Yep she's back. I was a bit busy with life hence the absence. But I've found happiness in Amy/Eleven again thus the writing. I wrote this chap while listening to "Elephant in the Room" by Richard Walters. ooo soo good. Please read, review and enjoy! Note: The break between lines means a POV switch "_"

Disclaimer:

Amy: Shall I run and get the manual?

The Doctor/Me: I threw it in a supernova.

Amy: You threw the manual in a supernova? Why?

The Doctor/Me: Because I own nothing! Now stop talking to me when I'm cross!

Chapter Ten: The Understanding of a Choice

Blood.

All that Amy could see was blood. It stained her dress, the floor, hands and fingers. It stained the body of the only man who had tried to stand up for her.

He was lying on the floor, soaking, bathing, in his own blood.

"Stop!" commanded Rory. He held up a dripping red hand to stop his parents, and Father Robert from the attack.

Amy watched Rory approach the fallen priest and curse in a language she had never heard before.

"A human," he spat. "Just a human!" He stood up now and faced his audience.

"How could you just kill him?" Amy yelled. "He was innocent, he did nothing!"

Rory turned towards Amy, bearing his teeth. "You don't understand anything. He knew. He seemed to know it all. He seemed more than human, and it was necessary that he died. You cannot see the big picture."

Amy backed away. "Big picture?"

"There is always a big picture," answered Rory.

Amy said nothing.

"You are the key to controlling the universe," said the raspy voice inside Rory.

Amy blinked.

Rory turned to Father Robert. "Marry us now! Then it all can begin!"

Father Robert shook his head. "Master, it will not be recognized. You, yourself, know that. A marriage needs a contract, witnesses, and rings. If I marry the two of you in this room, nothing will change."

Rory sighed. "I know!"

He turned to the priest. "Go back into the other room and get the guests back in their seats. Tell them we will start shortly."

"What should we do with the girl, master?" asked Mrs. Williams approaching Amy's side.

Rory looked Amy up and down. "Just a bit of blood, she'll be fine." He met her eyes darkly. "Aren't you afraid, human?"

It was in that moment that time seemed to freeze. Amy stared from one murderer to another; she stared at the lifeless body. She stared at her own shaking hands, and the ruined white dress she wore.

And it was in that moment of time when she knew, for certain, she was not afraid.

For she had seen things that no human had ever seen before. She had seen dangerous monsters, and felt narrow escapes. She knew what fear was, how terror felt, and a dark and twisted pain for the lonely.

He had stood beside her through everything. He had shown her how to survive, and how to really live. He had given her a gift which no one else had ever shared with her. He gave her the world. He gave her a chance to travel beyond it too.

And he was now making her strong in the face of her horror.

"No," replied Amy Pond simply.

Rory blinked. "No?"

Amy nodded.

Rory gave a laugh which sounded very much like a cackle. "I know why you are not afraid."

"You do?"

Rory touched her cheek gently. Amy flinched and Rory's hands fiercely held her wrists. "I could kill you right now, before you blinked. I could torture you to the brink of death. I could make your puny little heart stop beating in less than a second." He shook his head. "Yet none of it would frighten you. And all of it should."

He dropped her wrists.

"He is not coming back," said the voice slyly.

"Who?" Amy asked innocently. Her heartbeat quickened.

"Foolish girl," he said, "you know who I am talking about! The man you called the Doctor!"

Amy was silent.

"He will never come back to save you. He will never come back, he is trapped." Rory smiled, though it was not a smile of happiness, but of triumph.

Amy shook her head. "No, no, that's not possible. He's the Doctor! He can see past anything."

Rory gave another cackle. "I know, my kind have fought him long before you were born. He can see past everything and everyone. He knows that water should move on a starship, and that cracks shouldn't exist in the walls of little girls."

Amy opened her mouth. "How do you know about that?"

Rory shrugged. "You'll find I know much more than I say. But where was I?"

"He can see past everything and everyone."

"Right!" said Rory clapping his hands. "So, he sees past all sorts of disguises and façades. And then something happens to him. He meets someone who he cannot see past, who he does not want to see past."

"Who?"

Rory smiled. "And he knows that it is dangerous for him to be around this someone. It is dangerous for both of them, so he leaves. He leaves and says he will never return. But how long is he gone before his thoughts turn to this someone? How long do you think?"

Amy shook her head. "I don't believe you."

"So he decides he's going to come back. Well we can't have that. Not when we've finally got him to leave this someone alone for five minutes."

"It doesn't matter whether you've set a trap for him," Amy said to keep herself breathing. "It doesn't matter because he's smarter, way smarter, than you give him credit for. He's brilliant. And—"

Sharp laughter cut her off. It almost cut through her heart as well. Rory clapped his hands, sending splatters of blood flying around the room.

"Do you love him?"

Red crept onto her cheeks. "What?"

Rory put his hands on his hips. "You do, don't you?"

"No," she replied sharply to the alien. "Of course not."

"Look at you," he said, pointing his finger at her, "defending him, jumping to his rescue. And he's not even here! He's not coming back to save you Amy! You brought him to his downfall, and he will not rise up again."

"Me?" Amy shook her head. She found tears were beginning to fill her eyes. "You're lying."

Rory didn't seem to hear her. "You destroyed him Amy, my kind just locked the door and hid the key. And all this while…you loved him!"

"Stop saying that!" yelled Amy.

Rory walked up to her and held her face in his hands. He looked into her mind and tried, desperately tried, to bend her mind to serve him. But he could not. The Formian had been trying for years and years to put the girl under his control. When he found he could not, he sought to fulfill the legal bond that forms between two creatures.

The Formian hissed. "What is keeping you from me?"

Amy was silent.

Rory sighed. "After we are married, I shall have you under my full control. Shall I tell you what we will do for our…um…honeymoon?"

Amy bit her lip.

"We shall go back to that broken down house of yours, Amy Pond. And we will go to your room and take a good, long, look at that crack of yours."

Amy opened her mouth and then closed it.

"Silence is coming," said Rory kindly, caressing Amy's cheek with his index finger. "Darkness is going to fall on the race of man. Darkness is going to envelop and devour many races in many worlds. The Formians shall rule over it all, and we will have you to thank Amelia."

"What did you do to him?" Amy asked in a harsh whisper. "Where is he!"

Rory sighed with boredom. "I have just told you about the ending of the world as you know it, and you ask after him! An alien! A dead man!"

Amy's heart shattered. "Dead?"

Rory shrugged. "Or as good as dead. Him and this man's body I'm in now."

Amy felt a lump in her throat. "Rory!"

Rory nodded. "All in good time. All in good time." He let go of Amy's face and turned to his parents and Father Robert. "Mr. Williams, Father Robert, and I will go out there and get the wedding started again." He turned to his mother. "Mrs. Williams, you will stay with the girl, make sure she does not run off."

Without a word, Father Robert, Mr. Williams, and Rory left the room.

Mrs. Williams stood next to Amy. She smiled. "Amy dear, aren't you excited for your wedding?"

Amy stared at the woman who was under the full control of another being. She stared at a lady who did not possess her own thoughts, who was not fully aware of her own actions. She did not really know how her hands had torn life from a body. She did not really know anything anymore.

So this is what I'm to turn into, Amy thought.

Amy sat down on the floor and closed her eyes. In the darkness she closed out her mind to the brutality she had witness. In the darkness behind her eyes, she closed out her thoughts of the future waiting for her on the other side of the door. In the black sanctuary behind her eyelids she thought of her Doctor. She thought of her trapped, and possibly frightened, Doctor.

It was in this state of mind that Amy saw him. He was kneeling on the floor of his TARDIS. Two women stood over him, smiles on their faces. One was a girl with bright red hair, she could be no more than nine or ten years old. And the other woman, Amy saw, also had bright red hair and bright green eyes like her own.

The Doctor looked so weak kneeling before them.

Doctor! Doctor! Doctor! Amy shouted silently.

And then, she saw the Doctor blink and open his mouth. His eyes grew wide with wonder, terror, and confusion. Amy realized that the Doctor turned his head and looked right at her. He looked at her as if she was standing before him. As if he could reach out and touch her.

Amy? A quiet gasp of breath mixed with hope.

The vision of the girl in the white wedding dress disappeared as the Doctor turned towards her. He took a sharp intake of breath and cursed.

"You said a bad word," taunted Lizzie.

The Doctor looked back at Lizzie and Amy. "Why am I here?"

"You are getting a second chance," said Lizzie kindly.

"Second chance?" repeated the Time Lord. "At what?"

Amy knelt on her knees in front of the Doctor. She took her hands in his and smiled. "At the life you want."

A frown began to form on Amy's face. Her eyes were still shut as she watched the scene unfold. She did not understand why she saw herself and a young child talking to the Doctor. But she knew that it was no good, whatever it was.

It reeked of the evil alien's plan.

Amy took a deep breath, and cried, Come back to me, come back!

As Amy sat on the floor, hugging her knees, Mrs. Williams watched her from a little ways away. If she had been in her right mind, she might have approached the girl and inquired what was wrong. If she had been in her right mind she would have put a hand on the girl's shivering shoulder and spoken kind words to her.

If she had been in her right mind…

But Mrs. Williams had not had her own mind for a long time, and she was not about to start thinking for herself.

As long as the girl was not running away, there was no cause for alarm.

Amy was indeed shaking. It took all of her strength to scream without actually raising her voice.

Come back!

"At the life I want?" the Doctor asked her cautiously. "But I have a life, I can't just change lives."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Lizzie, still standing over Amy and the Doctor. "What was that saying you have?"

"Time can be rewritten," he replied slowly, looking at Amy all the while.

The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed. He started to wonder if he could simply be in this life. He started to wonder if there was something to the phrase he always spoke with such certainty.

But his thoughts were blocked by a scream. Come back!

In the darkness of his mind he saw a beautiful redheaded girl. Her eyes were tightly closed and she was shivering. His chest tugged, to think that she was so cold and alone. He saw a body next to her, and felt like shivering himself.

Amy? Amy is that you?

He saw a smile stretch across the bride's mouth. You heard me.

Amy…he sighed. Amy, I…where are you? Why is there a body next to you?

The smile faded suddenly. Her face grew serious. Things have happened since you left. Lots of bad and confusing things.

Are…are…The Time Lord began to ask a troubling question. Are you alright?

Suddenly he felt a touch on his shoulder. He opened his eyes in his confusion and the bloodstained Amy faded gently from his vision like a breeze. The Doctor found himself looking into the other Amy's eyes. The glow was bright, strong, and loving.

"Don't you want a life with me?" she asked him sweetly.

"Um," answered the Doctor, utterly confused. "Uh."

Lizzie giggled. "Don't you want us, me and Andrew, as your own children?"

The Doctor bit his lip. "Well, I…"

Amy held his face gently in her hands. She stroked his cheek softly, lightly, like a feather.

"Don't you want me?" she asked in a whisper.

She groaned to herself, so as not to startle Mrs. Williams.

They were good, those aliens. They were very good. They had even confused the Doctor! Her Doctor!

What had Rory told her?

You have destroyed the Doctor.

The girl behind her mind's eye looked like her. An awful lot like her. And the child, the child could have been her too. Or been her child at least. Had the evil creature used her to trap the Doctor? She shook her head. Silly idea. How could she ever take down someone as strong as the Doctor?

He was a Time Lord. The last Time Lord ever. He had been everywhere, and done everything imaginable. He had fought evil, and stood up for justice. He did not age but just changed his body so that he could be forever young.

What was she, a little human girl, to someone like him?

No, you look Time Lord. We came first.

And now he was last. He was very last and very alone.

"There are two of you," he said breathlessly.

The Doctor tried to stand on his feet, but he wobbled and shook. It was only Amy's arms that held him and then brought him back down again. "What are you talking about?"

He held up two fingers. "Two of you. Two Amys. One here, and one there. Why are there two?"

Amy laughed kindly and shook her head. Her red hair touched his cheek lightly. "Silly, how could there be two of me?"

The Doctor said nothing. He was thinking. He was thinking hard. He saw an Amy standing in front of him, lulling him gently. And there was another Amy, surrounded in darkness, calling out to him. Which one did he listen to? Which was the real one?

He closed his eyes again. He smiled at the Amy in the white dress. There are two of you. Why are there two of you?

I don't know, answered the girl quietly. You're the Doctor, you're supposed to understand things like time and space.

I'm working on it.

You need to come back, she said quietly. Terrible things are going to happen to earth, and other planets, if you don't come back.

Then the Doctor remembered the second message. He remembered hearing the Formian's voice speaking of the silence. The oncoming silence.

Are you scared? He wished that he could take her into his arms and hold her. He wished that he could protect her from all the evils in the world and all the worlds in the galaxy. He wished that he could whisper into her ear that all would be well. That he would take care of everything so she would not shiver so. He wished so desperately that he could touch her cheek, brush away the tears from her eyes.

No, insisted his angel in white. I'm not scared.

You are so brave, he assured her kindly. Brave Amy Pond.

You need to come back, she pleaded.

"Stay," implored a soft voice in his eardrum. The Time Lord knew that the Amy, kneeling in front of him, was whispering to him. He would not open his eyes, he would not. He would not let this vision leave him the way he had let her go before.

"Stay with me," said the seductive voice.

You need to leave, cried the other.

"We can be together forever."

Everything will end. Everything will be lost.

"We can raise the children, be a family, you've always wanted to be a family."

Doctor, whispered the shaking angel, Doctor, its Rory. He's acting strangely. There's something in him, eating away at him. He and his parents have killed two men already. Anything to keep the wedding going…

The Doctor opened his mouth. He turned towards the vision he saw, though his eyes were still closed. He felt the other Amy's touch leave him as he turned.

You aren't married?

No.

You didn't marry him yet?

Doctor, said the girl, he's going to use me to end the world. Something about the crack in my wall. He can only control me after we are married, and legally bound to one another.

He felt like screaming. He felt like shouting in rage and anger.

Amy, he whispered softly, Amy I'm coming. I'm coming as soon as I can.

How soon?

He gave her half a smile. I promise you will not have to wait anymore. Be your brilliant self until I get there.

But you are coming? He saw how the angel's face lit up at the thought.

And maybe, he let himself believe maybe there was some hope yet. Perhaps, when everything was over, perhaps he still had a chance. Maybe she wouldn't mind living her days with someone like him. Maybe she wouldn't mind binding herself to him, to the last Time Lord.

Maybe…

Amy, began the Doctor, Amy I…

Doctor! Doctor! He's coming! Amy's body was shaking again. He heard a far off knocking, and the squeaking of the door as it opened. He heard muffed voices, and a pair of heels approach Amy. An old woman bent down to Amy to take her arm.

The Doctor saw the woman's eyes, and the way she stood and he remembered an enemy of old. He remembered how the enemy's prisoners, captives, walked and the way their eyes shone differently.

Formians.

Doctor! I'm sorry!

She was gone then. Just gone.

The Doctor opened his eyes and saw Amy, taking his arm and helping him to his feet.

She kissed him softly on the mouth. "Stay with me, be with me forever."

It was in this moment that the Doctor had to choose. He had to choose between the trouble brewing across his mind's eye, and the simplicity of the life he was being offered in front of his eyes. He had to choose between the girl in the bloody wedding dress, and the girl in the battered bathrobe.

It was true what Lizzie and her mother had said: the Doctor did want a simple life. He did want children, and a wife. He did want the beauty of uncontrolled time. He wanted a life where he grew grey with the woman he loved.

He looked into Amy's eyes and saw that she was willing to give herself to him. She was willing to raise her adorable children with him. She was willing to grow old with him in this timeless paradise and live happily ever after. He could be in this dream for eternity and just forget about the horrors in the darkness of his thoughts.

But he could not forget the girl he saw in the wedding dress. He could not forget how very Amy-like she was. He could not forget the wave of happiness he had felt, seeing her. As if he had not seen her for many years. It was a jolt of electricity that he had not felt upon seeing the Amy in this reality.

Time could be rewritten. But…

The time traveler looked at Amy. And he remembered.

"What about Rory?" he asked her. "What about your husband?"

Amy smiled. "Don't worry about him."

The Doctor backed away from her. "He's the father of your children."

"They don't mind changing fathers," Amy turned to face her daughter, "do you mind Lizzie?"

Lizzie shook her head.

"Where will he go?" he asked.

Amy gestured to the TARDIS. "Just put him on this, push some buttons, and he'll be gone for good."

"Or you could kill him," suggested Lizzie.

The Doctor had a light bulb moment. "Did you just call the TARDIS a thing? Did you just assume that I would put a harmless man on my ship? Did you just assume that I would kill him?"

Amy shrugged. "I thought you love me."

"Well…"

"I thought you loved Lizzie, and little Andrew."

"I…"

"I thought you loved this life."

The Doctor heard the girl in the darkness calling for him. Though he could not see her, he knew that she was still there, still hoping that he would come home to her. He had promised her he would come. For it was she he had given his heart to, and not the Amy standing before him. For it was she who he would cross galaxies to save and save again. For it was she who knew his first love was the TARDIS, and how he hated killing any man.

For it was the girl in the bloodstained wedding dress, who was his Amy.

I never got to tell you that I love you.

"I'm leaving," said the Doctor coldly to the two demons, keeping him from his angel. "Get off my ship."

"I don't think so," said Amy, whose words too turned dark.

Behind Amy and Lizzie stood Rory and Andrew. Andrew was holding two longs sticks, one of which he threw to Lizzie. Rory was holding a gun in his hand.

"You could have done this the easy way," said Lizzie in a sing-song voice. "But you made the wrong choice."

The Doctor should have been afraid. He should have been scared.

Are you scared?

No.

He had forgotten to ask her why she was not afraid.

The Doctor smiled. "I made the right choice."

Darkness was beginning to fall.

WHOA INTENSE! thoughts? comments? suggestions?