DISCLAIMER: "Doctor Who" belongs to the BBC and their writers. I am getting no financial reward from this; I am merely borrowing the premise and characters for my own enjoyment and yours too hopefully.

Author's Note: Okay, so a little disappointed with "Night Terrors" if I'm being honest. Too much set up, not enough action… I like when my Who stories get going right away, like "Let's Kill Hitler" but oh well. It was still super good and next week "The Girl Who Waited" looks super interesting, and poor Amy! Anyways here's my continuation. Hope you all like it and the changes that I made…

Chapter Twenty-Five: His Darkest Hour

"Hello," the ganger said with a smile. "I'm the Doctor and I can fix this."

But as soon as the words were out of his mouth, the ganger Doctor suddenly seemed to go all crazy. "What's happening?" he asked as he began to morph. "I wonder if we'll get back. Yes, one day… Aaagh!" he cried out in agony. "I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow."

"What's happening?" Amy asked, terrified.

"The Flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations."

"Would you like a jelly-baby?" the ganger asked as his face morphed into something that was not the Doctor. "Excellent. Allons-y…" he continued, his face changing a couple more times but only slightly. "No!" he told himself sternly. "Let them go. We've moved on."

"Hold on," the Doctor pleaded. "You can fix this."

"I'm the Doctor," the ganger told himself. "I'm the Doctor."

"Yes you are," the Doctor insisted. "Now focus."

While the Doctor urged himself to coalesce, Amy watched as the others barricaded themselves in. Then suddenly there was a laugh from behind her and Amy turned around to see two Doctors circling each other.

"Hello!" one greeted.

"Hi," the other greeted more warily. "Cybermats."

"Sorry?"

"Cybermats," he repeated, and Amy guessed that that was her Doctor.

"Do we have time for this?"

"We make time for this," the Doctor insisted. "I want proof that you're me."

"Course I'm me," the ganger insisted.

"But Cybermats?"

"Created by the Cybermen," the ganger answered. "They kill by feeding off the brainwaves of humans and other similar creatures."

"Okay but what about the Daleks?"

The ganger Doctor gave a shudder. "Hate the Daleks, and we don't hate anyone really. Met them ages ago, back when I was young. Susan was with us. Ian and Barbara too."

"And the last time?" the Doctor asked.

"World War Two," the ganger answered. "Churchill. They got away, again."

"Fascinating,"

"Really fascinating," his ganger agreed.

"It's like two bodies," the real Doctor began

"But one mind," the ganger added as they circled each other.

"Or two minds," the Doctor continued.

"Thinking and—"

"—and talking as one."

"Exactly," the ganger finished proudly as he solidified.

"Hey!" Amy exclaimed stepping in between the two of them.

Both of them looked at Amy with the same perplexed expression.

"Which one of you is my husband?"

"I am," they both said at the same time.

Amy shook her head. "No, see one of you is and one of you is not."

"But we're the same,"

"Same hearts,"

"Same soul,"

"Same love for you,"

"No," Amy insisted. "One's flesh and the other is… FLESH."

"Does that make a difference?" asked one Doctor.

"Right," said the other, Amy couldn't tell the difference. "Does it?"

"Course it does," Amy insisted.

Both Doctors just looked at her surprised. "You're discriminating."

"Am not," she insisted. "I'm just stating what's true and what's…not."

"Well you could have fooled me," said one Doctor gloomily.

"Please understand," she pleaded looking from one the other. "I've been on hundreds of adventures with one of you. With one of you I've had the best time of my life and…married," Amy paused and shook her head. "With the other I haven't. So please, just stop being stupid and tell me which one of you is the ganger and which one of you is my Doctor. With all the moving around you did and all the fast talking, I lost track."

"What?" asked one of the Doctor's somewhat surprised, "Can't tell us apart?"

"No," Amy admitted.

"Then what does it matter?" the other Doctor asked.

"It matters to me," Amy snapped, glaring at both of them.

The Doctors looked to one another, as if silently communicating. Not for the first time did Amy wish that she was inside her husband's head and not for the first time did she wish that things were simple. But things were never simple where the Doctor was concerned and she had known that from the start, and loved the Doctor for all his craziness.

Finally, one of them sighed. "It's me," he stated. "I'm the original."

Amy's face broke out into a grin and she snogged her husband. "Don't do that to me ever again, alright?"

"Alright," the Doctor promised as he held his wife.

"What?" asked the other Doctor.

'What, what?" asked Amy as she pulled away from her Doctor.

"No kiss for me?"

Amy looked uncomfortable. "Well, uh…no."

"And why not? Who's to say that he's not lying?"

Amy shot her Doctor a look. "Are you?"

"Course not," he promised.

"But I always lie," the other Doctor pointed out. "Rule one. You know that."

Amy took a step back. The Other Doctor, or the Real Doctor as he might have been was right. He did lie. So many times had she known that he lied to her whether on purpose or by accident. So many times had he not given her the full picture until it was nearly too late. So many times had her Doctor asked for her utmost trust, and there was so many times that Amy had had to give it.

"Amy," the first Doctor began quietly. "It's up to you."

"Me?" she asked.

"You're going to have to choose."

"Choose how?"

"Choose whom," the other Doctor corrected. "You've got to decide which one is me and which one is not."

"But I can't," Amy whispered as she stepped back from the two of them.

"You're going to have to try," the first Doctor pleaded.

Amy took a deep breath and started at the two Doctors. They seemed to be the same. They looked the same, they were dressed the same, they acted the same, they talked the same and most importantly of all they both looked at her with the same eyes— those very old eyes which had seen so much and yet looked at her as though she was the most important thing in the world. Amy tried to distinguish which one was the ganger and which one was not and found that she couldn't do it. So she had to go with her gut. And she picked the Doctor who had said that he was the real on in the first place.

"It's you," she said. "Definitely you."

"Excuse me," interrupted Cleaves. "But now that we've got that settled, we do have a problem here."

"Right," the Doctor that Amy had chosen said as he rubbed his hands together. "We do have a problem here."

"And we're going to have to solve it," the other Doctor added.

"Yes we will and you know what they say,"

"Two heads are better than one,"

"You're thinking what I'm thinking," her Doctor asked

"Course I am," the ganger promised.

"Glad we're on the same page."

"Same page is good," the ganger agreed. "Great minds and all."

"Exactly," the Doctor agreed.

"So the plan?" asked the Ganger. "Save all of them? Humans and Gangers."

"Sounds wonderful."

"Isn't that what you're thinking?"

"It is," the Doctor assured. "But it's so inspiring to hear me say it."

The ganger grinned. "I know!"

"Acid!" Jimmy called out, backing away from the door. "They're eating through."

"It's alright," the Ganger promised. "We're going to get you off this island."

"And the Gangers too," the Doctor added.

"Sorry," Cleaves apologized. "But they're trying to kill us."

"They're sacred," the Doctor pointed out.

"And you drew the first blood… or er, flesh."

"We're trapped in here Doctor," Amy pointed out.

"No," he assured. "There's always a way out."

"We just have to find it," the Ganger added.

"The flesh bowl is fed by cabbling,"

"And there must be earth works somewhere…"

"All this piping must go down into a tunnel or shaft or something."

Both Doctor's scanned the room.

"Here!" the ganger called out and while he was taking off a grate, Amy took the opportunity to distinguish them from each other so she took off the other Doctor's bow-tie.

"Hey," he protested.

"Sorry," she apologized as she stuffed the tie in her pocked.

"What was that for?"

"I want to be able to tell you both apart," Amy answered honestly.

"But I thought you could tell," the other one said bitterly.

"I can tell," Amy defended. "But I've got to make sure that if things go wrong, and they generally usually go wrong, well I need to make sure that I can tell the difference between the two of you in a pinch."

"But my bow-tie…" her Doctor complained.

"Silly you'll get it back," she promised. "When we're out of here."

"Which is now," the Ganger stated as the grate was pulled loose. "Yowza that's a small escape route," he added.

"You know I'm starting to get a sense of just how impressive it is to hang out with me," the bow-tie less Doctor said as he joined his ganger.

"Do we tend to say Yowza?" the other Doctor asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "Not anymore. Let's go eh?"

The two Doctors, Amy and the Originals made their way through the grate until they came to a tunnel. Once there they found it increasingly hard to breathe.

"Acid," the Doctor choked. "Interacting with the stone."

"Creating an asphyxiant miasma," the Ganger added.

"What?" asked Amy.

"Chokey gas," the Ganger explained. "If we can get about it."

"Evac tower," Cleaves choked out. "This way."

…

When they got to the tower, the two Doctors set about trying to restore the power. "Can you get the power back on?" Cleaves asked as the two Doctor kept disappearing behind the terminal. They kept switching positions too and Amy was glad that she had taken the time to take one bow-tie so that she could tell them apart.

"There's always some power floating around," the ganger Doctor said.

"It's just a matter of getting it to the right place," the Doctor added.

"Stop finishing each other's sentences," Amy asked. "It's creepy."

"Not creepy," the Doctor assured.

"But how are you doing it?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor answered.

"So am I. We contain the knowledge of over 900 years of experience, we both wear the same bow-tie…" the ganger paused and saw that the other Doctor was not wearing a bow-tie because Amy had taken it off him. "Well usually because bow ties are,"

"And always will be," the Doctor continued.

"Cool." They both finished together.

"Does that satisfy you wife?"

"Told you," Amy snapped at the ganger. "I'm his wife."

The ganger Doctor shook his head. "You love him."

"Course I do."

"More than me."

"We've been over this," Amy reiterated. "Listen, I'm sorry but he's the Doctor. My Doctor. My husband. But, being almost the Doctor is pretty damn impressive."

The ganger shook his head. "Being almost the Doctor is like being no Doctor at all."

"Now don't say that," Amy pleaded feeling guilty.

"Communication a go!" the Doctor exclaimed with a smile. "Now you, I'm going to need your help. You take that terminal?"

"And you'll take that one," the other one agreed.

…

The two Doctors worked side by side until the ganger Doctor groaned. "Things are working but there's nothing but static."

"We need the thingy," Amy's Doctor said. "From the TARDIS."

"From the TARDIS," the ganger agreed.

"One of us is going to have to go to the TARDIS," her Doctor said.

"I'll go," the other one offered.

"Right and Amy'll go with you."

"Excuse me?" she whispered as the other Doctor headed for the door.

"I want you to keep an eye on him," her Doctor hissed quietly.

"Don't you trust him?" she asked.

"You don't."

"True," she agreed somewhat guiltily. "But you said that he's you."

"But he's not me," the Doctor insisted. "Don't you see? Someone's got to keep an eye on him."

"And you want that to be me?"

"Amy?" the other Doctor called out. "Coast is clear."

"Go," her Doctor prompted.

"Right," she agreed, kissing him on the cheek. "Later?"

The Doctor nodded. "Later."

…

Amy and the Ganger Doctor walked in silence down the hallways. She held a flashlight in her hand while the Doctor held out his sonic. The silence between them was uncomfortable and so unlike the silences that she often enjoyed with her own Doctor. Finally, the silence felt as though it was suffocating her, so Amy plucked up her courage and spoke. "Listen, I just wanted to say sorry."

"For what?" the ganger Doctor asked disinterestedly.

"For you know… picking the other Doctor."

"Oh so he's the other Doctor now."

Amy's brow furrowed. "You know what I mean."

"Right," the other Doctor snapped. "Course I do. And what do you mean after all? Did you mean that I'm nothing? Did you mean that I'm not real?"

"You're not… I never…" Amy sputtered in shock.

"But you did," he hissed, more angry than Amy had ever seen him before. It was an anger which scared her and made her more sure than ever that she had picked the right Doctor as her own. "And you're so wrong. I am something. I am real. I have thoughts and emotions. I can be happy or sad. I can laugh and I'm pretty sure that I can cry as well… Inside I cry for you Amy because you're so blind to the truth sometimes. I am him and he is me…" the Doctor walked away from her seeming to talk to the air now.

"Why does it always come down to this?" he asked in a rage. "Why do the people I care about never understand that when there's two of me, it's still me! Just being different doesn't make me different. Meta-crisis or otherwise."

"Wait a minute," Amy interjected. "Meta-what?"

"Don't you go asking questions," the Doctor ordered. "I'm ranting."

"But Doctor," she began without thinking.

"Ah!" he exclaimed accusingly. "See. I'm the Doctor."

"I suppose but…"

"But nothing!" he assured. "I'm the Doctor just as sure as Cleaves, Jimmy and Buzzer are themselves."

"You mean the ones who are flesh and bone."

"No I mean the ones that are FLESH," the other Doctor corrected.

"But they're copies."

"The solar storm gave the gangers all their thoughts and feelings and their very souls. You did that once with Rory. That plastic centurion might have been a fake but he certainly acted like your Rory."

"He's not my Rory," Amy snapped. "Not anymore. You know that."

"How can I?" the Doctor asked bitterly. "When I'm not me."

"But you could be you yeah?" Amy asked, suddenly realizing something. "Because if you're real, like you say you are then you can die. And I know that my husband… I know that he's going to die. But that might not be him right? That might have been you?"

"So eager for my death," the ganger snapped. With that said the other Doctor ran off, and Amy decided that it would be best to head back to the control room where her Doctor was waiting.

"Back already Pond?" he asked affectionately. "Where's the other me."

"He ran off," she said dejectedly.

"Why?" the Doctor asked concernedly.

Amy shook her head. "We had a row."

"About?"

Amy gave him a pointed look.

"Oh," he said quietly. "I understand."

Suddenly, Amy heard a sliding sound. She whirled around and saw the same eye-patch woman looking at her. "She's doing fine," the woman stated. "We're more than half-way there now."

"Oh!" Amy exclaimed as the vision disappeared.

"What is it?" the Doctor asked. "What did you see?"

"A woman," Amy answered in a shaky voice. "With an eye patch."

"Was this the first time?"

Amy shook her head. "No, first time she said that I was dreaming."

"And this time?"

"This time she said that I was more than half-way there."

The Doctor walked all around Amy and she got the distinct feeling that she was being scrutinized. "What does it mean?" she asked.

"Don't know," he said as he went back to the terminal. "Might be nothing."

"But it might be something."

"Don't know. And we don't have time right now."

"Problem," said the other Doctor as he strode back through the doors.

"What problem?" asked the Doctor

"No TARDIS. She's stuck in a hole caused by the acid."

"And the other problem."

"I can hear them in my head."

"You can connect to the Flesh," the Doctor pondered.

"You are Flesh," Amy snapped.

"I understand what it needs," the ganger continued.

"What you need," Amy pointed out. "You are it."

"It's powerful," the ganger added. "And it can grow right?"

"The cells can divide," Cleaves answered.

"Well it wants to do that at will. It wants revenge, on you. On all of us."

"If you're it," Cleaves said in a steady tone. "Then you better stay away."

"But I'm him," the Doctor interjected. "He's me."

Buzzer walked in between the Doctor and his Ganger to stop interference.

"We don't care about you Doctor," Cleaves assured. "Your Ganger on the other hand could prove to be the downfall of us all."

"This is absurd," the Doctor muttered.

"Sit down mate," Jimmy ordered.

The Ganger Doctor did as he was told and looked coldly at Amy.

"Is this what you want?" the bow-tieless Doctor asked her.

"I want to get out of here," Amy answered. "And without the TARDIS it's going to be a little difficult now, isn't it."

Suddenly the communications whirred to life and Cleaves was suddenly on with the other end. After the solar storm they had become worried and had sent out a rescue team. "Be warned," Cleaves added. "Our gangers have developed minds of their own. They're armed and dangerous."

"How will we know the difference?"

"We'll give you a codeword," Cleaves promised. "Apples."

"That and the sonic can differentiate," the Doctor added.

"So there is a difference," Amy pointed out.

"Molecularly maybe," the Doctor answered. "But not in here," he said as he tapped his hearts. "Not where it counts."

Suddenly an explosion rocked the evac tower and the lines went dead.

"Well that settles it," the Ganger said as he stood up. "Can't stay here."

"Can't go to the TARDIS either," the Doctor added.

"Well we've got to go somewhere," Amy said angrily. "So let's go."

The two Doctors led the way again however to avoid the acid leaks and the deadly smoke they found themselves going deeper and deeper into the tunnels of the monastery until they came to a room that took them all by surprise. It was fully of rotting Flesh corpses. They were still alive, still blinking. Amy cowered into her Doctor, ashamed to know that humans could do something so dreadful to another living creature.

"You see now," the Doctor asked. "They are alive."

Cleaves looked stricken. "I didn't know… If I had…"

Suddenly there was a rumbling sound and the same Gangers that had been going after them before were chasing them again. The group ran for their lives and somehow through a bit of luck made it back to the dining hall. But that was where their luck ended because the Gangers were right behind them.

"That is enough!" the Doctor exclaimed as he strode forward.

The Ganger Buzzer stepped forward angry. "You killed Jen."

And before anyone could do anything, he shot acid at Jimmy who fell to the ground, dying. Cleaves and Amy were at his side. "My son," he was choking out. "My son is five… tell him,"

"Shush now," Cleaves ordered.

"Tell him I love him…"

"I will," she assured.

But Amy noticed that Jimmy wasn't looking at Cleaves, he was looking at his ganger. Just then there was a ringing sound and the Doctor opened up the holo-call. "Hello there!" he exclaimed in a rather cheerful voice, positioning it so that the boy would not see the death that had just happened. "Who are you?"

"Adam," the boy answered.

"Hello Adam," the Doctor greeted. "I'm the Doctor."

"Hello Doctor," Adam said. "Is my Dad there?"

"And who's your Dad?" the Doctor asked.

"I am," ganger Jimmy stated stepping forward. Both Buzzers, both Cleaves, both Doctors and Amy watched as he enjoyed a nice normal conversation with his son.

"Come back soon Daddy," Adam asked in his sweet voice. "I miss you."

"Miss you too son," ganger Jimmy agreed. "And Happy Birthday."

With that said the phone call turned off and the Doctor looked to the two groups. "You see now. Not so different after all."

The Ganger Buzzer wasn't so convinced and he started shooting at the rest. The originals, the Doctors, Amy and ganger Cleaves and Jimmy raced from the room. They were forced by the rampaging Buzzer to go down below ground and just when they thought that all was lost, the TARDIS came crashing down through the ground.

"Okay everybody in," the Doctor ordered as he put the originals and the ganger Jimmy into the TARDIS while Amy, the ganger Doctor and the ganger Cleaves shored up the door. "Right now…"

Ganger Cleaves and the two Doctors suddenly were at the door holding it closed against the rampage of the Flesh. "Come on!" Amy cried out. "Let's go."

"I have to stay," ganger Doctor said. "Hold the door closed. Give you time."

"And what happens to you?"

"This place will explode," the Doctor said as he held the door shut too.

"But you'll survive yeah?" Amy asked the Ganger Doctor.

He shook his head.

"Maybe I should stay," the Doctor said.

"No!" Amy exclaimed. "Listen," she continued facing the ganger. "I know that you're not him, but you act like him and I'm sorry but…"

"Amy," the Doctor interjected. "I'm staying."

"No," she snapped. "You're not."

"I am," he insisted. "Because I'm the Flesh."

Amy looked to her bow-tie-less Doctor. "But…"

"I lied," the bow-tie Doctor said. "From the beginning."

"What?" she asked, eyes wide.

"I'm the original," he insisted. "I had to know if we were the same."

"More than that, we had to learn about the Flesh through your eyes," the Ganger, bow-tie-less Doctor exclaimed. Amy for her part was totally flabbergasted and before she knew it she had her arms around the real Ganger Doctor.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"Oh Pond,"

"And I had no idea," Amy continued.

"Bout what?" Ganger Doctor asked.

"You're twice the man I thought you were."

Ganger Doctor gave her a smile. "Now get out of here."

The real Doctor and Amy took each other's hands while ganger Cleaves stayed behind. Both the Doctor and Amy protested but Cleaves said that there was no point having two of her around, and with that said and an apology from the Doctor— they left the Gangers to do their thing and escapes via the TARDIS.

…

Amy and the Doctor dropped Jimmy off at his home so that he could see his son, and Cleaves was dropped off at headquarters to tell the world what had happened. Once that was done, Amy and the Doctor returned to the TARDIS seemingly happy as clams. But Amy noticed that the Doctor seemed down. "What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"I got what I was looking for."

"Oh?" Amy asked in a sing-song voice. "And what was that?"

The Doctor turned on Amy and pointed his sonic at her.

"Doctor?" she asked.

"I needed enough information to block the signal to the Flesh."

"What signal? What are you doing?"

The Doctor sighed. "The signal to you."

Amy's eyes widened. "What?"

"Given what I've learned, I'll be as humane as I can but I need to do this."

Amy shook her head. "What are you talking about?"

"Amy…"

"Please," she whispered as she walked towards the Doctor and took his other hand. "I'm frightened now. Properly, properly scared."

The Doctor lowered his sonic and placed both hands (one with the sonic in it) on either side of his wife's head. "Don't be. Hold on Amy, for me. I'm coming to find you. I swear that I am. Whatever happens, however hard, however far, I will find you."

"I'm right here," Amy cried as she put her hands on his arms. "Right here."

"No," he said sadly. "You haven't been. Not since the twilight planet."

With that said the Doctor pulled away and held up the sonic once more.

"Amy," he apologized. "I coming for you. I promise."

"Doctor," she pleaded, not understanding. "I love you."

The Doctor looked at her, with tears in his eyes. "And I you."

And before either of them could say anything else, the Doctor pressed the sonic screwdriver and watched as his wife melted into flesh.

…

One minute Amy was on the TARDIS watching her husband point his sonic screwdriver at her, the next she was in a white container wearing a white hospital gown. Above her a window slid open and she looked up into the face of the eye-patch lady. "Oh dear," she said in a cool voice. "Seems as though you're awake. We had hoped that you'd sleep for another three months or so but it would seem as though even the best laid plans go to waste sometimes. Not worry though, we'll take good care of you and that little one that you're carrying."

The door slid shut again and Amy looked down, her stomach was a lot bigger than she had remembered and when she put her hands on it she felt a baby kicking within. "Oh my god," she whispered as tears pricked her eyes. "I'm pregnant."

TBC

Author's Note 2: About that line at the end… whatever happens, however hard, however far… I've been DYING to write that since I first saw the trailer back when I first started writing this little ficlett of mine… or can you call a 50k+ story a ficlett? Please review!