The atmosphere in the Tardis is tense. The Doctor and Cherry aren't talking. Amy has been acting a little strange around the Doctor since she wrote the note for them to find in the paper shop window. So, their trip to Space Florida was an extremely uncomfortable affair, and the automatic sand didn't impress Cherry nearly as much as the pink and intelligent sand of Karass Don Slava had. Amy enjoyed it more than Cherry and the Doctor did, though, so at least that makes up for her being stuck in the Tardis for so long while they were staying with Craig.
Unfortunately for Cherry and the Doctor, Amy is stubborn and very perceptive. So, she notices when the pair come back from their stay in Essex and can barely look at each other. Cherry isn't even angry at him; she's just upset that he's ignoring her. The Doctor is still angry, and sad, and frightened, and he just can't face her. But Amy grills him about it relentlessly when Cherry isn't around to hear it, and the redhead does the same to her cousin, bombarding her with questions about what happened. Cherry tells her, of course, because they're practically sisters, and they share almost everything with one another. Amy agrees with Cherry for the most part. The Doctor is being overly dramatic and frankly a little childish with his sulking about the Tardis, refusing to make eye contact with Cherry or murmur anything more than single-word answers to her questions.
Cherry would be lying if she said his behaviour wasn't hurting her. She misses him. She misses the Doctor. Her Doctor. So, she does try to talk to him, but she's met with the same bitter, unenthusiastic responses from him, and it cuts deep in her heart. It keeps her awake at night, and when she ventures down to the console room to distract herself, reading the big book of artists by the projection of the night sky, the Doctor doesn't join her.
Not until one fateful night when he's working on the console underneath the glass floor, and Cherry, consumed with emotions, doesn't notice him. She settles down in her usual spot on the stairs, her duvet wrapped tightly around her shoulders, but she doesn't open the book in her lap. Instead, she leans her head against the railing and stares at the blank screen, which she doesn't have the energy to turn on. She pushes the book to one side, hugs her legs to her chest, and then closes her eyes as she contemplates everything that has happened since they left Craig's. If the Doctor doesn't get over himself soon, and Amy doesn't start acting like herself again, Cherry doesn't know how much longer she can carry on travelling with them. But then she considers the alternative, which is going home to an empty house with no family other than Aunt Sharon, whom she never sees, and no friends other than Mels. She'd be stuck working in the Post Office on her own. She'd be lonely. But that's how she feels right now, so maybe it wouldn't make any difference.
Cherry moves a hand to cover her mouth when she feels her eyes starting to well with tears. She doesn't even know why she's crying, but she honestly feels hopeless. She stifles her cries with her hand and then leans forward to hide her face in her knees because she feels a little stupid. The Doctor ignoring her upsets her more than any of it. She isn't even sure what she has done wrong. In her mind, all she did was help save the solar system from being blown up. If anything, Cherry assumed the Doctor might be impressed by her act of bravery. But it seems to have had the complete opposite effect. He can barely bring himself to look at her now. She doesn't move for what feels like forever, silently crying with her head down until she hears someone walking toward her and calling her name.
"Charlotte," the Doctor says softly, and Cherry snaps her head up straight. She wipes away her tears quickly with her sleeve and looks over at him with a watery smile so he doesn't know she's been crying. It's pointless because she knows he already knows, and the red rims of her eyes and tear tracks on her face give it away anyway. He settles down on the step next to her, and Cherry notices he is covered in grease smudges.
"Sorry," Cherry sniffles, picking up her book and tucking it under her arm before she makes a move to leave. "I didn't know you were here. I'll go-"
"Stay," the Doctor says, and his hand wraps around her wrist. He gently pulls her back to the floor, and she awkwardly sits beside him. She puts her book down on the floor and insecurely wraps her arms around her torso.
"I thought you weren't speaking to me," she says in a quiet voice, which does nothing to mask the hurt she is feeling. He winces a little and exhales deeply before he turns to look at her.
"What you did in that time engine was stupid," the Doctor states, and Cherry frowns.
"I was just trying to help," Cherry replies, looking down at her feet. "If my hand was on the activator, your hand couldn't touch it."
"I don't need you to risk your life for me. I don't need you to save me," the Doctor says quickly, and Cherry raises her eyebrows and turns her head to look at him.
"It wasn't just to save you. You said the whole solar system would blow up if you touched it," Cherry points out, her voice raising a little. "Call me crazy, but I didn't want the universe to explode."
"You could've been killed," the Doctor says angrily, and Cherry shakes her head.
"I don't care! Me dying instead of the whole solar system is a very obvious choice!" Cherry argues, and hot, angry tears spill down her cheeks. She wipes them away furiously. She narrows her eyes at him pointedly and then cuts him off when he tries to speak again. "Listen, it doesn't matter anyway. I didn't die. You saved me. I just bought us time; you were almost at the activator."
"I would've been able to stay away from it," the Doctor tells her. "You shouldn't have done it."
"You don't know that!" Cherry cries. "It's not a big deal. I made my choice."
"I'm not always going to be able to save your life when you feel like acting rashly," the Doctor snaps harshly, and Cherry laughs derisively, shakes her head and stands up again.
"Me? What about you?" She scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest. "How many times have I had to stop you from acting rashly? All you ever do is act on impulse!"
"Yes! But I know what I'm doing!"
"So do I! I'm an adult, Doctor. I knew it could kill me, and I made my choice," Cherry says firmly. "I don't need a babysitter. I wish you would stop trying to baby me all the time."
"I don't-"
"Yes, you do!" Cherry shouts. Then she turns away from him, taking a moment to calm down and take some deep breaths. "Sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you. I just don't understand what the problem is. You would've done the same thing if you were in my position, but when I do it, it's a problem."
"Charlotte, believe me, I am not who you should aspire to be," the Doctor remarks quite defeatedly, and Cherry sighs, sitting down beside him and resting her arms on top of her knees.
"I don't aspire to be like you," Cherry admits quietly. "Well, not completely like you... just the good parts."
"The good parts?" The Doctor raises his eyebrows, and Cherry cracks a smile as she nudges him with her legs.
"Yeah, you know, brave, overly self-confident, exceedingly smart," Cherry starts to list, and the Doctor breathes out a laugh and shakes his head.
"Young and attractive with impressive football skills," the Doctor adds, smirking as he recalls the list of compliments she gave him at the call centre. "And surprisingly good at working in a call centre."
Cherry rolls her eyes, and she leans her head tiredly against his shoulder. "I should've never told you all that. I'll never hear the end of it now," she mumbles. "But you can keep the bow ties and your ridiculous pettiness. You'd think someone who was 900 years old would be able to process their emotions properly."
"Oi," the Doctor exclaims as she teases him, and just like that, they fall back into their usual routine. Cherry forgives him, like she always does and probably always will, and he pushes away the anger and fear that has been clouding his judgement for the past weeks. The Doctor is quite giddy to be on good terms with her again, even if they were 'arguing' because of him, and he instructs her to go and get dressed and then wake Amy up because he's just had a brilliant idea and he knows Cherry will love it. Cherry does so reluctantly because she's quite tired after having not slept properly in God knows how long, but seeing the Doctor running around the Tardis with a grin on his face and a spring in his step convinces her.
She doesn't return to the console room until she is fully dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans and a white T-shirt, swamped by a blue plaid jacket for warmth. Amy emerges from the corridor much later, tiredly asking where they are heading as she walks down under the glass platform and sits on the swing the Doctor has hung so he sits down whilst tending to the engine. Cherry can't see what she is looking at from the top of the platform, but Amy seems to be studying something closely in her hands.
"Vavoom!" The Doctor exclaims, slamming a lever down and smiling over at Cherry before he lies on the floor and hangs his head down over the side of the platform to look at Amy. Cherry watches as the redhead panics and hides whatever is in her hands in her pocket. Cherry decides to ask her about it later.
"Va-what?" Amy questions, and she slowly joins the two by the console. Both of the girls lean against the console, bracing themselves when the Tardis jerks harshly to the side.
" I can't believe I've never thought of this before. It's genius," the Doctor says. He claps his hands together and then heads towards the doors. "Right. Landed. Come on."
"Where are we?" Cherry wonders, following him.
"Oh, so you two are talking again?" Amy observes, noticing that the pair seem to be sharing a sense of excitement rather than ignoring each other and avoiding eye contact.
"Yeah," Cherry shrugs and then looks at the Doctor. "Where are we?"
"Planet One. The oldest planet in the universe. And there's a cliff of pure diamond, and according to legend, on the cliff, there's writing. Letters fifty feet high. A message from the dawn of time. And no one knows what it says because no one's ever translated it," the Doctor explains briefly to them, and Cherry's eyebrows raise, intrigued. "Until today."
"What happens today?" Amy asks, and Cherry gasps in delight, her eyes brightening as she rushes up to the Doctor and grips his arm.
"Are we going to translate it? Can the Tardis do that?" Cherry speaks quickly, smiling hopefully at the Doctor.
"The Tardis can translate anything. All we have to do is open the doors and read the very first words in recorded history," the Doctor tells them.
"That's so cool. So, nobody else in the entire universe knows what it says?" Cherry raises her eyebrows, and the Doctor nods.
"Nope. I know, it's pretty cool," he says with a smug look on his face as he throws open the doors. They step outside the Tardis, and Cherry glances around at the strange vegetation. There are huge mushrooms, the same height as the trees, and enormous leafy plants cover the ground. But the most eye-catching thing is, of course, the cliff face, which spans out for miles. The message is carved into the face of it, fifty feet high and suddenly the Doctor's smug look is wiped off his face. Cherry and Amy both share a rather amused look and then turn their attention back to the words 'Hello, Old Man. ΘΣ ΦΓΥΔζ."
"Vavoom," Amy laughs, shaking her head.
"So, the oldest words in the history of the universe are from River Song?" Cherry says and then takes in the Greek letters carved below the greeting for the Doctor. "Theta, Epsilon, Phi, Gamma... Upsilon, Delta... and Zeta? What does that mean... coordinates?"
The Doctor looks over at her with raised eyebrows, thoroughly impressed, and she blushes a little. "You know the Greek alphabet?"
"What, like it's hard?" Cherry remarks, and Amy snorts out a laugh at the reference to one of their favourite films to watch together. The Doctor looks confused, not understanding the humour in Cherry's reply, and the brunette smiles at him. "My dad used to teach me about history when I was little. We started with the Greeks, obviously. He used to read me all the stories. The Trojan Horse, King Midas, Medusa. Oh, and Pandora's box! That was always my favourite. I still have his copy. I used to read it to Amy when we were little."
"Every night," Amy adds with a chuckle, and Cherry smiles fondly at the memories.
The Doctor seems quite interested in learning more, but he walks back to the Tardis with a grin on his face, and he motions invitingly towards the ship. "Well, come along, Ponds."
"Where are we going?" Amy asks as they follow him inside. He rushes to the console and starts typing in the coordinates from the cliff face. "Where will those coordinates take us?"
"Don't know," the Doctor answers honestly as the Tardis starts to fly through time and space. "Let's find out."
Landing in an empty stretch of woodland on Earth is quite a disappointment. Cherry wrinkles her nose and looks back at the Doctor with furrowed eyebrows.
"Is this the right place?" Amy scratches her head, looking around at the trees with the same confused look on her face. She had been expecting something a little more extravagant after their first trip with River to the Byzantium. The Doctor checks his golden watch.
"Just followed the coordinates on the cliff face. Earth. Britain," the Doctor tells them. "One o two am. No, pm...No, AD." The Doctor confirms when they walk away from the clearing and come across a huge Roman camp. It stretches out for miles, and there must be hundreds of tents and thousands of troops. Cherry retracts her previous statement about the clearing in the woods being disappointing and laughs, nudging Amy with her elbow.
"This is right up your alley, Amy," Cherry teases, knowing how much Amy loves the Romans.
"That's a Roman Legion," Amy states, and the Doctor nods.
"Well, yeah. The Romans invaded Britain several times during this period," the Doctor replies, and Amy nods slowly.
"Oh, I know. My favourite topic at school. Invasion of the hot Italians," Amy says, and the Doctor's face contorts in disgust. "Yeah, I did get marked down for the title."
A Roman soldier fully kitted out in Roman armour rushes up to them breathlessly. His face is covered in lipstick, which makes Cherry's eyebrows raise and he bows down in front of them, lowering himself to one knee as a symbol of respect. "Hail, Caesar!"
"Hi?" The Doctor says casually to the soldier.
"Welcome to Britain. We are honoured by your presence," the soldier welcomes them.
"Well, you're only human," the Doctor says in an authoritative voice, which makes Cherry laugh. "Arise, Roman person."
"Why does he think you're Caesar?" Amy asks the Doctor.
"Cleopatra will see you now," the soldier says and leads them towards the camp. Cherry knows that Cleopatra cannot actually be waiting for them in a Roman camp because she is most certainly dead by this point in time, so she can only assume this 'Cleopatra' is River Song. Her suspicions are confirmed when they are given access to the grandest tent in the camp, and they find River Song dressed up as the Egyptian queen being waited on by Romans in togas.
"Hello, Old Man," River greets the Doctor with a smile.
"River! Hi," Amy waves at the woman.
"You graffitied the oldest cliff face in the universe," the Doctor scolds her with a very stern look on his face.
"You wouldn't answer your phone," River argues back and then claps her hands. The Roman men in togas file out to give them all some privacy, and River presents the Doctor with a scroll.
"What's this?"
"It's a painting," River answers. "Your friend Vincent. One of his final works. He had visions, didn't he? I thought you ought to know about this one."
That piques Cherry's interest, and she politely takes the painting from River and spreads it out on the nearest table. It wasn't quite what she had been expecting. It's not a beautiful landscape or building or still life like Vincent's other paintings. It's a swirl of colour, vaguely reminiscent of Starry Night, except there are no stars or Cypress trees. Just the night sky and fragments of the Tardis flying out across it from the centre of an explosion. Cherry delicately traces her trembling fingers over one of the golden swirls trailing out from the heart of the exploding Tardis, unsure how to feel at that moment.
"Doctor? Doctor, what is this?" Amy questions, looking down at the picture with the same horrified look as the Doctor. "Why is it exploding?"
"I assume it's some kind of warning," River tells the trio as the Doctor walks away from the painting and sits down. He rubs his face wearily, and Cherry leaves the painting, too, placing her hand on the Doctor's shoulder for comfort.
"What, something's going to happen to the Tardis?"
"It might not be that literal. Anyway, this is where he wanted you. Date and map reference on the door sign, see?" River points to the nearly painted sign on the door of the Tardis.
"Does it have a title?" The Doctor asks with a strained voice.
"The Pandorica opens," River answers.
"The Pandorica? What's that?" Cherry queries from the Doctor's side.
"A box, a cage, a prison. It was built to contain the most feared thing in all the universe," River tells her, and she frowns. It sounds quite similar to Pandora's box, if Cherry is being honest, but she feels that's a little farfetched because it's just a story, so she doesn't say anything.
"And it's a fairy tale, a legend. It can't be real," the Doctor stands up and starts pacing.
"If it is real, it's here, and it's opening, and it's got something to do with your Tardis exploding," River says firmly, and the Doctor picks up a handful of maps and unrolls them on top of the painting. "Hidden, obviously. Buried for centuries. You won't find it on a map."
"No, but if you buried the most dangerous thing in the universe, you'd want to remember where you put it," the Doctor says with a smug smile, and Cherry looks down at the section of the map in front of them. It's a huge empty plain, and the only thing noteworthy on it is a circle of huge standing stones.
"What at Stonehenge? That's where it's hidden?" Cherry asks, and the Doctor rolls up the map again.
"If it exists, it must be there," the Doctor confirms with a nod. "There's nowhere else it could be."
"So, what do we do then? Walk to Stonehenge?" Amy says, and the Doctor shakes his head.
"Of course not. Don't be ridiculous," the Doctor shakes his head. "That would take us hours."
"So?"
"I have a plan," the Doctor tells them with a smirk, and he runs out of the tent, leaving the three women behind. They collectively roll their eyes at the Doctor's typical exit, and then River excuses herself to change into something a little more appropriate than her Cleopatra outfit.
"You remind me of my friend, Mels," Cherry hums when River returns in a fluffy white jacket and tan-coloured trousers. "I think you two would get along great."
"Really?" River replies absentmindedly, raising her eyebrows at Cherry's statement.
"Oh my God," Amy nods her head in agreement with Cherry. "You're right. That's who you remind me of."
"Doctor, what are you doing?" River walks out of the tent, ignoring the two cousins, who exchange confused looks.
"That was weird," Amy comments as they leave the shelter of the tent, too. The wind has picked up quite a bit, and Cherry shivers, pulling her jacket tight around her body. They spot River walking over to the Doctor, who has acquired four horses. They divide the horses up amongst themselves; River, and Amy both take the white ones, Cherry opts for the chestnut brown one, and the Doctor mounts the black one.
"I've never ridden a horse before," Cherry says, looking at the tall animal beside her wearily.
"Neither," Amy pipes up, and the Doctor shrugs his shoulders.
"It's easy!" He tells them. "Just get on."
That's a lot easier said than done, and while Amy has no trouble, easily swinging her leg over the horse and sitting atop the saddle, Cherry has a much harder time than the others. She can barely get her foot into the stirrup, and she struggles for about five minutes before the Doctor rolls his eyes and jumps down from his horse. He bends down beside Cherry and her horse and offers his hands as a step. She carefully steps onto his interlocked fingers, supporting herself with one hand on his shoulder and the other on the saddle as she manoeuvres herself to sit on top of the horse.
"Thank you," Cherry says shyly, her cheeks burning red as she realises River and Amy are both waiting for them. The Doctor wastes no time mounting his horse again, and then they set off. Cherry clings to the horses' reigns for dear life, letting out something half between a scream and a laugh as her horse races off after the Doctor's. Amy and River are hot on their heels as they cross the Salisbury Plain. The wind whips against them ferociously, and Cherry is grateful for her oversized jacket, which still isn't enough to keep out all of the cold, but she's sure it does a better job than Amy's leather jacket or the Doctor's tweed blazer. They approach Stone Henge swiftly, and when they get there, the Doctor has to help Cherry down off her horse again, snaking his hand around her waist and holding her steady on the ground for a moment as she laughs and tries to fix her very windswept hair.
Then, they run into the circle of stone, examining the structure. The Doctor scans it with his screwdriver, rushing around the space and trying to find some sort of abnormality. River is typing on a communicator, presumably the same one from the Byzantium, and Cherry runs her hands over the ancient stones, which are covered in moss and have weathered down over time. Amy seems to notice the same thing as Cherry, and she furrows her eyebrows.
"How come it's not new?" Amy asks, wondering how the stones could've been there for so long if it's only 102 AD.
"Because it's already old. It's been here thousands of years. No one knows exactly how long," River tells the girls.
"Okay, this Pandorica thing. Last time we saw you, you warned us about it after we climbed out of the Byzantium," Amy says to River, who holds her finger up to silence the redhead.
"Spoilers," River reminds Amy, and Cherry realises that this must be a younger version of River Song. That's a strange concept, even for someone from the twenty-first century, who has just seen a Vincent Van Gogh painting from 1890 in 102AD in a Roman legion with a woman dressed as Cleopatra.
"No, but you told the Doctor you'd see him again when the Pandorica opens," Amy looks confused, and Cherry touches her hand to her arm as she passes.
"They meet in the wrong order, remember?" Cherry says to her cousin, and River nods as the communicator starts to beep in her hands.
"Maybe I did, but I haven't yet. But I will have," River clarifies for the redhead and then walks around with the communicator, scanning for something. "Doctor, I'm picking up fry particles everywhere. Energy weapons discharged on this site."
"If the Pandorica is here, it contains the mightiest warrior in history. Now, half the galaxy would want a piece of that. Maybe even fight over it. We need to get down there," the Doctor says. River and the Doctor get to work figuring out where the entrance is and how to get in there because the sonic doesn't seem to be revealing any entrances, and by the time they set up the tech to open what they think is the door, the sun has set. They task Amy and Cherry with setting up big lights around the site so they can see what they are doing in the dark, and River places strange spiky devices on the stone and activates them from her communicator when they are all a safe distance away.
"Right then, ready?" River looks at the rest of them as the stone on the floor slides across the grass to reveal a staircase which burrows under the ground.
"The Underhenge," the Doctor names the newly revealed chamber beneath Stonehenge. River shines a torch down it, but they cannot really see anything other than the walls of mud on either side of the stone steps. The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and cautiously steps forward into the tunnel, and he reaches his hand out subconsciously for Cherry to take. She slips her fingers into his as she follows him carefully and motions for Amy and River to do the same. The Doctor grips her tightly because that way, he can keep her safe on their way through the pitch-black chamber.
The staircase leads to an empty opening with nothing but two unlit torches and massive metal doors, which are sealed shut with a wooden plank. The Doctor lights one of the torches with the sonic screwdriver, and he keeps a firm hold on Cherry's hand as River retrieves the other torch and holds it against the Doctor's to steal the flame from it. When both torches are blazing, and they can see a little better, River unbars the door, and they slowly open them. Frankly, Cherry thinks the Doctor looks a little too excited considering they are about to find potentially the most dangerous thing in the universe trapped in a box, and he pulls her forward into the chamber far too quickly for her liking. They all pause when they see a large stone box in the middle of the room with a strange circular design on it, and the Doctor holds his torch out to illuminate it a little more.
"It's a Pandorica," he breathes out in disbelief, looking back at the others to make sure they are seeing it as well and he has not gone crazy.
"More than just a fairy tale," River notes, and the Doctor drops Cherry's hand as he steps toward the box. Something moves by his feet, and he looks down at what seems to be a dismembered robot arm. He looks briefly startled and glances around the chamber uncertainly but doesn't pay the robot arm any more attention and instead draws nearer to the Pandorica.
Cherry makes sure to steer clear of the robot arm because the arm lying on the floor is all too reminiscent of the hand of the angel grabbing at her feet in the Byzantium, and it makes her uneasy. She wanders into something hanging from the ceiling as she wearily eyes the dismembered limb, and a scream leaves her lips. The Doctor and River flash their torches in her direction, eyes wide in fear, and she burns a bright shade of red as she wipes the thick cobweb off her jumper and out of her hair. "Sorry... cobweb."
"Idiot," Amy remarks, rolling her eyes and biting back a laugh as she pushes her cousin forward and away from the cobweb.
"Don't do that! You scared the living daylights out of me," the Doctor huffs, his chest heaving with fright as he checks her over with his eyes one last time to make sure she is truly okay.
"I didn't mean to! It made me jump," Cherry scoffs, still struggling to get the cobweb off her. She avoids the rest of the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, and she doesn't let herself think about the spiders, which must have created them and whether or not they are still there. The chamber is eerie enough without worrying about arachnids as well.
"There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies," the Doctor touches his hand to the edge of the box and then starts to trace his hands along the circular patterns on each face of the cube. "The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."
"How did it end up in there?" Amy asks the Doctor, intrigued.
"You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it."
"I hate good wizards in fairy tales," River interjects and passes Amy the flaming torch so she can examine the box with the communicator. "They always turn out to be him."
"Bloody hell, Amy!" Cherry yells. She ducks out of the way as Amy spins around with the torch, spinning it round and almost hitting Cherry in the face with the fiery end. "Are you trying to burn my face off?"
"Sorry," Amy winces as she gets a better grip on the torch. "So, it's kind of like Pandora's Box then?" Amy asks, raising the same theory Cherry had earlier. "Almost the same name."
"Sorry, what?" The Doctor says as he fixes his torch to a stand on the wall.
"The story? Pandora's Box. With all the worst things in the world in it. I just told you about it?" Cherry jogs the Doctor's memories. "My favourite book when I was little? My dad used to read it to me? Ring any bells...?"
Amy notices the way the Doctor pauses as he scans the Pandorica with his screwdriver and then turns to Cherry as she tries to remind him of the book she told him about earlier that day. "What's wrong?" The redhead asks him.
"Your favourite school topic. Charlotte's favourite story... Never ignore a coincidence," the Doctor draws out and then seems to remember the more pressing issue of the Pandorica and starts to scan it again. "Unless you're busy. In which case, always ignore a coincidence."
"So, can you open it?" River asks.
"Easily. Anyone can break into a prison. But I'd rather know what I'm going to find first," the Doctor replies, and River's communicator beeps.
"You won't have long to wait," she states, looking down at the screen. "It's already opening. There are layers and layers of security protocols in there, and they're being disabled one by one. Like it's being unlocked from the inside."
"How long do we have?"
"Hours at most."
"What kind of security?"
"Everything. Deadlocks, time stops, matter lines," River informs them, and the Doctor's face falls.
"What could need all that?" He wonders.
"What could get past all that?" River adds ominously.
"A wizard," Cherry suggests light-heartedly, nudging the Doctor. "Maybe it's Voldemort?"
The Doctor snorts out a laugh, shaking his head at her joke, and then he presses his ear to the box, trying to listen to whatever is inside. "Think of the fear that went into making this box. What could inspire that level of fear? Hello, you. Have we met?"
"So, why would it start to open now?" River questions the Doctor, and he shakes his head.
"No idea," he rasps.
"Ahem, and how could Vincent have known about it? He won't even be born for centuries," Amy raises a very good question, and Cherry looks to the Doctor expectantly, hoping he has an answer. The Doctor scans the chamber once with his screwdriver, stepping away from the Pandorica and turning on his heels to gather readings from the huge stone pillars of the Underhenge.
"The stones. These stones are great big transmitters, broadcasting a warning to everyone, everywhere, to every time zone," he explains to them. "The Pandorica is opening."
"Doctor?" River's composure falters, her fear on full display as she watches the Time Lord examine his screwdriver. "Everyone? Everywhere?"
"Even poor Vincent heard it in his dreams. But what's in there? What could justify all this?"
"Doctor, everyone?" River presses, but the Doctor ignores her.
"Anything that powerful, I'd know about it. Why don't I know?"
"Doctor, you said everyone could hear it. So, who else is coming?" River asks again, and the Doctor finally acknowledges her, slowly turning to face the three women with round eyes.
"Oh," he utters, and Cherry and Amy raise their eyebrows at him.
"What is it?" Cherry demands, not following completely.
"Okay. If it is basically a transmitter, we should be able to fold back the signal," the River speaks, rushing over to each stone pillar and holding the communicator up against it.
"Doing it!" The Doctor calls out to her, running around the chamber and buzzing the pillars with his screwdriver.
"Doing what?" Amy raises her voice.
"Stonehenge is transmitting. It's been transmitting for a while, so who heard?" River asks the cousins, who both contemplate it for a moment. Cherry's stomach twists in knots, and her hands tremble and go clammy as she thinks over the possibilities of what could have heard the warning. She hasn't met many aliens, just a few races, but some of them have been totally hostile, and she can only imagine how many evil creatures there are out there who would love to get their hands on whatever is in the Pandorica.
"Oh, this is not good," she says shakily, wiping her hands on her trousers.
"Okay, should be feeding back to you now. River, what's out there?" The Doctor says as he finishes whatever he has been doing with the screwdriver.
"Give me a moment," she says, trying to bring up readings from the stones on her device.
"River, quickly. Anything?"
River gapes at the results on the communicator for a moment, shaking her head wordlessly, and then she breaks the news to the rest of the group with grateful eyes. "Around this planet, there are at least ten thousand starships."
"At least?" Amy scrutinises her choice of words.
"Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million," River lists, taking in more and more results. "I don't know. There's too many readings."
"What kind of starships?"
Then, a loud voice is projected through the chamber. It echoes around them as it barks out orders and Cherry's heart beats against her ribcage as she hears the robotic yells of a Dalek. They all share similar looks of terror, looking up at the top of the Chamber fearfully.
"MAINTAINING ORBIT!"
"I OBEY. SHIELD COVER COMPROMISED ON ION SECTORS."
"Daleks," Amy says in a hushed tone. "Those are Daleks."
"SCAN DETECTS NO TEMPORAL ACTIVITY!"
"SOFT GRID SCAN COMMENCING!"
"REVERSE THRUST FOR COMPENSATORY STABILISATION!"
"Daleks, Doctor," River repeats Amy's words to the Time Lord, who is frozen to the spot.
"LAUNCH PRELIMINARY ARMAMENTS PROTOCOL."
The Doctor inhales deeply before he starts to pace back and forth, throwing his screwdriver restlessly between his hands as he thinks aloud. "Yes. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Dalek fleet, minimum twelve thousand battleships, armed to the teeth. Ah! But we've got surprise on our side. They'll never expect three people to attack twelve thousand Dalek battleships. Because we'd be killed... instantly. So, it would be a fairly short surprise. Forget surprise."
"How can there be twelve thousand? When we saw the Daleks there were only five!" Cherry asks, her eyes flickering between the Doctor and River for an explanation.
"The message broadcast through time, the Daleks could be from any time stream," the Doctor explains, but then the voice projected from the communicator changes to a much lower, more monotone voice. It's still a robot. Cherry's sure of that, but it's certainly not a Dalek.
"Course correction proceeding," it says and River splutters.
"Doctor! Cyberships," she warns him.
"No, Dalek ships. Listen to them. Those are Dalek ships," the Doctor says, still listening to the faint sound of the Daleks in the background. He seems to catch onto the newer voice when he stops talking and pauses again.
"Yes. Dalek ships and Cyberships," River tells him.
"Well, we need to start a fight! Turn them on each other. I mean, that's easy. It's the Daleks. They're so cross," the Doctor rambles, quite shaken by the thought of the two fleets of ships.
"Sontaran. Four battlefleets," River names another group.
"Sontarans! Talk about cross. Who stole all their handbags?" The Doctor says, and Cherry can tell he is feeling quite hopeless in that moment. She leans against the Pandorica for support as Amy glances around them, terrified.
"Terileptil. Slitheen, Chelonian, Nestene, Drahvin. Sycorax, Haemogoth, Zygon, Atraxi, Draconian. They're all here for the Pandorica," River continues, her voice growing increasingly urgent with every name. The Doctor stops rambling, retreating back toward the Pandorica and away from the entrance to the chamber. Cherry has never seen him so terror-stricken before, and it is deeply unsettling to see a man who is usually so confident and brave looking so petrified. He turns around when he reaches the box, and he reaches up and pulls Cherry off of it and pushes her behind him.
"What are you? What could you possibly be?" He asks breathlessly, touching his hand to the box. The ground begins to shake, and the sound of spaceships whizzing about and approaching the ground can be heard even from inside the chamber. The Doctor darts out of the chamber and back up to Stonehenge, leaving the three women to follow after him. When they make it up to the surface, Cherry's jaw drops at the sight of the thousands of spaceships in the sky, all whizzing around and shining bright lights around in the sky. It dawns on her that there is absolutely nothing they can do to fight against this many aliens all at once, even with River and the Doctor's intelligence.
"What do we do?" Amy struggles to speak, and her voice is shaking.
"Doctor, listen to me. Everything that ever hated you is coming here tonight. You can't win this. You can't even fight it," River spells out the level of danger they are about to face. "Doctor, this once, just this one time, please, you have to run."
"That's a good idea. We should run," Cherry decides. "We'll definitely all die if we stay."
"Run where?" The Doctor points out the fact that they are essentially cornered.
"Fight how?" River counters. The Doctor pulls his binoculars out of his pocket and looks off into the distance, over the plains.
"The greatest military machine in the history of the universe," the Doctor states.
"What is? The Daleks?" Amy asks.
"No, no, no, no, no, no," the Doctor answers as he lowers the binoculars. "The Romans."
"You want to take on all these aliens with the Romans?" Cherry says slowly, trying to make sense of the Doctor's plan because honestly, she doesn't see how that could ever work. The Nazis stood no chance against the Daleks even with bombers and spitfires, and the Romans don't exactly have those kinds of advanced weapons.
"Do you have a better idea?" The Doctor turns to her, and she shakes her head. He looks to River and Amy with the same question, and neither of them is able to provide a more sensible plan, so he sets into motion, ordering River to go and gather Roman troops. Cherry offers to go with her, not wanting to leave her alone whilst all of those ships are flying above, even if she is potentially a dangerous criminal. River declines her offer, though, claiming it's best she and Amy stay with the Doctor for now. She gives the Doctor her communicator before she leaves on horseback and lets them know that she has another one they can communicate through.
"So, what's this got to do with the Tardis?" Amy asks as they make their way back down to the Pandorica. At least down there, they aren't in the view of the spaceships, and the Doctor can carry on scanning the box to try to figure out what could possibly be hidden in it.
"Nothing, as far as I know," the Doctor says as he uses the communicator River gave him and his screwdriver to study the Pandorica.
"But Vincent's painting. The Tardis was exploding. Is that going to happen?" Amy asks the Doctor.
"One problem at a time. There's forcefield technology inside this box. If I can enhance the signal, I could extend it all over Stonehenge. Could buy us half an hour," the Doctor answers distractedly, and Cherry sighs.
"Half an hour until we're slaughtered by the millions of aliens flying above us," she mutters, and the Doctor looks over at her with raised eyebrows.
"A little bit of optimism would be appreciated," he tells her, but Amy doesn't seem to get the memo.
"What good is half an hour?" She enquires, and the Doctor shrugs.
"There are fruit flies that live on Hoppledom Six that live for twenty minutes, and they don't even mate for life..." the Doctor informs them both, and they share the same bemused expression. He seems to lose track of his thoughts, and he pauses. "There was going to be a point to that. I'll get back to you."
Amy turns away from them as Cherry walks over to the Doctor to ask him if there's anything she can do to help. The redhead takes a small velvet box out of her pocket and opens it up to reveal a golden engagement ring. She turns around and holds the open box up to the Doctor. "So, are you proposing to someone?"
"I'm sorry?" The Doctor and Cherry both look over, their expression twisting at the sight of the ring. Cherry's heart plummets. Maybe the Doctor rejecting her advances isn't just to protect her... perhaps he's already got eyes for someone else. Although, he doesn't seem like the proposing type, and Cherry swears the ring box looks familiar.
"I found this in your pocket," Amy walks closer so they can get a better look. The Doctor looks quite panicked at the sight of the ring, and he tears his focus away from the Pandorica.
"No. No, no, that's, er, a memory. A friend of mine. Someone I lost. Do you mind?" The Doctor says awkwardly and tries to take the ring, but Amy pulls it away from his grasp.
"It's weird, I feel... I don't know... something," Amy says, staring at the ring with her eyebrows drawn together.
"People fall out of the world sometimes, but they always leave traces. Little things we can't quite account for. Faces in photographs, luggage, half-eaten meals, rings," the Doctor tells her cryptically, and Cherry sighs, walking around the back of the Pandorica to get a better look at it and also to avoid the conversation between Amy and the Doctor. He said it belonged to a friend... was he really going to propose to somebody? Somebody he lost... is that why he is so reluctant to pursue anything with her? "Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered, it can come back."
"So, was she nice... your friend?" Cherry hears Amy ask the Doctor.
"Remember that night you flew away with me?" The Doctor changes the subject.
"Of course I do."
"And you asked me why I was taking you, and I told you there wasn't a reason. I was lying," the Doctor admits quietly, and Cherry reappears from behind the box, intrigued to hear more.
"What, so you did have a reason?" Amy arches an eyebrow at him.
"Your house," the Doctor tells her, and she dramatically sighs and rolls her eyes at him.
"Our house?" She presses.
"It's too big. Too many empty rooms. Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life doesn't make any sense?" The Doctor asks her quietly, and then he turns to Cherry. "And you, Charlotte Pond... something about you and your life seems... intertwined with mine. The Tardis is drawn to you. I didn't mean to land in your living room, all those years ago when the Angels took your mum and dad. And then one year later I crashed in your back garden... you weren't there, of course, but the Tardis was exploding. Doesn't it seem a little too coincidental for me to accidentally land in your house twice in the space of a year?"
"Never ignore a coincidence..." Cherry breathes out, mirroring his words from earlier, and he smiles, nodding bitterly. "But you didn't ask me along because of that? You didn't know who I was until Starship UK!"
"I know, but I've been thinking about it since then, and -"
A laser beam cuts him off, just missing Amy's head as it zooms past them and bounces off the Pandorica. They all duck out of the way, taking cover behind the box as something shoots at them.
"What was that?" Amy asks, her chest heaving as they press themselves flat against the side of the Pandorica to try and make themselves less of a target.
"Okay, I need a proper look. Got to draw its fire, give it a target," the Doctor says, and Cherry frowns at him.
"And how do you propose we do that?"
"You know how sometimes I have really brilliant ideas?" The Doctor asks the brunette, and she huffs derisively but nods her head. He plants a sloppy kiss on her forehead, and her cheeks flush red. "Sorry."
"Doctor!" Cherry shouts after him as he throws himself out of the cover of the Pandorica and waves his arms in the air.
"Look at me, I'm a target!" He yells, barely dodging a red beam, and then he hides behind one of the stone pillars.
"You idiot!" Cherry hisses at him from behind the Pandorica.
"I'm fine!" He brushes off her concern-fuelled anger.
"What is it?" Amy asks.
"Cyberarm. Arm of a cyberman."
"What's a cyberman?"
"Oh, sort of part man, part robot. The organic part must have died out years ago. Now the robot part is looking for... well... fresh meat," the Doctor shares with them.
"What, us?"
"It's just like being an organ donor, except you're alive and sort of screaming," the Doctor confirms quickly. "I need to get round behind it. Could you draw its fire?"
"What, like you did?" Amy demands, pointing out how reckless that is.
"You'll be fine if you're quick! It's only got one arm, literally," the Doctor promises them. "Split up, you'll confuse it!"
Cherry and Amy both hesitate behind the Pandorica for a moment before they both run out from behind it, screaming as they dodge shots from the dismembered robot arm. They hide behind different stone pillars, and the Doctor jumps out from behind it, seizing it into his grip and using the sonic to disable it.
"Scrambled its circuits, but stay where you are. It could be bluffing," the Doctor calls out to the girls.
"Bluffing? It's an arm?" Amy rolls her eyes, and they both step forward a little.
"I said stay where you are!" He raises his voice at both of them, holding his hand out to halt them in their tracks. They stop, staying put in their hiding places as he examines the arm and tries to figure out if it is well and truly disabled.
"Doctor!" Amy whispers fearfully, looking down as something snakes around her ankle and then yanks her to the floor. Cherry's eyes go wide, and she makes a move to help Amy as the Doctor shouts her name, but she stops when the arm sends volts of electricity through his body. He falls to the floor, unconscious or dead and Cherry panics. She rushes over to him, careful not to touch him in case the arm electrocutes her too, but she breathes out a sigh of relief when she realises he is still breathing. She looks over at Amy, who has metal wires wrapped around her arms and the head of the cyberman in her hands. She slams it against the stone pillar until it releases her, and then she drops the head on the floor and scrambles away from it as it crawls along the floor like an octopus.
"Amy, are you okay?" Cherry checks on her, still kneeling at the Doctor's side.
"Yeah! I'm fine," she replies, and then inhales sharply and pulls something out of her neck.
"You will be assimilated," the head threatens in its monotone voice, and Amy sways on the spot.
"Yeah? You and whose body?" Amy teases, and then her eyes go wide as mechanical marching echoes through the chamber and an armless, headless figure advances on her.
"No!" Cherry abandons the Doctor, rushing forward and pushing a very woozy Amy out of the way. The body of the Cyberman picks up its head with its single arm and then staggers toward them. "Amy, run! Quickly."
"No, Cherry," Amy argues. "Not without you."
"Amy, you can barely walk," Cherry points out as the redhead stumbles back. "I'll be right behind you; I'm just giving you a head start."
"But-"
"Delete. Delete!" The cyberman barks and Cherry feels its metal fingers grip her shoulder.
"Cherry!" Amy screams, and the brunette's eyes go wide. She struggles to rip her shoulder free from its iron grip, and she turns to Amy frantically.
"Amy! Get out of here! Run!" She cries to her little cousin, who flinches as bolts of electricity rush through Cherry from the hand of the robots. She screams out, her body jerking harshly until it releases her, and she crumbles to the floor in a heap.
"Cherry!"
A/N: cue the heartbreak...