Everyone watched as The Doctor tried, unsuccessfully, to make the TARDIS land. The console sparked and an uncomfortable sounding gurgling noise echoed around the console room.
"Argh!" The Doctor shouted through gritted teeth as he slammed his hand down on the console. He turned away in anger and frustratedly ran his hands through his hair.
"What is it, what's wrong?" River asked sitting on the edge of the console.
"It's not working...! I have a time, a location, but she won't land!" he faced the console and slammed his hand down on it again, this time making a few things spark.
The TARDIS made a very sickly sounding noise. Everyone looked around as the sound echoed around them.
"Well, breaking the TARDIS isn't going to help." River said, placing her hand on his. The Doctor pulled away quickly, without even looking up at her.
"Can't you just land nearby and wait for her?" Amy asked.
"No, we don't want to risk any kind of paradox, if the TARDIS won't land then we need to figure out why." River said, as if nothing had changed, it was just another adventure with The Doctor.
Everyone looked a little uncomfortable as The Doctor glared at River. It was like he was trying to figure five things out at once.
River turned to him and almost panicked, she couldn't get a read on what he was going to say.
"What's wrong with you anyway?" Amy snapped, "The Doctor I know wouldn't just get grumpy and give up! What changed?"
River tried to stop Amy from speaking but she was too late, Amy had already squared up to The Doctor. They locked eyes and glared at each other, River recognised the look of rage in The Doctor's eyes. Lots must have happened between regenerations for him to be this angry over being separated from his companion. He knew that he, or at least a past version of himself was with her... so why was he so worried?
Amy almost looked frightened after a few moments of glaring.
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but decided against it. He turned around and left, heading down the corridor further into the TARDIS. The crew stared at the doorway, unsure what to think or say.
"Should we follow him?" Rory asked.
"Probably best to let him cool off..." Jack replied, "This version of him has quite a temper."
Rory walked over to his wife and patted her on the shoulder. Amy still stared ahead, almost frozen in place after the look The Doctor had given her.
"Rory... he's never looked at me like that before." She said quickly, "Why is he so angry?" she asked, "Our Doctor is never like that!"
"He is... he just knows how to hide it from us." River sighed.
"Don't take it personally." Jack said, "He's been through a lot since he last saw you."
"And plus... he just found out he has a daughter, then immediately lost her. I imagine that puts a strain on the nerves." Rory added.
"I'm going to explore." Amy snapped, heading for the door.
"Uh, Amy do you think that's a good idea?" Rory asked, chasing after her.
River turned to Jack, "Is he like this a lot...?" she asked.
Jack shrugged, "He's gotten quite close to her... I imagine the idea of losing her puts him on edge."
"I'm going to talk to him." she replied.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"You know him?" She grinned, "Is it ever?" River left in search of The Doctor.
Jack laughed, agreeing with her deciding that she could handle herself. He looked around the console room, realising he was alone. The TARDIS made another sickly sounding noise.
"Come on, I didn't even say anything!"
Jenny sat down on the edge of the stairs, next to McKenzie.
"So, how did this all happen...?" she asked.
McKenzie grinned and raised her eyebrow at Jenny.
Jenny shared her grin, "I mean, how did you find out? How come she's all grown up?"
"I'm not sure... I mean, I must only be a few weeks along right now... I didn't even know." She idly placed her hand on her middle as she spoke, "We landed on this base... it was completely abandoned, like everything had just been sucked out of the windows. It all felt wrong from the moment we got there... come to think of it, everything still feels wrong."
"How do you mean?"
McKenzie stuck her hand out in front of her, making an L shape with her thumb, "Everything seems just a little bit to the left, like... something has changed." She squinted and closed one eye as she aligned her gaze.
"That's concerning."
"Yes, it is." McKenzie continued, "The Doctor... My Doctor, he wanted to leave... But I asked him to stay. He didn't want to run into himself."
"So he crossed his own timeline?"
"Yes, but... we didn't intend for this to happen, we had no idea what was in there. But at the same time, we're all still here. So something must happen in future that makes him forget."
"Then surely that means everything is going to be okay? We've seen you in the future."
Suddenly they heard crashing coming from upstairs.
"What was that?" McKenzie asked.
"She's awake." Jenny replied, jumping to her feet and running up the stairs.
Vastra was stood in the middle of the corridor holding a fighting stance, her eyes were locked on Pandora who was also ready for a fight. She looked nervously around at her surroundings, her face was scrunched up a little, like she was afraid and trying to hide it.
"I… I don't know where I am." She said, staring directly at Vastra.
"That's okay. You don't need to know." Vastra replied calmly.
The Doctor stood behind Vastra, nervously rubbing his hands.
"Pandora..." McKenzie said, "We're just trying to help. We need The Doctor."
"No!" She frowned, "We don't! I'm not letting him land and take you away again!"
"Strax has detected some kind of frequency coming from her..." Vastra whispered to McKenzie, "He thinks your Doctor won't be able to land."
"You're all crazy!" Pandora shouted, "You must be able to see how he's manipulated all of you?" She cried, begging them to listen to her.
McKenzie sighed, it was frustrating hearing all of the things she wanted to say twisted against her. She could feel how worried The Doctor was getting, both for his future and his present.
"Pandora, don't you remember what I showed you?" The Doctor asked, "Those memories, you sorted through which ones were real, you know the truth. You have to accept it."
Pandora narrowed her eyes and Vastra's tongue flitted menacingly between her lips.
Strax appeared behind her holding a scanner, "Not to alarm anyone, but the young boy is calling its mothership." He stated.
"Excuse me?" McKenzie asked.
"The mothership will be upon us soon. Mistress, shall I man the surface to ship canons?"
"We don't 'ave a surface to ship canon." Jenny added.
"Ah. Then may I make a suggestion?"
"Of course." Vastra nodded, not taking her eyes off Pandora.
"Acquire surface to ship canons in the next," he checked the scan, "Two minutes! And send me to man them. For glorious battle!"
McKenzie stepped closer to her future daughter, "What's he talking about?"
Pandora looked around nervously and bit her lip, "Nothing, I don't know. I'm not doing anything!"
"No he's right. She's been contacting someone since she woke up. I don't know how she's doing it." Vastra said.
"How can I be?" Pandora implored McKenzie, "I have nothing to contact with!"
"She was experimented on, she can temporal shift. That's Dalek technology... We have no idea what she's capable of." The Doctor said, he grabbed McKenzie's hand and pulled her back.
"Mothership upon us in thirty seconds!" Strax called out.
"Pandora, just calm down please, let us help you." McKenzie said, she could feel Pandora's fear and guilt... but, was she lying?
Pandora backed up a little and shouted up at the ceiling, "Father! She's here! I have her."
"Mothership upon us!" Strax shouted.
A man appeared in the middle of the corridor between Pandora and McKenzie, it was Wade.
He quickly pressed some sort of stun gun to McKenzie and activated a pulse sending everyone else flying into the walls.
McKenzie felt The Doctor's hand slip from hers as she tried to fight passing out. She hung limply in Wade's arms, unable to fight back.
"Father!" Pandora called out, she reached to him from her slumped position by the opposite wall. But Wade stared right through her before teleporting away.
"Can you hear that music?" Amy asked, turning to Rory.
Rory caught up to his wife, she had been charging around the endless winding corridors desperately trying to find something. But for now she had stopped, Rory leant on the wall to catch his breath while Amy craned her neck, listening to some music.
"Is that…?" he asked.
"Smooth jazz? Yep." She said quickly, her eyes darting around, "It sounds like a detective movie." She narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow at him, "Shall we investigate?" she asked.
Rory sighed, "I imagine even though we shouldn't, we're going to anyway?"
Amy grinned, she took his hand and rushed to the source of the music.
They came to a door with what looked like an old film grain across it.
Amy took a step toward the door, but Rory held her back.
"Wait, what if it's some kind of emancipation grid?" he asked.
"Rory, this isn't a video game."
She stepped through and Rory followed behind her. They were greeted by a fifties style diner, there were windows looking out on a small town.
"Is it raining?" Amy asked.
Rory squinted as he looked around the seemingly normal diner, "Yes, Amy, but you seem to have missed the fact that we're suddenly somehow in black and white?"
Amy's eyes widened when she realised, "How did I miss that?"
"Welcome - Amelia Pond - it has been over one thousand years since you last visited. Welcome back!" a cheerful voice said from behind the counter.
"What's that?" Rory turned startled by the voice.
"One thousand years?" Amy muttered.
The voice belonged to a holographic version of McKenzie. Rory nervously eyed the hologram as it eerily stared forward, he walked around it and suddenly it snapped to look directly at him.
"My apologies! I am the TARDIS Data Core. A virtual interface for inhabitants of this TARDIS to stick their noses into the Doctor's business."
"I'm sorry?" Rory asked.
"To access the history of this particular type 40 TARDIS." The data core seemed to clear its throat.
"Did the hologram just sass us?" Rory asked, turning to his wife who was still staring into space.
"One. Thousand. Years...?" she said again.
"Correct. Is there anything else you wish to enquire?"
Rory decided to try and change the subject, "Why does this place look like a diner? Also, how is it in black and white? How are we in black and white?"
"This is a virtual reality space, you can chose what you see. Currently you are seeing The Doctor's preferred desktop for this room, Noire – Diner, Jazz specific. Also in the Noire category is - Piano Bar."
The room flickered to a smoky Piano bar, there was a stage opposite them and a bar where the diner counter had been.
"Other music channels are available. And finally, airport runway."
The room flickered again and a loud sound shattered around them, a huge aeroplane had appeared next to them and its engines were running.
"Uh, change it back!" Rory shouted, covering his ears.
"I'm sorry I couldn't hear you. Could you repeat that?" the data core said.
"CHANGE BACK TO DINER." Rory shouted.
"As you wish."
The room flickered back to the diner with the calm jazz playing once again. Rory sighed.
"There are thousands of other desktops, would you like to see more of them?"
"No!" Amy shouted.
The hologram blinked and stared at Amy.
"Where am I?" she asked, "Why am I not traveling with the Doctor in the future? He said we'd travel forever."
"Amelia Pond. Unable to access data file."
"No, tell me. The Doctor said we would travel forever! Did he just drop me like the rest of them?"
"Amy..." Rory sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder.
"No! Answer me! Override whatever he's told you, I am Amelia Pond! Tell me what I want to know! Did The Doctor lie to me?"
The hologram blinked again, "Yes. The Doctor did not travel forever with Amelia Pond."
"I knew it, so did he just drop me for you?"
"No, I am only a VR system-"
"McKenzie!" Amy snapped.
Rory sighed, he couldn't help feeling upset about how hard Amy was fighting this.
"No. The Doctor did not chose anyone over Amelia Pond. McKenzie Murphy arrived just over one month ago. Amelia Pond died over one thousand years ago."
"Why? What happened to me?" Amy snapped.
"Amelia Pond chose over The Doctor. At the end, she had lived out her full life with the one she loved."
Amy paused.
"Amelia Williams lays forever resting with her husband Rory."
Amy sighed, she felt horrible for learning that information, but the look on Rory's face made her feel worse. He looked as if he were about to cry, but he was happy about it. Like he hadn't expected her to choose him.
"Of course I would..." Amy returned his smile and ran to give him a kiss.
