Chapter 1 – The Argument

The Doctor parked the TARDIS neatly onto American soil. It was not unknown that the TARDIS had the tendency to misplace the Doctor, however this time she had been pretty accurate: May 3rd 2019, Los Angeles, California.

A few hours ago, half of the population of the world had disappeared, including Amy and Rory. The Doctor was furious, quite understandably, and was struggling to find an explanation as to why so many people had vanished (or… had dramatically turned to ash in a manner that looked an awful lot like death).

The Doctor had tracked a massive explosion of Titan energy to a certain point in California. It seemed to be the only lead he had as to why so many people had disappeared – other than that, it seemed entirely random. In fact, it disobeyed the laws of physics entirely.

As the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, he realised where he was. The TARDIS had materialised on the side of a (almost) deserted main road. A few days ago this road would've had hundreds of cars whizzing by in any one second, however only days later you'd be lucky to see a car pass every minute. It was incredible, and terrifying, and reminded the Doctor of the time he had taken Amy and Rory to a bumper-car course on the planet Zumbre. That was a lot of fun… apart from all of the secret brainwashing and the fact that the course was only really there to provide food source for the Zumbre Leadership and also to cull the population… OK, perhaps not particularly fun; Rory was terrified. But at least Amy enjoyed it.

'Oh Amy, where are you?' the Doctor sighed, running his fingers through his hair, and rubbing his eyes, 'where could you have gone?'

Suddenly he became aware of a sound coming from behind the trees lining the road. From where he stood, it sounded like shouting. He followed the sound until he reached the entrance of a small forest, on the side of a large, unattended cattle field. As he got closer he noticed that a group of people were huddled around the exact point where the Doctor had worked out that the Titan energy had been released. Something seemed to of caused conflict between them, as the three members – who were now set slightly apart from each other – were yelling insults at one another. As the Doctor got closer, it became more evident what they were saying.

'Oh Jemma – what would you know about my mental health?!'

'More than you would think, but of course you would think the worst, wouldn't you. Perhaps you are as deranged as Daisy keeps saying—'

'—Hey don't drag me into this. This is between you and him. I want nothing to do with him.'

'Yeah, yeah Daisy you've made that pretty evident – but I still don't know why! What did the other me do that upset you so much? 'Cos if this is about the framework, then sure I get it but—'

'This isn't about the framework—'

'Then what?!'

' Well, kind of… You know what, I'll let your wife tell you! Jemma? Care to explain?'

'Oh great! So now it's up to me is it?!' She rolled her eyes sarcastically, and glared in the direction of the girl they had named Daisy. 'Besides, I'm not technically his wife.'

'Brilliant! So now your ashamed of me—'

Suddenly the Scottish man became aware of the Doctor, and frowned. He tapped the other girl on the shoulder and nodded in the direction of the Doctor. She grimaced for a second, clearly embarrassed by their argument, and then began walking towards him. The group followed behind, Daisy still glaring at the Scot who was trying desperately to ignore her. When they got close enough, the Doctor gave them a goofy wave and smiled.

'Hi,' he grinned, and then frowned and became suddenly serious, 'I'm the Doctor. And I think we're here for the same reason…'