A/N: Sorry for the delay, ladies, gentlemen, and Daleks. I really had a hard time getting this chapter out. It wasn't quite Writer's Block, really the opposite. I had plenty of ideas, all sketched out, but each one of them had a problem or issue that made it less than perfect. I just couldn't decide which one to go with! Finally, this came to me, and just let me say... Wow. This surprised me amazingly. Anyway; it's a rather short chapter, because I hit a perfect stopping point, but I promise you, I'm already working on Ch.8. That one will be hell to finish, I'm sure, just because it's so epic. Still, shouldn't be too long! I hope you enjoy this; Review please!
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who! Neither does Squiggy!
When Jack woke after a long sleep, he rummaged around the all-too-pink room to find his pants and made his way to the console room. When he got there, he found the Doctor and Amy involved in some playful banter as the Doctor was under the floor apparently welding something.
"Oh, so you think I'll just bend over backwards for you, do you?" Amy was asking.
"No, no, just- Jack! Hey there Captain Jack, how are you?"
Jack smiled, leaning back against the railing around the console. "Pretty good, Doctor. Amy, gorgeous as always. So, what's on the agenda? Saving the planet?"
The Doctor looked at Amy, before cutting off his torch and climbing up from underneath the raised floor. He brushed himself off and climbed up to the console, settling next to Amy against a relatively button-free portion.
"Well, Jack. Here's the deal. You know the Rift in Cardiff, right? It's kind of a permanent hole in space-time."
"Right. We can't fix it, since it isn't really broken."
Amy looked at the two men strangely. "What? A hole, in Cardiff?"
The Doctor smiled, looping his arm around her shoulders. "It's complicated. Cardiff gets a lot of accidental travellers, in short."
Amy laughed, saying, "I knew that city was hiding something!"
Jack looked at her strangely before motioning for the Doctor to continue.
"Well, basically, think of that as the door in the wall. We know it's there, it's built into the wall, no problem. Now, what we've been tracking down is these cracks. They're a lot like the Rift, but they shouldn't be there. Something, some big temporal explosion, is causing these cracks all over space and time. We've been closing the ones that I can figure out before we go deal with the big issue."
"What's the big issue, though? What could be this big to reach out and crack the walls? Something in the void?"
The Doctor frowned, and Amy was a bit lost. She considered speaking up, but just settled back into the Doctor's embrace, listening.
"Some of the things we've heard... the first crack, something escaped through it. Amy and I got rid of it, but it spoke... The Pandorica will open..."
Amy shivered, remembering Prisoner Zero living in her house. The Doctor's arm around her tightened, and he leaned his head to rest on hers. Amy's breath caught at the simple affection in the gesture. She snaked her arm in between their merged bodies, wrapping it firmly around the Doctor's waist.
"The Pandorica is a fairy tale, though. Literally. Time sensitive races tell it as a bed time story to their kids these days," Jack said. He started pacing around the center console. "In the Time Agency, there was a running joke that The Pandorica will get you if you turned in your reports late, or something like that."
Amy was a bit too lost to stay quiet at this point. "So what does the bloody story say?"
The Doctor and Jack were broken out of their respective musings and rantings. They looked at the feisty redhead sheepishly, before the Doctor waved to Jack.
"You explain. I have to do some research," the Doctor said, dropping a kiss on Amy's temple and disappearing into the corridors of the TARDIS.
Amy sighed, but settled against the console, looking at Jack pointedly.
"Okay, okay. So, here's the thing. Some races are time sensitive, yeah? Some exceptional humans get it, but there are entire races that are time sensitive, like the Time Lords."
"So they can travel in time?"
"No, no, anyone can travel in time with some help, like the TARDIS. Sometimes, big things happen in time. And these races can tell. Like the Time War; has he mentioned that to you?"
"No... the Time War?"
Jack sighed before continuing. "I can't say. He'll have to explain it to you. Long story short, big war, basically never happened. When it ended, it was literally sealed away in time. It happened, but it was sealed away so long ago by our standards that only the time-sensitive races know about it or even remember the stories. Time-locked, so even the Doctor can't travel to it."
Amy nodded, understanding at least in part. What she didn't quite get was the faraway sadness in Jack's eyes, but she didn't interrupt.
"The Pandorica... It's a fairytale, like I said. It's a breach in the Time Lock. The War is long over inside, but someone, something inside is opening the Time Lock."
"So, the fighting'll spill out to us? To the rest of... umm, time?"
"Most likely, the war's long over. Time still progresses inside the Lock, just nobody can get in or out through time travel. The main issue is how long the Lock has been part of our universe. The War is literally locked back, a second after the universe was formed. There are ways through the Time Lock, various weird way. Most Time Locks, they take up literally a blip in time, and a planet, maybe a few planets tops. Outside the Lock, they're gone, just gone. The Universe is a little smaller, and time is shortened by a second. If they're breached..."
The Doctor spoke up, walking into the console room. "Not much happens. The Lock folds in upon itself. The space that was removed turns into a white hole, expelling all of the mass. Most of it comes out as random bits, protons, neutrons, maybe some atoms put together. A lot of them, but not really made into anything. Some of the more complex mass though, some that's most linked to Time, comes through whole. That's what the Time Lords called a pandorica, although we never witnessed one. If the Lock around the War collapses though..."
"What, Doctor? If it's that far back, nothing bad could happen, right?" Amy asked.
The Doctor looked at her sadly. "The Last Great Time War spanned the entire Universe, boiling plants and devouring stars. That's what I locked away. I tricked both sides into coming back to the Birth, and I locked them away across the entire Universe. At that time, it wasn't too big, but it was everything. If that collapses..."
Jack was visibly worried as he asked, "What, Doctor? What will happen?"
"Nothing, Jack. Silence will fall and all will be nothing."
Amy, scared, went to the only source of comfort she knew in the TARDIS. She walked to the Doctor and wrapped her arms around him, burrowing her head into his chest. He folded her into his embrace and she could feel him shaking slightly.
"Doctor, what if we could stop it? There couldn't be more than a few leaks, could there?"
The Doctor visibly shuddered. "Jack, we need to close it before it even starts opening. If we let it open even a small amount before closing it... The War will start again. The Battle TARDISes will scream through the vortex, the Imperial Fleet will burn galaxies, the Deathsmiths and the Skaro Degradations will return to bring the silence themselves. I can't face them again, Jack, I can't fight the Meanwhiles and Neverweres in the jaws of the Nightmare Child. I already cut down the Could've Been King; I already stopped all this from coming back once. I won't let it come back again."
Amy held onto the Doctor, drawing comfort from him and hopefully comforting the scared Time Lord. His words meant nothing to her, but the emotion behind them truly scared her.
"The Time Lords reached out past the Lock not too long ago, through the Master. They were going to pierce the Lock, end Time itself and destroy everything. This is going to be a thousand times worse, and that's if it opens completely. If we stop it, but some of them escape..."
Jack shuddered before standing taller, looking into the Doctor's eyes over Amy's fiery mane. "Well, Doctor," he started, "Where do we start?"
As Amy looked up at him, she saw a smile burst out from the Doctor's stoic face. "Jack, my friend, we start with somewhere I know very well, and I don't personally want to go back to."
"Is it any better than the Nightmare Child?"
The Doctor thought for a moment before detaching himself from Amy to start piloting the TARDIS. "You know, Jack, I think I'd rather go back to the jaws of the Nightmare Child than the Powell Estate." With that, the TARDIS lurched and the trio were off.
=x=
When the TARDIS landed, Amy was the first to the door. She still had lingering fears about the Pandorica and the Doctor's words, but excitement at seeing somewhere new quickly overrode that.
Amy was disappointed, however, when she opened the doors of the TARDIS and walked outside. She turned back to Jack and the Doctor, who were following her out. "This? This is London, Doctor. Around my time, too."
The Doctor didn't answer, but Jack took her aside as they walked. "If he says this is important, it is. But trust me, I think this is much worse for him than either of us."
The Doctor was making his way through the buildings, apparently heading towards a specific flat. He start climbing up to the door before reconsidering and leaning against the stairs. Amy and Jack caught up to him.
"What's up, Doctor? Is there a crack here?" Amy asked, catching her breath.
"Yes, yes. Late 2009, Peckham, the Powell Estate. I'm just not sure where, exactly, and I really hope it's not," the Doctor pointed up the stairs to one of the flats, "there."
He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, changing some settings and waving it around. Every so often, he would check the readings on the screwdriver and frown a little more. Amy and Jack simply sat back watching him, trying not to laugh. When he stomped back to them, however, they both sobered up. Amy stepped up to the Doctor and took his hand in hers.
"Up there?" she asked.
"Yeah."
Jack asked the pertinent question. "What's so special about this place, Doctor?"
The Doctor pointed up the stairs to the flat the trio was climbing towards. "Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, Peckham, London. Until sometime in 2006, this was where the Tyler family lived."
Amy looked at him quizzically, while Jack gasped, and then burst out laughing.
"Damn, Doctor. Have you got all the luck. Why is there a crack here of all places?"
"The TARDIS, Jack. Enough landings and takeoffs weakens the wall a tiny bit; now that the cracks are forming, it seeks out weak points like this. I don't know who lives there now, but I hope they don't mind me saving the universe inside their flat."
Amy had had enough, and poked the Doctor in his side. "Who are the Tylers?"
"Rose Tyler, Amelia. I traveled with Rose Tyler for two years. After I lost her... I wasn't sure if I could ever love again."
Amy gasped, realizing how bad this must be for him. As they got to the door, she squeezed his hand. "And now?"
"Now, Amelia Pond, I'm thinking that it might be all too easy." The Doctor raised his hand and knocked on the door. He wasn't sure what to expect, so he stood back from the door, still holding Amy's hand, and brushing shoulders with Jack.
When the Door opened, the Doctor was grateful for their presence, because he almost collapsed. Opening the door was none other than Jackie Tyler.
Her unique voice, piercing his ears yet again, rang out. "Well, who are ya then? What do you... Doctor?" she asked, looking straight into the Doctor's eyes.
A/N: I KNOW! Crazy, isn't it! Surprised even me. Sometimes that happens, I spose. I'm working on the continuation of this WTF moment, promise. Until then, unfortunately, there's a bit of a cliffhanger in it for you! All you people worrying about that this means, please, stop! Or continue, I guess. Either way, you'll most likely not get it, it isn't what you expect (unless you're somehow connected to my brain, in which case, GET OUT!). This story is still 11/Amy, but there will be some bumps in the road. Oh, oh, bumps indeed. Muahahahahaha. Ahem. *hack* *cough* Anyway, please review! I need to know if this CRAZY TWIST was scary, or scary good! Thanks!
