Chapter Threeeee!
Enjoy!
The Doctor woke up with a bright light behind his eyelids and he rolled over with a groan so that his eyes now faced the floor. He opened them and stared at the cobblestone until they adjusted, however, even after that he cringed as he looked at his surroundings. The light was like a sun without the heat, sitting right above his head and washing everything with its brightness.
Abruptly it dimmed, allowing him to looking around without having to squint so dramatically. Amy lay just a few metres away from him and Samuel just a bit further than that. There was no sign of anyone else.
Standing didn't hurt like he thought it would. In fact, nothing hurt like he thought it would which meant something had caught them. Something had stopped them from going splat and he was more than grateful for that. It was then that he noticed that the sun like light hadn't dimmed. Instead, the little ball of light had split itself in half, one remaining above their heads while the other had melted into the wall like a vein of magma in the rock.
It ran down the wall and pooled into a jar, sat atop of a stand made out of the wall. Cautiously, the Doctor walked up to it. The magma cooled and some of it appeared to disappeared, leaving behind a circle of gold with small gem in it. The gem didn't have a certain colour, at least none describable. It didn't have a colour and yet it was the most colourful thing he'd ever seen. It was the universe, tied up and wrapped in stone. It was every life, every planet, every star that was and will be born, and there was no way to describe it.
It wasn't light but it wasn't dark. He dipped his hand into the jar and picked the ring up. It wasn't light but it wasn't heavy nor was it hot or cold. It just… was. No name could be placed to it because there was nothing that could name it. It was just a thing that existed.
Groans behind him snapped him out of his another awe inspired trance and he dropped the ring into his pocket as he turned to the pair of sleeping beauties.
"Good morning!" He beamed as they rubbed their heads and eyes.
"Where's everyone else?" Obviously Samuel would be the first to ask that, and the Doctor respected him for still caring for his team of liars.
"Not sure, but I'm sure we'll find them." Though he doubted they'd ever seem Arthur again. At least not alive. The Doctor offered Amy a hand and helped her stand.
"How come we aren't bugs on the floor?" She asked, dusting herself off. "It felt like we were falling for ages." They both looked around the room while the Doctor shrugged.
"No clue, but I would like to find out." Amy and Samuel followed the bowtie main as he chose a random path that he had a nagging feeling was right. That feeling followed him for a while. It guided him. It told him which path was which and which thing to not touch.
"Where are we going?" Amy demanded.
"No idea. Somewhere someone wants us to go." The Doctor could see Samuel out of the corner of his eye, quietly fiddling with his thumbs trying not to look as scared as he was. "Samuel!" The Doctor smiled making the poor boy jump. "How did your team know where to go?" Samuel opened his mouth, stuttered some random letters before digging through the pack on his side and pulling out a small electronic device. He pressed a few buttons and a mini hologram of a map appeared.
"Our employer gave us this." He pointed to a highlighted line. "This is the direct route to the end of the 'maze'." Amy and The Doctor nodded in agreement.
"So, we're somewhere down here?" Amy asked pointing to the bottom of the hologram.
"Actually no." Samuel moved the map across and showed them a blinking blue marker. "We're here. We didn't actually fall down. The others on the other hand." He moved the map to show them deep down in the caverns where two more blinking markers lay. "They fell down. Arthur and Jessica didn't survive." He said solemnly. Amy touched his shoulder comfortingly.
"In that case let's make sure they didn't die in vain." The boy nodded catching the Doctor's contagious smile.
"Yeah and I can get us to the end. All we have to do…" he fiddled with the map and it started Glitching. "Woah," he moved his hand away from it to make sure it wasn't him doing it. When the image cleared everyone noticed the difference. The 'maze' had changed. Things that were in front of them were now behind them and routes had moved to connect to theirs.
And most of all, the end was closer.
The Doctor took the device and soniced it, then soniced the walls around him. "Something…" he mused looking at the readings. "Really wants us to find it." Amy and Samuel blinked.
"Something? What do you mean?" Samuel frowned.
"Something pulled my ship off course and landed her here, quite nicely I might add. Then, something was giving us light where there was none, and then something separated us from the group moving us in a completely different direction, and something's given life to rocks so it can manipulate the maze. Something is trying to make it easier for us three to find it." Samuel's eyes widened in realisation while Amy still looked clueless.
"You mean… that the universe… oh…" He breathed. "But why me? Why bring me as well? I'm with the people who want to hurt it." He realised what he'd said and realised he hadn't told them before. "Arthur was hired by someone I don't know to find it, capture it and bring it to them. They paid us a lot to do it." He added his tone half bitter half impressed.
"Someone that rich can't want whatever it is, for a good reason." Amy mumbled and The Doctor and Samuel shook their heads saying no in agreement.
"I tried to tell them it was a bad idea. I know the stories of the universe. I know what it can do and I know why it was put here in the first place. I told them we shouldn't be messing with it." Samuel was defending himself though he didn't have to. If he hadn't been thrown into the caverns than he was trustworthy.
"Somehow, I think whatever is here already knew that. It knew why your team was here and so I bet it knew you'd tried to stop them. That's why she kept you with us." Amy and Samuel glanced at each other before frowning at the Doctor. "What?"
"You just said she." Amy pointed out giving Samuel another glance.
The Doctor furrowed his brows and said, "I did?" The pair nodded. "Hmm… now that's interesting." The walls started shaking and rumbling and the trio were thrown to the ground.
"What's-"
"I have no idea!" The Doctor shouted before Amy could finish.
#
When the rumbling stopped they knew they had moved again without even looking at the map. They weren't standing in a slightly narrow tunnel anymore. No, the room they stood in was large, with a high roof and a wide floor. It was like they'd blinked and suddenly they'd teleported somewhere else.
The Doctor pushed himself onto his feet and stared at the centre of the room. He stared at the coffin in the centre of the roof, sat atop three steps and etched with symbols only he could understand. His gaze went further than the coffin and he found a doorway, and beyond that door way was what could only be described as a monster, the same one that had been behind Arthur. A monster that wanted the coffin.
The wall morphed and moved, sealing the doorway, cutting off the monster. Rocks flew as the monster broke through the wall and it stepped into the room.
A wall shot out of the ground, than another and another and another until there was a giant wall right next to the coffin. The room vibrated as the monster started breaking through the walls. One by one, making its way towards them.
Suddenly Kyle and Lucy ran into the room, their eyes widening as they landed on the coffin. Samuel and Amy stepped in front of them, yelling, "you can't touch it!" The walls around the two new comers started morphing and the Doctor panicked a moment.
"Don't hurt them!" He shouted, the walls halting immediately, morphing back into rock. He looked to the coffin. He looked to the coffin and felt the ring in his pocket. The walls kept rumbling and people kept arguing, and the Doctor started walking. He placed his hands on the coffin lid and hesitated. What would be unleashed if he opened it? He didn't let that thought ponder as he pushed the lid off.
Everything fell silent. The monster stopped breaking things and the humans stopped arguing.
The Doctor stared inside the coffin. She looked like she'd been plucked straight from the streets of earth. Her clothes were worn from centuries of confinement but the rest of her looked like she'd just fallen asleep. She looked, he imagined, the same she did the day she was placed in this tomb.
Perhaps by coincidence or perhaps by some other force, everyone blinked. They blinked at the exact same time for the exact same amount of time. When their eyes focused again they were wide in shock at the sight of an empty coffin. Kyle opened his mouth to ask a question but closed it like the goldfish he was.
"What is your name?" Everyone but the Doctor jumped as she spoke. Having a person in a coffin who didn't look dead was something, but having one that could talk and move and live was something else. She stood next to her prison, her slender hand gripping its side doing the proper job of her legs, her muscles still tired after centuries upon centuries possibly even thousands of years of sleep. Her voice was quiet too. Unused and out of practice. The girl's eyes moved around the room, soaking in every detail, examining every person. They moved to the Doctor and stayed on him the longest. He was after all, the first face she had seen since she'd been asleep.
"My name is the Doctor." He said, offering her a smile while he walked to her side of the coffin. She didn't flinch or move away from him like one might do in the sight of a stranger in a place like this. In fact, she didn't seem afraid at all. At least, not of the Doctor. "Are you the one who brought me here? You guided my ship here?" She stared at him a moment before nodding. "May I ask why?" He was using all the politeness he could still smiling, keeping the mood calm. He could basically feel the greedy urge from the two stupid archeologists behind him.
"Bad people were coming," she whispered, "I needed a good man to help. The Doctor is a good man. The Doctor helps the people and the universe. I need the Doctor's help, and he needs mine." Her voice was slowly getting stronger though it cracked now and again from the dryness of her throat.
The rumbling started again as the monster broke from whatever daze it had been put in. She turned to look at the walls.
"You brought a monster here." She said directing it to Lucy and Kyle. "Your leader brought something with him he shouldn't have." The archeologists didn't say anything to that.
The girl's eyes flicked to a section of wall beside them and as she blinked it started crumbling away. The Doctor smiled as he saw what was on the other side.
"You are one tricky girl." He commented before running up to his beautiful blue box. "Alright, everyone in before we become monster food." He pushed on the doors but they didn't open. Knowing who to accuse he turned to the girl.
"They cannot take what they have stolen." She whispered but to his ears it was clear as day. He understood what she wanted. He understood why she was so afraid of them. Though her eyes showed no fear and her face no expression he still knew she was afraid.
"You have to put it back." He said turning to the three thieves. Samuel's eyes were wide as the Doctor's knowing eyes landed on him.
"What? Me? I haven't taken anything!" The monster's rumbling become louder. The boy gave in. "Ok, ok." He pulled out a golden pendent from his pocket and out of the corner of his eye the Doctor could see the girl recoil at the sight of it. The thought of the monster encouraged the other two to empty their pockets and Amy turned hers inside out to assure the girl she hadn't taken anything. The TARDIS doors opened and the three archaeologists bolted inside, not caring about the unique technology. The Doctor and Amy helped the weak girl inside and the closed the doors just as the monster broke through the last door.
It snarled at the blue box and pounded against the door as the Doctor ran his laps around the console pressing buttons and pulling leavers. The Monster punched the wall behind the TARDIS as she disappeared before its eyes. The monster growled at the empty space and roared at the empty air. Monster's don't like being cheated of their prey.
A/N Yay! Another chapter! Sorry its been so long. Had stuff on. Hoped you enjoyed it! Stayed tuned for Chapter 4
