Disclaimer: I don't own anything Doctor Who, the BBC does. Shafry's mine, though. All of this is purely for recreational reasons.

Warning(s): All from previous chapters. Not being able to fit in the characters actions among their speech, which with the Doctor around is a bit of an issue. ^^' Also, I seem to have trouble sticking to just one Doctor's speech-patterns (yes, that's a ridiculously obvious Ten-line somewhere there). Amy is inexcusably OOC (I'm thinking early-Martha-like at times). Partially written in what passes for severe sleep deprivation for me (yes, I'm looking at you, pink bananas).

(also, I think the quotes are getting farther and farther from the point the chapter is trying to make xD But that might just be me)

A/N: I could keep editing this and adding pieces for forever... So, in the interests of me holding onto my audience for a while longer and the amount of hair not on the floor or messed beyond measure, I'm posting this.

Don't ask. I have no idea. Especially about the italics. You'd have to ask my muse. I heard from her...last week? (before that was 'round the time I posted the interlude) And even then she only gave me that last sentence. So, you can just blame everything in between the nitrogen-thing and that last sentence on me. My muse had nothing to do with that.

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About Facing Your Fears...Literally

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"If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods." (Josef V. Stalin)

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It took a while but they (meaning the Doctor) managed to pinpoint the direction the light had originated from before it spread to burn throughout the sky.

The Doctor explained the sonic was of no use since the energy came from the Time Vortex (which the sonic didn't have a setting for) and on top of that Shafry was filled with this particular type of Vortex energy. He never explained why that was, or what he meant by "particular type".

Amy was just glad they had a direction to go to instead of the Doctor just spinning in a circle trying to find the source of the burning light, though she wasn't sure if she really wanted to find this Bad Wolf. It didn't sound like anything good could come of it like the Doctor had made it seem.

(and how did the doctor know it?)

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Wolves...

Amy hated wolves.

No, that was wrong. She was afraid of them and she didn't even know why. She thought it might've had something to do with seeing the wolves at the London Zoo tearing into their food with vicious teeth and a primal need when she was a little girl but then again...there was...a thought...of a memory of a possibility...that maybe...there had been...a bone-chilling howling from the crack in her wall.

And that crack had been the only thing she was afraid of as a kid...before the wolves.

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Her pack had died, destroyed by the sky people with their petty vengeance. Little menaces who thought to enslave her not-home. Who thought to take her and use her.

Her mate, though, he still lived and she was sure he was close. She could smell him in the barely-there air. He'd changed again. Something darker, not so broken but infinitely more dangerous and daring.

He didn't know. And if it depended on her, he'd never know. Even this dark one wouldn't understand, or would and then never forgive himself. there'd be pity, so much pitypitypity and "i never wanted for you to understand".

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Some miles away the Doctor was almost running towards where he could hear something very glass-like cracking.

(And wasn't that interesting when there shouldn't be anything for the sound to travel through)

But it was cracking and he'd damn himself to the Void, if he let her awake in here with only that soul-deep ache of losing your family and your home. It had all been in the howl after all. He'd recognize that longing anywhere and anywhen.

That bone-crushing emptiness of being the Last One...although (he smiled bitterly for the slightest moment) she really wasn't, was she... She was unique (and the TARDIS had called her not-sister) and yet she was so painfully human.

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The Doctor stopped suddenly making Amy run into him and Rory almost run into her.

"Doctor?" Rory sounded worried.

"I just realized..." the thought had been floating around since they landed but now it had put on a pink tutu made of bananas and kicked his brain into noticing it "we shouldn't be able to breathe here. Well, you shouldn't."

"What do you mean we shouldn't be able to breathe?" Amy, it seemed, had reached her limit and was well on her way to hysterical.

"Well, you see," the Doctor had had his back to them but now turned to face Amy and Rory and his expression was something close to but not quite afraid, "there's practically no oxygen in this atmosphere, or to be more precise; there's such an infinitely small amount of it that you two humans should've passed out almost the moment you were out the doors of the TARDIS."

"And why wouldn't you have passed out?" He really should've stopped being surprised when Rory asked these sorts of questions.

"I can use nitrogen in emergencies. Plenty of that floating around." The Doctor gave them a grin. (and that, the nitrogen not the grin, should've been an obvious sign he was meant to be here alone she wouldn't be pleased)

"So, then how are we still conscious?" Rory asked. Amy looked about ready to murder something if things wouldn't start getting explained.

"Hmm, possibly the TARDIS, possibly the Bad Wolf. You can never really know with those two. It's even possible it's both of them working in tandem."

They'd started walking again at some point during the conversation and had now reached what looked like a veritable mountain made of ice or crystals. Finally was a shared thought.

It took a moment for them to find something that could help them reach their goal, namely an entrance (door, gate, anything) and even then it was blocked.

There was a wolf sitting in their path, in the middle of the doorway and directly in their path. It tilted its head and looked at the Doctor for a long while (Amy almost asked if this was the Bad Wolf it didn't seem too Bad) but then it moved its eyes to stare at Amy. The intelligence feralferalferalferal in the gleaming golden eyes seemed almost human and somehow beyond that and Amy was made certain that, yes, the wolf could be that bad. Its eyes swept over Rory without a thought before settling back on the Doctor.

The Lady awaits her Doctor. The voice echoed around them.

The wolf turned around and after a few steps looked over its shoulder, clearly a "well, are you coming?". The Doctor was the first to take a step forward and when he was by the wolf's side without becoming a chew toy, Rory and Amy started forward.

The wolf snarled and Amy screamed.

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A/N: I do actually realize that I made the Bad Wolf sound a tad Na'vi-like in there. Aaand I think I might've stolen a description from canon or some other fic... o.O

Next chapter should have the reunion...hopefully. If I can get all the plotbunnies clamouring for my attention out of the way and if I'll be able to coax my muse back to me -.-'

(pst. I just got immeasurably terrified when I realized (yes, I'm slow like that) that I'm actually publishing an ongoing fic and I'll have to curb my tendencies towards accidental Mary-Sue-making