Chapter Nineteen: Remembering the Forgotten
[Court]
"Fire!" Restac ordered.
"Stop!"
Everyone turned to face the entrance and out from the shadows came two figures.
"You want to start a war while the rest of us sleep, Restac?"
She bristled angrily. "The apes are attacking us."
"You're our protector, not our commander, Restac. Unchain them."
She glared at him and tilted her head up haughtily.
"I do not recognise your authority at this time, Eldane."
Eldane opened his arms mockingly. "Well then, you must shoot me."
"You woke him to undermine me." Restac said furiously to the other figure.
Malohkeh.
"We're not monsters." He replied. "And neither are they."
"What is it about apes you love so much, hmm?"
"While you slept, they've evolved." He glanced at Emily and she shook her subtly. "I've seen it for myself."
"We used to hunt apes for sport. When we came underground, they bred and polluted this planet." Restac spat.
Eldane had grown tired of their bickering.
"Shush now, Restac. Go and play soldiers. I'll let you know if I need you."
"You'll need me, then we'll see."
[Crypt]
Rory and Amy were pressing every possible button, trying in vain to pull up something on the screen.
"Nothing." Rory said.
Amy kept pressing buttons. "There's got to be something. We've got to get down there."
Suddenly the screen switched to life, the Doctor's grinning face appearing front and centre.
"Rory. Hello."
Amy shoved Rory out of the way.
For the third time.
"Where's Emily?" She demanded.
"Hello Amy Pond! She's fine." He gestured just behind him. "Look, here, she is."
"Oh, thank God."
"You really think I'm that easy to get rid of?"
"No time to chat. Listen, you need to get down here. Go to the drill storeroom. There's a large patch of earth in the middle of the floor. The Silurians are going to send up transport discs to bring you back down using geothermal energy and gravity bubble technology. It's how they travel and frankly, it's pretty cool. Bring Alaya. We hand her over, we can land this after all. All going to work, promise. Got to dash. Hurry up."
The transmission ended before anyone could reply.
"The moment we get down there, everything will fall apart." Mack warned.
"We have to return her." Rory said. "They deserve at least that."
[Court]
"I'd say you've got a fair bit to talk about." The Doctor announced.
Eldane gazed at him curiously. "How so?"
"You both want the planet. You both have a genuine claim to it."
"Are you authorised to negotiate on behalf of humanity?"
He lifted his head in surprise.
"Me?" He asked. "No. But they are." He said gesturing behind him.
Nasreen and Emily stared at him wide eyed.
"What?"
Emily laughed nervously. "No, we're not."
"Course you are. Emily Pond and Nasreen Chaudhry, speaking for the planet? Humanity couldn't have better ambassadors. Come on, who has more fun than us?"
She bit her lip. "Is this what happens, in the future? The planet gets shared? Is that what we need to do?"
"Er, what are you talking about?"
The Doctor turned to Nasreen.
"Oh Nasreen, sorry." He said, not sorry at all. "Probably worth mentioning at this stage, Emily and I travel in time a bit."
"A bit?" Emily muttered.
Nasreen had barely blinked.
"Anything else?"
"There are fixed points through time where things must always stay the way they are." The Doctor explained. "This is not one of them. This is an opportunity. A temporal tipping point. Whatever happens today, will change future events, create its own timeline, its own reality. The future pivots around you, here, now. So do good, for humanity, and for Earth."
There was a pause of silence where both women took in their responsibility.
"Right. No pressure there, then." Emily said.
Nasreen however, shook her head. "We can't share the planet. Nobody on the surface is going to go for this idea. It is just too big a leap."
"Come on. Be extraordinary."
"Oh."
The Doctor clapped his hands once and addressed everyone. "Okay. Bringing things to order. The first meeting of representatives of the human race and Homo Reptilia is now in session." A childish grin took over his face. "Ha! Never said that before. That's fab. Carry on. Now, Mo. Let's go and get your son. Oh, you know, humans, and their predecessors shooting the breeze. Never thought I'd see it."
[Store room]
There were four travel discs lined up in a row.
Everyone stared at them dubiously.
"So we get on those." Mack asked. "And they take us down through the Earth?"
"Geothermal gravity bubbles, or something." Rory told him.
"They sent five. She was our only bargaining chip." Ambrose said.
Amy glared at her in barely contained anger.
"We have to hand her back."
They were about to step on the disc when Ambrose called out.
"Wait. Before we go down, there's something I've got to do. Dad? I need your help."
[Stasis pod]
Malohkeh led the Doctor and Mo to the stasis pods, not bothered by the awkward silence.
"Elliot. There you are."
Mo turned to the scientist. "If you've harmed him in any way."
"Of course not." Malohkeh assured. "I only store the young."
"But why?" The Doctor asked.
"I took samples of the young, slowed their lifecycles to a millionth of their normal rate so I could study how they grew, what they needed, how they lived on the surface."
"You've been down here working by yourself, all alone?"
"My family, through the millennia, and for the last three hundred years, just me. I never meant to harm your child." He said to Mo.
A wide smile grew on the Doctor's face.
"Malohkeh, I rather love you."
Not sure how to respond, he ignored his comment. "That reminds me." He tapped some buttons on the small computer screen. "Who was the young female in your company? The red haired girl."
The Doctor blinked in surprise. "Emily?"
"Yes, that one." Malohkeh hesitated. "Is she human?"
He frowned. "Why?"
"Becasue . . . I found something in her DNA. Something quite strange for a human."
"What did you find?"
"I don't know. That why I was going to perform a secondary scan, but I was interrupted." His thought process was cut off when the computer made a sound. "It's safe. We can wake him."
Malohkeh unhooked Elliot from the wires and gestured for Mo to take him. "Come."
"Elliot?" Mo called, holding him in his arms. "Ell, it's Dad."
The young boy blinked his eyes open groggily.
"Dad?"
"You're safe now."
"Where are we?"
"Well." Mo said glancing around. "I've got to be honest with you, son. We're in the centre of the Earth, and there are lizard men."
Malohkeh waved at him. "Hi."
"Wow."
The Doctor came into his view. "Elliot. I'm sorry. I took my eye off you."
"It's okay. I forgive you."
Everyone began to move out of the room?
"You go on, Doctor." The Scientist called. "I'll catch up."
"Storage facility nineteen operational."
[Court]
"We lived on the surface of the planet long before you did." Eldane stated. "Our sole purpose has been to return to our rightful place."
Nasreen shook her head and argued. "And we've got a planet that can't already sustain the people who live there. And you want to add a whole other species to drain resources."
"So, what about the areas that aren't habitable to us?" Emily suggested. "Australian outback, Sahara desert, Nevada plains. They're all deserted."
"Yes, fine, but what happens when their population grows and breeds and spreads? And anyway, what benefit does humanity get, and how will we ever sell this to people on the surface?"
"If I could get a word in." Eldane interrupted. "Maybe I could tell you. You give us space, we can bring new sources of energy, new methods of water supply, new medicines, scientific advances. We were a great civilisation. You provide a place for us on the surface, we'll give you knowledge and technology beyond humanity's dreams. If we work together, this planet could achieve greatness."
Nasreen nodded her head in approval. "Okay. Now I'm starting to see it."
Emily grinned. "Boom baby."
At that moment, the Doctor entered the room with Mo and Elliot.
"Not bad for a first session. More similarities than differences." He said.
Eldane smiled. "The transport has returned. Your friends are here."
Everyone got up and left the room, all except the Doctor.
"Doctor? You coming?"
He looked over at Emily.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." He said, absentmindedly frowning at her.
"Is everything alright?"
He seemed to snap out of it and grinned. "Yes, everything is a-okay. Let go see that happy couple of ours, eh?"
[Cryo-chambers]
"That's not right." Malohkeh said, watching as warriors were being revived. "What are you doing?"
"Protecting our race against the apes." Restac snarled.
"You can't do this."
"You're a good scientist, Malohkeh, but this is war."
And she pulled out a gun, barely blinking as she killed Malohkeh where he stood.
[Court]
Emily gasped and clutched her chest, an all too familiar feeling invading her person as she stumbled into the Doctor.
"Emily?" He asked, holding her steady.
She opened her mouth to say something - anything - but ended up saying nothing, unsure what to say.
Before she could think of anything, Rory and Amy appeared in the doorway, followed by Ambrose, then Mack carrying Alaya's body wrapped in a blanket.
"Here they are." The Doctor announced, rubbing Emily's shoulder.
"Mum!" Elliot yelled.
"Emily!" The couple called.
Unable to hold it in, Emily tugged on the Doctor's arm. "Doctor, something's wrong." She told him urgently.
"I know." He said quietly as he watched Mack.
"Wait, what's he carrying?"
"No." He muttered. "Don't do this. Tell me you didn't do this." He said, getting louder and angrier.
Mack laid Alaya on the floor.
"What did you do?" The Doctor demanded.
"It was me." Ambrose said stiffly. "I did it."
Elliot looked up at his mother.
"Mum?"
She rubbed his head. "I just wanted you back."
The Doctor ignored her and turned to Eldane. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. You have to believe me, they're better than this."
"This is our planet!"
"We had a chance here." Emily told her angrily.
"Leave us alone."
"In future." The Doctor spat. "When you talk about this, you tell people there was a chance but you were so much less than the best of humanity."
Restac and her troops marched in.
"My sister." She whispered. "Oh. And you want us to trust these apes, Doctor?"
"One woman." He pleaded. "She was scared for her family. She is not typical."
"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."
•|•
An alliance couldn't work.
It was too late for that.
Ambrose and her father and set the drill for impact, and Restac had tried to execute them all.
It was far too late.
Everyone rushed into the laboratory and the Doctor seals the door behind them.
"Elliot, you and your dad keep your eyes on that screen." He said. "Let me know if we get company. Emily, keep reminding me how much time I haven't got."
He shoved a watched into her hands and moved on.
"Okay. Um, twelve minutes till drill impact." She said.
"Tony Mack. Sweaty forehead, dilated pupils. What are you hiding?"
The man reluctantly lifted up his shirt to reveal green veins running across his chest.
"Tony, what happened?" Nasreen asked.
"Alaya's sting. She said there's no cure. I'm dying, aren't I?"
The Doctor scanned his with the sonic. "You're not dying, you're mutating."
"How can I stop it?"
"Decontamination program. Might work. Don't know. Eldane, can you run the program on Tony?"
"Doctor." Mo called. "There's a 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?"
"Yes. Sorry. No nice way of putting that."
"Right, well, you're going to have to do it before the drill hits the city, in er-"
"Eleven minutes forty seconds." Emily supplied.
"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.
"But we can't get past Restac's troops." Rory said.
"I can help with that." Eldane intervened, stepping forth. "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." Amy said.
"Only those foolish enough to follow Restac.
"Eldane, are you sure about this?" The Doctor said urgently.
"My priority is my race's survival. The Earth isn't ready for us to return yet."
"No."
Emily looked at the watch again. "Ten minutes, Doctor."
"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."
"Doctor? Nine minutes, seven seconds."
He started working on the computer. "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."
"There's not much time for us to get from here to the surface, Doctor." Emily informed.
"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 said.
"Well, go. All of you, go."
"No, we're not leaving you here." Ambrose argued.
"Granddad."
"Eight minutes ten seconds." Emily said sadly.
"Now you look after your mum." Mack told his grandson. "You mustn't blame her. She only did what she thought was right."
"I'm not going to see you again, am I?" He said tearfully.
"I'll be here, always. I love you, boy. You be sure he gets home safe.
"This is my fault." Ambrose sobbed.
"No, I can't go back up there. I'd be a freak show. The technology down here's my only hope."
"I love you, Dad."
"Go. Go."
"Come on." Mo muttered.
"Go on."
"Toxic fumigation initiated. Toxic fumigation initiated." The computer repeated.
"They're going." Amy said. "We're clear."
"Okay, everyone follow Nasreen. Look for a blue box. Get ready to run.
"Return to cryo-chambers."
"I'm sorry."
Eldane shook his head at the Doctor.
"I thought for a moment, our race and the humans-"
"Yeah, me too."
"Doctor, We've got less than six minutes." Emily called.
"Go. Go! I'm right behind you. Let's go."
"I'm not coming either." Nasreen told the Doctor.
"What?"
[Tunnel]
Emily turned and went back for the Doctor.
"Bloody hell."
[Laboratory]
"We're going to hibernate with them." Nasreen told the Doctor. "Me and Tony."
"Doctor, you must go." Eldane warned.
"I can be decontaminated when we're woken. All the time in the world." Mack added.
"But, Nasreen, you-"
"No, this is perfect. I don't want to go. I've got what I was digging for. I can't leave when I've only just found it."
"Doctor!" Emily called.
"Thank you, Doctor."
He hugged her gently. "The pleasure was all mine."
She smiled. "Come and look for us."
[City]
"Immediate evacuation."
Rory passed the two sisters and the Doctor.
"Other way, idiot." Amy said, grabbing him and dragging him away.
"Toxic fumigation is about to commence. Immediate evacuation."
"Come on." The Doctor said, leading Emily after her sister.
"Toxic fumigation is about to commence."
[Outside the Tardis]
"No questions, just get in." The Doctor ordered. "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 looked to his left and saw a crack in the wall.
"Not now. It's getting wider."
"The crack on my bedroom wall." Emily whispered.
"And the Byzantium. All through the universe, rips in the continuum." He moved towards it. "Some sort of space-time cataclysm. An explosion, maybe. Big enough to put cracks in the universe. But what?"
Emily glance at the watch. "Four minutes fifty. We have to go."
"The Angels laughed when I didn't know. Prisoner Zero knew. Everybody knows except me."
Amy rolled her eyes. "Doctor, just leave it."
"But where there's an explosion, there's shrapnel."
"Doctor, you can't put your hand in there." Rory said incredulously.
The Doctor ignores them for a third time, putting a red handkerchief over his hand and reaching into the crack.
"Why not?
Because it would hurt? Emily thought.
"Argh." He yelled. "I've got something."
"What is it?" Emily asked.
He pulled his arm back out.
"I don't know."
"Doctor?" Rory called as Restac crawled in.
"She was there when the gas started." Amy said.
Emily stared at her, trying her best to block out her pain. "She must have been poisoned."
"You." The soldier rasped, glaring at the Doctor.
He turned around and tried to usher the three humans backwards. "Okay, get in the Tardis, the three of you."
"You did this." Restac said, aiming her weapon at the Doctor's back.
"Doctor!"
Rory pushed the Doctor out of the way and took the full force of the blast.
"Rory!" Amy and her sister yelled.
The three friends surrounded their fallen companion.
"Rory, can you hear me?"
"I don't understand." He said.
"Shush. Don't talk. Doctor, is he okay? We have to get him onto the Tardis."
"We were on the hill." He continued. "I can't die here."
"Don't say that." Amy sobbed, desperately cupping his cheeks.
Rory spoke to her calmly. "You're so beautiful." He choked and coughed. "I'm sorry."
His chest stopped rising and falling with air.
Rory was dead.
Emily watched as pain radiated from every corner of her heart, not knowing nor caring whether it was her's or not.
"Doctor, help him." Amy demanded.
Light from the crack reaches Rory's feet.
"Amy, move away from the light. If it touches you, you'll be wiped from history. Amy, move away now."
"No. I am not leaving him. We have to help him."
"The light's already . . . can't help him."
The pain felt like a sharp-toothed creature eating her from the inside.
" . . . not leaving him."
One tear rolled down her cheek, quickly followed by a steady stream.
" . . . have to."
There was a roaring in her ears, voices sounding muffled to her ears.
"No!"
"I'm sorry."
Emily stared unseeingly as the Doctor wrapped his arms around her sister's waist and started pulling her away.
"Get off me!"
He dragged Amy into the Tardis and closed the door, Amy screaming and banging from the inside.
"I'm sorry." He whispered through the door.
He turned to see Emily transfixed by the light surrounding Rory.
Ignoring Amy's yelling, he cautiously approached her.
"Emily, we have to go now."
She showed no sign of moving.
"Emily. It's not safe here."
She stayed silent when the Doctor skimmed her hand with his.
"Emily?"
His eyes flickered to the ground as the light reached towards them, gently holding her small hand in his and pulling her away.
"Come on, there's nothing we can do."
She swallowed thickly and didn't try to stop her tears.
"I know." She whispered.
It broke his heart.
[Tardis]
The Doctor ushered Emily inside, pushing Amy away in the process and sonicing the Tardis door shut.
"No!" Amy screamed, once again banging on the door. "No! No! No! Let me out. Please let me out. I need to get to Rory. That light. If his body's absorbed, I'll forget him. He'll never have existed. You can't let that happen." Amy stared at him in angry confusion. "What are you doing?"
The Doctor kept flipping switches and set the Tardis in motion.
"Doctor, no! No! No! No!"
Emily sank to the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest.
"Doctor, we can't just leave him there."
"There's nothing we can do." Emily whispered.
"Shut up Emily. Just shut up! There has to be something."
She knew her sister didn't mean it.
But that didn't make hurt any less.
"Keep him in your mind. Don't forget him. If you forget him, you'll lose him forever."
"When we were on the Byzantium, I still remembered the Clerics because I am a time traveller now, you said." Amy said desperately.
"They weren't part of your world. This is different. This is your own history changing."
"Don't tell me it's going to be okay. You have to make it okay."
"It's going to be hard, but you can do it, Amy. Tell me about Rory, eh? Fantastic Rory. Funny Rory. Gorgeous Rory. Amy, listen to me. Do exactly as I say. Amy, please. Keep concentrating. You can do this."
"I can't."
"You can." He said, gripping her face. "You can do it. I can't help you unless you do. Come on. We can still save his memory. Come on, Amy. Please. Come on, Amy, come on. 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."
The Tardis came shuddering to a sudden halt and they are all thrown to the floor. The ring box lands in front of the Doctor.
Amy's entire face changed, from agonising pain to slight confusion. "What were you saying?"
Emily stared in horror. Everybody's voices drowned out until there was just silence in her ears.
Nothing.
Empty.
"Emily."
It all came rushing back as a hand rested on her shoulder.
She hadn't notice everyone leave.
Her eyes followed the hand up the arm and came across the Doctors solemn face.
He frowned at the tears welling in her eyes.
"Emily?"
He would give anything to take away the pain etched into the lines of her face.
She searched his face for something. Anything. A sign.
"Is Rory . . .?"
But his face said it all.
Rory was no longer there.
Rory no longer existed.
Rory was gone.
[Graveyard]
Amy, Emily and the Doctor return silently to the Tardis.
"You two are very quiet. Oh. Hey, look. There we are again." She started waving. "Hello, me."
A two figures wave back from the other side of the valley. Suddenly, Amy frowned scanning the valley almost desperately.
"Are you okay?"
"I thought I saw someone else there for a second. I need a holiday. Didn't we talk about Rio?"
"You go in. Just fix this lock. Keeps jamming."
"You boys and your locksmithery."
The Doctor watched sadly as Amy walked back inside the Tardis. He pulled out shrapnel from his pocket, one the pulled from the crack.
It was a charred piece of the Tardis.
As he stared down at it, Emily slipped her hand into his. Blank faced, not taking her gaze from the ground.
It felt like a big part of her was missing.
And it was.
Everything Rory ever did . . . they never happened.
All the times he stuck up for her.
All the times he helped her through one of her episodes.
All the times he snuck her out of a visit to the physiologist's.
All the times he unknowingly eased the strain of her abilities.
All the times he was simply her friend.
Gone.
Any other day the Doctor would've been in a complete bliss to have Emily's hand in his. His hearts would've beat faster, his hands would've gotten clammy and he wouldn't have been able to form coherent thoughts, never mind simple words.
But not today.
Not today.
He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face in his chest, tears falling in steady streams.
The Timelord and the youngest Pond stood in a grieving silence, hand in hand, both thinking of Rory.
Both mourning the friend that never was.
•|•
I . . Am crying.
Heavily.
Other than that, did you enjoy it? I know updates have been irregular and sparse, but you'll be glad to know that I am in my last week of school, so I'll probably be update at least once a week from now on.
Maybe.
Side note, 2.29k reads! Woo!
Enjoy the next chapter!