Disclaimer I don't own Doctor Who, the 11th Doctor, Amy, Rory or the TARDIS. I don't even own the Vortex Manipulator. I do however own my OC, Alfie who can shape-shift into a White furred German Shepherd, I own all the rights to her. I also own all the rights to Shadower, who you will meet in this chapter, in the other(s) to come.
Author's Note Thanks to Shifuni and MysteryWriter97 for reviewing chapter 9
Doctor Who
Chapter 10 - Amy's Choice: Darkest Souls
"It's colder." Amy shivered and pulled her red blanket over her as the four of them sat up, but didn't make a move to go any higher.
"The four of us have to agree now which is the dream?" the Doctor decided as he buttoned his jacket closed and hugged it to his body.
"It's this, here." Rory replied immediately, his hands hidden beneath his armpits to fend off frostbite.
"He could be right," Amy agreed. "The science is all wrong here. Burning ice?"
"No, no, no. Ice can burn, Sofas can read. It's a big universe." the Doctor told the three.
"We have to agree which battle to lose, all of us." Alfie said as she rubbed the palms of her hands together, the tips of her fingers felt a bit tingly.
"Okay, which world do yous think is real?" Amy asked the Time lord and Shifter.
"I have no idea." Alfie replied, the answer not being of any help at all.
"This one." the Doctor said immediately.
"No, the other one." Rory argued.
"Yeah, but are we disagreeing, or competing?" the Doctor questioned him, and Alfie raised an eyebrow at the two men.
"Competing? Over what?" Amy asked, and the two gave her a look before she rolled her eyes and stood up.
"Nine minutes 'til impact." the Doctor said glancing at his watch before standing up, Alfie and Rory climbed to their feet as well.
"What temperature is it?" Amy asked, as she threw the blankets she had been cuddling onto the console.
"Outside? Brrr. How many naughts have you got?" the Doctor replied as he moved about in an effort to keep warm. "Inside? I don't know, but I can't feel my feet and… other parts."
Alfie tried not to laugh at the Doctor as she bit her lip, she did however walk over and hug the poor Time lord - who hugged her back. She still felt much warmer than he did, and he was a little jealous.
"I think all my parts are basically fine." Rory remarked confidently.
"Stop competing." the Doctor told him over Alfie's head.
"Can't we call for help?" Rory asked as he stepped over to the TARDIS' console and picked up the phone to show them.
"Yeah, because the universe is really quite small and there's bound to be someone near by." the Doctor let go of Alfie and took the phone off of Rory before bopping him on the forehead with it.
"Put these on," Amy said as she threw blankets she'd cut holes into at the Doctor and Alfie of them, the Doctor slipped his on straight away and Alfie put hers on as well - not because she needed it but because she was grateful for the thought. Amy went over to Rory and put the blanket over his head. "The both of you."
"Oh, a poncho," Rory realised what she'd put onto him. "The biggest crime against fashion since lederhosen."
"That was a scary year - never again." Alfie laughed as she had actually been visiting Germany when the men and young boys had started wearing them.
"Here we go," Amy said as she fixed her hair after putting her on poncho on, she looked at the two men with a grin as Alfie stood beside her leaning against the console. "Our boys, our poncho boys," - She smiled as the two women went and stood with the two. "If we're going to die, let's die looking like a Peruvian Folk band."
"We're not going to die." Rory said as the four of them stared at the large sphere of burning ice.
"No, we're not," the Doctor agreed as he glanced at his watch. "But our time's running out, if we fall asleep here we're in trouble," - her rubbed his hands over his face as he thought - "If we could divide up, then we'd have an active presence in each world. But the Dream lord is switching us between the worlds. Why, why? What's the logic?"
"Good idea, Veggie. Let's divide you four up so I can have a little chat with our lovely companion," the Dream lord suggested as he appeared and paced with the Doctor. "Maybe I'll keep her, and you can have pointy-nose and dog-breath to yourself for all eternity. Should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality."
"Oi, I do not have dogs breath!" Alfie snapped at the Dream lord as the birds began to sing again.
"Can you here that?" Rory asked the red-head.
"What?" Amy demanded, confused that they could here what she couldn't. "No."
"Amy, don't be scared. We'll be back." the Doctor promised as he and Rory fell to the floor.
"Rory? Doctor, don't leave me." Amy pleaded with the two men as they went still.
"Amy, we're going to have fun, aren't we?" the Dream lord grinned.
"He can't touch you," Alfie told Amy as she tried to hold herself up with the console, but her legs were wobbling and her eyelids were getting heavier. She turned to the Dream lord and stumbled drunkenly towards him. "You listen here, you leave her alone..." - Alfie warned before her knees buckled and she fell through the Dream lord onto the glass platform.
"No, please. Not alone." Amy breathed nervously as Alfie's body stopped moving
Rory jolted awake sitting beside Amy on the stairs and his back hit the wall behind him, he jumped up when he heard the elderly people breaking through the living room window. He quickly grabbed Amy below her arms and dragged her up the stairs one step at a time.
"Sorry," he apologised as her lower back hit the first step, and continued to apologise as she bumped against every step as the elderly people continued to break their way in. He dragged her across the carpeted landing and into the nearest bedroom before dropping her onto her back. "Sorry." - he apologised again before slamming the door shut, he spotted the crib against the wall near the window and walked over to it. He stared into it for a moment before looking out the window to see some of the elderly people pushing against the TARDIS. Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed a chair and propped it up against the door before sitting on it.
*N*O*O*R*D*I*N*A*R*Y*D*O*G*
The Doctor and Alfie woke up at the same time, both sitting on the floor slumped against the white door with their foreheads touching. Alfie sat up straight in surprise as the Doctor stood up with his ear against the door, listening to the screeching elderly people on the other side - Alfie didn't need to put her ear against the metal to hear the spine-shivering sound.
"Okay, where is it?" the Doctor mumbled as he got his Sonic Screwdriver out and searched for the right setting on it, Alfie climbed to her feet and waited for the Doctor to make his move.
The Doctor shoved the door open and - with the Sonic - caused the lamp above the aliens to explode, giving the pair their opportunity to escape. The Doctor reached behind him and grabbed Alfie's hand as he ran out of the Butcher's, they stopped in the middle of the road after hearing somebody shouting for help. The looked over and saw a man trapped inside a minivan being attacked by an old man.
"Oh you couldn't live near the shops, could you?" the Doctor asked rhetorically as he and Alfie ran towards the red minivan. Alfie grabbed the old geezer and pulled him away from the door as the Doctor opened in and the man moved into the back, Alfie dropped the old guy and jumped across the driver's side to the passenger's side before the Doctor hopped in and started the engine. They stopped at a playground where they saw two women cornered by a group of the elderly people.
"Get in, get in!" the guy in the back shouted after he'd opened the side door, and closed it before they were off again.
"Get them." Alfie pointed towards the family pressed against a fence and the Doctor stopped, they scrambled into the van and they drove quickly down the road.
The outside of the TARDIS was quickly being covered in a layer of ice, while inside was like a winter wonderland - minus the wonder however. Amy sat all on her own on the stairs leading up to the third level of the TARDIS, her blanket wrapped tightly around her body.
"Poor Amy," the Dream lord said as he appeared beside her. "He always leaves you, doesn't he? Alone in the dark. Never apologises."
"He doesn't have to." Amy replied as she walked away from him.
"That's good, because he never will," the Dream lord said to her. "And now he's left you with me. Spooky, old, not-to-be-trusted me," - he disappeared, only to reappear a second later on the jump seat closer to her wearing black leggings and a black shirt that left most of his chest bare. "Anything could happen."
"Who are you? And what do you want?" Amy asked as she eyed the Dream lord. "The Doctor and Alfie know you, but they're not telling me who you are. And he always does, takes him a while sometimes, but he tells me," - she took a few cautious steps towards the Dream lord - "So you're something different."
"Oh, is that who you think you are?" the Dream lord asked her. "The one he trusts?"
"Actually, yes." Amy replied curtly.
"The only girl in the universe to whom the Doctor tells everything?" the Dream lord continued as he stood up and approached her.
"Yes." Amy whispered to him.
"So what's his name?" the Dream lord asked her curiously before disappearing, only to reappear crouching down beside Alfie's body. Her skin wasn't frosted over, but her clothes were. "She's been there for him for a while now, she helped him heal again," - he went to brush some frost out of her hair, but his hand just past through her head - "He knows her name."
"Yeah, so do I," Amy said as she watched the Dream lord acting out of character - or out of character from what she's seen of him so far. "Her name's Alfie."
"No, that is the name you know her by, who she lives as," the Dream lord corrected her. "Shifter's have little need for such human names," - the Dream lord moved away from the white haired woman and squatted down between the Doctor and Rory - "Now, which one of these men would you really choose? Look at them. You ran away with a handsome hero, would you really give him up for a bumbling country doctor who thinks the only thing he needs to be interesting is a ponytail?"
"Stop it." Amy demanded and shook her head.
"Maybe it's better than loving and losing the Doctor," the Dream lord wondered aloud as he stood up. "He'll always choose her first," - he looked behind him at Alfie before back at Amy - "Pick a world, and this nightmare will all be over. They'll listen to you, it's you they're waiting for. Amy's men. Amy's choice."
The Dream lord disappeared, and Amy looked around the TARDIS waiting for him to reappear again. But he didn't. She reached down and fixed Rory's poncho before glancing from the Doctor to Alfie, she sighed before going and sitting back on the stairs all on her own.
The Doctor hit the breaks and the minivan skidded to a halt outside a church, he jumped out and opened the side door, making all the people he'd saved get out and run to the stone building.
"Everybody out, out, out," the Doctor said as the people - and even a dog - climbed out of the van and ran into the church. "Into the Church, that's right. Don't answer the door!"
The Doctor slammed the side door shut and hopped back behind the wheel, he and Alfie were on their way to find Amy and Rory in a short time, driving through the village out into the countryside where there was nothing but fields and the odd herd of farm animals.
"It's make your mind up time," the Dream lord said as he appeared in the back seat dressed in an orange one-piece suit holding a white helmet in his lap. "In both worlds."
"Bye," the Doctor said as he glanced from the rear-view mirror to the road a few times. "We need to find out friends."
"Friends? Is that the right word for the people you acquire?" the Dream lord asked mockingly. "Friends are people you stay in touch with. Your friends never see you again once they've grown up. The old man prefers the company of the young, does he not?"
"Ignore him." Alfie advised as the Dream lord disappeared and the Doctor drover faster.
The Doctor never answered her back and instead they both looked out the window as they came to Rory and Amy's home, a swarm of old people trying to break their way in with numerous different kinds of tools - one such elderly lady even had a lawn mower.
"Okay," the Doctor said as he got out of the van, Alfie got out a second later and the Doctor gave her a smile at his idea of getting to the couple. "Follow me."
*N*O*O*R*D*I*N*A*R*Y*D*O*G*
Rory sat on the floor of the nursery staring at Amy as her head rested on his lap, her eyes fluttered open and she sat up.
"How did I get up here?" She asked and looked around the room.
"I carried you," Rory told her as he sat up on his knees. "I'm afraid you may experience some bruising."
"Where's the Doctor? And Alfie?" Amy asked as she realised neither were with them.
"I don't know. I want to do something for you." He replied as he reached behind him and rummaged through a little bag, pulling out a pair of blue handled scissors. He reached behind his head and Amy gasped as he snipped his ponytail off.
"I was starting to like it." She told him after he'd cut through the hair, to which he gave her a disbelieving look.
They both jumped as the window squeaked open, only for the Doctor to appear.
"Sorry, I had to stop off at the Butcher's." the Doctor apologised as he climbed through the window, but he seemed to have gotten a boost from behind him as he toppled onto the floor and Alfie appeared behind him, entering the nursery in a much more graceful manner. Despite the situation, Alfie tried to stop a laugh at the Doctor as he sprawled out on the floor, she gave him a hand to his feet as Amy and Rory followed.
"What are we going to do?" Rory asked them.
"I don't know," the Doctor said as he tried to catch his breath. "I thought the freezing TARDIS was real but now I'm not so sure."
"I hope this is the dream." Alfie said after she spotted an elderly man with a greying beard appear at the open window out of the corner of her eye, the other three didn't seem to have noticed him though.
"What do you mean-" the confused Doctor has started, but was cut off by Alfie grabbing the lapels of his tweed jacket and pulled him down into a deep, panicked kiss. The Doctor was stunned, of all the years they'd known each other Alfie hadn't shown this kind of interest in him. Sure they flirted, but it had been nothing serious.
Alfie pulled away and grinned sheepishly before jumping out of the window headfirst, tackling the old man as he had began to climb through the window. They both started to fall, but Alfie turned and grabbed the wooden edge of the windowsill. Her claws scraped against the wood as the old man had grabbed her leg, pulling her down with him, the Doctor had made a leap to try and catch her - but missed by a mere second.
"Alfie!" the Doctor shouted as he watched her and the old man fall. The elderly man hit the ground first and Alfie landed on his stomach.
"You lot are very resilient, aren't you?" Alfie asked as she stood up and raised her fists, ready to attack if provoked. "Bring it on."
They swarmed around her like Vultures waiting for their prey to die, they were quiet and still for a moment before they made their moves. They went for her all at once, which was what she had been expecting. Mr Nainby had a rake in his hands and he swung it at her, but Alfie grabbed the end of it and used it to knock the old man into two other elderly people, leaving a gap for her to escape, but she hadn't moved quick enough and more elderly people took their place. It put Alfie in mind of a horror movie she saw once about Zombies, and they acted a lot like these elderly people were at the moment. She never noticed the small grey-haired woman sneak up behind her and give her a rough shove to the back, Alfie stumbled and lost her balance, falling onto the ground in the middle of the circle she was now in - she spun round onto her rear end and looked up at the window she'd jumped out of, she caught a glimpse of the floppy-haired Doctor.
"Sorry, Doctor." Alfie apologised as the eyes appeared in the old peoples' mouths and they sprayed her with the green mist, within seconds she was turned to nothing but ash - the only thing left behind was her red dog collar.
Meanwhile inside the nursery Amy leaned over and her hands flew to her stomach.
"Oh," She groaned in pain. "I think the baby's starting."
"Honestly?" Rory asked uncertainly.
"Would I make it up at a time like this?" Amy shouted.
"Well you do have a history of-" Rory stopped what he was about to say as Amy gave him a look. "Being very lovely."
The Doctor was still standing near the open window he and Alfie had climbed in through, he was staring down at the grey pile of ash that lay on the grass, a grey pile of ash surrounded by a red dog collar - the only thing that had remained of Alfie.
"Why are they so desperate to kill us?" Rory shouted as Amy groaned.
"Because they're scared," the Doctor replied as he turned away from the window and looked at the couple. "And they should be."
At that moment something smashed through the other window, it rolled to a stop on the floor and they could see it was a garden gnome. Rory went over to see what had caused the damage to see Mrs Poggit at the window, she shot a spray of the green mist and it hit Rory. He cried out in pain and he stumbled backwards as the Doctor hit Mrs Poggit with a lamp, she rolled off of the roof and hit the ground with a thud.
"Rory!" Amy cried, and the Doctor turned round to watch the couple.
"No! I'm not ready," Rory said as he breathed in short sharp breaths, as he began to turn into dust, he looked lovingly over to Amy. "Look after our baby." - Amy watched as her husband melted away until he was nothing more than a pile of ash on the floor.
Alfie jolted awake sitting on a computer chair behind a desk, the top of it was covered with files, and pens, and there was an empty blue mug sitting at the corner. She looked up from the desk and their stood Shadower in all his twisted glory.
"Welcome to your nightmare." Shadower purred before he melted away into the shadows.
Along the walls hung dozens of weapons of different kinds, some were human while others were… less human.
"Are you just going to sit there all night or are you coming out for a drink?" a male voice asked before a face appeared around a corner - it was Jack, Captain Jack.
"I'm coming now," Alfie promised as she stood from her desk and looked all around her, she was back in Torchwood… had it all been a dream? Seeing the Doctor again, it had all seemed so real. She looked over at Jack and grinned. "I'm taking the front door."
"Spoil sport." Jack teased with a wide smile before disappearing from her view.
Alfie walked to the front and waved goodbye to Ianto as he opened the door for her, she stepped through and it slammed shut behind her. However, what lay in front of her wasn't Cardiff, but the inside of the TARDIS… the old TARDIS. Running around the console was a tall, skinny man with sideburns wearing a blue pinstriped suit. There was also a ginger woman standing and watching him, but it wasn't Amy. The man was the Doctor in his 10th incarnation, and the ginger woman was her friend - Donna Noble.
"Oh no." Alfie groaned loudly, causing the Doctor to stop moving about and stare at her with a big grin, Donna looked over and did the same.
"No, no… come back," Amy whispered as she look from the ashes of her husband up to the Doctor. "Save him, you save everyone, you always do. It's what you do."
"Not always," the Doctor replied, being painfully reminded of Alfie. "Sorry."
"Then what is the point of you?" Amy asked angrily, she looked away from the Doctor and put her hand into the dust in front of her. She used the drawers to get herself back onto her feet, the Doctor went as if to help her, but decides against it as she turned around to face him. "This is the dream. Definitely this one. If we die here we wake up, yeah?"
"Yeah," the Doctor clarified for her. "Unless we just die."
"Either way this is my only chance of seeing him again," Amy said, on the verge of tears. "This is the dream."
"How do you know?" the Doctor asked. It wasn't as if he wanted to stay either. Of all the people he'd seen die, he wished Alfie hadn't been one of them. She always seemed to be there for him, and he had let her down when it was her turn to need him.
"Because if this is real life, I don't want it," Amy told the Doctor forcefully. "I don't want it."
Amy left the Nursery and the Doctor followed, they made their way outside, but none of the elderly people made a move to approach them.
"Why aren't they attacking?" Amy shouted angrily, all the elderly people seemed to have frozen, but they watched the two closely.
"Either this is just a dream or because they know what we're about to do." the Doctor replied as he looked back at Alfie - or what was left of her, the tags on her collar glistened in the sun. Amy stopped in front of the minivan and stuck her hand out for the keys. "Are you very sure? This could be the real world."
"It can't be, Rory isn't here," Amy disagreed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I didn't know, I didn't. I honestly didn't 'til right now. I just want him."
"Okay," the Doctor whispered and handed over the keys to her. "Okay." - Amy got in and started the engine, the Doctor was about to climb into the passenger's side when the Dream lord appeared, but he soon got in and slammed the door.
"I love Rory, and I never told him. But now he's gone." Amy confessed as she took the hand break off and revved the engine. They drove forward tight through a wooden fence into the garden and Amy aimed for the stone wall of her house, they hit it bang on.
"Well, don't just stand there, come on." the 10th Doctor said as he shrugged on his brown overcoat and walked past Alfie through the way she'd just came in.
"I wanted to go to the beach, but no…" Donna mumbled as she followed the Doctor out.
"This was the day I left for Torchwood," Alfie remembered. They went through the Library, met the Vashta Nerada, ran for their lives, and lost Donna at one point - but they'd gotten her back in the end. And Professor River Song, the brilliant woman from their future, she gave her life to save them all - save the Doctor as well. Alfie laughed sadly as the first time they'd met, Professor Song had stepped on her tail. After the whole said adventure, Jack called her in the TARDIS from Torchwood and asked for her help involving a gang of troublesome teenage Shifters, she said yes and the Doctor had dropped her off. She turned round and faced the door, not sure where she was going to end up now. "Here I go."
Alfie took a deep breath and stepped out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind her. She didn't however see the biggest Library in the Universe standing in front of her, but instead the inside of the TARDIS again - the 10th Doctor was at the console again, but this time a young black woman was watching him run about - Martha Jones.
"I'm going backwards." Alfie realised; she had seen the 10th Doctor and Donna before she'd left for Torchwood, and now in front of her was the same Doctor but with Martha, she had a feeling she knew where she'd be going next.
"You're what?" the Doctor stopped what he was doing and looked over at her curiously.
"Excited to know where we're going now." Alfie covered, smiling widely.
"How about the new Earth?" the Doctor flicked something on the console and they were thrown to the ground as the TARDIS landed. The Doctor was up first and helped the two women up before disappearing out of the TARDIS, Martha followed excitedly and Alfie followed at a slower pace - she held her breath as she stepped out of the blue box and heard the door slam shut behind her.
Alfie jumped awake sitting on the cold ground of an alley and groaned at the stiffness in her neck, she looked down at her clothes to see they'd changed. Ripped blue jeans, dirty blue shirt, no shoes… she gave her socked toes a thoughtful wiggle.
"It was all a dream…" Alfie whimpered as she rested her head back on whatever was supporting her back, which was when she realised she was sitting in the middle of the alley way. She looked over her shoulder to see the TARDIS, the one she'd sat down against and fallen asleep. She remembered being mugged of all her money and her shoes, then stumbling down the alley to the Police Box, after not being able to get it open she had just sat down on the ground against. All the adventures she'd been on, all the people she'd met, the whole thing had been a story in her head. "All of it."
"Maybe," A dark voice purred loudly behind her, and she spun back around to see Shadower grinning, his fur was much lighter, practically all grey now. "Good bye."
"Good bye? What do you mean-" Alfie was cut off by Shadower leaping at her, but she never felt him hit her. She watched as the creature went through her chest, right where her heart was - it took only seconds for Alfie to react to the burst of pain that bloomed behind her breastbone, she doubled over and gripped her shirt tightly as her heart felt as if someone was squeezing it. She was finding it hard to breath as she leaned against the TARDIS, but then all of a sudden, the pain stopped.
'Play time is over.' a voice purred in her head before it started snickering.
Alfie looked up and saw the 10th Doctor standing in front of her, before she could stop him his hand flew out and grabbed her around the neck, he lifted her up and held her against the side of the TARDIS, his eyes were two pools of dark raging lava.
"You left me!" the Doctor hissed angrily through his clenched teeth, his grip tightening that little bit more around her throat. "After all we'd been through, you left me for Jack!"
"I didn't." Alfie choked out, or tried to, all she had been able to say was 'I' and then 'didn't' had been a strangled noise.
"You did!" the Doctor pulled her back and whacked her against the TARDIS. "You said you'd never leave, you promised! And then you did!"
Alfie stared at the blue pinstriped suited Time lord and knew that no matter how angry he ever got, what he ever did, she could never hate him. Even if she wanted to or tried to, she could never.
The TARDIS floated closer and closer to the gigantic sphere of burning white ice, inside meanwhile was covered in hundreds of thousands of millions of tiny crystals of frozen water, covering everything like a snowy blanket.
The Doctor slowly opened his eyes, then Amy opened hers and watched as Rory opened his, she reached out and grabbed his icy had with her own. The only one who didn't wake up was Alfie.
"So, you chose this world," the Dream lord observed as he appeared. "Well done, you got it right."
The Doctor looked for Alfie, and he found her body at his feet, that was when he noticed she wasn't waking up.
"Where's Alfie?" the Doctor demanded as he looked up at the Dream lord.
"With my little pet," the Dream lord replied, smiling down viciously at the Doctor. "Our little pets together."
"Show me where she is." the Doctor snapped.
"You only had to ask." the Dream lord grinned slyly and the three watched as he snapped his fingers.
The Doctor, Amy and Rory looked all around them as they appeared standing in an alley, a relatively wide alley. The ground was wet and covered in rubbish and bits of food people had dropped, they heard shouting coming from down the alley.
"Where are we?" Amy asked, and wondered what all the shouting and banging was about.
"Where I first met Alfie." the Doctor told them, looking down towards the sound. A large blue Police Box stood out against the shadows, the TARDIS. The three watched as a man wearing a blue pinstriped suit held a white haired woman by her throat up against the TARDIS' front doors.
"You left me!" they heard the man shout angry and watched as he Alfie back against the blue doors roughly. "You promised! You promised!"
"Who is that?" Amy shouted as the Doctor ran down the alley towards them.
"Me." the Doctor shouted back as he reached the two, he tried to pull his past self away from her, but hadn't realised how strong he had been.
"You abandoned me!" past Doctor howled angrily. Not usually prone to violence, the Doctor looked all around him and found a green glass bottle. He quickly grabbed it and smashed it across the back of his past self's head, the bottle exploded on impact into dozens of pieces as the past Doctor fell to the ground. Alfie slid down the TARDIS' doors as she tried to catch her breath, but the Doctor quickly went over to her and helped her back onto her feet.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked her, checking her over.
"I'm fine," Alfie assured him as she began to catch her breath. "I'm fine."
They all looked to the entrance of the alley at the sound of a horn blaring to see a black car with tinted windows driving at them at full speed, the car screeched against the walls as it swerved from one side to the next, as if it had no driver at all.
"Oh dear." the Doctor squeaked.
"No, no, no!" Rory shouted as he grabbed Amy.
The Car straightened as it reached them.
"Back so soon?" the Dream lord mocked as they woke again, Alfie cracked her eyes open and shivered slightly at the forgotten coldness of the TARDIS. "And with only seconds left. Fair's fair, let's warm you up," -The Dream lord was at the console flicking switches and pushing buttons, the TARDIS started humming again as the lights came back on - "I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions, it all came out of your imagination, so uh, I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated, I shall withdraw. Farewell."
Amy and Rory sat up stiffly as Alfie rigidly stood up with the help of the railing and leaned against the console, the ice in her white hair shimmered before it quickly melted. The Doctor climbed shakily to his feet and hugged Alfie as tightly as he could, resting his frosted cheek against the side of her head as he felt her arms wrap around his waist.
"I thought I'd never see you again." the Doctor breathed into her ear as he let go and pulled away so he could see her.
"Sorry." Alfie whispered as she smiled.
The Doctor moved away and began spinning things, Alfie flicked a few switches and pushed a couple of buttons before pulling a little leaver across.
"Something happened," Rory gasped. "I… what happened to me? I…" - he couldn't form a proper sentence, but Amy leaned over and hugged him. "Oh. Oh, right. This is good, I am liking this. Was it something I said?" - he asked curiously, enjoying the embrace - "Can you tell me what it was so I can use it in emergencies, and maybe birthdays."
They were interrupted by the centre of the console beginning to move as the TARDIS hummed louder.
"What are we doing now?" Amy asked.
"What, us?" the Doctor motioned between himself and Alfie as he tried to turn a stiff black wheel and she continued to push buttons. "We're going to blow up the TARDIS."
"What?" Rory asked, shocked that he'd such a thing, especially with them in it.
"Notice how helpful the Dream lord was," the Doctor told them as he was about to start typing. "Okay there was misinformation, red herrings, malice, and I could have done without the limerick. But he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality." - the Doctor cranked something and then their was a bang.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked as the Doctor laughed and Alfie flicked another switch.
"Doctor, the Dream lord conceded," Rory reminded him. "This isn't the dream!"
"Yes it is!" the Doctor disagreed with a smirk on his face and Alfie stretched over the console and pushed a few buttons.
"Stop them." Amy ordered Rory, and he made a move to stop the mad pair.
"Star burning cold, do me a favour," the Doctor scoffed as he continued grinning. "The Dream lord has no power over the real world. He was offering us a choice between two dreams."
"How do you know that?" Amy asked.
"Because he knows who he is." Alfie answered for him as the Doctor grinned at her and hit a button. Everything disappeared into a white light as the TARDIS exploded.
The Doctor and Alfie stood leaning against the TARDIS' console as they stared at six shiny little round flecks sitting in the Doctor's palm, Amy and Rory appeared at the top of the stairs and made their way down to the two.
"Any questions?" Alfie asked as she looked away at the shiny flecks to the couple.
"What's that?" Amy asked as the Doctor shows them his hand.
"A speck of psychic pollen from the Candle meadows of Karass Don Slava," the Doctor informed them. "Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell into the Time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us."
Amy, Rory and Alfie watched as the Doctor opened the front door of the TARDIS and blew the specks off his hand and into space.
"So that was the Dream lord and that monster then?" Rory asked. "Those little specks."
"No," the Doctor said and gave Rory a look as if to say 'you haven't gotten it?'. "Sorry, wasn't it obvious? The Dream lord was me." the Doctor cleared things up for them.
"What about the monster then?" Rory asked, the Doctor had never mentioned it.
"That was me, sorry if it scared you." Alfie smiled as she leaned back against the console.
"Psychic pollen, it's a mind parasite, feeds on everything dark in you. Gives it a voice, turns it against you," the Doctor explained to them. "I'm nine hundred and seven, Alfie is three hundred and forty-nine. It had a lot to go on."
"Thank you, Doctor." Alfie said sarcastically to the Time lord for telling the two humans her age.
"But why didn't it feed on us too?" Amy asked.
"The darkness in you pair, it would have starved to death in an instant," the Doctor told them as he walked around the console. "I choose my friends with great care. Otherwise I'm stuck with my own company, and you know how that works out."
"Awe, I'm touched." Alfie smiled and wiped away an imaginary tear.
'Even if it is a lie.' the Doctor heard Alfie say into his head and he raised a curious eyebrow at her.
"But those things he said about you, you don't think any of that's true?" Amy asked the Doctor as she leaned against the console between him and Alfie.
"Amy, right now a question is about to occur to Rory. And seeing as the answer is about to change his life, I think you should give him your full attention." the Doctor deflected the question as he pushed Amy towards Rory and pulled Alfie away to the other side of the console.
"Yeah, actually yeah." Rory realised.
"There it is." Alfie said before the Doctor pulled her away.
"'Cause what I don't get is, you blew up the TARDIS, that stopped that dream. But what stopped the Leadworth dream?" Rory asked
"We crashed the Camper van." Amy confessed.
"Oh right, I don't remember that bit." he said.
"No, you weren't there..." Amy tried to find the right word. "You were already..."
"Already what?"
"Dead," She got the word out. "You and Alfie died in that dream. Mrs Poggit got you."
"Okay, but how did you know it was the dream?" Rory asked, trying to work it out. "Before you crashed the van, how did you know you wouldn't just die?"
"Nosey bugger." Alfie whispered with a laugh as she grabbed the other end of the tube the Doctor was holding and pulled him away as he tried to watch them talk.
"I didn't." Amy said.
"Oh." Rory uttered.
"Yeah." she agreed.
"Oh." Rory realised as he stepped forward and took her hand.
"Yeah." She said again. Rory gave a little nervous laugh before kissing her, he pulled away to look at her and she kissed him back.
"So," the Doctor said as he started clapping his hands as the couple continued to kiss. "Well then, Where now?" - he waited for them to reply, but they didn't - "Or should me and Alfie pop down to the swimming pool for a few lengths?"
"Is that an offer?" Alfie asked as she walked around to his side and gave him a flirtatious smile, he returned it eagerly.
"Anywhere's good for me, I'm happy anywhere," Rory replied as he looked away from Amy to the Doctor. "It's up to Amy this time, Amy's choice."
The Doctor clapped his hands as he began pushing buttons and twisting levers, but Alfie noticed when the Doctor froze as he caught his reflection in a piece of glass on the console. She walked over and slid in front of him, blocking his view from the glass - and she smiled at him as he seemed to relax.
Finished! Amy's Choice is finished, and now onto the Hungry Earth.
Review and tell me what you thought