I watched as the Doctor zigzagged around the room, giving people orders. "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."
Amy caught the watch the Doctor threw to her. "Okay! Um, 12 and a half minutes till drill impact!"
"Tony Mack!" The Doctor shouted, stopping in front of him and speaking rapidly, almost under his breath. "Sweaty forehead, dilated pupils, what are you hiding?"
Tony seemed to be having trouble breathing as he opened his shirt, revealing sprawling green veins across his chest.
Nasreen immediately fell soft, trying to study his chest. "Tony! What happened?"
The Doctor gave her a knowing smile she didn't catch as he scanned Tony with his screwdriver. Tony gulped. "Alaya's sting. She said there's no cure. I'm dying, aren't I?"
The Doctor went to fiddle with one of the control panels in the room. I couldn't help but get closer to see the veins up close. "You're not dying. You're... growing?" I wondered, waiting expectantly for the Doctor's answers.
Usually, this was the part where he would smile at me; explain something to me—anything but a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Mutating."
I swallowed hard, and Nasreen gave me a look, noticing that this wasn't what usually happened—and probably wondering what changed after seeing him panic over me in the courtroom when I first woke up.
I knew exactly what had changed. What had changed was that I told him of my flashback. Something in it scared him. Something in it made him angry with me, and I couldn't stand to hear it in his voice.
"How can I stop it?" Tony asked.
"Decontamination program. Might work, don't know. Eldane, can you run the program on Tony?" The Doctor asked.
"Doctor, shedload of those creatures coming our way. We're surrounded in here!" Mo interrupted, looking up from the security monitor.
"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?" He spoke rapidly, stopping in front of Nasreen. "Nasreen, how do you feel about an energy pulse channeled up through the tunnels to the base of the drill?"
Nasreen frowned at him. "To blow up my life's work?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yes. Sorry. No nice way of putting that."
Nasreen sighed dejectedly. "Right, well, you're going to have to do it before the drill hits the city, in uh..."
"Eleven minutes forty seconds," Amy finished for her, watch in hand.
The Doctor smiled excitedly, going back over to the control panels. "Yes, squeaky bum time!"
"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 explained.
Rory seemed mildly panicked. "But we can't get past Restac's troops."
"I can help with that." Eldane interrupted. "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." Eldane explained, seeming calculated yet sad.
"You could end up killing your own people," Amy worried.
"Only those foolish enough to follow Restac." He agreed solemnly.
The Doctor was staring at the floor. "Eldane, are you sure about this?"
Eldane nodded. "My priority is my race's survival. The Earth isn't ready for us to return yet."
"Ten minutes Doctor," Amy reminded him quietly.
"No..." The Doctor sighed. "But maybe it should be. So, here's a deal. Everybody listening!" He placed a hand on Eldane's shoulder momentarily. "Eldane, you activate shutdown. I'll amend the system, set your alarm for a thousand years time." He turned back to the group. "A thousand years to sort the planet out; to be ready. Pass it on. As legend, or prophecy, or religion, but somehow make it known. This planet is to be shared."
"Yeah. I get you," Elliot smiled.
The Doctor smiled back, snapping and pointing at him.
"Nine minutes, seven seconds." Amy clicked the watch.
The Doctor hopped back behind the controls, and everyone followed as he rambled on to himself, pressing buttons and flipping switches here and there. "Yes! Fluid controls, my favorite. Energy pulse. Timed, primed and set. Before we go, energy barricade. Need to cancel it out quickly."
"Fumigation pre-launching," Eldane confirmed, on a different control panel beside him.
"There's not much time for us to get from here to the surface, Doctor!" Rory panicked.
The Doctor only laughed. "Ah ha, super-squeaky bum time! Get ready to run for your lives. Now."
"But, the decontamination," I reminded the Doctor meekly, still somewhat afraid of myself.
He didn't glance at me, only straight to Tony, who was standing in the chamber, slouching. He struggled to walk out. "Well, go. All of you, go!"
"No, we're not leaving you here!" Ambrose protested, tears in her eyes.
"Granddad!" Elliot ran up to him, hugging him tightly.
"Eight minutes ten seconds," Amy reminded everyone.
Tony held his grandson in his arms. "Now you look after your mum. You mustn't blame her. She only did what she thought was right."
Elliott understood. "I'm not going to see you again, am I?"
"I'll be here, always." Tony put his hand over Elliot's heart, before hugging him again. "I love you, boy." He handed Elliott back to his mother. "You be sure he gets home safe."
Ambrose was crying now. "This is my fault!"
"No, I can't go back up there. I'd be a freak show. The technology down here's my only hope," Tony reasoned.
"I love you, dad," Ambrose cried, as her and her father embraced each other tightly.
"Come on," Mo pulled Ambrose away from Tony, and Nasreen had tears in her eyes as he walked back to the chamber.
Eldane placed his hand over a monitor button, and the system voice boomed throughout the city. "Toxic fumigation initiated. Return to cryo-chambers."
"They're going. We're clear," Amy announced, watching Restac's army outside the door leave through the security monitor.
The Doctor ran over to the doors and soniced them open. "Okay, everyone follow Nasreen. Look for a blue box. Get ready to run."
The Doctor walked up to Eldane and said earnestly, "I'm sorry."
"I thought for a moment, our race and the humans..." Eldane trailed sadly.
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, me too."
"We've got less than six minutes," Amy told me.
"Let's go, he'll follow," I assured her, rushing everyone out. I knew Nasreen would stay behind.
888
The Doctor finally caught up to us, running faster to get ahead and open the TARDIS with his key. "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," He rushed Ambrose and her family inside, before noticing a bright light behind him, and turning around to face it.
There in the wall, was a giant crack from the silence, fuming and bright. "Not here... Not now. It's getting wider." The Doctor worried.
"We should go inside," I suggested, not knowing whether or not it was a smart move to interrupt what would happen to Rory, but everyone ignored me, so the decision was made.
"The crack on my bedroom wall," Amy acknowledged.
"And the Byzantium. All through the universe, rips in the continuum," The Doctor knelt to examine the crack closer, and looked back to me for just a second—the first time he had truly acknowledged me since I told him, remembering what had happened to me.
"Some sort of space-time cataclysm. An explosion, maybe—big enough to put cracks in the universe. But what?" The Doctor rambled on. I closed my eyes tight, willing myself not to say anything.
"Four minutes fifty. We have to go," Amy tried, reminding the Doctor of our impending doom yet again.
"The Angels laughed when I didn't know. Prisoner Zero knew. Everybody knows except me!" The Doctor was frustrated now, not even paying attention to the city crashing.
"Doctor, just leave it!" Amy urged him, looking to me for help, but I couldn't say anything. I knew what was going to happen to Rory, and I was afraid of the Doctor being mad at me. I felt like I was letting her down in so many different ways right now, but I couldn't bring myself to think of anything that would simultaneously fix this and not destroy the timelines. Rory's countless deaths and re-births felt too big, too confusing, and too important for me to mess with.
Amy seemed to stop trying to urge me to say something when I brought my hands up to my face in distress. Little did she know that my distress was over the idea that I was about to let her fiancé die.
The Doctor got a red handkerchief out from his pocket, grinning wickedly. "But where there's an explosion, there's shrapnel."
"Doctor, you can't put your hand in there!" Rory pointed at him.
The Doctor only smiled and asked "Why not?" before doing exactly that anyway.
"Because it hurts," I whispered to myself in annoyance. Amy and Rory gave me a look signaling that they heard what I had said, before noticing the Doctor was screaming now.
"I've got something!" The Doctor shouted between screams.
"What is it?" Amy asked urgently.
The Doctor yanked whatever he was holding on to out of the crack, and fell back, the piece in his hand sizzling and he examined it from the floor. "I don't know."
"Doctor?" Rory asked, panicking upon noticing Restac crawling into the room, in pain, gasping, and a face full of fury.
The Doctor easily jumped up off the ground in one swift motion to stare at her.
"She was there when the gas started. She must have been poisoned," Amy recounted.
"YOU!" Restac shouted, slowly dragging a gun in front of her, attempting to aim it at anyone.
"Okay, get in the TARDIS, all of you," The Doctor commanded quietly, staring at Restac on the ground and standing tall, as if he were preparing himself for a fight.
"You did this!" Restac raised her weapon, and fired.
"NO!" I shouted on instinct, standing to the left of the Doctor and pulling him closer to me, and out of the line of fire.
However, as I did that, Rory also shouted, "DOCTOR!" and pushed him out of the way, and into me, causing him to be shot instead.
"RORY!" Amy screamed.
All of us ran over to him, kneeling on the ground beside his withering form.
"Rory, can you hear me?" The Doctor held him as he wailed in pain.
The Doctor used his sonic on him as the pain lessened a little, and his eyes darted around the room. "I don't understand."
"Shush. Don't talk," Amy caressed Rory's face, "Doctor, is he okay? We have to get him onto the TARDIS," She looked at him desperately.
"We were on the hill. I can't die here," Rory stared up at his fiancé, and the Doctor and I moved back.
"Don't say that," Amy whispered, tears falling onto Rory's slowly rising chest.
"You're so beautiful," Rory shook his head; giving her the most sincere look I had ever seen. I realized then that there were tears running down my face, also. Rory shut his eyes tight. "I'm sorry."
As Rory died, white streaks of light reached out to curl around his feet as Amy continued sobbing, her voice cracking. "Doctor, help him! Nova..."
The Doctor stood up and slowly moved towards the TARDIS, noticing the crawling light was only growing. "Amy, Nova... move away from the light. If it touches you, you'll be wiped from history."
I stood up, but Amy refused to leave Rory's side. "Amy..." I begged quietly.
"No. I am not leaving him! WE HAVE TO HELP HIM!" Amy shrieked, rocking back and forth manically, not taking her eyes off Rory's still face.
It was one thing seeing this on a TV screen. It was one thing remembering it in your head. But it was completely different seeing someone who you now considered to be your friend, crying over her dead fiancé, and knowing that you could have stopped it.
And also knowing that you couldn't have.
The Doctor crouched down behind Amy and grabbed her shoulders, focusing on the light while he shook her, making sure it didn't stretch to her. "The light's already around him. We can't help him," he told her, trying to remain calm.
"I am not leaving him!" She sobbed, gripping onto Rory's shirt until her knuckles were white as the Doctor tried pulling her back.
"We have to." The Doctor stated firmly.
"NO!" Amy screeched, the Doctor pulling her up now.
"I'm sorry!" The Doctor shouted over her as he held her upright, and began dragging her over towards the TARDIS.
"GET OFF ME!" Amy screeched again, thrashing in his arms.
Numbly, I opened the TARDIS doors and allowed the Doctor to drag Amy in. I stared at the silence engulfing Rory's body like a hundred sprawling halos, Amy's screams and the Doctor's apologies as the soundtrack. I was entranced for a moment, feeling like I was staring at a chaos I created—at a version of my own destruction, until I heard my name.
"NOVA! NOVA!" Amy shouted for me.
I was snapped out of my reverie, and quickly ran into the TARDIS and shut the doors behind me as the Doctor soniced them closed, preventing Amy from running out again.
"YOU!" Amy shouted at me, pressing me against the TARDIS doors harshly, the locks digging into my back, her scream surprising me, begging me between sobs, "You have to do something! You can do something! I know you can!"
My eyes were still leaking tears despite the fact that I wasn't making noise, and now they were wide with shock. I had no idea what to say that would calm her in general, and that wasn't even including the fact that I didn't know what calming thing I would be allowed to say—whether the Doctor was in the room or not. "I... I don't—!"
Amy's eyes searched mine, and for just a moment she was calm—until she didn't find an answer in them. She grabbed my shirt and pushed me against the door again. "You LIAR! You know! You know how to fix this, you have to know!"
I couldn't help the sobs escaping my lips now—not only was Amy's anger towards me one of the most heartbreaking and terrifying things I had ever experienced, but as soon as she said the words you know, I felt the trigger go off in my brain again, and it began pounding.
"Amy, please!" I begged, shutting my eyes tight and clenching my teeth to try and bear through the pain—so much so that I didn't notice the Doctor had come up to us.
"Amy, get off her!" The Doctor ordered, pulling Amy back from me, much as he had done before.
As soon as the Doctor had succeeded in pulling her away from me, he darted over to the TARDIS, pushing down a lever that set us in motion before anyone had the chance to protest. Amy ran over to him, putting his hands over his on the lever, as if she was trying to reverse it, break it, anything. "DOCTOR, NO! That light—I'm going to forget him! He'll never have existed! You can't let that happen!"
The Doctor snatched his hands from the lever and gripped her shoulders. "Keep him in your mind, don't forget him. If you forget him, you'll lose him forever!" He explained to her urgently.
"When we were on the Byzantium I still remembered the Clerics because—I, am a time traveller now! YOU SAID!" Amy rushed through the tears, gripping the Doctor's shirt, urging him to do something.
The Doctor moved his hands to hold the sides of her head. "They weren't part of your world, this is different. This is your own history changing!"
As the Doctor seemed to be studying Amy intensely—it seemed that all she could do was sob. "Don't tell me it's going to be okay. You have to make it okay!" She screamed, before moving away from him and over to me again, this time only gripping my shoulders. "You can make it okay!"
At this point I assumed there couldn't have been a way to say that it would be better with time and make her believe it. I racked my brain, but there was nothing I could do personally. It just had to happen. "I—It's not... You just—Ugh!" I shook my head, staring down as my tears hit the floor, more frustrated than I had ever been in my life.
"You. KNOW!" Amy shouted again—and with those magic words, a wrenching pierce tore through my head, causing me to wail in pain, too. "It's not just killing you, it's killing EVERYONE ELSE TOO!"
"Amy, stop it!" The Doctor pulled her away from me again. "You need to remember Rory. It's going to be hard, but you can do it, Amy," He kissed her forehead, before dragging her over to the pilot's chair. "Tell me about Rory, eh? Fantastic Rory, funny Rory, gorgeous Rory!" He sat her on the chair and knelt before her, urging her to face him, listen to him. "Amy, listen to me. Do exactly as I say. Amy, please. Keep concentrating, you can do this."
Amy stared into the distance ahead of him, scavenging her brain for memories, and shaking her head, looking at him fearfully and whispering, "I can't."
"You can. You can do it—I can't help you unless you do." He shook her by the shoulders. "Come on... We can still save his memory. Come on, Amy, please..." he urged her quietly. I could see the memories written across her face—but as soon as she seemed to remember something, she would be too shaken, and forget about it again. "Come on, Amy, come on." She stared at him with squinty eyes, trying to find something. He shook her again. "Amy, 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."
Amy's gaze was finally fixated on nothing, which meant it was working—but the TARDIS jolted, sending everyone flying to the ground, and Amy's memories of Rory into oblivion.
I got up quickly, seeing the Doctor starring at a small red velvet box on the floor, not daring to move a muscle, which I knew contained Amy's wedding ring.
"What were you saying?" Amy sat up, in the most terrifying chirpy voice.
She had forgotten.
I tried to tell myself it would be fine soon, and she would remember—but there was always that doubt in the back of my mind that I had changed something and nothing would fix. And the look of bewilderment and sadness and fear on the Doctor's face as he stared at her did nothing to help.
Mo and his family walked out of a hallway, interrupting. "I have seen some things today, but this is beyond mad!"
Amy grabbed the watch that had fallen to the floor. "Doctor, Nova," She whipped her head around to glance at me also, and flashed me a brief smile. Never have I felt so conflicted about such a short, simple smile. "Five seconds till it all goes up."
Everyone stumbled out of the TARDIS, myself rushing out last, to see the drill burst up in flames in the distance.
888
"All Nasreen's work, just erased!" Amy commented in bewilderment, walking across the graveyard and back into the church, as if she couldn't believe years of development could disappear in just a moment. But it could, unfortunately, in more ways than one—and the fact grew more depressing every second.
"Good thing she's not here to see it! She's going to give Tony hell when they wake up," Mo laughed behind her.
I took a deep breath, walking another direction and up to the Doctor who was leaning against a side doorway to the church.
"Um, Doctor," I spoke, unsure of my own voice as I approached the stone archway.
The Doctor did nothing—only slowly dragged his eyes over to me as I stood across him.
"I'm sorry." I said, as firmly as possible, crossing my arms
"For what?" He asked, hands in his pockets, looking at me with his head held high so a shadow draped over his face.
I shrugged, looking out at the graveyard, afraid of whatever emotion was written across his face, or lack thereof. "Everything that happened. And..." I took my locket out from in my shirt and in my hand, turning it over and over—an for the first time, wondered if it would be better if I stayed in 51 and never came back. "For being here. I don't know if I should..."
"No..." The Doctor trailed, and I thought my worst suspicions were confirmed.
I closed my eyes and moved to press the jewel into my locket, when I felt a hand over mine. I looked up, and saw the Doctor's face hovering closely over mine. "Don't you ever, think that," He breathed, and I could feel it.
He started at me fiercely, and I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at him, trying to study the emotions on his face unashamedly. He seemed afraid of me before, and so sure that I had been somehow out to get him even if I wasn't aware of it, or someone was out to get him through me—but now there was something different there. I couldn't tell what it was, but I knew there was a lot of it. We stayed gazing like this for a while, barely aware of time passing— or simply not caring, until I remembered the orb.
I looked down, sighing. "Doctor, there's something I..." I looked up at him again, and his gaze hasn't wavered. "I've had this locket all my life," I started slowly, "But it didn't start working until I found my artifact, this orb, and... activated it, which activated this. But it's technically property of the US government right now and they want to destroy it."
I reached to pull the long chain of my locket over my head, and the Doctor gripped my wrist sharply. "Nova—you're connected to that, you can't take it off."
"I know," I placed a hand over his wrist and slowly moved it away. "My friend Meredith and I—we've experimented with it a little." The Doctor gave me a worried look. "A little! Everything's fine as long as I'm still touching it."
I slowly reached to move part of the locket chain over his head. Although the chain was fairly long and somewhat flexible, it didn't allow for too much space, and our foreheads were touching now.
"Nova, I know this takes you to a different universe," The Doctor whispered, but I had already guessed that he figured that out. "What are you doing?"
"Whatever that thing is, I just can't let them take it," I whispered back, wrapping my hand firmly around the stone now, holding it up just to the side of our heads. "I need your help."
The Doctor didn't speak, only reached up and clasped his hand over mine, and squeezed it—pushing the button.
A/N: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH I AM SO EXCITED AND ALSO NERVOUS FOR YOU ALL TO READ THE NEXT EPISODE, so I uploaded this one quick!
I hope it's not too unrealistic for you all how quickly the Doctor seemed to change attitudes about Nova there. He was angry at something—Nova, or the Time Lords, or maybe even himself—and seemed to be snapped out of it when Nova suggested leaving. Two things to keep in mind:
1. The Doctor would probably seriously not want to be away from the only other Time Lord in existence despite circumstances/how evil they are (ex: 10 didn't even leave the master and cried over him)
2. Think about what intrigues him about River.
Get ready for some Meredith/Dylan/Nova/Doctor madness. Don't worry—this will most likely be the only complete original episode in this entire series—the rest will be like before, with only parts of Nova being in 51 rather than the full thing. But I'm definitely still keeping 51 around.
Tell me your thoughts on this, and expectations for the next chapter! I love you all! (even though there's only like, three of you, lol)