Unrepentant | DOCTOR WHO [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

thirty seven | amy's choice

After opening the door to the TARDIS and looking down to see that the TARDIS was standing on a flower bed, the Doctor let Annabelle step out of the TARDIS first before he quickly walked out of it after her and slammed the door shut behind himself as he tried to keep himself from ruining any more of the flowers.

It wasn't until he was no longer standing on the flower bed and was now standing just in front of it that he said, "Rory."

With a mere wave of his hands, Rory said, "Annabelle, Doctor."

With a quick point of his fingers, the Doctor told him, "I've crushed your flowers."

In turn, Rory said to him, "Oh, Amy will kill you."

As he took a step closer to Rory, the Doctor asked him, "Where is she?"

Rory said to him, "She'll need a bit longer."

With a scoff, Annabelle said, "What did she do, break a bone or something?"

As he let out a scoff of his own, Rory said to her, "No, she didn't break a bone."

While Annabelle only blankly stared at Rory in response to the tone of voice that he used when talking to her, the Doctor said, "Whenever you're ready, Amy."

It was then that stepped out of the house and made her way over towards them.

And in response to seeing Amy, the Doctor yelled with a point of his finger, "Oh, wahey! You've swallowed a planet."

While Annabelle simply turned to the Doctor and proceeded to stare up at him with a blank look on her face, Amy said, "I'm pregnant."

As he took a step closer to Amy, the Doctor told her, "You're huge."

Amy replied, "Yeah, I'm pregnant."

As he looked Amy over, the Doctor said, "Look at you. When worlds collide."

Amy said to him, "Doctor, I'm pregnant."

After quickly looking between Amy and Rory and wrapping his arms around Amy, the Doctor said, "Oh, look at you both. Five years later and you haven't changed a bit, apart from age and size."

As she rubbed her stomach, Amy said to him, "Oh, it's good to see you, Doctor." Then she looked over at Annabelle and said to her, "You too, Annabelle."

Shortly after Annabelle had only raised her eyebrows at Amy, the Doctor asked Amy, "Are you pregnant?"

After Rory had only let out a chuckle, the Doctor patted the side of Rory's face and Amy started to walk back towards the house, Annabelle told Rory, "I don't like your hair."

In turn, Rory said to her, "Well, I don't like the fact that– after not seeing each other in five years– the first thing that you do is insult my hair."

With a mere tilt of her head, Annabelle asked him, "Is it really hair, though? It looks more like a colossal mistake to me."

In response to her words, Rory only let out a sigh, while Annabelle simply smirked to herself before she walked after Amy and the Doctor with her head held high and her hands folded behind her back.

* * *

While Annabelle silently eyed her surroundings with narrowed eyes, the Doctor said, "Ah, Leadworth. Vibrant as ever."

In turn, Rory said to him, "It's Upper Leadworth, actually. We've gone slightly upmarket."

The Doctor asked them, "Where is everyone?"

Amy told him, "This is busy." After the Doctor had taken a quick glance back behind him, Amy said to him, "Okay, it's quiet. But it's really restful and-and healthy. Loads of people here live well into their nineties."

The Doctor replied, "Well, don't let that get you down."

Amy said to him, "It's not getting me down."

After the three of them had sat down onto a bench and Annabelle sat on a separate bench all on her own, the Doctor said, "Well, I wanted to see how you were and Annabelle said that she was growing tired of hearing me talk about how often I wanted to come back and visit you, so here we are. And you know me, I don't just abandon people when they leave the TARDIS." While Annabelle only quickly turned her head to look over at the Doctor with her veins on display and a bit of a scowl on her face, the Doctor said, "This Time Lord's for life. You don't get rid of your old pal, the Doctor, so easily."

Then the Doctor looked over at Annabelle and said to her, "And for the last time, Annabelle, I didn't abandon you. I always planned on coming back for you– just like I said the last thousand times that we've talked about this. Granted, it shouldn't have been six months after the fact, but at least I came back."

Annabelle replied, "I would've rather you didn't leave me on my own at all."

Shortly after the Doctor had only let out a sigh in response to her words, Amy glanced over at Annabelle and saw the fact that her veins were on display.

From what she could remember the Doctor telling her the day that she met Annabelle, one of the few reasons that Annabelle would have for her veins coming onto display was if she was angry about something.

And so– in an attempt to keep Annabelle from losing control of her anger and killing any of the people that lived in Upper Leadworth– she turned to the Doctor and asked him, "The two of you came here by mistake, didn't you?"

The Doctor replied, "Yeah, bit of a mistake. But look, what a result. Look at this bench. What a nice bench. What will they think of next?" After repeatedly looking between Amy and Rory, he said to Amy, "So. What do you do around here to stave off the... you know..."

At the same time that Amy said 'boredom', the Doctor said, "...self-harm?"

With a nod of his head, Rory told him, "We relax." After the Doctor had mouthed something to himself, Rory said, "We live. We listen to the birds."

In turn, Amy said, "Yeah, see? Birds, those are nice."

Then Rory said, "We didn't get a lot of time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS days, did we?"

Then the Doctor said, "Oh, blimey! My head's a bit, ooh... Uh, no, you're right, there wasn't a lot of time for birdsong back in the good old..."

It wasn't long after each of their heads had started to lower or drift to the side that Annabelle's own head had fallen back against the back of the bench with her eyes closed and her arms limply lying on either side of her body.

It wasn't long after each of them had fallen unconscious that the Doctor opened his eyes and said, "...days. What? No, yes, sorry, what?" After finally standing up on his feet and seeing the rather confused looks on the faces of Annabelle, Amy and Rory, the Doctor said to Amy and Rory, "Oh, you're okay. Oh, thank God! I had a terrible nightmare about you two."

After making his way back over towards the controls, the Doctor said, "That was scary. Don't ask, you don't want to know." As he made his way over towards Amy and wrapped his arms around her, he said, "You're safe now."

In turn, Amy said to him, "Oh, okay."

Then– with a snap of his fingers– the Doctor said, "That's what counts." After turning his back on Amy and Rory, he said, "Blimey, never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really. I'm getting on a bit, you see. Don't let the cool gear fool you. Now, what's wrong with the console?"

While Annabelle only blinked to herself with furrowed eyebrows as she stared down at the spot that she was once lying down in for reasons unknown to her, the Doctor said, "Red flashing lights... I bet they mean something."

It was then that Rory told him, "Uh, Doctor, I also had a kind of dream thing."

Then Amy said, "Yeah, so did I."

Then Rory said, "Not a nightmare, though, just, um... We were married."

In turn, Amy said to Rory, "Yeah. In a little village."

Rory said to her, "A sweet little village, and you were pregnant."

Amy replied, "Yes, I was huge. I was a boat."

Then Rory said, "Annabelle over there told me that she didn't like my hair."

With a mere shrug of her shoulders, Annabelle said, "I completely stand by what this dream version of me had said. Because your hair was– quite literally– the most terrible thing that I have ever seen in my life, and I've seen many things that I would consider to be terrible."

While the Doctor repeatedly looked between Annabelle, Amy and Rory with furrowed eyebrows, Rory looked between Amy and Annabelle as he asked them, "So you had the same dream, then? Both of you did? Exactly the same dream?"

In turn, Amy asked him, "Are you calling me a boat?"

With a quick turn of his head, Rory said, "And, Doctor, you were visiting. With Annabelle."

Then Amy said to him, "Yeah, yeah, you came to our cottage. Both of you did."

Rory asked the Doctor, "How can we have had exactly the same dream? It doesn't make any sense."

Then Amy said to the Doctor, "And you had a nightmare about us. What happened to us in the nightmare?"

The Doctor told them, "It was a bit similar in some aspects."

Rory asked him, "Which aspects?"

The Doctor replied, "Well, all of them."

Amy asked him, "You had the same dream?"

The Doctor said to her, "Basically."

Then Rory said to him, "You said it was a nightmare."

In turn, the Doctor asked them, "Did I say 'a nightmare'? No. More of a really good mare."

Just when he was about to say something more on the matter, he suddenly stopped when Annabelle said, "So, let me get this straight, Doctor." When the Doctor had only let out a sigh in response to her words, she said to him, "So, like me, Amy and Rory over there—"

Then Rory said, "Hey!"

After Annabelle had quickly looked over at Rory with narrowed eyes, Rory looked away from her and over towards another part of the TARDIS, shortly before Annabelle said to the Doctor, "Like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by that one over there..." After Rory had only let out a sigh of his own in response to her words, Annabelle asked the Doctor, "You had the same exact dream as the three of us– the two of us visiting Amy and Rory in some village, Amy being pregnant, Rory having his hair look like it did for whatever reason he had for having it like that– and your automatic assumption is that it was nothing more than a nightmare?"

When the Doctor didn't respond to her question, she said to him, "Well?"

After a couple seconds of silence, he said, "Yes."

In response to his words, Annabelle's veins had come onto display and her hands had tightly clenched into fists before she sped over towards him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

This alone got the Doctor to quickly raise his hands and say to her, "Now, Annabelle, let's calm down before this gets out of hand."

With a nod of her head, Annabelle asked him, "Calm down?" When he only nodded his head, she yelled, "Calm down?!"

Once more, he said to her, "Yes."

As she moved her hand up towards his collar and yanked him down to meet her height, she said to him, "You know very well of the nightmares that I had– nightmares that I had told you about prior to your choice of abandoning me– and you dare to compare this dream that we've all shared with one another to a nightmare?"

With a sigh, the Doctor started to say to her, "Annabelle—"

In turn, Annabelle said to him, "Don't Annabelle me, not after your choice of comparing an insufferable dream to a nightmare. That was no nightmare. And I would know, seeing as how I was forced to see his face and hear his voice and laughter in my sleep for months before you abandoned me. So, don't you dare start to assume that you know what is or isn't a nightmare when I was the one that had to suffer in my sleep for months, while you—"

With a shake of her head, Amy asked the Doctor, "Who is she talking about, Doctor?"

With a quick turn of her head, Annabelle told her, "Who I'm talking about is none of your concern, Amelia Pond, so it would do you well if you kept your mouth shut and didn't ask questions about things that you don't even have the slightest clue about." When Amy opened her mouth to say something more, she suddenly stopped when Annabelle had quickly sped towards her and said to her, "Unless you'd rather I shove my hand into your chest and rip your heart out, I'd suggest that you keep your mouth shut, otherwise your poor fiancé here will have no choice but to become a widow– even without getting the proper chance to marry you. Imagine how disappointing this would have to be for him– listening to you tell him about how he had nothing to worry about in regard to me as long as the Doctor was around to stop me, only for him to helplessly watch as I kill the love of his life right in front of him."

It was then that the Doctor said to her, "Annabelle—"

With a scoff, Annabelle asked, "Why am I not surprised that the Doctor is far more concerned for the human that he had chosen as a mere replacement for me than he ever was for me?"

With a quick shake of his head, the Doctor told her, "Annabelle, she isn't your replacement."

As she tilted her head and silently eyed Amy with her veins on display, Annabelle replied, "Isn't she? After all, you came across her when she was a child and then found her again in the year 2008 before coming back for her again– two years after leaving her on her own. And you did all of that before you ever thought of coming back for me– the Original vampire that's done nothing but cause you trouble since the day that I first met you and you kept me from killing that worthless human." As she turned her back on Amy, Annabelle said to him, "I'm starting to think that he was right when he said that you loved playing with the girls from this planet."

As she slowly started to walk towards the Doctor with her body's shaking worsening with each step that she took towards the Doctor, she said, "But I feel like he should have specified that the only species from this planet that you enjoy having your fun with are the human girls. You enjoy taking them around the universe and to many points of history until you've had enough of them, or they grow tired of traveling all over with you and want to either settle down with someone or have a life of their own that doesn't involve you." After coming to a halt in front of him, she told him, "I considered you to be my friend, and still you tossed me aside and– instead of coming straight back for me once you had completed your regeneration– you went straight for Amelia Pond and took her with you before you ever thought of coming back for me."

With a shake of his head, the Doctor said to her, "That's not true, and you know it, Annabelle."

With a mere tilt of her head, she asked him, "Do I? Do I really? Do I truly know that you were going to come back for me, or are you just saying that to make yourself feel better about the fact that the Annabelle Mikaelson that you picked up in your TARDIS isn't the same one that you had left behind?"

With yet another shake of his head, the Doctor said to her, "Annabelle, this isn't you, alright? You're better than this. You aren't the person that he made you into. You are so much more than that, okay? You have to believe me when I say that you and the Master are nothing alike."

As she tilted her head just a bit more to the side, she asked him, "Am I really better than this, though?"

With a quick nod of his head, he replied, "Yes, you are. You are so much better than the person that you're being at this very moment."

With a scoff, Annabelle told him, "No, I'm not. And even if I was, it isn't as if you'd know anything about it. As far as I'm concerned, you only know the statistics of everything that happens from point A to point B– nothing ever past that. You don't know the things that go on in my head or just how desperately I feel the urge to tear into the throats of any human that I see, or how many other beings we meet in our travels that I want to kill just for the thrill of it. You don't understand the thrill that I feel when I'm holding someone's heart in my hands or the excitement that comes along whenever I kill someone in any other means– whether it be by snapping their necks, ripping their arms off of their bodies and beating someone to death with it, sacrificing them for my own sake, ripping someone's head off of their body or simply just pushing them off of the tallest building that I can find."

As she stared up at him and repeatedly looked between his green eyes, she asked him, "Why do you think that I played my game for so long? I mean, yes, it helped with the grief and anger that I'd felt about the losses that I'd endured, but it was also for the fun of it. Do you understand how fun and exciting it is, knowing that you hold someone's life in your hands and that there isn't a damn thing that they can do about it? It was quite entertaining watching them beg for me to grant them mercy and let them live to see another day, while also giving me these empty promises about how they wouldn't tell anyone about what I did to the ones that they loved or one of the many strangers that they passed as they walked up and down the streets of the villages and cities that they had each lived in."

In a whisper, the Doctor said to her, "Annabelle—"

As she grabbed onto the collar of his shirt, once more, she asked him, "But do you know what I haven't enjoyed in my long life?" When the Doctor only stared down at her with his eyebrows furrowed, she told him, "It's the fact that you left me just like you left Captain Jack Harkness long before I ever started to travel with you and Martha Jones. You were my friend, and you left me. You left me at a time that I would have needed you the most, and the only reason that you have for that is because you didn't want me to revert back into the person that I was before I met Donna Noble."

After repeatedly looking between his eyes once more, she said to him, "I'm not an imbecile. I know that you only had me with you long enough so that you could see me get back to the person that I was before what he did to me. And when I didn't, you gave up on me. Just like nearly every single person that has ever been involved in my life has given up on me. I don't know why I thought that you would be any different, compared to the majority of my siblings that only ever turned to me when they needed something from me." As she silently eyed him, she told him, "I know why you really picked me up, Doctor."

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "Of course you know why I picked you up. I told you why I did it."

With a shake of her head, she replied, "No, you didn't. You only came up with a lie about why you came back for me." While the Doctor simply insisted that it wasn't true, she told him, "The truth of the matter for why you came back for me is because you missed your friend and you wanted her back, but she isn't going to come back. Not now, and not ever because the friend that you had is gone and has no intentions of ever coming back, if it means being replaced and abandoned whenever you deem me worthy enough to leave behind."

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something more to her, only to stop when he saw that a tear was rolling down the side of her face.

With a sigh, he said to her, "Oh, Annabelle."

With a shake of her head, she took a step back from him and said to him, "You can keep talking about whatever it is that you desire with your precious humans, but don't talk to me because I would rather not hear another word come out of your mouth and be directed towards me. You can even keep me on your TARDIS, if you like. But that doesn't mean that I will continue to talk to you and act as if the six months that I had spent on my own had never happened." When the Doctor had reached forward to grab onto one of her arms, only to stop when she told him, "I might have tolerated you grabbing onto me like that during the time that I'd spent traveling with you, but no more, Doctor. If you ever grab me like that ever again, I won't just rip my arm out of your grasp. Instead, I will rip your arm off of your body and beat you to death with it until you either die permanently without a chance to regenerate or each of your regenerations run out with each hit that you will receive from it, and you are nothing more than a bloodied and bruised corpse with barely any recognizable features on you."

Then– without giving the Doctor a chance to respond to her words– Annabelle sped towards another part of the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor to sigh to himself at the fact that Annabelle was finally and truly closing herself off from him.

And it was all because he left her on her own for six months and during a time that she needed him the most.

* * *

With a quick nod of his head, Rory said, "Sorry. Nodded off, stupid. God, I must be overdoing it. I was dreaming we were back on the TARDIS and Annabelle over there almost killed the Doctor." Then he looked back at Amy and asked her, "You just had the same dream, didn't you?"

Then Amy asked Rory, "Back on the TARDIS, weren't we just saying the same thing?"

Then Rory asked her, "But we thought this was the dream, didn't we?"

Amy replied, "I think so. Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?"

While Annabelle silently watched with narrowed eyes as Amy and Rory moved away from the bench, Rory asked, "Doctor, what is going on?"

Then Amy asked the Doctor, "Is this because of you? Is this some Time Lordy thing because you've shown up again?"

In turn, the Doctor said to them, "Listen to me. Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear or feel."

Rory told him, "But we're awake now."

The Doctor replied, "Yeah. You thought you were awake on the TARDIS, too."

As she looked around herself, Amy said, "But we're home."

The Doctor said to her, "Yeah, you're home. You're also dreaming. Trouble is, Rory, Amy, which is which? Are we flashing forwards or backwards? Hold on tight." After taking several steps past them, he said, "This is going to be a tricky one."

* * *

While Annabelle stared up at the top of the room in the TARDIS that she was inside of with her eyes narrowed and a scowl on her face, she heard the Doctor say, "This is bad. I don't like this."

Then she heard a thud, followed shortly by three separate yells.

Then she heard the Doctor say, "Never use force. You just embarrass yourself. Unless you're cross, in which case, always use force."

Amy asked the Doctor, "Shall I run and get the manual?"

The Doctor told her, "I threw it in a supernova."

Then Amy asked him, "You threw the manual in a supernova? Why?"

The Doctor replied, "Because I disagreed with it. Stop talking to me when I'm cross."

In turn, Rory asked him, "Okay, but whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?"

The Doctor said to him, "Well, if we were dreaming about the future..."

Amy told him, "Well, of course we were. We were in Leadworth."

Then Rory said, "Upper Leadworth."

The Doctor said to them, "Yeah, and we could still be in Upper Leadworth dreaming of this. Don't you get it?"

Amy replied, "No, okay, no, this is real. I'm definitely awake."

The Doctor retorted, "Yeah, and you thought you were definitely awake when you were all elephanty."

Then Amy said to him, "Hey, pregnant."

The Doctor told her, "And you could be giving birth right now. This could be the dream. I told you, trust nothing we see or hear or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true."

Then Amy asked the Doctor, "Do you mean like when Annabelle tried to kill you before we showed up back here?"

With a sigh, the Doctor said to her, "Anything but that. Focus on anything that doesn't have to do with me or Annabelle."

While Annabelle closed her eyes and tried to calm the anger that she could feel quickly building up inside of her, Rory said, "Okay, well, we're in a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside."

Then Amy said, "With a bow-tie-wearing alien and a murderous and unkillable Original vampire."

Then Rory said to Amy, "You see, she's supposed to be unkillable, but she said that she'd rather her father kill her than turn me into a vampire, so I'm not so sure about the unkillable part of that title." While the Doctor had only let out a sigh in response to their words about Annabelle, Rory said, "So maybe 'what rings true' isn't so simple."

In turn, the Doctor said, "Valid point."

It was then that the sound of the TARDIS powering down could be heard, which got Annabelle to open her eyes and tilt her head from where she continued to lay on the floor of the room that she was in.

It wasn't long afterwards that she heard the Doctor say, "It's dead. We're in a dead time machine."

Then– just like that– the sound of birds could be heard once more.

Then the Doctor said to Amy and Rory, "Remember, this is real, but when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels."

In turn, Amy said to him, "It is real. I know it's real."

Then Rory asked him, "And what about Annabelle? I mean, Amy said she can hear what we're saying when we're across the room from her. Can she hear what we're saying right now? Can she hear what you're telling us?"

Before the Doctor even had the chance to respond to Rory's question about Annabelle, the four of them had woken back up in Upper Leadworth– only in a completely different location that time around.

While the Doctor took a couple of steps away from Amy and Rory and Rory simply glanced over at Annabelle, who was staring at nothing in particular with a blank look on her face from where she laid on the ground, Amy said, "Okay. This is the real one, definitely this one. It's all solid."

The Doctor replied, "It felt solid in the TARDIS, too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it."

After both Amy and Rory got up from the bench that they were sitting on and saw the Doctor wave his hand around in front of his face, Rory asked him, "Uh, what are you doing?"

The Doctor told him, "Looking for motion blur, pixilation. It could be a computer simulation." After pinching the sides of Rory's face, he said, "I don't think so, though."

It was then that an elderly woman with gray hair and a yellow shirt started to walk by them as she said to Rory, "Hello, Doctor."

Simultaneously, both Rory and the Doctor had greeted the elderly woman before the Doctor turned to Rory and asked him, "You're a doctor?"

With a nod of his head, Rory said to him, "Yeah. And, unlike you, I've actually passed some exams."

As he started to walk away from Rory, the Doctor said, "A doctor, not a nurse. Just like you've always dreamed. How interesting."

Rory replied, "What is?"

The Doctor told him, "Well, your dream wife, your dream job, probably your dream baby. Maybe this is your dream."

Rory said to him, "It's Amy's dream, too. Isn't it, Amy?"

Amy said to Rory, "Yes. Course it is, yeah."

With a point of his thumb, the Doctor asked them, "What's that?"

With a shake of her head, Amy replied, "Old people's home."

After turning around and looking at each of the elderly that were staring back at him, the Doctor said to them, "You said everyone here lives through their nineties. There's something that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick."

After both Rory and the Doctor had run into the building, Amy said, "Oh. Can we not do the running thing?"

In response to Amy's words, Annabelle quickly got up and sped over towards her before appearing in front of Amy.

With furrowed eyebrows, Amy said, "Annabelle?" When Annabelle only stared up at her with narrowed eyes before holding out a hand towards her, Amy asked her, "What is it?"

With a scoff, Annabelle said to her, "Just take my hand already, Amelia Pond."

As she eyed Annabelle, Amy asked her, "What for?"

Instead of answering Amy's question, Annabelle simply grabbed her hand and started to carefully walk her into the nursing home– leaving Amy to frown to herself as she wondered just why Annabelle was being so careful with her at that exact moment, but not any time before that.

* * *

While Rory silently eyed the way that Annabelle carefully lead Amy into the room after the possible dream that he had where Annabelle had threatened to rip Amy's heart out of her chest right in front of him, an elderly woman said, "Oh, hello, Dr. Williams."

Then another elderly woman said, "Hello, Rory, love."

In turn, Rory said to her, "Hello, Mrs. Poggit. How's your hip?"

Mrs. Poggit replied, "A bit stiff."

Then the Doctor said, "Oh, easy, D-96 compound, plus... No, you don't have that yet, forget that."

As she pointed a finger over at the Doctor, Mrs. Poggit asked Rory, "Who's your friend? A junior doctor?"

With a slight nod of his head, Rory said to her, "Yes."

While Annabelle only silently eyed the way that Rory was just staring at the Doctor, Mrs. Poggit asked the Doctor, "Can I borrow you? You're the size of my grandson."

As he went to put on the sweater that Mrs. Poggit was holding up for him, the Doctor said, "Uh, slightly keen to move on. Freak psychic schism to sort out." Then– after fully putting the sweater onto himself– the Doctor leaned forward and asked Mrs. Poggit, "You're incredibly old, aren't you?"

Shortly after Annabelle saw each of the elderly turn their attention over towards the Doctor, the sound of a bird tweeting could be heard.

It wasn't long afterwards that the four of them found themselves waking up in the TARDIS yet again, shortly before Annabelle heard Amy say from the main part of the TARDIS, "Okay, I hate this, Doctor. Stop it. Because this is definitely real, it's definitely this one. I keep saying that, don't I?"

Then Rory said, "It's bloody cold."

The Doctor told them, "The heating's off."

Then she heard Rory say, "The heating's off."

Then the Doctor said to them, "Yeah. Put on a jumper. That's what I always do."

Then Amy asked the Doctor, "And what about Annabelle? Won't she get cold?"

The Doctor replied, "No, she won't. She's a vampire, she doesn't get cold."

In turn, Rory said, "Of course she doesn't." While Annabelle only let out a sigh as she opened her eyes once more and simply blankly stared up at the ceiling that stood above her, Rory said to the Doctor, "Uh, yes, sorry about Mrs. Poggit. She's so lovely though."

The Doctor told him, "I won't believe her nice old lady act if I were you."

In turn, Amy asked him, "What do you mean 'act'?"

Then the Doctor said, "Everything's off, sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down, so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, something is overriding my controls."

It was then that an unfamiliar voice could be heard saying, "Well, that took a while. Honestly, I'd heard such good things. 'Last of the Time Lords', 'The Oncoming Storm', 'Him in the bow tie'."

Then she heard the Doctor ask the unknown voice, "How did you get into my TARDIS? What are you?"

In turn, the man asked, "What shall we call me? Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord."

Then the Doctor said to the Dream Lord, "Nice look."

The Dream Lord replied, "This? No, I'm not convinced. Bow ties?" After a couple seconds of silence, he said, "Interesting. I'd love to be impressed, but, um, Dream Lord, it's in the name, isn't it? Spooky, not quite there."

After Annabelle heard Amy let out a yell, the Dream Lord said, "And yet, very much here."

In turn, the Doctor said to him, "I'll do the talking, thank you." Then he asked Amy, "Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?"

Amy replied, "Um, Dream Lord. He creates dreams."

Then the Doctor said, "Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks."

Then the Dream Lord asked the Doctor, "And what about the gooseberry here or the girl that's hiding in one of your many rooms here? Do either of them get a guess? Or is the girl too angry with you to even bother to do that sort of thing?"

After a couple seconds of silence, Annabelle heard Rory say, "Uh, listen, mate, if anyone's the gooseberry around here, it's the Doctor."

The Dream Lord replied, "Oh, well, there's a delusion I'm not responsible for."

Then Rory said, "No, he is. Isn't he, Amy?"

Then the Dream Lord said, "Oh, Amy, have to sort your men out. Choose, even."

Amy told him, "I have chosen. Of course I've chosen." After only a few seconds of silence, she said to Rory, "It's you, stupid."

In turn, Rory said to her, "Oh, good, thanks."

Then the Dream Lord said to her, "You can't fool me. I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy. Blimey! I'd blush if I had a blood supply or a real face."

Then the Doctor asked the Dream Lord, "Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?"

The Dream Lord replied, "Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground."

In turn, the Doctor asked him, "Am I?"

The Dream Lord told him, "If you had any more tawdry quirks, you could open up a tawdry quirk shop. The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student. I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are." Then he asked, "Where was I?"

Rory started to say to him, "Um, you were..."

The Dream Lord replied, "I know where I was." Then he told them, "So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here in the time machine and there in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's fake. And just to make it more interesting, you're going to face in both worlds a deadly danger. But only one of the dangers is real."

Then he said, "And, no, your little vampire friend– or rather your former friend– is not one of the dangers. Tweet, tweet, Time to sleep." And while Annabelle found herself starting to close her eyes once more, the Dream Lord said, "Oh. Or are you waking up?"

* * *

While the four went to stand back up onto their feet, the Dream Lord quickly walked into the room and said, "Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad. Look at this X-ray. Your brain is completely see-through." Then he turned to the Doctor and told him, "But then, I've always been able to see through you, Doctor."

While Annabelle silently eyed the Dream Lord with her head tilted to the side, Amy turned to him and asked, "'Always'? What do you mean 'always'?"

While choosing to ignore Amy's question, the Dream Lord said, "Now, then. The prognosis is this." While the Doctor sat down into the chair that Mrs. Poggit was originally sitting in, the Dream Lord told them, "If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality."

Rory asked him, "What happens?"

The Dream Lord replied, "You die, stupid. That's why it's called reality."

While Annabelle snorted to herself in response to his words, Amy asked him, "Have you met the Doctor before? Do you know him?" Then she turned to the Doctor and asked him, "Doctor, does he?"

The Dream Lord said to her, "Now, don't get jealous. He's been around, our boy. But never mind that. You've got a world to choose." Then he turned to the Doctor and said to him, "One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Take two and call me in the morning."

As soon as the Dream Lord had disappeared in front of them, Rory said, "Okay, I don't like him."

Then Amy crossed her arms over her chest and asked the Doctor, "Who is he?"

The Doctor replied, "I don't know. It's a big universe."

Amy asked him, "Why is he doing this?"

The Doctor said to her, "Maybe because he has no physical form. That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel."

After the Doctor had quickly taken the sweater back off of himself, Rory asked him, "What does he mean 'deadly danger', though? Nothing deadly has ever happened here. I mean, a bit of natural wastage, obviously."

As he turned to look back at the three of them, the Doctor said, "They've all gone. They've all gone."

It was then that the Doctor quickly ran out of the room with Rory close behind him– leaving Annabelle to walk after them as fast as she could, while also making sure not to harm Amy and her unborn child in the process.

* * *

As he quickly walked after the Doctor, Rory asked him, "Why would they leave?"

Then Amy asked the Doctor, "And what did you mean about Mrs. Poggit's 'nice old lady act'?"

With a quick turn of his head, the Doctor told them, "One of my tawdry quirks. Sniffing out things that aren't what they seem. So, come on, you two, let's think."

With furrowed eyebrows, Amy asked him, "Us two? What about Annabelle? She's here, too."

The Doctor replied, "Well, according to the possible dream of us being back in the TARDIS, she said that she doesn't want me to talk to her anymore, so it's better safe than sorry." While Amy and Rory only glanced over at Annabelle, the Doctor clapped his hands together as he said, "Let's get our focus back on the task at hand, shall we? The mechanics of this reality split we're stuck in... Time asleep exactly matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."

Then Rory said to him, "And we're all dreaming the same dream at the same time."

In turn, the Doctor said to him, "Yes, sort of communal trance, very rare, very complicated. I'm sure there's a dream giveaway, a tell. But my mind isn't working because this village is so dull. I'm slowing down like you two have."

It was then that Amy said, "Ooh. Oh. Ow." Then she looked over at Rory as she said to him, "Really."

While Rory simply said 'uh' and Annabelle silently eyed Amy and the way that she was holding onto her stomach, Amy proceeded to let out a scream before she said, "It's coming."

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "Oh, God. Okay." Then he said to Rory, "You're a doctor, help her."

With a quick turn of his head, Rory yelled, "You're a doctor!" When Amy had let out another yell, Rory looked back at Amy and told her, "It's okay, we're doctors. What do we do?"

With furrowed eyebrows, Annabelle just watched as the Doctor crouched down in front of Amy and held out his hands underneath her, shortly before Amy said, "Okay, it's not coming."

As he quickly stood back up, the Doctor said, "What?"

Amy told the Doctor, "This is my life now, and it just turned you white as a sheet. So, don't you call it dull again, ever. Okay?"

Then the Doctor said to her, "Sorry."

In turn, Amy said to him, "Yeah."

Then Amy pushed her way past the Doctor, which resulted in both Annabelle and Rory to quickly walk after her– leaving the Doctor to simply stand in place for a moment before he ran after the three of them.

It wasn't long afterwards that they'd reached the playground and Amy and the Doctor had sat down on two separate swings.

Annabelle, on the other hand, sat at the top of the slide with her arms crossed over her chest and her head tilted to the side, shortly before the Doctor said, "Now, we all know there's an elephant in the room."

With a quick turn of her head, Amy told him, "I have to be this size, I'm having a baby."

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "No, no. The hormones seem real, but no. Is nobody other than Annabelle going to mention Rory's ponytail?"

With a groan, Rory said, "Oh, not you, too."

With a mere tilt of her head, Amy said, "Kind of explains why him and Annabelle were such good friends before whatever it is that happened between them."

While Annabelle only blankly stared at Amy with her head tilted just a bit more to the side, the Doctor said to Amy, "You hold him down, I'll cut it off."

Rory said to the Doctor, "This from the man in the bow tie."

The Doctor replied, "Bow ties are cool." Then he quickly stood up from the swing and took a few steps forward before he said, "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't hire Mrs. Poggit as a babysitter. What's she doing? What does she want?"

It was then that the sound of a bird tweeting could be heard, which got Amy to say, "Oh, no, here we go."

* * *

While Annabelle had yet again blankly stared at the ceiling of the room that she was in and then proceeded to simply fold her arms behind her head, she heard Amy say to the Doctor, "It's really cold. Have you got any warm clothing?"

In turn, the Doctor asked her, "What does it matter if we're cold? We have to know what she is up to. Sorry. Sorry. Um... There should be some stuff down there, have a look."

It wasn't long afterwards that she could hear Amy, Rory and the Doctor each moving around in different parts of the TARDIS.

Then she heard a lot of clattering, shortly before she heard the Doctor say in a whisper, "I know that you said that you don't want me to talk to you directly after what I did to you, but since we aren't face-to-face right now, I do believe that it is safe to assume that you won't kill me for saying this. I am sorry for leaving you behind like I did, but I truly did believe that doing so would have helped– rather than have you with me and risk the chance of you reverting back to how you were before you started to allow yourself to feel things again. And I might not know what it is exactly that you've done and what you've dealt with during the six months that I was away from you, but I do know that you aren't the closest to being okay with what he did to you. If you were, then you wouldn't be behaving like you have since I picked you up before I took us to go and help Winston Churchill against the Daleks– just like I'm sure that you wouldn't have threatened to beat me to death with one of my arms." After letting out a sigh, he asked her, "And I'm sorry that I'm not the Doctor that you expected to see when I came back for you, but shouldn't it matter that I came back for you, instead of leaving you wondering just what exactly had happened to me?"

After letting out yet another sigh, he whispered, "I wasn't lying when I said that you were still my friend because you are. I've considered you a friend far longer than you were made aware of your care for me, and it kills me that you won't talk to me and that you won't let me in and tell me what exactly it is that you're going through and what sort of troubles that you've faced during the months that I was away from you. And I hope that you don't hate me for saying this as well, but you were wrong." While Annabelle only furrowed her eyebrows in response to her words, he told her in a whisper, "It wasn't you who didn't deserve my friendship, it was the other way around. I didn't deserve the friendship that I had with you, and I still don't now. I mean, how can I? For someone whose reputation is known for solely caring about only herself and her family, you are the most caring and selfish person that I have ever met. Well, not exactly selfish, since you're only seen as selfish because of that reputation of yours, but still. Contrary to everyone's beliefs, you are probably one of the few truly selfless people on your planet. And although it might solely be because of just how lowly you think of yourself, it doesn't change the fact that you care a lot more than you would let others believe because of your sole belief that allowing others to know that you care is a form of weakness."

As he let out a sigh, he said in a whisper, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It doesn't matter. What does matter is just how willing you are to care about others once you actually open yourself up to the idea of caring about them– just like you did with myself, Martha, Jack and Donna. In just two years, you managed to grow to care about four different people that you would have otherwise killed or at least attempted to kill, if it weren't for the fact that you were traveling with me. You even managed to care about Donna, despite everything that the Master had done to you. You were so damaged because of what he did to you, and you still found it within yourself to care about Donna Noble– the only person that actually got you to feel something, which was something that I had personally failed at before you even met Donna. And you cared so much that you had me stake you, just because you knew that I couldn't bear to let you see me regenerate after what the Master did to you. You were so fragile at the time, Annabelle. That instance in which you let me stake you was the most fragile that I have ever seen you, which showed me that you are capable of caring about others– you just refuse to because of your fear that if you open yourself up to caring about someone, they'll get seriously hurt or even get killed in some manner. And you don't have to be scared to let yourself care about another person. You might not want to care about me anymore, but you still have Amy and Rory, who have both been kind to you– each in their own little ways– despite their knowledge of you and seeing how you threatened to end both my life and Amy's life here in this TARDIS. Now, whether or not this part of it is actually real doesn't matter. What does matter is that– no matter how angry you might be with me or with the world– you're never alone. So long as you remember that you have friends like Martha Jones or Jack or Amy and Rory or even me for that matter, you will never truly be alone, no matter what anyone else says on the matter."

After letting out yet another sigh, he said, "That was all that I needed to say to you and that is all that I will continue to say to you until you find it within yourself to care about me again because I won't force you to listen to my countless apologies about how I left you on your own for six months and didn't come back for you until after I'd taken Amy traveling with me. I am not your brother. I won't give you an ultimatum of talking to me or receiving a dagger to the heart. The choice of whether or not you allow yourself to care about me again is entirely up to you." Then he was silent for a couple of seconds before he said, "And thank you for giving me the two years that I had in making a friend out of you, Annabelle Mikaelson, because I will not forget a single moment of it for as long as I shall continue to live."

In response to his words, Annabelle only frowned to herself as she thought over his words before she closed her eyes and chose to ignore the conversation that Amy and Rory were having with one another– hoping that she wouldn't have to hear anything more until she would inevitably find herself being forced to listen to the sound of the tweeting birds and then find herself back inside of Upper Leadworth.

* * *

After quickly running up the stairs, the Doctor asked, "Where are the children?"

Rory said to him, "Don't know. Playtime's probably over." While the Doctor quickly ran towards each of the piles of dust that were at different parts of the ground, Rory said, "Ah! You see? This is the real one. I just feel it."

Then he turned to Amy and asked her, "Don't you feel it?"

Amy told him, "I feel it both places."

Rory said to her, "I feel it here. It's just so tranquil and relaxed. Nothing bad could ever happen here."

As she quickly walked away from Amy and Rory, Annabelle said, "Something bad could happen anywhere, no matter how tranquil and relaxed it seems."

With a nod of his head, Rory said to Annabelle, "Thank you for that."

While Annabelle simply chose to ignore Rory and silently eye the piles of dust that lied on the ground, Amy asked Rory, "Not really me, though, is it? I mean, would I be happy settling down in a place with a pub, two shops and a really bad amateur dramatic society? That's why I got pregnant, so I don't have to see them doing Oklahoma!" Then she turned to the Doctor and asked him, "Doctor, what are you doing? And what are those piles of dust?"

After letting the dust fall out of his hand and straightening his back, the Doctor said, "Playtime's definitely over."

In turn, Amy said, "Oh, my God!"

With a shake of his head, Rory asked the Doctor, "What happened to them?"

After only turning his head and seeing a line of elderly people walking up a street, the Doctor took a quick couple of steps forward, shortly before he said, "I think they did."

Amy said to the Doctor, "They're just old people."

The Doctor replied, "No. They're very old people." Then– as he quickly made his way down the stairs– he said, "Sorry, Rory, I don't think you're what's been keeping them alive."

After the three of them had gone down the stairs, the Doctor started to walk towards the group of the elderly, while the Dream Lord took a couple of steps over towards the Doctor as he said, "Hello, peasants! What's this? Attack of the old people? Oh, that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream, hasn't it?"

Then he turned to Amy and asked her, "What do you think, Amy? Let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS!" Then he turned to the Doctor and said to him, "You first."

Then he looked over at Annabelle as he said, "Although, that would prove to be a bit difficult to do, since Annabelle here is an immortal being. The only thing that she can be killed by is this."

It was then that Annabelle's eyebrows had furrowed when the white oak stake had suddenly appeared in his hand before she asked the Dream Lord, "How did you get that?"

In turn, the Dream Lord asked her, "How do you think?"

While Annabelle had simply tilted her head in response to his words, the Doctor turned to the Dream Lord and said to him, "Leave them alone!"

The Dream Lord said to him, "Do that again. I love it when he does that. Tall, dark hero 'Leave them alone'!"

Then Rory said, "Just leave them!"

With a mere turn of his head, the Dream Lord told Rory, "Yes, you're not quite so impressive." Then he turned to Amy and asked her, "But I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?"

Amy said to him, "Shut up! Just shut up and leave me alone and you can take that stick that you're holding out of here, while you're at it."

While Annabelle silently looked between Amy and the Dream Lord with narrowed eyes, the Dream Lord said to Amy, "But listen, you're in there. Loves a redhead, our naughty Doctor. Has he told you about Elizabeth I? Well, she thought she was the first..."

With a quick turn of his head, the Doctor said to him, "Drop it, drop all of it. I know who you are."

The Dream Lord replied, "Course you don't."

In turn, the Doctor said to him, "Course I do. No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do."

After only smirking at the Doctor, the Dream Lord said to him, "Never mind me. Maybe you should worry about them."

It was then that the Doctor quickly looked over at the group of the elderly that was still going towards them before looking back at the Dream Lord, only to see that he was gone.

Then– once more– he looked back at the group of elderly people, just like Annabelle, Amy and Rory did.

Then Rory said to them, "Hi."

Then Amy said, "Hello."

As he took a couple of steps forward, the Doctor said, "Hello! We were wondering where you went. To get reinforcements, by the look of it. Are you alright? You look a bit tense."

As he took a couple of his own steps forward, Rory said, "Hello, Mr. Nainby."

Then the Doctor said, "Rory."

With a turn of his head, Rory told him, "Mr. Nainby ran the sweet shop. He used to slip me the odd free toffee." After Mr. Nainby had picked up Rory by the front of his shirt and held him off of the ground, Rory asked him, "Did I not say thank you?"

Then Rory found himself being thrown further back by Mr. Nainby before he asked, "How did he do that?"

The Doctor said to Rory, "I suspect he's not himself. Don't get comfortable here. You may have to run. Fast."

With a groan, Amy asked the Doctor, "Can't we just talk to them?"

It was then that each of the elderly had started to open their mouths wide enough to show that a green-looking eye was inside of their mouths, which got Annabelle to tilt her head and stare at the eye and the Doctor to start to scan Mrs. Pogitt, while Amy said, "There is an eye in her mouth!"

The Doctor replied, "There's a whole creature inside her. Inside all of them. They've been there for years, living and waiting."

Rory said, "That is disgusting! They're not going to be peeping out of anywhere else, are they?"

It wasn't long afterwards that Mrs. Pogitt quickly leaned her head forward and a green mist was coming out of the eye, which got the Doctor to yell, "Run!" Then he said to the elderly, "Okay, leave them. Leave them. Talk to me. Talk to me."

While Amy and Rory simply ran away from them, the Doctor said, "You are Eknodines, a proud, ancient race. You're better than this. Why are you hiding away here? Why aren't you at home?"

The Eknodine inside of Mrs. Pogitt started to say to him, "We were driven from our..."

Then the Doctor said, "Planet by upstart neighbors."

Then the Eknodine inside of Mr. Nainby started to say, "So we've..."

Then the Doctor said, "Been living here inside the bodies of old humans for years. No wonder they live so long, you're keeping them alive."

The Eknodine inside of Mrs. Pogitt told him, "We were humbled and destroyed. Now we will do the same to others."

The Doctor replied, "Okay, makes sense, I suppose. Credible enough. Could be real."

After the Doctor had taken a couple of steps back, a man in a bicycle and an orange vest started to walk past Annabelle and the Doctor as he said, "Morning."

Then Mrs. Pogitt turned to the man and let out a yell before the very same green mist had come out of the eye and hit the man, which resulted in the man releasing the bicycle and falling onto the ground as he turned into mere dust.

While Annabelle only raised her eyebrows in response to seeing the man turn into dust, the Doctor turned to the Eknodines and told them, "You need to leave this planet."

* * *

While the Doctor stumbled his way over towards a butcher's shop, Annabelle had managed to get into the home of one of the many people that had been turned into dust by the Eknodines before closing the door, locking it and pressing her back into it.

It wasn't long after she'd pressed her back into it that she heard an all too familiar voice ask her, "How long, Annabelle, do you think that it will take until those Eknodines find out that you're hiding in here and come after you? Hmm?" When Annabelle only squeezed her eyes shut in response to the voice, the voice said, "You see, I'm thinking that you have about five, maybe ten minutes until they come running here. Well, not really running, since they are currently inhabiting the bodies of a bunch of worthless humans– and old humans of all things. You'd think that an alien species that the Doctor had described as a proud and ancient race of– what you would call– aliens would know better than to think that it would be a good idea to be possessing the elderly of all things, but I digress. It's not as if it's the most important thing at the moment, not like this whole reunion of ours is. I mean, how long has it actually been since we last saw one another? Hmm? One year? Not even that? I'm curious."

It was then that Annabelle opened her eyes and stared up at the grinning face of the Master before she asked him, "What the hell are you doing here? The last time I saw you, you were—"

In turn, the Master asked her, "I was what?" After crouching down in front of Annabelle, he raised his head a bit and asked her, "What exactly is it that I was doing when you last saw me? Hmm?"

After moving her face back from his the best that she could, she said to him, "You disappeared with the others of your kind– leaving the Doctor to remain as the only Time Lord left that can actually roam around the universe however he wants."

As he slowly leaned his face in towards hers, he asked her, "Oh, is that right? Is that what you think?" When she only stared at him with a scowl on her face, he asked her, "Or is that what the Doctor made you think before he regenerated into the idiot that he is now?"

When Annabelle only warily eyed him, he asked her, "Or is he perhaps the same idiot that he was then and had only become that much more of an idiot after his choice of leaving you behind? Hmm?"

Annabelle replied, "You don't know what you're talking about."

In turn, the Master asked her, "Don't I?" After moving a bit closer to her, he feigned a pout as he asked her, "Wasn't he the one that– after everything that happened between the two of you– left you behind because he just couldn't bear to see you become the person that you were after the first time that my constant torment on you had been brought to an end? Isn't that what he's been telling you ever since he picked you up in his TARDIS and took you traveling around the universe with him and Amelia Pond?"

Then Annabelle asked him, "How do you know what he's told me?"

The Master asked her, "How do you think that I know any of this, Annabelle? Hmm?" When she only wordlessly eyed him, he grabbed at the sides of his own head and told her, "I'm inside of your head. How else could I possibly know every single thing that he has ever told you from the moment that he brought you back into his TARDIS? And how else could I possibly know that– deep down– you still care about the Doctor and want to ensure that no harm ever comes to him, but a much larger part of you is refusing to act out on your protective nature towards him and is willing to let him die, even if it means that you blame yourself for the death of yet another person that you care about."

After several seconds of silence, she said, "I haven't seen you in months. Why would you show yourself to me now?"

With a sigh, the Master asked her, "Is that really true, though, Annabelle? Because I could have sworn that– ever since the Doctor had left you on your own and you were forced to take that piece of wood out of your heart– you've been haunted with countless nightmares of me and the things that I would be doing to hurt you and drive you even more mad than you are now, if it weren't for the fact that I was taken back into Gallifrey with Rassilon and the others. And not even that." As he quickly looked between her eyes, he said, "You're also forcing yourself to stay awake because you can't bear the thought that I'm still in your head, no matter just how many witches that you've gone out of your way to see during the six months that you were away from the Doctor."

As he let out yet another sigh, he said, "You know, that one witch that you had gone to see– the last one that you saw before the Doctor had picked you up in his TARDIS– said that a human can go about three or four nights without sleep before they start to hallucinate. But that's for a human. You're an Original vampire and it would take a bit longer than before you start to hallucinate. I mean, who's to say that you didn't already have hallucinations before I started to torture you four years ago? It would explain why you're not exactly the most sane member of your family. And it's only been a little over a week– possibly more than that– since the Doctor picked you up and had taken you with him to see more things around the universe. But it didn't exactly take you long for you to start to see me everywhere you go, did it?"

Then he grabbed onto the sides of her head, which got her eyebrows to furrow before she said, "I can't feel you. I know that your hands are on my head, but I can't feel your hands."

With a scoff, he replied, "Of course you can't feel my hands, you idiot. I'm not even actually here. I'm in your head, remember?"

Annabelle asked him, "If you're in my head, then why can I see and hear you?"

With a chuckle, he asked her, "What part of 'I'm in your head' and 'you're hallucinating' are you just not understanding? I mean, really, Annabelle. It's not that hard of a concept for you to understand."

Annabelle replied, "Well, since you're not actually here, why don't you do me a favor and piss off? I have far better things to do than to hear you talking any more than I should have to."

With a shake of his head, he asked her, "Now, why would I do that, hmm?" As a wide smirk started to make its way onto his face, he told her, "I find the idea of a part of me still being inside of your head and torturing you similarly to what I did to you before the Doctor's regeneration to be quite fun. Granted, it's not as fun as it was when I could listen to your screams and sobs as I forced my way into your mind, but I'll take what I can get."

Annabelle asked him, "Why can't you take a hint and just get out of my head? I don't want you in there."

With a mere tilt of his head, he asked her, "And what makes you think that I even give a damn about what you want? Hmm? I am the Master, after all, and I made it into my very own duty to torture you and– even if I'm not actually here– there is no way that I'm just going to give up any chance that I can get in torturing you. Whether it be by the sound of my voice, seeing my face, hearing my laugh– no matter what it is, I am going to keep torturing you until you finally snap, kill the Doctor and his friends and then seek out your father so that he can kill you." When Annabelle attempted to slide her way past him, she suddenly stopped and came to an abrupt halt when he pushed himself in front of her and asked her, "After all, won't you be doing yourself a favor on the matter when you're the one that has wanted to kill yourself ever since you were a child?"

It wasn't long afterwards that the sound of birds tweeting was heard once more, which got her to let out a groan and then proceeded to do what she could to try and keep herself awake and not be brought back into the possible dream that was herself, Rory, Amy and the Doctor all being back inside of the TARDIS.

And while she did that, the Master leaned his face even closer to hers and said to her, "There's no Kol to save you now. He can't keep you from ending your own life, if you really wanted to, so why not do it? It isn't as if you actually fear death. If you had, you wouldn't have repeatedly attempted to end your life when you were only a child and you wouldn't have let yourself almost get killed by your father when he cornered you in the year 1856– just over a hundred years after you lost your beloved William and nearly got yourself killed not even the first time by your father."

In response to his words, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think of a way to get herself out of this and away from the Master– despite knowing that he wasn't even real– until she stopped when she found that her body was slumping forward and her eyes were closing before she found herself back inside of the TARDIS and heard the voice of Amy saying, "Ah, it's colder."

And upon opening her eyes, she had once again seen the grinning face of the Master just staring down at her with his arms crossed over his chest and his back leaned against the wall of the room that she was in, just before the Doctor said, "No matter Annabelle's problems at this exact moment, the four of us have to agree, now, which is the dream."

With a nod of his head, Rory said, "It's this, here."

Then Amy said, "He could be right. The science is all wrong here. Burning ice?"

The Doctor replied, "No, no, no. Ice can burn, sofas can read, it's a big universe. We have to agree which battle to lose. All of us, now."

In turn, Amy asked him, "Okay, which world do you think is real?"

The Doctor told her, "This one."

Then Rory said, "No. The other one."

Then the Doctor asked Rory, "Yeah, but are we disagreeing or competing?"

Then Amy asked the Doctor, "Competing? Over what?"

Then– after Amy had let out a groan– the Doctor said, "Nine minutes till impact."

Amy asked the Doctor, "What temperature is it?"

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "Outside? How many noughts have you got? Inside? I don't know, but I can't feel my feet and other parts."

Then Rory said, "I think all my parents are basically fine."

The Doctor replied, "Stop competing!"

Rory asked him, "Can't we call for help?"

In turn, the Doctor said to him, "Yeah, 'cause the universe is really quite small and there's bound to be someone nearby."

Then Amy said, "Put these on, both of you."

While Annabelle let out a sigh and started to mess around with one particular carving that she kept with her at all costs, Rory said, "Oh, a poncho. The biggest crime against fashion since lederhosen."

Then Amy said, "Here we go! Pond and her boys. My poncho boys. If we're going to die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band."

Then Rory said, "Um, speaking of dying, I do have one question. Can this cold star thing actually kill Annabelle, or is she just gonna pop back up and then go off doing whatever it is that she wants before ultimately freezing again?"

The Doctor replied, "No idea."

With a scoff, Rory said to him, "Well, that's rather helpful." Then– after a couple seconds of silence– he said, "We're not going to die."

The Doctor told him, "No, we're not, but our time's running out. If we fall asleep here, we're in trouble. If we could divide up, then we'd have an active presence in each world, but the Dream Lord is switching us between the worlds. Why? Why? What's the logic?"

It was then that Annabelle heard the voice of the Dream Lord say, "Good idea, veggie. Let's divide you four up, so I can have a little chat with our lovely companion. Maybe I'll keep her, and you can have Pointy Nose and the murderous one to yourself for all eternity, should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality."

While Annabelle simply let out a groan when she heard the tweeting of the bird yet again, she heard Rory ask Amy, "Can you hear that?"

In turn, Amy said to him, "What? No."

Then the Doctor said to Amy, "Amy, don't be scared, we'll be back."

Then Amy said, "Rory, Doctor, don't leave me." And while Annabelle, Rory and the Doctor had each fallen unconscious yet again, Amy quickly looked around herself as she asked, "Annabelle? Are you still awake?"

When she didn't get a response, she said, "If you're still awake, then make some sort of noise– something that will let me know that you're still here and awake."

Shortly after no such noise had occurred, the Dream Lord asked her, "Amy, we're going to have fun, aren't we?"

* * *

With a gasp, Rory picked up his head and looked over at Amy, just as the sound of glass smashing could be heard, which got him to quickly stand up and peek his head around a corner to see that one of the windows was being broken from the outside of the home.

This alone had Rory grab Amy from underneath her arms and carefully bring her up towards the second level of the house as he said, "Sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry."

It wasn't long afterwards that he dragged Amy into the nursery and carefully put her down onto the floor.

After yet again saying 'sorry', he made his way over towards the door to the nursery room and closed it before he looked down at where Amy continued to lie on the floor and then proceeded to look away from her and over towards the cradle that stood near the window to the room.

After practically bending over in front of it and messing around with the decorations to the cradle, Rory quickly turned his head and then proceeded to look out of the window to see that two of the Eknodines were carrying a plank of wood across the yard and three more of them pushing into the sides of the TARDIS.

It wasn't until he started to turn his back on the window that he let out a yell when he heard a knock on the window, which got him to quickly look around himself before unplugging the lamp and bringing it over towards the window with it held high over his head, only to stop when he saw that Annabelle was crouched on the other side of the window with her head tilted to the side and her eyebrows furrowed as she eyed the lamp that he was holding.

With his own eyebrows furrowed, he asked her, "What are you doing here?"

After only blinking at him, she raised her hands and allowed him to see that she was holding an eye to one of the Eknodines in one hand and the head of one of the elderly people in the other.

With wide eyes, Rory repeatedly looked between the single eye and the elderly woman's head that Annabelle was holding in her hands before he said, "You-You killed her." When Annabelle only raised an eyebrow at him, he asked her, "What did you do, cut off her head with something?"

Annabelle replied, "No, of course not. I ripped her head off with only my hands."

Rory asked her, "You-You can do that?"

In turn, Annabelle said to him, "I'm an Original vampire, of course I can do that." After watching Rory simply stare at her with his mouth slightly agape and his eyes wide as ever, she said to him, "Now, if you're quite done looking at me like I've killed your favorite pet, I'd prefer it if you were to open the window and let me inside."

Rory asked her, "And-And you're not going to kill Amy?"

Annabelle told him, "If I was going to kill Amelia Pond, I would have done it already before you even got her into that room with you. Now, open the damn window."

With a quick nod of his head, Rory did just that and left Annabelle to step through the open window and into the nursery room, while he grabbed a chair and shoved it under the doorknob to the room and then proceeded to sit onto the chair.

Annabelle, on the other hand, closed the window and locked it before she took a couple of steps away from the window and finally saw just what sort of a room that she was standing inside of.

And while Annabelle simply clenched her jaw in response to seeing the cradle that stood by the window, Rory only turned his attention over towards where Amy continued to lie on the same spot of the floor that he had put her in before Annabelle's arrival to their home.

* * *

With a gasp, Amy quickly picked up her head from Rory's lap and turned to Rory before she asked him, "How did I get up here?"

Rory told her, "I carried you. I'm afraid you may experience some bruising."

Then Amy asked him, "Where's the Doctor?"

Rory said to her, "I don't know." As he leaned in towards Amy, he told her, "I want to do something for you."

Then he turned his back on Amy and went through a small bag for he turned to Amy and showed her a pair of scissors before he closed his eyes, reached back and started to cut off his ponytail, which got Amy to bring one of her hands up to her mouth with a gasp.

After Rory had shown her the part of his hair that he had cut off, Amy said, "I was starting to like it."

From where she stood on the other side of the room, Annabelle said, "I didn't. It looked terrible."

With a quick turn of her head, Amy asked Annabelle, "How long have you been in here?" Then she looked at the two things that lied on either side of where Annabelle was sitting in the room and asked her, "And why do I see a head and one of those eye things in my nursery?"

Shortly after Annabelle had simply raised her eyebrows at Amy, the sound of squeaking could be heard, which got Amy to yell, "No!"

Then the three of them had turned their heads to see that the Doctor was climbing his way into the nursery room as he said, "Sorry, had to stop off at the butcher's and I kind of lost Annabelle along the way, so..." Then– after falling onto the floor, landing on his back and seeing that Annabelle, Amy and Rory were all staring down at him– he said, "Oh, never mind, you found her. Or rather she found you. No matter. At least we're all together again."

While Annabelle simply looked away from the Doctor with a mere roll of her eyes, Rory asked him, "What are we going to do?"

In turn, the Doctor said to him, "I don't know. I thought the freezing TARDIS was real, but now I'm not so sure."

Then Amy let out a bit of a groan before she said, "I think the baby's starting."

Rory asked her, "Honestly?"

In turn, Amy asked him, "Would I make it up at a time like this?"

Rory told her, "Well, you do have a history of..." After seeing the way that Amy was staring at him, he said, "Being very lovely."

After Amy had let out another groan, Rory asked, "Why are they so desperate to kill us?"

The Doctor said to him, "They're scared. Fear generates savagery and we're in the same room as someone who is a prime example of just that."

After Rory had simply glanced over at Annabelle in response to the Doctor's words and Annabelle took a step closer to where Amy was lying on the floor once more, a crashing sound was heard, which got the four of them to quickly turn their heads and look over in the direction of the crash that they had just heard.

It wasn't until Rory had stood up and taken a step towards the window that he found himself staring at Mrs. Pogitt, who opened her mouth, and a green mist was seen shooting out of her mouth and hitting the side of Rory's chest.

This alone resulted in Rory backing away from the window and letting out a yell, while Amy hurried over towards Rory and the Doctor grabbed the same lamp that Rory was holding earlier used it to push Mrs. Pogitt off of the house.

Then Amy yelled, "Rory! Oh..."

With her eyes narrowed, Annabelle watched as Rory looked away from his arm and over towards Amy as he said, "No! I'm not ready."

Then Amy said to him, "Stay."

It wasn't long after she'd said those words that– bit by bit– Rory's body was turning into dust, while Rory said to Amy, "Look after our baby."

While the upper part of Rory's body started to turn into dust, Amy said, "No. No. Come back."

While Annabelle simply stared with narrowed eyes at the pile of dust that sat in the place where Rory had been only a few seconds ago, Amy looked over at the Doctor and said to him, "Save him. You save everyone. You always do. It's what you do."

The Doctor replied, "Not always. I'm sorry."

With a shake of her head, Amy asked him, "Then what is the point of you?"

In response to Amy's words, Annabelle only let out a sigh and then simply tilted her head as she watched Amy pick up a handful of the dust and let it fall back onto the floor before pushing herself back onto her feet.

It wasn't until after the Doctor had taken a couple of steps towards Amy that Amy looked between Annabelle and the Doctor as she said, "This is the dream. Definitely, this one. Now, if we die here, we wake up, yeah?"

After only nodding his head, the Doctor said to her, "Unless we just die."

Amy replied, "Either way, this is my only chance of seeing him again. This is the dream."

The Doctor asked her, "How do you know?"

Amy told him, "Because if this is real life, I don't want it. I don't want it."

It wasn't long after she'd said those words that both Amy and the Doctor had quickly walked out of the house– leaving Annabelle to continue to stare down at the dusty pile of Rory Williams with narrowed eyes.

It wasn't until Annabelle was about to turn to look away from the pile of dust and look out of the window to watch what Amy and the Doctor were about to do, only to stop when she felt something appear in her hand.

With furrowed eyebrows, she looked down at her right hand to see that she was holding the white oak stake– something that her father had been carrying with him for the past one-thousand and nine years of her life.

It was the very same thing that he'd intended on using when he nearly killed her in 1702, shortly before Klaus had daggered her and taken her with himself, Elijah, Rebekah and their other two daggered siblings.

And not only that, but it was also the very same weapon that she had plotted on somehow taking from him and using against him prior to Klaus's attempt of daggering her before she snapped his neck two-hundred and ninety-two years ago.

There had been many times that she wished that she held the white oak stake in her hand, all so that she could go after her father and kill her like she'd attempted to do to him when she was only ten years old.

And now she had it.

She had it in her right hand and there was no one there to keep her from using it as she deemed fit.

But instead of immediately using it, she looked over at the cradle that was set up in the nursery room and frowned to herself as she stared at it.

And while she stared at it, she couldn't help but think of the somewhat cradle that she had for her son– one that Kol had gone out of his way to make for her to the best of his ability when she told him that she was pregnant with her first child.

Granted, it wasn't anything like the one that she was staring at in that exact moment, but it still meant something to her.

It was something that Kol had gone out of his way to build for her, despite the annoyance that Kol had felt when Klaus went out of his way to criticize Kol in his attempts of doing something like this for Annabelle and Kol telling Klaus to go bother someone else, while he built it for Annabelle.

It was one of two things that he made for her that meant the world to her, but only one of the two things that he'd made for her was able to be within her reach.

She had long lost the cradle that Kol had made for her when she had first fallen pregnant, but she still had the carving that he'd made for her when they were children– a carving of a young girl that he'd made to the best of his ability and had given to Annabelle as a gift of sorts.

And it was because of the fact that she still carried the carving with her that she reached into her coat and lightly grabbed onto it and ran her fingers over it for a moment before she let go of it and then proceeded to grab onto the white oak stake with both hands.

After letting out a sigh, she raised the stake and held it out in front of herself and stared at it for a moment before she quickly pushed it towards herself and shoved the tip of the stake deep into her chest and then proceeded to let out a groan when she felt a part of the tip come into contact with her heart.

And at the same time that she let go of the stake, fell onto her knees, her entire body had started to catch on fire, and she let out a scream as the flames covered every single inch of her body, Amy quickly turned the steering wheel and drove the van that her and the Doctor were in before driving it straight into the house.

It wasn't long after the three of them had died that Annabelle had eventually opened her eyes and let her eyes widen before squeezing her eyes shut with a groan when she felt her body both healing and repeatedly freezing itself over and over as the TARDIS moved closer to the cold star.

And while Annabelle shakily did what she could to reach into her coat and hold onto the carving of the young girl that Kol had given her, she heard the Dream Lord say, "So, you chose this world. Well done. You got it right. And with only seconds left. Fair's fair. Let's warm you up. I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions. It all came out of your imagination, so, uh, I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell."

A few seconds after that, she heard Rory say, "Something happened. I... What happened to me? I... Oh. Oh, right. This is good. I am liking this. Was it something I said? Could you tell me what it was, so I can use it in emergencies and maybe birthdays?"

While Annabelle forced herself onto her feet and pressed her hand against her chest and in the spot that the dream-version of herself had shoved the white oak stake into, a thudding sound was heard, shortly before the whirring of the TARDIS could be heard once more.

Then Amy asked the Doctor, "What are we doing now?"

While Annabelle forced herself out of the room that she was in and towards the direction that she could hear Amy's voice, the Doctor said, "Me? I'm going to blow up the TARDIS."

In turn, Rory said to him, "What?"

The Doctor asked them, "Notice how helpful the Dream Lord was? Okay, there was misinformation, red herrings, malice, and I could have done without the limerick. But he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality."

After a banging was heard and the Doctor had let out a laugh, Amy asked him, "What are you doing?"

Then Rory said, "Doctor, the Dream Lord conceded. This isn't the dream!"

The Doctor replied, "Yes, it is!"

Then Amy said to Rory, "Stop him!"

While Annabelle finally managed to stumble her way into the main part of the TARDIS, the Doctor said, "Star burning cold. Do me a favor! The Dream Lord has no power over the real world. He was offering us a choice between two dreams."

Amy asked him, "How do you know that?"

The Doctor replied, "Because I know who he is."

* * *

While Annabelle only moved her fingers over the carving that she continued to keep in one of her coat pockets, the Doctor asked Amy and Rory, "Any questions?"

While Amy and Rory walked down the stairs and over towards the Doctor, Amy said, "Um..." After she and Rory had come to a halt in front of the Doctor, Amy asked him, "What's that?"

The Doctor told her, "A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass Don Slava. Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell in the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us."

Then– after quickly moving away from them and over towards the door to the TARDIS– the Doctor stuck his hand out of the doors and watched as the psychic pollen had been swept off of his hand and away from the TARDIS.

After the Doctor had closed the door to the TARDIS, Rory asked him, "So, that was the Dream Lord, then? Those little specks."

As he made his way back over towards Amy and Rory, the Doctor said to him, "No, no. No. Sorry, wasn't it obvious? The Dream Lord was me. Psychic pollen, it's a mind parasite. It feeds on everything dark in you. Gives it a voice, turns it against you. I'm 907. I had a lot to go on."

With a shake of her head, Amy asked him, "Why didn't it feed on us, too?"

The Doctor replied, "The darkness in you pair? It would've starved to death in an instant. I choose my friends with great care. Otherwise, I'm stuck with my own company, and you know how that works out."

With a shake of his own head, Rory asked him, "And what about Annabelle? She's your friend, isn't she?"

The Doctor replied, "Of course she isn't. How couldn't she be? She's brilliant, that one. Brilliant and a bit mad, but still brilliant all the same."

With a slight nod of his head, Rory said to him, "Yeah, and she wants to kill you."

With a mere tilt of his head, the Doctor said to him, "I wouldn't say she wants to kill me, but she's back to not liking me, which is a lot better than how things were when she first started traveling around the universe with me."

With a shake of his head, Rory asked him, "Well, how were things between you when she first started traveling with you?"

The Doctor replied, "Oh, well that's easy. The first time that she traveled in the TARDIS with me, she threatened to rip my head off of my body and put it at the highest peak when we were walking about in London during the late sixteenth century before we met William Shakespeare."

With furrowed eyebrows, Rory asked him, "And that's normal for you?"

After the Doctor had simply nodded his head and Rory only stared at him with furrowed eyebrows, Amy said to the Doctor, "But those things he said about you. You don't think any of that's true?"

After simply remaining silent for a couple of seconds, the Doctor said, "Amy, right now a question is about to occur to Rory." As he forcibly turned Amy around to face Rory, he told her, "And seeing as the answer is about to change his life, I think you should give him your full attention."

After Amy had been pushed over towards Rory, Rory said, "Yeah. Actually, yeah."

With a point of his finger, the Doctor said, "There it is."

Then Rory said, "'Cause what I don't get is, you blew up the TARDIS, that stopped that dream, but what stopped the Leadworth dream?"

After simply clearing her throat, Amy told him, "We crashed the camper van and... I don't know what Annabelle did."

In turn, Rory said to her, "Oh, right. I don't remember that bit."

While the Doctor simply glanced over at Annabelle and saw the slightly troubled look that she had on her face as she pulled the carving that Kol had given her out of her coat and stared down at it with a bit of a frown on her face, Amy said with a shake of her head, "No, you weren't there. You were already..."

Rory asked her, "Already what?"

Amy said to him, "Dead. You died in that dream. Mrs. Poggit got you."

In turn, Rory said to her, "Okay. But how did you know it was a dream before you crashed the van? How did you know you wouldn't just die?"

After several seconds of silence, Amy said, "I didn't."

Then Rory said, "Oh."

And then Amy said, "Yeah."

As he stepped forward and grabbed onto one of Amy's hands, Rory said, "Oh. Oh."

Then he leaned forward, lightly grabbed onto the side of Amy's face and proceeded to kiss her, which resulted in the two of them starting to kiss one another, only to stop when the Doctor had said with a mere clap of his hands, "So... Well, then, where now? Or should I just pop down to the swimming pool for a few lengths?"

As he quickly looked over at the Doctor, Rory replied, "I don't know. Anywhere's good for me. I'm happy anywhere." Then he looked over at Amy as he said, "It's up to Amy this time. Amy's choice."

With a clap of his hands, the Doctor started to mess around with the controls, while Annabelle's frown had simply deepened.

She hated the fact that the Master had appeared to her in the dream when she was away from Amy, Rory and the Doctor, but she supposed that it was right that he was the one that appeared above everyone else.

After all, the two separate times in which he'd tortured her were– quite honestly– two of the darkest moments of her life and he was the one that managed to make her fear him far more than the point in time in which had still feared her parents when she was human.

After letting out a sigh and glancing over at the Doctor and watching him start to take them to yet another place in the universe, she looked back down at the carving that she held in her hand before two separate thoughts had appeared in her mind.

The first being when the Master would actually disappear from her mind and actually let her have a good night's rest for once– instead of continuing to torment her in her dreams.

And the second being just how long it would take until she got to see Kol again.

Because after everything that had happened, she really needed to see him and hear him reassure her that everything was going to be okay and that no one else would ever have the chance and opportunity to hurt her like the Master had hurt her, despite Kol not even knowing the first thing about who the Master was and what a Time Lord even was to begin with.