Disclaimer: Not yet. More likely than not, never.
Quick note: I know where this is going! That shouldn't excite me so, but it does! Seriously, though, review, pretty please. I know you're reading this...ninja skills!...and I would appreciate a little more feedback. I'm trying to keep the mystery going, but I have no idea what I'm doing well and what I'm doing horribly wrong...just say 'hello,' at least. I could use a few more 'hello's in my life.
Note: As you know quite well by now, each chapter follows a different character. This chapter is back to Amy Pond.
And, with that statement, and not a moment too soon, the wall gave way and opened. Rose stepped through.
Amy Pond was waiting.
"I hate walls."
The other woman looked at Amy inquisitively. "I wonder why," she said, a hint of sarcasm hitting her voice.
The norm. Amy was, once again, crossing from room to room. It was faster now, with Rose and her special sonic device-Amy had grinned widely when she had learned that this sonic device was almost fully charged. They merely had to enter a room, point the special 'Sonider' with a certain accuracy to turn on the light, point it at a wall to open a door, and step through to the next room.
Amy was beyond bored, and she was growing more annoyed by the second. Walls were horrible inventions. They were completely unnecessary. Argue for privacy? She'd take the lack thereof any day than see another set of walls without any doors.
"So. Which way now?"
"It's your turn to choose."
Amy raised her eyebrows. "No! Last time I did it, we found a dead end!" She wasn't quite sure how there could be a dead end; after all, even if they were to find themselves in a corner, there would be one door-wall-that would open. If each wall opened. Which Amy was starting to highly doubt.
"So you don't like trying your luck at all?"
"No. I just think your luck holds better. You arrived here from...what, a parallel world?"
The blonde seemed thoughtful. "I'm not sure of that."
"But you think so?" Rose nodded. "Then you're more sure of how you got here than I am."
Sighing, Rose tapped her sonic cylinder against her palm. "And how does my arriving here have to do with luck?"
"Didn't you say that you were stuck there?" Another nod, this time a bit more quickly, more firmly. "Then you'd have to be extremely fortunate to get out of that place."
Both women sighed at the same time; they glared at each other for a second, before slightly chuckling. Rose pointed her Sonider at a random wall and pressed down, allowing it to shine a calm electronic buzzing and a pink light-maybe Amy would find a way to get River to change the sonic screwdriver to emit that pink instead of the green it usually did, just to see how the Doctor would react. After several seconds the wall in question opened. The two women stepped through without hesitation.
"Okay. Okay. Calm. Yep. Calm," Amy muttered to herself, trying to keep from hitting something-particularly her foot against the wall, which she was sure she'd regret later. "Rose? Can we get a new plan? Pretty please?"
"If you have one, feel free to share. I'm all ears," she said as the light flickered on above them.
"Why do I have to come up with the plan?" the redhead groaned.
Rose blinked a few times. "Well, my plan was to just continue until we found something. It's worked so far. Other than that...I have no ideas. None. It's your turn for a plan."
Oh. She was so getting back at Amy's previous statement. Amy opened her mouth to protest, then closed it quickly. "This is oddly familiar..." she muttered, looking around. "Just like before..."
Rose leaned against a wall, making herself comfortable. "You do realize all the rooms are the exact same, right? You've established that by now, haven't you?"
"Not about the rooms. I mean, the same as when Rory and the Doctor were...taken. Something happened, and we didn't notice, and..."
At the same time, in the same breath, Rose Tyler and Amy Pond looked up at the ceiling. Specifically, at the dim light above them.
"You didn't..." Amy said, looking at the sonider.
Rose shook her head slowly.
"And you didn't...the walls..."
"I didn't touch them until after..." Rose whispered.
They stood straight next to one another, staring above. "Then how..."
Rose completed the question. "...did the lights...come on...?"
The monster again? No...it had kept the room dark. It liked the dark...monsters usually did. Or at least, Amy hoped they did. She didn't like the idea of being scared of sunlight...the dark, she could handle. But if she were to be afraid to leave her room in the bright sunlight...
"Do you think..." Rose started to ask. She only got to start, however, because, the next moment, they were plunged into abject darkness once again. Amy shrieked slightly as a hand grasped her shoulder. "Sshhh...it's just me," Rose whispered, squeezing the shoulder in what could have been a comforting manner. "Give me a second."
The Sonider buzzed and glowed, and the lights flickered back on.
"What do you think happened?" Amy asked, motioning at the ceiling as it shone its reddish tint.
Rose didn't answer. Instead, she looked at the now-steady light, frowning.
If anyone asked her how she felt about Rose Tyler, Amy would, quite honestly, be flabbergasted. She was unsure. And she hated being unsure. She had been sure, back when she was eight years old, that the Doctor would return, that he wasn't just a figment of her imagination. So sure, that she had spent all of her childhood and teenage years waiting, hoping, expecting him to return in that wobbly blue box.
She was sure about Rory. Her husband. He had waited for her for centuries, waited and watched-she had forgotten he existed, and he still had loved her. Yes, she was certain about Rory Williams Pond.
But Rose Tyler...she was unsure what she thought of this newcomer, this stranger. She was friendly, all smiles and rosy cheeks when they first met. She seemed to know things that she couldn't possibly...things about travel through time and space. She had claimed that she knew the Doctor, once upon a time, before Amy had known him. And, when she discussed the Doctor-which, surprisingly, wasn't often-she got a far-away look in her eyes, as if she were remembering something, or someone.
But-and this was the thing that confused Amy most of all-she was a woman. She smiled and cracked jokes and teased and taunted, she grew silent and moody, she grew frustrated. She was a human girl, just like her, and seemed just as uncertain about their predicament as she herself was. And Amy didn't know if she should be comforting or being comforted. Rose knew more than she told-sometimes, she would open her mouth to say something, a glint of some emotion crossing her face, only to bite her lip and look down, as if afraid of saying the wrong thing.
And that indecision was what made Amy Pond so unsure of who, exactly, Rose Tyler was. Amy knew the Doctor traveled with other companions in his past. She had tricked him into showing her pictures of all of them. Maybe, one of those photos was this girl in front of her.
Amy blinked. And blinked again. "The light turned on...and then turned off..."
Rose nodded, still deep in thought; she didn't appear to want to be disturbed.
However, Amy felt inclined to interrupt her. "What if...that light up there. What if that's not the only thing up there?" Amy asked, crossing her arms. Something had to take the blame. If it had to be the horrible ceiling, then so be it.
Rose seemed intrigued. She glanced at Amy, a coy smile crossing her face. "I knew he chose you for a reason." There was no need for her to state who 'he' was. "Give me a lift, would you?" she asked, pocketing the Sonider.
Putting her hands in a cupped position, the redhead allowed the other to step up, toward the ceiling. She grunted; when had she last had to do this? Ever? But if her hunch were correct...
Raised so she could reach the grey ceiling, Rose started to tap the hard shell above her. The taps grew more and more ferocious, until Rose and Amy were smiling. "It's hollow!" Rose called down. "You can hear the echo from above...it's hollow!"
Amy grinned from ear to ear. She tried to reign in her excitement. "Maybe...maybe it's just a ventilation shaft or something?" she asked, trying to maintain her composure.
Rose shook her head; realizing that Amy couldn't see her in their position, she spoke. "I don't think so. I haven't seen any vents, besides the sound system holes, that would lead up to this." She was also grinning widely. "You're fantastic!" she exclaimed, hitting the roof once more.
Because of her position under the other woman, Amy didn't see what cause her to shriek. All she knew was, the next moment, they were toppled over on the ground.
Looking up, Rose's scream became evident. The ceiling had disappeared. No...not disappeared. It had become invisible, or transparent, or something of that nature. And, directly above them, looking down past the red light with large smiles-oh, how she missed those smiles!-were Rory and the Doctor.