Part Sixteen – The Dream Lord

~Jungle Ruins~

It was a surprise to wake up. Viera had been convinced that she was dead. When she realized she wasn't, she tried to sit up to get her bearings. She wasn't strapped down any longer, but it was far more difficult than it should have been; she felt so very weak. Viera started to raise a shaking hand to her face, then she saw the molted skin and wrinkles on the back of it and remembered.

Not dead, but dying. The maze. The wasting disease… Despite my best efforts, the Doctor gets to watch me grow old without him after all.

"Doctor?" she asked, turning her gaze to the rest of the room just as he was picking himself up off the floor.

"Viera," he said, stunned. He stood there for a long moment, staring at her with such grief that it took her breath away. Then anger and denial flickered across his face and he spun around to finish setting up the medical instruments.

"Doctor-"

"We've been asleep too long. Whatever's in your blood, we're running out of time," he said.

"Amy and Rory-"

"I have to finish this first." Tension tightened the set of his shoulders, then the Doctor shot a glance at the cat. "Go see if you can find them, will you? Watch out for traps, but you're clever and you have a better sense of smell now. You'll be fine." There was an indignant yowl from Saxon that cut off abruptly when the Doctor spun around to tower over him, something wild in his eyes and a frightening expression on his face. "You are going to help out. You are going to help my friends. And you are going to do this to the very best of your abilities because you don't, you will never have a humanoid body again. You will never set foot in the TARDIS again. I will leave you here tofend for yourself, do you understand?" The cat gave a low, threatening growl, but it must have been some kind of agreement because the cat headed for the door and the Doctor turned back to the machines. For a few minutes it was quiet.

"I really look that bad, do I?" Viera asked. "The way you're reacting… How much time do I have?"

"You're going to be fine. I can fix this," the Doctor said, not really answering the question. "I just need to isolate the toxin-" He reached to adjust a few levers and knobs and the machine scanned her again. When he turned back around to take a blood sample, she could see the desperation on his face.

I'm dying. Again. Our wedding vows… I promised to stay with him as long as I could, and now I'm leaving. It isn't fair. I don't want to leave him. I don't want to die.

"Maybe… maybe this is a dream after all," she whispered. "Maybe this isn't really happening. Maybe..." But it felt real. The weakness felt real. The fear felt real. Viera felt tears prick her eyes, and she closed them so her husband wouldn't see.

It was dark in the pit where Amy had fallen, but there was light enough to see Rory picking himself up off the ground just a few feet away. They were fortunate that the trap had led to some sort of slide rather than a straight drop down, but Amy was still bruised from the first fall, and it hadn't been a pleasant ride.

She was trying her very best to focus on that and not on the fact that Rory had looked pretty darn determined to hurt her in the moments before they fell. She wasn't going to let herself be afraid of him. She refused.

"Rory?" she called, cautious in spite of herself.

"Here. And aware… for the moment," he said, not looking at her. Amy frowned at his back but took a moment to look around instead of scolding him for the defeat she could hear in his tone.

They didn't seem to be in the maze anymore; the stone around them seemed more like part of a natural cave system. As her eyes adjusted she could see that they were in what would have been a decent sized cavern if some sort of natural disaster hadn't split it in half. There was a dark, jagged chasm right through the middle of the cave. Amy walked a bit closer, trying to see how deep it was. The darkness swallowed up the floor, wherever it was. She kicked a rock in and listened as it clattered against the far side before it fell, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't hear it hit the bottom. She tried it again with another rock then backed away from the edge.

"All right. We're not getting out that way. I think we're going to have to try to climb back up the slide," Amy said. When there was no response, she sighed and walked closer. "Rory-"

"Stay away from me," he warned her, scrambling several steps away to put space between them. Once he'd turned to face her, she could see that the snarl was becoming a permanent fixture. He didn't really look human anymore.

"Don't overreact, all right? I'm fine. The Doctor will fix this, I know he will."

"He's not a fairy tale, Amy. He can't fix everything!" Rory snapped. There was an inhuman growl to the words, and Amy found herself wanting to take a step back. She forced her feet to stay planted and straightened her spine in the face of his anger. In the face of his fear. "Even if we could get to him, he doesn't know if there's an antidote. He's just guessing. And we're running out of time. I'm running out of time!"

"Look, you just have to hold it together a little while longer, all right? We'll be fine. You're not going to hurt me," Amy said.

"No? Because I got pretty close up there!"

"I can take care of myself."

"You want to protect yourself? Then go! Leave me here. It's the only way you'll be safe," Rory said, waving towards the opening they'd fallen through and stepping further away.

"I'm not leaving you," she said incredulously. "Don't be ridiculous."

"You don't understand," he said, his voice suddenly low and gravely and growing steadily less human, "how hard it is right now just to keep my distanced. I can feel my- my sanity slipping away. I can feel the hunter. Inside me. The hunger. The longing. It wants to hunt. I want to hunt."

His eyes caught the dim light as he spoke, shining like cat's eyes in the dark. Amy swallowed as she saw his gaze drop to her throat.

"I can see you so clearly now. I can see your pulse racing. I know you're afraid of me," he said. Then he took another step back, shaking his head, and suddenly he felt like Rory again. "You have to leave me behind."

"Never," Amy said with every ounce of stubbornness she possessed.

"I love you. I've always loved you. And I'm not going to let happen." He finally stopped cringing away from her and stood tall. She felt a surge of hope just before he continued speaking. "I couldn't protect you in that other world, in that dream where you got shot, but I'm sure as hell not going to let you die now when there's something I can do to stop it! I don't- I don't want to live if it means hurting you."

It wasn't until then that she realized how close he'd gotten to the edge of the chasm.

"That's it!" The Doctor's relieved shout shook Viera from her dazed state. Her world had shrunk to the hazy, busy presence of her husband and the effort required to take each breath, but she did her best to focus on the Doctor when he leaned over her. There was a tiny prick of pain her arm as he inserted a needle. "It's all right. I figured it out. You're going to be fine."

"Well done," she breathed with a tremulous smile. The bird wasn't singing, but she was so terribly tired. She felt like she could sleep a year without waking. In fact, that sounded like a pleasant idea.

"No, no, no, no. None of that. Wake up, Viera. Don't go to sleep on me now," the Doctor said, his hands suddenly on her cheeks, tapping lightly.

"Tired," she murmured, though her eyes blinked open obediently. She couldn't get them to focus properly.

"You just have to hold on a little longer. Give the antidote time to work," said the Doctor.

"My brilliant Doctor," she said softly, fondly.

"No. No. Look at me, Viera. That's it. Stay with me."

She hadn't realized her eyes had slipped closed again. She forced them open and reached for him with one shaking hand. She was too weak to even lift it far, but he caught sight of the motion and gently caught her hand in both of his.

Then her heart faltered, and her breath caught. An ache spread through her arm; her chest felt terribly heavy. She was so tired.

Machines beeped an alarm in the background, but she barely heard it.

"No! Come on, just a little bit longer." The Doctor let go of her to grab a scanner. When it beeped and offered results, he cursed, thumped it hard with the heel of his hand and tried again. It beeped again and he threw it against the wall. That was loud enough to shake Viera awake, at least a little. She watched him run his hands over his head and pull on his hair. And she knew.

"I'm still dying."

"But I found the antidote," the Doctor said, helpless anger and grief welling up in his voice. "I found the antidote."

It isn't fair.

"I love you," Viera said quietly.

"No," he said. "I don't want your goodbyes. There has to be some way- I just have to think harder-"

Her heart stuttered again and her soft gasp was enough to cut off his words and make him take her hand again.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry. I should have-"

"No. Don't do that," Viera said breathlessly. "No regrets. We had… so much joy. Adventure. Love. I don't… regret… a moment."

If he had a reply, she didn't hear it. Her heart went still and her lungs followed, then Viera was gone.

Time passed- minutes or hours- before the sound of stomping feet echoed through the TARDIS.

"Where the hell have you been?" Amy stalked into the medical bay in a vicious rage. Having done his duty in freeing Amy from the trap, Saxon silently padded in after her. There were tear tracks down her cheeks and murder in her eyes, but she pulled up short when she saw the Doctor clutching the limp body of an old woman. "Is that-?"

"Viera." The Doctor's voice was hoarse, almost unrecognizable. The blank, broken look on his face when he looked up, however, like part of his soul had been ripped away- that was familiar. She knew exactly how that felt right then.

"Rory- Rory too," Amy said. She gritted her teeth against the tears but couldn't keep them from falling. "That stupid idiot. That stupid, stupid- He threw himself off a cliff. To save me. That- that-" She choked on a sob as fury and pain and grief washed over her again in a relentless tide. She covered her mouth with her hand and latched on to the fury to keep from drowning. "No. No. This isn't real. He can't be gone. This isn't real."

"A dream," the Doctor said, quiet at first then his voice grew determined. "One of the Dream Lord's tricks. It has to be."

"Oh does it?" That smarmy voice was the last thing either of them wanted to hear, but there was nothing they could do to force the Dream Lord to leave.

"You," the Doctor growled. The blank expression was gone just like that- he was furious.

"Me," the Dream Lord echoed gleefully. He disappeared as Amy threw the nearest bit of heavy technology at his head. Then he reappeared on the other side of the bed. He looked down at the body still cradled in the Doctor's arms, shook his head and clucked his tongue. "My, my. You didn't take very good care of this one, did you? All that so-called genius. Useless. Ah, but humans are so fragile anyways. Such short life spans. You were bound to lose them all eventually."

"Get away from her," the Doctor demanded, his expression twisting into a snarl. The Dream Lord gave him a smug look but relocated himself to the middle of the room.

"Hmm, it looks as though you lost another one too. They're dropping like flies today, aren't they?" The Dream Lord's image flickered as Amy heaved another piece of machinery through him with a shout of rage.

"Amy- You can't hurt him like that," the Doctor said.

"I can try."

"He's trying to distract us." The Doctor finally forced himself to lower Viera's body to the bed. He was ever so gentle, but he didn't look at her- at what was left of her.

"Because this is a dream," Amy said firmly. When the Dream Lord smirked at her, she turned away towards the Doctor. "It has to be. How do we wake up? The other dream- the Torchwood thing- how did we get out of that one?"

"Things got out of hand." The Doctor shot the cat a look, but Saxon was unrepentant. Then the truth sunk in and he turned grim eyes on Amy. "There was an explosion. We died in that dream so we woke up here."

"So if we die here, we wake up in real life- in London?" Amy asked.

"If that is real life," the Doctor said.

"Ah, but if that's a dream then this is reality. And if you kill yourself here, you won't wake up anywhere. You'll just die," the Dream Lord said.

Amy didn't even look at him. "Fine," she said, her gaze fierce and determined as she stared down the Doctor. "If this is real life- I don't want it. I don't want it."

He studied her and his hand brushed against the wrinkled, wasted hand of his wife lying limp on the bed. He nodded.

"All right. We end the dream," he said.

It said a great deal about the ferocity of their expressions that Saxon made no protest as they made their way down the hall. The Dream Lord watched silently as the Doctor led Amy to a room she'd never seen before and opened it. Light spilled out of the room from the two red and gold orbs that were orbiting a sphere-topped pedestal in the center of the room. They were beautiful, but neither of them had the energy to care just then. The Doctor walked up to the base of the pedestal then turned to Amy at his side. He didn't need to ask if she was certain.

A panel opened in the pedestal and he put his hand on the lever inside. Amy's hand settled over his, then together they pulled it down. There was a pulse from the sphere at the top of the pedestal- invisible but felt, pressure in the air. Then there was another. And another. With each pulse, the orbs circled closer to the center of the their orbits. Another pulse and another. The Doctor took Amy's hands. Then the orbs both touched the sphere at the same time; the TARDIS and everything in it collapsed into the resulting implosion, and just like that, another world ended.

Soundtrack:

"Without You" - Elegy by Brand X Music