Darkness Within
"Ms. Molly, this is Amy Williams, you called me yesterday about a book you've been working on. I'll tell you what, meet me for coffee at that little shop at Baker's Street, you said you lived near there, right? And we'll talk it out, just call me back if that sounds good to you."
Finding good books to publish was much harder than I originally expected it to be. Very few manuscripts given to me were actually workable. It didn't help that I didn't have the heart to publish science fiction. Anything any author came up was child's play to what I actually experienced with The Doctor.
I suppose it was odd that I gave this person a chance. Hearing her voice, excited, eager, yet at the same time desperate pulled at my heartstrings. I had to give her a chance.
The phone rang back seconds after I put it down. I answered it before it finished its first ring.
"Sorry about that!" The woman on the other end chirped "I was caught up in, normal stuff, yes normal stuff and I'd love to meet you. What time?"
I wondered what 'normal stuff' could be, probably not something normal, if she needed to say it was normal. "Err… noon? How does that sound?"
"Brilliant" She enthused, then I heard the click of the phone being hung up. What an odd person, not quite as odd as the Doctor I think, but maybe the oddest human I'd ever met.
Alright, definitely the oddest human I'd ever met, with the oddest fashion sense since 'bowties are cool'. She was in military-esque attire, except by her own admission, wasn't in the military nor has ever been, at least 'not really'.
At the same time, she wore this purple sash that just seemed so out of place with her cargo pants and camo shirt. Around her neck hung a blue amulet; while around her wrists were gold bracelets.
"Ms. Molly, what's your story about? You were a bit vague over the phone." More like talking so fast that I couldn't understand what she was saying, to be honest.
"It's Jenny, Amy. Jenny Anna Molly, but call me Jenny." The woman smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, old eyes. The smile faded as fast as it came, and in its place was a dead serious expression that didn't fit with her face.
"This book is about, well the end of the universe." She took a breath "There is a man, well someone who once was a man, called The Valeyard." She held out a picture, a sketch of a man in black robes, wielding a sword glowing with power.
"Every race in the universe worked together to stop him, but even the greatest army ever assembled fell against him and his blade." She held up another picture, titled The Defeat. It showed The Valeyard sword in hand, standing in front of the remains of an army. The burnt out husks of war machines littered the ground, and were those dead Daleks?
"Did you draw these?" I ask, a shiver running down my spine as I recognize what looked like Silurians, Sontarans and Cybermen dead along with a host of humans in the picture.
"No… a friend of mine did, but she based these after the… manuscript."
"His sword, the Silence Blade; forged in the fire of a dying time machine. The Valeyard created it to destroy this man, Jack Harkness." Another picture, labeled The Fate of Boe slid its way across the table to me.
A man bound by chains and ensconced in fire, screaming into the air. "He's immortal, both a blessing and a curse. The Valeyard chained him here to let him die and come back to life for eternity, or at least until he forged the sword, the blade that could rip through reality itself."
The next picture was perhaps the worst yet. The same man disintegrating next to a crack, the same crack that was in my wall when I was seven.
Silence will fall. But it's impossible, it couldn't happen. Maybe she was mistaken, or knew about aliens but was making up the story. That had to be it.
"E-everyone tried to fight him, but he just kept killing. He was unstoppable." She just pushed a stack of sketches at me. I shook my head softly and held back tears, what was happening?
First was a picture titled Smith and Jones "Mickey and Martha Jones-Smith" Jenny said "After the Defeat, they were the only ones who would lead the resistance. They set up a stronghold for their last stand"
The Covenant of Seven, "The Ood; they're a telepathic race. The Valeyard destroyed their planet, only these seven survived. They're projecting psychic shielding for the stronghold." I'd met an Ood once, more proof that this person actually knew what she was talking about.
Melody's End.
In that picture, was my daughter, or perhaps a hologram of her? The Valeyard stood dispassionately in front of her. River, she was on her knees. Crying, begging. Around them shelves and shelves of books burned.
"Who are you! Why are you showing me this? Why!" I could barely speak through the pain stabbing through my chest. I couldn't even see through my tears. I hadn't felt pain like this since… lake Silencio.
"I'm sorry Amy, so very sorry for this. I haven't written a story, not at all. Because this isn't a story. It's real."
This time she held up to me, a painting. I wiped my eyes and got a brief glance at it before they filled with tears again.
"They say Vincent Van Gough killed himself after painting it. He called it" Jenny choked "The Fall of the Eleventh."
It was horrible and beautiful at the same time. My raggedy doctor was kneeling on the ground. I could see the fear in his eyes, the pain, the tears. The Valeyard smirked at him, with his hand lifting the Doctor's face up; forcing him to look in his eyes.
"You're lying. I don't know why you would tell me this sick, twisted, story, but it can't be true. YOUR'RE LYING!"
"Amy, look outside." I looked.
"There's nothing out there, nothing at all!"
"Exactly. Where are all the people? Where are your neighbors? When was the last time you were stuck in traffic?"
Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. "Why?"
"It's because of this war. Once people find out about it, they're pulled in. Nobody knows about it because everyone who finds out is either stuck in a fortress in outer space or erased from time."
"Please Amy, trust me." She took my hand and placed it against her chest.
Thump thump thump thump. Thump thump thump thump.
Double heartbeat.
"My dad died that day on the Fields of Tenzalor. I wasn't even there; he didn't even know I was alive! If I was with him, maybe it could have been stopped" Jenny too was crying now.
"But it doesn't have to be this way, we can change it all."
"Time can be rewritten." I murmur "I'll help however I can, but I need to get Rory."
"Don't worry, already done."
Rory was waiting for us, at… wherever we were. "Oh Amy." He whispers, and pulls me into his arms. My Rory, my amazing husband, kisses my forehead as I sob against him.
"Martha, I've got the Ponds. Is the arc ready?" Jenny says into the air.
"What are we supposed to do?" Rory asks, as we pull away from each other. Oh Rory, I can tell he's been crying too.
"Just follow our directions. The less you know the fewer spoilers." Jenny is short with us now, completely professional. If my (and the actual) universe wasn't falling apart right now, I might have wondered about how her personality seems to shift on a dime.
Rory looks distrustful, even as we follow her down this hall that we're in. "Rory, I think we should just let them do this. You saw the streets, there aren't any people, and she has two hearts."
Rory gives a hollow chuckle "Besides, who else besides the doctor's daughter would wear a sash plus camouflage."
Jenny sighs "You deserve to know what's happening. We're going to go through a procedure to increase your longevity. Then we'll send you back in time to my father."
The first door we come across opens into a circular room, it reminds me of the console room of the Tardis more than anything else. "The rooms are… spacey wacey." Jenny explains "You go exactly where you need to when you open a door.".
Instead of the column in the center, there's a dais with two seats resting on it. Two large mechanical helmet pieces are suspended from an overhead apparatus.
Around the edges of the room are Daleks. "System capacity at 98%." One of them announces. "Increasing temporal feedback to improve short term efficiency."
I look accusingly at Jenny "Daleks! What are you playing at?"
"We had no choice! I don't like the Daleks, I hate them! But we're fighting an enemy infinitely worse than them."
There's also a woman who I recognize from one of the drawings as Martha Jones. "I don't like it either, but we really don't have any choice right now."
"Martha, where's Mickey?" Jenny asks.
"He's… dead, we were getting the person you need."
"Oh. I'm-"
"Don't say it, if this goes right, everything will be as it was, and that's all that matters"
"Yeah, so you have the guy you were talking about, right?"
Martha gives an almost feral smirk "See for yourself."
Tucked away on the other side of the room is a man, bound and gagged and struggling like a madman to get out of his bindings. He looks strangely familiar.
"Isn't that" Rory mutters "Harold Saxon?"
"You mean the prime minister?"
"Ha!" Martha laughs harshly "Prime minister."
"He's called The Master, a very old enemy of the Doctor and the only other Time Lord to make it out of the Time War alive." Jenny explains. "And technically he's supposed to be dead right now, but with the universe falling apart as it is; I really don't give a damn about paradoxes."
Jenny lifts The Master up and straps him into one of the chairs on the dais.
"Who wants to go first?" She asks.
"I will." Rory immediately volunteers "If it's dangerous, well I've already lived over 2000 years…"
I glare at him and try to argue but Jenny effectively cuts me off "No arguing" She wags a finger at me "We don't have time."
"System capacity at 100%." A Dalek announces. "It is ready!"
"Right!" Jenny shouts, strapping the helmet onto the thrashing Master's head. Rory sits in the other chair and cautiously lowers the helmet on.
"General!" A Sontaran's voice interrupts; it seems to come from the left wall, which is currently showing a jumble of schematics and battle strategies on various screens.
"What's the situation?" Martha questions curtly.
"The Valeyard has breached the compound. Our platoon has failed to repel him." He takes a painful breath "I am not long for this world."
"I'm heading out." Martha announces. "Daleks, you too, we need to stall for time".
"Colonel Grek, are there any others left out there?" She demands, upholstering her blaster.
"The angels are fighting him… now." His breathing is labored. "I- I"
"You've fought admirably, the best we could ever ask for."
Jenny interrupts "Rory, I'm very sorry. But this is going to hurt."
Then Rory screams and screams and screams and screams. I run to him and cup his face, crying with him.
When it finally, finally, stops, the Daleks are gone, Martha's gone, the Master is panting, collapsed on the floor, and Jenny has taken his place in the chair.
"Modified chameleon circuit." The time lord gasps "Very smart, takes the biology but not the mind. I'm already burning up, this pathetic body can no longer handle a mind like mine."
"You're gonna die anyway. This entire timeline is. There's no point in whining." Jenny says coldly.
Rory keels over "I feel… odd."
"Just rest." I say to him "I'll be done with mine soon."
Jenny was right, it hurt. A lot. But it was nothing compared to losing my family, my raggedy Doctor and my little girl.
When it's over I collapse onto the ground. The aftershock of pain echo through my body and it feels like my own skin is trying to crawl off. Like something is bubbling inside of me, trying to escape.
The door opens. A man that could only be The Valeyard enters.
"Koshei" He says to The Master, his voice is tight and rigid but surprisingly human. "A generated anomaly" his eyes brush over Jenny. "The Lone Centurion and The Girl Who Waited." He looks at me and I look back at him, into his eyes. Old eyes.
"Poor Amy. He always leaves you, doesn't he? Alone in the dark. Never apologizes."
"What?" I gasp. That was what the dream lord told me, all those years ago. But he's gone, dead with the Doctor. Right?
"Amy! Rory!" Jenny shouts hoarsely as she tosses us a time vortex manipulator, which I numbly catch. "The coordinates are set. Just leave."
The Valeyard laughs "Sure send them back. They'll still die, just like they all do, allowing me my way in." Jenny smirks in response.
"This is your plan? Pathetic. How does it feel to never be able to live up to your father's name?" He taunts.
"No. It's you who'll never live up to my father's name. You're drunk off of power, Valeyard, and you missed what's right in front of your nose."
The Valeyard's eyes widen for a split second in terror. Rory lunges for me as The Valeyard draws his sword. Our eyes meet as we disappear.
A/N: Its been a while since I've written any fanfiction, but I couldn't get this idea out of my head! This is a twoshot, I'll have the next chapter up asap.