Shooting Star // Eternalian Chronicles Book 1

47) .The TARDIS Bang.

(Edited)

.The Big Bang.

~Catherine Wood~

I had landed in the Pandorica's chamber. As soon as I realized where I was and what had happened, I tore the bracelet off my wrist and threw it to the ground. Why would she do that? River could have come with me. It was a vortex manipulator for goodness sake. Now she was gone and there was no way to save her. Tears filled my eyes. That idiot! She was gone. I still had no way of knowing for sure so I couldn't tell Amelia and Rory. Yet. I shouldn't have to tell them anyway. They would be better off not knowing. 

"Catherine?" a voice asked. 

I turned. 

Rory stalked into the chamber, tears running down his cheeks though he looked determined rather than sad. "What are you doing here? I thought you were with River." 

I wiped tears from my eyes, hoping he didn't see them.

"Not anymore. She's ... she's gone," I said. "But it doesn't matter. Where's Amelia?" He seemed just as sad. Was she dead? Something happened? "Rory?"

"It's a long story," he murmured. "But I have to get the Doctor out. He gave me his sonic. I ... don't know how to use it, but he's in the Pandorica and we have to help get him out." 

I furrowed my eyebrows. "If he's in the Pandorica, how did he give you the sonic?"

"That's a long story as well." 

Holding out my hand, Rory placed the sonic in my hand. Fiddling with it for a moment, I then pointed it at the Pandorica. After a second, the box moved, beginning to unlock. This time it was a lot faster. I assumed because it was unlocking from the outside this time. Slowly, the Pandorica's door opened. A figure was inside. The Doctor looked at me and Rory in surprise. When I was sure the Pandorica was open, I moved inside it and used the sonic to undo the Doctor's bonds. Still, his surprised look stayed. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Last thing I heard, you and River were stuck in the TARDIS. Where is she?" 

I swallowed thickly, hardly wanting to explain, but knowing that I had to. "She gave me a vortex manipulator, sending me here. She could have come, but she didn't." 

"She gave me one too. How did you get one?" 

I shrugged, wiping another tear from my cheek and helping the Doctor stand.

"I don't know. She just gave it to me. She could have come, but she didn't. Now it's too late. She was supposed to be my Keeper."

"Hey, hey hey," the Doctor tried, calming me and wrapping his arms around me to pull me into a comforting hug. "There's still hope, yet. Don't give up." 

I smiled sadly, pulling away from the man. "Thanks." 

"But, now to the topic at hand, how did you get my sonic?" 

I raised the stick in the air.

"You gave it to me," Rory told him. 

The Doctor took his own out of his pocket. "No I didn't." 

I touched the end of the sonic I held to the end of the Doctors. When it sparked, he gasped. 

"Temporal energy," he guessed. "Same screwdriver at different points in its own time stream. Which means it was me who gave it to you. Me from the future. I've got a future. That's nice. That's not." He pointed across the room where a Dalek stood, frozen in stone. 

"What happened here?" I asked. 

"History has collapsed. Whole races have been deleted from existence. These are just like after-images. Echoes. Fossils in time. The footprints of the never-were."