Rory Williams had just about had enough of this blasted trip. He had been sloshing through the mud for the better part of the past three hours searching for some kind of root that the Doctor needed for some experiment to help him repair the TARDIS. Or something like that. Honestly, he wasn't sure what was going on anymore.
It had all started when they were back in Washington DC dealing with the Silence and President Nixon. Then Doctor had realized that there was a fault in one of the circuits that controlled their destination. Which was how they had ended up here in 1979 South America of all places. However, the Doctor insisted that this turn of events was ideal because the 'part' that they needed to fix it was right here in the jungle. Only it wasn't a part; it was some kind of root that had to be dug up in precisely the right way or it would be totally useless. It was called the "Kungsy" root. Rory had never heard of such a thing but he had no choice but to follow the Doctor's instructions and go out looking for it. Anything to get them out of this place and make sure that they didn't end up on Mars. Or worse.
The Doctor and Amy had been with him for a while but then they decided to split up and look in three different directions. So now he was on his own, slopping through the mud and the filth and trying to find some alien root that might not exist for all he knew. The mud coupled with the bugs that never ceased had done all they could to put him in a foul mood; frankly, he was glad that he was alone. And after all, he really did have an excuse. Facing the Silence was no picnic. Now he was determined to find this root and get back to the TARDIS. He would not have cared if he never saw the Amazon jungle again after this trip.
All he could see were trees and swamp for miles and miles and it was not a heartening sight. The Doctor had told him that their best chance to find the root was in swampy conditions; no sign of it so far. Sighing, Rory picked his way through the muddy water, thankful that he had thought to slip into his black rain boots before leaving the TARDIS. He hoped that Amy was having better luck, even if she was only wearing hiking boots. Seeing that there were absolutely no godsends coming his way, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Amy's number, hoping that she might have found something.
She picked up on the first ring and he could hear the agitation and annoyance in her voice. "Rory? Did you find it? Can we head back now?"
"No, I haven't found it," he said. "I was hoping that you had."
"No such luck." The moan that accompanied her words was obvious and he resisted the urge to laugh because he knew that it would just make her more annoyed.
The sight of a shock of white hair and a dark green jacket caught his eyes as an unknown person seemed to disappear behind a clump of trees. He squinted at the place, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But no. There it was again. Someone was definitely there and he knew that it wasn't the Doctor and it certainly wasn't Amy. For all he knew, this person could be unfriendly. Very unfriendly.
"I'll call you back if I find anything," he said to Amy, trying not to alert her to what he was suspecting. It did not work.
"You found something?" Details never escaped Amy; he knew that she could hear the mystery in his voice and he wasn't going to get out of it.
"I think so." He shrugged. "I'll tell you later. It might turn out to be nothing."
"Well hurry up," she said. "I hate this place and I want to get back to the TARDIS."
"Will do." Rory stowed the phone back in his pocket and studied the spot where he had seen the unknown figure. "Hello? Is anyone there?" There was no answer. "Listen, if you don't come out, I'm going to come after you."
"Well there's no need for you to be threatening violence, my good man."
Rory stared in astonishment as a man stepped out from behind the clump of trees and crossed his arms, shaking his head disapprovingly at Rory. He was dressed in a great deal of ruffles and velvet; his appearance could only be described as 'elegant'. Well, except for the sturdy pair of rubber rain boots that covered the bottom part of his trousers. Yet he still appeared to be completely composed and very well put together. He was fairly certain that the correct word would be 'dandy'.
"I say, would you stop pointing that finger at me. Didn't your mother ever tell you that it was rude to point?"
Rory lowered the finger that he had not realized he had been pointing at the strange looking man. "Um," he said, flustered at the situation. "Who exactly are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said grandly. "And you are?"
"Rory. Rory Williams," he said, staring incredulously at him. "How can you be the Doctor? I left him just an hour ago and he went in the opposite direction."
"Ah. You must be acquainted with a future version of me," this Doctor declared, straightening his jacket with one hand while the other stroked his chin thoughtfully. "What are you doing here? Wait. Don't tell me. I would hate for you to spoil my future before I get to experience it for myself."
Rory stared for another moment before something clicked in his brain and he snapped his fingers as he understood. "Your picture was on the roof of that hospital when I met the Doctor! You're a previous version of him!" He shook his head as he drank in the appearance of the third incarnation of the Doctor. "How old are you?"
"What a question." The Doctor shook his head. "If it really matters that much, I am 777 years old by Earth reckoning. Give or take a few decades. Or more. I really can't be bothered to keep track of such trivial details of my life."
"What are you doing here?"
"I am on a top secret mission for UNIT," he said, glancing over his shoulder as though expecting someone to jump out at him. "I'm afraid that the details are confidential. Well, between you and me, I wouldn't mind telling you but the Brigadier would probably find it highly irregular of me to do so."
"I see," said Rory, shaking his head at the Time Lord. "Is there anything I could help you out with? Or better yet, do you think that you could give me a hand? I'm looking for something. To repair the TARDIS."
"What has that future version of myself done to her?" he exclaimed incredulously, throwing up his hands in disbelief. "She was perfectly all right until now. What does he say that he needs for her?"
"Um, he said that it was called a kungsy root?"
"Oh, he would say that. Well, he should know that the TARDIS will never let him try that concoction on her. He should have remembered that from the last time I tried it. She took Sarah and I to Katmandu for a month before we were able to repair her." The Doctor shook his head. "What's actually wrong with her?"
"Something about her destination circuitry. That's how we ended up here," shrugged Rory.
"Well if it's the directional circuits, I can be of some assistance. But how far away are you parked? It would not be good to have our TARDIS's too close together. Bad for – Oh, well, it would take far too long to explain that to you. Just where did you park her?"
"About an hour thataway." Rory pointed in the general direction of their version of the TARDIS.
"Very good." The Doctor shaded his eyes as he stared past Rory's hand into the jungle. "Right. Come with me."
Rory had been traveling with the future incarnation of the Doctor far too long to even so much as flinch when he stepped into the interior of this TARDIS and saw that it was completely different than what he was used to. "Changed the desktop theme, have you?"
"What do you mean, man?" The Doctor poked his head around the corner and emerged carrying a large cardboard box that appeared to be stuffed with scrap metal. "It's looked like this for quite some time now."
"Never mind. What've you got there?" Rory looked curiously at the box, wondering just how different this Doctor was than the one he knew.
"Spare parts disguised to look like a box of rubbish. I have a lot of trouble with my future regenerations appearing and salvaging things from my TARDIS. Something about the fact that they can't get any from Gallifrey. But I always stop them before they can explain."
"Why?"
"Because I hate spoilers, just as I told you."
"Spoilers?" Rory looked amused at the Doctor's word choice, as it reminded him of a certain someone in his future.
The Doctor looked up at him, slightly annoyed, before bending over his box again. "Aha! I think that this is exactly what you are looking for." He emerged triumphantly, clasping a large gear in one hand and a long straw-like tube in the other.
Rory stared skeptically at the parts. "Are you sure that's what we need?"
"Absolutely. I used one on my own TARDIS, just recently. It's exactly what you need. Now if you'll just hold on a moment, I'll write down some instructions on how to install it."
"Aren't you going to come back with me to install it?"
"Good heavens, man. Of course not. What if my future self would appear? No, it simply would not do. Besides, I have my mission to consider. I left Sarah and Harry out in the middle of the jungle. We were beginning to set a trap for an alien species when we realized that we didn't have the right parts. I must be getting back to them as soon as possible."
"It really does always come down to the parts, doesn't it?" Rory marveled, taking the slip of paper that the Doctor offered him. "Well, thanks so much for your help."
"My pleasure. Now I'd recommend that you get off to your TARDIS as soon as you can so you can get out of this place."
"Thank you Doctor."
The eleventh incarnation of the Doctor tore through the door of his TARDIS, clenching a large dirty plantlike item in one hand with a large grin on his face. "I found it!" He declared proudly to Rory and Amy, who were leaning on the console with a knowing expression.
"Lovely," said Amy, casting a quick glance towards the place in the console where Rory had installed the missing parts a few minutes before the Doctor's dramatic entrance. She had laughed at Rory's story about meeting a previous Doctor, though not because she didn't believe him. The fact that Rory had managed to run into such a charismatic dandy who had the knowledge to outsmart her Doctor was definitely worth a laugh. "So are we ready to go now?"
"Just about." The Doctor uncorked a bottle that he had snatched from below the console and began to stuff the whole root inside. "I just need to stimulate the atoms of this root in order to deactivate the inhibitor from inside the circuitry."
"Uh huh," said Amy, casting a glance over to Rory, who could only offer a shrug. "Soo….how long is that going to take? Roughly?"
"Well how should I know? I'm not a miracle maker. We'll just have to wait and see."
"Orr…" said Amy with a mischievous grin. "We could see if giving the TARDIS a rest was enough to calm her directional circuitry."
"That's completely ridiculous, Pond. How in the world do you expect that to work?" The Doctor shook his head incredulously at her before he cast a glance down to the console. "Although…" he whispered to himself and began flicking switches and pressing buttons. In a moment, the TARDIS had regained her usual hum as the engines began to sing. He looked up at Amy and Rory, who quickly looked away. "Well," he said indignantly. "It was just a bit of luck. I mean we might have needed the root."
"Right." Amy strode purposefully towards the Doctor and offered him a firm pat on the shoulder. "So. Girl in the strange looking astronaut suit, then?"
"Girl in the strange looking astronaut suit," agreed the Doctor.
As the Doctor began operating the controls of the TARDIS, Amy poked her head up from behind Rory's shoulder. "Well done," she said. "How did you learn how to do that?"
"I learned it from a friend," was all that Rory would answer.
Amy grinned at him as they began to fly off into the vortex.