Sam couldn't deny the emotional reunion of Rory and Amy had left her a bit choked up. Looking around proved that not one human, Jaffa, or Time Lord was unaffected by the couple's happiness.
Of course, Kel'tar sneered in distaste, and Restac still wore her customary scowl. Naturally, it was her who shattered the moment of bliss.
"You consider Maroxe to be evil, with his murders and genocides." The Silurian chuckled, and Sam knew something nasty was about to come. "That is nothing," Restac said. "The one you call friend and healer is going to destroy the universe."
Everyone started to look at Rory, until The Doctor groaned. "You still believe that?" he asked.
"Wait," Jack said, lifting his P90 and taking a step back. "You're going to destroy the universe?"
"That's why you were in the Pandorica," Daniel realized. "The Goa'uld called you their worst enemy, not because you fought them, but because you were going to completely obliterate everything."
"Guess the Goa'uld considered that just a tad too evil for their tastes," Jack remarked.
"Um, Doctor?" Rory started to ask, looking confused. "What do they mean? I've heard talk about you destroying the universe and all, but that just doesn't make sense. You wouldn't do that."
"No, you wouldn't," General Price agreed. "Unless you went insane, like this Maroxe fellow."
"Not likely," Maroxe said. "Besides, I'm a very unique sort of crazy. Well, in this part of the universe, anyway."
"Then why does everyone think the Doctor'll destroy the universe?" Rory wondered.
"Because it's caused by an exploding TARDIS. My TARDIS," The Doctor explained. "And since all my enemies know I'm the last of the Time Lords-"
"Excuse me?" Maroxe interrupted indignantly. "I'm standing right here, you know."
The Doctor ignored Maroxe's outburst and continued. "-they decided that I'm the only living being who can fly the TARDIS, and so I'm the one who's going to destroy the universe."
"But you're not the only one," Amy said. "River can fly the TARDIS, too."
"Yes, but the Alliance didn't know that," The Doctor said.
"Frankly, I don't think they cared," Maroxe said. He shrugged and added, "Besides, it doesn't matter what they thought. Most of them have blinked out of existence anyway."
"Blinked out of existence?" Daniel repeated, looking alarmed. "What exactly does that mean?"
For a response, Maroxe turned to General Price. "General, tell me about the Daleks," he said.
Price blinked. "The Daleks?" he asked. "The aliens you were talking about before?"
"Yes. Tell me about them."
General Price looked confused. "I-I can't," he said. "I've never heard of them."
"That's because the Daleks never existed," The Doctor said.
Sam blinked. "Never existed?" she echoed. "If that's the case, how can you and Maroxe remember the Daleks?"
"Hey, I remember the Daleks," Captain Harkness said.
"So do I," Rory added.
"Me too," put in Amy.
"But how?" Sam persisted. "Why would you remember something that never existed, and not us?"
"We're time travelers," Amy explained. "When people disappear into the cracks, we still remember them."
"Cracks in what?" Jack asked.
Amy turned to look at the colonel and he shrugged. "Just wonderin'."
"Cracks in time," Maroxe explained. "Number one fabric of reality."
"And how exactly does time crack?"
"It doesn't," The Doctor said. "Not naturally. There's an explosion, one big enough to punch a hole in the universe. Every universe."
"Holy Hannah," Sam whispered, shocked by the thought of a detonation so huge it could wipe out every single reality.
"And this TARDIS of yours has exploded, so therefore the universe is going to collapse," Jack said.
"Not just collapse," The Doctor said. "It will never have happened. The TARDIS exists everywhere at every point in history. An explosion of something like that, happening at every moment… it would undo the entire universe."
"Now, if there were another TARDIS to counteract the effect, only a handful of solar systems would blink out," Maroxe said. "Two to three TARDIS', maybe just a planet. But the Doctor has the only remaining TARDIS in existence. With nothing to reduce the destruction of one of those exploding, well… bye-bye, universe."
"That's madness," General Price stated.
"No, it's Sparta," Maroxe replied. He frowned. "My family grew TARDIS' for a living, General. I know what I'm talking about."
"It's true, if another TARDIS existed, it would prevent this," The Doctor confirmed. "But there isn't another TARDIS."
"What is a TARDIS?" Sam asked.
"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," The Doctor reeled off the full name. "It's a ship, a time ship, that can go anywhere and anywhen in the universe. It runs on time, which is what makes it so completely different from all other time machines."
"Plus they're sentient," Maroxe added.
"And you're saying that the last one has just exploded," Sam said, getting the familiar feeling that came along whenever SG-1 got thrown into a situation in which they had to save frikkin' everyone in the next forty-five minutes.
"Exploding," The Doctor corrected her. "If it had finished we wouldn't be standing here right now."
"As it is, those Torchwood fellows are gone now," Maroxe said.
Everyone looked around.
"Torchwood?" one of the UNIT men repeated. "What's that?"
"There is no Torchwood," The Doctor said. "From now on it never existed."
Sam exchanged looks with her teammates. She couldn't recall anything about this Torchwood. Although, she could feel just a hint of a memory scratching at the back of her mind, irritatingly beyond Sam's reach.
"Okay, Doc, you're seriously starting to freak me out," Harkness said in low tones. "What's going on?"
"The explosion's speeding up," Maroxe said. "I knew that would happen once the Pandorica got unsealed. Something to do with the way it's made."
"Doctor, I think now would be a good time to start hurrying," Rory said.
"I quite agree with the plastic one," Maroxe said with a nod.
Suddenly the Time Lord froze, staring at The Doctor with a don't-move-there's-a-bee-on-your-back expression.
"Doctor," he said slowly, "Behind you."
The Doctor turned to look, and leaped away, shouting at everyone, "Get back!"
Everyone stumbled away, staring in alarm at what had caused the Doctor such panic. Stretching across the grassy ground, glowing white, was a crack.