Chapter 5
"Okay, Doctor, Two-Streams is back on air." Amy informed the Doctor as she led the way out of the engine room. "Right, okay, so this is big news. This is temporal earthquake time. I'm officially changing my own future. Hold onto your spectacles. In my past, I saw my future-self refuse to help you. I am now changing that future and agreeing. Every law of time says that shouldn't be possible."
"Yes," The Doctor agreed, apparently unsurprised by the change in plans, "except sometimes knowing your own future is what enables you to change it. Especially if you're bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable."
"So, basically, if you're Amy, then." Rory responded. But he wasn't just thinking about his wife: instead a fatal shot, a golden light, and a dead body until what seemed like forever away a living, breathing, younger Doctor there in front of them with no idea of what was wrong with them and why they stared at him as if he were a ghost.
"Yes, if anyone could defy pre-destiny, it's your wife." The Doctor's voice broke Rory out of his thoughts and back into their predicament.
"It's not about what I'm doing, it's about who I'm doing it for." They reached the hallway but stopped when Amelia turned to look at Rory intently, "I am trusting you to watch my back, Rory."
"Always." Rory promised, as he had when he had uttered his wedding vows on the happiest day of his life. "You and me, always."
"Cause, here's the deal. You take me, too, in the TARDIS. Me too."
"But that means there'll be two of you, permanently." Rory said slowly, trying to imagine a reality in which this worked but completely failed. "Forever."
"And that way we both get to live." She nodded as if this was fine, as if this didn't make everything so much more difficult.
"Two Amys together." Rory asked the Doctor, turning to the side so that his wife couldn't see the range of emotions cross his face. "Can that work?"
"I don't know. It's your marriage." The Doctor answered, and Rory knew that he was stalling his mind racing with consequences and possibilities. "Perhaps, maybe if I shunted the reality compensators on the TARDIS, recalibrated the doomsday pumpers and jettison the karaoke bar, yes, maybe, yes." His voice drifted off and Rory wasn't sure that he was actually talking to them or to himself but then he spoke again. "It could do it. The TARDIS could sustain the paradox."
"Right. Amy." He murmured and looked behind him at his wife before he held the looking glass up to where young Amy was standing by the door. "And Amy…The wife and the wife. Right." And though he tried to wrap his head around this he couldn't figure out how this going to work.
"Okay, Amy, Past Amy, stand by the door. Future Amy, you too." The Doctor ordered, "Future Amy, can I borrow your sonic screw—it—it's a probe." He stumbled over the word before catching himself.
"It's a screwdriver." Future Amy gave in as she handed it to Rory.
"Rory, sonic it, double our power. Amy Now, you're our link to Amy Then. We need to get a signal through and that signal will be a thought." Rory finished sonicing Amy's screwdriver and threw it over to her as the Time Lord went on. "Amy Now and Amy Then, share a thought. Something so powerful that it can rip through time. Rory, sonic the pin front. Inside you'll find three levers and a jumble of wiring. That's the regulator valve. After we reroute it, you'll have ten minutes to get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor's voice quickened as it always did when he was working the technical engineering parts of their adventures, too fast for Rory to really understand half of what he was saying but he did his best. The Doctor did hate to repeat himself.
"Okay." Rory said after he had opened the pin front and found exactly what the Doctor had said he would find. The jumble of wiring sent a shot of fear through his system as he realized that he was going to be messing with them. He had never been good with engineering and that was just on Earth, this was a whole new planet.
"Pull out the red and green receptors. Reroute the blue into the red and the green into the blue. Leave the red loose, and on no account touch anything yellow." Rory struggled to follow his instructions and do what he was told but his progress was too slow for the mad genius. "Come on, Rory, it's hardly rocket science. It's just quantum physics!"
"Right." He muttered, and if he wasn't trying to remember what color to touch or not then he might have been irritated but as it was he didn't have time. "Okay, blue into red. Red into…" His mind went blank for a second but thankfully he remembered quickly. "Green."
"Yes, yes, now the levers, throw them in order. And Amy, start thinking the most important thought you have ever had. Hold it in your head and do not let it go." The Doctor ordered intensely. "Lever one."
Rory threw the first lever and looked over at the older Amy where she stood by the door, facing Rory.
"Macarena." She said quietly, closing her eyes.
"She's doing the Macarena." He whispered in surprise. Rory stared at her and felt his heart swell with love. "Our first kiss."
"Lever two, Rory." The Human shook his head slightly and obeyed. Young Amy began to appear but she was faint like a hologram.
"Lever three!"
Rory threw the last lever and startled back when the looking glass that he had leaned against the wall shattered, but it was forgotten when young Amy appeared fully in this time. Without a thought he ran to her and pulled her into his arms and held her tight, thankful beyond words that she was okay and here with him. Then awkwardly they both looked at Old Amy who stood silently watching them. Unsure of what to do, Rory took a step away from both of them as if that could help. Yes, this was already heading to trouble and it had barely begun.
"Hello." Old Amy said hesitantly, and Young Amy echoed her. They looked at each other for a moment before they both began, "I don't know what…"
"Weird." Rory murmured, as if 'weird' could explain any of the feelings that he was feeling as he looked at the Amy that he had grown up with and loved forever and the Amy that he had only met a couple of hours ago and yet known his whole life. This truly was a mess.
"Okay, this is weird." They both said again. "Right, just stop doing that."
"How about, Amy One speaks first?" Rory suggested but it was a mistake and he knew it when they both looked at him with identical expressions.
"Which one's Amy One?" They asked and he started to speak that the younger was but he thought better of it and closed his mouth. "I am." They argued. "Rory!"
He was saved from having to do anything by painful sparks that hit his eyes from the glasses that now looked like they were being hit by lightning. He cried out softly as it continued.
"Rory, Rory, take the glasses off. You'll get temporal feedback." The Doctor said quickly and Rory took no time at all to take them off and throw them on the ground. Abruptly, an explosion sounded through the glasses and Rory hoped that everything was okay in the ship. "Calm down there!" The Doctor told his ship before turning his attention back to them. "Rory, Amy, we've created a massive paradox and the TARDIS hates it. She's still fazing, trying to get out of there." His voice faded until they couldn't hear him anymore but he came back to them only a moment later. "You've got eight minutes left. I'm sorry, you're on your own now."
As if to prove him right, the glasses sparked dangerously before shorting out. Rory stared at them for a moment before he straightened and turned to the two Amys that stood before him. "I'm not on my own. I've got my wives." He said, trying to force cheerfulness but from the look on both of their faces he didn't succeed.
"Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." Three HandBots appeared in front of them and Old Amy jumped into action. She tossed Young Amy one of her swords as they walked quickly up to the HandBots.
They each went for one of the three robots. Old Amy hit one with the sword before turning to Young Amy and saying, "Kate Hailer. Year ten hockey."
"Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." The HandBots repeated again and again as if the three would just give up if they heard it enough.
"Go for the shins." Young Amy muttered and did just that.
Rory struggled with his opponent before Young Amy cut the head off. Before they could rejoice in their victory, five more HandBots teleported in.
"They're cutting off the departure gate, we can't get back to the TARDIS!" Rory called out watching them carefully.
"Side door. We'll go behind them." Old Amy said.
The side door was less of a door and more like a window big enough to slip through which they did, Rory in the front but Old Amy caught up quickly to lead them through.
"So you think that you're going to come with us, just like that?" Young Amy asked, slightly out of breath from running down the stairs.
"Yeah, just like that." Old Amy said bluntly, not bothering to hide her disdain for the situation.
"Rory, talk to her." Young Amy started but they finished in synch.
"Now, ladies." Rory stalled as they reached the end of the stairwell and kept moving through a darkened corroder. "Please, try—"
"Where are you going to live?" Young Amy interrupted with a valid question but considering their situation Rory wished they could set this aside until they all got to safety.
"Not with you, don't worry. I'll go travelling. Pop back for Christmas, maybe Easter." Old Amy responded and Rory was rather happy with that answer in that at least they wouldn't have to deal with two of the same person all the time before he realized that he wasn't sure how he felt about an older version of his wife gallivanting around the universe alone…Or perhaps not alone forever.
"Amy, you always said cooking Christmas dinner, you wished there were two of you" He said, refusing to think about that ghastly thought right now and trying to alleviate the dilemma somehow.
He only got a nasty look from the younger Amy. But their argument was interrupted as they reached the room with the teleport. Young Amy stayed by the door to stand guard while Rory and the other Amy moved to the console in the middle of the room.
"Can't we just teleport in?" He asked, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
"It's not a teleport, it's a time-jump." Old Amy explained, proving Rory's expectations right.
"We can't jump within the same time-stream." Young Amy finished. The older one stopped to stare at her before begrudgingly nodding in agreement.
"The TARDIS is in the gallery." Rory informed the older Amelia as she messed with some buttons.
"Gallery closed." The computer told them.
"The controls are stuck." Old Amy pointed out as she pushed some more buttons. "They've locked them from the outside."
"Can you unlock them?" Rory asked, moving from one wife to the other unable to stay still with the HandBots beating against the door.
"Yeah, give me a minute and your cutest smile." She said and he threw her a quick smile—hoping that it was the one she was talking about. "That's the one." She smiled flirtatiously.
"Can you stop flirting with me?" He asked her, leaning in close. "You're old enough to be my—"
"I've known you my whole life." She interrupted quickly and rolled her eyes. "How many games of doctors and nurses?"
He tried to shush her but she merely smiled and told him, "Don't get coy now."
"Um…" Young Amy said awkwardly.
Suddenly all the teleport doors opened and a HandBot appeared in each one. "Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." They began.
The younger Amy threw the sword she held to the experienced fighter as Rory soniced the console and pushed the button that would take them to the gallery.
"Do not be alarmed. This is a…"Their voices faded away as the group ran through the door but started up as soon as they came through. "Kindne—" The older Amy slashed through the HandBot as Rory and the younger Pond ran. They reached the door and together they pulled down a robot.
Rory turned back to the older Amy and gestured to the door. "Come on!" He called.
"Go!" She yelled. I've got your back!"
And with one last desperate look, Rory gently pushed the younger woman through the door. They met a HandBot immediately and Rory hit it on the head before crouching and touching the hands together as fast as he could.
"Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." Rory heard the voice through the yells of the older Amy and the robots' mantra as a second robot appeared suddenly and touched Amelia.
Time seemed to stop. His heart clenched in terror and very suddenly everything was very very clear to Rory Williams because there was danger around and his wife was lying limply on the ground, her eyes closed, and the HandBot was going in for the kill.
"No!" He screamed and grabbed the Mona Lisa and smashed it through the HandBot's head. There was a flicker of light and the robot stopped moving but Rory didn't care. He ran to his wife and gingerly picked her up running as soon as he was sure he had her secure. He barely looked where he was going, just looked at her in fear, trying desperately not to notice how cool her skin was against his and how her breathing seemed to be slowing. He reached the TARDIS and kicked in the door, hardly noticing that it was unlocked.
The Doctor must have been watching on the screen because he was ready for them. As Rory gingerly set his wife down on the floor, the Time Lord placed his suit-coat underneath her head. "Its okay, Rory. Here. It's just an anesthetic. She'll be fine." He consoled after he glanced at her.
Rory stayed with his wife, watching her carefully for any change but the Doctor ran to close the wide-open door of the TARDIS. The Human wasn't paying attention to him only to Amelia Pond but he was forced to when he heard the Doctor's quiet voice whisper, "I'm sorry." Then the door slammed shut and the lock slid into place. With the older Amelia on the wrong side of the door.
