"This is actually not bad." I stated after swallowing the mouthful I'd just taken.

"I told you." The Doctor said, sipping his cup of tea.

I worked another piece of meat free from the large piece on the cardboard plate. "The temperature is actually decent for once." I looked up at the grey sky, two twin black spires shot up into the clouds from the cathedral next to us. We'd travelled for few more days, I'd learned quite a lot about this little blue planet in the middle of nowhere. It was quite a find, I enjoyed how exotically beautiful it was.

"That's why I like this place." The Doctor nodded, following my gaze to the spires.

"What's it called again?"

"Prague." He looked around the place we were standing in. "Beautiful city."

I observed the people and looked around at the surrounding buildings. "I must agree." I said, looking at a painted wall "It's very creative."

"We should go to a concert." He mused, I stared at him blankly "Music." He said

"I know what a concert is, my lord." I grumbled, insulted "My question is, sir, what they play at these concerts."

"Well, if I told you that'd just spoil the fun wouldn't it?" he grinned cheekily. "Come, let's get some tickets."

I picked up my plate, now mostly empty except for one sliver of meat, which promptly disappeared. The disposable cutlery and plate then took a dive into the nearest bin.

I rather liked this country, it wasn't too hot, and the architecture was simply amazing, the Doctor described it as "baroque" and "gothic", although he'd pointed to one building and described it as "wedding cake architecture". I hadn't asked what he'd meant by a wedding cake, marriage and cakes didn't go together in my mind. I particularly liked the river, the great white birds that glided along the water had impressed me with their grace. I chuckled as I remembered seeing them on land, waddling along looking like they were in a temper.

"Oh how very much like a Time Lord." I'd laughed as one had sulked and glared "Graceful and majestic until you get them out of their element, then as ill-tempered as the President's cat."

The Doctor hadn't been amused. I found it hilarious, as well as payback for when he'd laughed at my admittedly pitiful attempt at English.

But it was awe inspiring to see the city on the opposite bank, the cathedral perched on the hill, the swans swooping in to land on the river, the houses, each a different color, scattered along the streets in haphazard order. The variety was baffling, Tarali's buildings had all been the same, but this entire planet made an effort for variety, every single country we'd visited, not one was the same as the next. The people, the language, the food, the houses, even the sky was different! It was stupendous.

I'd read in the history pack that that variety had caused and was causing no few problems… Thankfully I hadn't run into any, but it did sadden me that the inhabitants of this pretty little planet didn't get along.

"Ah here we go." The Doctor stopped in front of a colorful, poster covered wall. "So, one for tonight." He pulled his glasses out and scanned the linear writing. I managed to read a few of the words before they shifted, I'd started learning to read the language, although it was still very much easier to let the TARDIS translate for me. "Ah here we go." He put his finger on the mention of a date. "Vivaldi's Four Seasons! Oh you'll like that one. Mozart… Bach…" he nodded "What do you think?"

"I don't know any of those names, sir." I reminded him.

"Figured not."

I sighed and followed him as he dashed towards a store that doubled as a ticket office. Minute later we stepped out, me holding the thin slips of paper that were our entry vouchers.

"You don't usually go through all this trouble…" I pointed out, the last few times we went to an event, we kind of just showed up, using the psychic paper as our entry pass.

"Authentic experience Illishai!" he enthused "Plus I owe the community a favor." He said soberly.

"Ah!" I stated, somewhat understanding. It seemed that wherever we went, either he owed someone a favor, or someone owed him one. It made me wonder just how much he'd rattled about the Universe until now.

We walked around the city some more as we search for the particular building the concert was to be held. He called it a "church", I had absolutely no idea what that meant.

We ended up in a winding cobbled street when the Doctor stopped in front of a small wooden door.

"Here we are." He read the small sign above it, "Admittedly this is not what I expected."

"What did you expect?"

"Something a bit larger for one." He moved to open the door "Maybe it's larger than we think."

The door opened with an ear-splitting shriek, I rubbed my temple and stepped in after the Doctor into the narrow space beyond.

"Now be quiet, humans take their worship very seriously." He advised and opened another door, this one opened smoothly.

I looked up at the column that adorned the space. It was in fact larger than I would have thought based on the door alone. But not impossibly large, that was clearly beyond any technology these people had.

But dear Rassilon this place was beautiful. Thick column of veined green and pink stone supported a painted ceiling, a long corridor stretched out, flanked by ornate wooden benches culminating at an altar draped with embroidered cloth and backed by an exquisite painting set in a gilded frame that covered the entire back wall. The frame itself was topped with detailed figures of angels holding up, or looking up at, the symbol of an eye inside a triangle. Golden rays radiated from the eye like some child's drawing of a sun.

I let my eyes wander to the other statues, all life sized and highly detailed. Small wooden chambers, coming by twos, were topped by small wooden angels seated atop their roofs. Statues of the same angels with spread wings seemingly held up the ceiling from the columns.

"This place is beautiful." I breathed, taking in the sight. My eyes passed from one statue to another, to a painting, to an intricate piece of carving on a bench.

The Doctor led me around the place, explaining the cruciform disposition, the meaning of the pictures. I drank in the history, the stories. He explained "religion" and "Christianity". I begged him for more, but he said it was already a much debated topic for even the inhabitants of the planet and that he didn't have a clear idea of exactly what it meant to them.

Also that it'd take several hours to go through every single religion on the planet.

I whined but he was final, I'd be getting nothing more, lest he stray into pure subjective opinion.

So I contented myself with the beauty of the structure.

"Here, sit." I turned around to face the Doctor, who had already seated himself on one of the benches. "They're going to start soon."

I sat down next to him, the wood creaked under my weight. And he had said, within a minute a man came up to the front of the aisle and introduced himself and his colleagues. Following his short speech, they began.

In my mind, the concert ended too soon. The music was the most intriguing amalgamation of sounds I had ever heard. The notes resonated with each other in harmony, flowing together, forming pictures made of sound. It was beautiful, and I had to say I enjoyed it.

After each piece, the assembly had begun clapping their hands, I'd cast the Doctor a curious look.

"It's a form of praise, just follow along." He'd said.

By the end of the concert, I was clapping quite fervently. Shortly afterwards the attendees were slowly leaving the space of the church, the musicians we packing their instruments and preparing to exit themselves.

I started to get up but a strong grip restrained me.

"Sir?" I asked, bewildered as I lowered myself onto the seat again.

The Doctor didn't say anything but stared very intently at a statue of an angel, one arm draped over its eyes, reaching out to some vague point above it with an outstretched hand. I stared at it as well, and now that I paid closer attention to it, there was definitely something wrong with it. The stone looked like stone, and it did not move, but somehow. It was wrong.

His eyes flickered from one statue to another, scanning them. I followed his purposeful stare around the room. My own eyes rested on another statue, this one crouched and seemingly holding a hand out to some passer-by, ready to lift them into the sky.

This one also felt wrong.

I looked from one to the other, a growing suspicion bubbling in my gut.

"Sir, please… Do not tell me those are what I think they are." He was staring at the standing angel, I the crouching one.

"I'm afraid they are Illishai." He did not break his gaze to look at me. Thankfully. "They're Weeping Angels."

"Can we get out of here?" The stories of my childhood charged my psyche en masse. I did not want to stay here, not here with not only one, but two Lonely Assassins.

"No."

"Why?"

"Look around you."

I hesitated but dared to glance to the rest of the church. A few people were scattered about. A pair with cameras, an older man, and a woman with a young boy.

"We can't leave them here. Not with Angels around."

I was about to respond with some witty remark about self-preservation when the lights went out with a loud clunk.

I heard a yelp of surprise from the boy and various guttural expressions of puzzlement from the other attendee of the building.

"Okay that changes things." I heard the Doctor say next to me.

My eyes had adjusted to the dark, and I could plainly see that the Angels had shifted, ever so little, so eye their prospective prey. I blinked, the one that had crouched stood on the floor, off its pedestal.

"There's a chapel, get everyone in there."

The Doctor dashed off one way after the pair with the cameras, I went to the woman and the boy.

"This way." I said, not caring whether I was doing half the mental work for them. As long as they followed. "Sir." I called to the older man, stretching my own influence so he'd follow as well. I continued going, with my little herd in front of me.

Now was not the time for ethical discussions, not when there were Angels about. I spotted the Doctor's silhouette further along, he entered a room through a door at the back of the building near the altar.

I heard a few rustles of cloth and grinds of stone on stone. We had to hurry. I turned around and froze an Angel in its tracks as it rounded the corner towards us.

He told me he had his eyes on it, and that I was to keep going.

I thanked him and ushered my little group into the small room beyond the door. The door slammed shut behind me, and was quickly followed by a noisy impact on the other side.

I looked around the room, it was small, enough for a single row of two benches and a narrow space in front that held and alcove with a statue of a woman holding a baby.

A flame was lit and the space was dimly illuminated.

I could see a few paintings on the wall, but no windows.

"What's going on?" a new voice asked, I turned my head to look at the speaker; a young woman, around my age, her head twisted around to look at us, there was an open computer on her lap.

The Doctor was fighting to close the latch on the door while the Angels beat loudly against it. I joined him and with much effort, the bolt slid through.

I thought he'd start explaining the situation to the woman, but instead he turned to me.

"Illishai, what did I say about psychic persuasion?" he was not speaking English, he had been before. He didn't want to be heard, or at least understood.

"You…" I was taken aback "You told me not to do it, sir." I let my gaze fall to the floor.

"And what do you go and do?" he continued, "You disobey a direct order, I mean for Rassilon's sake, this is not what we are trying to achieve here!" He said over the regular impacts on the door.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't do it again." He said firmly, I kept my gaze on the floor, while he turned to the group.

I heard him explain things as best he could to the human group, he simplified the issue a lot. Most of them stared in disbelief but put two and two together when they heard another impact of the heavy wooden door. The young boy pressed himself closer to his mother, who held him tighter.

Except for one.

"Poppycock." the man with the camera said, "Are you all just going to stand around and let some lunatic spout off some nonsense and believe him?" he addressed the small assembly, his partner put her hand on his shoulder, he shrugged her off, "I don't understand the reasons behind this charade, but I'm not taking part in this." He went to the door.

"I wouldn't do that." The Doctor warned and moved to stop him.

But the man had unlatched the door, not even a second later, a stony hand shot through the opening and the man vanished with a shriek cut short.

Everyone stared in shock, the Doctor and I both threw ourselves against the door to close it. I breathed a sigh of relief when it was latched again.

"Does anyone else have any questions?" the Doctor asked, I could feel the edges of his stress leaking through his shields.

"What happened to him?" The woman asked in a timid voice, even in the gloom of the candle light I could see her eyes were wide with shock and misted over.

"He got sent back in Time." The Doctor told her.

"What?" He stepped forwards towards her.

"That's what Angels do." He explained, "They hunt and send their prey back in Time to feed off the aborted timeline." He touched a hand to her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

I watched the scene unfold, the emotion was practically drowning me, I could feel the woman's sadness just radiating from her mind, and all the others responding to it, amplifying it with empathy. The older man sat down on one of the pews, the mother held her son tightly. The young woman in the wheelchair picked her way around the pews over to the duo.

"What about us?" she asked. "I deeply sorry for your loss, ma'am, believe me." She nodded compassionately to the woman "But what can we do? I don't know if you've noticed, but we are rather stuck in here."

The Doctor gave the girl a long appraising look, then smiled slightly. "First we need to get the lights back on." His voice took a more exuberant and charismatic tone, "The Angels can only move when they are not seen, which means that the darkness is their best ally."

"So we need light." The girl said.

"We do." He agreed "What's your name?"

"Emma." She answered.

"How are your computer skills Emma?" he nodded to the computer stuck between her hip and the arm of her chair.

"Pretty good." She nodded, retrieving the device from its resting place by her side.

"See if you can locate a KNX system."

"The church has one." She said "I'll get cracking." She smiled as she opened up the screen and began typing.

"Now the rest of you." He addressed the crowd. "We need to stop the Angels from getting in here. So, we barricade, and-"

A sudden frantic knocking on the door caught my and his attention. It was an Angels angry beating on the door, it was rapid and light.

I hopped over a step to the door, probing past the wood, feeling the pure fear and desperation radiating from the other side.

"There is someone out there." I stated "Do I open the door, sir?" I asked

"Yes, but be quick." The Doctor moved to be facing the opening of the door.

I undid the bolt, and opened the door a crack.

"Let me in!" I resisted the push on the door from the terrified man on the other side.

"Calm down please." I said, feeling the urge to just make him calm instead of telling him to be so.

"Their coming, please, let me in!" I

"Illishai! Let him in." The Doctor ordered, I obeyed, opening the door fully.

The man who rushed in was about 400 and something and was dressed completely in black. I shut the door and bolted it. He was panting, leaning on a bench as he caught his breath.

"Thank you." He said once he could speak.

"Are you alone?" The Doctor asked him.

"No, well… I wasn't." he swallowed, "My assistant, George… He- he was taken." He said.

"I'm sorry."

The man looked up to the Doctor, "Is-Is he… Did they…"

"No." he shook his head, "They didn't kill him, only displace him in Time."

"Oh." The man nodded, "That's good, he was a good kid."

Only displaced in Time? And this man was not upset about it? I thought I'd come to understand these people a little better… Apparently not. How could a temporal displacement be counted as inconsequential? Granted, death would be a more important fear since they only had a single life, but still…

A few minutes of silence passed, everybody worked at their own pace, Emma was tapping away at her keyboard in a corner, I helped the others barricade the door.

"It's all well and good that we're protecting ourselves and all." Said the older man, who was seated on the last bench, "But don't you think we should get out of here?" he asked.

And a good question it was indeed. I, for one, was all for an all-out raid outside, but I was also the only one with a weapon. Everyone, including me, turned our gaze towards the Doctor, who found himself at loss for answers.

"There's a passage to the crypt from here." Proposed the black-clad man. "And the crypt itself is connected to the catacomb."

"Catacomb?" the Doctor questioned.

"Well… we call it that, it's more of a dark and musty tunnel really." The man shrugged "It goes underneath the block, I think. I never took much interest in it." he stopped is sentence there, from the wave of grief that suddenly overcame him, and therefore also me, his protégé had been the one with the interest in the underground passage. I really should think of paying closer attention to my shields. These people were just so… contagious when they got emotional.

"Can you guide us through?" I asked

"Up to a point, after that, you're on your own."

I nodded, "Sir." I begged audience with the Time Lord, he granted it to me, "I propose I go ahead and investigate the tunnel. I do not think the Angels will simply leave, and we need an escape route."

He mulled my proposition over for a moment, then nodded, "Good plan. Take the pastor with you, you'll need his guidance."

"Yes, sir." I nodded sharply, and set about my mission.

"Mister." I tapped the pastor on the shoulder, "The passage."

"This way." He beckoned me to follow.

He led me to the back of the chapel where stood another one of those large booths.

"Can you help me move it?" he asked

"Of course." I placed myself next to him as he pushed. I took the load for him and moved the booth a half pace or so across the floor.

The pastor stared at me for a moment, I smiled at him, he dismissed whatever thought was running through his head. He stepped in front of me and pushed open a small panel, which swung inwards to reveal a dark passage that appeared to start with a set of stairs.

It was very dark in there, and while I could probably see for about a few hundred paces inside, it would last long. And the pastor would need more light than I.

"My Lord."

"Yes?"

"We need a torch, do you have one?"

"Hold on." I watched him rummage in his pockets, "Here, catch!" he tossed his prize over.

I caught it in one hand and examined it, it wasn't standard issue. Or any kind of issue I recognized, I pressed a button on the light and a light shone from the other end. It was functional, that's all that mattered.

"Come on." I told the pastor as I ducked down into the passage, shining the white light ahead of me.

"My name's Martin by the way." He said, as he followed me. "Yours?"

"Illishai." I answered.

He had been right about the state of the tunnel, dark, old, and humid. I smelled the damp soil around me as I descended the stone stairs that were slick with condensation water from the air around.

"Not exactly warm down here…" the pastor, Martin, commented. I didn't feel the need to answer him. "Should've brought my coat." He continued, I sighed and wondered if he was going to prattle on like this the entire way.

I made my way down the steps, shining the light around me, the walls were also stone, but bits had crumbled off leaving the raw earth beyond exposed. The steps were narrow and steep and wound around, they now faced a heading ninety degrees from their original one.

I was glad I was in front, the pastor would surely have fallen. At least in my current position, I could break his fall. I wouldn't do me any good to lose the guide, albeit a talkative and slightly annoying one.

"So where are you from?" he tried to make small talk, we ended up in a large room, I swept the light around, taking in the size of the place. I was at least seventy square paces, seven on one side, ten on the other.

I lump formed in my throat, "Nowhere in particular." I said instead.

"Oh." I suspected he nodded, but he was behind me. "I'm from Germany." He sounded wistful, a quick check to his emotional status through my shields confirmed that he was indeed nostalgic. "Beautiful place… I miss it. Came here to study you know? Theology. Ended up being a pastor… I guess you never know where your life is going to lead you."

"No, you don't." I agreed, but left it at that. I would rather silence at this point that his more than slightly annoying chatter. Broken statues adorned the walls in alcoves, or not, some stood apart, laying atop large pedestals. So this is what these people did with their dead, encased them in stone, leaving marble and granite likenesses above their decaying bodies… I could see the poetry in it, stone being eternal and so on, but I still found the idea somewhat repulsive. A funeral pyre and a roaring flame, now that was a proper death ceremony, not eternal constancy that served as a façade for decay. That was almost terrifying.

"You don't talk much do you?" he said after a while.

"No." I answered. There were four exits to this room that I could count.

"Shame. George always talked. Constantly talking he was, never stopped." He kept on going, on his own, "Talking is good you know, bring out ideas, discussion is the best way to solve problems in my mind. People don't do that enough, talk-"

"And you do it too much Pastor Martin." I interrupted him, "Which way do we go?" I asked him

"The far door." He answered, pointing across the room.

"Thank you." I said, breathing a sigh of relief that at least he knew where he was going.

I strode across the room, noticing the different colored stone slabs that I was walking on. I managed to make out a few pieces of lettering, though I was pretty sure they weren't English words, though the symbols were the same.

A shiver crawled up my spine when I realized that those were probably more graves, huddled up against each other. I was walking over putrefied bodies; that was just disgusting… Why would these people even do this?

Not soon enough for my comfort, I reached the door, it was wood, it looked heavy. I pushed the handle, and gave the door a light thump with my shoulder. It didn't move.

"It's locked, do you have the key?"

"Yes, wait a minute." He started fishing in his pocket and pulled out a very large bundle of keys. I felt my eyes widen at the sight of the incoherent mass of jangling metal.

I watched him thumb through them, some were new and shone brightly in the lamplight, others were dull and rusted, they all varied in size and shape, no two were the same.

"Here we are." He announced triumphantly as he brandished an old key whose metal had long since gone brown with age.

He stepped in front of me, I moved to let him insert the key into the lock, the mechanism inside clunked heavily. By the sound of it, it was a very primitive system, but, to its credit, it was so far out of date that most lock-picking devices I knew would've been rendered useless.

The door creaked open, revealing the darkened space beyond. I shone my light down into it.

"Oh." I uttered flatly at the sight of the seemingly endless corridor in front of me. "This is not going to be pleasant."