*Spaceship*
Rory spots his father amongst the people lying on slabs.
"Dad. Dad!" the alien orderlies are there "Just get away from him" the orderlies draw hypodermics and advance.
*Hospital*
"How many deaths have been recorded?" the Doctor asks.
"We don't know. We think it could be a third of the population" Kate replies.
"Kate, we have to find the wormhole, but the attacks could still happen. Tell the world. Tell them how to deal with this. The world needs your leadership right now" the Doctor says.
"I'll do my best."
"Of course, you will. Good luck, Kate. Argh! Argh!" {Y/N} groans, the Doctor steadies her.
"Ok, how long are you going to last with only one heart?" Amy asks.
"Not much longer. We need to locate the wormhole portal" the Doctor says, pulling his sonic screwdriver out, it buzzes "hello. Hello!" he finds a little girl "you are giving off some very strange signals" the girl's face glows blue.
"Oh, my God" Amy says.
"Outlier droid, monitoring everything. If I shut her down, I can..." he does the little girl starts to fall, he catches her "ah. It's all right, it's all right" {Y/N} staggers again.
"I can't, Amy, Doctor. I can't do it. I need both hearts!" {Y/N} groans falling to the floor, Amy grabs a portable defibrillator.
"All right. Desperate measures" Amy says.
"What? No. No, no, no. That won't work. I'm a Time Lord" {Y/N} and the Doctor say, Amy rips open {Y/N}'s shirt.
"Hey!" {Y/N} says.
"All right, clear!" {Y/N} bolts up and turns in a circle.
"Whoo! Ooo. Ooo! Welcome back, lefty! Whoa-ho! Two hearts! Woo! Back in the game. Ah. Never do that to me again" {Y/N} says. A while later they make it to a lift and it dings.
"Ah, portal to another dimension in a goods lift?" Amy asks.
"The energy signals converge here. Does seem a bit cramped, though" the Doctor says, they find the wibbly wall.
"Through the looking glass, Amelia?" {Y/N} asks, they all hold hands and walk through the wall.
*Spaceship*
"Where are we?" Amy asks.
"We're in orbit. One dimension to the left" the Doctor says.
"Rory!" Amy shouts, Rory is laid out on a slab next to Brian. {Y/N} produces a small vial.
"Ah. Saborian smelling salts. Outlawed in seven galaxies" {Y/N} says throwing Amy the vial, Amy waves it under Rory's nose and he sits up quickly. Someone shoots at them "whoa! Whoa! What kind of a welcome do you call that? Get them out of here. You too. Now!" {Y/N} says.
"What are you two going to do?" Amy asks.
"Absolutely no idea. Get him to the portal" the Doctor says, Brian wakes as soon as they move his trolley. The alien shoots again "whoa!"
"So many of them crawling the planet, seeping into every corner" Amy, Rory and Brian leave. The alien vanishes then reappears in front of a bank of monitors.
"It's not possible. We thought the Shakri were a myth. A myth to keep the young of Gallifrey in their place" {Y/N} says.
"The Shakri exist in all of time, and none. We travel alone and together. The Seven."
"The Shakri craft, connected to Earth, through seven portals and seven minutes. Ah, but why?" the Doctor asks.
"Serving the word of the Tally."
"Why the cubes? Why Earth?"
"Not Earth, humanity. The Shakri will halt the human plague before the spread."
"Erase humanity before it colonises space. We thought the cubes were an invasion. The start of war" {Y/N} says.
"The human contagion only must be eliminated" Rory and Amy return.
"Who are you calling a contagion?" Amy asks.
"Oi! Didn't we tell you two to go?" the Doctor asks.
"You should have learned by now" Rory replies.
"Yeah, and what is this Tally anyway?" Amy asks.
"Some people call it Judgment Day, or the Reckoning" {Y/N} says.
"Don't you two know?" Amy asks.
"We've never wanted to find out."
"Before the Closure, there is the Tally. The Shakri serves the Tally."
"The pest controllers of the universe, that's how the tales went, isn't it?" the Doctor asks.
"Wow. That's some seriously weird bedtime story" Amy says.
"You can talk. Wolf in your grandmother's nightdress? So, here you are, depositing slug pellets all over the Earth, made attractive so humans will collect them, hoping to find something beautiful inside. Because that's what they are. Not pests or plague, creatures of hope, forever building and reaching. Making mistakes, of course, every life form does. But, but they learn. And they strive for greater, and they achieve it. You want a tally. Put their achievements against their failings through the whole of time, we will back humanity against the Shakri every time" {Y/N} says.
"The Tally must be met. The second wave will be released."
"What does that mean?" Amy asks.
"It's going to release more cubes to kill more people," the Doctor says.
"The human plague breeding and fighting. And when cornered, their rage to destroy. You're too late, Doctor and {Y/N}. The Tally shall be met" the alien vanishes.
"He's gone?" Amy asks.
"He was never really here. Just the ship's automated interface, like a talking propaganda poster. We can stop the second wave. We can disconnect all the Shakri craft from their portals, leave them drifting in the dark space. Ah, but all those people who were near the cubes, so many of them will have died" {Y/N} says.
"I restarted one of your hearts," Amy says.
"You'd need mass defibrillation," Rory says.
"Of course. Ah, beautiful. But, Ponds, Ponds. We are going to go one better than that. The Shakri used the cubes to turn people's hearts off. Bingo! We're going to use them to turn them back on again" the Doctor says.
"Will that work?" Amy asks.
"Well, creatures of hope. Has to" the Doctor finishes sonicing the alien computer.
"Thirty seconds. Don't let us down, cubes, you're working for us now. Oh dear. All these cubes. There's going to be a terrible wave of energy ricocheting around here any second. Run!" {Y/N} says.
"I'm going to miss this" Rory says, the spaceship explodes. {Y/N}, the Doctor, Amy and Rory land in the corridor. All around the world, people start to get up off the ground.
"Emergency hospitals and field units are working at full capacity around the world, as millions of survivors of cardiac arrests are nursed back to health after an unprecedented night across the globe."
*Time skip*
"You both, er, the two of you really are as remarkable as Dad said," Kate says, she kisses them both on the cheek "thank you."
"My! A kiss from a Lethbridge Stewart. That is new. Oh dear, we're late for dinner" the Doctor says, he salutes Kate before he and {Y/N} get into the UNIT Range Rover.
*Time skip*
"Dear me. We'd better get going. Things to do, worlds to save, swings to swing on. Look, I know, you both have lives here. Beautiful, messy lives. That is what makes you so fabulously human. You don't want to give them up. We understand" {Y/N} says.
"Actually, it's you two they can't give up. And I don't think they should. Go with them. Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here" Brian says.
"You could come, Brian," the Doctor says.
"Somebody's got to water the plants. Just bring them back safe."
"So that was the year of the slow invasion when the Earth got cubed, and the Doctor and {Y/N} came to stay. It was also when we realised something the Shakri never understood. What cubed actually means. The power of three" {A/N: yourself and the Doctor -in this case- are 'one' so, therefore, it's still The Power of three X3}
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~Bread 🍞