Chapter 10: Fracturing

Just one more chapter, and an epilogue! Thanks again for the lovely reviews. (~_^)

"I think ... we might actually be done!" John said with a manic grin, leaning back and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Good, thing, too," Amy said sardonically. "I was starting to get bored."

"Yes, well, that's probably because all you've been doing is handing me the odd tool here and there," Turlough said, then he held his hands up to defend against her glare. "Not that I'm complaining! It's actually a nice change of pace. I'm normally the one assisting."

They exchanged wry grins. Amy definitely liked Turlough quite a lot. Would have liked to get to know him much, much better. In various ways. Too bad all the good ones were gay. Or taken. Or aliens. Or all three, in his case. And she laughed, a little hysterically, without bothering to explain why, despite the fact that Turlough raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Why are you crying?" he asked with concern.

She touched her face, shocked. "But I'm not..."

Amy trailed off, wiping the tears away absently as she stared into the darkness.

"They're coming," she said quietly.

The Fifth Doctor carried the Tenth Doctor in his arms. He hung limply, his long limbs trailing. Romana and the Eight Doctor followed at his side as they made their way into the center of the hollow.

"We don't have much time," Romana called out, her voice steady but commanding.

"Right," Rose said. "We're ready."

They all knew what to do. John rapidly dashed to the controls, flipping switches and making a few last minute adjustments. Everybody else joined in forming a circle around the apparatus.

"This might be a bit unpleasant," the Eleventh said dryly.

In fact, they'd already been warned it would probably hurt like hell. But at the moment Amy was more concerned about the fact that the Tenth Doctor had begun to stir. By the time they reached the bottom, he had struggled free, both Doctors tumbling the last few feet meters down the slope.

"No," the Tenth Doctor said as he shakily stood up. "No, you won't trick me again. It's been too long, trapped inside of you. Waiting for my chance. The Mara gave us everything! It gave us a renewed purpose. Binded us together."

"Not as tightly as you thought!" The Fifth Doctor stood up, inches from his face. "It seems I'm just too much for the Mara to handle. You're fracturing! Together, we're so much more than you, so much stronger. Together, we can drive you out."

"But I'm already inside, remember? I never left," the Tenth Doctor replied, and grabbed the other man's arm.

The Fifth Doctor screamed, a blend of fear and agony. "No! I will resist you..."

Amy noticed with terror that a dark mark, like a coiling snake, seemed to be moving on the Tenth Doctor's arm. Reaching ever closer to the Fifth Doctor.

The Eight Doctor and Romana grabbed both of them, pulling them apart. Romana steadied the Fifth Doctor as he swayed, while the Eighth Doctor struggled to hold on to the Tenth. The Eleventh and John joined him, and all three began to drag the Tenth Doctor towards the apparatus.

"I am the Mara!" he screamed as he thrashed in their arms, resisting every step. "I am temptation and lust, I am hatred and violence! All those things you claim to deny. But I am nothing compared to you, Doctor. Destroyer of worlds, killer of your own kind! How many species have you wiped from existence? How many have died for the misfortune of having crossed paths with the Doctor? How much suffering have you caused because you simply couldn't resist getting involved?"

And what shocked Amy the most was that none of them denied it. If anything, the way the Eleventh Doctor kept staring into the distance with grim resignation made it her think that he agreed, that the truth shamed him.

Amy had seen that look before, in response to similar accusations. But she couldn't quite recall when. In a dream, perhaps? It felt like a dream. The details blurred, mere snatches of images, feelings, breaking through. Faint and at the periphery of her awareness. She wondered once again about the secrets her Doctor kept from her. Secrets everybody else seemed to know more about than her.

They brushed past her as they dragged the Tenth Doctor, kicking and scratching like an animal, into the center of mirrors, his face a mask of fury. The Eleventh flipped a switch on the console. "Now!" he shouted.

They tossed the Tenth Doctor to the ground, in the center of a dozen mirrors facing inward, joining the rest of them in the circle around the apparatus. They all held hands.

The Tenth Doctor stared wildly at his reflection, panicked. A low growl, a deep inhuman sound, escaped his throat as he slowly kneeled. His eyes turned skyward.

Then Amy lost track of things, as every molecule in her body arced with the terrible blue energy coursing through her, her nervous system burning like fire. It poured from all of them, lifting them into the ground. Forming streaks of crackling artron energy that met at the center, at the immature TARDIS that had begun to fade in and out with a slow, distorted screech, nothing like that wondrous sound Amy had dreamed about for most of her life. But of course, as her agonized screams were lost among the rest, Amy had the distant thought that this could only be a nightmare.

The ghostly form of a snake rose from the Tenth Doctor as the entire apparatus became alive with jagged, blue streaks of energy. His entire body arched upright, his face twisted in pain and fury. His outstretched arms crackled with lightning as he began to rise from the ground. A dark, swirling vortex opened up above him.

The serpent coiling out of him began to wrap around the Doctor, but the pull of the void was too strong, and the Doctor began to tear in two. The Mara's head disappeared into the void, but it kept its tail wrapped tightly around the Doctor as he glowed, and began to come apart. He rose slowly, inexorably, coming undone, until suddenly there were two of them. As the Tenth Doctor slipped out of its grasp, the snake's coiled tail remained gripped around a blond figure dressed in black robes, his pale face blank, his eyes staring into the vortex. Somehow calm, and accepting.

And then they were both gone. But the Tenth Doctor continued to rise, following into the black storm of nothingness. His expression frozen in terror. Amy knew they needed to stop. They needed to help him. They needed to break the circle and set him free before they lost him to the void. But the agony froze her in place.

I'm the end, it was Rose who broke free, forcing her way forward with a practiced instinct to save her Doctor at all costs that had been permanently ingrained in her very being long ago. She ran toward him, knocking over anything in her way, leaping into the swirl of dying artron energy, pulling him with her to the ground.

Amy collapsed. The air around them became very still. As she struggled to sit up, she heard John's voice cry out into the silence. "Rose?"

She was slumped over, unmoving. Amy couldn't tell if she was breathing. John kneeled at her side, cradling her in his arms. "Rose," he whispered, touching her face. And then she moaned, just a little. John gasped.

"Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you," he repeated to himself, in between kissing her forehead, cheeks, and lips.

The Fifth Doctor went to the motionless form of the Tenth Doctor, pale and silent, eyes staring upward into that impossible sky. "He needs our help," he said quietly.

Romana, the Eighth Doctor, and the Eleventh joined the Fifth in laying their hands on the Tenth Doctor. The rest of them watched, as all five sets of Time Lord eyes fluttered shut at once. And they all turned deathly still, not even breathing. A few moments passed, and then all as one they shuddered and gasped. The Tenth Doctor shot up, trembling and backing away from them, muttering no again and again. Sobbing with panic and horror. But the Time Lords held him until he calmed.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, then slipped into unconsciousness.