Chapter Twenty-Four: The New Path
The TARDIS traveled faster than the speed of light through the time vortex, lurching violently. Its inhabitants were feeling the effects of the chaotic journey through the misty maelstrom. Emma, Snow, Aurora, and Mulan hurried back into the console room, seeing Jack try his best to maintain balance while River worked feverishly at the controls. The cloister bell continued to sound all over them, making the scene appear more insane than Snow, Emma, Aurora, and Mulan already imagined it to be.
"What is going on?" Snow asked.
"And what the hell is that sound?" Emma inquired.
"Long story short – Jack's shortcut to Storybrooke is a bad idea!" River shouted.
Emma saw the compass magnetized to the TARDIS control console; the needle on it spun insanely. "Well, let's just remove the compass and end this wild ride," she suggested, running to the console and attempting to remove the compass from it. Unfortunately, the action did more harm than good as a jolt of electricity shot at her fingertips. The force of the jolt was more powerful than it appeared, sending Emma falling backwards over the rail and off the platform.
"Emma!" Snow cried, fighting the quakes to rush to her daughter's aid.
Seeing Emma lying beneath the platform in an unconscious state, Jack became furious with himself for letting the chaos that had befallen the TARDIS happen. He also attempted to reach Emma, but before he could take a step, another brutal tremor shook the TARDIS and sent Jack off his feet. He slammed his head against the edge of the control console, fracturing his skull and dying in the process. Before dying, Harkness saw a bright light engulf him and everything else in the room. At first, he believed that he finally reached the limit of his immortality and officially died there and then; of course, he was only kidding himself with that belief as he knew he would be back to the land of the living in a matter of minutes.
But what was that light? And where did it come from?
Storybrooke
"How's David dealing with this?" The Doctor asked, standing beside the TARDIS control console with Ruby.
"He's…doubtful that we'll ever find another way to get Emma and Mary Margaret back, but I'm keeping him optimistic."
"What did you tell him?"
"The truth – that you'll find another way and save everyone…like you always do." She wrapped her arms around him, staring passionately into his eyes and smiling. "I'm so glad to have you back."
"It's good to be back. After losing Amy, Rory, and River, I didn't think I'd ever be the same again. But then you…you helped me to remember what I still have…here in Storybrooke. I don't have to run and hide anymore. I can be 'John Smith' and not have any Daleks, Cybermen, or Weeping Angels chasing after me and putting the people I care about in danger. This can be my life now – here in this little town with you."
Ruby was beyond delighted to hear him tell her that. She shared a long, passionate kiss with him. When she finally pulled herself away, she again looked into his eyes and whispered, "I've been waiting so long for you to come back. Now you're finally here and…t-there's so much I want us to do…so much we can catch up on…but you know what I really want to do right now?"
"What's that?"
He then saw her remove her red robe and his eyes grew wide, thinking she must've wanted to catch up on some very lonely nights. But his "dirty" mind was soon washed when she enthusiastically told him, "Run!"
The Doctor looked around in fear. "From what?"
"No, silly. I mean I'm going to run. You helped me regain control. And seeing there are only a few hours of Wolfstime left, I'm going to take advantage of it." She ran to the TARDIS door and, before departing, she looked back once more at him and said, "I'll return, my love."
"I'll be here," answered the love-struck Doctor, who watched her energetically exit from the TARDIS, having left the door open on her departure. It was only seconds before he heard a wolf call right outside, knowing exactly who it was.
Momentarily alone in the TARDIS, the Doctor let out a happy sigh. For the first in what felt to him like a long time, he was at peace. However, he still felt great remorse for the people he had lost – the family that he had there in the TARDIS. Losing Amy and Rory was the hardest thing he had ever been through, and losing River was even worst. He wasn't sure whether she was alive or dead – the latter being something that had boggled his mind, considering that she had yet to meet her fate in "The Library." But it was as he had always said, Time can be rewritten, and he strongly felt like it had been rewritten the moment she vanished from the TARDIS. What did that mean for the past? Who was the one that restored the people "saved" in the Library? It was supposed to have been him, but – with River gone – does that mean he made the sacrifice after all?
It was a matter that he felt needed to be addressed at a later time. From that moment on, all he wanted was to continue helping the people of Storybrooke and get back to his relationship with Ruby. But first he had to get something to eat, which was what his growling stomach seemed to be reminding him to do that very moment. He stepped down from the console platform and headed for the open door. However, just as he neared the door…
SLAM!
To the Doctor's immediate shock, the door went shut entirely on its own. He then heard the cloister bell sound just before he heard the sound of a lever being cranked. Spinning around to face the console again, he saw the controls being operated on their own. "No…No…NO!" He rushed back to the console platform and tried to keep the controls from self-operating any further, fighting with whatever invisible force that was controlling them. Unfortunately, resistance was futile in this situation, and the Doctor watched helplessly as the TARDIS began to make its departure.
"NO! Where are you going?" He yelled to the TARDIS itself. "Where are you taking us? I don't want to leave! I want to stay! Do you hear me? I want to stay! Please! Don't take me away from here!"
But his cries were useless. The TARDIS had already dematerialized from its usual spot in front of Granny's Diner.
When Ruby returned to the diner location just as the sun began to rise, she was pleased to have seen the TARDIS still in the same place it was before she left for her run. She approached it in her wolf form but, once she got close to the door, she willingly transformed back into her normal human form. Opening the TARDIS door, she was suddenly sent reeling back from the massive cloud of smoke that seeped out from the police box and caused her to cough briefly.
Something was wrong.
"John?" She cried while stepping into the smoke, covering her nose and mouth as she entered. "John, are you alright?" She was blinded from the mist. She could still make out the familiar structure of the console room in a few places, but the console platform was otherwise shrouded by the smoke. She could see flames sprouting up from the console, which made her even more concerned. "John!"
It was then she felt a hand clamp down on her right arm, prompting her to shriek with fear. Shortly thereafter, she heard a familiar voice tell her, "It's okay! It's okay! It's me!"
She turned to the speaker and discovered him to be Captain Jack Harkness. "Jack? You came back!"
"I'm going to vent out the smoke," said another voice that sounded just as familiar, only Ruby had not heard it in a very long time.
A loud humming noise was soon heard all around the room and all of the smoke quickly cleared, revealing a room that was ravaged by fire. The majestic console room had become something akin to hell from the scorched sections that Ruby wasn't able to make out when the smoke shrouded everything. She saw River Song standing beside the demolished control console, putting out the fire Ruby noticed earlier with an alien-looking extinguisher.
"River?"
Hearing Ruby utter her name, River looked her way and smiled through her exhaustion. "Red!" She glanced over to Jack and said, "It worked! We made it back to Storybrooke!"
"Yeah, but without Emma and Snow." Harkness hastily contradicted. "And where the hell are Mulan and Aurora also? They've all just…vanished."
"Where is John?" Ruby asked the both of them.
It took seconds for Jack and River to realize Ruby was referring to the Doctor.
"Y-You mean…he's not here?" Jack asked her.
"Where did you last see him?" River inquired.
"Just right here. Where we're standing right now. I left him and the TARDIS here hours ago."
River's face grew white. "Oh, no."
Seeing her look of terror, Jack asked, "What's wrong?"
"Our plan worked all too well, Jack." River answered. "The moment we re-entered into this dimension of space and time in this TARDIS, we canceled out the other TARDIS – the Doctor's TARDIS."
Harkness did his best to understand. "Well…what does that mean?"
River's lips quivered as she clarified: "It means the Doctor's no longer in Storybrooke."
This news brought Ruby to tears. Her knees buckled and she dropped to the floor. Jack immediately comforted her, crouching down at her side to give her a shoulder to cry on. He looked despondently towards River, who was on the verge of tears herself.
Victorian England
A single snowflake had fallen on the cheek of Emma Swan; its cold texture began to get her out of her unconsciousness, but with a little help from Snow, who repeatedly said to her, "Emma, wake up." Her eyes slowly opened and she discovered how they were no longer inside the TARDIS but outside in a snowy night atmosphere.
"Where are we?" Emma asked her mother.
"We'll have to figure that out later," Snow said, "but right now I need you to stand up, if you can."
"Why? What's going…?"
After carefully sitting up, Emma's eyes grew large on the bizarre form she suddenly spotted right behind Snow. Standing over them both with a centuries-old gun aimed right at them was a being with a large, bulbous head, a short stocky body that was donned in clothing reminiscent of an English butler, light brown skin, and three digits on both hands. Due to the size of his hand and digits of his fingers, the gun he held was fashioned to suit his grip.
In a gruff tone, he warned them, "Don't move…Moonites!"