A/N

Really appreciate all your kind words and everything. Helps in keeping things going, knowing that people are wanting to read it. =)

Feedback is always appreciated, now on with the show...

As soon as River finished entering the initial information the TARDIS gave her through Phea, four sub stasis fields opened up within the larger one the three ships were generating. In each were ghosts of the people voided by the paradox... phantoms, whispers, their last millisecond frozen before they vanished.

Amy's was up against the eldest TARDIS, leaning against it as she was the medical table and stuck wiping her eyes; Stripes' appeared flat on his back in front of his TARDIS, mid convulsion; And Rory's, well... his appearance could be considered the most unusual, since he was about a foot off the ground mid leap. While there was a fourth one that was next to Stripes, the image inside it was very, very warped and out of focus.

Inside the eldest TARDIS, an argument was taking place. Were it not for the subject matter, the idea of a full grown woman arguing with a five year old might have been comical. As it was though, two very determined females were at complete odds with each other.

"I will not!" River shouted, hands on her hips and adamant. "For one thing, your parents would kill me. For another, you're far too young to even be considering this! Three years? Maybe. But now? Absolutely not!"

Phea was looking up at River from the floor at this point, and looked like a true mixture of her parents. Her arms were folded over her chest with her head tilted like her mother, but her expression was nearly identical to her father's when confronted by something very annoying. "S'the only way to get them back before the ripples hit the Doctor's present. If that happens, then the Doctor's past will be in a vacuum."

River's face twisted up in confusion. "What are you going on about?"

Phea looked up to the ceiling when the TARDIS gave a warning hum. "Can't be 'elped." Looking back to River, she tried to explain what she knew without revealing too much. "This place doesn't exist. If we don't get him back here with the TARDIS protecting him, Unca' dies... Twice!"

Looking at her like she just sprouted a second head, River was at a loss. "What makes you say that? How can you even know what goes on in a paradox for that matter? You should be concerned with equations and languages, not temporal physics!"

The TARDIS gave another warning hum, but Phea ignored it. Stamping her foot, she yelled at her. "Because the TARDIS r'members this! She knows what's going to 'appen!" At that, the console sparked angrily. Phea looked at the console like it was the embodiment of the ship itself, and sounded just like her mother. "You shut it! You know I can't do this withou' her! When that box thing catches up, ever'thin' will be ruined!" Her hands slapped themselves over her mouth when she realized she said too much, eyes wide with shock and embarrassment.

River's head reared back, completely and thoroughly confused. "What box?"

"F'get I said that," Phea mumbled through her fingers. Taking a second to breathe, she lowered her hands and tried very hard to remain calm. "A fixed point thingy is going ta change and toss everythin' on it's 'ead if your Doctor's not there ta fix it."

River narrowed her eyes at the little girl, astonished at both what she was hearing, and at herself for even considering what Phea and the TARDIS were planning. "Let's say I do go through with this. What's to say that it will work? It could kill you stone dead!"

Phea's hands went to her forehead, completely frustrated. "This is what da' feels like. Don't like it. He' gettin' 'nana sundae when this 's over... w' sprinkles," she muttered.

Kneeling in front of Phea, River tried to not feel offended. "Sweetie, you really don't have to do this. If we need to get their attention, I can do it."

"You can't. Not yet. You will, b'not 'til you know," she said quietly. "Not like I want to, 'cept in a way I already done it. Well, wibbly-wobbly I mean. Don' mean m'not scared, but if it will get mum and dad back..." her face screwed up.

Tears streaking her cheeks again, Phea quietly pleaded with her. "I have to get them back," she whispered. "You d-don't unnerstan'. There's this big rip in me where they's'posed ta be." She started sniffling as her anger gave way to panic. "I have to get them back," she whimpered. Covering her face with her hands, she lost what little control she had left, which wasn't much to begin with. "P-please help me. I c-c-can't do this by... by m-m'self." Not able to hold it back any longer, she quietly sobbed.

Gathering her up in her arms, River sighed. One thing she couldn't stand above everything else, was a crying child. "All right," she said quietly. "I hate it, but I'll do it." She kissed the top of her head. Her family were going to kill her, she just knew it.

"You took your sweet time," Grey scolded the pair as they sauntered in, acting like the universe was on pause. "And don't think I don't know what you've been doing." He glared at his former self. "This one's mine. Go get your own, big ears."

Grinning like the cat that ate the canary, Leather replied. "Fully intend to."

"It's just memory lane, sweetie." Rose put her arms around her proper husband. "Nothing more, and you know it. Honestly. Jealous of yourself?"

Grey harrumphed, then spun his head in the direction of a skittering he heard. "This way!"

Inside the matrices, another argument was taking place. The younger was protesting the situation with her older self, while their daughter was clinging to them.

"It has to be done," the elder stated flatly.

The younger almost yelled. "She's just a child! Not even fully Gallifreyan!"

"Yes she is."

The younger stared down at her future daughter in shock. "What? That's biologically impossible. Her mother is human and her father is half human."

"Don't ask me to explain it, because I don't know," the daughter said. "It may have to do with her mother seeing into the heart of you, but she's nearly one hundred percent Gallifreyan. She was even born with two hearts."

The younger looked at the elder. "She looks into me? Wont that kill her?"

The elder shook her head. "I don't know how it happened either, but Rose has something deep inside her that allowed her to live. It woke when she merged with my heart, saved our Beloved, saved their friend, and saved her home planet. It was remarkable. What they're doing now, I watched as you, and was just as dumbfounded that it worked."

By this time, River had panel four open and was making some adjustments to the inner circuitry. She was doing this only because she knew exactly what Phea meant by a rip inside her. She knew that feeling all too well, and that alone was what forced her fingers through their motions.

Phea had taken herself down to a squat, and was staring at the base of the console. She was horribly frightened, but the thought of never seeing her parents again gave her the courage to go through with this bit of unlikelyness. There was a click, and the subpanel she was staring at lowered.

River tried to reason with her one last time. "I do this, and there's no going back."

Phea breathed deep. "Jus' do it."

"Mummy. It's starting. Can you feel it?"

The elder looked down. "Yes, dearest. I know."

The younger's eyes widened. "What's happening to the stars?"

"Gotcha!" Grey shouted. Leather had provided a distraction to the ant thing, both to divert its attention from Grey as well as Rose.

Rose let out a whoop when Grey disintegrated the thing, along with the inner and outer bulkheads. Daylight streamed in from the hole. "That's got it!" Leather shouted.

"That's how ya do it!" Grey crowed.

The three of them came together in an awkward combination of hugs and back slapping. Then both Doctors stiffened and turned to look in the direction of their two TARDISes.

River sent a silent prayer to the cosmos in general, and flipped the final contact with her eyes closed. She heard the inner panel opening below, then she both felt and heard Phea's scream.

Brilliant, gorgeous, and terrible swirling colors of light and dark cascaded out from the center of the console. Phea could do nothing but stare at the fantastically horrible display of power before her. She saw what little past she had as well as a fantastically long future before her. Her own timeline revealed to her by the TARDIS link to the vortex. She could see her uncle standing before something similar when he wasn't that much older than she was now, and saw him run away from what the Untempered Schism revealed to him.

Phea's short hair was flung backwards by a breeze that wasn't felt anywhere else. On top of her own timeline, she could see her uncle's and both of her parents. She screamed when she saw her uncle's end, and couldn't stop screaming even though she was overjoyed that her parents went nearly as long as hers. She saw the paradox she was inside and the potential of it ending everything, but she realized it was going to be okay when she saw it unraveling while she watched. "Mummy... Daddy... please come back..."

"Do you hear..." Grey started to ask.

Leather answered just as breathlessly, "Yes."

"Wassamatta?" Rose asked. Then she heard a little girl calling to her. The voice caused her to clutch at her chest. She stepped to the hole in the bulkheads and ducked under them like she was on autopilot.

Leather and Grey watched and asked "Rose?" at the same time.

"Calling... me. Something's... wrong," Rose said softly as she exited the ship through the square hole. She hopped down a couple of feet to the built up dirt that was around the ship, then slid down on her bum. The two Doctor's followed after her.

"It can't be!" Grey thought to Leather. "They're all dead!"

Leather was just as confused. "That's a Time Lord consciousness though. Just a baby."

Rose stumbled on the hill when she heard her son protesting in her mind. "Don't listen to her! She wants to kill me!" Both men were instantly beside her, holding either arm to steady her. She gasped, and both arms wrenched out of theirs to the center of her chest. Feeling wetness, she looked at her right hand and saw blood.

"Rose!" Grey shouted when she went to her knees. When they saw the blood on her hands, they laid her on her back and popped the buttons off of her blouse. Underneath her left breast was a laser wound that was bleeding profusely.

Leather deadlifted her and shouted to Grey. "Get the TARDIS open!" Grey thought about arguing, but seeing his wife in such a state buried that. He nearly flew up the hill. Leather wasn't ten paces behind him. But, they stopped when they saw one TARDIS too many, and all of them connected together by artron beams.

Too panicked to care about what they saw, they shook out of their stunned expressions when Rose coughed up some blood and started running again. Leather came up short when he saw Grey bounce off the energy field. Leather stepped up to Grey, who was now beating at the field with his fists. "Take her."

Grey stopped what he was doing and took Rose into his arms. Leather then stepped forward and went to touch the field. He was surprised when his hand went through it easily. He flipped his hand over to stare at it through the field, then pulled it back out. He was about to say something when Grey flipped out.

Turning to look at them, his eyes bulged when he found that he could see through Rose. "No no no no no no no no no. Rose! Stay with me! Please!" Grey begged.

Rose's transparent face looked up at her husband. "Was a good run, yeah?"

"The best," Grey said through tears.

She ran her fingers over his cheek and smiled. "Doctor... I love..." and she vanished.

"NO!" Grey shrieked.