Home, the long way round [1]

Chapter 15 - The Big Bang

Then Rory pointed at Amy, being serious. "Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?"

"Yeah, probably, if I had the time." The Doctor comment.

"The time?" Rory asked getting angry. Maddie stepped aside from him.

"All of creation has just been wiped from the sky." The Doctor told him rudely. "Do you know how many lives now never happened? All the people who never lived? Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe."

Before Maddie could say something, Rory punched the Doctor. "She is to me!"

The Doctor fell and stood up. "Welcome back, Rory Williams! Sorry. Had to be sure." He moved with his mouth, to be sure that everything that was in place. "Hell of a gun-arm you're packing there. Right, we need to get her downstairs. And take that look off your plastic face. You're getting married in the morning."

~00~

The Doctor placed Amy in the Pandorica. "So you've got a plan, then?" Rory asked to him.

"Bit of a plan, yeah." The Doctor replied to him. "Memories are more powerful than you think, and Amy Pond is not an ordinary girl. Grew up with a time crack in her wall. The universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestenes took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for, like you. Not just your face, but your heart and your soul." He put his hands on her face. "I'm leaving her a message for when she wakes up, so she knows what's happening." Then he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the Pandorica and sealed Amy inside it.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?" Rory exclaimed.

"He's saving her, Rory." Maddie replied to him.

"This box is the ultimate prison." The Doctor added. "You can't even escape by dying. It forces you to stay alive."

Rory looked confused. "But she's already dead."

"Well, she's mostly dead." The Doctor pointed at the Pandorica. "The Pandorica can stasis-lock her that way. Now, all it needs is a scan of her living DNA and it'll restore her."

"Excellent explanation, Doctor." Maddie muttered, the Doctor had heard her.

Before he could say something, Rory asked to him. "Where's it going to get that?"

"In about two thousand years." The Doctor replied to him, then he grabbed River's vortex manipulator from her bag and strapped it to his wrist.

"She's going to be in that box for two thousand years?" Rory asked to him.

"Yeah, but we're taking a shortcut." He held up his wrist. "River's vortex manipulator. Rubbish way to time travel, but the universe is tiny now. We'll be fine."

"So hang on." Rory looked at him confused. "The future's still there, then. Our world."

"A version of it. Not quite the one you know. Earth alone in the sky." The Doctor told him. "Let's go and have a look." Maddie put her hand on his wrist. "You put your hand there. Don't worry. Should be safe."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Rory told him.

"She'll be fine. Nothing can get into this box." The Doctor shrugged it off as Maddie looked at the men, totally understanding Rory.

"Well, you got in there." He comment.

"Well, there's only one of me." The Doctor told him, sarcastically. "I counted."

"This box needs a guard. I killed the last one." Rory told him.

"No." The Doctor told him, sternly. "Rory, no. Don't even think about it."