NOTE: Thank you all for the encouragement so far! It keeps me writing! Hugs!


Chapter Three

The Doctor stood behind Amy with his arms loosely draped over her shoulders as he continued to stare out at the city in the distance. When Amy had failed to be suitably impressed by the colour change he had stolen the glasses back. Looking at the amber hue on the city placed a new pressure on the Doctor's homesick hearts that he wasn't quite sure what to think of. It was a staggeringly beautiful sight that he thought he'd never even come close to seeing again, let alone get a chance to share with others. It was exhilarating to see something that looked so much like Gallifrey, but at the same time he had never felt further from his true home.

"It's just a mirage." The Doctor whispered to himself.

"Doctor?" Amy asked in concern.

"Nothing."

"Do you..." Amy hesitated. "Do you think the Time Lords built this place?"

"No. No, that's not...it's just a coincidence...I'm sure." The Doctor said not sounding particularly sure of himself.

Stepping away from Amy the Doctor pulled off the glasses and tossed them into the box on the floor. Looking at the city in its natural blue hue suddenly gave it a dead ghost like appearance that made the Doctor uneasy. Amy turned and gave the Doctor a look of maternal concern. He flashed her a bright smile but it did little to convince her that he wasn't affected by the sight of the city.

"Doctor, are yo..."

"It looks like Gallifreyan architecture from a distance, however, once we get into the city that will change." The Doctor interrupted. "Like when you think you recognize a close friend walking towards you on the street, but once they get closer you wonder how you could have ever mistaken them for anything other than a complete stranger."

"I'm sorry, did you say 'once we get into the city'?" Rory broke into the conversation.

"Of course. You expect me to find an underwater city and not explore it? I figured you'd know me better than that by now, Rory."

"I do, and yet I keep hoping for things to be different just once. It's a deep character flaw of mine."

"Never change, Rory." The Doctor chuckled. "Keep the faith."

"Will it help?"

"I suspect not, but it will probably make you feel better in the mean time."

"Great."

Losing his brush with melancholy the Doctor was excited to explore once more. Even if it wasn't a Gallifreyan city it was still a fascinating new place to discover. He raced up the steps to the control dais and began tinkering. The TARDIS did not take well to short trips, particularly when there was no time travel involved. He hadn't tried traditionally flying the TARDIS in a while and he'd never attempted it underwater before.

"Hold on to something." The Doctor warned.

"Can we at least close the door first?" Rory asked.

"No, then I wouldn't be able to see where I'm going. Here we...oh, wait, is that an octopus?"

Rory jumped and turned towards the door as the small octopus that had been creeping towards them finally slurped into the TARDIS. Unlike the giant squid it was a little more adept at moving in the dry conditions and waved a suckered covered arm at Rory. Rory recoiled in horror from the greeting.

"Can you put him back outside?" The Doctor asked. "He won't last long in here."

"I am not touching that thing." Rory said firmly.

"You're such a baby." Amy clucked.

Amy knelt down to pick up the slimy creature. The Doctor flicked at a small switch that changed the interior lights to a warmer yellow. At first the octopus had shied back but then it reached out with several arms to be picked up. The octopus wrapped its cold arms around Amy's wrist as she lifted it up. Surprisingly calm the cephalopod explored her forearm with the tip of one tentacle. Amy placed her hand and the octopus back into the wall of water. The octopus was reluctant to let go but eventually it released its suckered grip and swam off, changing colours a few times as it left.

"Seems like odd behaviour for an octopus." Amy noted.

"They are surprisingly intelligent," the Doctor said "besides I told him you were nice and that you wouldn't hurt him."

Rory rolled his eyes at the Doctor talking to the wildlife. Amy elbowed him in the ribs for being rude but he was unapologetic. The Doctor flicked the switch that had changed the lights to a deeper yellow to bring them back to normal. The octopus didn't have a language to be spoken aloud, but rather communicated with colour displays. With the sea-life back where it belonged the Doctor changed the setting on the shield to keep future guests from accidentally getting inside.

"Alright, now we are all set. Here we go!"

Amy yelped in surprise and grabbed a hold of Rory as the TARDIS shifted under her feet. Lifting up from the ledge with a flurry of sand the TARDIS clumsily made it its way through the water. They had been up on a ledge on an under sea mountain that lead to a vast flat expanse that the city was in the centre of. Off to both far sides could just be seen the edges of two trenches that bordered the plateau. Sinking down to the featureless flat rock bottom they slowly made their way toward the city.

The Doctor winced as they struck the bottom and he changed course to lift them up a few more feet. The TARDIS was making a terrible whining sound that was getting louder by the second. The view outside was clouded by the sand and muck that the TARDIS was churning up as it struggled through the dense water.

"Uh...Doctor?" Amy asked as she edged away from a tendril of smoke that wafted towards here from under the dais.

Concentrating on trying to keep the TARDIS swimming the Doctor's full attention was focused on the control panel as he fine tuned it, although it did little to actually help. The sound of the over-clocked engine was suddenly joined by the deep bell warning that the TARDIS reserved for when she was truly upset. Knowing not to push it any further the Doctor landed the TARDIS with a heavy thud about twenty meters from the edge of the dome that surrounded the city.

"This is close enough." The Doctor announced as though it had been his plan all along to stop here.

"Close enough?" Rory questioned as he looked out the door. "How are we supposed to get the rest of the way?"

The Doctor made a big show of taking a deep breath and holding it.

"Oh no, no way. I'm not going out there."

"I'm with Rory on this one, Doctor."

The Doctor released the breath with a disappointed sigh. He walked over to the open TARDIS doors as the sand from their landing settled. There were no signs of any people in this section of the city. The buildings didn't begin for about one hundred meters back from the dome. From what he could see of them the similarity to Gallifrey was still shockingly eerie, although he still wasn't ready to believe that they were identical. Between the dome and the buildings was an expanse of marble flooring. The Doctor looked at the dome that had a slight shimmer to it and realized something was wrong.

"There's no algae growing on the surface." The Doctor noted.

Amy and Rory just looked at one another, unsure of how to respond to the odd statement. The Doctor brought out the sonic and stuck it out into the water aimed at the dome. A yellow and blue fish about the size of the Doctor's hand swam up and nipped at the green glowing tip. The Doctor shook his hand at the fish and it sped off. Bringing his hand back inside the Doctor flicked open the sonic to read the results. Furrowing his brow he read the sonic again.

"That's not possible." The Doctor muttered.

"What's wrong?"

"It's not glass, it's not even a physical barrier. It's made out of pure energy."

"Why is that not possible?" Rory asked. "We've seen plenty of energy based walls, one is keeping the water out of the TARDIS right now."

"Exactly, in fact both barriers are identical."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked.

"It means that it really is Gallifreyan in origin. The city is kept dry with Time Lord technology. But that makes no sense, Time Lords didn't colonize other planets with our own technology and architecture."

"Why not?"

"Partly because we didn't need to, but mostly because Rassilon forbid it. The spires of Gallifrey were to be unique to Gallifrey." The Doctor explained. "The punishment for sharing architecture was actually a lot stricter than that of sharing too much technology and you could be put to death for crimes against technology."

"So what's stricter than death?" Rory asked puzzled.

"The Council would erase you from time all together." The Doctor replied seriously.

"Maybe that's why it's underwater." Amy pointed out. "It would be harder to find down here."

"That's true." Rory agreed. "Plus didn't you say this planet wasn't on any of your maps? Maybe it was purposefully erased."

"It still shouldn't be here. Time Lord artifacts that escaped the War and the Time Lock are extremely few and incredibly far between, even knowledge of our existence barely survives. An entire city...it shouldn't be here." The Doctor stared up at the nearest tall building that held all the hallmarks of a Gallifreyan structure. "And yet there it is."

"You don't...you don't think there are any Time Lords living in there now do you?" Amy asked, hesitant to even bring up the possibility.

"Only one way to find out."

The Doctor ran up to the TARDIS console that was still faintly smoldering. He pulled out the keyboard and typed in a few commands. Rory and Amy jolted in surprise at the sudden roaring noise that came from the open doors. A column of air speared through the water out from the door and connected to the dome where the shimmering wall parted to form an entry way into the protected city.

"What did you do?" Amy put her hand in the empty door space to confirm that the water had been pushed back.

"The dome is made of the same energy that the protective field on the TARDIS is so I just pushed the field out further until they merged." The Doctor explained as he rejoined them by the doors.

"Is it safe?" Rory asked nervously as he looked at the inch of water that was still pooled at the bottom of the air tunnel.

"Of course." The Doctor replied as he stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the mucky ocean floor. "Or at least as safe as anything else I ever do."

"Amazingly that does not make me feel better."

"Get over it, Mr. Pond." Amy mocked as she shoved Rory out of the TARDIS.

Rory staggered forward and splashed in the shallow water. Looking up at the thousand meters of water above him he froze in terror. The Doctor smiled and put a reassuring hand on Rory's shoulder. Resigning himself to his fate Rory started to carefully make his way across the smooth stone and sand floor towards the city. The Doctor's attention was drawn upwards as a trio of deep blue coloured dolphin like animals swam above them. He looked down just in time to see Amy about to close the TARDIS door behind her.

"Amy, wait, no!"

The Doctor's warning didn't come soon enough, the door shut and chaos erupted. It hadn't even been till he had seen her closing the door that he realized the consequences of such an action. With the connection at the TARDIS end severed the field holding the water back collapsed back towards the dome. The sudden rush of water threw Amy back into the Doctor. He wrapped his arms around her in an attempt to protect her as the wall of water slammed into him seconds after she did.

Rory had just enough time to turn around and realize that something was happening before the Doctor and Amy knocked into him. Unable to do anything else the Doctor just kept his hold on Amy as the sudden rip tide forced them back in a swirl of turbulent water. Disoriented in the crushing grip of the rushing water it felt like they were caught in an endless sea. He could hold his breath for an extended period of time, but Amy and Rory had minutes possibly only seconds before they were in trouble. Fortunately the way the field was retracting back towards the dome acted a lot like a water cannon and shot them across the distance and into the city with considerable force.

The Doctor landed on his back and he struck his head hard against the marble floor. Through his own nauseating pain he could hear Rory groaning ruefully near by. He had managed to keep his hold on Amy and she was laying heavily on his chest, but he couldn't tell if she had survived the violent trip or not. It wouldn't have taken long for her to drown if she hadn't managed to take a breath when the water hit or worse if she had inhaled the water upon impact. Darkness was quickly encroaching on the Doctor's senses from the hitting the unyielding floor. He battled against his body as he started to lose his hold on consciousness.

"Amy? Amy..."