Hearts of Time Saga - The Argument.

Trenzelore.

Ianto was assigned to be Angel's bodyguard that day she received the vision as they shopped at a supermarket. The Time Lady had spent a month travelling the world alone before she came back to Cardiff. She'd done plenty of soul searching, and had decided she wasn't going to grow another TARDIS. Angel had become so tired and fed up with the danger of travelling through time and space, and her family couldn't blame her. The loss of her baby hadn't done anything to endear her to the idea of leaving the safety of Earth, and Torchwood and the other members of her family took it upon themselves to take care of her. In return Angel became a sort of guardian angel to the children of her friends, she was already a beloved auntie to Mickey and Martha's small children, and she'd become a regular visitor to Sarah Jane Smith and Donna Noble's families.

Angel seemed content enough, but everyone could see the sadness in her eyes, how she always wrapped her arms about her now flat stomach where her baby, the only other Time Lady in existence would've been born, had resided in before her death, and there was nothing anyone could do to take that pain away. She couldn't even look at a pregnant woman without breaking down into sobs.

When she'd gotten back sooner than everyone had expected, Angel had told them the Doctor had made contact with her over their bond. He'd had the gall to try and apologise, but from the perspectives of Angel's extended family and the Time Lady herself, what the Doctor had said and done because of the filthy lies of River Song, his attempts for forgiveness was just unforgivable. Angel may have forgiven people in the past, but the Doctor had crossed a line with her, and she was never going to let him forget it.

Angel hadn't told them what she'd said to him over the bond, but one thing was for sure; the Doctor hadn't made an appearance since, not at Cardiff, and he'd certainly not made an appearance to the others.

Ianto was shaken out of his thoughts when Angel came back to him carrying a few things which she dropped in the trolley. " Are we finished?" Angel asked him. The Welshman looked down at the trolley, and looked back up. " Yes," he replied, " shall we?" he asked her, holding out his arm. Ianto may have been Jack's boyfriend, but he was still a gentleman and Angel was just as much his sister as she was Jacks and Gray's.

Angel took his arm hesitantly, she still had problems with gentlemanly acts; the Tenth Doctor had been the same with her, and look what he'd turned into. Though she wished it, Angel couldn't forget the Doctor. When he'd contacted her after Jack had shown him the remains of her miscarriage, she had been tempted to forgive him. But she'd remembered the pain he and River Song had put her through. A change had come over her when she'd told him; " You're a monster, a heartless beast," she'd told him through their bond. " You fooled me, the so called psychic, into thinking you were the good man. Even your last self manipulated me into mating with him. What for? Why would you want to mate with a pathetic little thing like me?"

" Angel, I didn't-" he'd tried to say, but she wasn't having it. She was done with all the lies coming from his mouth. " You manipulated me into thinking you were a good, kind and decent man, and I hate myself for falling for it," Angel had interrupted him. " And now you've found your true love, and it isn't me. River Song is the perfect match for you, a monster who laughs when he commits genocide, you just needed to forget me to see it. You just needed an excuse to kick me out of the TARDIS, along with our child. Well, go on then, go to her. After all, she is your perfect Mate," she mentally sneered the word.

Through their mental bond Angel could feel the panic from the Doctor. " Angel, I hate her. She is nothing like you."

Angel had snorted mentally. " Yeah, and that's what you wanted; not a simpering little girl who's stupid, but a clever, dangerous, evil, dark thing like you. The female version of you. A woman who delights in murder and genocide, just like you do. After all, you are the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds, and the man who destroyed the Time Lords, its what you do, destroy people and worlds, whole civilisations under the pretence of travelling innocently, and you did help kill my baby. Was that part of your plan? To mate with me, force yourself on me, and then kill our baby for another woman? Well, your plan succeeded, you're now the proud murderer of an unborn Time Lord child, the last of our race." She hadn't told the Doctor the sex, she knew he hadn't wanted to know when he'd been shown the bloody remains. He didn't deserve to know either.

The Doctor hadn't contacted her since, he seemed to be respecting her wishes to be left alone, but Angel didn't care. As Ianto gently pushed the trolley to the checkout, Angel thought back to the other recent events since her return to Cardiff. Angel had had a simple existence on Gallifrey, and now she was away from the danger that was the Doctor's lifestyle, she hadn't expected to realise how wonderful it was just to have a simple, normal life even if she was a Time Lady though she worked for Torchwood now. The rift needed constant monitoring, and Jack and the others had asked her if she could contribute with her Time Lady knowledge of time travel to better understand and control the rift.

Angel had agreed; she had little knowledge of how to work in a shop, and her only knowledge was how to create TARDISes, and though she would have loved to raise a new batch of TARDISes on Earth, she knew the human race would abuse the technology. She trusted her family implicitly, but she didn't trust the other members of the species. Her mistrust stemmed from three incidents.

First and most obviously, Van Statten and his scientists, and her other ' owners' who had locked her up with that Dalek, dissected her even when they'd noticed she was a living, breathing, sentient being, they'd only done it because she was an alien. Angel had more or less forgiven the rest of the humans for what had happened to her as they hadn't known she was there, but now she was more mistrustful, and that mistrust was made worse by the other incidents.

The incidents had become more hearts wrenching than Angel would have liked, but the second thing was Amy and Rory. Apparently the Doctor had dropped in, and Amy had asked a stupid question about River and the Doctor had lashed out. Angel had felt the anger through their dampened connection though she hadn't bothered to listen in. She and Amy had never really been friendly like she had with Rose, Mickey or Martha, but they had been okay with each other. Anyway, from what she could feel from the bond - sadness, surprise directed at Rory, and slight anger that gave away to loss, the reason became clear; Rory had told the Doctor he had known Angel was his Mate and that she was pregnant with his child. Had been pregnant. She'd also felt reluctance though she had no idea why.

But it didn't end there, and that had led to an unpleasant meeting with the married couple. Ever since Angel had discovered the truth about Amy and Rory, and how the woman had poisoned the Doctor for so long and made him forget his Mate, she'd been wary around the two of them and there had been quite a time gap between the time they'd left the TARDIS as the Doctor and River became closer together, and the time they'd last seen her.

Angel hadn't expected the two humans to suddenly show up at Cardiff but they had, and they also knew about the Hub from the Doctor. That explained the reluctance. The moment she'd seen them standing there with Gwen nearby, Angel had tried so hard to see her companion and his wife, but really all she'd seen were...River Song's parents. That's who they were to her from that point forwards. She'd lost it when they'd tried to speak to her, told them to leave her alone. But they didn't. Rory tried to tell her how sorry he was about the baby, but Angel hadn't listened to him. She'd told him how his daughter had had a hand in killing the only other Time Lord in the universe, and that she never wanted to see him again as a result.

Amy had started on her when Rory looked terrible, but Angel asked her a straight forward question: " How does it feel to know your daughter is just like you, a seductress who doesn't give a damn about the other person?" And she'd walked off without waiting for an answer.

She never saw the two of them again after that.

The meeting with Amy and Rory just reminded her of the third and more obvious incident.

River Song. She hated the woman so much. The incidents with River had only served to heighten her mistrust.

Angel shook her head to try and get her mind out of the depressing thoughts it had wandered in, and she focused on Ianto putting the shopping on the checkout. She let him pay, it wasn't that she couldn't; she had so much on her mind that she didn't focus much on anything. She helped Ianto with putting the shopping into the car when she froze;

...a dark desolate wasteland, with a dark red sky, and towering in the distance was the Doctor's TARDIS, now old and dying. Size leak...

...the Doctor standing tall, but his fear was palpable as he stood whilst standing up to a serious looking man in Victorian clothes whilst Jenny Flint, Vastra, Strax and a brown haired girl were being terrified by faceless creatures wearing the same clothes as the serious man...

...the TARDIS console room, darkened. The console and time rotor were gone; in their place was a swirling mass of white light. She recognised it as a time tunnel, a mass of temporal scar tissue that was the result of the Doctor's travels...

...Then Angel saw herself, walking over the Doctor's body as he was assailed by the paradox of him being there; the temporal scar tissue was now an angry red after the serious looking man had stepped in to destroy his life. That Angel stood next to the brown haired woman, and they both jumped in the timestream at the same time protected by the power of the vortex...

She saw herself being dropped off at Cardiff, mere days before her aborted pregnancy, and the future version of her followed her...

Angel watched as the Time Lords fell, but she saw the version of herself that had stepped through the tunnel speaking with several Time Lords...

...She watched as a group of Time Lords left Gallifrey under pretence of fighting the Daleks, but in fact they went to a remote planet and concealed the system behind a bubble universe...

...she saw herself with a restored baby.

Angel snapped out of her vision to see Ianto standing next to her, recognising the signs of her having a vision. " Angel, what is it?" he asked her as she leant against the side of the car breathing hard. That was probably the most...interesting and detailed vision she'd had in her lives.

" What did you see?" Ianto asked, and Angel stared at him. " Take me back to the Hub," she told Ianto. " I'll explain it when we get there. I've got to sort through what I saw."

Ianto frowned, but he nodded as he helped her into the car.

The others hadn't known what to think after Angel had told them about the vision. She went over the vision more than once, not glossing over the sight of her entering the Doctor's timestream, helping Time Lords survive the cataclysm that had destroyed her race, and restoring her baby. She'd told Jack she'd seen it happen, that meant it was made to happen. Jack had protested, saying she shouldn't go alone, but she'd argued back that she had to try. Angel reminded Jack her baby had been the only thing that had kept her going when River had made the Doctor forget her, and though he hated the thought of his little sister anywhere near the Time Lord, he had to admit she might be able to pull it off.

The Torchwood team still had no idea how Angel had miscarried when Owen had done a check up only a few hours previously, and Angel was determined to prevent her miscarriage. She wanted her baby back, she wanted to cuddle a small being even if she knew the love she'd thought she'd had for the Doctor had turned out to be nothing but a lie she still wanted it, and Angel was going to get it.

So, grudgingly and not very happily, Angel had been loaned the vortex manipulator by Jack, and she'd worked on the device for a week to restore it to

proper working order, and she'd also adjusted it so then the Doctor would never be able to sonic it again. She might need it in the future.

After saying goodbye for now to the Torchwood team, Angel arrived on Trenzelore with the vortex manipulator, and though she'd hated to use it, she'd opened the bond to find the Doctor. The atmosphere smelt like death, and its burnt ground and shadowy sky made Angel shiver as she picked her way towards the future Doctor's TARDIS. It wasn't hard to spot, and her hearts ached when she saw for real what the TARDIS had and would become.

Angel stopped when she heard something up ahead as she neared the decaying TARDIS.

" Aagh!" Angel started running when she heard the Doctor's voice, pleading with someone. "Please, stop it!"

Then she heard it, " Doctor who?" A cold, male voice asked.

That question. That question was the reason the Silence had pursued the Doctor, why they'd kidnapped Melody Pond and turned her into a psychopath who was obsessed with the Doctor. She knew now this was the day with that prophecy they had; 'silence must fall when the question is asked,' it was happening right here and now.

And she knew the Doctor knew it as well.

"Unhand me, sir! Aagh!" She heard someone demand, and her eyes widened when she realised it was Strax. She quickened her pace.

" Leave him alone, let him be," the Doctor pleaded again.

" Don't worry, sir, I think I've got him rattled." Ordinarily Angel would've found Strax amusing, but at the moment she wished the Sontaran had a few more cells in his brain.

An unfamiliar voice, that of a girl, young and perky called, "Doctor! Doctor!" Angel's hearts clenched when she realised this must be the Doctor's new companion, the one who'd jumped with her into the timestream. She didn't deserve a fate worse than death.

" Doctor who?" The question came again.

" Please!"

Angel appeared, and she took in the scene. Vastra, Jenny and Strax and the girl were on the ground, surrounded by the faceless creatures, their hands in their chests where their hearts were.

Angel closed her eyes...and the TARDIS doors opened. The Doctor turned slowly and the serious looking man raised a hand, and the creatures that escorted him withdrew their hands. Angel was about to go over when she saw an unwelcome sight.

River Song was sashaying over, " The TARDIS can still hear me. Lucky thing, since him indoors is being so useless!"

Angel snorted; the TARDIS wouldn't even WORK for River, let alone open herself up even in death. Too bad for her, but then Angel took a good look at her. No one had noticed her strangely enough, not even the Doctor.

Strax stood up, demanding, "Why did you open the door, sir? I had them on the run!"

Angel shook her head. Typical, same old Strax. But his surprise was genuine, why hadn't he noticed River? She took a good look at the woman. She seemed to be...ghostlike. Then she realised, River was dead. She had to be.

The Doctor hadn't seemed to notice the ghost to the others, but Angel knew he'd seen her; that stiffening in his face and body was proof of it. " I didn't do it. I didn't say my name."

" No, but I did." River and Angel said at the same time. The others didn't know River was there, but they did hear Angel. The Time Lady saw the glare the ghost sent her way, but there was a more...downcast expression on her face which made the woman look more humble though Angel didn't believe River could be humble, it simply wasn't a part of her personality. Clearly this version of River Song was more mature than the ones Angel had encountered, but only just. It made no difference to Angel, to her River was the reason her Mate was in fact a monster.

The Doctor looked at her as she stepped into the light. " Angel?" he whispered. Everyone coughing on the ground looked at the now revealed Time Lady. " Angel," Vastra gasped.

Angel hadn't seen the Doctor for a long time, and her feelings were bittersweet, part of her still loved him but the other part completely hated him. She was astonished by how small that part was. She'd felt his genuine agony about the things she'd said, but she wasn't sure she could or would forgive him, especially with what she was about to do. " I couldn't let them kill you," she whispered before she looked away, she would deal with her issues with the Doctor later. " Oh, hello," she looked down at the brown haired girl who was coughing, and she moved to help her up.

The Doctor snapped out of the trance he was in, and he went over to help them under the watchful eyes of the Victorian figure.

"Is everyone all right? Is everyone OK? Clara? Clara? Are you OK?"

The brown haired girl, Clara coughed, " That was not nice. Sorry, but are you the Angel?"

Angel frowned. " Yeah, I am. Nice to meet you."

Clara coughed and stood up with Angel's help, and she pointed at the Doctor. " He never shuts up about you, its always 'Angel this' and 'Angel that' but in a good way. He really misses you. He says he does everything because he says you're what keeps him fighting."

Clara had seen how heartsbroken the Doctor had been whenever he'd mentioned the name Angel, and she'd gotten him to tell her what had happened to her. He hadn't said anything at first, but she'd been firm but he wouldn't say anything to her, and the TARDIS which had always nearly been hateful towards her had been firmly in her court, and had shown her via the telepathic circuits everything related to the Doctor's Mate.

Clara had been horrified to learn that someone had interfered with the Doctor's relationship with Angel by making him forget about her to the point where he'd leave or lead her into danger, and it was clear she'd been pregnant at the time which made it all the more damning, lied about her, forced him to kick her out of the TARDIS when she was pregnant, and she saw how tormented the Doctor had been when he'd seen the remains of his child. Clara loved kids, babies especially; to see someone who clearly had no idea she was pregnant, being abandoned like that, only to lose her child...It had sickened her, but she hadn't confronted the Doctor about it when the TARDIS had played a recording of the telepathic conversation between the two Time Lords.

Clara had seen enough of the Angel to know she was a kind hearted woman, to hear her say those things she must have been angry, but until she would meet the woman herself she would reserve judgement.

" Does he?" Angel said simply. The Doctor hugged Clara, trying not to wince at the detachment in Angel's voice. " I know. I'm sorry," he said to Clara as an apology for what the Victorian man's servants had done to her, before he let go of Clara and walked over to the Victorian man, "Now then, Dr Simeon. Or Mr G Intelligence, whatever I call you... Do you know what's in there?"

Angel blinked as she recognised the name...G Intelligence, the Great Intelligence. What was the entity doing here after all these years? And then she realised. Revenge, it wasn't revenge.

"For me, peace at last. For you, pain everlasting. Won't you and your...lovely mate invite us inside?" the Intelligence sneered at Angel and the Doctor's automatic response which was to step protectively infront of her.

The Doctor stood there for a moment, thinking of a way around this when he felt the return of the Mating bond. We have no choice Theta, besides I'm here for a reason.

The Doctor frowned, inwardly delighted to be hearing his name for the first time in a long time from his Mate, his Angel, but he was wondering why Angel would open the bond she'd been keeping closed for so long - from his point of view - he could tell it had been a short while for her. He'd spent two hundred years alone to try and atone for what he'd done to her. He still suffered nightmares, deservedly from his point of view.

He would've liked to have stalled the Intelligence, but he couldn't risk the lives of Jenny, Vastra, Strax and Clara again, he'd tried that already, and they'd nearly died. And he wasn't going to risk Angel. He'd already betrayed her enough as it was and this incarnation's past careless disregard for the safety of the last Time Lady in the universe was made worse by the memory of him discovering how River Song had made him forget her. He looked around for inspiration, not finding any and he just walked inside.

Angel had been inside the dying remains of a TARDIS before, but this TARDIS held a special place in her hearts, and it pained her to see the inside of the dying ship. The console room had vines growing through the Doctor climbed the stairs with the others, they could hear the cloister bell ringing. In the center, where the console would be was a tower of light, different strands rotating around each other.

"What's that?" Clara asked in awe. She could two different colors in the tower of light; whitish silver, and blue. TARDIS blue.

The Doctor looked noticeably uncomfortable. "What were you expecting? A body? Bodies are boring, I've had loads of 'em. That's not what my tomb is for." He took a breath, feeling the affects of the paradox on him already. He looked over at Angel, and he frowned when he saw whilst she looked uncomfortable it wasn't as pronounced as his, and then he noticed the glow in her eyes. The Doctor gasped when he realised she was using the vortex to shield herself from the worst of the paradox, and with the TARDIS dying she would be able to shield herself properly. He swallowed when he noted she wasn't doing anything to shield him.

The Doctor led his friends to the top level whilst the Great Intelligence and his servants were standing opposite.

"But what is the light?"

"It's beautiful." Angel smiled at Jenny's description, but her smile disappeared when Strax asked, "Should I destroy it?"

Typical Sontaran.

Vastra whispered, " Shut up, Strax."

" Doctor, Angel, explain. What is that?"

"The tracks of my tears," the Doctor sighed, gazing at the timestream with mixed feelings. Whilst it was fascinating to see the size of the timestream he'd lived, he knew the Great Intelligence's agenda wasn't going to be good. The Intelligence was one of the many foes he'd fought against on his travels, but to learn that the Silence had been foretelling the prophecy...It surprised him it was the Intelligence that had asked him what his name was, but he wasn't sure what that part meant about 'Silence must fall.'

The Doctor wondered what the Silence would do if they ever learnt it was the Great Intelligence that had asked the question, they probably would've tried what they'd done to him, to Angel, and try and kill them both without giving them any idea why they were being attacked. Only if they'd tried destroying the Intelligence, they would've found the job difficult there.

He was also scared for Angel; she might have left him, but he was still scared what this might mean for her even with the power of the time vortex.

The Intelligence interrupted his musings impatiently, " Less poetry, Doctor. Just tell them."

Angel explained the first part first, "Time travel is... damage. It's like a tear in the fabric of reality."

The Doctor nodded at her, " That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through time and space, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore."

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the time tunnel.

'Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?' The voice of the First Doctor spoke.

'..Cybermen - they're still in the nursery compared to us...' said the voice of the Sixth Doctor.

The Second Doctor, the one who'd encountered the Great Intelligence the first said, 'There are corners of the universe that have bred the most dangerous things...'

'Do I have the right?' said the voice of the Fourth Doctor.

Angel bit her lip when she heard a woman's voice, her voice, her ninth voice say, ' A 50s telephone box doesn't exactly blend in, does it?' She could feel the Doctor's discomfort at the sound of her voice.

'You were fantastic - absolutely fantastic!' the Ninth Doctor said.

Another female voice came through. ' No. I refuse to turn TARDISes into weapons of war!' Angel bit her lip again as she remembered how that argument had gone.

'I'm the Doctor, I'm from Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous...' said the voice of the Tenth Doctor.

Then the most heartbreaking, or heartsbreaking part came.

' River told me, she said YOU of all people would destroy an entire race!' the voice of the Eleventh Doctor said, sounding angry and Doctor stiffened as he remembered that one. Angel's voice came through, arguing back, ' What do you mean? I'd never do that.'

' River told me, and so far she hasn't lied to us.' the phantom Eleventh Doctor retorted angrily. ' Lied to you, you mean,' the past Angel snapped back, her voice growing angry. The real Doctor tried desperately to turn the screwdriver off, but his arm didn't seem to want to. The Doctor realised his mind wanted to use this opportunity to torture him; the Intelligence's presence on Trenzelore was the reason the Silence had come after him, made him lose Angel because of River. Without the Intelligence's presence none of it would've happened, and a hot swoop of burning hatred soared through the Doctor directed at the Intelligence.

' Doctor-'

' Your mother would be disgusted by you,' the Doctor's voice sneered. ' You told me she always called you and angel, but you're not. River told me straight.' A sound of sobbing which sounded like Angel made Jenny and Clara cry.

Finally the Doctor managed to turn the sonic away, not daring to see how Angel had reacted to the replay of the argument when River had driven the wedge between them, " My own personal time tunnel, all the days, even the ones that," he faltered as he grew weaker, " I, er, even the ones that I haven't lived yet." He collapsed to the floor, Clara and Angel ran and kneeled beside him.

" Doctor! Doctor!" Clara said.

The Doctor coughed weakly, holding onto Clara and Angel. "No. No. Which is why I shouldn't be here. The paradox is... it's very bad."

That was enough for the Great Intelligence. He started to move towards the light.

"No," the Doctor managed to gasp out when he saw what the Intelligence was doing.

" What are you doing? Somebody stop him!" Angel cried. Her shield over the vortex protected her from the worst of the paradox, but if the Intelligence went in she didn't know what would happen to her, but she knew the Doctor would be in agony. She now understood what the Silence had meant, silence must fall; they'd misinterpreted so many things. The Doctor had helped people, she knew that even if she'd called him a monster, and his interventions had had a wide impact on the universe. If the Intelligence prevented those interventions, oh those idiots. They should be here, they should see that the Doctor's involvement in the prophecy wasn't as crystal clear as it seemed. The Great Intelligence didn't care about the universe like the Silence didn't, the entity just wanted revenge. Nothing else mattered to it.

There was sheer fanaticism on the Intelligence's simulated face, " The Doctor's life is an open wound. And an open wound can be entered."

Angel's eyes widened in realisation even as the Doctor managed to get out, " No, it would destroy you."

The Intelligence turned to face him, " Not at all. It will kill me - it will destroy you. I can rewrite your every living moment. I can turn every one of your victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath. Destroy your...Mate," the Intelligence smirked at Angel.

The Doctor struggled to get up, to protect Angel, " She hasn't done anything to you. She hasn't even met you," he protested, knowing the Intelligence had only made that threat because of her association with him, " It would burn you up. Once you go through, you can't come back - you'll be scattered along my timeline, like confetti."

The Intelligence seemed amused by the Doctor's protectiveness even if he didn't understand it, "It matters not, Doctor. You thwarted me at every turn. Now, you will give me peace, as I take my revenge on every second of your life! Goodbye... Goodbye, Doctor!"

The Intelligence stepped backwards into the light and screamed in pain as his servants disappeared. The Intelligence was consumed by the light, and the Doctor gasped and cried out in pain. Angel gasped, but she didn't collapse.

"What's wrong with him? What's happening?" Clara asked.

Vastra was about to reply, but Angel got there first, afterall she knew more than the Silurian about what was happening, "He's being rewritten!" the Time Lady said, wincing. Clara noticed she was glowing slightly with energy, but she didn't ask what was going on.

"Simeon is attacking his entire timeline - he's dying all at once. The Dalek Asylum. Androzani," Vastra said.

Clara perked up, "What did you say?"

Angel closed her eyes as she prepared herself for what was coming. She could feel the Intelligence inside her own timestream, rewriting her, or trying to. Her power of the vortex had shown itself on many occasions over the centuries in little flashes, but those tiny events were enough to keep the Intelligence from completely rewriting her like it was doing the Doctor.

" Did you say the Dalek Asylum?" Clara asked.

Vastra nodded, thinking that Clara had heard about the Asylum from the Doctor, and not about the actual events, "Now he's dying in London, with us."

" It is done." The Intelligence said.

The Doctor writhed on the floor as he cried out in pain, Angel tried to comfort him, forgetting her personal problems with him, but it was hard as she felt as if she had one massive stomach ache herself. The light from the time tunnel turns from a brilliant white to a dark red.

"Oh, dear Goddess!" Vastra exclaimed in horror.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked knowing it wasn't going to be good.

"A universe without the Doctor - there will be consequences. Jenny. With me." The Silurian detective and Jenny left the TARDIS.

Clara was looking down at the Doctor, "The Dalek Asylum. You said it was me that saved you. How? Victorian London. How, how could I have been in Victorian London?"

"No. Please, stop, my life... My whole life is burning." The Doctor writhed deliriously.

Clara was kneeling beside the Doctor, who was lying on his back. "I have to go in there," Clara announced. She glanced over at Angel, the Time Lady was staring at her, and nodding to what she was saying.

"Please. Please, no..." the Doctor tried to stop her.

Clara ignored him, "But this is what I've already done. You've already seen me do it. I'm the Impossible Girl, and this is why."

" Whatever you're thinking of doing... don't," River's projection appeared again.

"If I step in there... what happens?" Clara asked.

Angel interrupted before the ghost could answer Clara's question. "The time winds will tear us into a million pieces. A million versions of you, living and dying all over time and space. Like... echoes."

" Us?" Clara repeated as she turned to face Angel. " You mean, you're coming with me?"

Angel nodded, " Yes. I've seen it in a vision," both dark haired women ignored River's scoff; Clara had learnt River didn't like Angel, the woman had practically sneered and smirked at her name though Vastra and Jenny spoke of her with respect. " We both jumped into the time tunnel, but my job will be rather more complicated. Clara, I've got my own tasks to do inside that tunnel, but I'll be aware of you. Time will have no meaning inside, but I will help you and get you out when the Intelligence's influence is purged."

"But the echoes could save the Doctor, right?"

River wasn't going to let Angel get one up on her, not whilst she herself was dead. "But they won't be you - the real you will die. They'll just be copies."

Clara looked over at Angel's slightly pinched face, "But they'll be real enough to save him," no answer so she shrugged, " Like my mum said, the souffle isn't the souffle - the souffle is the recipe," she looked down at the Doctor, and then back at Angel for permission, and she gently stroked his face at her nod, " It's the only way to save him, isn't it?"

" Your mother's wise," Angel smiled at Clara.

River nodded. Angel had to bite her tongue at the nod; even dead the woman didn't care about life.

Vastra came back inside, gasping for breath, "The stars are going out. And Jenny and Strax are dead. There must be something we can do?"

Clara and Angel both stood up, "Well, how about that? I'm Souffle Girl after all."

The Doctor saw what they were doing, and tried to stop them weakly, "No...please..."

Angel paused, " I have to do this. There's a lot at stake," she said before she and Clara approached the light, " If this works, get out of here as fast as you can. And spare me a thought now and then."

Angel shook her head. " I'll be there with you, remember."

Clara smiled sheepishly. " Sorry. Forgot."

"No, Clara, Angel...!" the Doctor tried to get out, he had to stop them.

"In fact, you know what?" Clara said impishly as she turned to the Doctor. " Run. Run, you clever boy. And remember me."

"No! Clara!" The Doctor shouted, but it was too late as the Angel and Clara jumped into the time tunnel, protected by the power of the vortex.

Angel blinked as she found herself in the TARDIS console room, the whimsical console room where she'd argued with the Doctor. She'd just stepped through the time tunnel with Clara, but they'd been separated though Angel could certainly feel the girl's presence in the timestream.

But what was she doing here? She looked around the console room, and she saw the Doctor. He was sitting against the wall with his head between his knees, and his arms wrapped over his hair. He was sobbing.

He was muttering though Angel could hear him. " She's right," he was crying, " I am a monster, but I love her so much, and she thinks she's a simpering nothing but she's not. She's the most amazing woman in the universe, and she...puts herself down. She's right though, I am a murderer. I've just caused the death of our baby!" The Doctor sobbed harder. Angel gasped as she realised where this Doctor was, this was the Doctor possibly moments after that telepathic conversation they'd had.

The Doctor carried on, he looked up revealing red, watering eyes, " Please if there is a god out there," he begged, " let me die, but please let her live. Let her live. She has so much kindness and love, things I will never have. Angel, I'm sorry." His face scrunched up as he buried his face between his knees again. " I'm so sorry. I'm not the Mate you deserve." He cried harder.

Angel blinked in shock as she found herself somewhere else in the Doctor's timestream. She watched as Rory punched the Doctor, and snapped harshly at Amy that the Doctor and Angel were mated. Later, she watched them be banished by a damaged Weeping Angel.

She was in Cardiff this time, exactly like her vision foretold. Angel had been shadowing her younger self, watching and remembering their attempts to comfort and make her lighten up, and she giggled as she remembered the funnier times. Her smile faded when she saw Owen finish up on that checkup, and how she and Gwen had gone out for the day.

Angel watched as her past self separated from Gwen for a few moments, and she frowned as she watched a Silent creep up behind her younger self. Suddenly she understood; a Silent, a Silent had been responsible for the death of her child. Owen didn't know everything about Time Lord biology, but he'd known more than enough about it to tell if the baby was healthy. After her miscarriage he'd been besides himself with guilt, and whenever he saw her he seemed to finding something else to do, and she'd never been able to get him out of his shell. Owen seemed to blame himself for her baby's death.

Now Angel realised Owen was blameless; it was a Silent the whole time.

Angel stood frozen in shock as the Silent grew closer, and it was only when the vile loathsome being extended a finger she lashed out. The fury of a Time Lord was a terrifying thing to behold, the fury of a Time Lady - mother- who - was - to - be was even worse. Angel flung the vortex out, and entrapped the Silent into a temporal bubble.

" Why?" she snarled at it, using the vortex to prevent the creature from electrocuting her. " Why can't your kind just leave us and other people alone?" Angel didn't give it time to respond, " You've ruined my life up to that point," she said, using the vortex to rewrite time around this event. Owen and the others would remember the alternative timeline as would the Doctor. She breathed out as her baby regrew in her womb, getting larger and larger until her belly was extending until it stopped.

Angel gasped as she felt her baby's mind in her own, her daughter was alive. That was it, she realised.

She looked into the Silent's eyes, it was looking at her almost fearfully. Angel had never wanted to be feared, but she felt delighted to feel the creature who was part of the race and religious order that had almost destroyed her life terrified of her.

" That's what you wanted isn't it? It's not just because of the question, which if you'd bothered to research would've made you realise the Doctor would never be able to answer it," Angel wasn't going to say it was her who actually answered the question and let the Great Intelligence inside the TARDIS, " but you wanted your lot to become the Lords of time with the end of the Time Lords. After all, you are the self anointed sentinels of history, aren't you? It won't work. I won't let you."

Without giving the Silent time to respond, Angel summoned all the power of the time vortex, the legacy of the Time Lords, and poured it directly into the Silent. The creatures screams of agony as it was vaporised made Angel wince at the violence she was inflicting, but they'd brought it on themselves. She closed her eyes and hunted the others down, and killed them the same way. Normally Angel would have tried to be more humane and forgiving, but the Silence had murdered her child in another timeline, she would not let that happen again. She was a mother, and mothers protected their children.

With the Silents gone, Angel had more to do.

The irony of what she'd done seemed to have escaped her.

Clara was on a dark plain similar to the plains of Trenzelore when Angel found her. " Clara," she said and the human swung round, fear and panic on her pretty face. " Take my hand, hurry. I'm using the vortex to hold back the timestream from collapsing on itself, but we haven't got long," Angel held out her hand, and Clara grasped it at once. Angel concentrated, and there was a flash of light-

The two girls found themselves in the decaying TARDIS console room with a restored and bemused Strax and Jenny standing next to an equally bemused Vastra. The source of their bemusement was clear; the two girls could see the Doctor holding onto the ghostly arm of River Song, his face dark with anger and contempt.

" You would have me abandon Clara would you River, abandon my MATE?!" The Doctor's nostrils were flared in fury as he glared at the ghost of the woman who'd successfully tricked him, made him forget about the woman he loved more than life itself, and who killed his baby - then he felt it, a tingling in his senses, and he looked over at the timestream where Clara and Angel had just stepped out. Angel waved a hand in the direction of her friends so they could see River.

" Angel? Clara?" the Doctor whispered, looking at the two girls in awe, much to River's annoyance and those who weren't able to see her the first time could see the look of loathing River sent in Angel's direction. " You - I was just about to come and get you."

Clara was standing in front of Angel, blocking the Doctor's view of her belly, but now Angel stepped forwards and the Doctor's eyes widened when they saw her pregnant body. " How? I thought the baby was dead," he whispered.

River scowled, something Clara noted.

Angel smiled as she lovingly rubbed her belly. " I found a Silent in Cardiff, they'd known I was there, and they killed our baby. The Silence didn't just want us dead because of the question, did they River?" she directed the question at River.

River stayed silent. " Oh, don't give me spoilers," Angel said, " I looked into its mind. I saw the long term plans of the Silence, you knew some of them but not all of them" she said to the Doctor who was looking between the two women, bemused. " Once we were gone," she laid her hands on her belly, disgusted any living being would even think of wiping an entire race out including an innocent child so coldly, " you, me, and our daughter, the Silence would've used that as an excuse to become the Lords of Time, ontop of their so called sentinels of history. Kovarian and their other servants didn't know, but the leaders of the Silence had plans and an agenda on their own, but River knew some of their plans because she'd been born part Time Lord. The Silence weren't really interested in me beyond that, that's why they never tried to put one of their own inside the TARDIS whilst you regenerated the last time even when their method to erase memories and cast telepathic commands easier than the method River used, she just did it to get your affections," she said to the Doctor and Clara and everyone not a Time Lord backed away from the darkness in his eyes as his temper started to surface, " They knew if I died, so would you and vice versa, and if I was carrying the last Time Lady when I died then their plans would be fulfilled. They came this close," she held up two pressed fingers together, " to wiping us out."

Angel nodded at River. " They didn't let her in, of course. There was another reason they wanted a part Time Lady, and it wasn't just to kill the only true Time Lords left. The Silence wanted to use her as a means to gain access to the secrets which we had. Didn't you ever wonder River if the Silence had other plans in mind for you besides simple assassination?"

River kept her mouth shut.

Angel shook her head, her mind was reeling from the things she'd seen in the timestream. " The Silence didn't care about you lying about me committing genocide, though it did make their job harder."

River spoke for the first time, the sarcasm thick and making the Doctor wish she were alive so he could strangle her. " Oh, and why would that be?"

" Don't you know anything about Time Lord Mating?" the Doctor suddenly said; he saw it all, exactly. " If I died and Angel was close by, she would die too, but if we were separated then they would have to make sure the other died not long after the other."

" And our baby too," Angel finished, stunned she'd worked it out the way she had. " The Silence have failed River, and there's nothing they can do about it. The prophecy of Trenzelore has been fulfilled, and they got that wrong."

River stiffened, and then she vanished.

" Will that be the last time you see her, I mean River Song?" Clara asked the Doctor and Angel as they walked out of the massive TARDIS and to their own TARDIS.

Angel sighed. " River's dead, but even that's not enough to stop her appearing. The only thing that consoled me when we met her the second time was she died by atoning what she'd done, but its clear she didn't mean it."

If it had been anyone else then Clara would've asked questions, but after being inside the Doctor's timeline she knew what the Time Lady meant, though she found it confusing. " What about you?" she asked Angel quietly, gently dropping a hint.

" What about me?" Angel blinked in surprise at the question. She didn't get the hint. Clara smiled at her. " I mean him and you," she nodded at the Doctor who was clearly listening in on the conversation, waiting for her reply.

Angel sighed. " I don't know Clara."

She stopped to take one last look at the Doctor's TARDIS, unaware the others had stopped as well.

Angel felt so sad such a vibrant ship had perished here on such a dismal world, the storms made the towering shape of the police box disguise sinister. She also thought back about the version of the Doctor she'd seen crying, and since her bond to the Doctor had been restored since she'd taken off the Dampening bracelet, she could feel the apprehension coming off him in waves. Watching her, the Doctor wondered if Angel would forgive him. He could hear her thoughts, and he felt his eyes water when he felt the love sent not to him, but to their child.

He knew she deserved better than him, but he just wanted to be forgiven.

If not, he didn't know what he'd do.

Next time - Hope and Restoration.