A/N

RK-BD: I see =) I'm glad you liked it and I hope you'll like this one as well.

MomoPeachFlower: Thank you so much and I'm glad you like their friendship and that it doesn't seem forced =)

kgroyalct: Thank you so much =D

DuShuZhi: Thank you so much =D

Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and follows. It really warms my heart =)

Beta-ed by tarree87, aka Sam =)

Chapter 10 Fire in the rain

I remember you and me
Before we knew our destiny
Never walked the road before
Though you longed to search for more

We put everything aside
With our futures on the line
I could say it's 'cause of you
You showed the dream we walked into

~Måns Zelmerlöv

"So I was trapped inside this, this, fictional world," The Doctor waved his hands around as he tried to explain. "And I could do nothing but watch Rose from the other side. It was extremely frustrating."

"Yeah, but I saved your skinny arse didn't I?" Rose grinned at the Doctor who smiled back fondly.

Rory watched his two friends fondly and, not for the first time during the seven months he had known Rose, did he wonder when they would give up the pretence and start doing something about the, frankly, ridiculously large tension between them. It was like watching two dogs in heat that were trapped on each side of a barred fence.

Well, perhaps not the best comparison since only female dogs goes into heat, but the point still stands. Something needed to be done.

"'an I couldn't find 'im," Rose said and Rory shook his head to get back into the conversation. "All the others were there, but not the Doctor. But then I walked by a TV and I saw none other than 'im running with the Olympic torch all the way up the stairs to light the fire."

"You lit the fire on the 2012's Olympics?" Rory could feel his eyebrows disappear under his fringe.

"Yes." The Doctor nodded, his hands entwined behind his back as he rocked slightly back and forth.

"So you're telling me," Rory shifted his eyes to and fro Rose and the Doctor. "That if I put on the Olympics next summer, I will see you running with the torch?"

"Yes," The Doctor nodded again. "Well," He tilted his head. "Technically you wouldn't see me, as in this body, but yes you would."

"Amy," He looked at his wife as she descended the stairs down to the console. "Do you believe any of this stuff?"

"If it's the Doctor, I believe anything." Amy walked up to him and circled her arm around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"So if he told you he'd battled an army of Jedi's, all with their own lightsabers, while singing the tune to Old McDonald, you'd believe him?" Rory tilted his head so he could look at his wife.

"Don't be ridiculous," The Doctor interrupted before Amy had a chance to answer. "I'll always be on the side of the Jedi's."

"That's not what..." But Rory was unable to finish his sentence as the warning lights began flashing on the console and the Doctor quickly left to deal with them.

Amy released her hold on Rory and walked down under the console with Rory following closely behind, leaving Rose and the Doctor to deal with the lights.

"Hey," Rory caught the hem of her shirt arm. "You're still thinking about it, aren't you?"

"Shhh!" Amy looked around to make sure they were alone and then whispered. "We saw him die!"

"Yeah," Rory whispered back. "200 years in the future."

"Yes, but it's still going to happen." Amy broke free from his hold. "And where's Rose?" She questioned. "She wasn't at the beach."

"Amy," Rory drew in a breath as he steadied himself to look into his wife's eyes. "Think about it. It was 200 years into the Doctor's future. You know why she wasn't there. There weren't future versions of us either."

"No," Amy shook her head. "There must be another reason. River said..."

"River doesn't live her life in order," Rory cut her off. "She could still see her hundreds of years from now but for Rose only a few would have gone by."

"No!" Amy whirled on him. "You're wrong. She..." But she was interrupted by a loud knocking on the TARDIS doors. "What was that?" She frowned and shared a look with Rory before quickly heading back up to the console. Rory sighed once before following after his wife.

"Did someone just knock?" Rose asked the Doctor as the two slowly turned around to face the doors.

"Yes." The Doctor nodded and took a few steps towards the doors.

"Right." She heard Rory say and looked behind her to see Amy and Rory coming back up to the platform. "We are in deep space."

"Very, very deep." The Doctor said with a suspicious grimace on his face as he made his way closer to the doors as it knocked again. "And somebody's knocking."

The three of them watched as the Doctor opened the doors slowly only to exchange his wry grimace into a smile as a small glowing box appeared to be floating outside the doors.

"Oh, come here." The Doctor beamed. "Come here, you scrumptious little beauty!" He exclaimed and reached out his hand to take the box but it whizzed by him and into the TARDIS only to zoom back and hitting him in the chest.

"Wha's that?" Rose walked down the ramp towards him, peering at the glowing box in his hands.

"I've got mail." He beamed up at her and she couldn't help but let his enthusiasm rub off on her and let out a small laugh.

"Who's it from?" She was now standing beside him and studying the box for any signs of recognition, but the only identification on it was a snake and she had no recollection of seeing it before.

"It's a Time Lord emergency messaging system." He explained to her and held out the box a little for her to see it better. "In an emergency, we'd wrap up our thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space."

"So another Time Lord has sent this out?" She looked at him for clarification. "Another Time Lord that needs our help?"

"Oh yes." He nodded without taking his eyes off the box.

"You said there were no other Time Lords left." Rory quipped up.

"There are no Time Lords left in this universe," He snapped out and made his way over to the console in just a few strides. "But the universe isn't where we're going!" He threw the box to Amy who caught it easily. "See that snake? The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself without the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooh, she was a bad girl!"

He threw down a few levers, making the TARDIS spark and shake.

"What's going on, what are you doing!?" Rose shouted at him as she clung to the railings on the ramp.

"What's happening?!" Rory exclaimed at the same time.

"We're leaving the universe!" The Doctor cried out jovially.

"You said it was impossible to travel between universes!" Rose called out, feeling a bit uneasy with the Doctor's behaviour and feeling a pit of dread collecting in her stomach.

"I can't!" The Doctor called back. "But I can leave it."

"How can you leave the universe?" Amy asked.

"With enormous difficulty!" He shouted out to be heard over the loud clanging of the cloister bells. "Right now I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly. Goodbye swimming pool, goodbye scullery, sayonara squash court seven!"

The TARDIS landed with a jolt, almost knocking the Doctor sideways, but years of training kept him on his feet.

"Ok. Ok." Amy said, trying to steady herself. "Where are we?

"Outside the universe," He answered calmly but with just a hint of mystique which, as he saw in the corner of his eye, made Rose Tyler roll hers. "Where we've never, ever been."

"Stop being so melodramatic." Rose grinned at him, her tongue poking out just so and to stop himself from doing something stupid, he pretended to be insulted and huffed as he tweaked his bowtie.

"For your information, Rose Tyler," He walked towards her. "I'm being perfectly..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence as all the power from the TARDIS seemed to give out and they were cast in a gloomy light, all the orange in the room disappearing.

"Is that meant to be happening?" Rory asked, looking around the room with wide eyes.

"It's the power." He swallowed heavily, feeling a sense of dread settling in his stomach. "It's draining." He walked back up to the console to try and restart the old girl again but nothing happened. "Everything's draining!" He cried out in frustration. "But it can't. That's... That's impossible."

"You keep saying that, Doctor." Rose said softly and he moved his head so he could see her. "Around you though, everything's possible."

"Not this," He shook his head without breaking contact with her. "I won't allow it."

"What's happened?" Rory asked, forcing him to turn his attention to the Roman instead.

"It's the matrix, the soul of the TARDIS." He took a few steps towards the door but stopped as he came next to Rose. "It's gone, vanished." He said the last part to her.

"We'll sort this out." Rose put a hand on his arm and he could feel the tension draining from his body. "We always do, yeah." She smiled.

"Yeah," He nodded. "We always do." He smiled back.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he pushed past Rose and walked the last part towards the doors in three long strides. Without hesitation, he opened the doors and stepped out on the unknown planet.

"So," Amy asked innocently as the four of them started looking around. "What kind of trouble's your friend in?"

"He was in a bind," He answered absent-mindedly as he picked up a few bits and pieces on the ground only to throw them away again. "A bit of a pickle, sort of distressed."

"Aw, you can't just say you don't know." Amy teased.

"But what is this?" Rory the Roman cut in. "The scrap yard at the end of the universe?"

"Not end of," He corrected. "Outside of."

"Well, that's more helpful." He heard Rose mutter and smirked, pleased that he had managed to annoy her.

"How can we be outside the universe?" Rory scrunched up his brow a little. "The universe is everything."

"It's much more than that." He put an arm around the Roman's shoulders as he tried to explain. "Imagine there are billions and billions of parallel worlds out there, containing every single possibility you can think of."

"Yeah," Rory nodded.

"Every single one of them is like one giant soap bubble, and one of them just happens to have a tiny soap bubble attached to it."

"Ok."

"Well, it's nothing like that." He let go of Rory so he could put a hand on the TARDIS, smiling inwardly that he had managed to annoy Rory as well. Only Amy left, he thought smugly. "Completely drained," He muttered. "Look at her."

"So we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?" Amy asked.

"Yeah. No. But if it helps, yes." He answered diffusedly. "This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here." He thought aloud. "Now this place," He turned to his three companions. "What do we think, eh?" He picked up handful of dirt and threw it into the air. "Gravity's almost Earth-normal, air's breathable, but it smells like..."

"Armpits." Amy suggested helpfully.

"A badger's armpits." Rose scrunched up her nose.

"Have you ever smelled a badger's armpits?" He asked her, curious as to her answer.

"Nope," She popped the 'p'. "But this is what I imagine it would smell like."

"Where did this stuff come from?" Rory asked.

"There's a rift." He answered, feeling his brain working miles a minute to come up with the right answer. "Now and then, stuff gets sucked through it." Yes that sounded just about right. "Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've fallen down it."

"Thief! Thief!" His train of thought were interrupted by a crazed looking woman running towards him. "You're my thief!"

"She's dangerous!" An older woman walking behind the first one warned. "Guard yourselves!"

"Look at you!" The first woman exclaimed as she stared him up and down. "Goodbye! No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" Before he had a chance to make a suggestion, she threw herself around him and kissed him smack on the mouth.

"Watch out!" An older man called out. "Careful, keep back from her!"

The Doctor watched somewhat in shock as the older couple dragged the woman away from him, noticing in the corner of his eye similar expressions of shock on Amy, Rose, and Rory's faces.

"Welcome, strangers, lovely." The older man said. "Sorry about the mad person."

"Hang on," Rose quipped up before he had gathered enough wits to ask his own questions. "Who are you? And why," She turned to the woman. "Did you call the Doctor a thief? You don't know him." She said with a hint of accusation in her voice, and he felt a pang of pride in his chest that she had come to the same conclusion as him.

"Yeah," He eyed the three people. "Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?"

"Me." The younger woman exclaimed happily. "You're going to steal me. No, you have stolen me. You are stealing me." She rambled. "Tenses are difficult, aren't they?" She smiled at him like a love sick puppy.

"Oh, we are sorry, my dove." The older woman apologised. "She's off her head." She gave him a short smile before turning to Rose. "They call me Auntie." She extended her hand to Rose, who shook it hesitantly.

"I'm uncle." The older man told her. "I'm everybody's uncle. Just keep back from this one, she bites!"

"Do I?" The younger woman said delightedly. "Excellent." She threw herself forward and bit him in the neck.

"Ow!" He cried out. What kind of insane woman was she? "No, ow, ow!"

He rubbed at his neck as Uncle and Auntie pulled the woman away from him. He was half tempted to go and hide behind Rose in case she did anything more, but his pride stopped him.

"Oh, biting's excellent!" The woman said happily. "It's like kissing, only there's a winner!"

"Sorry." Uncle apologised. "She's doolally."

"No, I'm not doolally." The woman defended. "I'm... I'm... It's on the tip of my tongue." The Doctor could see the moment she got an idea in her head, and knew he would not like it. "I've just had a new idea about kissing." And he was right. "Come here, you!" She started chasing him, and who cares about pride, he quickly made his retreat behind Rose.

"Idris," Auntie chastised her. "No, no!"

"Oh," Idris looked sad. "But now you're angry. No, you're not. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry."

"Sorry?" He took a few hesitant steps around Rose so he could come closer to the woman, apparently named Idris, ignoring Rose's smug expression at his previous hiding spot. "The little what? Boxes?"

Idris started laughing, making him pout until he felt Rose's hand in his.

"What's so funny?" Rose asked her, squeezing his hand a bit.

"Your chin is hilarious!" Idris pinched it before he had a chance to back away, then turned her attention to Rory. "It means the smell of dust after rain."

"What does?" Rory frowned.

"Petrichor." Idris answered matter of factly.

"I don't trust them." Rose whispered to him as the three strangers were busy with each other.

"Me neither." He squeezed her hand. "There's something wrong with them."

"Whaddya mean?" She furrowed her brow a little.

"Look at their hands and feet." He used his free hand to point slightly. "They don't match."

"Oh," Was all Rose said.

"Oh, indeed." He clenched his jaw.

"Nephew," Uncle said. "Take Idris somewhere she can't bite people."

The Doctor turned around and saw an Ood standing behind him.

"Oh, hello!" He smiled at the Ood.

"It's an Ood." Rose said with a weary expression on her face.

"It's okay," He assured her, giving her hand another squeeze. "Me and Donna went to the Ood's home planet; they're really quite friendly when they're not possessed by an ancient creature."

""Friendly, you say?" Amy asked, eyeing the Ood suspiciously.

"Yes," He nodded and walked over to it, reluctantly letting go of Rose in the process. "Hello, Ood. Can't you talk?" He eyed the translator ball. "Oh, I see, it's damaged. May I?" He opened up the ball. "It might be on the wrong frequency."

"Nephew was broken when he came here." Auntie explained. "Why, he was half dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us."

The Doctor took in the hidden meaning behind her words, getting some clarifications about their mismatched hands and feet, as he repaired the translator.

It came online with a slight buzz, and then a myriad of voices streamed out of it until one voice dominated the others enough to make out the words.

"If you're receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Help! I'm still alive! I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet."

Nephew turned off the translator immediately, only making the Doctor's suspicions grow.

"What was that?" Rory asked. "Was that him?"

"No," He shook his head. "No, it's picking up something else. But that's..." He trailed off. "That's not possible. That's..." He could feel the anger growing inside him. "Who else is here?" He asked the old woman. "Tell me. Show me! Show me!" He demanded.

"Just what you see." She answered without a hint of fear from his demanding eyes. "It's just the four of us, and the House. Nephew," She turned to the Ood. "Will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?"

"The House?" The Doctor asked as he watched the Ood carry the unconscious woman away. "What's the House?"

"House is all around you, my sweets." She smiled at them. "You're standing on him." Uncle jumped up and down to emphasise her point. "This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"

"Meet him?" Rory exclaimed but the Doctor ignored him.

"I'd love to." He smiled sweetly back at the woman, reaching his hand back towards Rose and followed the odd couple inside after Rose had taken it.

"Did you recognise the voices?" Rose asked him, walking as close beside him as possible.

"They were other Time Lords." He answered bitterly, refusing to accept what might have happened to them on this rock. "It's not just the Corsair that's been trapped here. Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of... Time Lords." He refused to voice his suspicions out loud. As long as he didn't acknowledge it, there might still be a chance he was wrong.

They all stopped by a large grate deep inside the cavern.

"Come." Uncle waved his hand at him to come closer. "Come, come. You can see the House and he can look at you and he..."

The Doctor tuned him out as he looked down through the grate.

"I see." He took a step back. "This asteroid is sentient."

"We walk on his back," Auntie began. "Breathe his air. Eat his food..."

"Smell his armpits." Amy cut in, and the Doctor heard Rose snort from slightly behind him.

"And do my will." Uncle and Auntie said simultaneously with a different voice. "You are most welcome, travellers."

"Doctor..." Amy said slowly. "That voice, that's the asteroid talking?"

"Yes." He nodded, feeling a bit irked as he put the puzzle pieces together. "So you're like a... sea urchin. Hard outer surface; that's the planet we're walking on. Big squashy, oogly thing inside. That's you."

"That is correct, Time Lord." House answered.

"Ah!" His suspicions were growing stronger. "So you've met Time Lords before?"

"Many travellers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break."

"So there are Time Lords here then?" He needed to be sure.

"Not any more," And with that he knew he was right. "But there have been many TARDISes on my back in days gone by."

"Well," He said with fake humour. "There won't be any more after us. Last Time Lord. Last TARDIS."

"A pity." House sounded almost regretful, but the Doctor could detect the true meaning behind it. "Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will."

"We're not actually going to stay here, are we?" Rory sounded afraid at the prospect.

"Why not?" He shrugged. "It seems like a friendly planet. Literally." He gave a small grin as Rose bumped his shoulder.

"Care to let me in on your thoughts?" She asked him, looking up at him in a way that almost made his knees give out.

"Not know." He said just loud enough for only her to hear then turned to Auntie. "Mind if we poke around a bit?"

"You can look all you want." She answered. "Go, look. House loves you."

"Come on then, gang." He tugged on Rose's hand. "We're just going to, erm... see the sights."

They had walked down the tunnel for a while before the distant voice of Idris travelled towards them. He could tell that Amy and Rory didn't hear it, but Rose looked at him with a questioning look that told him that she could. How she was able to was beyond him, but it wasn't the first weird thing he had noticed about her in the last seven months since he had brought her back.

"So," Rory began. "As soon as the TARDIS is refuelled, we go, yeah?"

"No." He shook his head. "There are Time Lords here. I heard them and they need me."

"You told me about your people," Amy piped up. "And you told me what you did."

"Yes," He fought to not grind his teeth. Why did she bring that up? He had told her that in confidence after she had lost Rory. Not that she had remembered losing him. "But if they're like the Corsair, they're good. I can save them!"

"Then tell them you destroyed the others?!" Oh, how she infuriated him at times.

"I can explain." He defended. "Tell them why I had to."

"You want to be forgiven." It wasn't a question.

"Don't we all?" He said silently.

That seemed to do it for Amy.

"What do you need from me?" She asked, now with a newfound determination.

"My screwdriver." He said quickly, a plan growing in his head. "I left it in the TARDIS. It's in my jacket."

"You're wearing your jacket." Rory pointed out.

"My other one." He said like it was obvious.

"You have two of those?" Rory asked incredulously.

"You should see his wardrobe." Rose grinned. "He has way more than just two."

"You've been inside his room?" Rory's eyebrows disappeared under his fringe. "I didn't even know he had one."

"Of course I have a room." The Doctor huffed.

"I want a full detail on what you did in his room later," Amy said to Rose who smiled mischievously back at her, and then turned to him. "Doctor, listen to me. Don't get emotional because that's when you make mistakes."

"Yes, boss." He faked saluted.

"I'll call you from the TARDIS." She tossed him her phone which he caught perfectly with one hand. "Rory, look after him." She then turned and left in the direction of the TARDIS.

"Rory," The Doctor said to the Roman. "Look after her."

"Yeah." He nodded and headed after Amy.

"You're not going to try and trick me as well?" Rose said without taking her eyes of Rory's retreating back.

"Never again." He said simply.

"Good." She said and then tugged him with her towards Idris.

A/N

I hope you liked the first part of this two-parter.

Please send a review if you liked it and let me know what you thought, it would really mean a lot to me so see what you all think about my story.

Have a great week =)