A shout from the Doctor broke the silence and startled everyone. He proceeded to confirm everyone’s suspicions that he was insane when he began running around the room like a crazy man, then hugged Nico and kissed his cheeks. Nico growled at the contact, though his heart skipped a beat.
“That was better than I had dreamed! It’s a miracle! You’re an angel!” the Doctor shouted, twirling Nico around.
Nico finally managed to push himself away from the grasp of the Doctor, and leveled his sword at him. “Alright, Doctor, you’ve got some explaining to do, so do it now!” he growled as the other demigods revealed their weapons.
Eustace quickly gathered swords from somewhere and handed them to Peter, Edmund, Jay, and Jesse, who then took up fighting stances themselves, providing quite a surprise to the demigods. But they quickly recovered, and threatened the Doctor yet again.
The Doctor raised his hands. “Alright, I’ll explain if you put your weapons away, every single one of you.” There was a pause, but once Peter’s group put away their weapons, the demigods complied to the Doctor’s wishes. Only when all the weapons were put away did he speak again. “Thank you. Now, to answer your questions. First of all, I am a Time Lord, and you are in my time machine, the TARDIS. I’m from the planet Gallifrey, and I’m protecting this planet. The Pevensies, Eustace, and Jill are all from the 1940’s; everyone else is from this time.”
“Say what?” Nico blurted, as he glanced at the Pevensies.
“They don’t seem like they could be from the 1940’s,” Jason said slowly, as he glanced over at Nico to make sure he was alright.
“Oh, but we are. The war was over when the Doctor found us,” explained Lucy.
“Yes, and I’m afraid the Weeping Angels are drawn to you because of it,” the Doctor said, as he continued to flip switches. He also stole some glances at both Nico, who was standing there looking paler than usual (if that was possible), and Leo, whose eyes were sparkling with delight at the machinery around him.
“The Weeping Angels? You mean that statue that came out of the TV?” Percy asked.
“They’re only statues when you look at them, but yes, that was one of them,” replied the Doctor.
“One of them? How many more are there?” asked Jason.
“Oh, about five more left now,” responded the Doctor nonchalantly.
“What exactly are they, then, if they’re not statues?” asked Annabeth.
“They’re actually creatures from another world and are nearly as old as the universe. They move faster than you can imagine, so don’t think that nothing will happen if you just blink; they can kill in the blink of an eye. Long story short, there’s an object emitting time energy in Venice, and we have to get there before the Angels do. If there’s enough energy there for them to feast on, they could literally turn off the sun. And we’re here,” said the Doctor as they felt a little bump which caused everyone to stumble. Well, everyone, that is, except for the Doctor, who was halfway to the door.
“Ah, beautiful day in Venice, don’t you think?” the Doctor shouted to them from the outside.
The two groups swarmed out from the TARDIS, glancing warily at each other. Nico especially seemed troubled by the recently revealed information, but there was something else gnawing at his mind.
The Doctor broke into his thoughts with, “Let’s go find that time machine, or whatever it is. No time to waste. Let’s split up into groups of, say, about four, and search the city. Be back at the TARDIS before dark!” And with that he was off, with Leo and Edmund following in his wake.
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