Part 3 of the finale!
As always, thank you so much for reading!
Keep calm and stay very Whovian.
Very, very Whovian.

Oh and I'm guessing a lot of people reading this fic are fans of the episode "Blink." I've had one or two references to various other Weeping Angel orientated episodes in previous chapter but this chapter contains a pretty huge throwback to the first aforementioned episode.

The cave was dark as an attic. The only light came from two small lamps on the wall. They were like night-lights but not as bright and they didn't make the pretty stars on the wall like the ones in her bed room did.

From time to time, the lights would turn on and off, on and off- blinking like the drowsy fireflies in the book she had been reading at school.
But the lights didn't make her think about some silly, sleepy bugs.
She knew that when the lights did that, it meant the Angels were creeping near.

Abbie didn't like this.
She didn't like this one bit.

She didn't like being so scared and so sad.
Her eyes were sore from crying, her nose was sore from wiping it with her sleeve and her tummy was turning.
And she needed the loo.
And Trevor Bear too.

The ground was cold, wet and covered in stones so it was far too difficult to sit on so her legs were getting wobbly too.

Leon didn't seem to have a problem with the ground.
In fact, he was laying down on it.
She noticed that he wasn't moving anymore.

Was he really asleep again?
Abbie thought about walking over to her brother to try and wake him for the third time but she hesitated.
The last time she had tried to wake him, he had shouted out and made a noise as if he was really, really hurt and started to cry. He wouldn't talk to her when she tried to speak to him and when he was finished crying, he just curled up and went still again.

After that, she was afraid to touch him.

"Maybe I should just let him sleep," Abigail thought, worriedly bending down to look at her big brother's face. He had stopped bleeding so much; that was good, wasn't it?

She rubbed her arms, trying to get rid of all the pink goosebumps; they were starting to make her skin itch and sting. Maybe that was something good about Leon not being awake? Usually he would give out to her for scratching her pink goosebumps and put a horrid-smelling, cold, white cream on them.

"Though I wouldn't mind if you were giving out to me now," Abbie mumbled. "At least you'd be talking to me then…"

"Abigail?"

The little girl let out a small cry when she heard someone say her name in the dark.
It definitely wasn't Leon's voice either!

She turned around quickly, crying out in shock when she recognised the face that was staring out of the shadows back at her.

"What are you doing here?!"

"Abigail, I do not have the time to explain. Please listen to me. I have an important job for you to do. Do you want to help your brother?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I do!" the little girl all but shouted, her fear forgotten and her little fists clenched.

"Please hold out your hand. I have something to give to you."

A small, gold key was placed into her palm and tied to it with a piece of worn string was a crumpled scrap of paper.

"You can read very well, can't you?"

"I…I'm one of the best in my class at school…"

"Good. Listen to me. I need you to go over there to where your brother is, sit down and count to ten. When you're finished counting, I want you to read what's on the piece of paper and do exactly what it says. Do you understand?"

"…I think so. If I do all of this, will Leon be ok?"
"If you do everything properly, everyone here will be saved tonight."

Abigail shook her head. "I can't save everyone. I'm not magic like you are."

"Abigail, you do not need to give any kind of magical influence to save everyone here tonight. You have to give something far more precious."

"What? What can I give you!?"

"Your time."

Cassidy inspected the miniscule screen on the watch that River had given her,
River's words rang in her ears.

Four trips. Just four trips. No more. No less.

"If I make just the tiniest, bloody mistake, I'm absolutely screwed. I could get stuck in the wrong time zone for good. That's what River said." Her fingers tingling slightly and her palms were slick with a cold sweat as she tentatively prodded the various dials on the device.

The design seemed to be simple enough: there was a screen for the month, a screen for the year and a trisected screen with individual panels for the hour, minute and second.
Although Cassidy was desperately wishing that she had asked the Professor for a more comprehensive tutorial on how to operate the device before she left, the concept seemed to be as simple as typing in the desired date and flipping the carefully covered switch near the wristband of the watch.

Luckily for herself, she had managed to catch a glimpse of the time that the watch displayed just before Althea had sent her back. She only remembered the time because it had been exactly 4:44pm. She had only managed to see it at all because she had been holding the feather that Althea had given her in the same hand.
Fortunately for her.

After inputting the correct information, she moved her hand to tentatively flick the switch but found herself hesitating. A poorly placed double-blink prompted her to sneeze violently, her head jerking forward and her hand sloppily glazing over the device.

When Cassidy opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in the middle of an alley, a stomach-churning sensation pulsing through her system. She clenched her molars together in a desperate attempt to stop herself from vomiting everywhere, looking around in a sudden panic. She had clearly managed to dislodge the buttons somehow.

She didn't know where she was standing now but the air was smoky and a quick, hesitant glance at the watch told her that she was still within her own time, at the very least.

When her vision finally steadied, Cassidy noticed with a sudden jolt of surprise that her own name appeared to be written in pink, flaky chalk on the wall.

"What the-?"

"Cassidy."

It was most definitely her name and no longer believing in coincidences, she was willing to accept that it was important.

She followed the message along the wall:

"Cassidy,
Don't panic. It's yourself from the future. You knocked the co-ordinates off.
Put in the co-ordinates 44-51-09, the date 7/8/14. That'll take you to your house. Read the letter on the kitchen table.
This was written on the 12/3/13. Take a photo of it with your phone.
Good luck and move quickly.
Future Cass."

It was slightly unsettling to see a message written in her own handwriting and her usual syntax that she hadn't actually written yet.
She noticed almost immediately that, true-to-her-own-habits, some of the words were underlined, in particular the words "photo" and "quickly."
She was fleetingly reminded of her geology notes in college.

Deciding that it was best to heed her future judgement, Cassidy hastily scrambled to pull forth her phone and to snap a photo of the message before carefully tapping the mentioned co-ordinates into the dimensional transporter before flipping the switch.

"Ugh."
Cassidy's stomach was in tatters when her feet touched solid ground again.

Granted, it was decidedly familiar solid ground but that didn't make her feel any less nauseous.
The first thing that came to her attention was that the least sickness-inducing mode of time travel she'd experienced thus far was being transported via Weeping Angel and this fact did not sit entirely well with her.

The second thing that immediately came to her attention was that her house had a distinctly familiar smell that she had forgotten about for a while.
The place smelled of Christmas edition Yankee Candles, Mr Sheen polish and slightly over-ripened fruit.

True to the note her future self had left her, there was a letter waiting for her on the kitchen table, again, carefully written in her handwriting.
Although this time, gawdy pink chalk had been substituted with ordinary- though far more legible- blue biro pen.

"Hi again Cassidy,

If I remember it correctly, it probably feels seriously weird reading a letter from myself but trust me when I say that writing it will be a lot weirder. I'm sorry the message on the wall was so brief but I had to keep it quick and keep it vague. I'm sorry but I can't tell you much due to time travelling rules and such but I can tell you that at least in terms of your next time travel, you're going to live through it so don't be afraid.
The co-ordinates you need to get back to Althea are 76811005.
Before you use these, however, you need to do two things.
First, you need to take a photo of this letter. Write it on the 23/5/14. Leave it on the kitchen table. Leave the house and don't come back until half six. You really shouldn't meet your past or future self, or at least that's what the Doctor said.
Second, remember the DVD you bought from Sparrow and Nightingale? Take it from the sitting room. Put it in the player and let it get to main menu, then hit the right arrow button four times.
I can't tell you anymore. I wish I could but I really can't. Just watch what comes on to the screen until it ends and get out of the house as quickly as you can.
Good luck,

Yourself. Future Cass. "

She read the letter through a total of fourteen times and couldn't help but feel a miniscule spark of relief; if it was her future self writing to her, at least she had a future to speak of.

The note about the DVD was confusing to say the least but feeling like she shouldn't be arguing with her future self's orders, she took a quick snap of the letter on her phone before heading into the sitting room.

The DVD had just been a film that she'd seen her in her childhood and bought for the sake of nostalgia. It didn't have anything particularly special or symbolic about it, if she could recall.

Meticulous in her attention to the instructions, Cassidy did as her future self had told.
No sooner had her thumb grazed the "forward" button, the main menu disappeared and was replaced with a blank screen.

Cautiously, Cassidy scooted forward, leaning a little closer to the screen as the panel in front of her began to flicker. Her heart gave a tiny leap of surprise when the television was alight once more with a slightly dappled orange back-drop.
It reminded her of the standard one that they'd used to take her school photographs in front of.

She physically jerked back a little when a wiry man with pale skin, a pointed nose and quite possibly the most precariously stylish, barkish hair suddenly entered the shot and came to sit in front of the camera.

He didn't say anything at first, simply staring at the camera.
What instantly disturbed Cassidy was that his eyes seemed to lock straight on to her own, following her gaze regardless of where she moved her head.
Or perhaps, this might have disturbed her if it wasn't for the fact that this man had possibly the kindest gaze she had ever seen.

Like he instinctively knew of all of her struggles and was trying to figure out the best way to help her.
At the same time, his stare seemed guarded…and tired…and slightly sad…like the reason he knew about any and all of her hardships was because he'd experienced them too.
Because he'd seen a lot.
Because he'd seen too much.

It was then that Cassidy realised that she knew that stare all too well.
And it wasn't until that moment that she realised for just how long she'd been wanting to see that stare again.

"Doctor?" she whispered aloud.

"Yep, that's me," the figure on screen replied, causing Cassidy to real backwards in shock.

"How can you-?! What are you-?!" she spluttered airlessly, spittle flying in beads from her mouth as she tried to regain control of her tongue. "You look so different! Is that really you?!" She vaguely recalled the conversation that they'd had just after Summer Bank and the Time Lord speaking about altering his appearance. She just hadn't expected it to be so drastic. "I suppose you did say that changing is something that you do from time to time. So you get this new face before you meet me again?"

"Yes, I do."

Cassidy shook her head slowly, still slightly overtaken by disbelief. "I can't believe it's you. I mean, I was really hoping we'd meet again. You told me we would but…things have just been such a mess lately and you've helped me out before-…"

"Yep, and this."

She felt a delicate but definite warmth pulse through her as she continued to survey the Doctor. "You're going to help me get through this? Hang on, that must be why my future self wrote got me to do this barmy DVD business; she, well, I wanted myself to know that I wasn't on my own!" She snatched up the letter in question, sifting through it. "God, I was so vague though. Why couldn't I have been a little more specific? I was scared half to death for a second there. And it's not like she- I- didn't name-drop you already…listen, "you shouldn't really meet your past or future self, that's what the Doctor sai-!"

"Are you going to read out the whole thing?"

Cassidy paused, sheepishly putting the letter aside.
"Ok, point taken. You probably have read it before. But…how are you talking to me through a television set. If this is on a DVD, it can't exactly be live? I mean how did you get this whole thing to work?" She blinked as something occurred to her. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm a time traveller," he said, providing succinct answer to her first question before going on to add: "Or I was. I'm stuck in 1969."

Before the Doctor could say anything else, a young woman suddenly lunged into the shot, a clear look of irritation splayed across her strikingly beautiful face.
"We're stuck. All of time and space he promised me! Now I've got a job in a shop! I've got to support him!"

Cassidy couldn't help but smile slightly at this, watching as the Doctor hastily tried to usher his reluctant travelling companion from the camera's view.
"Martha!"
"…Sorry…"

The human woman took a split second to compose herself before deciding that it was time to return to business. "Ok, so you probably know that the other Angels took Michael and that they're more than likely going to kill him. They came after me too but they gave up searching before they could find me. Even though they could have easily tracked me down if they'd kept going. It's like they want to keep me alive. This whole thing feels so contrived. Like it's some kind of bizarre trap."

"Quite possibly," the Doctor mused, a thoughtful look across his face.

"And at the same time, I feel like, I'm not the main focus of this whole thing. Like I'm just some kind of pawn and this trap is being made around me…for someone else…that's just it, isn't it? The Angels want to use me for something…"

"'Fraid so," he confirmed, rue entering his eyes though his breezy tone was starting to irk her.

"Ok and supposing I'm not a seasoned time traveller who's dealt with the Angels maybe thirty to forty times…"

"Thirty-eight," the Doctor corrected her, still keeping his tone almost unbelievably calm considering their subject matter.

"Noted," Cassidy said, waving a hand and trying to manage her own temper. "Look, the bottom line is I have no idea what I'm doing. I know that in order to get these Angels off my case, I need to get to Michael and somehow take out most- if not all- of his clan. I just don't know how to do it! River gave me this watch thing that allows time travel and it's probably supposed to help me out with this but I don't know if I have even the foggiest idea what I'm doing with it!"

"People don't understand time. It's not what you think it is."

"I need to try. If time is going to help me, I need to try to understand it. You showed me that a paradox could kill a whole group of Angels before. What's the safest way to create a paradox?"

"Complicated."

Cassidy mentally rolled her eyes before adding. "And if I wanted to control that paradox so that…certain Angels wouldn't get caught by it?"

"Very complicated."

The human was very quickly starting to resent the Time Lord's aloofness. This was a situation of life and death for her, after all.

"Look, I'll take full responsibility if I botch this whole thing up. All I want is information! If I were to create an event in the present that contradicted an event in the future, would that be enough to like…break up the time-line…or un-preserve the time-line or…do I have to do something in the past first to set it all up?"

The Doctor sighed slightly. "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect…but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint…it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly…timey-wimey…stuff…"

Cassidy just about let out a hysterical bark of laughter at this statement but anxiety restrained her. "I guess this is all easy for you to say when you've got the TARDIS. I mean I've only got one journey left on this wa-…" She blinked, realising. "Wait a minute, if you're stuck, that means you…you've lost the TARDIS somehow?"

"It got away from me, yeah."

The pit of her stomach sank a little deeper.
There was no way the Doctor could provide her with immediate help.
She dropped her head into her hands, murmuring: "Oh Doctor, if you could see me now."

"Well, I can hear you."

She looked up. "How can you hear me? I mean, if this is a DVD Easter Egg, it's not exactly perfect for live-streaming from…"

"Well, not hear you exactly but I know everything you're going to say."

The Doctor had failed to mention his alien capabilities involving telepathy and premonition, it appeared.
"You know what I'm going to say?" Cassidy still felt quite perplexed. "How?"

"Look to your left."

"My left?"
The human woman's gaze fell upon the scrunched up letter at her side. The letter that she had written to herself. Suddenly, she felt like an idiot for having been so confused.
"Of course! I must have told you what I said! In the future. Wait, I'm good with facts but my memory's not that good. Blimey, how did I remember the entire conversation…did I write something down maybe? Is that it? I wrote you a script or something?"

"I've got a copy of the finished transcript; it's on my autocue," the Doctor's image confirmed.

"Ok…wait a minute, if you're stuck in 1969, how on Earth did I manage to get this script thingy to you? I only have one trip left on this vortex-watch-thing and I really don't think I can use it to get to you."

"I told you, I'm a time traveller- I got it in the future."

"Of course…we've met again in the future...or in my case, we will meet again. You actually said it to me before. Do you remember? Wait a second, if you're trapped right now, do you become trapped after we meet again or do you somehow leave 1969 beforehand or-?"

"Oh wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey…"

"Right, I guess it's not so relevant. Is it?"
Cassidy flinched a little, instinctively looking over her shoulder; the door to the sitting room was closed as were the curtains at her back but she could have sworn she heard something move behind her.

"What matters is, we can communicate. We have got big problems now. They have taken the blue box, haven't they? The Angels have the phone box."

Cassidy's head whipped back around at this comment, her heart suddenly racing and her stomach suddenly rather sick. "The Angels have the phone box?" she repeated. "They've taken the TARDIS? What? How?" She suddenly realised something. "That's why you're stuck in 1969, isn't it? Why would a group of living statues who can already travel through time need a time machine?"

"Creatures from another world," the Doctor corrected her, underlining the fact that the Angels were not in fact simply high-powered lawn ornaments. Cassidy felt a tremor of fear in her chest, having been instantly reminded that she was dealing with a group of highly evolved aliens.

"Yeah, you mentioned that before." Her eyebrows lifted slightly- teetering on the edge of accusing but not quite reaching it yet. "To be honest though, you didn't tell me all that much besides the basics. I had to learn a good part of it for myself and trust me when I say that was not a fun experience."

"Lonely Assassins, they used to be called," the Doctor went on, his eyes becoming slightly distant as though he was talking more to himself than to her. "No one quite knows where they came from, but they're as old as the Universe, or very nearly and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved. They're quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone…and you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either…but then you turn your head away. Then you blink and oh yes. It can."

"And remembering this is going to help me somehow take out Michael's tribe?"

"That's why they cover their eyes. They're not weeping, they can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. Loneliest creatures in the Universe…" The Doctor's expression almost became tristful for a moment before becoming serious again. "And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now."

"What do I have to do? You said the Angels had the blue box, the TARDIS…what does that mean? What are they going to do with it?"

"The blue box; it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there that they could feast on forever, but the damage they would do could switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me."

"Send it back to you?! How am I supposed to do that? Even if I could get it back from the Angels somehow, I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to-!"

"And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript. That's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking but I can guess. They're coming. The Angels are coming for you, but listen- your life could depend on this- don't blink…"

Cassidy's blood ran icy but perverse as it was, she had long become accustomed to this kind of situation. As the Doctor spoke, the young woman immediately sprang to her feet, looking around the room.

"Don't even blink."

Her eyes travelled from the door to the window, looking for any form of entrance or exit that her potential attackers could make use of.

"Blink and you're dead."

She rolled up her sleeve to her elbow, checking the co-ordinates and numbers that she had put into the watch. Weighing up the stakes, she quickly flattened out the letter that her future self had written and double checked each digit.

"They are fast. Faster than you could believe."

She looked over her shoulders at regular intervals, continually listening out for the slightest change in sounds around her. If Michael had taught her anything, it was that Angels may have been deadly predators but they weren't silent by any means.
They could be heard.

"Don't turn your back-…"

Then she heard it.

"-don't look away- …"

A very distinct creaking sound coming from the hallway just outside the double doors that led to the sitting room.

"-and don't blink."

Cassidy straightened up, stuffing the letter into the pocket of her jeans and kept her back to the television as she surveyed the room one last time.

"Good luck."

Taking a mere fraction of a second to steel her nerves beforehand, she flipped the switch and was instantly engulfed by a familiar, nauseating rush of air.

Once again, she never thought she'd favour being sent back in time by an Angel to anything else.
Once again, she found herself being given another reason to miss Michael.

"What do you mean, they're missing?"

The messenger immediately regretted having been so eager to take up the offer of this job. From where she knelt, her hands clasped reverently in her lap, she could feel eyes burning into the back of her neck.

"If you please, Angel Ariel," she managed to say, despite her mounting nerves. "I mean only what I've said. The humans are missing."

She had heard that Angel Ariel was abundantly open-minded, creative beyond the boundaries of most of their kind and possessed a great warmth and respect even for the most lowly of their ranks.

However, warmth was the last thing that the younger seraph could hear in the newest addition to their clan's voice when she spoke again.

"Both humans?"
Her fangs were obviously protruding.

"Both…the infant female and the older male," the messenger's partner piped up.
The messenger, for the first time, was now feeling rather grateful that Karida had insistently sent another Angel with her. At that moment in time, her voice had decided to desert her and her partner seemed to be able to pick up where she had left off.

"And how did this happen? It was my understanding that both of our vital bargaining chips were being watched at all times."

"…as far as we know," the messenger continued, shuddering a little when she felt Ariel begin to walk around her. "When the guards were changed, there was a brief interval during which neither human was being watched and it was during this time, the two had a chance to flee…"

"I did not give the order to change the guards!" Ariel snarled, prompting a small whimper from the messenger's partner.

"Th-the order…was not explicitly reported to have been from you…but they were from a superior ranking Angel," the messenger managed to say.

"From whom? Which "superior ranking Angel"?"

There was silence from the two messengers for a moment before the first messenger's partner eventually spoke. "That was not made clear to us."

Ariel was painstakingly quiet for a moment and unnervingly still in motion. In fact the only hint to the two messengers that she was still in the cavern at all was the fact that the two of them were still bound in stone.

"…right," came Ariel's snarl at long last, tinged with a heavy and slightly maniacal sounding laugh. This was nothing like the demure, benevolent beauty that she had been introduced to their group as. "So I have a traitor amongst those who surround me. Wonderful. Sarai?"

Ariel summoned another Angel who had been waiting in the shadows.
"Yes, Angel Ariel?"

"Go to Nathaniel. Tell him to increase security surrounding the time machine. Then take a group of your seekers into the lower catacombs. The little human is a weakling and the bigger one was comatose- they cannot have gotten far…and for the love of the sun and its subsidiaries, bring me the Time Lord's head! I want him out of the way, I want the TARDIS and I want this whole ordeal over… as for the two of you…"

Ariel paused for a moment, a feeling of unease descending over the two messengers.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that their Archangel and patriarch was no longer in control of what was happening.

"Go back to Karida and kindly inform her that this level of incompetence will not be tolerated in future endeavours but I am willing to forgive this heinous misstep provided that she gets to the bottom of who issued the order to change the guards….if we have any traitors in our midst, it is in the interest of the entire tribe that they are eliminated."

"Yes, Angel Ariel," the two messengers chorused, not quite in unison, as their quantum lock was lifted.

The messenger's partner was allowed to flit back into the tunnels from which they came but the first messenger was surprised to feel her body freeze back into stone as soon as she had turned around.

"A-Angel Ariel?"

She heard the older Angel's voice at her ear, just as Ariel's claws closed around her neck.

"It only takes one messenger to deliver a message…"

"You have returned safely."

Cassidy was instantly riddled with relief to hear Althea's voice above her as she slowly stood up.

"I did what you asked, I mean I hid Mi- your son properly and he was alive when I gave him to you in the past."

"I am aware," the Angel told her gently. "My memories of the event have not changed and speaking honestly, I did not expect them to."
When Cassidy looked at her again, Althea was standing up straight, her wings folded rather elegantly at her back, her face a picture of serenity.

"Oh yeah?" the human muttered a little automatically, steadying her legs from shin to thigh and getting used to her new forest surroundings.

"You know, the day I met you in the forest all those years ago was the day that I changed my mind about humans."

This time, Cassidy's attention was piqued. "Hmm? Really?"

"Yes. I am sure that you can understand that to make our hunting process a less complicated one, Angels are raised to believe that all species beneath our own are physically and mentally weak? Well, after that day, I found it incredibly hard to see humans as greedy, weak or unintelligent…you made me question the teachings of my youth, Cassidy Albright."

"I'm…sorry?"

"You should not be. You started the process of my liberation and for that, I am eternally grateful. I looked forward to the day that I should meet you again."

"Uh…well…you're welcome?"

Cassidy had only just barely regained control of her balance at this point so it was unfortunate that what Althea said next rather knocked her feet out from under her.

"I knew that Iblis would always adore you from that day onward."

"…y-you what!?" the archaeologist spluttered, forgetting about décor and staring at the Angel full in the face. "You knew that he'd always what?"

"Adore you," Althea responded simply. "Care for you. Be…attracted to you…"

"I understand the concept, I just…how did you know that?"

The Weeping Angel made a shrill squealing noise, her human voice giving a soft laugh. "He spoke of you in his childhood. He told me of his visions and fantasies of a human woman with frost-white skin, primrose hair and azure eyes…and I knew he meant you. You see, we Angels have very good memories but we tend to remember things based on stimuli than fact. I knew that my son had taken in far too much of your scent…of how you felt…and I knew he had imprinted on you."

"Imprinted?"
Cassidy's chest felt tight and her head felt light.
This was it.
This was the reason why.

Despite the fact that it seemed the last three months of her life, (if not technically more- give or take a few weeks of displaced time travel), now seemed to be clicking into place, Cassidy couldn't bring herself to simply accept it. "Mich-Iblis hasn't imprinted on me…what's between your son and I…is really…really…complicated…but it's not…"

"You renamed him. You called him Michael, didn't you? Tell me, what does he call himself?"

"…he said that he would rather I call him Michael over Iblis…"

"Because it was the name that you chose for him. The one that you deemed the most appropriate to attain your favour." Althea's voice indicated that she was moving closer, as Cassidy's eyes fell to the ground. "I raised my son apart from the rest of the tribe. I had hoped that the isolation would keep him timid as I had promised Nathaniel but this proved naïve…as did my assumption that I could make him forget you. As he grew, he forgot the specific woman who had saved his life as a child but I knew that if I met you again in the future, he would meet you again too."
In Cassidy's silence, Althea continued. "I knew his fixation would begin again, I knew that somewhere in the back of his mind, he would remember. He wouldn't know it but he would remember you. He would pursue you…he would not cease in his pursuit of you…and he would not stop until he had you."

"…so technically…I started all of this…"

"Nothing that befell you is your fault, Cassidy Albright," Althea said sharply. "Being the cause of a set of events and being to blame for a set of events are two entirely different things…tell me though…the thing that I did not expect to have to address: your own feelings towards my son, do they bother you? Even knowing what you know now?"

Cassidy pressed her lips together, retying her hair into a loose ponytail purely to give her hands something to do whilst she came to grips with this new information. "A lot of things bother me, even knowing what I know now, Althea. Unfortunately the biggest one, I regret to have to tell you, is that I promised you son that I'd help him to kill your mate."

"Just how do you plan on doing that?"
Althea wasn't questioning her motivation nor was she opposing the action.

"I'm still kind of figuring part out, if I'm honest. The first thing I guess I should be doing is saving Iblis or Michael himself."

"He is not the only prisoner that Nathaniel has allowed our tribe to take. He has also seen fit to trap the Time Lord and his companion by use of a small human child…"

The Doctor. Clara. Abbie.
"No…" Cassidy moaned, clenching her hands at her temples. She had guessed as much from the DVD transmission that she would be meeting the Doctor again but she had not wanted to drag anyone else back into this matter on her behalf. "No…why won't they just leave her alone?"

"There is also another human male."

Edmund?

Cassidy dropped her head into her hands, her teeth gritted and her eyes brimming. "I will never forgive myself if anything has happened to them. Any of them."

"You must not penalise yourself. You are a remarkably strong individual and you have shown incredible resourcefulness and strength in the wake of this. Your mother should be proud of you." Althea's voice was soothing, warming.

"I don't have one," Cassidy responded quietly and a little more bitterly than she'd intended, blinking back tears as the Weeping Angel neared her. "She died."

She flinched at the sudden feeling of the Angel's hand on her cheek. Althea had managed to catch her mid-blink and Cassidy obligingly kept her eyes shut.

"Poor human," she said softly, running her fingers along Cassidy's jaw. "Poor, lost, human child…I am certain that if your mother could see you now, she would certainly be overjoyed to see that her daughter has grown to such-…"

Althea quickly retracted her hand, her tone changing completely. "Cassidy. Open your eyes now."

The human immediately did and was greeted by the terrifying sight of at least twenty Weeping Angels surrounding them in the clearing where they stood.
Each was poised with a ferocious, predatory expression and their claws protruded.

And the one that stood closest to she and Althea, was all too familiar to her.

"Angel Althea," cooed Karida, sounding dangerously happy with the current situation. "You seem to have found our desired human target. She managed to evade capture earlier…imagine my surprise to learn that she had help from one of our kind…"

"Karida, listen to me," Althea began, only to be cut off again.

"This human needs to be taken to see our dear patriarch. Immediately."

Cassidy tried to keep her eyes on all the Angels around her but it didn't take long for two of them to seize her arms, pulling her limbs to uncomfortable extremities at her back.

"Karida," the older Angel repeated warningly. "You do not understand what you are doing. Call off your seekers and kindly allow me to deal with this. I will escort her to Nathaniel personally…"

"No, I don't think you will, mother," Karida went on coolly. "I apologise but considering that it was undoubtedly you who helped this human to escape my searching team, you'll understand my difficulty in believing you." She sighed. "Father would be so hurt to know of your treachery."

"Your father has no one's interests in mind but his own and if you don't see that by now, Karida-!"

Both Angels were now bearing their fangs, Cassidy noted as her eyes fell back upon the two seraphs before her.
One of the Angels holding her suddenly seized her by the hair, forcing her to look upwards and giving them the opportunity to place something rough and cloth-like over her eyes, blinding her.

She couldn't see what Althea was doing now but she could definitely hear a struggle.

And then silence.

And then her own breathing and her own heartbeat.

And then Karida's voice in her ear, far too close for comfort.

"Don't worry, Cassidy. You'll be reunited with my brother very, very soon…"

He couldn't see him but he knew exactly where he was.

"The Prodigal Son has returned to us at long last."

"..."

"Have you nothing to say to me, my son?"

"I do but I fear they are not the words you want to hear...and we both know how you behave when you hear something that you don't like."

"I see our years apart have done nothing for your behavior. You're still the insolent, mealy-mouthed whelp that your mother tried to hide from me."

"And you're still the ignorant barbarian that gave her a reason to hide me. A son can only respect his father as much as his father has taught him to show respect for others."

"...well, it would appear that you've adopted some very human ideals, Archangel Iblis. No doubt that little human parasite you've been playing with has something to do with that."

"..."

"Speechless already? My sun and stars, did she not have an effect on you? The mere mention of her renders you voiceless..." A cruel rumble of laughter. "Did you not think my spies figured out exactly what you were doing with that little human "pet" of yours? I must say I am quite eager to meet her at this stage...she must really be something if she's managed to keep your attentions...flighty as you always were..."

"Leave. Cassidy. Out. Of. This! IF YOU SO MUCH AS TOUCH HER-!"

"Cassidy..." Another mocking laugh. "Oh my son, you need not fear. I only bring her here as part of your cleansing."

"My cleansing?"

"Indeed. If you are to properly rejoin our tribe, you must be cleansed of your past wrongdoings...and we punish the sin, not the sinner..."

"...no. No. NO...DON'T YOU DARE-!"

"You have no one to blame but yourself for this, my son...and take solace in this fact: I am doing a kindness to you."

The Archangel Nathaniel took a moment to regard his son where he was shackled to the wall of the cave tunnel.

"Either you'll get to see her one last time before she dies or you'll both get to see each other one last time before you both die."

Thank you for reading!
Part 4 will be up soon!