Restac fell to her knees beside Alaya and let out a long, mournful was that broke my heart to bits. "My sister. And you want us to trust these apes, Doctor?" She stood up, hatred lighting fire like her pain was gasoline. I knew how that felt all too well.
"One woman," he pointed out, trying to save the little that was left. "She was scared for her family. She is not typical."
Restac shot to her feet. "I think she is."
"One person let us down, but there is a whole race of dazzling, peaceful human beings up there. You were building something here! Come on! An alliance could work!"
"It's too late for that, Doctor," Ambrose said reluctantly. He seemed to slow down majorly.
"Why?" He demanded curiously, as if he were fighting to stay calm.
"Our drill is set to start burrowing again in fifteen minutes," she said, glancing at a small timer in her hand. I nearly hit the floor at this news.
"What?" Nasreen asked in disbelief, looking at Tony Mack.
"What choice did I have?" He asked her. "They had Eliot."
"No. Don't do this, don't call their bluff," The Doctor warned, but it was clear we'd passed the time for negotiations when Ambrose spoke up again.
"Let us go back. And you promise to never come to the surface ever again. We'll walk away, leave you alone!" She said.
After a moment of disbelief, Restac announced another order. "Execute her."
"No!" The Doctor grabbed Ambrose and they ran. "Everybody, back to the lab. Run!" He corralled us away and I looked back to see him disable Silurian weapons as laser bullets flew. He rolled out of the way as a soldier tried to poison him with it's long tongue like Rory had told me Alaya had done with Tony Mack.
"Execute all the apes!" Restac barked.
"This is a deadly weapon," he told them. "Stay back."
Oh, for crying out loud. Stop showing off! I gave him a loud clap, making him jump. He looked over, saw me, and nodded. Without another warning to him, I turned around and ran, not hesitating to leave him in the hands of danger.
In the hallway, we all re-accumulated.
"Take every one to the lab and make sure Ruby doesn't snap any necks," he told Amy and Rory. "I'll cover for you."
How heroic, I thought sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
"Elliot, you and your dad keep your eyes on that screen. Let me know if we get company. Amy, keep reminding me how much time I haven't got. Ruby, as always, you're the boss." He winked at me subtly and started working on the console.
"Okay. Um, er, twelve minutes till drill impact," Amy informed him.
"Tony Mack. Sweaty forehead, dilated pupils. What are you hiding?" He asked.
Tony unbuttoned his shirt three buttons to reveal fat green veins spreading across his chest.
"Tony, what happened?" Nasreen asked in horror.
"Alaya's sting. She said there's no cure. I'm dying, aren't I?" He asked.
"You're not dying, you're mutating," The Doctor answered after a second.
"How can I stop it?" Tony asked.
"Decontamination program. Might work. Don't know. Eldane, can you run the program on Tony?"
From by the scanner, Mo spoke up. "Doctor, shedload of those creatures coming our way! We're surrounded in here."
"So, question is, how we do stop the drill given we can't get there in time? Plus, also, how do we get out, given that we're surrounded? Nasreen, how do you feel about an energy pulse channelled up through the tunnels to the base of the drill?"
"To blow up my life's work?" She asked.
"Yes. Sorry. No nice way of saying that."
"Right, well, you're going to have to do it before the drill hits the city, in eh..."
"Eleven minutes forty seconds," Amy said nervously.
"Yes. Squeaky burn time," The Doctor answered, messing with some buttons.
"Yes, but the explosion is going to cave in all the surrounding tunnels, so we have to be out and on the surface by then," Nasreen said.
"But we can't get past Restac's troops," Rory pointed out.
"I can help with that," Eldane said, coming to our rescue once again. "Toxic Fumigation. An emergency failsafe meant to protect my species from infection. A warning signal to occupy cryo-chambers. After that, citywide fumigation by toxic gas. Then the city shuts down."
"You could end up killing your own people," I said.
"Only the ones foolish enough to follow Restac," he corrected me kindly.
"Eldane, are you sure about this?" The Doctor asked.
"My priority is my race's survival. The Earth isn't ready for us to return yet," he said.
"No," The Doctor glumly agreed.
"Ten minutes, Doctor," Amy cautioned. But he wasn't done talking yet though.
"But maybe it should be. So, here's a deal. Everybody listening. Eldane, you activate shutdown. I'll amend the system, set your alarm for a thousand years time. A thousand years to sort the planet out. To be ready. Pass it on. As legend, or prophesy, or religion, but somehow make it known. This planet is to be shared."
"Yeah," Elliot said. "I get you."
"Nine minutes, seven seconds," Amy said.
"Yes. Fluid controls, my favourite. Energy pulse. Timed, primed and set. Before we go, energy barricade. Need to cancel it out quickly."
"Fumigation pre-launching," Eldane said, really the only one here understanding what The Doctor meant.
"There's not much time for us to get from here to the surface, Doctor," Rory pointed out. I looked around.
"Ah ha, super-squeaky bum time. Get ready to run for your lives. Now."
"But the decontamination program on your friend hasn't started yet," Eldane objected.
"Well go, all of you," Tony Mack said.
"No, we're not leaving you here," Ambrose decided.
"Granddad," Eliot said, running forward ant hugging his grandfather around the waist.
After a sad goodbye to Tony Mack that I stopped watching because I was tearing up, I was watching the scanner with Amy and we saw all the troops march away.
"They're leaving. We're clear," Amy announced.
"Okay, everyone follow Nasreen. Look for a blue box. Get ready to run," The Doctor said. The door opened and we all bolted. Amy waited for The Doctor and it was when she told him we only had six minutes that I grabbed her wrist and dragged her away with me.
She still insisted on going back for the idiot, so I went with her.
"Doctor!" She yelled to him. He came running. On the way back, we passed Rory, who was obviously coming back for us.
"Other way, idiot!" Amy called. I chuckled despite my burning lungs.
"No questions, just get in. And yes, I know, it's big. Ambrose, sickbay up the stairs, left, then left again, Get yourself fixed up. Come on. Five minutes and counting. Not here." He hurried everyone but Rory, Amy, and me inside and was about to hustle us in when we caught sight of something that shook me somewhere deep inside.
A crack. And not an ordinary crack. An exact replica of the one in Amy's lovely blue bedroom wall, except it was cracked open slightly and spilling light. I couldn't move, memories and dejavu running me down from head to toe.
The reminder of the care and trust I used to feel for the bowtie-wearing man next to me made me shudder. Of course, I'd encountered it once at the Byzantine. But there were tons of people and my mind was scattered. Now if felt like a bully showed up go punch me in the gut. And trust me,.I know what that feels like.
"The crack on my bedroom wall," Amy said.
"And the Byzantium," The Doctor added. "All through the universe, rips in the continuum. Some sort of space-time cataclysm. An explosion, maybe. Big enough to put cracks in the universe. But what?"
He was getting too curious he was gonna kill us all because of it. I looked at the timer in Amy's hand.
"We have to go. Four minutes fifty."
"The Angels laughed when I didn't know. Prisoner Zero knew. Everybody knows except me!"
"Doctor. Seriously. Just leave it," I said. Promptly ignoring my wisdom, he approached the crack.
"But where there's an explosion, there's shrapnel." He pulled out a red handkerchief and wrapped it over his hand.
"Doctor, you can't put your hand in there," Rory said.
"Why not?" The Doctor inquired. With that, he plunged his whole arm into the crack. After a few cries of pain, he exclaimed, "I got something!"
He fell backwards and held up a piece of smoking wood in the steaming handkerchief.
"What is it?" Amy asked.
"I don't know," he admitted. That's a first. Suddenly, I heard a rustling behind us. I whirled around to see Restac, dragging herself into the cave.
"Doctor," Rory said slowly.
"She was there when the gas started. She must have been poisoned," reasoned Amy. Speaking of Amy, I was suddenly very afraid for her. After Restac very nearly killed her and this same Silurian was in the same cave as us and bearing a functioning gun.
"You!" She cried at The Doctor, who retreated a few steps.
"Okay, get in the Tardis, all of you," The Doctor said. I clenched my hands into fists and flexed them out, reviving my habit I'd started during our failed execution, since it seemed.to help relieve some of the stress.
"You did this!" Restac lifted her gun and I stepped squarely in front of Amy, even though I knew the weapon was aimed at none other then The Doctor.
"Doctor!" Rory shoved The Doctor out of the way. I'm sure he didn't mean for it to happen, but by pushing The Doctor away, he put himself in the line of fire just as she pulled the trigger, and took the full force of the blast. Alaya died not a moment after that, but I wasn't paying any more attention to her.
"Rory!" I skidded to the ground beside him.
"Rory!" Amy showed up beside me.
"Rory, can you hear me?" The Doctor asked, kneeling down on the other side of my beloved friend. I put my hand on his twitching chest to find his heart pumping away. I didn't have the time to be relieved, because it began to slow at an alarming pace between unnatural spasms and failures.
"I don't understand," he said shakily, looking among us with fear I was close to tears now. Was this what The Doctor going to do? Insist he cared for me and then pluck off my loved ones one at a time?
"Shush. Don't talk. Doctor, is he okay? We have to get him onto the Tardis," Amy decided desperately.
"We were on the hill," Rory said in such a voice of pain the tears started to run down my cheeks. "I can't die here."
"Don't say that," Amy begged.
He stopped moving so frantically, and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "You're so beautiful," he said to her softly. "I'm sorry!" He said, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. Then ask at once, I stopped feeling heartbeats under my hand.
He was gone. The person I trusted and adored the most of all. He'd been there for me even before Amy moved to Leadworth.
"Doctor, help him," Amy ordered through clenched teeth. I stumbled away and was soon sitting a few feet away, completely numb.
"Amy, move away from the light. If it touches you, you'll be wiped from history. Amy, move away now," The Doctor said cautiously stepping away from her in hopes that she'd follow.
"No," she answered. "I am not leaving him. We have to help him!"
"The light's already around him. We can't help him," he told her slowly. Typical. This cemented Rory's death in my mind. All hope was lost.
"I am not leaving him," she insisted, on the verge of tears.
"We have to," he said.
"No!" She snapped. After casting a look my way, his eyes filled with sorrow, I understood what he was going to do. I pried myself up and staggerd over to Amy.
"Amy," I said, my voice choked. I put my hand on her arm. There was no way I was losing her too. If I had to drag her away myself, I wasn't letting her get erased from history. I wasn't going to lose her like I knew I was about to lose Rory. "Come on. Come on, we have to go."
"No, Ruby! I won't leave him!" She said, shrugging me off. This stung, but I had bigger problems on my mind.
"I'm sorry!" The Doctor said finally, grabbing her around the waist and ripping her from Rory's body. I didn't object. He pulled her backwards despite her lethal struggling.
"Get off me! No!" She shrieked.
I slipped into the Tardis and The Doctor dragged her in. He held her away from the doors to sonic them so she couldn't get back out.
"No! No! No! No! Let me out. Please let me out! I need to get to Rory!" She sobbed, banging on the doors. I couldn't bear seeing her in so much pain. Then she saw the scanner. "That light. If his body's absorbed, I'll forget him. He'll never have existed. You can't let that happen," she said, looking back at The Doctor, barely able to speak through the tears. He stared at the console for a moment before yanking a lever. "What are you doing?" She shrieked.
She bolted up the stairs, prying at his hands and screaming at him desperately. He was much bigger and stronger than she was though, and he soon got her off the console and turned to him, gripping her arms as she did the same, her face red with tears. At this point, I was sitting on a bench, holding my head in my hands. The rhinestone fell out of my hair and clattered to the ground.
"Doctor we can't just leave him there!" Amy wailed.
"Keep him in your mind. Don't forget him. If you forget him, you'll lose him forever," The Doctor ordered.
"When we were on the Byzantium, I still remembered the Clerics because I am a time traveller now, you said!" She sobbed.
"They weren't part of your world. This is different, This is your own history changing!" He corrected her. I looked up finally and felt my braid fall out of its crown.
"Don't tell me it's going to be okay. You have to make it okay!" She cried, beating her fist against his shoulder and gripping his jacket with all her might. I wiped the tears from my face, but they were only replaced by more.
"It's going to be hard, but you can do it, Amy. Tell me about Rory, eh? Fantastic Rory. Funny Rory. Gorgeous Rory!" He lead her over and sat her next to me. He crouched down in front of her, holding her hands in his protectivly. "Amy, listen to me. Do exactly as I say. Amy, please. Keep concentrating. You can do this," he assured her.
I was following his instructions too, even though he wasn't directing them at me. But it was getting harder and harder. I tried to picture him.
Blue eyes. Blonde-brown hair. I pictured running to him like I had so many times as a child. How it felt with his arms around me. Telling me to stay calm, that it would be okay in the end. Walking in the park with him and munching on caramel apples. Feeding geese together with chunks of bread and laughing when one strode right up to me and snatched a crust from me. The day he found me with a gun to my head. Wait; was that really Rory? It had to be. No, maybe it was just the shop clerk from down the street who was throwing out the trash. The way Rory used to hold me until I fell asleep, assuring me nothing could hurt me. I knew that was never true; Rory couldn't exactly fight off my dad. But it had been comforting. No, wait- it hadn't. Had that really happened? No, I don't think so. Maybe it had just been a dream.
"I can't," I said out loud.
"You can. You can do it. I can't help you unless you do. Come on. We can still save his memory. Come on, Amy. Ruby. Please. Come on, girls, come on. Girls, please. Don't let anything distract you. Remember Rory. Keep remembering. Rory's only alive in your memory. You must keep hold of him. Don't let anything distract you. Rory still lives in your mind."
A picture of Rory faded slowly back into my mind slowly. Maybe I could. Maybe I could really do this. Maybe I could keep a hold on him.
The Tardis jolted, and Amy hit the ground. I tumbled after her and we laughed as she elbowed me off of her.
I looked up at The Doctor with flirty eyes. "What were you saying?" I asked sweetly. He stared at me like I just swallowed a stick of lit dynamite.
The clan of people came down the stairs.
"I have seen some things today, but this is beyond mad," Mo decided. I shook my head with a small smile. The Tardis did usury have that effect on people, I'd noticed.
"Doctor. Five seconds till it all goes up," Amy informed us. We all hustled out just in time to see the big mining blow up, throwing fire and smoke and debris in every which way.
"All Nasreen's work, erased," Amy said quietly. I linked my arm with hers and we smiled at each other.
"Good thing she's not here to see it. She's going to give Tony hell when they wake up," Mo commented. Amy rested her head on my shoulder and I kissed the top.of her head quickly before laying my head on hers. Out of everything that has happens today, I was just glad she was safe. Nothing mattered to me more.
***
I was playing tag with Elliot when Amy summoned me to the Tardis. Knowing this would be the last time I saw him, I smiled and saluted.
"Bye, kid."
"See you around," he answered, understanding that he probably wouldn't see me again but saying it as if he would.
I walked up to the Tardis and Amy linked her arm through mine with a smile.
"You're very quiet," she said to The Doctor. "Oh. Hey, look. There we are again, Ruby! Hello, us!" She yelled. We waved at the two figures across the valley. I smiled. It was nice to know Amy and I were still best friends in the future.
But it was weird, for a second there, it wasn't me. It was someone else standing by Amy instead of me. I squinted, but couldn't place who he was. Someone who was from a dream... a dream that never existed in the first place. Anyway, I was back anyway. No more mystery person. Amy stared in silence and the people.
"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked her, seeming worried about her.
"I thought I saw someone else there for a second. Like, not Ruby." After a second, she shook her head. "I need a holiday! Didn't we talk about Rio?"
I smiled and shook my head with a chuckle.
"You go in. Just fixing this lock. Keeps... jamming," The Doctor said unconvincing. I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. He sounded like he was making that up on the spot.
"You boys and your locksmithery," Amy teased before skipping inside. I followed her and shut the door behind us, both of us blissfully unaware of what was unfolding around us.
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Read on, Awkward Ferrets!
~TheLivingParadox