McKenzie woke on the jump seat to hear a man's panicked voice yelping from a few metres away. She couldn't see anything when she opened her eyes, so she assumed the Doctor must have taken her visor off when he'd put her there. The funny thing was, she couldn't remember passing out...
The man yelped again, and she rolled her eyes. "What are you doing?" she asked, standing up slowly. She felt a bit sick, but that was probably something to do with the way the TARDIS was jolting this way and that like a rollercoaster.
"Umm," the Doctor said, making her turn her head in his direction. "Would you be mad if I said 'hanging from the threshold'?"
She sighed, not even surprised. "Are you alright?"
"I mean, asides from the threat of impending impalation from Big Ben, yeah!"
Her eyes widened. "Oh God." She addressed the central console. "Could you please try and fly a little more smoothly so I can help our husband, darling?" The flight evened out and she smiled, cautiously feeling her way over to the doors and reaching down to pull the Doctor in.
"How do you get her to listen to you like that?" he complained, closing the doors.
She grinned. "Because I'm her favourite."
"You're not!"
"TARDIS?" The ship buzzed in the affirmative and McKenzie smiled smugly. "Ha! Oh, and do you have JENSEN? I can't see a thing over here."
"Here," the Doctor said, helping her put the visor back on. "Well, what do you think?" He gave a twirl.
She looked him up and down, pursing her lips. "It'll do."
"Hey!"
"She's my favourite, too," JENSEN piped up.
"Why're you all ganging up on me?" the Time Lord pouted, crossing his arms childishly.
McKenzie smiled, kissing his nose. "Relax, baby. You're gorgeous as ever." The TARDIS jolted again, resuming the turbulent flight they'd had before. "Okay, what's going on?"
"Ah," the Doctor bit his lip. "Ever so slightly, sort of... crashing?"
"What?!"
***
A young ginger girl knelt by her bed in a white nightgown and closed her eyes to say her prayers. "Dear Santa," she began, her Scottish accent strong. "Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honest, it is an emergency." She looked to her right furtively. "There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but I know it's not, because at night there's voices, so please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or a..." She broke off as she heard a strange mechanical sound outside, followed by a crash. "Back in a moment." She got up and went to the window, peering out. When she saw the words 'police public call box' she smiled. "Thank you, Santa."
***
The little girl ran down to the blue box outside to find it on its side, the doors opening outwards. She flinched as a grappling hook was flung out, catching on her old swing set. Soon after, a soaking wet man followed it, sitting on the edge of the box. "Could I have an apple? All I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before."
"Oi, give us a hand!" He reached down and helped a woman up to sit next to him. She was soaked to the skin, too.
"Whoa," he exclaimed, looking past her into the box. "Look at that."
The little girl frowned as the woman put her hand to her mouth, cringing. "Are you okay?"
The woman nodded, clearly lying. "Just had a fall. All the way down there, right down to the library. Hell of a climb up apparently, but I had the luxury of personalised transport." It was then that Amelia noticed the white feathery wings apparently attached to the woman's back.
"You're soaking wet," she pointed out, wondering if it was rude to ask about the woman's wings.
"We were in the swimming pool," the man shrugged.
Amelia frowned. "You said you were in the library."
The woman raised her eyebrows. "Yep, and so was the swimming pool." She gagged, grimacing. "Actually, I think I drank half of it."
"Are you the police?" Amelia asked curiously.
"Why?" the man asked, instantly alert. "Did you call the police?"
"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" the girl countered.
"What crack - argh!" the man fell off the box and onto the ground, cringing in pain. The woman moved to his side immediately, rubbing his back soothingly.
"Are you all right, mister?" Amelia wondered.
"No, I'm fine," he assured her. "It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-" He was cut off as a breath of golden energy escaped from his mouth, making the woman turn away, gagging again.
"Who are you?" Amelia asked curiously.
"He doesn't know yet," the woman said, discretely taking his pulse while watching him fondly. "He's still cooking."
"Does it scare you?" the man questioned.
"No, it just looks a bit weird," the little girl shrugged.
The woman chuckled, then took a deep breath, making a face. The man frowned. "No, no, no, I mean the crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"
"Yes," Amelia nodded.
"Well, then," the man decided, getting to his feet with the woman at his side. "I'm the Doctor, she's the Angel. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." He then walked straight into a tree, making his wife snicker.
Amelia looked at him oddly. "Are you all right?"
"Early days," he muttered, getting back up. "Steering's a bit off." Amelia led the way back into the house and he put his arm around his wife, concern in his eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Don't know," she mumbled, taking her visor off to rub at her eyes, grimacing. "I just feel a bit...nauseous?"
"My regeneration energy," he frowned, cupping her face. "It's making you sick."
She blinked in surprise, her eyelashes casting shadows on her cheeks. "What?"
"Every time I've regenerated since I met you, you've been there. You've always been there. And every time, you've been ill afterwards. The first time, at Christmas, you were passed out for way longer than necessary. Then when that Dalek shot me last year, your body rejected the Metacrisis so violently..." He looked vulnerable as he remembered it. "I thought you were going to die." He shook his head. "And now it's happening again. I don't know what it is, but it's hurting you."
She closed her eyes, leaning her head against his. "Good job I married a Doctor then." He kissed her forehead, wrapping his arms around her protectively.
***
Amelia handed the Doctor an apple as McKenzie attempted to dry her hair with a tea towel, her visor covering her eyes once more. "If you're a Doctor, why does your box say 'Police'?" the young girl asked.
McKenzie snorted. "She has a point, you know."
Huffing, the Doctor bit into the apple, then spat it out, cringing. "That's disgusting," he said matter-of-factly. "What is that?"
"An apple," Amelia replied.
"Apple's're rubbish," he decided. "I hate apples."
Amelia frowned. "You said you loved them."
"No, no, no, I like yoghurt," he told her, taking a seat next to his wife. "Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt." Amelia handed him a pot from the fridge. He ripped the lid off and poured it into his mouth, then spat it right back out again, narrowly missing Amelia. "I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in."
"You said it was your favourite," Amelia protested.
"New mouth, new rules," he tried to explain. "It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!" He shuddered in pain, McKenzie holding him to her worriedly.
"What is it?" Amelia exclaimed. "What's wrong with you?"
"Wrong with me?" he echoed indignantly. "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something."
Five minutes later, Amelia was frying bacon on the stove and the Doctor was licking his lips appreciatively. "Ah, bacon!" McKenzie sniffed, then clapped a hand over her mouth, running out.
By the time she returned, looking paler than usual, the Doctor was spitting the bacon out. "Bacon," he realised. "That's bacon." He narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to poison me?"
Next, Amelia tried baked beans. The Doctor grinned. "Ah, you see? Beans." His opinion changed, however, as soon as he tried some. "Beans are evil! Bad, bad beans."
McKenzie put her head in her arms on the table, groaning.
The Doctor smiled at Amelia's next attempt. "Bread and butter. Now you're talking." Five minutes later he was throwing the entire plate out of the door. "And stay out!"
Amelia sighed as he returned to the kitchen. "We've got some carrots?"
"Carrots?!" he repeated incredulously. "Are you insane? No. Wait. Hang on. I know what we need. I need, I need, I need... fish fingers and custard."
***
McKenzie looked up in surprise as a bowl was placed in front of her. She smiled, however, when she saw its contents. "I bloody love you."
The Doctor grinned. "Got your mum to thank for that." They both started eating, dipping the fish fingers into the custard while Amelia watched them. She had a tub of ice cream.
"Funny," she decided.
"Am I?" the Doctor blinked. "Good. Funny's good. What's your name?"
"Amelia Pond."
"Oh, that's a brilliant name," McKenzie enthused, her eyes lighting up for the first time since she'd started feeling sick. It may have been the placebo effect, but fish custard always made her feel better. "Amelia Pond. Like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"
"No," Amelia sighed. "We had to move to England. It's rubbish."
"So what about your mum and dad, then?" the Doctor wondered. "Are they upstairs? Thought we'd've woken them by now."
"I don't have a mum and dad," Amelia frowned. "Just an aunt."
"I don't even have an aunt," the Doctor shrugged.
McKenzie rolled her eyes, feeling much better. "No, but you have a wife and children, and a hell of a lot of brothers and sisters."
"Good point."
"You're lucky," Amelia told him.
The Doctor grinned. "I know. So, your aunt, where is she?"
"She's out," Amelia shrugged.
"And she left you all alone?" McKenzie narrowed her eyes. Her daughters hadn't exactly had what you'd call a normal childhood, but she'd never have left a little girl like Amelia on her own.
"I'm not scared," Amelia exclaimed.
"Course you're not," she snorted. "You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man and woman fall out of box, man walks into a tree, woman throws up, man and woman eat fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So do you know what I think?"
"What?" Amelia asked curiously.
The woman turned serious. "Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."
***
The Doctor frowned as he ran his fingers over the four-foot long crack in the wall of Amelia's bedroom. McKenzie and Amelia were watching him, one with curiosity, the other with trepidation, and the woman doing her best to not worry the girl while also trying to not throw up. "You've had some cowboys in here," the Doctor remarked. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."
"I used to hate apples," Amelia mentioned, "so my mum put faces on them."
McKenzie smiled as the little girl handed one to her. "She sounds good, your mum. I'll keep it for later." She looked up as the Doctor frowned further. "Anything interesting?"
He nodded, glancing back at her still-pale face with well-hidden concern. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's the thing: where's the draught coming from?" He scanned it with the sonic screwdriver, stepping back. "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"
"What?" Amelia asked curiously.
"It's a crack," he replied, making McKenzie smirk. "But I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall."
"Where is it then?"
"Everywhere," he answered. "In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom."
McKenzie frowned, listening keenly. "Amelia, sometimes, can you hear...?"
"A voice?" She nodded. "Yes."
The Doctor emptied a glass from Amelia's nightstand and used it to listen to the crack. "Prisoner Zero?" he frowned.
McKenzie nodded. "'Prisoner Zero has escaped', that's what I heard, too."
"What does it mean?" Amelia asked.
"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner," McKenzie explained. "And you know what that means?"
"What?"
"You need a better wall," she teased.
"The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way," the Doctor mused. "The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..." He trailed off, glancing at Amelia.
She narrowed her eyes. "What?"
He bit his lip. "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"
"Yes," the little girl sighed.
McKenzie took her hand and squeezed it. "Everything's going to be fine." The Doctor caught her eye and she nodded. He nodded too, then raised his sonic screwdriver and widened the crack, flooding the room with a bright white light. The voice increased in volume, too, making McKenzie wince.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"Hello?" the Doctor called through. "Hello?"
A giant blue eye appeared, looking at each of them in turn.
"What's that?" Amelia asked.
A bolt of white light hit the Doctor, making him double up, then the crack closed.
"There, you see?" McKenzie said reassuringly. "Told you it would close. Good as new."
"What's that thing?" Amelia questioned. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"
"No, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard," McKenzie bit her lip.
"Whatever it was, it sent me a message," the Doctor said, getting out a familiar leather wallet. "Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message. 'Prisoner Zero has escaped'. But why tell us?"
"Unless..." McKenzie's eyes had widened behind her visor, the Doctor mirroring her expression.
"Unless what?" Amelia prompted, looking between them and tugging on McKenzie's arm.
"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here," she breathed, looking worried.
"But he couldn't have," the Doctor reasoned, trying to reassure them both. "We'd know."
McKenzie's lips formed the unspoken question: Would they?
"It's difficult," the Doctor justified. "Brand new me, not well her, nothing's working properly."
McKenzie followed him out into the hall. "But there's something we're missing," she frowned, looking around carefully. "In the corner of our eyes." She flinched as the TARDIS's cloister bell tolled. "No!" She disappeared in a blur, but stopped almost immediately, clutching her stomach and gagging.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cursed mentally, supporting his wife as they staggered down the stairs. "We've got to get back in there," he shouted as they reached the garden, McKenzie beginning to run without support. "The engines are phasing. She's going to burn!"
"But it's just a box," Amelia pointed out, confused. "How can a box have engines?"
"She's not a box," McKenzie managed. "She's a time machine."
"What, a real one?" Amelia gaped. "You've got a real time machine?"
"Not for much longer if we can't get her stabilised," McKenzie exclaimed, allowing her husband to help her up onto the edge of the box. "Five minute hop into the future should do it."
"Can I come?" Amelia asked.
The Doctor shook his head, making sure his wife wouldn't fall. "Not safe in here," he explained. "Not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."
Amelia pouted. "People always say that."
McKenzie looked her in the eye, holding onto the TARDIS tight. "Are we people? Do we even look like people?"
The Doctor smiled as he noticed Amelia eyeing his wife's wings. "Trust us. I'm the Doctor and she's the Angel." Amelia smiled gently, and the Time Lord jumped up alongside his wife. Together, they jumped off the edge into the box, the man yelling, "Geronimo!" followed by a loud splash.
***
When the TARDIS rematerialised, McKenzie poked her head out only to frown in confusion. "I'm sure there's something wrong with this picture." Her damp hair had chilled the bare skin on her shoulders, but there was a distinct warmth coming from the sun that was drying her hair. "It's in the corner of my eye," she mused.
The Doctor burst out after her, his eyes widening. "Brilliant!"
She blinked. "What?"
"You are brilliant, you are!" he exclaimed, kissing her forehead enthusiastically. Then he turned and ran towards the house, pulling her with him. "Amelia! Amelia, the Angel worked it out! We know what we were missing! You've got to get out of there!"
McKenzie groaned, her head pounding. "Oh, the running. Why must we do the running?"
"Amelia?" the Doctor continued, leading the way onto the first floor landing. "Amelia, are you all right? Are you there? Prisoner Zero's here. Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is -" He collapsed to the floor, the last thing he saw being a cricket bat.
McKenzie blinked, looking down at her unconscious husband and then to the ginger police officer who'd hit him, her vision starting to blur. "Can I just say, that's -" She hit the floor in a dead faint.
***
"White male, mid twenties, breaking and entering. Accomplice, mixed raced female, mid twenties, seems to be wearing some kind of fancy dress. She looks... ill. Send me some back up. I've got them restrained."
The Doctor blinked his eyes blearily, groaning. A quick environmental check told him he was handcuffed to a radiator with his wife next to him, but while she was unconscious, there was no telling her condition.
"Oi!" a sharp Scottish accent brought him to his senses, probably belonging to the ginger police officer leaning against the bannister. "You, sit still."
The Doctor licked his lips, stretching as best he could. "Cricket bat. I'm getting cricket bat."
"You were breaking and entering," the police officer stated icily.
"Well, that's much better," the Doctor admitted, coughing. "Brand new me. Whack on the head, just what I needed." McKenzie stirred next to him. "Oh, hello, dear."
"Do you want to shut up now?" the police officer scowled. "I've got back up on the way."
"Hang on, no, wait," the Doctor frowned. "You're a policewoman."
"And you're breaking and entering," she returned. "You see how this works?"
McKenzie blinked, sitting up as best she could while handcuffed to a radiator. "Where's Amelia?" she mumbled, shaking her head slightly to clear it.
The policewoman froze. "Amelia Pond?"
The woman nodded. "Yeah, Amelia. Little, little Scottish girl." She yawned. "Where is she? We promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose we must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?"
"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time," the policewoman said slowly.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "How long?"
"Six months."
"No... No, no, no, we can't be six months late," the Time Lord exclaimed, his eyes widening. "I said five minutes, I promised."
"What happened to her?" McKenzie asked, her voice clearer and more focused than it had been in a while.
"Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up," the policewoman requested, speaking into her radio. "These guys know something about Amelia Pond."
"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now," the Doctor decided.
"I live here," the police officer stated, looking irritated.
He frowned. "But you're the police."
"Yes, and this is where I live. Have you got a problem with that?"
"How many rooms?" McKenzie cut in, half concentrating on trying to unlock the Doctor's handcuffs.
The policewoman blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"
"On this floor," McKenzie clarified. "How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now."
"Why?"
McKenzie smiled slightly. "Because it will change your life."
The ginger woman eyed her for a second, then answered. "Five," she said, pointing as she counted them out. "One, two, three, four, five."
"Six," the Doctor added on seamlessly.
"Six?"
"Look," he urged.
"Look where?"
"Exactly where you don't want to look," he told her. "Where you never want to look. The corner of your eye. Look behind you."
Very slowly, the policewoman turned, gasping when she saw a door where previously she had only seen wall. "That's - That is not possible. How's that possible?"
"There's a perception filter all around the door," McKenzie explained. "I sensed it the last time we were here. Should've seen it."
"But that's a whole room," the ginger protested. "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
The Doctor nodded, straining against his cuffs. "The filter stops you noticing. Something came here a while ago to hide. It's still hiding and you need to uncuff us now!"
"I don't have the key," the ginger replied absently as she stepped towards the sixth door. "I lost it."
"How can you have lost it?!"
"Stay away from that door!" McKenzie warned suddenly. "Do not touch that door!" She redoubled her efforts on her husband's handcuffs.
"Listen to her, do not open that," the Doctor continued for her, groaning when the ginger opened the door, going inside. "Why does no one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to? Again."
McKenzie rolled her eyes. "Actually I think it's probably because your hair exists and your clothes are all ripped and wet. But sure, let's go with the face." His cuffs clicked open and she sighed in relief. "There you go."
The Doctor smirked. "My screwdriver, where is it?" he called to the ginger, moving to work on hers. "Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"
"There's nothing here," the ginger replied.
"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the room," McKenzie pointed out. "What makes you think you could see it? Now please, just get out."
"Silver, blue at the end?"
"My screwdriver, yeah," the Doctor perked up.
"It's here."
The Doctor shrugged. "Must have rolled under the door."
"Yeah. Must have." The ginger paused. "And then it must have jumped up on the table."
McKenzie froze. "Get out of there. Get out of there! Get out! Please, just get out!"
The Doctor frowned when the ginger said nothing, not coming out. "What is it? What are you doing?"
"There's nothing here, but -"
"Corner of your eye," McKenzie reminded her.
"What is it?" the ginger asked.
"Don't try to see it," the Doctor warned. "If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it. Do not look."
The policewoman screamed.
"Get out!" McKenzie shouted.
The ginger woman ran out, looking terrified. "Give me that," the Doctor requested, holding his hand out for the screwdriver she held in her hand. She handed it over and he locked the sixth room, then tried to free McKenzie, but the screwdriver shuddered and whirred. "Come on. What's the bad alien done to you?"
"Will that door hold it?" the ginger asked.
McKenzie rolled her eyes behind her visor, starting to worry they might not get out. "Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space. They're all terrified of wood!"
The ginger's eyes widened as the room shone with a bright white light. "What's that? What's it doing?"
"I don't know, getting dressed?" the Doctor guessed. "Run. Just go. Your backup's coming. We'll be fine."
"There is no backup."
The Doctor actually stopped sonicing his wife's handcuffs as they both looked up at the policewoman in shock. "What?"
"But..." McKenzie frowned. "But I heard you on the radio. I mentioned Amelia and you called for backup."
"I was pretending," the ginger excused. "It's a pretend radio."
"You're a policewoman," the Doctor protested.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm a kissogram!" She took off her hat and her long red hair fell down around her shoulders. Behind her, the door to the sixth room fell down to reveal a workman in overalls with a black dog by his side.
The ginger frowned as she turned to look. "But it's just -"
"No, it isn't," McKenzie cut her off. "Look at the faces."
The man barked and the ginger blinked, astonished. "What? I'm sorry, but what?"
"It's all one creature," McKenzie explained patiently, eyeing it with some worry. "One creature disguised as two. Clever old multiform. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?"
The multiform opened the man's mouth to reveal long needle-like teeth, threatening them.
"Stay, boy!" the Doctor warned, not leaving his wife's side. "Me and the ladies, we're safe. Want to know why? That one sent for backup."
"I didn't send for backup!" the ginger protested.
The Doctor winced. "I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives."
"Okay, yeah, no backup. And that's why we're safe," McKenzie reasoned. "Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had backup, you'd have to kill us."
A loud voice boomed from outside, startling them. "Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."
"What's that?" the ginger asked, even as McKenzie sighed in exasperation.
"Well, that would be back up," the Doctor answered, hastening his work on McKenzie's handcuffs.
"Okay, one more time," she decided. "We do have backup and that's definitely why we're safe."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
She groaned. "Well, safe apart from incineration."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Come on," the Doctor pleaded, trying to make the sonic work. "Work, work, work, come on."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
He scowled. "Okay, Plan B." He grabbed the chain of her handcuffs and she gasped as she felt the temperature drop enough for ice to form against the metal and her wrists. With one sharp tug, the cuffs broke, and he pulled her up. "Run! Run!" The three of them sprinted from the house.
***
"Kissogram?" McKenzie asked as they reached the garden, rubbing her wrists as she pulled the remains of the cuffs from them. The skin was red from the sudden cold of the ice, but the discomfort was swiftly fading.
"Yes, a kissogram," the ginger replied, clearly having had to deal with that question a lot. "Work through it."
"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?" the Doctor asked, more concerned with his sonic screwdriver.
"You broke into my house," she pointed out. "It was this or a French maid." She shook her head, getting back on track. "What's going on? Tell me. Tell me!"
"Basically, an alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house to kill him," McKenzie told her. "Any questions?"
"Yes," the ginger stated indignantly.
"Me too," McKenzie admitted. Their conversation was cut off by the Doctor's reaction as he tried - and failed - to get into the TARDIS.
"No, no, no, no!" he cried. "Don't do that, not now!"
"What's wrong?" McKenzie asked, hoping the TARDIS wasn't still hurting from the crash.
The Doctor rested his hand against the ship's door as he answered. "She's still rebuilding. Not letting us in."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
McKenzie rolled her eyes but stopped when her gaze landed on the surprisingly old-looking shed.
"Come on," the ginger said, starting to walk off.
"No, wait, hang on," the brunette frowned. "Wait, wait, wait, wait!" The other two stopped, looking confused. "That shed," she said, pointing at it. "We destroyed that shed last time we were here. Smashed it to pieces. I nearly threw up on its remains, I remember it."
"So there's a new one," the ginger shrugged. "Let's go."
McKenzie shook her head. "Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least."
"Twelve years," JENSEN interjected.
McKenzie turned back to the Doctor. "We're not six months late, we're twelve years late."
"He's coming," the ginger warned, glancing back at the house worriedly.
"You said six months," McKenzie pointed out, turning to her. "Why did you say six months?"
"We've got to go," the ginger stressed.
"This matters," the Doctor backed his wife up. "This is important. Why did you say six months?"
"Well, why did you say five minutes?!" she shot back angrily.
The aliens stepped back, blinking. "What?"
Amelia rolled her eyes, turning away. "Come on."
"What?"
"Come on!"
"What?"
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
The aliens shared a look. "You okay?" the Doctor asked, concern in his eyes.
"I am now, yeah," McKenzie nodded. "You?"
He smiled. "Yeah. I love you, you know. Haven't said it in a while."
She hugged him tightly. "I love you too, you big idiot. Just don't die on me anytime soon and we'll both be fine."
***
"You're Amelia," the Doctor said as they caught up with the ginger.
"And you're late," she returned bluntly.
"Amelia Pond. You're the little girl."
"I'm Amelia and you're late."
"What happened?" McKenzie asked, frowning.
"Twelve years," Amelia pointed out.
"You hit me with a cricket bat," the Doctor protested.
"Twelve years."
"A cricket bat!" McKenzie stressed.
"Twelve years and four psychiatrists," Amelia shrugged.
McKenzie raised an eyebrow. "Four?"
"I kept biting them," Amelia excused.
"Why?"
"They said you weren't real," Amelia said quietly.
They were distracted by loud voice booming from the speakers of an ice cream van across the street. "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat."
"No, no, no, come on," Amelia complained. "What, we're being staked out by an ice cream van?"
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
The Doctor and McKenzie hurried over, Amelia at their heels. "What's that?" McKenzie asked, frowning. "Why are you playing that?"
The man inside the van shrugged helplessly. "It's supposed to be Clair De Lune." The message was also blaring from the radio.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Doctor, Angel, what's happening?" Amelia asked, seeing it was coming from a woman's phone from down the street.
McKenzie winced as it started coming from JENSEN too. "Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Sorry, honey," she muttered, pressing the mute button. "You don't want to hear it any more than I do." She shared a look with the Doctor. If these aliens could hack JENSEN's speakers, they must be very powerful indeed. On the other hand, they sure as hell weren't getting away with hacking him.
***
Somehow, they had ended up in the living room of the house of an old lady who was probably just as confused - if not more so - as McKenzie was about how they'd got there. The woman had been introduced as Mrs Angelo and was flicking through channels on TV but only receiving the same droning message.
"Hello!" the Doctor exclaimed, leading the trio in. "Sorry to burst in. We're doing a special on television faults in this area." He eyed Amelia's costume. "Also, crimes. Let's have a look."
"I was just about to phone," Mrs Angelo said, frowning. "It's on every channel." She brightened as she saw Amelia. "Oh, hello, Amy, dear. Are you a policewoman now?"
"Well, sometimes," the ginger shrugged.
"I thought you were a nurse," Mrs Angelo admitted. McKenzie raised her eyebrows.
"I can be a nurse," Amy shrugged.
"... or actually a nun?"
Amy winced. "I dabble."
"Amy, who are your friends?"
The Doctor straightened, frowning. "Who's Amy? You were Amelia."
"Yeah?" She shrugged. "Now I'm Amy."
"Amelia Pond," McKenzie frowned. "That was a great name."
"Bit fairy tale," Amy wrinkled her nose. McKenzie pouted.
"I know you, don't I?" Mrs Angelo said, biting her lip. "I've seen you two somewhere before."
"Not me," the Doctor smirked. "Brand new face, first time on." He turned back to Amy, apparently remembering something else he wanted to say. "And what sort of job's a kissogram?"
Amy shrugged. "I go to parties and I kiss people. With outfits. It's a laugh."
The Doctor frowned. "You were a little girl five minutes ago."
"You're worse than my aunt," Amy scoffed.
He narrowed his eyes. "I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt."
McKenzie raised her eyebrows pointedly. "And that is not how you're introducing yourself."
The radio blared out the message, this time in French, then German as the Doctor changed the frequency, frowning. "Okay, so it's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world." He shared a glance with his wife, who went to the window and looked up and out.
"What's up there?" Amy asked. "What are you looking for?"
"Well, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need a forty percent fission blast," McKenzie calculated, coming back inside as a young man came through the door. "But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-sized starship, that's twenty minutes. What do you think, twenty minutes? Yeah, twenty minutes, we've got twenty minutes."
"Twenty minutes to what?" Amy asked, shaking her head.
"Are you the Angel?" the young man asked, making McKenzie blink in surprise.
"She is, isn't she!" Mrs Angelo realised, smiling. "She's the Harrowing Angel, and he's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor and the Harrowing Angel. It's them."
"Harrowing?" McKenzie echoed, her eyes widening.
"Shut up," Amy muttered, blushing.
"I'm sorry, harrowing?!" McKenzie repeated.
"Gran, it's them, isn't it?" Jeff grinned. "It's really them!"
Amy rolled her eyes. "Jeff, shut up. Twenty minutes to what?"
"The human residence will be incinerated. Repeat."
"The human residence," the Doctor began. "They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship and it's going to incinerate the planet."
"-will be incinerated. Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Twenty minutes to the end of the world," McKenzie said ominously.
"Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
***
"No, I'm sorry," McKenzie apologised later as they went back onto the streets, "I just can't get past this. Harrowing? What made you call me harrowing?" She sounded almost insulted.
Amy bit her lip. "It doesn't matter."
"It does to me!" the other woman protested. "Now, raggedy I can understand, he is raggedy but harrowing?"
"Hey!" the Doctor frowned, but they both ignored him.
Amy sighed. "Seeing you... was harrowing. You looked so ill, I thought... Well, I thought you were going to die. And I don't ever want to see that."
McKenzie was stunned into silence. The Doctor grinned. "How'd you do that? Half the time she never shuts up," he joked.
"Oi, you," she rolled her eyes, elbowing him, but it was with fondness.
"So," he continued, "what is this place? Where are we?"
"Leadworth," Amy replied promptly.
"Where's the rest of it?"
"This is it."
"Is there an airport?" McKenzie asked, just in case they needed somewhere to land a certain Quinjet.
"No."
"A nuclear power station?" the Doctor checked.
"No."
"Even a little one?"
"No."
"Nearest city?"
"Gloucester," Amy answered. "Half an hour by car."
The Doctor frowned. "We don't have half an hour. Do we have a car?"
"No."
He rolled his eyes. "Well, that's good. Fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and we've got a post office."
"Actually, the post office is shut," McKenzie pointed out, smirking.
"What is that?" the Doctor asked, pointing to a pond with a bench next to it.
"It's a duck pond," Amy replied, raising her eyebrows in confusion.
"Why aren't there any ducks?" he demanded.
"I don't know, there's never any ducks," she shrugged.
"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?" he reasoned.
Amy narrowed her eyes. "It just is. Is it important, the duck pond?"
The Doctor grunted in pain, clutching his chest; McKenzie helped bear his weight and manoeuvred him to sit down on the bench. "I don't know," he frowned. "Why would I know?" He focused on McKenzie and shook his head slightly. "You shouldn't be here. I'll make you sick."
She smiled slightly. "Not going anywhere, handsome. I promised I'd stay by your side, remember? Now, do you think you can walk without hitting a lamppost?"
He groaned in pain. "This is too soon," he told her. "I'm not done yet, I'm not ready."
"It's okay," she soothed calmingly. "That's what I'm here for. Been saving places with you for six years already, how hard could it possibly be going solo?" It was at that point that a black disc covered the sun, making the world go dark. "Shit," she muttered.
"What's happening?" Amy asked, looking around. "What's wrong with the sun?"
"Nothing," McKenzie told her. "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet."
"Oh, and here they come," the Doctor rolled his eyes, watching as people ran outside to stare at the sun in shock. "The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."
"This isn't real, is it?" Amy shook her head. "This is some kind of big wind up."
McKenzie frowned. "Why would we wind you up?"
"You told me you had a time machine," Amy pointed out.
The Doctor shrugged. "And you believed us."
"Then I grew up."
"Oh, you never want to do that," McKenzie pouted before her eyes widened and she whipped around. "No, hang on, shut up. Wait..." She growled in annoyance. "I missed it. I saw it and I missed it. What did I see? I saw... What did I see? I saw, I saw, I saw..." Her gaze landed on a young male nurse photographing a familiar man and his dog, and she grinned. "Gotcha." She glanced at her wristwatch. "Twenty minutes, we can do it." She turned back to Amy, ignoring her husband's proud smile. "In twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help us."
"No," Amy deadpanned.
McKenzie blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"No!" She grabbed the front of McKenzie's shirt and started to drag her over to a car that was conveniently just pulling up.
"Amy, no, no, what are you doing?!" the Doctor cried, staggering after them.
Amy slammed the edge of McKenzie's jacket into the door, taking the keys from the driver and locking it. "Quick question," the older woman said, raising one finger. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Who are you?" Amy demanded.
McKenzie frowned. "You know who I am."
"No, really. Who are you?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Look at the sky. End of the world, twenty minutes."
"Well, better talk quickly, then," Amy raised her eyebrows pointedly.
"Amy," the man whose car she'd commandeered said timidly, "I am going to need my car back."
"Yes, in a bit," she said, not even looking at him. "Now go and have coffee."
"Right," he blinked. "Yes." He wandered off.
"Catch," McKenzie said suddenly, tossing the apple Amy had given her half an hour/twelve years before. The ginger caught it, stunned into silence. "I'm the Angel," McKenzie began lowly. "He's the Doctor. We're time travellers. Everything we told you twelve years ago is true. We're real, what's happenign in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."
"I don't believe you," Amy whispered.
"Just twenty minutes," the Doctor pleaded, moving to stand by his wife's side. "Just believe us for twenty minutes."
"Look at it," McKenzie urged, nodding at the apple. "Fresh as the day you gave it to me, and you know it's the same one. Amy, please. Believe for twenty minutes."
Amy stared at her for a moment, then unlocked the car door, biting her lip. "What do we do?"
McKenzie grinned, stretching. "Stop that nurse." And with that, she disappeared in a dark blur, hurdling the park railings to appear in front of a man in a blue uniform, who was looking at her in shock as Amy and the Doctor followed at a more leisurely pace. "Hi," she panted, taking a moment to catch her breath, then stood up properly to grin at the nurse's bewildered expression. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?"
"Amy," the man frowned, seeing Amy and the Doctor join them.
"Hi!" the ginger greeted. "Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend."
Rory tilted his head. "Boyfriend."
"Kind of boyfriend," Amy adapted.
"Amy!" Rory complained.
McKenzie frowning, looking between them before shaking her head and turning back to Rory. "Man and dog - why?"
"Oh my God, it's her," Rory realised, his eyes widening.
"You'd be surprised how many people sound disappointed when they say that to her," the Doctor muttered, before grinning as his wife rolled her eyes.
"Just answer her question, please," Amy sighed.
"It's her, though. And him. The Raggedy Doctor and the Harrowing Angel."
McKenzie pouted. "Again with the 'harrowing'?"
"Yeah, they came back," Amy replied, ignoring her.
"But they were a story," Rory protested. "They were a game."
McKenzie moved to block his view of Amy. "Man and dog. Why? Tell me now."
"Sorry," Rory shook his head. "Because he can't be there. Because he's -"
"In a hospital, in a coma," the Doctor muttered, saying it at the same time as Rory.
The nurse frowned. "Yeah."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, grinning. "Knew it. Multiform, you see? Can disguise itself as anything, but it needs a life feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind."
The man Rory had photographed barked at them and McKenzie inclined her head towards him politely. "Prisoner Zero."
"What?" Rory blinked. "There's a Prisoner Zero too?"
"Yes," Amy answered bluntly.
The eyeball ship they'd seen through the crack in Amy's wall flew down to scan the area. McKenzie smiled up at it, giving a cheeky wave. "See, that ship up there is currently scanning this are for non-terrestrial technology, trying to find our friend Mr Zero over there."
"And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver," the Doctor continued, raising the device to make the streetlights explode as all the nearby car alarms went off and a fire engine started driving off on its own.
McKenzie grinned at the chaos, her hands over her ears to block out the piercing screeching that would have undoubtedly pained her otherwise. "I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" she shouted over it all.
A nearby telephone blew up, but then the screwdriver sparked, making the Doctor drop it as the chaos came to an end. "No, no, no, don't do that!"
"Look, it's going," Rory pointed out, watching the eyeball ship move away from them.
For once, McKenzie looked frustrated. "No, come back! He's here! Come back, Prisoner Zero is here!"
Amy frowned as Prisoner Zero made his escape. "Doctor! Angel! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain."
McKenzie rolled her eyes, scowling. "Well, of course, it did."
"What do we do now?" Amy asked.
McKenzie took a deep breath, meeting her husband's gaze, and nodding. "Okay, it's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open." She bit her lip, checking her wristwatch. "No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!" She groaned.
Amy sighed. "So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?"
"Multiforms can live for millennia," the Doctor shrugged. "Twelve years is a pit-stop."
"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!"
He was watching his wife with concern, knowing she was pretending to be less ill than she was. "They're looking for him, but they followed us. They saw us through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because we are."
"What's he on about?" Rory asked.
McKenzie turned back to them, holding out her hand. "Nurse boy, give me your phone."
"How can they be real?" Rory continued. "They were never real."
"Phone. Now. Give me."
Rory handed it over, and she turned away, flicking through the images and frowning. "They were just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him."
McKenzie bit her lip. "These photos, they're all coma patients?"
"Yeah." Rory nodded.
She shook her head. "No, they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero." She moved to her husband's side and he rubbed her back sympathetically.
"He had a dog, though," Amy frowned. "There's a dog in a coma?"
The Doctor tilted his head. "Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog."
"Laptop!" McKenzie exclaimed suddenly, a smile beginning to form on her lips as a plan did in her mind. She turned to Amy. "Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the taller one."
"Thanks," Rory said sarcastically.
"Jeff," Amy answered.
Rory rolled his eyes. "Oh, thanks."
"He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop," McKenzie muttered, still working it all through in her head. "Big bag, big laptop. I need - I need Jeff's laptop," she said, sounding almost as if she were only just realising this for herself, which was, of course, entirely possible.
The Doctor grinned, realising her plan as she did. "You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone us when you're done." He took McKenzie's hand and they zipped off together, leaving Amy and Rory alone on the grass.
"Your car," Amy decided. "Come on."
"But how can they be here?" Rory asked, stumbling after her. "How can the Doctor and the Angel be here?"
***
Jeff was lounging on his bed with his laptop on his lap when the Doctor and McKenzie barged in, making his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
"Hello," McKenzie smiled pleasantly. "Laptop. Give me." She reached for it.
"No, no, no, no, wait," he protested, his eyes widening.
"It's fine," the Doctor told him. "Give it here."
"Hang on!"
McKenzie took the laptop and sat at the end of the bed with her husband, making a face at Jeff's browsing habits. "Blimey," the Doctor blew out a breath. "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."
Mrs Angelo came in through the open door. "Gran," Jeff blushed.
"What are you doing?" she asked, looking confused.
McKenzie looked up from where she was typing away, her fingers too fast to see. "Well, basically, the sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big ol' conference call. All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need?" She grinned. "Me."
"Ah, and here they all are," the Doctor smiled. "All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."
"I like Patrick Moore," Mrs Angelo mentioned.
McKenzie grinned at her. "I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil."
"You can't just hack in on a call like that," Jeff protested.
"Can't I?" McKenzie asked, showing him the screen where six faces popped up on the video call, all of them looking shocked. She showed them the Doctor's psychic paper.
"Who are you?" Patrick Moore demanded.
"This is a secure call, what are you doing here?"
"Hello, boys," the Doctor greeted cheerfully. "Yeah, I know you should switch us off, but before you do, watch what my wife has to say."
"It's here too, I'm getting it," Patrick Moore frowned.
"Fermat's Theorem, the proof," McKenzie announced, showing it on the paper. "And I mean the real one. Never been seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault, I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie: why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of my husband's, faster than light travel with two diagrams and a joke." She put the psychic paper away, her expression turning serious. "Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention." She picked up Rory's phone and started typing, completely ignoring everyone else.
One of the men at NASA frowend. "Ma'am, what are you doing?"
"She's writing a computer virus," the Doctor answered for her, seeing she was concentrating. "Very clever, super fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. And why is she writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out."
McKenzie looked up. "Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got. We're sending this virus viral. Any questions?"
"Who was your lady friend?" Patrick Moore asked timidly.
She rolled her eyes. "Patrick, behave!"
"What does this virus do?" the NASA man asked.
"It's a reset command, that's all," she assured him. "It resets counters. It gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." There was an awkward pause. "Jeff, you're my best man."
"You what?"
She lowered the lid of the laptop so they couldn't see. "Well, the Doctor can't be my husband and my best man, have you never been to a wedding?!" She shook her head. "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."
Jeff was silent for a moment and then, "Why me?"
She shrugged, giving him a cheeky grin. "It's your bedroom. Now go, go, go!" She and the Doctor ran out of the room.
Jeff sighed and cracked his knuckles, lifting the screen. "Okay, guys, let's do this."
The Doctor's head appeared around the door. "Oh, and delete your internet history!"
***
By some extraordinarily bizarre turn of events - the reasons for which McKenzie would never be clear on if she lived for a thousand years - the two of them were driving a fire engine to the local hospital when Amy called.
"Doctor? Angel? We're at the hospital, but we can't through," Amy reported.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Have you seen yourself?!" he asked as he drove, McKenzie holding the phone so they could both hear.
"What did he say?" Rory asked in the background.
"Look in the mirror," Amy mused. "Ha ha! Uniform. Are you on your way? You're going to need a car."
"Don't worry," McKenzie told her, grinning despite herself. "We've commandeered a vehicle." The Doctor put the sirens on, laughing with childlike glee.
***
"Oh God," Amy breathed as they reached the ward, finding it in a total mess. A woman met them in the corridor, holding two girls' hands.
"Officer," she gasped.
"What happened?" Amy questioned.
"There was a man," the mother said. "A man with a dog. I think Dr Ramsden's dead. And the nurses."
Amy called McKenzie back. "Are you in?" she asked on the other end.
"Yep," Amy nodded. "But so's Prisoner Zero."
McKenzie's voice turned serious. "You need to get out of there."
"He was so angry," the mother continued. "He kept shouting and shouting. And that dog. The size of that dog." Amy frowned as she realised it was one of the children speaking, but with the mother's voice. "I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone." Amy and Rory started to back away. "Where did he go, did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the ladies." Then it was the mother talking again, with a sinister tranquility. "Oh. I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths." She opened her mouth to reveal long needle-like teeth.
"Oh my God!" Rory screamed.
"Amy?" McKenzie asked over the phone. "Amy, what's happening?" Amy and Rory ran into the ward and barred the double doors with a broom through the handles. "Amy, talk to me!"
"We're in the coma ward, but it's here," she explained. "It's getting in."
"Which window are you?"
"What, sorry?!"
"Which window?" McKenzie repeated.
"First floor, on the left, fourth from the end," Amy answered. McKenzie hung up, just as the broom barring the door snapped.
Prisoner Zero entered, smirking with the lips of a comatose woman. "Oh, dear little Amelia Pond. I've watched you grow up. Twelve years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor and Angel to return. But not this time, Amelia."
Amy looked at her phone as she received a text from Rory's phone, reading 'Duck!'. She pulled Rory down with her as a white flash lit the room and the window shattered, allowing the Doctor and McKenzie entry.
"Right!" the Doctor grinned. "Hello. Are we late?"
"Nope, three minutes to go," McKenzie informed him.
He nodded. "Good. Still time."
"Time for what, Time Lord?" Prisoner Zero snarled.
He shook his head tiredly. "Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."
Prisoner Zero shook its head. "The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire."
"Okay," McKenzie nodded, shrugging. "You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."
"I did not open the crack," Prisoner Zero stated.
"Somebody did."
"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?" Prisoner Zero smirked. "You don't, do you? The Doctor and the Angel in the TARDIS don't know! Don't know! Don't know!" It changed to a more serious note. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."
"And we're off!" McKenzie announced happily. "Look at that!" She pointed to the ward's digital clock, which read 00:00. She laughed. "Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word, all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out! And that word, the most important word in the world right now, is 'zero'."
"Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint," the Doctor continued. "And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?"
McKenzie grinned, holding up Rory's phone. "The source, by the way, is right here." A bright light shone in through the window. "Oh, and I think they just found us!"
"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me," Prisoner Zero shrugged. "They've tracked a phone, not me."
"Yeah, but this is the good bit," the Doctor smiled. "I mean, this is my favourite bit."
"Do you know what this phone is full of?" McKenzie asked, glancing up from where she was typing again. "Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Ooh, and being uploaded about... now. And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare, I am on fire!"
Prisoner Zero glared at her. "Then I shall take a new form."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, stop it. You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."
"And I've had years," Prisoner Zero smirked. McKenzie's eyes widened and she turned, thrusting her arms out to catch Amy as she collapsed into a dead faint.
"No!" the Doctor exclaimed, kneeling by her. "Amy? You've got to hold on. Amy? Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please."
"Er, Doctor? Angel?" Rory said, looking at Prisoner Zero, who had transformed into a young man with a ripped shirt and floppy hair, holding hands with a woman with caramel skin and long, dark hair.
"Well, that's rubbish," the Doctor frowned, looking at the man. "Who's that supposed to be? I mean, that's clearly you, but -!" His eyes widened.
"It's you," Rory pointed out.
"Me?" He turned to McKenzie. "Is that really what I look like?"
She nodded, smiling fondly, while Rory stared at him. "You don't know?" he asked.
The Doctor made a face, turning back to Prisoner Zero. "Busy day. Why us, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying us?"
A little ginger girl came round from a curtain and held the duplicate Doctor's other hand. "I'm not," Prisoner Zero smirked. "Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor and Angel she knows will return to save her." The voice turned bitter. "What a disappointment you've both been."
McKenzie flinched, but the Doctor took her hand, squeezing it. "No, she's dreaming about us because she can hear us. Amy, don't just hear us, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. We tried to stop you, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."
"No," Prisoner Zero whispered. "No. No!" It transformed.
McKenzie smirked. "Well done, Prisoner Zero. A perfect impersonation of yourself."
From outside, the Atraxi made an announcement. "Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained."
"Silence, Doctor," Prisoner Zero hissed. "Silence will fall." It disappeared, and the Atraxi flew away.
"The sun," Rory said. "It's back to normal, right? That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over." He looked round as Amy woke up. "Amy! Are you okay? Are you with us?"
"What happened?" Amy asked blearily.
"They did it," Rory told her. "The Doctor and the Angel did it."
"No we didn't," the Doctor corrected. "Not quite."
Rory frowned as he noticed McKenzie typing rapidly on his phone again, a look of consternation on her face. "What are you doing?"
"Tracking the signal back," she replied. "Sorry in advance."
"About what?" Rory asked.
She glanced up at him over the phone. "The bill." She put the phone to her ear and with a sudden anger yelled, "Oi!" Rory and Amy both flinched and she smiled apologetically before going back to the call, sounding quietly furious. "I didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet and you were going to burn it?! Did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now." She hung up, handing Rory his phone and took a deep breath before smiling. "Okay, now I've done it." She and the Doctor headed out into the corridor.
Rory and Amy shared a look. "Did she just bring them back? Did she just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" They stood up and ran after them.
***
"Where are you going?" Amy called after them as they caught up.
"The roof," McKenzie replied.
"No, hang on." The Doctor pulled her into a side room.
"What's in here?" Amy asked as she and Rory followed them in.
"I'm saving the world, I need a decent shirt," the Doctor announced, taking off his ripped tie. "To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show."
"Ooh, that's nice," McKenzie said, zipping over to some clothes in the corner.
"You just summoned aliens back to Earth," Rory said, looking stunned. "Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death, and now you're both taking your clothes off. Amy, they're taking their clothes off."
McKenzie glanced at him over her shoulder as she started to pull her shirt off. "Turn your back if it embarrasses you."
Rory did so. "Are you stealing clothes now? Those clothes belong to people, you know." He looked at Amy. "Are you not going to turn your back?"
"No," she replied smirking.
Both McKenzie and the Doctor gave her a look. "Yes, you are."
***
The Doctor and McKenzie strolled out onto the roof in their new outfits, him in a new shirt with several ties draped around his neck, her wearing a new red dress with her usual stiletto heels. Both of them seemed totally unconcerned by the Atraxi ship hovering overhead.
"So this was a good idea, was it?" Amy asked, sounding annoyed. "They were leaving."
McKenzie made a face. "Leaving is good. Never coming back is better. What do you think's best, up or down?" She was looking at the Doctor, moving her hair into an updo and then letting it fall again.
He studied her carefully, then grinned. "Looks lovely down." He winked, then turned to the Atraxi. "Well, come on, then! The Doctor will see you now."
The eyeball dropped to their height. "You are not of this world," it stated, having scanned the pair of them.
"No, but I've put a lot of work into it," the Doctor pointed out. He held up one of his ties. "Oh, hmm, I don't know. What do you think?" McKenzie wrinkled her nose and he pouted.
"Is this world important?" the Atraxi questioned.
McKenzie's eyes flashed dangerously behind her visor. "Important? What's that mean, important? Seven billion people live here. Is that important? I've got a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" There was a pregnant pause. "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"
The Atraxi projected an image of the globe as it scanned it. "No."
"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" the Doctor asked, discarding another tie.
This time, the history of the human race was projected as it was scanned for crimes. "No."
"Okay," McKenzie nodded. "One more, just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many."
The projection changed to show the Daleks, the Cybermen, and all the thousands of species that had ever threatened the Earth.
"The question you've got to ask is, what happened to them?" the Doctor continued.
The projection now showed the Doctor's previous incarnations. When Nine appeared, so did McKenzie's first self, and her second body appeared alongside Ten.
The current Doctor stepped through the projection as he tied his red bow tie, his wife at his side. "Hello. I'm the Doctor."
"And I'm the Angel."
They shared a look, then turned to smile sweetly at the Atraxi. "Basically, run." The eyeball took one look at them and zoomed back to its ship and left the atmosphere faster than the speed of light. McKenzie winced as her TARDIS key glowed, sharing a look with the Doctor.
"Is that it?" Amy asked. "Is that them gone for good? Who were they?" When she got no reply, she and Rory turned to look at the Doctor and McKenzie, only to find them disappearing in a red-tinged blur.
***
They stumbled to a stop outside the TARDIS in Amy's garden.
"Okay," McKenzie smiled, looking up at the blue box, her home. "What have you got for us this time, old girl?" She unlocked the door and they went inside, marvelling at the latest interior.
"Look at you," the Doctor breathed. "Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you."
McKenzie grinned at him from across the console. "Let's take her for a spin. See what mischief we can get up to."
"The three of us? Got all the beauty in the universe right here, right now," the Doctor charmed, pulling her close to kiss her before they threw the dematerialisation lever.
***
When the TARDIS next materialised in Amy's garden and she ran out to greet them, wearing a white nightgown. The Doctor and McKenzie stepped out of the TARDIS, wearing smiles and the clothes they'd stolen from the hospital.
"Sorry about running off earlier," McKenzie apologised, shrugging. "Brand new TARDIS, bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now."
"It's you," Amy breathed. "You both came back."
"Course we came back," the Doctor grinned. "We always come back. Something wrong with that?"
"And you kept the clothes?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Well, we did just save the world. The whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot us. We kept the clothes."
"Besides, they look good," McKenzie pointed out, giving a twirl.
Amy made a face. "Including the bow tie?"
"Pssh, it's cool," the Doctor assured her. "Bow ties are cool."
"Uh, statistically, no, they're not," a heavily accented voice said as the TARDIS door opened behind McKenzie to reveal a young man in a tracksuit. Pietro indicated the SHIELD tablet in his hand. "I just looked it up."
McKenzie smiled at Amy's confused expression. "Well, we didn't just go to the moon. We went back home and picked up a couple of friends, too."
Zoë popped up behind the Sokovian. "Hi!"
Amy stared at them all with wide eyes. "Are you from another planet?"
"Yeah," the Doctor admitted.
"Well, they are," McKenzie shrugged. "Piet and I are still Earthlings, after a fashion."
"Okay," the ginger nodded.
"So what do you think?" Zoë asked.
Amy blinked. "Of what?"
"Well, other planets," she said, grinning. "Want to check some out?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means 'come with us'," McKenzie said.
"Where?" Amy asked.
The Doctor smiled handsomely. "Wherever you like."
Amy hesitated. "All that stuff that happened. The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero."
Pietro chuckled. "They tell me that's just the beginning. There's loads more."
"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, all that stuff - that was two years ago!" Amy glared.
McKenzie winced. "Ooh..."
"Yeah."
"So that's..."
"Fourteen years!" Amy yelled.
"Fourteen years since fish custard," the Doctor laughed. "Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough."
Amy bit her lip, shaking her head. "When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was in the library."
"Yeah, not sure where it's got to now," McKenzie shrugged. "It'll turn up. So, you coming?"
"No," Amy said bluntly.
"You wanted to come fourteen years ago," the Vortex Daughter pointed out.
"I grew up," Amy told her.
The Doctor grinned suddenly, winking. "Don't worry. I'll soon fix that." Pietro opened the other TARDIS door and Amy walked in, mesmerised. "Well?" the Doctor asked, smirking as he closed the doors behind them. "Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."
"I'm in my nightie," Amy realised, her eyes wide.
Zoë chuckled. "Don't worry. There's plenty of clothes in the wardrobe."
"And possibly a swimming pool," Pietro pointed out, nudging the blonde, who grinned at him.
"So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will... Where do you want to start?" McKenzie asked expectantly.
Amy narrowed her eyes. "You are so sure that I'm coming."
"Yep," the brunette smiled.
"Why?"
McKenzie just looked at Pietro, who shrugged and said, "You're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels."
"Oh, do you?"
"All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent?" he raised his eyebrows. "Yes, you are coming."
Amy looked around at them all hesitantly. "Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?"
"It's a time machine," Zoë pointed out. "We can get you back five minutes ago." She smiled curiously. "Why, what's tomorrow?"
"Nothing, nothing," Amy shook her head. "Just, you know, stuff."
"All right, then," Zoë shrugged. "Back in time for stuff."
"Oh!" the Doctor grinned in delight as a new sonic screwdriver with a green diode rose from the console. "A new one! Lovely." He stroked the console caringly. "Thanks, dear."
McKenzie shook her head fondly as she moved to use the typewriter built into the console. "Why me?" Amy asked as she passed.
The brunette shrugged, glancing over her shoulder at her. "Why not?"
"No, seriously," Amy said. "You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"
"I don't know, fun?" McKenzie avoided meeting anyone's gaze. "Do I have to have a reason?"
"People always have a reason," Amy pointed out.
McKenzie fluttered her wings pointedly. "Do I look like people?"
"Yes."
McKenzie sighed. "Just... We've been knocking around on our own for a while, seen some bad things. He's started talking to himself and frankly, it's giving me earache."
"You're lonely?" Amy frowned. "That's it? Just that?"
"Just that," McKenzie assured her, holding out a hand. "Pinky promise."
At that, Amy smiled. "Okay."
"So, are you okay, then?" the Doctor checked. "Because this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit, you know."
"I'm fine," Amy assured him. "It's just... There's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought... Well, I started to think maybe you were just like a madman with a box."
Zoë smiled. "Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about this man, because it's important, and one day, your life may depend on it. He is definitely a madman with a box."
"Hey!" the Doctor exclaimed, mocking hurt.
Pietro grinned. "Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything."
And with that, McKenzie threw the dematerialisation lever, and the blue box simply disappeared.
***
Yes, that's right, Pietro and Zoë are joining the TARDIS crew alongside Amy to form the first three of four companions for this series. I'm so excited to get this show on the road!
Don't forget to vote, comment, and enjoy!