EVELINA LOOKED ON THE VERGE of death itself. She was pale, sweating and weak. Her mother seemed less than bothered. After her collapse in the main room Donna and Valarie had volunteered to help Metella carry her to her room. Her room was oddly shady, and cool in temperature. Donna stood back with Metella who watched her sleeping daughter.

"She didn't mean to be rude." Metella sighed, referencing the little show of announcing who the trio really were back in the main room. The encounter left them unsettled, to say the least. "She's ever the sweetest girl, but when the gods speak through her-."

"What is this?" Valarie asked, who had been standing over Evelina next to her bed. She lifted her left arm, showing a peculiar rash on it. "What's wrong with her arm?" She looked to Metella, not thinking highly of her parenting skills at the moment.

"An irritation of the skin. She never complains, gods bless her. We bath in olive oil every night." Donna approached looking at her arm. It looked cracked and grey in the rash.

"What is it?" Donna asked Valarie in a hushed voice. Valarie ran her fingers over the spot, feeling nothing but cold, hard, rock. She looked up slowly and then at Dona.

"It's stone."

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When the girl woke, she seemed to be better. Donna was modeling a purple shawl, enticing a laugh from Evelina. Donna raised an eyebrow at her.

"You aren't supposed to laugh, thanks. But Val, what do you think?" She asked, noticing Valaire's distant gaze out of her window. "The Goddess Venus?" Donna smiled. Valarie shook her head, chuckling and looking back out. "Oi, don't you laugh at me either. I'm sure those overalls aren't exactly in roman fashion." Donna said, making Evelina laugh again. Poor girl probably never heard the word overalls before.

The cool night air brushed against her exposed skin. She closed her eyes for a second, letting it push the short and baby hairs that had escaped her pony tail to move freely. It was weird. The cold air was like that Valarie had felt at home in her childhood during summer nights. How odd that Pompeii was so calm before it would be smothered in molten rock, ash, and unimaginable death.

"Evelina, what do you see happening tomorrow?" She overhead Donna asking. She partially turned her head, arms still crossed.

"The sun will rise, and the sun will set. Nothing happens." Evelina replied after thinking.

"Look, don't tell the Doctor because he will kill me but, I got a prophecy of my own." Valarie knew part of that was more directed at her. Evelina lifted her hands to cover her eyes in an odd fashion.

"You've got to hear me out. Evelina, are you listening?" Donna pleaded.

"There is only one true prophecy." Evelina seemed to be falling back into her soothsayer mindset. Valarie turned to face them, just now seeing the eyes painted on the back of Evelina's hands.

"Evelina, please." She butted in. She would be a liar if she said she didn't share in the same guilt Donna did. She wanted to warn them, at least. She approached the girl. "Evelina, after tomorrow Pompeii won't exist. It'll be a relic of destruction. That mountain is going to explode." She pointed out the window. Evelina shook her head, hands still covering her eyes.

"This is false prophecy. You are a false prophet."

"She is telling the truth." Donna added. "It sounds strange but please, just leave town with your family for us." Donna pleaded more. Valarie shook her head, resting a hand on Donna's shoulder.

"I can't do all of this. I'm gonna go take a walk. If he asks, I'm on a walk."

"A walk where?"

"You act like I have the layout of Pompeii committed to memory." Valarie snorted, leaving Donna with the oracle-in-training. She left the room, out into the main room and out into the night air. She couldn't take it. Looking upon a family doomed to perish and there was nothing she could do.

She had met tons of people who were dead. Timmy for their time hiding from the family had to be dead or near one hundred in the present day - but this was different. This wasn't a man growing old, but a family, a town perishing a terrible death. Valarie had seen the pictures of Pompeii, the families immortalized while holding each other in terror.

She was snapped from her thoughts by the sound of footsteps behind her. She looked over her shoulder, and upon seeing no one continued up the path along the streets she had walked prior. Then she heard it again. The shuffling of gravel and dirt. She stopped and turned on her heels.

"Hello?" She called. She heard it again. "Who is that?" It moved louder and faster. "Donna? Doctor? This isn't funny!" She felt the hair on her neck stand up. From the shadows the source of the sound emerged - a chicken.

She sighed a breath of relief, and and turned back to resume her walk. Her body nearly collided with a figure behind her. Valarie found herself facing a woman, face covered in white paint and black lines around her eye. She wore all red, with a red hood resting above her black hair. Valarie gasped. Before she could move back two sets of hands were on her.

A hand covered her mouth, opened wide and ready to scream.

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"Caprace of stone, held together by eternal magma." The Doctor scratched the back of his head. In just a couple of hours he had found so much about what was going on - something that linked Lucius, the sisterhood, Evelina and all oracles to a circuit board he had found with Quintus. And, he had just been chased through the streets by some magma-lava-stone thing. It laid at his feet after a bucket of water had been used to destroy the fire within it. "But I reckon it's a foot soldier." He commented to himself.

"Well, if aliens are playing in Pompeii it's a good thing we stayed." He turned his head side to side. No one but the family was around him. "Donna?" No, he knew he had just seen her a second ago. "Donna?" He called louder.

"Val?" He opted instead, now realizing that he hadn't seen her when they entered the home again. "Val?" He called again. Panic set in. They were no where in sight.

"Donna! Valarie!" He cried out.

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Valarie had been tied to a pole when the sisters brought Donna in. The sisterhood was the group Evelina swore herself to, but they didn't seem the best. Her eyes lit up at seeing her friend.

"Donna!" She half smiled. Sure the Doctor wasn't present, but together the two had enough will power to force themselves to freedom. Her knees rubbed against the hard floor, rock fragments cutting them and scrapping them. Geez, did these people not sweep?

"Val, oh my god." Donna sighed as they forced her down, and began to tie her. "So, how do you plan for us to get out of this one?" She blatantly asked. Valarie looked around.

"Well, I'm not sure." She tried to find anything she could. "Sometimes I try to think like the Doctor does," she looked around, eyes wide and soaking it all in. She looked back to Donna with the same eyes. "But I give myself a headache trying to think that fast." She laughed. The sisters approached her, untying her and raising her to her feet. They drug her towards a stand of stone with furs laying the top of it.

"Donna?" She called out, as the five sisters worked to lay her on the slab and restrain her hands and feet. They then spread out, joining hands with the rest of the oracles. There had to be ten of them in total.

"Woah now. I'm not against this but aren't you gonna give me flowers first?" Valarie half laughed. She strained against the rope keeping her wrists and ankles bound.

"Val." Valarie, now restrained and surrounded, rolled her head to face Donna. "I think that's an alter." Donna said, her voice full of worry.

"An alter?" She asked, eyebrows furrowed. Her light brown hair had came undone and now splayed around her head. "You mean like one they use for-" She heard something being unsheathed to her left. Her head snapped to that direction.

The dark haired sister stood to her left, a faint, wicked smile on her lips. She held a large dagger. Well, if you could call it that; the dagger easily had to be over a foot long in length.

"The false prophet will surrender both her blood, and her breath." The sister announced.