Premonition
The Doctor led Amy and Jabe down another corridor before they entered a large room. Looking around, Amy soon realised they were in the engine room and whistled.
"This place is huge!" she exclaimed. Huge was an understatement. The room was colossal with three fans moving rhythmically to keep the room circulating and avoid the possibility of the platform overheating. There was only one narrow pathway and the rest just cut off into a large chasm.
"Is it me or is it a bit nippy?" he asked them. Amy nodded to show she agreed with him, albeit grudgingly. Every now and then, the heat would spike up before receding again. "Fair do's…though that's a great bit of air conditioning"
"Yeah, fantastic" Amy quipped sarcastically. The Doctor glared at her before focusing his attention on Jabe. Amy bit her lip. She knew she was being difficult but she was annoyed at the Doctor for using her as a guinea pig…again.
"Nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro"
"What about you Jabe?" Amy turned to address the tree woman. "Are you okay with the heat spikes?"
"For now," Jabe sighed. "I just hope we don't have to stick around for me to burn"
"Gotcha!" the Doctor cried in success. Amy turned to see he had walked to a control panel and walked over to him. The panel door slid away and Amy peered in only to jump back when a mechanical spider jumped up and ran up the wall until it was out of their reach.
"What the hell?"
"What the hell is that?" the Doctor repeated, stepping closer as his curiosity got the better of him.
"Is it part of the 'retro'?" Jabe asked, taking a tentative step forward as well.
"I don't think so…" the Doctor replied as the spider started scuttling further along the wall. Jabe suddenly shot something that whipped the spider and sent it falling straight into the Doctor's palm.
"Hey! Nice Liana!" The Doctor complimented. Jabe nodded, looking pleased yet embarrassed.
"Thank you, we're not supposed to show them in public" Jabe responded and Amy realised the tree woman must have been doing the tree equivalent of blushing.
"Don't worry, we'll keep it secret" Amy smiled and Jabe shot her a grateful look. The two then shifted their attention back to the strange spider that the Doctor was fiddling around with.
"Now then, who's been bringing their pets on board?"
Amy took the spider from the Doctor's hand and examined it, much to his dismay. Turning it over, she quickly remembered that the spider was metal and recalled something from earlier in the day. "The Repeated Meme handed out metal balls, didn't they?"
"That's right, I remember receiving one of my own" Jabe confirmed and the Doctor's frown deepened.
"What does it do?" Jabe asked, pointing at the spider in Amy's hand. The Doctor's gaze darkened and Amy was worried she knew the answer.
"Sabotage" he muttered darkly and the temperature in the room suddenly declined. A chill ran through Amy's spine and she tried not to show it.
Earth Death in 10 minutes. Earth Death in 10 minutes.
Amy suddenly gasped as a searing pain shot through her temples. Her hands flew to the throbbing in an attempt to soothe the pain.
She could make out voices, but they were too hushed for her to properly decipher it.
"Earth Death in 2 minutes"
Suddenly looking up, she was in a room. Looking around, she realised she was still on the Platform. Her eyes drifted to the Face of Boe in the corner and she gasped when she saw his tank was smashed and a gunshot was prominent right between his eyes where his brain must have been because blood was oozing out of that spot.
"AMY!" the Doctor yelled. Amy jerked awake and crashed backwards into Jabe. She was back in the engine room.
"Sorry, sorry," Amy stumbled over her words. "I just had a headache, that's all"
The Doctor looked at her suspiciously but nodded.
"The temperatures about to rocket!" he exclaimed, looking between the other two people present. "Come on!"
With that, the three ran out the room to avoid being burnt to a crisp.
They strolled through a corridor until Amy suddenly collided with the Doctor's back.
"Ow! What gives?!" she hissed, rubbing her head. Alerted by Jabe's gasp, Amy peered over the Doctor's shoulder and saw smoke billowing out of a locked room.
"What's in there?" she asked but the Doctor and Jabe were already running. Amy felt dread envelop her and she tore after them. As she got closer she realised the little blue staff from earlier were flailing frantically at the door.
"Come on, get back!" the Doctor ordered as he pulled out his sonic. Amy wrapped her coat sleeve over her nose to stop herself from inhaling the smoke.
"Sun filter rising, sun filter rising" the monotone voice of the computer echoed and the horrible feeling in the pit of Amy's stomach resurfaced.
"Was the Steward in there?" Jabe asked, looking nauseous herself. Well, as nauseous as a tree could look.
"You can smell him" the Doctor replied and Amy pulled a face. This wasn't the first time she inhaled the flesh of a deceased alien. "Hold on…there's another sun filter programmed to descend"
With that, the Doctor ran off with Amy right behind him. They ran through multiple hallways until they reached another locked door which had smoke billowing out from the top. The Doctor immediately pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began working frantically to try and raise the sun filter.
"Is anyone in there?!" Amy yelled, praying that the room was empty and they had nothing to worry about.
"Let me out! Amy, let me out!" Amy recognised the voice and immediately felt a cold sensation grip at her heart.
"Oh, well, it would be her!"
Amy turned to face the Doctor with a steely gaze.
"Get her out!"
"Hold on, give me two ticks" he mumbled as he continued working.
"Open the door!"
"There!" the Doctor cried triumphantly.
"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."
Amy blew a breath of relief. She faintly heard Rose do the same.
"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending"
Amy's eyes shot towards the Doctor's. He looked shocked and nervous.
"Oh, this is just what we need! The computer's getting clever!"
"Well, stop mucking about!" Amy heard Rose yell from the other side of the door.
"I'm not mucking about!" the Doctor cried indignantly. "It's fighting back!"
"Well, incapacitate it or something!" Amy yelled desperately. The Doctor pulled off the panel and started fiddling with the mesh of wires with the sonic.
"Doctor, open the door!"
"Hang on!" an annoyed Doctor yelled as he continued scanning the wires.
"The lock's melted!" Rose's muffled voice called out and Amy grew more worried. The Doctor grew frustrated and injected the screwdriver into the wires and Amy flinched when a large spark shot out of the wires.
"Sun filter rising, sun filter rising"
Amy held her breath, waiting for a few minutes. When the sun filter stayed up, she blew out another breath of relief and rested her head on the cool door. The Doctor looked relieved and pleased with himself.
Amy tried to open the door with the controls. When that failed, she tried pushing the door and growled when that failed as well.
"Rose, I can't open the door!"
"Alright, Rose, stay there okay? We can't open the doors! Don't move!" the Doctor informed Rose before running off.
"Where am I gonna go, Ipswich?!"
"I was thinking Leeds!" Amy teased before running to catch up with the Doctor.
Earth Death in 5 minutes
Earth Death in 5 minutes
When Amy walked into the Manchester suite with the Doctor, she realised that they had entered the heart of the chaos. Hysterical hubbub circulated around the room as the aliens began to panic over the unfolding events. Jabe desperately tried to calm them, her two fellow trees by her side.
"Summon the Steward!" the Moxx of Balhoon ordered. The Doctor walked up to Jabe and plucked the spider out of her hands.
"I'm afraid the Steward is dead" a pained Jabe informed the crowd. Shocked gasps rang throughout the room before everybody started looking at each other suspiciously. The only calm aliens in the room were the Adherents of the Repeated Meme.
"Who killed him?" the Moxx asked after a moment's silence.
"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe, he invited us!" Cassandra cried in an accusatory tone. Amy narrowed her eyes on the fleshy trampoline before noticing the Face of Boe and Hunter Magma were both missing. The uncomfortable feeling that something bad was going to happen resurfaced "Talk to the face, talk to the face!"
The Doctor caught on to Amy's glance and looked at Cassandra curiously.
"Easy way of finding out!" the Doctor exclaimed, capturing everyone's attention. "Someone bought a little pet on board, let's send him back to master!"
He placed the spider on the floor. Amy watched as the spider scuttled around the room before coming to a stop in front of Cassandra.
Amy noticed the skin's eyes dart around the room nervously before the spider whirred back to life and looked around the room, confused. Finally, it came to a stop in front of the black gowned group that gave Amy chills.
"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme" Cassandra gasped dramatically. "J'accuse!"
"Thanks for the French lesson!" Amy bit sarcastically. Cassandra shot her a dirty glare, which Amy reciprocated.
"That's all very well and really, kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it…" the Doctor's voice trailed off and caught everybody's attention again. He strolled over to the Repeated Meme.
Before Amy knew what was happened, one of the gowned figures attempted to attack the Doctor but the Time Lord managed to grab the hand before it could inflict any damage. Amy gasped when he tore the arm straight off. Tubes and wires were sticking out of the end and the alien recoiled as if it had been struck.
"It's a robot?" Amy gasped. Her gasp was mimicked by everybody else in the room, besides Cassandra.
"Partly," the Doctor explained. "A Repeated Meme is just an idea and that's all they are, an idea" he then ripped out a wire and all of the black gowned aliens collapsed on the ground. It was then that Amy realised that they had no face. "Remote controlled droids, nice little cover for the real troublemaker"
"Who is…?" Amy asked when the Doctor didn't say anything for a few seconds.
"Go on Jimbo!" the Doctor said encouragingly as he nudged the spider with his foot. "Go home!"
The spider appeared hesitant. Eventually, it made its way to Cassandra and everybody glared at the flesh. Cassandra, on the other hand, was glaring daggers at the Doctor.
"If looks could kill…" Amy muttered.
"I bet you were the School swot who never got kissed!" Cassandra hissed. The Doctor raised his eyebrows and Amy snorted. "At arms"
Cassandra's lackeys suddenly raised their canisters and pointed directly at them. Amy slowly took a few tentative steps backwards.
"What are you going to do, moisturise me?" the Doctor mocked, placing both his hands on his chest. Amy cursed his facetious ego for being so prominent.
"With acid" Cassandra replied gleefully. "Oh, it's too late anyway! My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts; tax free, past every code wall! I'm not just a pretty face you know"
"Thanks for that unneeded monologue" Amy snapped, rolling her eyes. "Besides, you'll die with the rest of us"
"She's right, that's a pretty stupid plan" the Doctor agreed.
"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims; the compensation would have been enormous!"
"You're doing all this for money?" Amy spat, her anger flaring up. "Are you stupid or what?"
"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this?!" Cassandra hissed. "The flatness costs a fortune! I am the last human, Weary Traveller wannabe, not you or that freaky little kid"
"Why you little-"
"What? Who is this 'Weary Traveller'?" the Doctor asked, interrupting Amy.
"It's just an old nursery rhyme" Cassandra brushed off his question. "Some call her the Guardian of the Wolf while others call her the Weary Traveller"
"Enough of this, arrest her!" the Moxx yelled, followed by a chorus of agreements. Cassandra locked onto the blue alien immediately.
"Oh, shut it pixie! I've still got my final option"
Earth Death in 3 minutes
Amy gasped as she remembered her vision. If it was real, it was happening now and she needed to stop it from happening. There was something about the Face of Boe that inclined her to help him.
She was torn away from her thoughts when an explosion sent her crashing into the Doctor, who steadied her. She watched helplessly as the guest's began to panic and Cassandra looked pleased with herself.
"Force fields gone with the planet about to explode" Cassandra informed the hysterical guests. "At least it'll be quick…just like my fifth husband" she giggled and Amy rolled her eyes. Why were the bad guy's always maniacs?
"Oh, shame on me! Bye, bye, darlings! Bye, bye, my darlings!" Cassandra trilled before she disappeared in a flash of blue energy with her cohorts.
"Heat levels rising" the monotone computer warned.
"Reset the computer!" the Moxx quickly suggested.
"Only the Steward would know how" a nervous Jabe replied.
"No, we can do it by hand" the Doctor reminded her. "There must be a restore switch, Jabe, Amy, come on!"
"I can't!" Amy replied. The Doctor looked at her in surprise.
"What did you say?"
"I can't come with you, there's something else I need to do" she explained as best as she could. The Doctor continued to look at her as if she was thick.
"What could be more important than this?" the Doctor asked her. Amy grew increasingly agitated.
"I can't explain! I don't have much time!"
"I'm not letting you out of my sight" the Doctor scoffed. "You're drenched in energy, anything could happen-"
"Look!" Amy suddenly snapped, surprising the Doctor. "I don't care if you trust me or not, I have something I need to do and so do you. So why don't I just do what I need to do and you do what you need to do and then we'll both have saved lives, ok?!"
The Doctor looked stunned, as if he found newfound respect for the ginger haired woman in front of him. "Ok"
Amy sighed in relief. "Jabe, where's the Face of Boe's suite?"
"Well, it's just beyond mine" Before Jabe question Amy's motives, she had already run out the door.
"Right, you lot, just chill!" the Doctor exclaimed as he ran out the room with Jabe to finish their end of the situation.
Amy ran as fast as she could. She didn't know why, but she held a surprising amount of certainty that her vision was true. Running past Jabe's room, Amy remembered the murderer of the Face of Boe was armed. Bending down, she scooped up the pipe that fell out of the maintenance duct and continued running.
Earth Death in 2 minutes
Earth Death in 2 minutes
This spurred Amy to run faster. She finally reached the Face of Boe's suite and crashed through the door.
"Stop!" she yelled. The man jumped and looked at her in surprise, pointing his gun at her. Amy wasted no time and threw the pipe, watching as it knocked the gun out of his hand. She watched as his crystal blue eyes darkened in anger and annoyance.
"So I've been found out" Hunter Magma mused. "And by none other than you, Amy Pond"
A/N: So I was intending to finish The End of the World in this chapter but I decided to cut it off here for cliffhanger reasons! Just to let you guys know that I made a new cover art for this story. It was practically the first time I used Photoshop in years so please excuse it if it was bad!
I've also added some development for the Doctor and Amy's relationship. It's still pretty unhealthy but at least he found a little respect for the feisty redhead. Tell me what you guys thought about certain parts of this chapter, especially the cliffhanger!
Aka-Baka-Hoshi: I like to hold the belief that Rose AND River both have a place in his two hearts, one for each. That makes both sides happy! I'm glad you're excited about this story and I hope this cliffhanger!
Notwritten: I promise to keep smiling!
Bwburke94: I won't give anything away about the visions or the Trickster! As for Boe knowing Amy's allotted surname, there's a reason for that that I hope people will like.
Margie-me: I don't know if you read these little sections, but I am not sorry for this cliffhanger because I am evil! I hope you liked the developments this chapter set out. Yes, I love that enigmatic Face as well, I'm pretty sure everybody does. As for Hunter Magma, you're going to receive your answer in the next chapter ;3