The Dalek’s screeched over and over again, causing your ears to ring so loudly you could have sworn you were going to be deaf if you made it out alive. As the Dalek’s screamed, electrocuted you, and you tried to hang on as much as you could, none of you had realized that the Doctor had appeared in the doorway. “GET AWAY FROM Y/N!” He yelled over the commotion, his voice booming off the walls. It was as if no one could overpower him. The Daleks all froze, stunned by his sudden appearance. You felt a faint smile appear on your wearied face. “Doctor, Doctor you came back.” You muttered under your breath, not having the strength to be any more excited. As if the Doctor could sense your voice, his head snapped in your direction. You were taken aback by the way he looked, you had never seen this side of him before. His eyes looked like there were wildfires within them, his body was ridged and looked like it was vibrating with fury. His presence was booming, and demanding the room to pay attention to him.

He began to walk towards you, when one of the Daleks attempted to block his way. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way. Now.” He growled, no fear present in his face. “You will be exterminated Doctor! Exterminate! Exterminate!” But before it could even lift up its gun to aim at him, the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the eye and it immediately exploded on the spot. The Dalek began to spin in circles, yelling as if in pain and confusion. It spun right into its fellow Dalek, and they both sparked and seemed to short circuit. The Doctor continued his path to you in silence, not letting any Dalek stand in his way. If anything were to try and stop him in this moment, he would unleash his power onto them as well. He was going to get you out of here, even if it meant being relentless.

Within moments, he had used his sonic screwdriver to unlatch the chains holding you, scooped you up in his arms and began the return trip back to the Tardis. You wanted desperately to walk on your own so he didn’t have to carry you, but you weren’t even able to lift up your head you were so weak. As you were being carried by the Doctor back through the building, there was utter chaos carrying on around you. There were Daleks running all about, some on the ground motionless, others spinning out of control. There were sparks of electrical explosions, lights flashing, and short circuiting happening all around you as if framing you and the Doctor as he made his path through it all.

The Doctor still didn’t utter a word to you, but you could feel scorching heat radiating off of him. His rage had taken a full takeover of his body. You had never felt or seen him like this. The Doctor was a fierce man, but he always had a gentle quality about him. He was humane, merciful, and understanding even in the most difficult of moments…something had changed him and it was scary to witness him like this. You were looking up at his hard jaw line, his eyes still not meeting yours when you felt yourself begin to drift. You tried to push yourself to stay awake, but the darkness quickly swept over you drifting you into a forgetful sleep.

You woke up hours later back in the Tardis. You were laying on your bed, and the room was dimly lit as to not hurt your eyes. When you realized where you were and the puzzle pieces of the previous events came together, you sat up with a jolt desperately looking around for the Doctor. “Doctor!” Your voice cracked out as you spun your head towards the door. The door quickly swung open, the Doctor entering your room in a rush. “Y/N! Are you okay!? Here, here take it easy.” He cooed, coming over to the bed and sit down in front of you. You wrapped your arms around him and squeezed him hard, afraid that if you let go you would be separated again. “You’re okay love…shh, I’ve got you now.” He whispered in your ear, trying to steady your shaking body. “I, I thought, that…that they were going to kill me.” You claimed, still not letting him break your embrace. “They didn’t. You’re on the Tardis with me and you’re safe.” You remembered how you had seen the Doctor last, and how it had frightened you to see him that way. You slowly pulled away from him, and he transitioned himself to sit next to you on your bed. You looked into his eyes, and saw that the fires that once were held in them were now extinguished. They were back to being lovely, kind, and the melancholic Doctor eyes you had come to love. His body wasn’t vibrating with hatred, his blood wasn’t boiling, he wasn’t making his presence large…he was just the Doctor. The Doctor that cared for you and everything in the universe.

He watched you closely as you gathered the sight of him, you let your hands wander to his cheeks feeling his warm skin against your cold hand. Your hands slid from his face down his neck, over his shoulders and down his chest. “Doctor…you’re, you again.” You declared, relieved tears welling up into your eyes. “Yes…yes I’m me.” He acknowledged, his eyes darting away from yours. You furrowed your brow, bringing his face back to face yours, “Doctor, what is it?” He let out a small scoff and shook his head, "Having feelings is ruining my reputation.” You looked at him confused, but he still wouldn’t let his eyes meet yours. “I almost lost you. The Dalek’s tried to take you away from me, and I couldn’t…I couldn’t think of what life would be without you…They used you against me, and I…I didn’t want you to see…I didn’t want you to see me like…like that…” You sat with him, remaining silent as he thought of what to say and squeezing his hands to reassure him that he could continue. “Y/N…that is a part of me. What you saw back on Skaro…that is part of me. I’m sorry you had to see it, but…it had to be seen. You needed to know. The Daleks call me the Oncoming Storm, and it’s because…I’m capable of destruction, hate, and…and evil. I chose to not let it be all of who I am, but it is me…It’s me…” You could see that he was beginning to crumble, and you quickly gathered him in your arms and stroked the nape of his neck. “Doctor, you’re safe. You’re here with me…It’s okay. Everyone has those parts inside of them. It’s not just you. And it’s okay to have those dark parts in us. When we act on them, yes it can be bad, but what’s the most important is the decisions we make. You make the decisions to not let those dark parts consume you. You are so brave…and you are so strong. You’re the Doctor, and you are complex and beautiful.”

The Doctor let out a small chuckle into your neck as he breathed in your scent, quickly wiping his face as if he had tears falling but still refused to let you see. “We’re here together and that’s all that matters.” He claimed, laying his forehead against yours. You nodded against him, giving him a small smile. “All through time and space, I will always come back for you.” “I’ll always be ready to go with you. I’ll always be here to calm your storm.” You promised, bringing his face to yours and gently kissed his lips. You felt his love and compassion flow through you, and your whole body began to flutter. You repositioned yourself on your bed so there was enough room for the Doctor to lay down beside you. You took him into your arms, his head laying on your chest to feel your heart beats and breaths. You let your hands run along his head and neck, soothing him the best you could. You had seen the Doctor as the Oncoming Storm that day, but when the two of you were together it didn’t matter what storms raged on around you, the two of you would bring the reverie that the universe would need from now through all of time and space.  

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

Across the Universe and Time and Space: Time of the Angels

(Sara’s here!)

AO3

“Hey, what are you doing, I’m supposed to be- why am I handcuffed?”

“Spoilers,” the blonde smirked.

“Sara, if you do this, then you die. Let me take your place.”

“No, I can’t let you do that! If I do, then you’ll never know me. Our history will be erased.”

The Doctor stopped struggling, staring at the woman who knew so much about him.

Sara gave a bitter laugh. “And I’ve realized, you’ve always known how I’m going to die. My whole history, you knew what was going to happen to me in the end. That explains why you, the future you, cried at the towers the last time we met. You knew it was the end.”

“Sara,” the Doctor shook his head, trying to reach for the screwdriver sitting out of his grasp.

“Don’t even try,” she told him, shaking her head. “If you die here, we never meet.”

“Time can be rewritten.”

“Those times can’t!” she said sharply. “And don’t you ever try to.”

The Doctor looked like the world had come down on him.

“Don’t be sad,” Sara smiled, but there were tears in her eyes. “It’s not the end for you. It’s the beginning. You’re going to see me again.”

“Sara, please.”

“It’s your future. You and me, time and space. Just you wait. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.”

“Sara, you know my real name,” the Doctor said. “You know every name I’ve ever gone by. Why would I do that? Is it because-”

“Shhhh,” Sara placed a harness on her head. “Spoilers, sweetie.”

“You know what’s interesting about museums?”

“They’re a window to the past?” Lily guessed as Leonard leaned over another case.

“That,” Leonard nodded. “But also that species get worse and worse about dating where the artifacts originate from the longer they stick around.”

“It’s a lot of time,” Lily wrinkled her nose. “History classes must be awful in the future.”

“Depends on the species,” Leonard said. “Also there’s been pretty things to take from museums sometimes.”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “You’ve robbed museums before?”

“Early days,” he replied, pushing off the case and walking down the line of exhibits. “I expected better of the Delirium Archive. This is the final resting place of the Headless Monks and the biggest museum ever.” Lily decided she would look up Headless Monks later. It seemed doubtful they were human, given humans couldn’t survive their heads taken off. However, there could be some alien technology that allowed humans in the future to survive sans head. How would you be able to walk then not knowing where you were going?

‘Look it up later’ she thought to herself. “So how is the final resting place on an asteroid? Is it a thing in this era for people to live on asteroids now?”

“Higher class people tend to do it. Apparently it’s trendy.”

“And not that this isn’t interesting or anything,” Lily continued. “But what are we doing in a museum when you have a time machine and can see all this when it was being used?”

“I like to see how much people can find and if they get it right,” Leonard replied. “Besides, it’s a more of a thrill to break into a museum…”

He trailed off and approached a glass box that held a rusted box inside it. Lily followed him and leaned in to get a good look at it. She didn’t know what exactly it was, but the top was what sparked her interest. It was covered in a series of symbols that must have been another language.

“Is this one wrong too?”

“It’s a home box from an old starliner,” he murmured. “The Byzantium, to be specific.”

“And for those of us from the twenty-first century who have no idea what a home box is?”

“Think of a black box for an Earth airplane,” Leonard said, tapping the glass. “But if something happens to the ship, this box flies back to the departure point with all of the flight data.”

“That’d be helpful on Earth if black boxes did that,” Lily remarked, thinking of all the aviation mysteries that this technology could unlock.

“That’s not what makes it interesting though. The graffiti on it does. It’s Old High Gallfireyan, the lost language of the Time Lords.”

“Is wherever that language comes from where you’re from?”

“Yes, Gallifrey, but we’re getting off track. This language has been dead for centuries. There were many days, Lily, when these words would burn stars, raise and topple empires, destroy gods.”

Lily nodded. “And this writing says.”

Leonard looked down and sighed in exasperation. “Hello, Sweetie.”

“Hello, Sweetie?” Lily snorted. “I guess even Time Lords had their graffiti.”

Leonard shook his head “It’s not some juvenile stunt entirely. Someone’s said that to me. That same person might be trying to get my attention. Either way, I want to get a good look.”

He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the glass case. There was a click, and Leonard opened it up. He shot her a quick look.

“Get ready to run back to the TARDIS.”

“Why?’

“Because we’re stealing this,” he said as he grabbed the home box and set the lid back down.

Alarms began to wail around the hall. Two guards came out from the end of it and saw them. Leonard took off running with the home box. Lily ran after him a second later, going as fast as she could. She’d just become part of a museum theft.

Sara’s stunts would seem like small potatoes by the time she went back home.

12,000 years ago

Sara Lance strode down the halls of the ship, heels clicking on the metal floor. Finding the door she was searching for, a smile spread across her face. Pulling the gun from her bag, she shot the lock open, revealing the home box inside. Slipping on some protective glasses and making a quick change to the gun’s settings, she tilted the shiny black box toward her. With her new blowtorch in hand, she carved her message into the home box. Once the ship crashed (and it would), it would fly off back home and get stored in a museum. Sooner or later, the Doctor would find it as he mocked artifact dating and would look into it.

At least, she really hoped he would.

After her message was burned into the home box, Sara turned around and walked back out into the hall. She pulled off her glasses as she caught sight of a security camera. Throwing a wink at it, she continued her path down the halls until she found exactly what she was looking for. Reaching into her bag once more, she pulled out the blast charge and attached it to the door.

A second after she’d set it, Sara heard running footsteps slow to a halt and the click of guns.

“The party ended a long time ago, Dr. Lance,” Adam Hunt said behind her. “And somehow you remain onboard.”

“I’m ever the curious type, Hunt,” Sara shrugged. “Sorry, but I had to see what was in your vault.”

She looked back at the soldiers pointing their guns at her. “Do you know what’s down there? Any of you have any ideas?”

Hunt gave her a calculating look.

“Here’s something you might like to hear,” she smirked. “This ship won’t reach its destination.”

“Wait until she runs,” Hunt ordered his men. “I don’t want this to look like an execution. The last thing we need are questions.”

Sara spotted another camera close by. She lifted her wrist and tapped her bracelet to see where she was currently at in space. Better to be exact than to speculate with the Doctor.

“Triple seven five slash three four nine by ten,” she read out, shooting a smile at the camera. “Zero twelve slash acorn.”

Flicking her eyes downward, she saw the charge was getting closer to zero. “And I’d like an air corridor.”

Hunt frowned. “What are you saying?”

“Nothing important to you,” Sara replied. “But how about a piece of advice? You might want to find something to hold onto.”

She stepped aside to reveal the charge. Hunt and his men’s eyes widened before they scrambled over to grasp onto the pipes on the sides of the wall. Sara gave them a wink as the door behind her opened up and she was sucked out into space. She floated away from the starliner, knowing it would be destined to die. Its cargo wouldn’t though.

When she found herself about to breathe and heard the familiar noise, she knew he’d found her.

0 Leonard opened the doors up as soon as they arrived at the coordinates Sara had sent him. As soon as he did, the woman landed right on top of him, sending them down onto the floor. Sara looked down at him with a smile. She wore a long green dress that looked more fitting for a party than sneaking around in a spaceship. Leonard frowned up at her, wondering if this Sara had met him yet. Was this what she meant when she’d said it wasn’t the end? Was this their beginning, or just his?

“Hello, sweetie,” she laughed.

“Sara?” Leonard gaped up at her.

Lily tilted her head at him. “Leonard?”

“Oh good, you’re going by Leonard,” Sara rolled off him and climbed to her feet. “We need to follow that ship.”

Leonard turned towards the empty doors to see the starliner shooting off into space. The TARDIS suddenly lurched into flight after it. He caught himself against the doors before closing them shut. Whirling around, he saw Sara at the console of the TARDIS hurrying back and forth between switches. Lily was staring at her with her mouth open.

“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted, moving towards the console.

“Following the ship,” Sara told him, swinging the screen on the console towards him. “They’re putting it into warp drive. If I don’t stay close, we lose them.”

“Lose who?” he asked. “And when did there become a we?”

“Later,” she said as the TARDIS began to shake. “The stabilizers, use them now!”

“There are no stabilizers,” Leonard told her.

“Yes, there are.”

“I’ve piloted this TARDIS for hundreds of years, Sara. If there were stabilizers, I’d know about them!”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Try the blue ones.”

Leonard looked down at the blue knobs. Since the console room had changed up, so had the console itself. Most things were the same, but a few things he’d needed to figure out again. But the stabilizers had never been part of the console ever.

“You’re sure?” he asked, hovering his hand over them.

Sara reached over and twisted them. Immediately, the shaking ceased.

“Positive,” she smirked before going back to the other controls.

Leonard was speechless. Lily, who’d been clinging to the railing as they’d been jostled around, now released the bars and walked over to them.

“How can she fly the TARDIS?” she asked, pointing over at Sara.

“Uh…”

“Mapping the probability vectors,” Sara murmured. “Running a full backup on the temporalized sonatry and charting the starliner’s destination. We should be at its destination in five…four…three..two…”

The boom of the TARDIS landing echoed through the room. Leonard turned to see Lily staring at Sara in admiration. He glanced over at Sara, who shot him a smile. Shaking his head, he walked over beside her to see that they had indeed landed.

“What about the noise?” Lily asked.

Sara raised her eyebrows. “The noise?”

“You know, that wheezing one,” Lily made a half-hearted imitation of it. “The one it always makes when the TARDIS lands or takes off.”

“That’s because he leaves the brakes on,” Sara turned back to him. “But then again, you do love to make an entrance.”

Well, this definitely wasn’t their first meeting if she knew that about him.

“Come along, Stein,” he said to Lily. “Want to see where she’s taken us?”

“As long as it’s not the insides of a Star Whale, I’m happy with anything.”

“Hold on,” Sara typed in something. “I’m running an environment check.”

Leonard stared at her again. Sara had barely been on the TARDIS and she was already proving to know everything he did about the ship, maybe even more. She was another mystery thrown at him right as he was trying to figure out how Lily existed.

“We’re on the planet Alfava Metraxis,” Sara told him and Lily. “It’s the-”

“Seventh planet of Dundra system,” Leonard finished. “Oxygen rich environment means we don’t need suits to go out. Days are eleven hours.”

He opened the door, staring out at the waves hitting the shores. Looking up, he could see the smoking wreck of the starliner.

“Also, there’s a chance of rain later,” he said, shutting the doors and glancing over at Sara. “Hope you have an umbrella or raincoat.”

Sara narrowed her eyes at him as she stepped down the stairs. “You think you’re so cool when you do that, don’t you.”

Lily snickered and looked at Sara. “So how can you fly the TARDIS?”

“I had my lessons from the very best.”

Leonard began to smile smugly.

“It’s just a shame you were busy that day, Leonard,” Sara added.

He stopped smiling. Sara just kept deepening the mystery around her the longer she hung around.

“So why did they land here?” the blonde murmured, walking up to the doors.

“Define ‘land’,” Leonard said.

Sara frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We found the home box,” he explained, pushing the door open to show her. “The starliner crashed, Sara.”

“What?”

Lily watched as Sara exited the TARDIS before turning back to Leonard. There was something familiar about her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “Who is she?”

“Part of my future, I believe,” Leonard replied, closing the doors. “But she’s where she needs to be. We can go wherever we want now.”

“How come?” Lily ran in front of Leonard to stop him from getting to the console. “It’s not like this is a taxi and we have to be on a schedule.”

“True, except-”

“And she said there was a planet out there,” Lily grinned.

Leonard nodded. “She did.”

“A planet. An actual alien planet.”

“You want to see it, don’t you?” he sighed.

“Well, you may have seen other planets before, but I haven’t!” she said. “I’ve seen the future and the past. What’s the point of running off so soon? Why don’t we stick around and explore it?”

“Because the last time I crossed paths with Sara, it didn’t end well,” Leonard told her. “She’s my future, Lily. I know she gets out alive, but I don’t know if I will, or even if you will.”

“Come on, five minutes,” Lily pleaded. “Please? I’m sure we’ll be fine. What could be worst than a Star Whale mouth or Daleks?”

“A lot,” Leonard opened the doors. “But if you really want to, go ahead.”

“Like you’re not curious about this too,” Lily told him.

As she stepped outside, the scientist found herself gazing up at the cliff in front of her. It looked like some sort of structure was built right out of the rock itself. Whatever had been at the top was now marred by the enormous metal craft that had driven itself right into what could have been a dome. Bits of wreckage were burning on the large flat stones where they had landed. Lily stared around her in wonder before bouncing up and down in excitement.

“I’m on another planet!” she whispered to herself happily. Ray would be so jealous if he could see her right now.

“There’s better ones out there,” Leonard said as he stepped out of the TARDIS too.

“Well, this is my first alien planet and I think it’s amazing,” Lily shrugged as they walked over to Sara.

“Wonder what caused the Byzantium to crash,” she said as they stepped up alongside her. “It wasn’t me.”

“After you breached the airlock, they would have sealed the other sectors off anyways,” Leonard said. “The home box said it happened because the warp engine was out of phase shift. No survivors came out of this.”

“Well, the universe is better off without Adam Hunt,” Sara shrugged, glancing over at Lily. “But if the crash happened because of the phase shift, that means it was sabotaged. Guess they didn’t listen when I warned them they wouldn’t make it to their destination.”

“Did anyone up there die?” Lily pointed up the cliff structure.

“Fortunately, no,” Sara pulled out something from her bag that looked like larger, thicker phone. It reminded Lily of the devices that Liz Ten had had on Starship UK. “It was an Aplan temple at one point, but they’ve been dead for centuries. At least they won’t see one of their temples destroyed.”

Leonard started to turn away.

“Are you going to introduce me?” Lily joked.

Leonard eyed Sara and shrugged. “Dr. Lily Stein, Professor Sara Lance.”

Sara whirled around, eyes bright with excitement. “I’m going to be a professor one day? That’s exciting!”

Leonard groaned. “Timelines.”

“Spoilers, crook,” Sara laughed.

The nagging feeling that she’d met Sara before persisted, but Lily ignored it. “How did you know to write on the home box?”

Sara turned to her and smiled. “Two things always show up at museums. Artifacts like a Category Four starliner’s home box, and then that one to either mock dating methods. Although sometimes he likes to nick something shiny.”

Lily shook her head. “He does really get on how incorrect things are in there.”

“Oh, he does,” Sara said, typing something on the device she held.

“Ha ha,” Leonard muttered sullenly. “I’m not going to be there for you every time you need me, Sara. The next time you decide to throw yourself out an airlock, I might not be there to catch you.”

“Next time for you or for me?” Sara smirked.

Lily began to feel like a third wheel around the two of them. There was definitely something going on between them, or at least between Sara and the future Leonard. Their banter had her convinced of it.

“You’re wrong about survivors,” Sara continued. “There’s actually one in there. A thing is lurking within that wreckage. Something that can’t ever die.”

She seemed to have said the magic words to get Leonard’s attention. Lily was even more intrigued by Sara now. The woman winked at her and held the communicator to her ear.

“Are you all in orbit?” she asked as she walked away. “I’m waiting for you at the crash site. Hone in on my signal.”

Lily tilted her head as she realized who Sara Lance reminded her of as the woman asked Leonard to use his sonic to boost her signal. This Sara was like her own best friend Sara. The two looked nothing alike, but the personalities were the same. Sara Lance seemed just as mischievous and prone to getting into trouble as Sara Saunders was back on Earth.

“We’ve got a minute before they arrive,” she told them, flicking her eyes over to Lily as she pulled a worn blue book from her bag “So where are we anyways? Have we done Jurgen’s Ridge yet?”

Lily watched as Sara flipped the pages. “What’s that?”

“My diary,” Sara told her.

“Don’t read it, Lily,” Leonard warned. “Her past and my future. We can’t seem to meet in the right order.”

“We never do,” Sara corrected. “But we never let that get in the way.”

A gusting noise alerted Lily to look behind her. A series of miniature whirlwinds sprang up and men in combat fatigues appeared from them. One who Lily guessed was the leader started forward with the others following after him. Sara straightened up and gave a little wave to them.

“Hi boys,” she greeted.

The leader stopped in front of her and looked Lily and Leonard up and down. “You promised me an army, Dr. Lance.”

“No, no” Sara shook her head. “What I promised you was the equivalent of an army. And I delivered. I’d like you to meet the Doctor.”

She gestured towards Leonard. The leader’s eyes widened as a look of astonishment crossed his face.

“Father Walter, Bishop Second Class,” he said, shaking Leonard’s hand. “I have twenty clerics at my command. Troops are already in a drop ship and will be landing shortly. Dr. Lance here has been assisting us on a covert investigation.”

Leonard gave a wary look to Sara. “Investigation?”

Walter looked surprised. “Dr. Lance didn’t tell you what we’re dealing with?”

“She hasn’t,” Leonard said, turning towards Sara.

Sara glanced up at the temple and then back to Leonard. Lily again felt awkward. “Leonard, how much do you know about the Weeping Angels?”

Lily watched Leonard’s face go pale. “You can’t be serious.”

It had to be Weeping Angels. Leonard still remembered the time that he’d gotten taken to the past by one without the TARDIS. He’d never wanted to go near them again in any way. But yet now he was roped into helping the Church. As much as he hoped it would be a simple in and out, he had a feeling he and Lily had become roped into something complicated and highly dangerous.

“The Angel is trapped in the wreckage of the ship,” Walter told him, Lily, and Sara (who had since changed into fatigues that matched the soldiers) as he led them across the encampment the Church army had set up. “Our objective is to get in and neutralize it. Getting through up on top of the cliff is impossible. It’s too close to the drives for any entry.”

“Do you have a map of the temple?” Leonard asked.

Walter handed over his communicator. “Have at it.”

Leonard studied the screen for a few minutes before something caught his eye. “There’s a network of catacombs behind the cliff face. They’ll lead right up the temple and the wreckage. Have your men go in that way.”

“I can have them blow through the base of the cliffs to get into the entrance chamber,” Walter nodded.

“Catacombs?” Lily shuddered behind him.

“Technically, Miss…”

“Dr,” Lily corrected. “Dr. Lily Stein.”

Leonard caught Sara smile to herself.

“Dr. Stein,” Walter said with a nod. “My apologies. Technically, the ‘catacombs’ are known as a maze of the dead.”

“Doesn’t make it sound any better,” Lily replied.

“Father Walter!” one of the clerics jogged up to them. “We need you and Dr. Lance.”

“Excuse me, sir,” Walter said, following after the cleric. Sara walked with them, shooting a smile back at him and Lily.

Lily was giving him a funny look. Leonard shrugged as he studied the equipment of the clerics. “What?”

“People are calling you ‘sir’,” she pointed out.

“They are,” Leonard nodded. “I don’t like it though. I’m on good terms with the Church right now I think. Better to keep it that way.”

“Are they just a military group called ‘the Church’ or are they part of the actual, religious Church?” Lily asked.

“Religious,” he answered. “It’s the fifty-first century. The Church you know on Earth has long moved on.”

“Looks like they become their own military branch,” she snorted. “The Church can’t be the only ones out there as a religion. What if you’re not Christian? What if you’re Jewish? Or if you believe in some other faith?”

“Those religions don’t die,” Leonard assured her. “It’s just the Church that really gets militant.”

“Okay,” Lily leaned against the table they were in front of. “Another thing. These Weeping Angels. They’re bad, right?”

“More than you could imagine,” he turned to Lily. The mysterious aberration could be in danger here if the Angel got to her. “Maybe you should go wait this out in the TARDIS?”

“And miss out on the fun? No way!”

“Lily,” Leonard said sternly. “A Weeping Angel is one of the most powerful and malevolent life forms in existence. Walter and Sara and the other clerics are counting on me to follow after them into that wreckage with my screwdriver and flashlight. If I can survive the radiation and the wreckage doesn’t shift and bury me in a rockslide, then I have to then find a way to neutralize the Angel because I doubt the clerics really know what they’re up against. That’s not fun in any way. Still want to come?”

Lily paused for a moment before nodding. “You’re my ride. I need to make sure you get out alive.”

“I can’t talk you out of this, can I?” he sighed.

“Nope,” Lily shook her head. “Also, can I ask you something else?”

“You’ll ask it anyways so go ahead.”

The scientist grinned. “Is Sara Lance your wife?”

He sighed. “Really?”

“I’m curious!” Lily held up her hands innocently. “You said she’s someone from your future. The whole time I’ve seen you two, you’ve given off a very…married vibe. She’s going to be your wife, right?”

“I don’t know,” he told her. “You shouldn’t know too much about your own future, Lily.”

“I bet she is,” she smirked.

“Leonard!”

Leonard turned to see Sara standing outside a drop ship. Lily was failing to hid a smirk.

“Come along, Stein,” he said as he left the table and walked towards Sara.

Sara watched Leonard, Walter, and Lily study the four seconds of footage she had on the Weeping Angel. Even if it was just on the screen, she still was repressing a shudder and keeping her eye on it. Leonard looked just as unnerved. Lily, meanwhile, seemed intrigued by it. Clearly this was a very young version of her, and one who hadn’t gotten married yet by the absence of a ring.

“I got this from the security cameras in the Byzantium’s vault,” she told them. “While I was on board, I managed to snag a copy. Sorry I couldn’t get better quality, but I was on a time crunch. But I do have it on a four second loop.”

Leonard stepped forward. “You definitely found a Weeping Angel.”

“You’ve crossed Angels before?” Walter asked.

“Once,” Leonard grimaced. Sara remembered how a future version of him told her the story of it. “But they were scavengers on Earth.”

“This is a statue though,” Lily said, sounding exasperated.

Oh, she had to be brand new to this. Sara wondered how long Lily had been traveling with Leonard.

“It looks like a statue when you see it,” she explained.

Leonard turned around. “Where did this one come from?”

“Excavated from the ruins of Razbahan sometime in the last century,” Sara told him. “Ever since then it’s been circulating through private hands. Fortunately for them, it’s remained dormant that whole time.”

“Are you sure it was dormant?” Leonard asked. “Or is it just being patient?”

Oh, he was still good, even if this version of Leonard was still getting to know her.

“What did you mean when you said it looks like a statue when you see it?” Lily inquired.

“The Weeping Angels can only move if they’re unseen,” Sara told her. “Or that’s what the legends say.”

“Legend? Try quantum lock,” Leonard scoffed. “If any living thing sees a Weeping Angel, then the Angels literally cease to exist and become stone. It’s a great defense mechanism.”

“It’s just…stone for defense? That’s interesting.”

Leonard nodded at Lily. “And it stays that way until you turn your back. Then boom! The Weeping Angel comes to life. It’s one of the fastest predators you’d ever cross…and the last one too.”

According to Walter, the time drive had split open and was releasing out all sorts of radiation and other temporal by-products into the catacombs. While it was deadly to most living things, it was fuel for a Weeping Angel to make it grow stronger. The Aplans had been dead for four hundred years, but the planet had since been populated with a few billion human colonists who were now at risk with the Weeping Angel on planet. Walter was working with his men to get into the catacombs while Sara had taken away Leonard to show him something.

Lily was left with nothing and returned to the drop ship they’d been watching the clip of the Angel in. She stared at the creature on the screen in the time loop. Something was different now though. Instead of hiding its face in its hands, it was now looking over its shoulder. Confused, Lily backed up and peeked her head out of the drop ship.

“Dr. Lance!” she called out to where the woman was now handing a book to Leonard. “Did you have any other clips of the Weeping Angel?”

“Just call me Sara, and no. That one is the only one.”

Weird. Lily shook her head and returned back inside.

The Angel was now facing the camera head on.

Lily looked at the corner, watching the four seconds play on a loop. When she looked back to the Angel, she stepped back with a gasp. It was now closer to the screen. Its palms faced out and upward at its sides. The face was expressionless, but it just made thing creepier.

“How?” she murmured.

Keeping her eyes on the screen, Lily stepped over to a table to grab the remote she’d seen Sara use for the screen. She pressed the off button, smiling as the screen went black. A second passed before it switched back on again. When she repeated the action, the footage kept switching back on. Each time, the Angel seemed to have inched a little closer.

“You’re a recording,” she said aloud, walking closer to the screen. “You can’t move.”

Looking down, she found the plug for the television and tried to pull it out. It wouldn’t budge, even when she tugged it hard. The Angel’s face was right in front of hers on the screen when she glanced back up. Lily immediately backed away. This was starting to feel like a something out of a horror movie.

“Leonard?” Lily called out, walking backwards to keep an eye on the Angel.

The door to the drop ship had been open before. Now it was sealed shut. She looked down briefly to try and turn the wheel to open it. It refused to budge. Lily lifted her head back up to see the expression on the Angel frozen in a menacing, fanged snarl.

“Leonard!” she shouted, staring at the Angel’s eyes.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Leonard set the book Sara had given him down. “Everything in here is a warning about the Weeping Angels, but there’s no pictures. Why would you warn someone about them if you won’t show them what to look out for?”

Sara put her hands on her hips, frowning. “Read that bit about images again.”

Leonard flipped to the page and recited the passage. “That which holds the image of an Angel becomes in itself an Angel.”

“What’s that supposed to mean about the image of an Angel becoming an Angel?” Sara stopped. “Oh.”

“Oh,” Leonard realized what it meant.

“Lily,” Sara looked back at the drop ship and its sealed door. “She’s with it.”

“Leonard!” Lily shrieked, trying the keypad now with the combination she’s seen Walter use. “Sara! Walter! Someone!”

The angel was now a hologram in front of the screen. Lily could feel her heart hammering. All her curiosity was being replaced by fear. She wanted to know what would happen if it got to her since it was a hologram, but at the same time she didn’t with the evil look on its face. Dying on another planet far from home was not something she wanted.

“Lily!” she heard Sara’s muffled voice on the other side. “What’s happening?”

“It’s come out of the screen,” Lily said. “It’s just a hologram but it’s been moving when I look away.”

“Don’t look away!” Leonard’s voice ordered. “Keep watching it and it won’t move. Don’t even blink, Lily.”

She now wanted to blink, but resisted. “Open the door and let me out!”

“It’s not opening,” Leonard said.

“We’ll get you out, Lily,” Sara added. “I swear to you, you will make it through this.”

“I hope you’re right,” Lily thought as she kept her eyes on the Angel.

“Have you tried turning the screen off?” Leonard asked.

“Yes, and it just came back on,” Lily replied. “And the plug wouldn’t budge when I tried to yank it out.”

“Dammit. Just…don’t blink, Lily.”

“I know, I know,” she said, desperately wanting to blink.

Then she finally noticed it. Every four seconds, there was a blip in the tape. The Angel hologram would shudder during that blip. Lily walked forward, keeping eye contact with the angel as she felt around the table for the controller. All she had to do was time it just right.

“Can you at least tell me why the recording is doing this?” she shouted as she missed the blip and it flickered back to life.

“It’s not a recording anymore,” Leonard’s reply came through the door. “It’s an Angel now. Whatever takes the image of an Angel is an Angel.”

“So I’m with a Weeping Angel right now?” Lily swallowed. “What’s it going to do to me if it gets me?”

“Don’t stop looking!”

“No, tell me!”

Leonard didn’t answer.

“Leonard?” she called out.

What if this was it? Was this how the story of Lily Stein ended? At the hands of an alien that turned to stone when you looked at it? She didn’t want it be the end. There was her life back on Earth. She was supposed to be getting married in the next day in her own time.

“Lily, don’t look it in the eyes.”

That’s where she had been staring at it the whole time. She lowered her gaze towards its shoulders. “Why?”

She heard Sara mumble something inaudible, to which Leonard gave an equally inaudible reply. The only words she was able to make out were ‘soul’ and ‘doors’. “What?”

“Don’t make eye contact!”

She couldn’t wait for them anymore. Lily held out the remote, finger hovering over the off button. When the blip happened, she hit the button. The angel froze in the static, and she finally heard the door open behind her. The angel disappeared and the television shut off.

“I froze it,” she sighed, closing her eyes finally. “There was a blip on the tape and I froze it then. It no longer was the image of an Angel.”

She reopened her eyes to watch Leonard approach the screen and yank the plug on it. Sara stood beside her, watching her with concern.

“That was freaky,” Lily confessed. “I really don’t like those things now.”

“But you did amazing stopping it,” Sara told her.

“Sara, hug Lily,” Leonard instructed, giving her a nod as he turned back to the plug with his sonic.

“How come?”

“I’m busy and she’s there.”

Sara looked hesitant. Lily stepped forward, holding her arms out awkwardly. The blonde smiled and embraced her quickly. Lily had a feeling that they’d hugged before. Maybe a past version of Sara was going to hug a future version of her or something.

“You were brilliant,” Sara told her after letting her go.

Lily blushed a little. “Thanks.”

“Nice job under pressure,” Leonard said, dropping the plug.

“So was the Angel was here?” Sara asked him.

“It was a projection of an Angel,” he told them. “It was scouting around to get a look at us. That means it’s no longer dormant.”

“Oh, great,” Lily muttered as an explosion echoed in the distance.

“Doctor!” Walter shouted in the distance. “We’ve made it through.”

Leonard walked over to the door of drop ship. “And now it starts.”

Sara rolled her eyes as they watched him exit. “He’s so dramatic.”

Lily snorted as Sara made her way to the door. Then she felt something. Bringing her hand up to her face, she rubbed her with her finger.

“Lily?” Sara had stopped. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Just had something in my eye.”

It still felt like it was there, and she rubbed it again as she left.

When they all made it down a ladder to the maze of the dead, the clerics distributed flashlights to everyone. Walter ordered a gravity globe to be released into the air. Leonard watched it sail into the air and illuminate their surroundings. All around them were stone statues for the Aplans’ maze of the dead. Finding the Weeping Angel would be difficult in here.

“This is going to be tricky,” Walter said. “One Weeping Angel among hundreds of stone statues.”

“It’s a needle in a haystack,” Sara said beside him. “Then again, when is anything you get involved in easy?”

“You’re going to be around a lot in my future if you know me about me,” Leonard told her.

Sara shrugged. “Spoilers.”

“Check every single statue in this chamber,” Walter ordered all of them. “You know what to look for. Be very through when you inspect the statues.”

A chorus of “Yes, sir” rose up from the clerics as they dispersed in groups.

“What should the course of action be to fight the Angel?” Walter asked Leonard.

There wasn’t a good answer he could give to the bishop. “Just find it and hope.”

With that, Leonard started off in one direction with Lily.

“He doesn’t know yet, does he?” Walter asked.

Sara swallowed, but didn’t reply.

“He has no idea who you are, what you are?” the bishop continued. “He doesn’t know about the Canary and the things you did.”

“No,” Sara shook his head. “For him, it’s too early. He doesn’t really know me yet.”

“Neither of them do,” her brain reminded her.

“Don’t let him figure it out,” Walter ordered. “If he does, then we lose his help. And we need him to stop this creature.”

“He won’t find out,” Sara said, resuming her trek after Leonard and Lily. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Lily gazed around her at the statues as she followed after Leonard. She couldn’t think of anything on Earth that was like in in scale. Sure, it was a little dark and damp and cold. Even though catacombs gave her the creeps, this was incredible. How many humans could do what they were doing right now?

She stopped staring up at the levels of statues. Something was in her eye again, and it wasn’t going away. Whatever it was, it was really beginning to bug her. With a sigh, she rubbed the palm of her hand against her eye.

Something trickled out through her fingers. It felt coarse and grainy.

Lily jerked her hand away from her face. There was nothing in her hand. Smooth warm flesh was beneath her fingers as she traced her finger along the area where she’d felt the stuff come from. She crouched down to the ground, but couldn’t tell if the gray rock dust was already part of the ground or if it had come from her.

“Are you okay?”

The sound of Sara’s voice made Lily start a little. She bolted up in surprise.

“Me?” she nodded. “Fine. Just had something in my eye.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah,” Lily shined her flashlight up at the ceiling. “So…maze of the dead?”

“It’s not that bad,” Sara shrugged. “Think of your Earth’s catacombs. Except this is on a larger scale with more dead people buried in the walls.”

“Great,” Lily muttered sarcastically.

“Fine, maybe it does sound a little bad,” Sara admitted. “But at least they won’t be rising up and coming out to play. Now, can you hold out your arm?”

“Why?” Lily asked, extending the limb to Sara.

“Don’t worry,” Sara held up what seemed to be a futuristic version of a syringe that made a whining noise. “It’s only a precaution, and it won’t hurt a bit.”

She pressed the end against Lily’s bare skin. A sharp pain went through her entire arm. Lily gasped out and blinked her eyes as the pain slowly faded.

“You said it wouldn’t hurt!”

“Yeah, I lied about that,” Sara kept the end on her arm for a few more seconds. “Virus stabilizer. Now your metabolism is stabilized against radiation and any other nasty side effects that could happen once we get up the Byzantium.”

“Sooo thanks?”

“You’re welcome,” Sara let her arm go.

Lily looked ahead at where Leonard was pacing around one of the statues. “Hey, Sara?”

“Yes?”

“What’s future Leonard like?” she asked, keeping her voice as innocent as possible.

Sara looked somewhat surprised. “I’m sorry?”

“Come on, you know him in the future, right?”

“Leonard is Leonard,” Sara told her with a shrug. “He’s still the Doctor. That’s all you need to know.”

“So still a bit of a crook who makes snarky comments and has a heart of gold,” Lily examined one of the statues. It didn’t look like the hologram from earlier, so she ruled it out as an Angel. “Nothing seems to change then.”

Sara laughed. “We are!”

“Huh?” Leonard looked back at them.

“Talking about you,” Sara said smugly.

“I haven’t been listening,” Leonard retorted, holding a device to a statue. “Maybe you haven’t heard, but there’s an Angel on the loose.”

“Uh huh,” Sara’s expression grew even more smug. “And you’re holding it upside down.”

Leonard flipped the device over silently, not looking at them. Lily pressed her lips together to hold back a giggle.

“You’re his wife in the future, aren’t you?” she asked Sara.

“Ah, Lily,” Sara tutted. “This is an alien who has lived hundreds of years and can change his face. Can it really be that simple?”

“I don’t know,” Lily looked between them. “It’s hard not to picture you two together.”

That made Sara laugh. “You’re good, Lily.”

“But am I right?”

“You are very good,” Sara told her. “And that’s all I’m going to say about it. Now come on. We have an Angel to find.”

Leonard studied the statue in front of him carefully. It definitely didn’t look like an Angel, so he could rule it out as that. But there was something off about it. He couldn’t put his finger on it though.

A hail of gunfire broke his concentration. Lily and Sara turned toward it in surprise. Leonard abandoned the statue he’d been inspecting and ran towards its source. If one of the clerics had found the Angel, bullets wouldn’t stop it. They’d only make the Angel angrier.

However, they only arrived to see another statue that wasn’t an Angel now marred by bullet holes and a trembling cleric with a gun.

“Sorry,” he said meekly as Walter approached him. “Coulda sworn I saw it move and look at me.”

“We know what the Angel looks like,” Walter said coldly. “Does that look like the Angel?”

“No, sir.”

“No, sir, it is not,” Walter snapped, shaking his head. “According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknown power and infinite evil. So it would be good to remain calm and not go shooting your gun about just because you looked the wrong way.”

Leonard couldn’t stand to let the cleric (although he was so baby-faced Leonard could barely believe they’d let him in on this mission) take Walter’s tirade anymore. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Jason, sir.”

“Jason?” Lily repeated. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting that as an answer.

“It is a sacred name,” Walter told her. “We all have sacred names that are given to us in the service of the church.”

Leonard tried not to roll his eyes as he approached them. “So, sacred Jason. You’re freaked out now, aren’t you?”

Jason looked between him and Walter before nodding. “Yes, sir.”

“Don’t bother with the sir,” Leonard said. “But it’s a good thing you’re scared. If you’re scared, then you’ll be fast. Anyone who isn’t scared in this room is an idiot.”

Walter gave him a dirty look.

“Well, don’t stand around,” Leonard said to him. “There’s an Angel on the loose.”

Jason smiled briefly. Walter sighed and turned back to Leonard, Lily, and Sara.

“We’ll be moving into the maze itself in two minutes,” he instructed before turning to Jason. “Jason, stay with Damian and Tim and help them guard the approach. The rest of you, follow me.”

Jason moved aside to let them pass. Leonard offered a half smile to him as they walked by him. He hoped that Jason would make it through this. It was a slim chance, but Jason seemed like a good kid. A little trigger happy and too green for this assignment of hunting down a Weeping Angel, but still a good kid.

“The Byzantium isn’t going to cause this to collapse on top of us, right?” Lily asked him as they walked through a small tunnel build into into the rock. “I mean, didn’t you say something about a rockslide earlier?”

“I said it so you wouldn’t stick your neck out for this,” Leonard muttered.

“You don’t have to worry, Lily,” Sara assured her. “The Aplans were extremely skilled builders.”

“You know, I had dinner with their chief architect once,” Leonard told her, remembering the occasion now. “Both of them were good company.”

“Both?” Lily inquired.

“Aplans are a two headed race,” he explained, studying another statue. The nagging feeling that something was wrong came back to him. “Sara…that book you gave me. What did the last passage of it say?”

“One second,” Sara started to rummage behind him. “Here we are. 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.”

Leonard shined his flashlight on at the upper half of the statue before him.

Still not an Angel.

“Are we there yet?” Lily asked, knowing she probably sounded like a whiny seven year old on a long road trip.

“Not quite,” Sara said from up ahead. “There are six levels to this maze. For the Aplans, this represented the ascent of one’s soul. We’re only on level four right now.”

“I’d rather be in the Labyrinth,” she muttered. “At least that was only one level.”

“The Labyrinth is much more complicated than that,” Leonard told her. “We should stop there sometime.”

“I can only imagine what this was like at the height of Aplan civilization,” Sara murmured, swinging her light up the ceiling. Lily gazed at the columns carved right out of the rock and the intricate patterns on them.

“They were a pretty great species,” Leonard told them. “Maybe we should see them after the Labyrinth.”

“You said the Aplans were dead though,” Lily frowned, then realized what he meant. “Oh, right. Time machine.”

“Exactly,” he nodded. “But the times I met the Aplans, they were always relaxed and cheerful. I was amazed by that. If I had a second head, I’d be arguing with myself constantly.”

“Two of you would tear the other apart,” Sara murmured. “Anyone else have the feeling something’s wrong?”

Lily shook her head. Leonard, on the other hand, nodded. “Can’t figure out what yet.”

“Me neither,” Sara murmured.

Lily looked around her. She didn’t know what was making them suspicious. Clearly they found something even more stranger within a maze of creepy statues. Whatever it was, she wasn’t picking up on it. She started to look around her more as Walter took the lead of the group and continued to ignore whatever it was in her eye.

“The wreckage is only fifty feet up from where we are now,” Walter said as they walked past more statues.

“And away from these statues,” Lily muttered before something hit her. “Leonard, you said Aplans had two heads, right?”

“Yes.”

“Lily shined her flashlight on the statue to her left. “How come all the statues have one head then?”

Leonard stopped in his tracks as Lily asked the question. It had been staring him in the face the entire time, and now he was getting it.

Sara’s eyes widened as it dawned on her too. “Oh.”

“You’re right,” Leonard muttered, shaking his head.

“How come we never realized this?” Sara muttered.

“Either it’s a low level perception filter or we’re all just idiots.”

Lily looked between them. “Wait, what’s wrong?”

“No one move,” Leonard ordered, backing away from the statue he was in front of. “Bishop, I’m sorry about this. We’ve walked right in the middle of it.”

“The middle of what?” Walter asked.

“An ambush,” Sara said. “Bishop, think about what Lily just said. If the Aplans had two heads, what’s with the statues having only one?”

Lily swallowed. “So these are not the Aplans’ then?”

“Nope,” Leonard shook his head. The statues weren’t Aplans, but he needed to be certain that they were indeed Angels.

“Everyone into that corner there,” he pointed to a spot in the room where there were no statues. “No questions. Just do as I tell you and we might just get out of this alive.”

Walter, Sara, Lily, and all the clerics followed his orders. Leonard walked backwards slowly towards them. He kept his eyes on the statues as he took his steps carefully. When he brushed back against Sara, he stopped.

“All of you shut off your lights,” he instructed.

“Sir-”

“Do it, Walter,” Sara snapped.

One by one, the lights went out until Leonard’s was the only one remaining.

“I’m going shut mine off for a second.”

“Leonard,” Sara sounded wary beside him. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“Only one way to find out,” he replied as he plunged them into darkness before bringing back the light.

The statues had been in different directions before, but now all of them were facing the group.

“Oh crap,” Lily said on his other side as the other members of the group turned their flashlights back on.

“They’re all Angels,” Leonard confirmed. “No one take your eyes off of them.”

He ran past one statue that was now crouched on the floor and out to the edge of a cliff. Lily and Sara were right on his tail. Shining his light down, he could see more statues on the steps they’d taken to get up here. When they’d first taken them, they hadn’t been there. Now, it would be impossible to get up without running into one.

“Every statue in here is a Weeping Angel,” he murmured. “They’re coming after us.”

“So can you tell me now what happens when they catch up to us?” Lily asked him.

“There was only one Angel on the ship, I swear,” Sara protested as the trio ran back to the clerics.

“Were the rest already here?” Lily asked her. “What if they caused the Aplans to go extinct?”

“No one knows how they died out,” Sara told her. “It’s a mystery among archaeologists.”

“I think I know how it happened now,” Leonard muttered, keeping his flashlight on the Angels.

Walter shook his head. “But they don’t look like Angels.”

Lily had to agree. The statues looked more along the lines of Grecian or Roman.

“You said they were fast, right?” Lily said to Leonard. “They don’t seem to be that fast. How fast can they get, actually?”

Leonard shook his head. “They’re in a weakened state. See how they’re crumbling and cracked? The Aplans practically sealed them in. Since Weeping Angels can’t die, they’ve been starving instead for centuries.”

It sounded like a Weeping Angel hell. Lily shined her flashlight on the face of one Angel. She couldn’t see the features on it like she had with the one in the drop ship. However, there was a long crack running down where an eye should have been. “It’s made them lose their image.”

“Not to mention their power since their image is the source of it,” Leonard added. “And since the Byzantium crashed in here, they’ve been getting that through the leaking time drive. I’m willing to bet this wasn’t an accidental crash now.”

“What was it then?” Walter asked.

“A rescue mission to restore the Angels.”

Lily watched Sara glance nervously at her, then over towards Leonard. “We all need to leave right now.”

“Agreed,” Walter pulled out a communicator. “Jason, Damian, Tim, do you read me?”

“Jason reporting, sir.”

“Jason, do you have eyes on Damian and Tim?” Walter asked. “All the statues in here are active. We need to evacuate immediately.”

“I know, sir,” Jason replied. Lily noted that he didn’t sound very scared. “Tim and Damian are dead. They were killed by the statues.”

Lily shuddered as Leonard moved over to Walter.

“Jason,” Leonard took the communicator from Walter. “This is the Doctor. Where are you now?”

“I am making my way up to you. I am homing in on your signal.”

“Something doesn’t feel right about this,” Lily said aloud to Sara.

Leonard didn’t hear her. “Told you that you’ll be fast if you’re scared.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What did the Angel do to your friends, Jason?”

“Snapped their necks,” Jason said emotionlessly.

“No,” Leonard seemed confused. “An Angel kills you by displacing you in time and feeding off that time energy. It needs the bodies for something then.”

Walter snatched the communicator back. “Jason, did you check for vital signs on their data packs? If there’s something, we could initiate a rescue.”

“That won’t work,” Leonard told him, taking the communicator back. “The Angels don’t care if you’re dead or alive. Jason, keep moving and tell us how you escaped.”

“I didn’t.”

Lily’s eyes widened. This just got a lot creepier.

“I didn’t escape,” Jason repeated. “The Angel killed me too.”

Sara straightened up. Lily watched as Leonard looked over at her. Her eye was starting to itch again.

“Jason,” Leonard said slowly into the communicator. “What do you mean the Angel killed you too?”

“My neck was snapped. It wasn’t painless, but it was over quickly.”

“How is he talking to us?” Lily asked, and Leonard relayed the question through the communicator.

“You’re not talking with me,” Jason said. “You’re speaking to the Angel. It has no voice, so it stripped my cerebral cortex from my body, then reanimated my consciousness to communicate with you.”

“So you’re not the one coming up,” Leonard sighed. “It’s the Angel.”

“Angels. There are many of us.”

Lily groaned softly. This was getting more and more creepy by the minute.

“Enough of this,” Walter said, taking the communicator back from Leonard. “We need to get out through the wreckage and fast. The Angels will not have mercy on us.”

Sara pulled Lily along as the clerics began to start running. Leonard didn’t run, but instead started talking to Walter. Lily tried to stay, but Sara tugged her along again. They made their way across a stone bridge with her in the rear. She set her hand down on the stone for a moment and looked back before attempting to move forward.

Her arm didn’t budge. Lily looked down to see her hand had turned to stone. Grabbing her wrist with her other hand, she ran a hand over it. There was no sensation in it whatsoever.

“What are you doing?” Leonard demanded as he passed by. “The Angels are coming.”

Lily inhaled slowly. “Leonard, I can’t move.”

He stopped and backtracked to her. “Lily…”

“I can’t,” she glanced down at her hand. “Look at my hand.”

He followed her gaze. “Looks fine.”

“It’s not!” she protested. “It’s stone!”

“Lily, it’s-” he stopped. “You looked into the Angel’s eyes earlier, didn’t you?”

She nodded guiltily. “I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to until you said something.” “Whatever. But I can tell you your hand isn’t stone. The Angel is messing with your perception. That’s flesh, not stone.”

“It’s stone!” Lily shouted. “I can’t move my hand. Nothing is messing with me. I know what I’m seeing. I even touched it and it’s stone, okay? It won’t move.”

“No, you can move it,” Leonard said. “Once you move it, then you can let go and we can run before the Angels kill us.”

He didn’t get it! How could he not see what was right in front of them? “It won’t move!”

“Not with that attitude,” he snarked as the beam of his flashlight flickered. “Lily, you have to move it. The Angels are coming, they’ll turn off the light, and there’s nothing I can do to save you. So instead of denying it, concentrate and move your hand.”

She tried, but it remained stone.

“Just save yourself,” Lily urged. “You have a future ahead of you with Sara. There’s probably more stuff in between whenever you guys met up. You know you can’t die here.”

“Time can be rewritten,” Leonard countered. “And you told me you have your stuff tomorrow. I can’t lose you to Weeping Angels, Lily.”

He looked over her shoulder. “Turn around and keep watching the Angels.”

She followed his instructions. “Now go.”

“That’s not happening,” Leonard snapped. “I am not leaving you here. I will not lose you before I’ve figured you out!”

She had no idea what he meant by that, but she continued to watch the Angels instead of turning around. “Leonard, go. You are not dying for me.”

“I’m sorry for this, Lillian.”

“Just do it, okay?” she told him, wondering if the Angels had gotten closer as the flashlight kept flickering. “There’s more people to save up there anyways.”

“Sure, but that’s not what I’m sorry for.”

A sharp pain went through the hand that was stone. Lily jerked it away with a shout. Her wrist throbbed, but it was now flesh again. She looked over to Leonard, who was holding a sort of joy buzzer.

“What did you do?”

“Minor electric shock,” Leonard said, pocketing the buzzer. “But now you see it isn’t stone, so let’s get out of here.”

“You shocked me!” she exclaimed as she whirled back around to keep watching the Angels.

“Would you rather I bit you?” he snapped back.

She sighed. “Fine, but I’m still not happy about that.”

“You’re alive, that’s all that counts right now. Go down that tunnel. It goes right to the Byzantium wreck.”

“How do you even have a joy buzzer?” Lily asked as she started backing up.

“You want to have that discussion now or later when Angels aren’t trying to kill us?”

“Good point.”

“We’re surrounded on all sides,” one of the clerics was reporting to Walter as Leonard caught up to them. “And my torch keeps flickering.”

“So is the gravity globe,” Sara gestured upwards before turning to look at him.

“That would be the Angels,” Leonard said, studying the globe above them as it struggled to stay lit. “They’re sucking the power from everything as they get closer to us. Soon, we’ll be in the dark.”

“And we won’t be able to see them,” Walter finished. He was starting to look uneasy now.

Sara moved closer to him. “Tell me you have an idea.”

“I did when I came in here,” he replied. “It’s gone off the rails. So that means it’s time for step four.”

She shook her head. “It always comes down to step four.”

“What’s step four?” Lily asked.

Leonard smirked. “Throw the plan away.”

“We can’t go back,” Walter told them. “The Angels are blocking our passage that way. The only other way would be up, but we neglected to pack climbing equipment.”

“So we’re trapped?” one of the clerics said.

“Yes,” Sara said calmly. “But this is when he usually come up with something.”

Leonard studied the surroundings, his eyes finally landing up on the gravity globe hovering above them. It was providing light right now, but that wasn’t it’s only purpose…

“Is the Doctor there?” Jason’s voice came from Walter’s communicator.

Leonard closed his eyes as Walter passed him the communicator. Poor kid didn’t deserve to have his voice used by the Angels. He shouldn’t even have been on this mission. But he had come, and the Angels had killed him. Jason was now another person who he hadn’t been able to save.

“Doctor?”

Leonard reopened his eyes. “Angels?”

“Your power will not last much longer,” Angel Jason said as the flashlights flickered. “The Angels will be with you shortly. I’m sorry about this.”

“Why?”

“Because the Angels are very eager for you to know something before your end,” Angel Jason said. “I died afraid.”

Leonard frowned. “What?”

“You said that being scared would make me fast, that it was good to be afraid,” Jason’s voice said. “You were wrong. It didn’t make me fast. I died in pain and fear all by myself. You made me trust you, but you lied to me. You let me down. It’s your fault I’m dead.”

He clenched the hand not holding the communicator into a fist.

“The Angels were very keen for you to know that.”

Leonard exhaled slowly. He knew Jason’s death was his fault. The Angels were choosing to mock him about it. They wanted to make him mad, but that was a mistake. A angry Time Lord was the last person you wanted to face.

“You’re making your second mistake with that, Angels,” Leonard said. “Jason, I’m sorry I got you killed. But I will make sure the Angels pay for what you did.”

“How can you do that if you’re trapped and outnumbered?”

“Trapped, huh?” Leonard smirked. “You think you have the perfect trap, don’t you? Too bad it’s got a flaw.”

“A flaw?”

Leonard turned around to face Lily. “Do you trust me?”

She nodded. “I do.”

“What about you, Sara?” he asked, turning to the woman who would be playing a big role in his future.

Sara smiled. “After everything we’ve been through, yes.”

“Walter, clerics?”

All the clerics looked towards Walter. The bishop turned to Leonard and nodded. “We have faith in you, sir.”

“Good,” Leonard held out his hand. “I’m going to need your gun. A sonic screwdriver won’t do this effectively.”

Walter passed the weapon to him. Leonard weighed it in his hand.

“What are you going to do with that?” Lily asked. “Will bullets stop the Angels?”

“No,” Leonard shook his head. “But when I do this, jump. I don’t care where, but jump as high as you can.”

“Sir, what are you going to do?” Walter asked.

“Just take the leap of faith on my signal.”

“What signal?” a cleric asked.

Leonard raised the gun towards the ceiling, aiming for the gravity globe. “It’s going to be hard to miss.”

“Doctor, you mentioned we made a second mistake earlier,” Angel Jason said. “The Angels want to know what the first was if our second was angering you.”

“Here’s the thing, Angels,” Leonard announced, flicking the safety off. “You’ve made a big mistake. Don’t you know there’s one thing you never put in a trap? If you have any brain cells, care about your continued existence, or even plan to see the next day, then you should know there’s one thing you never, ever put in a trap. But you went and put it in anyways.”

“What’s that?”

“Me.”

He fired the gun at the gravity globe. A shower of sparks went up into the air as the bullet hit it.

“Jump now!”

[chorusfm]

No artist has ever had a success story quite like that of Chris Stapleton. Two years ago this week, Stapleton released his debut album, a 14-track collection of old school country, blues, southern rock, and soul called Traveller. The album didn’t arrive without buzz: Stapleton was one of the most dependable songwriters in Nashville, a guy with (at the time) four number one country hits to his name. He also made his record with Dave Cobb, the producer who had helped Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson craft breakthrough, critically-beloved albums the two years previous. The result was a number 14 debut on the Billboard 200 with 27,000 copies sold; not remarkable, but not bad for a debut artist, either.

For the next six months, it looked like Traveller was destined to become a cult classic. Country music websites—from Rolling Stone Country to Taste of Country to Saving Country Music—unanimously called it the best record of the year at mid-year. Country radio, meanwhile, ignored it, leaving the album without much in the way of mainstream traction. But then November 4th happened, and Stapleton swept the biggest awards at the annual CMA Awards. He also shared the stage with Justin Timberlake for a thrilling two-song live performance that almost instantly went viral. The combined exposure of the award wins and the most buzzed-about televised music performance of the year gave Stapleton an unprecedented 6,000% boost in album sales. He not only re-entered the Billboard 200, but Traveller leapfrogged everything else on the market to take the top spot. No other album in the history of the Billboard 200 has ever re-entered the chart at number one.

Country radio still couldn’t be bothered to play Stapleton much after that, but it didn’t matter. A Grammy nomination for Album of the Year followed, and by February 2016, Traveller had gone platinum. Currently, the album is pushing two million copies and shows no signs of slowing down. It was the top selling country album in 2016 and one of the top-five best-selling albums in any genre. At the time of this writing, Traveller is at 33 on the Billboard 200—seven slots ahead of Adele’s record-smashing 25.

Needless to say, albums don’t arrive with much more anticipation than From A Room: Volume 1, Stapleton’s sophomore album and the first piece of a planned double album. (Volume 2 is slated for a release around Christmas.) When he released Traveller, Stapleton had the luxury of being a best-kept secret. Everyone in Nashville knew he had the songs, the chops, and the voice to be a star, but people outside of Nashville songwriting circles mostly didn’t have a clue who he was. On From A Room, Stapleton is no longer a secret on any level. Instead, he has the challenge of making a record that lives up to a surprise sales juggernaut—one that was universally beloved by pretty much everyone, country fans or otherwise. That’s not an easy position to be in.

But here’s the thing: Stapleton still has the songs. He’s still got the chops. And holy mother of god, he still has the voice. “Seen my share of broken halos/Folded wings that used to fly/They’ve all gone wherever they go/Broken halos that used to shine,” he sings at the very outset of track one, just a single acoustic guitar chord beating him to the speakers. It’s a smart move: as good as Stapleton’s band is, and as solid as his songs are, his voice is what won him those awards, set the world on fire with that Timberlake performance, and turned Traveller into a workhorse. His big, epic baritone both sounds instantly country and doesn’t sound quite like anything else in country music, past or present. Weaned on whiskey and too many weather-worn miles on a dusty highway, Stapleton’s voice has just enough grit to carry the more rock-driven numbers and just enough honey to make you feel every ounce of his regret during the somber ballads.

Both types of songs appear on From A Room: Volume 1. “Broken Halos,” the aforementioned opening track, is somewhere in between, a road-trip-ready anthem not so far removed from the title track (and album opener) from the last record. Track two doubles down on the somber, with a gorgeously aching cover of the Willie Nelson classic “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning,” while track three, “Second One to Know,” is a barnstorming scorcher with a ripping guitar solo. Just like that, three songs in, we’ve gotten a glimpse of Stapleton’s three main modes.

If From A Room: Volume 1 deserves a criticism, it’s that Stapleton doesn’t travel very far outside of his wheelhouse. After making their breakthrough records with Dave Cobb, both Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson fleshed out their sonic palettes and went in different directions. (Sturgill’s post-breakthrough album was especially radical, drenching everything in horns and strings, and causing some country purists to lambast him for making a record that “wasn’t actually country.”) All nine of the songs that make up the first installment of From A Room would have fit pretty comfortably on Traveller. In fact, the biggest departure is that whiskey, Stapleton’s favorite lyrical theme on the first record, doesn’t turn up once on From A Room.

Frankly, though, it’s good to hear Stapleton doubling down on the spartan classic country sound that made Traveller such a classic. At this point, Stapleton can sell out arenas and play stadiums alongside legends like Tom Petty, but you won’t hear any traces of arena country in these songs. On the contrary, most of From A Room: Volume 1 is made up of barroom country ballads, left sparse and gimmick-free thanks to Dave Cobb’s no-bullshit production. Most of the songs end up sounding like they were written for dive bars or half-empty clubs—though they will inevitably sound just fine echoing through huge arenas and amphitheaters this summer and fall.

Case-in-point is “Either Way,” a legitimately breathtaking song built from nothing other than Stapleton’s voice and a steadily picked acoustic guitar. The song isn’t new: country singer Lee Ann Womack cut it back in 2008, for a much more mainstream-sounding version. Like “Whiskey and You” from the last record (which was originally recorded by Tim McGraw), Stapleton went back through tunes he’d written and plucked “Either Way” for himself. His version ditches the mainstream trappings of Womack’s recording—the light percussion, the dramatic backing vocals, the flickers of pedal steel and fiddle—for a skeletal version that is haunting, pained, solitary, and heartbreaking. “We pass in the hall/On our way to separate rooms/The only time we ever talk/Is when the monthly bills are due,” goes the verse, describing a marriage that has faded from love to indifference. “I’m past the point of give a damn/And all my tears are cried,” Stapleton sings, and for how broken and resigned he sounds, you’d almost believe him. But then the chorus comes around, Stapleton’s voice turning from a whisper to a roar so wracked with emotion that, if it doesn’t send shivers shooting down your spine, you might not have a pulse anymore. “We can just go one like this/Say the word, we’ll call it quits/Baby you can go or you can stay/But I won’t love you either way.”

I firmly believe that Chris Stapleton is the best male vocalist making music right now, in any genre. Traveller offered ample proof of that claim, but “Either Way” makes it indisputable. It’s a song so perfect and so raw that it instantly locks you in its world, and for four minutes, you’re in the darkness of a memory, reliving the worst heartbreak of your life. The first time I heard it, I had to stop working, close my eyes, and just let myself feel the cathartic, exquisite pain of the lyrics and the voice. It’s a work of passion and storytelling that, despite its humble arrangement, begs for your complete attention. There is no better song this year, and I very much doubt there will be.

“Either Way” is probably the only song from From A Room: Volume 1 that lives up to the unimpeachable five-track run that started Traveller—still the best opening run from any album this decade. There is a reason this tune is right smack dab in the center of the album. It’s the eye of the storm, meant to trigger that same “replay side 1” impulse that “Parachute” does when you spin Traveller on wax. But From A Room is leaner and better paced, avoiding the bloat and indulgence that made the back half of Traveller something of an acquired taste. With a runtime of 32 and a half minutes, From A Room: Volume 1 is roughly half as long as its predecessor. And sure, this record isn’t actually finished yet; we’re still getting another disc. But the relatively quick running time is to Stapleton’s benefit, allowing mid-tempo groovers like “I Was Wrong” and “Without Your Love” (or menacing ballads like closer “Death Row”) to marinate in ways that comparable tracks from the last record—“Was It 26,” “The Devil Named Music,” “Outlaw State of Mind”—struggled to do for some listeners. Even “Them Stems”—a lightweight 12-bar blues about being in such a bad way that you smoke the very dregs of your weed stash—feels like it has a place here.

In the future, I’d certainly be interested in hearing something more “out there” and experimental from Chris Stapleton. From A Room is not so much a progression from Traveller as it is a refinement. But it’s also very far from being a sophomore slump. With a voice like the one he’s got, Stapleton could easily cut some pretty shoddy material and still make it sound like heaven. Instead, From A Room is a record filled with extremely well-written songs—about lost souls, broken hearts, and at least one outlaw living on borrowed time—performed by a guy who is completely sure of the artist he wants to be. Bring on Volume 2.

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