After a very emotional exchange between Amy and Rory, they had all run up the stairs, the couple leaning against one another as though the very weight of their grief was weighing them down. The Doctor was in so much pain simply watching what the approaching death of the girl was doing to the two companions. Astrid seemed like the most accepting of her fate out of all of them now. She was looking up towards the sky as if waiting for it. It was like she hadn't even remembered just how much pain her future self had seemed to be in! And this was before she even knew she could change. This was before she knew she couldn't simply die. This was Astrid as a naive child. This was Astrid when she thought she had one life and one life only, yet look at her! She was waiting for death at fourteen years old thinking that there would be no possible way for her to come back to life. Which made him think … why? Why was she so accepting? No humany people accepted death, not really. They always fought and fought and fought to stay alive. It was almost as if Astrid had always been different. Like she had always had a piece of her reckless future self deep within her.
He paused, glancing over at the girl before flipping his sonic open and taking a satellite receiver off of its pole. She was a mystery … his fantastical Astrid. But her mysteries were not something he had the time to solve right now. He needed to stay focused and continue trying to save the dying universe. And that started with this.
"What are you doing?" Rory questioned behind him, taking an interest as the Doctor walked over to the three with a broken satellite dish in his hand. Was the Doctor going to save Astrid after all? Was he making some space beam or something? No, the Doctor didn't kill. He wouldn't do that. Though Rory sure would. He felt so angry at the dalek. So angry that Astrid had to die because time told her to. He knew life wasn't fair, but to kill Astrid? That was just cruel. Maybe he could make the weapon somehow … in someway.
"We're looking for an exploding Tardis. Aka the sun." Astrid replied, giving Rory a small smile as she pointed up at the flaming ball of golden light. It was so beautiful, yet so sad all the same because she knew the TARDIS was dying. She could almost feel it dying and if she hadn't felt the consoling wisps of emotion streaming from the light telling her all would be fine she would have broken down into tears right then and there. But the TARDIS told her all would be well, and that brought a smile to her face.
"But that's the sun, not the TARDIS." Rory stated, confused. How could the sun be a TARDIS? The sun was like white and gold and the TARDIS was like a navy blue color? Could the TARDIS change color or something? And if that was the TARDIS then what happened to the sun? The sun didn't just leave. So it had to be the sun.
"Is it? Well, here's the noise that sun is making right now." The Doctor explained, holding up the satellite towards the so called 'sun' allowing the strong sound of the TARDIS wheezing to enter their ears.
"That's my Tardis burning up. That's what's been keeping the Earth warm." The Doctor told them, pain hiding in his every word. First Astrid, and now his TARDIS was dying. He'd have nothing to live for at the end of this adventure. They were his two ladies, the reason his hearts beat deep within his chest. And now, they would both be lost to him. What would happen if the TARDIS stayed dead. He'd have nowhere to go. He'd have to retire. And then Astrid, she wouldn't be complete. She'd end up changing and then dying slowly off in the most painful way possible. They both needed the TARDIS. Without the TARDIS they were nothing. He needed to fix this .. .he needed to fi-
"Doctor, there's something else. There's a voice." Rory said, cutting the Doctor's thoughts off and causing the Doctor to glance at the Roman in confusion. How could there be a voice? That didn't make any sense. The TARDIS was exploding, there should be no voice.
He turned the sonic up, being sure to enhance the Satellite's setting to perhaps hear what the plastic human was talking about. And that's when he froze. The most heartbroken, melodious voice whispering through the wind to all of them.
"I'm sorry, my sweetie. I'm sorry, my sweetie. I'm sorry, my sweetie."
River. He had forgotten about River. She had been on the TARDIS piloting it before it had exploded. Before anyone could say anything, Astrid turned, a crazy loopy smile stuck on her face as she waited for their attention. Amy turned, seeming to be ready to speak when she saw Astrid, her mouth quickly shutting as they all realized that Astrid had her teacher smile on. She was about to go into teacher mode. She was going to answer Amy's questioned before Amy had even asked it. Only older Astrid ever dared to do that! But that meant … ah … that's why. There was only six minutes left until she died. Only six minutes until she changed. And it was time that her new personality burst forth.
"The emergency protocols of the TARDIS are keeping River alive. Basically, the Tardis has sealed off the control room and put her into a time loop to save her. She is right at the heart of the explosion. But don't worry, she'll be saved." Astrid giddily explained. She knew Amy was going to ask, she could feel the question brimming in the woman's mind and she had desperately wanted to answer it. So, without even waiting she had told her everything she knew. Spoilers be damned, because who honestly cared who explained what at this point. She was going to die soon anyways, so might as well live a little and use her foreknowledge a bit.
She looked back up at the sky once more a brilliant idea coming to mind as she glanced down at the vortex manipulator still stuck on her wrist. She could be the one to save River! She loved River to the very core and she had always wanted to play the hero, so why not save the damsel in distress now that she had the chance. Oh boy was this going to be fun! She listened, the words once again flowing into her ears like the words of love song.
"I'm sorry, my sweetie. I'm sorry, my sweetie. I'm sorry, my sweetie."
And just like that, the coordinates seemed to come to her. She typed them into the watch, not even glancing back as she continued looking forward. Only one final thought entering her mind before she slammed her hand down on the button.
Don't worry River. Your sweetie is coming.
River was so lost, she felt like she was broken into a million pieces with only one thought continuously crossing her mind as she tried to pilot the TARDIS far away from the time she had landed in. She needed to make sure Astrid would stay safe and the only way to do that would be to get this TARDIS to not explode. Or at least, that's what she thought would keep the young girl safe. She honestly didn't really know because Astrid had never warned her about today. All she had told her was that River would help save the universe. But so far, she had done nothing. All she had done was fail to pilot the TARDIS away a billion times. And it broke her … because she was supposed to help. And she hadn't.
"I'm sorry, my Sweetie." She whispered, feeling so completely worn down. She was just so tired, the console had exploded and now there was no way to help save the day. Then just like a snap she had appeared once again at the top of the platform trying to figure out how to pilot the TARDIS away, her feet sliding as she went to put in the same sequence of buttons she had used the first time … and every other time in this endless cycle of time. Except this time was different … this time there was a strange white flash in the corner of her eye almost like …
"Hey, Riv. I'm Back." Astrid stated, crossing her arms and legs as she leaned her back against the TARDIS doors. She felt so gleeful as she rescued River … is that what it felt like to save a life? She didn't feel that when she had saved Amy. But then again, that was an adventure where she was still unsure of what she was doing, when she didn't quite know if Amy would get hurt. Right now she felt like she had accomplished something amazing. Like even though she was going to die, she had gotten to do what she had originally wanted to do in this world. To save the people that meant the most to the Doctor. And yeah, she knew that this wasn't a total life or death situation and not the end of River's life. Which upset her greatly that she wouldn't be able to try to save the beautiful woman when it came time for the archaeologist to head to the Library. But she had accomplished something to rescue her, and that was okay.
"And what sort of time do you call this?" River questioned, giving a sly grin to the young girl. It was almost like the kid had changed from the time it took her to get to the TARDIS and pilot it. She could see so much of her sweetie in this Astrid now. Her attitude was as sassy and confident as her future self, she had come to rescue River when she had called just like always, and her eyes … they were glowing a full fledged yellow that was so warm and happy it made her feel happy. This younger Astrid had come to her rescue. Astrid Selene, her Astrid Selene had saved her life. She was saving her life.
"Well it's better a time than anything. The Doctor was gonna get you but he got held up back at the roof. Well, more like I had the vortex and I just left him there stranded, poor guy." She rambled, River laughing at her explanation. It was just like Astrid to do that. To act without letting the Doctor on to what she was doing to save a life or skip a boring part of an adventure. It was so like her future self, and just the fact that this sweet, little fourteen year old girl had left the Doctor back somewhere on earth without an idea of where the girl was going and whether or not she would come back … oh that was priceless. The poor sod was probably so utterly confused and a bit upset that she had run away. Especially because he knew as did she that every single companion would always follow in her wake, running off without telling him where they'd gone. It was just so funny. And what he didn't even realize was that it was the Doctor himself that had taught her to do this. I mean just think, you show up in a universe with the Doctor, you go on adventures with him, and he constantly goes off to do things without telling anyone until last second what he was doing. Clearly, being a impressionable young girl with a growing mind she would learn from what was around her … and that person was him. It was irony at its finest.
Astrid walked over to the woman pulling her hand on top of the sonic device, laughing along with the woman before pressing her delicate fingers once again on top of the device, the pair disappearing in the bright white light, ready to go about their adventure once again.
"Amy! And a plastic Centurion?" River questioned as they appeared together on the museum roof. She knew full well who the Centurion was, but the fact that her father was wearing roman gear, now that did shock her. It was unexpected but a good kind of unexpected. And to be quite honest, it suited him. Was he pretending to be Roman for a reason? Or was it just for fun? If Astrid had told her they were dressing up she could have gotten their Queen and Magician costumes out from storage … though, then again, perhaps not … that might be spoilers. Damn Spoilers.
"It's okay, he's on our side." The Doctor explained, seeing the slight confusion in River's eyes. Or, what he thought was confusion, to be completely honest he couldn't ever tell when River was actually confused. She just always seemed to know what was going on and how to fix it. It was one of the reasons that he trusted her to protect his Astrid. While Astrid had futurey fun foreknowledge and could protect their friends and companions, River understood how Astrid worked and she could easily analyze a situation and make sure Astrid didn't become too rash. And for that he was so very grateful.
"Really? Right then, I have questions, but number one is this. What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?" River questioned with a rise of her brow. It was like the guy was trying to look as stupid as he possibly could! It made him look like a pencil. A stick with a big red hump on the top. It was like he had no fashion whatsoever! Okay, really, she shouldn't be surprised at this point, because he so did not have fashion and he never really would … but still. It was like he wasn't even trying. Did he like find a fire hydrant and snap the top of it and put it on his head? Like seriously.
"It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool." The Doctor replied, giving the woman a huge smirk. To be quite honest he kind of stumbled upon a fez somewhere in his previous regeneration and Astrid really really liked it. So, in a way, he was wearing this for her. Because that's all he aimed to do, please his amazing Astrid. And now that the girl had moments to live, well, she could use all the pleasing as possible. Plus, Fezzes were so fun! They weren't too sleek, they weren't too boxy, they were round and small and funny! And that's just what he liked!
"Yes, they really, really are so very cool!" Astrid exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly, smiling at the Timelord. She always loved a good fez! They were just so interesting, and not boring! Plus, not to mention, they looked really good on this body of the Doctor's. It was silly and unique just like him. And, it made any situation better. I mean, you can't not smile when you see a fez! It was impossible!
Clearly, Amy and River did not agree with the pair, because the moment that River looked at the fiery ginge the companion took action, pulling the fez from the Doctor's head and throwing it into the air, a blast of white energy from River's blaster shooting it to pieces.
"Oh!" The Doctor sighed, a small pout resting on his face as he watched Astrid shrug and shake her head at the pair. His attempts in trying to make Astrid happy had failed … kinda sorta. She was still smiling after all, so maybe she saw that coming. But still, that was so not cool! Not cool at all! Meanie River and Amy. They should have let his hat go. They didn't have to blow it to smithereens.
A strange breeze began to pick up around him, causing his thoughts to break as he watched the Dalek slowly rise up towards them as if it had finally figured out a way towards them. The fear of losing Astrid right here right now, before her time had run out causing him to pull the girl closer to him as he forced everyone towards the ladder they had initially used to get to the roof. He quickly pushed the young girl to climb down first, making sure she was down before sending Amy and Rory and River down after her. He stared the dalek down angrily, the oncoming storm raging deep within his irises as he too began to climb down the ladder, locking the hatch securely behind him. Astrid was safe. She was okay. She still had some time left. And he really needed to stop freaking out.
"Shush. It's moving away, finding another way in. It needs to restore its power before it can attack again. Now, that means we've got exactly four and a half minutes before it's at lethal capacity." The Doctor worked out, looking at Astrid wearily, a small blue glow shining in her eyes. He could see her sadness. No matter how much she didn't mind dying, she did mind leaving them. And he could see that. She wanted to stay with them, to experience something greater and to go on so many adventures. And she would, she really would. But he couldn't tell her that. Because it was a huge spoiler, something that could rip the universe in two and kill it quicker than any TARDIS exploding could. He had to keep it a secret until it happened. He had to suffer as she nearly died. And now she only had four and a half minutes to be alive and somewhat happy.
"How do you know?" Rory questioned, confused as to how the Doctor could possibly know all that. It made sense that he would know some stuff about the alien tin thing because it was an alien, but it was a semi fossilized alien, so maybe it was slower than a regular alien tin thing? Err- dalek. That's what it was called wasn't it? Yeah, shouldn't it be slower than a regular dalek? So how could the Doctor know that it was exactly four and half minutes?
"Because that's when it's due to kill me." Astrid stated, keeping her head held high as she tried to pretend like that sentence didn't hurt to simply say. She was going to die. She had accepted it, she had saved River like a hero. And now her time was winding down. She never was good with time after all. She actually kind of sucked at time. It always went too fast for her. So fast, and she could never keep up. She was always reaching out, trying to grasp time and hold it in place, but she always fell behind. A week always felt like a second and a year always felt like an hour. And now here she was … all out of time. About to be killed by a dalek of all things. She didn't even fear daleks, they could kill you with a whisk or a plunger and they looked like a school project a child would make for a fourth grade science fair. Nothing about them screamed scary. It was going to be such a boring death. But, at least it was fitting that she would save the Doctor from his most sworn enemy, right?
"Kill you? What do you mean, kill you?!" River exclaimed, looking at Astrid in alarm. The dalek was going to kill her?! How did she know that! And why was the Doctor just accepting this! There was no way that the Doctor would be this chill if Astrid's life was threatened! Why was she the only one reacting in a rational way? Nothing was going to hurt her Astrid! And especially not one stinking dalek! That wasn't even worth dying over. That was just stupid! Oh, if Astrid died she was going to bring her back to life and then kill her again for being so stupid and then she was going to punch the Doctor in the face for letting it happen, and finally she was going to rip the dalek apart piece by piece by piece by piece until the armor no longer shelled the alien and then she'd kill the dalek inside. Because no one … not even the Doctor could get away with hurting Astrid Selene. She would survive. She would!
"Um, Never mind. How can that Dalek even exist? It was erased from time and then it came back." Astrid stated, seeing the panic in River's eyes. She couldn't have River fighting her on this, they simply did not have time for that. She needed to keep things on track and the only way to do that would be by pretending to not know what was going on and initiate the sequence of events. Starting with getting the Doctor on the right track to start thinking about plans for big bang two. She knew she wouldn't be able to build that complicated machine by herself, especially since she didn't quite understand how the Doctor had done it, so the solution was simply: she would get shot, the Doctor would be fit enough to make the machine faster and then she'd be placed into the machine. Simple.
"How?" The Doctor questioned, internally giving Astrid a proud smile. She was so smart. So perfect, and her character had finally developed. She was almost done cooking. She was almost complete. And now it was time for him to play dumb and let her be the Doctor just for a few moments. To be honest, since the moment he met this little girl he always wondered what it would be like if she had acted like him even for the smallest of moments. If she had just taken the lead. And now here she was … a confident leader with intelligence far beyond even him.
"The restoration field from the Pandorica combined with the Tardis blowing up. When the TARDIS exploded it caused a total event collapse. A time explosion. And that explosion blasted every atom in every moment of the universe. Except …" Astrid prompted, looking towards Amy.
"Except inside the Pandorica." The ginger exclaimed, looking happily towards the girl. Oh, she had got it! She understood. It all made sense when Astrid explained it. Finally, no confusing Doctor explaining sciency concepts only Astrid understands. Astrid was so human, so simple and explained things as such. It was brilliant! So, the light from the Pandorica flashed on the Dalek and the Dalek came to life because that's what the light is meant to do, and because the TARDIS hadn't exploded completely it didn't matter if the Dalek hadn't ever existed in the first place because technically they still somewhat did exist until the TARDIS completely exploded. "Yup, good on you Pond!" Astrid complimented, giving Amy a hug. She was just so smart, all the companions always were and they never got any credit. It was so unfair. I mean, yeah, the Doctor was a genius and he knew so much that the universe had to offer, but the companions? They were all so brilliant in their own way. They all had such beautiful minds and vast hearts that made them smarter than any human could ever be. And she would miss them. She would miss them all. Especially Amelia and Rory.
"The perfect prison. And inside it, perfectly preserved, a few billion atoms of the universe as it was. In theory, you could extrapolate the whole universe from a single one of them, like, like cloning a body from a single cell. And we've got the bumper family pack." The Doctor said, glancing at Astrid, knowing she was a bit preoccupied in hugging Amy to explain anything at the moment. She was just so precious. His Astrid. She always saw the best in people and she always made sure that they knew just how smart they truly were. He loved that about her.
"No, no. Too fast. I'm not getting it." Rory explained, a bit confused. Okay, so he kind of understood how the Dalek had survived. That bit Astrid had explained nicely. But what was the Doctor on about? A bumper family pack? What was a bumper family pack? Did he know what was going to save the universe, because if he did he could just go ahead and do it and explain what he did after like he always does. It would sure save a lot of time.
"The box contains a memory of the universe, and the light transmits the memory, and that's how we're going to do it." The Doctor explained, finally figuring out exactly what needed to be done to save the universe and jumpstart it back into action. It only made sense. A dalek gets hit by light, it comes to life. If he can turn the Pandorica into a great big box car he could possibly fly the box into the TARDIS and boom! The universe would fix itself. Problem solved!
"Let's go reboot the universe. Come on!" Astrid exclaimed, releasing Amy from the hug quite finally and grabbing her hand to drag her towards the Pandorica, not daring to look at her in the eye. This was the last time she would ever hold Amelia Pond's hand. This was the last time she would ever hug her … or had hugged her.
"Doctor, Astrid you're being completely ridiculous. The Pandorica partially restored one Dalek. If it can't even reboot a single life form properly, how's it reboot the whole of reality?" River questioned, looking at the two in surprise. They can't really be serious? They looked stupid too. Astrid was trying to pull Amy to their destination, and the Doctor was standing there flapping his arms about like some sort of idiot. Was she being the only rational one here?
"What if we give it a moment of infinite power? What if we can transmit the light from the Pandorica to every particle of space and time simultaneously?" The Doctor questioned, waving his hands for extra emphasis.
"Well, that would be lovely, but we can't, because it's completely impossible." River stated, rolling her eyes at the pair. It wouldn't work, she had done the calculations in her head, nothing was strong enough yet also weak enough to heal the cracks in time the TARDIS had created and reboot the universe back to what it had been. Nothing had that level of stability, and if it was even an ounce too strong or too weak it could kill the universe quicker or even worse, reboot the universe but change some of history in a way that should never be changed. It was not worth it if there was barely a one percent chance of success.
"Nothing is impossible, merely improbable. One spark is all we need and trust me it will work." Astrid replied meekly, giving River a small smile as the woman looked at her in shock. They were words that had stuck with her often. Words that had gotten her through so much and had shown her how to grow. They were her words now. Her catchphrase. And although she didn't realize it now, these were the words that would stick with her forever.
"What will work?" River questioned, still in shock at what the young girl had said. Just for a single minute River had looked at Astrid and she had seen her best friend. Her sister, someone that she loved with all her heart. She had seen older Astrid deep within the girl's eyes. And it shocked her. Those words. They were what her Astrid lived by. They were the words that soothed River and helped her to understand. They were the words Astrid spoke when she was making a promise. A promise that said everything would be okay, despite the danger they faced, because as long as they believed, anything was possible, even survival of the most impossible things.
"Big Bang Two! Now listen." Astrid started to say, the dalek rolling out into the hallway they stood in as her heart began to beat faster. She knew it was coming. And she knew it was time. She watched, everything slowing down to a millionth of a millionth of a minute as the dalek's whisk moved towards the Doctor's left heart. It wasn't supposed to go for his heart. And that's when she felt the emotion. A feeling of dread as a series of pictures flashed in her mind. Pictures that flew past her eyes in a series of milliseconds but that showed her what she needed to do. If the Dalek shot the Doctor, the Doctor would die and the universe … it would cease to exist. This wasn't the show she had come to love. This was a different universe … and these people and these events, they were different too. Nothing was safe. And so, she did what she knew she had to do. She jumped in front of the Doctor holding her arms out for death like a hug. She felt it as it grabbed her heart, choking it and shocking it as everyone screamed around her like a numb buzz in her ear. She could feel the immense pain. It pulled her, twisting her insides like the pain in her bones she had felt before but multiplied. Her brain screamed at her, and her heart felt like it was doubling in size as it exploded within her and all she felt was electrifying shocks through her skin. She was so warm, like a billion suns touching her and enveloping her in a giant cage of fire. Yet, she didn't cry out in pain, she didn't feel the need to. She didn't feel fear for her arriving death. She felt fear that she wasn't going to see her heros again. But in the end, she felt okay. She felt overwhelming emotion. And out of all of the emotions, love stood out the most. Her power, the thing that kept her fighting. She could feel it wrapping around her like a protective bubble, glowing bright violet and whispering sweet, kind, brilliant words in her ears as the rest of her body burned from the inside out. She was dying. She was going to die. But love, it brought her peace. And as she slowly began to float into a bubblegum cloud of happy unconsciousness, she finally realized why she had done what she had. Because she, Astrid Selene unconditionally loved the Doctor with everything he was. And she accepted that. No longer did she deny the part of her that craved to love him. Because he deserved so much love. Because he was love.