Episode 5: Angels and Demons part 4

Back in Gertrude’s cottage, Gertrude began to stir.
“Doctor she’s waking up!” Georgia exclaimed.
“Good I knew she would,” the Doctor replied, rushing over to Gertrude’s side.
“What’s going on?” Gertrude said opening her eyes.
“You are in your cottage, I’m Georgia, do you remember me?” Georgia said.
“Yes, I do,” Gertrude answered, “And he’s the Doctor, you and him travel in time, what happened to me?”
“Your memories got mixed up,” the Doctor said, “Half the time you were the real you, and the rest of the time you were an old woman who had always lived in this cottage.”
“This isn’t a cottage,” Gertrude replied, “It’s my spaceship, chameleon technology.”
“The TARDIS has a chameleon circuit,” the Doctor began.
“But he won’t fix it,” Georgia sighed.
“I thought you liked the look of the TARDIS,” the Doctor asked.
“I do, but it would be more exciting if it changed its looks now and again,” Georgia explained.

“TARDIS?” Gertrude asked.
“That’s right,” the Doctor replied.
“Then you must be a Time Lord,” Gertrude said, “The last of the Time Lords is here in my spaceship! I can’t believe it. Then you must’ve been there at the Last Great Time War.”
“How do you know about the war?” the Doctor asked.
“Because I was there,” Gertrude answered, “I saw Daleks and Time Lords fighting each other and other species cowering before the might of the two great races. I was following Rack; he planned to destroy the galaxy using Time Lord and Dalek technology together, but then he saw me and recognized me as a Time Agent, so he ran off.”

“Did you follow him?” Georgia asked.
“That’s my job, given to me by the Agency,” Gertrude explained, “To follow him and find out what he was doing. I’ve seen you before.” Gertrude stared at the Doctor and narrowed her eyes.
“At the Time War?” the Doctor asked.
“No, at the Spidership,” Gertrude replied.
“What?!” Georgia exclaimed.
“I followed him to Earth in 2010, to Portsmouth he released a prisoner, lowered shields on a Magnet Warrior ship, and many other things too, but I didn’t really know what he was doing,” Gertrude explained, “Or why he was doing it.”

“Did you go to the Spidership after you visited the Last Great Time War?” the Doctor asked.
“Yes, it was much later when I found out what had happened in the war,” Gertrude explained, “Two great civilizations gone forever. But Doctor, I don’t blame you for what you did, you may have the saved the Universe. I’m so sorry.” Georgia looked quizzical at Gertrude then realized the Doctor was crying. Georgia comforted him then the Doctor stood up.

“This Rack, he’s the Devil?” the Doctor asked.
“Don’t be silly, he just thinks the Devil,” Gertrude explained, “But he uses telepathy to send signals into people’s heads to make them think he’s the devil, that’s why those goblins serve him.”
“They chased me through the woods, why did they do that?” Georgia asked.
“They probably thought you were one of my associates,” Gertrude replied, “It turns out that you are one of the Doctor’s.”

“What kind of things has Rack done?” the Doctor asked pacing up and down.
“He’s blown up volcanoes, killed countless people,” Gertrude said then after a while added, “Brought down the government on his own planet, Scar.”
“That’s the spooky witchy planet,” Georgia said.
“That’s the reason the planet is so witchy and spooky,” Gertrude said, “Before the government collapsed it was a nice, sunny, peaceful planet, similar to Earth, apart from the hags, vampires, devil-men and other strange creatures.”
“Did the goblins come from there?” the Doctor asked.
“No, they came from the planet Gornfragilon,” Gertrude said, “Rack sent a meteor towards it so that the volcano would erupt and kill the planet’s inhabitants. Rack saved a number of goblins so he could use them to do his bidding.”

“But why would Rack come here? Why does he do these things?” the Doctor asked.
“I think he once entered a competition on his own planet,” Gertrude explained, “It was a fortune telling competition, the person who’s prophecy came true won. The most far-fetched prophecy won out of the ones which came true. Now Rack is certainly gifted with prophecy, but sometimes he likes to interfere, to make sure the prophecy comes true. He predicted his governments fall in that very week and it did. He won the competition, but soon investigations were made into a mysterious person who had caused the government to fall by mixing up documents, flooding government bases, giving illnesses to top politicians and all kinds of things.”

“So Rack was caught,” Georgia said.
“Yes,” Gertrude said, “But from then on any prophecy he made, he made sure it came true. Rack predicted his escape from jail and he did. He also liked to make sure other predictions came true too. I’m not sure what he’s doing here though.”
“Completing a prophecy?” Georgia asked, “But what prophecy?”
“What if he knew Conner was going to turn up here?” the Doctor asked, “Rack predicted Conner’s death, so maybe he’s making sure that prediction came true.”
“But how could Rack know Conner had survived?” Georgia asked, “And what’s that got to do with Red Riding Hood?”
“Red Riding Hood?” Gertrude asked, “I’ve got Scar’s version of that on board.” The Doctor and Georgia looked at each other and Gertrude walked over to a book shelf and took a dark book off it and gave it to the Doctor.
“Well the story starts normally,” the Doctor observed, “But here the wolf’s eyes flash Red and when Red turns up at the house she looks around goes to the kitchen meets her Granny, who she questions with the usual stuff, then her eyes flash Red and Red runs off but she is caught by a pack of wolves who eat her up. Her father comes along and kills the wolves but then rushes into his mum’s house and finds the other wolf, who he kills and then he releases Granny from her cupboard.”

“That book was written after the Government fell,” Gertrude explained, “The moral of the story: don’t let your daughter wander alone in a forest and get eaten by wolves.”
“Lovely,” Georgia commented sarcastically. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The Doctor turned to face it and Gertrude backed up against the wall.

“It’s them!”Gertrude exclaimed in a squeaky voice, “Rack and his minions.”
“I don’t think Rack would knock on the door,” the Doctor replied.
“Doctor, I don’t think you should answer it,” Georgia said worriedly.
“Look, if they’ve got Conner then how else are we going to find his camp then get captured?” the Doctor asked.
“We could teleport there, I have the coordinates in my teleport,” Gertrude said hurriedly as the Doctor opened the door to find Dalen Eriksen.


Meanwhile, Thomas Auckland entered his front door to find Red’s hood missing, Red’s shoes were missing too. Thomas ran upstairs to find nobody there. The door creaked open downstairs and Thomas froze and grabbed his axe. Was it the wolf? Or something else? Thomas descended the stairs and came face to face with his wife.
“Thomas there you are,” Helga Auckland exclaimed.
“There you are, I see you went out,” Thomas replied, “Is Red with you?”
“I thought she’d gone out with you,” Helga said.
“Where is she?” Thomas said, “Maybe she went in the forest after Mr. Smith”.
“You must go after her,” Helga insisted, “There are things in there which could harm her.”
“She might be in the village though,” Thomas pointed out, “Too bored to sit around here but too scared to go into the forest. Maybe she has gone round to Eleanor’s or to see another friend”.
“I’ll go look round the village, you go look in the forest,” Helga said, “You are the best tracker around, if anyone can find her, you can”.


Back in Gertrude’s house Dalen had explained that she did not wish to be left in the village with no idea about what had been going on. Dalen had then introduced herself to Gertrude to whom she had thought to be mad.

“Well your dress is slightly mad-looking,” Dalen was saying, “Perhaps you could purchase one from my shop. It’s a Draper’s.”
“Look enough about clothes,” the Doctor said, “You came here to find out what was going on.”
“But…” Dalen began but stopped after she saw the look on the Doctor’s face.

“Now if we want to find out about Rack, it’s Rack we must see,” the Doctor concluded.
“We need to go there to save Conner too,” Georgia said.
“And find out what’s going on with the little girl,” Gertrude added.
“What, do you mean Red?” Dalen asked.
“Yes, Red Auckland,” Gertrude replied.
“She’s a sweet girl,” Dalen said.
“To the point,” the Doctor said in a tired voice, “We need to get to Rack’s base in the forest. Gertrude you said you had a teleport.”
“Yes, I do have a teleport, well a Time Agent’s vortex manipulator,” Gertrude replied.
“Like Captain Jack,” the Doctor said to himself, “I can use my sonic screwdriver to teleport us to the right place.” Gertrude handed the Doctor the vortex manipulator and a note which had an 8 figure grid reference on it. The Doctor pressed his sonic screwdriver to the teleport and it made a high pitched buzzing sound.

“Everybody put their hand on here,” the Doctor ordered, placing his hand on the manipulator. Georgia put her hand on the Doctor’s, Gertrude put her hand on Georgia’s and Dalen put her hand on Gertrude’s. The Doctor pressed the manipulator and they vanished from the cottage.


Meanwhile, at Rack’s camp the bonfire had been lit and it burned brightly. The Goblins poured out of the caves and surrounded the bonfire, chanting loudly. Ziap, Yap and Kap marched out of the cave proudly carrying Conner, who was struggling.

“Stop struggling boy,” Yap snarled.
“I still think it’s unfair that we have to eat him,” Ziap said, “I am a vegetarian!”
“Exactly, nobody else is a vegetarian,” Yap pointed out, “Like Rack says you should let other people have what they want.”
“What’s a vegeterrarain?” Kap asked, “Is it some mutated Goblin? Is Ziap mutating?” Ziap and Kap sighed as they dropped Conner on a kind of rocky stage and tied him to it. Rack marched out of the cave and all the Goblins began to chant “Rack! Rack!”

“Welcome Goblins!” Rack snarled.
“Yay he didn’t call us minions!” Kap exclaimed.
“Shut up!” Yap snarled.
“This boy is the first ever to survive me!” Rack exclaimed, “He escaped not because he was brave.”
“Yeah well humans aren’t brave,” Kap whispered to the other Goblins.
“You aren’t brave,” Ziap snapped.
“He escaped because of the Timespan Prison ship!” Rack announced, “He has escaped me once, he will never do so again! He will now be drawn and quartered!” The Goblins cheered and clapped.

“You can’t do this!” Conner yelled, fearing his life was now at his end.
“Oh yes I can!” Rack said in a sing-song voice. Rack raised the knife and the Goblins cheered even harder.

“Hello,” the Doctor said stepping out from the trees, followed by Georgia, Gertrude and Dalen.
“Doctor!” Conner exclaimed.
“Who?” Rack asked with a look of rage in his face.
“Me,” the Doctor answered, “And whatever you are doing, I advise you stop.”
“Oh you do, do you?” Rack snarled, “And what authority do you have?”
“I am a Time Lord,” the Doctor informed Rack and Rack’s look of astonishment faded.


Red was walked through the woods carefully; she was near to her Grandmother’s house now. She heard a strange chanting noise and wondered what it was. She stopped and turned in the direction of the chanting. She walked in the direction of the chanting noise, it was growing dark now, but there was a strange flickering light ahead of her. It looked like a fire of some sort. As she kept walking the chanting got louder then stopped. She peered through a gap in the trees and saw a crowd of strange creatures. And there was the Doctor.

“What are you doing here?” the Doctor asked.
“This is Rack the devil-like soothsayer,” Conner called, “He thought I was dead and now he’s sacrificing me!”
“Yes I know that bit,” the Doctor replied, “I mean what’s going on with Red and her Granny.”

“Well I found this book and of course normal people would think that it’s fiction!” Rack explained, “But it is not, because Red is here and her Grandmother and the wolf with the glowing red eyes, my eyes can glow Red. When Gertrude arrived here and I followed her…”
“Hey I followed you here!” Gertrude said.
“But you got here first,” Rack snarled.
“Only by mistake, I knew that you would come here.”
“But how did you know I would come here.”
“I was tracking your movements.”
“But you got here first!”
“Yes but-“

“Anyway, can we just find out what Rack is doing please!” the Doctor said loudly.
“Yes sorry,” Gertrude said.
“Well I’m fulfilling what happens in this book!” Rack said.
“But you can’t kill Red!” Georgia exclaimed.
“Kill me!” Red shrieked stepping out from behind the tree.
“Ah little Red Riding Hood,” Rack said.

“Look I’ll give you an offer,” the Doctor told Rack, “If you don’t kill Conner then-“
“You can’t kill Red either!” Georgia snapped.
“I wasn’t planning to,” the Doctor replied.
“I’ll give you the Earth ending, which is quite similar except the fact that Red doesn’t get eaten by wolves,” the Doctor said, thinking quickly, “Then you don’t kill Conner.”

“How about I make you an offer,” Rack snarled, “I kill Conner and don’t kill Red or I kill Red and don’t kill Conner.”
“But she’s only a little girl,” Dalen exclaimed.
“But she’s only a little girl,” Ziap, Yap and Kap said in a whining voice.
“Your choice Doctor,” Rack said, “Red or Conner, a little girl or your companion!”

TO BE CONTINUED!!!