She insisted they not go back to Guido's home yet, lest they be followed. "So, what do you suggest we do then?" Guido asked.
She looked to her dad, "TARDIS?"
Once they arrived her dad set to work, well, after he listened to their "It's bigger on the inside!" comments. He grinned as he worked; looking for a compatible home.
"After we convince Signora Rosanna to take the deal, they can go back home, right?" He nodded "Do we have a planet lined up for them yet?" He typed something into the TARDIS' control and got a confirmation.
"Kaliosopecah! A planet covered in 89% water in the Kasiovactex Cluster. Native species are Fretenois, slightly compatible to our water vampires. They're even open to the idea!" he said cheerfully.
"Great! Now how do we convince over 10,000 alien crawfish to board the TARDIS and not try to kill us all?" Rory asked. The TARDIS fell into silence besides the soft hum of the main console.
"Ah… Good point…"
"I believe she'd be open to working with you but… I'm not so sure about us," Christi said motioning to the rest of the humans in the room. "Is there anywhere else we can go for now or maybe we can hide in the TARDIS for a bit until a truce is drawn up?"
"Couldn't they send a ship for them?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, if we wanted to wait 200 years," The Doctor said.
"Maybe not then…"
The humans decided to hide in the TARDIS and wait while the Doctor made a treaty with Signora Rosanna Caliveirri. Christi wanted to go help him convince the Sister of the Water to take the deal and move to another planet but knew that wasn't such a great idea. Besides the fact her father would never agree, she didn't fancy becoming a hostage if something went wrong. Her mind drifted to the girls, her heart weighing heavy on the thought of their families losing them, but she knew that they were long past gone, most likely not even a shred of humanity in them. It reminded her of true vampires like from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; demons taking over someone's body and killing their host… Well at least something good would come out of this she supposed but her mind drifted back to the families giving away their daughters for a better life… She breathed in quickly as her heart squeezed, it was like her family. Her mum and dad thought they were giving her a better life but... She shook her head hugging herself as she wandered the TARDIS. She found her way to her room and curled up in bed next to Sampson.
She woke to someone petting her hair, turning to see a sad smile on her dad's face, she wondered about it when she realized he was soaking wet. Her heart dropped, "It didn't work?"
He laid down next to her, "No." he said after a moment. "She almost agreed but… Something happened."
"What?"
"Her son died, she thought I had done it… They're all gone now."
"I'm sorry. I wish I could've done something to help."
"You did. You saved8 Isabella." A long moment of comfortable silence stretched between them until she woke with a start. "It's okay! It's okay, just a bad dream."
Bad dream…? "Dad?" she turned to him.
"Yes, Christi?"
"Please don't hate yourself."
His face slowly turned into a frown, "Where is this coming from?"
"You're my hero, you know? You're almost everyone's hero. I understand why you are upset but none of that is your fault."
"Why are you saying all this? What's brought this up?"
"There's a stowaway on the TARDIS.
His eyes widened, and he shot up, "Stowaway!"
"Psychic pollen. You might want to find it ASAP."
"Alright, you stay here. Sleep," he pet her hair. "I love you."
"I love you too." She fell asleep waiting for him to come back, when she awoke she went to go find him. She found him slumped over the railing of the TARDIS, "Dad!" she ran to him and shook him, but he didn't wake. She shook him again which opened up his closed hand. Inside was the small bead-like pollen which created the Dream lord. Trembling she took them from his hand and ran to the doors tossing them out. She slammed it quickly slumping against it as the urge to sleep overcame her, "Please… Help…" she reached up towards the hum of the TARDIS, just then spotting Amy and Rory passed out on the ground on the other side of the console from her father. Her eyelids sank heavily as she drifted into sleep once again.
So cold… Augh! She opened her eyes to see her father shaking her awake, "Oh thank goodness, you're alright!" he hugged her tightly.
"How did she get here?" Rory asked, "The Dream lord said she 'couldn't participate'." he air quoted.
"I don't know," The Doctor admitted.
"Why is it so cold?"
"Here," Amy handed her a blanket and wrapped her dad wrapped her up in it.
He rubbed her arms to help her warm up, "Do you remember anything before waking up-or rather- falling asleep?"
"I took the pollen from your hand and tossed it out the door."
"Very dangerous for you to do, but good girl… But then… Why aren't we awake?" he asked looking around, "And why didn't it affect you like it did us?"
"Because he wouldn't hurt me-well the Dream lord wouldn't anyways. Other than that, I don't know."
"What makes you think that?" She smirked but didn't answer, "Whoever it is I wouldn't trust it." he scolded her.
"Never said I did. I just said I don't think he'd hurt me."
"Oh, she's so right; I of course wouldn't hurt her, but would you Doctor? Is she going to end up like your other companions? Poor little Rose, trapped in another universe? Martha, poor, poor Martha? Scarred for life? Let's not even mention Astrid or Donna," he shook his head.
"Shut up!" Christi snapped.
"Or what about your other children, Grandchildren even; Samien? Keiliri? Jenimi? Narsinine? Kaliphorie? Jenny?"
"Doctor?" Amy asked.
"Stop it!" Christi shot up and rounded on him.
"Oh, the girl who knows it all! But of course, you aren't allowed to answer!"
"And you aren't allowed to show him only the darkness!"
"Is he really such a good dad? He left you, all alone in another world?"
"Who are you targeting really? Me or him?" The storm in Christi's eyes matched her fathers.
"Me? I'm not targeting anyone?"
"How are you still here?" she was nearly inches from his face, but the Doctor had stepped forwards and was now pulling her back.
"Answer her!"
"Oh, well you might as well know. I mean after all you were all out like a light by the time she discarded those poor defenseless spores into the vacuum of space."
"Am I supposed to be upset?" she roared.
"Think of this old song, 'kookaburra lives in the old gum tree, merry merry, is the life is he… '"
Christina's hands flew to her mouth, "Oh my God… What have I done…?"
"No, no Christi, don't listen to him. They're parasites. Just parasitic pollen from the Candle Meadows of Karass Don Slava."
"But, are you sure?"
"Positive."
She glared at the Dream Lord who just grinned at her before disappearing with the sound of birds. Her father caught her as they both slid to the ground, he held her close in his arms to keep her warm as they fell asleep. They woke up in upper Leadworth, the Doctor picking her up of the ground. "Ugh. I don't want to go back to sleep for a long long time."
"Thankfully being a Time Lord, you won't have to."
He grabbed her hand and ran up the staircase to the castle, "Where've the kids gone?"
"Maybe playtimes over?"
"There were no kids," No one seemed to hear her. "Dad?"
"I told you, you couldn't influence this," she turned to see the Dream Lord. Without thinking she tugged her dad's arm. "Oh, don't bother. He can't see me."
"Dad?"
"You see him don't you Christi?" She nodded. "Now tell me. Why are you tormenting my little girl?"
The Dream Lord smiled sardonically, "Are you sure it's my doing, Doctor? Maybe you're the true tormentor?"
"Oh, I don't torment." He walked to Amy and Rory with Christi close at his heels.
"So where are the kids Doctor?" Amy asked.
"Playtimes over." he motioned to the piles of dust littering the ground.
"Oh, my God!"
They walked down onto the grass below the Dream Lord phasing in front of them as they went, "Hello, peasants! What's this? Attack of the old people? Oh, that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream, hasn't it? What do you think Amy? Let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS. You first!" he told the Doctor.
Christi sighed, "Just along for the ride I guess."
"Oh, yes you are!"
"Leave them alone!"
"Do that again. I love it, all tall dark and heroic, 'leave them alone'! But I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?"
"Shut up! Shut up and leave us alone!"
"You know Amy in this old mind he has a thing for redheads, our Doctor. Elizabeth the first, oh, she wishes she was the first. Drop it! Drop all of it! I know who you are!"
"Course you don't."
"Course I do. No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe-," he looked to his daughter, "-who hates me as much as you do…"
He gave him a sickening grin, "Never mind me. Maybe you should worry about them," with that he disappeared, leaving them with the seemingly endless horde of crotchety old seniors.
"Sorry to break it to you Rory, I don't think it's you who've been keeping them well."
The quartet confronted the elders, Rory being thrown by a Mr. Nainby as the Doctor demanded to know who and what they were. In unison the centenarians opened their mouths to reveal similar green eyeballs, which extended forward like a ray gun shooting some kind of green gas. Christi made no attempt to move but the Doctor didn't notice, pushing her back anyways, making her land on her backside in the muddy grass, "Great!" she muttered darkly.
"Sorry, honey, didn't mean to push you that hard. You alright?"
"Peachy! I'm covered in mud!" she examined her hands, caked in mud and sighed, "Whatever." she wiped it off on her jeans with disgust before pulling herself up and wiping herself of. Taking a step back, just to be sure she wouldn't need to be pushed again.
"Covered in mud is better than dust isn't it?" Rory quipped.
"You guys go, leave me to handle this!" The Doctor told them. Almost without looking back the couple ran, leaving Christi with her dad.
After talking with the Eknodines and learning all he could the Doctor jumped back, grabbing his daughter's hand, "We need to run now! What are you still doing here?"
"Like I'd leave you!"
"When I tell you to run, you run! I told you-!"
"Not now, dad! We're running away from granny!" he looked back to see how far they had gotten. She laughed, "This is so much better than listening to Mr. Henry's geography lesson!"
"Mr. Henry? You don't like geography?" he looked disappointed as her through the butcher shop door and put the closed sign up.
"It's not that I don't like it," she laughed again, "I love it! It's just that he's so boring! He's monotone!"
The Dream Lord appeared in the shop, "Monotone, maybe that's what I should be putting you two to sleep with. He said as the birds started chirping. Christi collapsed to her knees, as the Doctor hit a wall, he reached a hand out to her dragging them both along the wall towards a pair of doors, neither wanting to open. "Come in come in! Lots of steak here! Get it? Lot's at stake. Oh, my humor is wasted on you two!" he quipped as the father and daughter pair made their way to a latched door pushing each other inside as the Doctor sonic-ed the lock and the pair went to sleep.
"Out of the frying pan and into the freezer," Christi said, the three stared at her, "What? It fit!"
"Bad joke…" the Doctor said.
"Like you don't make hordes of bad jokes?" Amy asked. "You're just like your dad." Amy told her.
She snorted, "Uh, thanks?"
The Doctor shook his head, "She is but that's beside the point. We have to decide, right now, which is the real world, which is the dream?"
"This is the dream I can feel it!" Rory said.
"Well, you're not wrong…" she muttered as her dad and grandparents argued over who was right.
"We have to agree which battle to lose, come on!"
The trio started arguing, or more accurately her father and grandfather. She was done, "For Pete's sake! Why would you two even be competing! I'm living proof that both of you get who you love!" she rolled her eyes at their weird looks. "Come on, Amy." she said hauling her up as she led her over to the blankets and made ponchos.
"Yes, if we die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band."
"If you complain!" She pointed to her grandfather.
"Why are you singling me out?" Instead of answering she made the motion of 'I'm watching you'. "I don't think your daughter likes me…" he muttered to the Doctor.
"To be fair, her mother is River Song. She has a bit of her sassy stubborn side," he said quietly.
"Like you aren't sassy or stubborn!?" Christi asked, "Men!" she shouted throwing up her arms, "Always thinking we're the rash and unreasonable ones!"
"I know right? I could be havin' a baby! Do either of you know how painful that is!?" she asked getting up into their faces, the two went very pale as they shook their heads nervously. "I didn't think so."
Christi snorted, "To be fair, he could-!"
"Don't even start young lady!" He pointed at her, then snapped his fingers, "If we could level the playing field some awake here some awake there that might make things a little easier."
"How even so?" Christi asked, "It's not like the three of us could do anything with the TARDIS."
"Oi! You're brilliant, you could think of something."
She gave him a look, "Really? Like what?"
"Yes, like what?" The Doctor pulled his daughter close as he glared at the Dream Lord behind her, making the man just laugh, "Like you could keep her from me Doctor. You know who I am. You both do." Christi just glared at him, but the Doctor gave his daughter a cautious look, "That's a grand idea you had. How about I keep the girls and you can have Pointy Nose to yourself for all eternity."
"Don't you dare!" The Doctor wobbled, slumping against his daughter but she couldn't take all his weight and the two collapsed, "Don't worry sweetheart, I'll figure this out. We'll be back. Don't be scared, honey."
"Dad? Dad no!" He passed out in her arms. She glared up at the Dream Lord as she clung to her unconscious father.
"We're gonna have so much fun together, aren't we?" he smiled at the girls.
"You're creepy…!" Christi muttered.
"Definitely got that right…!" Amy said kneeling next to her and wrapping her arm around her, "Everything's going to be alright."
"I know…" she wished that her heart did though, it kept beating out of her chest as she curled further into her father and grandmother.
"Poor Christi. He always leaves you, doesn't he? Alone and in the dark? Have you told him about those nightmares you've been having? Of course not," he chided, "Do you not trust your daddy with your secrets?"
"Shut up!" Amy roared at him, making Christi jump.
"Oh, poor thing! You scared her! Has she told you what she knows? Of course not! How do you tell someone you know their worst moments? You know when they die? How they die?"
"Don't be ridiculous! No one could know that!" Christi tensed, "Could they?" she looked at her.
"He's-he's right about one thing… I know you die of old age…"
"But how-?"
"Weren't you listening, poor little Amelia Pond!" he said each word slowly, "Haven't you been paying attention? She said she knew you from a TV Show! Did you not stop to think, how much does she know?"
Amy looked at her in her arms, "Spoilers! If I told you everything I knew, even the bad things, they'd have to happen because I told you."
"Then can't you tell me the good things?" Amy asked.
"Spoilers…"
He scoffed, "'Spoilers' how could it hurt to let her know some itty-bitty thing?"
"Oh, it hurts plenty, and you know it!" Christi spat. "You're trying to turn her against me! Turn her just like they turned-!" she blinked surprised, "God, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to keep you out of my head…" she rubbed her head, "You use the big things to beat us down and the small ones to influence our perception. Control and manipulation! How could I not recognize that…?"
"Yeah! Who are you? Who are you really? The Doctor knows, and he hasn't told me yet, but he will. Takes him a while sometimes, but he tells me. So, you're something different.
"Oh, is that who you think you are? The one he trusts? The only girl in the universe to whom the Doctor tells everything?"
"Yes. Sort of," she said glancing at Christi.
"Then tell me, what's his name? Can either of you tell me?"
"Oh, why doesn't he tell you that?"
"Because his name is dangerous, Amy." she said when the woman looked away.
"How can a name be dangerous?"
She raised an eyebrow, "There are crawfish vampires, a whole nation riding on a star whale, the crack on your bedroom wall, a psychic parasite made of pollen," she said glancing at the Dream Lord "And you're asking me how a name can be dangerous?"
Amy shook her head, "Touché."
"Pick a world Amy; do you want the handsome hero or the bumbling country doctor? Maybe choosing the bumbling gooseberry would be easier than loving and losing the Doctor." Christi made a face, "Amy's men. Amy's choice."
Christi made a gagging motion, "Seems she's chosen," he pointed to her. Christi hid her disgust as Amy looked over her shoulder at her. The birds sounded, and Christi gasped awake into her father's arms; somehow, he had carried her into Amy's nursery.
"What are we going to do?" Amy asked, both her and The Doctor looking over at Christi.
"It's not like I can tell you. I've been trying," She mumbled.
"You have?" her dad asked.
"Course, I have! But no matter. The real question is; do you trust me?" she stared into her dad's eyes, seeing a minor hesitancy before he nodded, "Do you really?"
"I trust you Christi."
"Good," she smiled just as something was thrown in threw the window.
"What the?" Rory went to check when he was sprayed by the toxic green gas and stumbled back into Amy's horrified arms."
"No. No…" Her dad using that moment, ripped a lamp out of the wall, and shoved the old lady out the window with it.
Christi huffed a laugh, "I can't believe its normal to throw an old lady out of a second story window."
"Why're you laughing!?" Amy bit out.
Christi slunk back into a ball and her father came over to her as Christi realized Rory had disintegrated into ash. "She didn't know."
"Yes, she did! I saw her face!"
"She asked us to trust her, obviously this is the dream world."
"Well it better be because I'm not living in it! This isn't the world I want Doctor! If we die here, we just wake up, yeah?"
The Doctor glanced at Christi before nodding. "Then let's go."
The trio went down the staircase and out the door, Christi having to hop ahead a little bit to keep up with them. He gave an unspoken question to Christi and her answer was to pick up her run to the car. It scared her but the three of them driving into that wall and killing themselves was surprisingly for her, painless. Her dad made sure to give her one last look and squeeze her hand as they neared the cottage.
She awoke in the TARDIS again the cold biting into her bones making her want to go back to sleep, "You win, you chose the right world. Here let's warm up this place for you." the TARDIS came back online, and he pressed a few dozen buttons sending them away from the burning cold sun, "Goodbye, everyone."
Warmth flooded her system slowly, yet surely as the Doctor helped her up before pressing a load of buttons, pulling levers, twisting things and throwing up a switch, "What are you doing?"
"Blowing up the TARDIS."
"Why!" Rory panicked, "The Dream Lord's gone. He conceded! This isn't the dream!"
"The star burning cold! Hah! Do me a favor!"
"But how do you know for sure?"
"Because I know him, he's giving us a choice between the worlds of dreams and he world of reality!"
"Questions?" he asked as they three awoke to him digging through the TARDIS, "Hah! Missed one!" He went over to the door where his daughter stood, "I would ask you to do the honors but, you already have," he smiled and ruffled her hair with his free hand as he used the other to hold up the pollen and blow it softly out the door. They turned to see Amy and Rory kissing, "Should we give you too some space? We could pop down to the pool for a bit?"
"God no! After freezing to death I'd much rather go to the library! Besides! I'm missing my college courses!"
"College! At this age! Brilliant! What were your marks?" Her face lit up as they walked into the hallway together, "Even better! What was your major?"
"A bachelors in Child Development."
He grinned, "Brilliant! We'd better get on with your studies then! Where'd you leave off? I've got early childhood books, child development, human development, psychology…!" he rambled off a selection of titles as she giggled, "And now that you only need two hours sleep you can study however long you want!"
"Should I enroll in online classes at some future college?" she laughed.
He scoffed, "As long as you know it what's the problem? Ah! We also need to work on Simon Mk. II!"
"I want him kinda like K9! One who can transform so I can take him anywhere! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!" she gave him puppy dog eyes.
He laughed, "No need for the pout! I'd love to! Gotta keep you safe somehow!"
"Oh, and he should have some kind of shielding to protect those nearby! Like a big bubble," she waved with her arms.
A/N: please tell me what you think. Do you like Christi? :)
