CHAPTER 4

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AN OLD ENEMY REBORN

The Master had been sitting in the corner of the Console Room yelling at the Doctor to release him for over half an hour when Amy finally snapped and said, "Shut up over there!"

"What are you going to do about it if I don't?" the Master said in an angry voice.

"Do you remember that beating that I gave you last time? That was me being nice. Now I'm angry. You do the math," Amy said as she gave him the look of death.

The Master saw the icy cold stare that she was giving him and quickly stopped talking. The Doctor grinned as he said, "I could have used you centuries ago, Pond."

"I think he might have just wet himself just then. Just a little," Clara joked.

"Shut up," the Master said with an embarrassed look on his face.

Jenny burst out laughing, and the Doctor quickly joined her. Amy glared at him as she said, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," the Doctor said as he began to show fear now as well.

People had often told him that he had an Oncoming Storm look when he got angry. He was sure that his couldn't even hold a candle to Amy's though. Now she was scary!

"Gotcha!" Amy said as she suddenly smiled at him.

The Doctor smiled back at her in relief as he said, "Now that I've got you as a partner I think that I may be out of a job soon. The Daleks will run screaming in terror from Amy Pond the Time Lady. I know you certainly scare me, and I'm your best friend."

"You seem to have a talent for putting Time Lords in their place," Clara noted.

"When you travel with him long enough, you have to if you want to keep your sanity," Amy said.

"She's always been nice to me," Jenny said.

"You're too sweet to be mad at. If the others were like you, there would never have been a Time War," Amy said.

"Yes, I'm sure that the Daleks would have been defeated by sweetness," the Master muttered.

"I was talking about if they had been as brave and smart as her. You lot didn't do so hot doing it your way either, did you? The Doctor was the only one who actually did something while everyone else was practically useless it always sounded like to me. What was it that you did again? Oh, yeah! You ran away and hid!" Amy said.

The Master grumbled to himself in a low voice as he glared at Amy. She was so at the top of his list if he ever got free.

Jenny smiled at Amy for saying those things about her. She was becoming very fond of her. She reminded her so much of Donna Noble who was the closest that she had ever come to having a mother.

The TARDIS suddenly stopped, and Amy went to the console immediately. She looked at the Doctor questioningly as she said, "It says that we just moved a few miles. We're still in the same year. It's even the same day only a few hours later."

"So?" the Doctor asked.

"The TARDIS usually takes you to some far off distant time and place. I don't think that we've ever just popped up only a few miles away on the same day before. You must have done it on purpose. You made a short hop for a reason, didn't you?" Amy asked suspiciously.

"No, it's just a coincidence that it happens to be the same date and roughly the same place that's all," the Doctor said.

"Oh, come on, Doctor. I may not have traveled with you as long as Amy has, but even I don't buy that. Why are we here for? What's going to happen here?" Clara asked.

"I've been receiving several strange energy readings from that area. I just wanted to check them out to make sure that they weren't alien in origin," the Doctor finally admitted.

"And you didn't tell me, your new partner, about this why exactly?" Amy asked in an annoyed voice.

"I honestly forgot, Amy. I'm just not used to sharing information with anyone until I'm sure of what I've found. I'm sorry. I'll tell you everything from now on," the Doctor said in an apologetic voice.

"You could start by doing it now," Amy said impatiently.

"Well, I've been receiving these very odd energy readings from an abandoned building in the middle of London. At least it looks abandoned from the outside, doesn't it?" the Doctor said as he called it up on the monitor.

"Yes, it does. It's been all boarded up. What kind of readings are they?" Amy asked.

"They're very similar to that of the Nestene Consciousness," the Doctor said.

"The Autons?" Amy asked as a million emotions shot through Amy's hearts at once. One of them was how weird it was to be thinking of herself as having two hearts now, and the others were all about Rory. The last time that she had encountered Autons one of them had turned out to be Rory.

"You didn't want to tell me until you were sure because you knew that it would remind me of Rory," Amy realized.

"Yes," the Doctor admitted.

"You don't have to do that, Doctor. It hurts but I can take it. You don't need to worry about me like that," Amy said.

"I always worry about you," the Doctor said.

She smiled at him and gave him a short hug as she said, "Maybe it's time that you stopped. I've been a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, and I'm even a Time Lord now. I think that it's way past time that you realized that I can take care of myself, don't you?"

Amy could practically see images of her and Rory being taken away by the Weeping Angels flashing through his mind even as he looked at her. She knew that that incident was going to make it very unlikely that he would ever stop worrying about her any time soon. She was still going to try to get him to stop though. She was a mature, a very mature, adult now and was more than capable of taking care of herself.

"I'll try to stop, Amy," the Doctor said. She smiled at him as she could see that he actually meant that.

"I appreciate that. So the Autons have set up camp in the middle of London. Do you think that they've started impersonating people yet?" Amy asked.

"I don't think so. I haven't seen any reports of any mysterious disappearances or any other weird events in the area recently so maybe I've found them in time to stop them before they even get started for once," the Doctor said hopefully.

"Can someone tell me about these Autons?" Clara asked.

She was feeling very left out ever since Amy had arrived. The Doctor had stopped explaining things to her, and she had quickly found that she was being left in the dark.

The Doctor quickly explained about Autons to her, and Clara felt a little better. She would have felt a lot better though if the Doctor hadn't forgotten to tell her in the first place. She was willing to cut him a little slack though since his life was going through so many changes lately, and it was no doubt just a little bit overwhelming to him. She just hoped that this wasn't going to become a habit with him. She didn't go through everything that she had for him in order for him to just forget about her.

"I'm so sorry, Clara. I didn't realize that I had forgotten to tell you about them. I suppose that you didn't know about them either, did you?" the Doctor asked Jenny.

"I've run across some before actually and defeated them all by myself. I've done a lot of traveling on my own, Dad. I have a time machine too you know. It's nowhere near as good as the TARDIS, but it got the job done. I was actually quite proud of myself for making it," Jenny said with a fond smile on her face as she remembered all of the trouble that she had gone through in order to make it work.

"I'm proud of you too, Jenny. I always was. UNIT will take good care of it for you while you're not using it. I didn't tell anyone but Kate what it was of course. I don't want humans getting their hands on time travel. They'd have all of time and space plunged into chaos before you knew it," the Doctor said with a smug grin on his face.

"For once I agree with you on something. Humans can't be trusted with such power," the Master said.

"You're a fine one to talk. That's enough with the human bashing, Doctor. Let's go check out these Autons," Amy said.

"Wait a minute! We still haven't decided what to do with him yet," Clara said as she gestured toward the Master.

"That's right. We can't just leave him here by himself. Either we take him somewhere and dump him or one of us is going to have to babysit him to make sure that he doesn't escape," Amy said.

"I'll do it," Jenny volunteered.

The Master smiled at the thought of it. He was certain that he could use the young Time Lady's compassionate nature against her in order to escape. He would just pretend to be sick and then improvise from there.

As a matter of fact, he wouldn't have to pretend much. He actually was sick. He was still dying after all.

"Hey! I saw that look! Don't even think about it. If you even so much as touch Jenny, I'll make what I did to you before seem like love taps in comparison," Amy threatened.

"You're going to threaten me once too often, and then you're going to regret it. You're already at the top of my hit list, Amy Pond. Just remember that. I will get free, and then I'm going to enjoy killing you. I still haven't decided what I'll do to you yet, but I'm going to make it very slow and painful," the Master threatened.

"Leave her alone," the Doctor said in the coldest voice that any of them except the Master had ever heard him use.

"Oh, this one's special to you, isn't she? That's good to know. That'll make killing her even more enjoyable," the Master said as he started laughing.

Clara immediately punched him in the jar as she said, "You leave my friends alone! If you so much as think of hurting any of them, you'll answer to me. I've faced death thousands of times before in thousands of different ways. I've seen things, many horrible things, that make even you look tiny and insignificant in comparison. You don't scare me. Not in the slightest."

The Doctor looked at her with newfound respect as he smiled at her. Not many people would stand up to the Master like that especially not when he was laughing. The Master's laughter always scared everyone because it told them exactly just how demented and psychotic that he truly was.

"Now you're on my list too," the Master muttered as he snarled in rage at Clara.

"You're right, Clara. We can't leave him here alone, and I don't feel right about leaving any of you alone with him. He's just too dangerous. I'll stay with him myself. You can investigate the Autons, Amy," the Doctor said.

"What?" Amy asked in shock.

"It's time that I let you handle one solo I think. You wanted to be equals after all. Go ahead. You handle this one," the Doctor said.

"Okay. Thanks," was all that Amy said.

She still couldn't believe that he was doing this. She had wanted to be an equal though, and now she'd gotten exactly what she wanted.

As Amy started toward the door, she saw a sonic screwdriver suddenly pop out of the console. This one was smaller and much more slender than the one that the Doctor usually carried. It also had a red light on top.

"That's yours if you want it. The TARDIS thought that you might need it," the Doctor said as he looked at her with pride.

"Thank you. Both of you," Amy said as she held up her sonic and looked it over with a smile on her face.

"I'm going too. I won't let you go by yourself," Clara said.

"So am I. I'm not getting left out of this," Jenny said.

"Are you sure?" Amy asked. The Doctor could see hesitation in her eyes.

She wasn't sure about taking others with her. The Doctor could see that she didn't want to be responsible for getting anyone else hurt or worse. She had to find out sooner or later that that came with the job, and it might as well be now he thought to himself.

"Go ahead and take them, Amy. You'll do a good job. I know you will," the Doctor encouraged her.

"Thanks," Amy said with a warm smile as she led the way out of the TARDIS and the others followed.

"Now, it's just you and me," the Doctor said to the Master.

"You wanted them to leave us here alone, didn't you? What do you have planned that you don't want your trusted companions finding out about, Doctor? I'm just dying to find out," the Master said with a smirk.

"You'll see," the Doctor said as he led the Master out of the Console Room and down the corridors of the TARDIS.

When the Master saw where the Doctor had taken him, he started to scream. The Doctor didn't want to do this to him, but he had no other choice. He was simply too dangerous to be allowed to roam free.

Amy meanwhile entered the abandoned warehouse with Clara and Jenny close behind her as she slowly followed the readings on her new sonic to their source. She smiled as she realized that the glowing red light on top of it was the exact same color as her hair. Either the TARDIS or more likely the Doctor had a very warped sense of humor.

She quickly followed the sonic to the middle of the warehouse and found a man and a young girl around eighteen years old huddled together under an old blanket. They were obviously freezing.

Amy's heart would have gone out to them if the sonic wasn't telling her that the man was an Auton and shouldn't be feeling any cold at all or anything else for that matter. She doubled checked the scan and saw that it was right.

The girl, however, read as human. What was the Auton doing with her, and why did it seem to be the only Auton here? She saw no other Auton readings just the one.

She realized that there was no time like the present to get her answer.

"Hello, my name's Amy Pond, and I'd really like to know what you're doing here on my planet," Amy suddenly said out of the blue without announcing herself.

"Amy?" a very familiar voice to her said as the man removed the blanket around him and wrapped it around the shivering girl.

"Oh, my God!" Amy said.

"Who is it?" Clara asked as she realized that Amy recognized the man.

"Rory!" Amy shouted as her mouth fell open in shock.

"Amy? Is it really you?" Rory asked as he looked just as shocked as she was.

"That's what I should be asking you, isn't it? The sonic here says that you're an Auton. This is way too late for you to still be Auton Rory though. All that I can assume then is that this is a trap of some sort for me," Amy said.

The two of them stared at each other without speaking for a long time as they both searched each other's eyes for signs that the other was real. Both of them wanted for the other to be real so much.

Finally Amy broke the silence as she said in a pleading voice, "Please tell me that you're not a trap."

"I'm not a trap. It's really me, Amy. I think that you're really you too. I have to find out which you though. Is this after Manhattan?" Rory asked as he used one of River's old tricks.

"Way after Manhattan. As in, I died of old age years after you did," Amy said.

"What? How are you here then?" Rory asked in total confusion.

"It turns out that giving birth to River caused me to become a Time Lady when I died. What's your story?" Amy asked.

"A Time Lady? I guess that makes sense. It makes much more sense than what happened to me anyway. I woke up in this body right after I died, Amy. I just suddenly found myself in the middle of London all alone with no idea how I got there. I still don't know how or why I'm an Auton again or even for sure that I'm the real me. I think that I am. I feel like I am," Rory said.

"You have to be," Amy said as she kissed him and wrapped her arms around him.

The girl who had been with Rory looked up at Clara and Jenny and smiled at them as she said, "I'm Rayna O' Mara. I assume that you know Rory or at least that she obviously does anyway. Rory took me in after he found me wandering around alone with no memory of how I got there. He and I have been staying in this warehouse for the last few days together trying not to freeze to death. Well, I've been trying not to anyway. The cold doesn't seem to bother him. We weren't doing anything by the way. I was just trying to use his body heat to stay warm. I don't think of him that way, and I know that he doesn't think of me like that. I just wanted to make that clear."

"I believe you just based off of that if nothing else," Clara said with a smile as she pointed at Amy and Rory who were still kissing.

"You lost your memory? So you don't remember anything? You obviously remember your name," Jenny said.

"I actually made that name up a few days ago. I took those two names off of some signs that I was looking at as I wandered around the city by myself. They just felt right to me somehow especially the first one. I really don't remember anything. Nothing. If it wasn't for Rory, I'd probably be dead by now," Rayna said.

"Who is Rory?" Jenny asked.

"Amy's husband. I've met him before. Well, Oswin did anyway," Clara said.

"Huh?" Jenny asked.

"I'll explain later," Clara said.

As Amy pulled away from Rory, she said, "The Doctor knew. He had to know. He knew that it was you. That's why he sent me in here alone."

After Clara cleared her throat, Amy quickly added, "I mean that he sent us in here alone. Sorry."

"It's okay. You're still getting used to being a leader," Clara said.

"A leader?" Rory asked.

"Things have changed since you've been gone," Amy said.

"Well, suddenly you're a Time Lady now so yeah I get that. You'll have to fill me in on the rest of it later. This is Rayna. She's my friend. I've been trying to keep her alive for the last few days," Rory said.

"Yes, I heard her talking to the others. I actually was paying attention to everything else that was going on around me. Your kisses aren't that good," Amy teased him.

"That's funny because I wasn't aware of anything else but you," Rory said with a grin.

They began to kiss again as Clara and Jenny both sighed and rolled their eyes. This might take a while.

Rayna meanwhile was very glad that Rory at least had gotten his wish. She had heard him say Amy's name sometimes late at night when he thought that she was sleeping. She knew that he was missing her and had often wondered what had happened to her.

If only her own wish could come true. She wished that she knew who she was. She honestly couldn't remember though.

I've been trying to tell you who you are for the last few days, but you couldn't hear me. Not until now anyway. Not until you heard that redheaded woman mentioning Time Lords. That sparked a memory, didn't it? Now you're finally starting to remember or you wouldn't be hearing my voice. I know who you are, Rayna. I know all about you. All that you have to do to learn everything that I know is to open the watch that's in your pants pocket. Open the watch, and you'll remember everything. A voice said in Rayna's mind.

Rayna thought that she must be going insane to be hearing voices, but what if it was true? She did have an old fob watch in her pants, but it was broken. It didn't open. Or did it?

"Come on, Rayna. Let's go. We're going back to the TARDIS. I'm going to find out what the Doctor did and didn't know," Amy said and shook Rayna out of her thoughts.

Rayna forgot about the watch and the voice as soon as Amy finished speaking. "The TARDIS?" Rayna asked.

"You'll see. Come along, O'Mara," Amy said.

Then her eyes widened in horror as she said, "Please tell me I did not just say that!"

Rory grinned as he said, "Yes, you did."

"It must be a Time Lord thing. It must do something to your mind," Amy said.

"Oh, thanks. You're really giving me something to look forward to," Clara said with a grin.

"You're a Time Lady too?" Rory asked.

"I will be soon. I'm slowly turning into one I'm afraid," Clara said.

"Amy, I'm going to need a lot of explanations I think. Starting with why your friend sounds just like Oswin Oswald," Rory said.

"That's because I am Oswin, Nina," Clara said with an evil grin.

Rory looked at her in shock as Amy said, "I'll tell you later. Come on."

As soon as the five of them went back to the TARDIS, they found the Doctor alone in the Console Room, and the Master nowhere in sight. Amy immediately knew that something had happened and asked, "Doctor, where's the Master?"

"I see you found Rory. Hello, Rory! I knew that it was him you see. I could tell because he had the same energy signature that he did when he was an Auton before. Someone wanted me to find him and rescue him," the Doctor said happily.

"Doctor, where is the Master?" Amy asked again.

"Someone wanted you to find me? Who? Did they somehow make me into an Auton again?" Rory asked.

"I imagine so. I wouldn't put it past her," the Doctor said.

"Who?" Rory asked.

"River. She must have somehow captured your consciousness as you died and then put it into another Auton body made to look like you. Then she left you where she knew that I would find you. It has to be her. She must have been very busy at the end. She arranged for me to find Amy and now you. She wanted you to spend eternity with him, Amy, and this was the only way that she knew how," the Doctor said.

Amy actually forgot about the Master for a moment as she said, "I wish that she could have saved herself too so that I could thank her."

"So do I," the Doctor said sadly. Clara immediately put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he smiled at her.

"River's dead. Things really have changed a lot," Rory said in a numb voice.

"I'm sorry, Rory. Anthony and the rest of the family are still around though. They'll be so happy to see you and know that you're alright," Amy said.

"I just don't know how to explain being an Auton to them. That's why I never tried to go back to Leadworth. That and I thought that you were dead," Rory said.

"They'll understand, Rory. We'll take you back as soon as I discover what happened to the Master. Where is he, Doctor?" Amy asked.

"The Master? Who is the Master, Doctor?" the Master said as he walked into the Console Room.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Amy demanded.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't properly introduced you. This is my new companion, Professor Yana. Professor Yana, this is my friend and partner, Amy Pond," the Doctor said.

"What?" Amy asked in complete confusion.

Meanwhile Rayna looked around the Console Room in awe before she heard that same voice in her head once more. Now it was practically shouting at her.

Open the watch and release me. You must remember. You are not Rayna O'Mara. You are a Time Lord. You are the Rani! The voice said in her mind.

Rayna looked at Rory in despair as she said, "Rory, I think that I'm going mad. Please help me!"

Then she collapsed on the floor of the TARDIS.

Next: What in the world is going on with the Master? I'm sure that you already know. Will Rayna ever open the watch? Let's just say that you're really not going to like the answer to that one and neither will the Doctor.