A/N: Hello again! Didn't have to wait very long this time around! :D Got a bit of a surprise for you guys & gals in this instalment of 'The Raggedy Man & the Regal Girl'! Read on to find out what it is! I hope you enjoy!
The Ponds' Path & the War Queen
"Where have you sent her?!" Amy ground out through her teeth, her spit flying into the Dream Lord's face. This was just about the bloody limit!
"Say it, don't spray it, Amy," he taunted her, thoroughly enjoying every moment of psychological torment he was inflicting upon her.
"WHERE?!" she shouted, frustrated at the lack of a proper answer.
"Where she can't help you and Gooseberry," the Dream Lord shot back, finally deciding to get to the root of the matter. "This all started because of what happened on the Byzantium. Would the two of you really give up the trip of your lifetimes because you saw some of the worst of it early on into your travels?"
Amy could only stare, as she stood deep in thought. Could they really do that...especially if there were many more wonderful things to come afterwards?
"But maybe that's wiser than running the risk of more lethal dangers," the Dream Lord continued. "Because there are many more dangers beyond the Weeping Angels, Amy – don't worry about that. Space and Time are full of terrors as much as wonders. But will the both of you ever see them for yourselves?" He then summarised the issue. "It all rests with what you decide on this night, Amy Pond. This...is the Ponds' Path. Do you want to be the heroes in your lives...or do you want to be with the heroes in theirs?"
With that, he flickered away into the nothingness, leaving Amy to ponder. So it was about their plans after the Byzantium? Rory had expressed a desire to go home...but was it just to catch his breath, or to get out before TARDIS Travel scarred his mind for life? Was it truly just one complete life or the other? Did the life they led from now on truly have to have no connection to the life they decided wasn't for them?
*DW* Upper Leadworth...the Doctor's POV... *DW*
After a sleepy escapade into a Butcher's meat locker – and a trip around Upper Leadworth to save all the residents who weren't disguised Eknodines – the Doctor was heading back to the Williams' cottage. What had the Dream Lord and Noxa caused to happen to Romana? Just then, Noxa flickered into the back seat of the camper van he'd used to rescue the residents.
"The clock is ticking, Doctor," she warned him teasingly. "You'd better get Amy and Rory to decide the life they want to lead."
"Fine, but I'll have to find my friends first," the Doctor told her, wishing that she'd just go away. Were he talking to the Dream Lord, he might have wanted to tell the bastard to...well, probably best not.
"Friends?" she scoffed derisively. "I was under the impression that your Human companions were pets." She then pulled a face as though disgusted by something. "Actually...maybe we'd better not go there – touchy subject for me." She almost sounded...jealous. Noxa was...jealous of something? Or even someone? "Regardless...you'll be in for a shock when you try to look for Romana, Doctor."
"What have you done?" he demanded in a deadly whisper, giving her an 'Oncoming Storm' glare with the rear-view mirror.
"Not what I've done, dear," Noxa raised her eyebrow at him, returning with a perfect 'Ice Maiden' look. "Chalk that up to your darker self – both of him." With that, she vanished, leaving the Doctor in total horror. His darker self? Both of him?
*DW* the Williams' cottage...the Nursery...Amy & Rory's POV... *DW*
"How did I get here?" Amy asked her husband as she woke up in the Nursery. All this flitting between the worlds was actually rather tiring.
"I carried you," Rory answered, not able to quite look her in the eye, for some reason. "I'm afraid you may experience some bruising."
"Where's Romana?" she asked him. But Rory proved unable to give a reply. His face bore a look of mixed nausea and regret…one that Amy quickly cottoned onto. "Oh my God..." she gasped in horror and heartbreak. One of her childhood friends was dead!
"I'm sorry," he told her. "She was…" he couldn't bring himself to say the word, "…when I woke up." He knew he was going to end up on the receiving end of the Doctor's wrath now. And speaking of whom...the Time Lord clambered into the Nursery via a window.
"Sorry…had to stop off at the Butcher's," he told them, before realising that Romana wasn't present. "What's happened?" he asked as calmly as he could, absolutely dreading what the answer might be. Neither Human seemed able to answer…and he felt his panic soar, his state of mind not helped one bit by his growing rage. "Where is she?" he began raising his voice. "TELL ME, PONDS!"
"Doctor, we…she's-" Rory struggled to give a reply, but he was brutally cut off when the Time Lord hoisted him by the collar up against the wall.
"Don't you dare say it!" the Doctor whisper-shouted at the man. No! Please, no! I can't be the last again! I can't lose Romana a fourth time! He raged in his mind, his hearts shattering as he realised the ugly truth. "WHERE IS SHE?!"
"The Dream Lord sent her into a nightmare, Doctor!" Amy shouted, trying to stop him from focusing his rage on Rory. Thankfully, the effort as somewhat successful – while he hadn't let go of Rory, his grip had begun to slacken. She then directed her next words at her husband. "Rory…we've gotta decide which is the world we want."
"How?" he managed to find his voice again. For all they knew, this could be Reality and Romana might have just been killed!
"I don't know," she replied honestly, trying to reply as wisely as she could. "All I know is…whatever life we choose…I don't want Romana or the Doctor dead," Amy admitted. Why should they not have their Time Lord friends in their lives…even if those lives were to be led on Earth? If that was what life on Earth was going to be…she didn't want it. She didn't want a world where one friend was dead and the other's hearts were broken beyond healing.
"Neither do I," Rory told her. Starting a life on Earth shouldn't have to mean losing one of their friends.
"Then…we die in this world and wake up in the other one, yeah?" Amy directed the question at the Doctor.
"Yeah…" was all he could say. A world where Romana wasn't with him was a dark place indeed. Without her…he'd have no true constant in the remainder of his current – and final – life, save for his TARDIS…and sometimes, the TARDIS just wouldn't be able to stop him from going too far as his companions could…as Romana could. "Geronimo," he whispered, opening the window and allowing the Eknodines the opportunity to vaporise them…
*DW* the TARDIS... *DW*
By the time the Doctor, Amy and Rory awoke in the TARDIS, the entire Console Room was completely iced over. They must have been almost unbearably close to the cold star. But the Doctor knew that it wasn't over yet – they still had to get Romana out of the Nightmare World the Dream Lord had compiled specifically for her. Just then, the Dream Lord and Noxa appeared in the Console Room.
"So you choose this world, then?" Noxa asked them, her voice almost businesslike. "For better or for worse? Fair enough. You were just in time, too – another few minutes and you might have collided with the cold star."
"Fair's fair. Let's warm you up," the Dream Lord joined in, clicking his fingers and drawing the TARDIS away for the cold star and allowing the Heating to function again. "We hope you've enjoyed your little fictions. It all came out of your imagination...so I'll, er...leave you to ponder on that."
"The Doctor, however, is not quite done yet," the female psychic entity informed them. "He still has to go and find Romana in the little night terror you concocted, Dream Lord."
"Oh, does he have too?" the male entity almost whined.
"All in good Time, my dear," Noxa teased. "After all...good things come to those who wait." Her tone of voice then turned crisp and cutting. "Now, sod off – the Doctor's going to need direction." With that, the Dream Lord acquiesced, vanishing to leave his fellow entity to her business. "Are you listening, Doctor?" she asked the Time Lord for his attention as Amy and Rory sat up, so quietly that only the two of them could hear.
"You have my attention, Noxa," was all he could say through his chattering teeth.
"Good," she said. "Now then...Romana is trapped in the Nightmare World. It's connected to the TARDIS Matrix, so...it isn't so much as Virtual Reality as Artificial. That world is deadly serious – if you're killed there, you'll die in Reality as well. Blow up the TARDIS in this Dream to be taken there. Amy and Rory will be sent with you, just in case you were wondering, so...you'll have to keep your companions alive as well," she summarised the task he'd have.
"How will I get us out after we've found her?" the Doctor asked Noxa.
"Think of something...small, something...innocuous, that connects you and Romana," she gave him a cryptic clue. "Best of Gallifreyan luck." With that, she vanished, leaving him to get his companions ready for the Nightmare World. By now, Rory and Amy had refocused their attentions on the Time Lord, who was now working away at the TARDIS Console.
"Doctor, what are you doing?" Amy asked him, thoroughly relieved that they were no longer stuck between two different worlds.
"I'm getting us into the Nightmare World...because that's where those two left Romana," the Doctor told them, his voice making it perfectly clear that they were not going to be able to stop him from doing this. "They removed her because she divulged the fact that this was a choice between two different dreams. To get there, I'm going to have to blow up the TARDIS here. Get ready – the world we're heading off to will be real enough to kill us."
"But how do you know who they are?" Rory couldn't help but ask, as the Time Lord got ready to blow the place to Perdition.
"Because I've met the Dream Lord before..."
*DW* Nightmare World... *DW*
The Doctor, Amy and Rory found themselves in a dimly lit TARDIS Corridor. And immediately, the Doctor could see a problem. He knew the TARDIS Architecture to be an utterly confounding maze of twists and turns – and probably a great deal more than that in this world. They would have to find Romana quickly if they wanted to escape as a completely unscathed party.
Romana? He called out in his mind, practically pleading for her to hear him. Are you there? Answer me! Please! The wait for her reply was almost agonising. Who knew what could have happened to her in this place? His mind began visiting upon all kinds of horrifying possibilities...
No! Don't think that! You must have hope! He eventually scolded himself, completely unaware that Amy and Rory were staring at him in anticipation of instruction, or that...
Theta?! Romana's telepathic voice cried out in reply, garbled though it was with telepathic interference. …That you?!
Yes, and coming to get you out of this place! Hold tight! He called back over the telepathic 'static'. Where are you?
TARDIS Holding Cells, love...be careful...here, the... was all he was able to discern before the telepathic connection was overcome with 'static'.
"Come along, Ponds," the Doctor told their companions, leaving no room for argument as he ran to the TARDIS Detention Cells. Romana's voice had betrayed her fear – something clearly terrified her here.
"Where are we going?!" they both demanded as they ran after him, frustrated at the lack of answers.
"TARDIS Holding Cells, quickly!" he shouted back at them. "Now come on!"
Still not tired of playing the hero? A dark voice spoke to him, almost slamming down his telepathic barriers. The Doctor felt his horror flare as he realised what had made Romana so afraid in this world – this part of the TARDIS Matrix was where the Data on the Valeyard resided!
Still trying to make trouble for me, Farmyard? He shot back as he continued to run, hoping that by mocking him, he could make him angry enough to make a critical mistake.
How puerile, Doctor, the Valeyard taunted him. You'll never find Romana in Time...and when you do, she'll be changed irrevocably. Your fiancé will never be the same Time Lady again. The Time Lord was then treated to a sinister laugh…and he realised what the Valeyard was trying to do – he was trying to pull the same tactic on him! Well, he wasn't going to play that game! The Doctor therefore decided to compartmentalise his emotions and focus on derision.
I've heard that bogus all before, Knackers' Yard, he belittled his darker self. How many times have we encountered one another...and out of those, how many times have you scored the victory?
The Time Lord felt the sick, bristling rage from his darker persona's mind...and with it came a massive jostle from the TARDIS. The Doctor now knew he had a fighting chance – the Valeyard had begun to lose his focus, which would disrupt his control over the Nightmare World! But they had to hurry – he wasn't sure it would last long!
*DW* TARDIS Holding Cells... *DW*
By the time the remainder of the TARDIS Crew had located the Detention Cells, the Doctor was almost certain the Valeyard would have regained control over the TARDIS in the Nightmare World. His clock of estimation had almost ticked away completely when...
"Doctor!" Romana called over to him from behind the Energy Shield of the Holding Cell of which she was the current occupant. The Doctor couldn't help but notice the fact that she'd placed her arms tautly around her back.
"You alright?" the Doctor asked her as her head over to the Cell, Amy and Rory close behind. "He didn't hurt you?"
"Not yet...apart from a pair of snapped wrists," she brushed it off. "Now then...how do we get out of here?"
"Apparently, by thinking of something small and innocuous," her fiancé told her. "Might not work...but what have we got to lose right now, other than our lives, unless we get out of here?" He was almost certain the Time he'd bought would have elapsed. His other persona ought to have made his move by now!
"Mm, I could do with some Jelly Babies right now," Romana smiled wistfully at the thought of those sweets. She really couldn't help it – ever since her earliest adventures with the 4th Doctor in her 1st incarnation, she'd been doomed to develop the craving for Jelly Babies for the rest of her lives.
The Doctor stared at her, an epiphany forming in his mind. But Amy and Rory just stared blankly at the Time Lady before speaking respectively;
"Who didn't hurt you?"
"How can you think of sweets at a Time like this?"
Amy's question was one of confusion, while Rory's was of bewilderment. But before she could answer, the Doctor smacked his head. This was what Noxa meant! How had he not noticed that?!
"Brilliant!" he cried to the High Heavens. "You wonderful woman!" His fiancé smiled as he concentrated his mental energies on the thought of Jelly Babies. Would you like some Jelly Babies?! He telepathically bellowed out for the whole of the Nightmare World to hear.
The TARDIS immediately began to jostle violently. It looked like the Brickyard didn't like Jelly Babies much – the Doctor guessed it must have been too him...too Doctor. As he smirked, there was a bright flash...
*DW*
...Which, once it had subsided, brought them to a strange landscape. Well...it would be strange for Amy and Rory, who, as Humans, had not been born on the planet on which a landscape such as this could once have been found. For the Doctor and Romana, however, the landscape was all too familiar – this was Gallifrey, before the Time War had even begun, complete with its signature red grass, burnt orange sky and silver-leafed trees.
"Where are we?" Amy asked the duo of Time Lords. "Please don't tell me we've gone into another Dream World."
"I don't think we have," the Doctor told her – he was fairly certain that part was over. "I think this is a different kind of world – specifically, a Memory World." He took a good look around and noticed a young brunette Time Tot chasing some Gallifreyan Flutterwings. Squinting, he could just about recognise her facial features...and he smiled...
"Who's she?" Rory spoke up, gesturing to the 8-years-old-or-younger Time Tot that had already caught the attentions of the Doctor and Romana, drawing Amy's focus to her as well.
"She's me, Rory," Romana smiled, in fond memory of that part of her life. Oh, to be young...and to not have a care in the Universe, she thought fondly. One thing was certain about Time Lords – the further they got into their regeneration cycles, the more burdens they had to bear. "She's the girl I was before I was even Romanadvoratrelundar."
"You mean she's..."
"Yes. These are some of my earliest memories of Gallifrey," the Time Lady told them. "We're in my memories...in my mind...and that girl is my first incarnation."
"What do you mean, 'before you were-'" Amy questioned, before Romana – their Romana – stopped her, knowing she'd stumble over her eight-syllables-long full name.
"The names the Doctor and I tell you are not given to us on the first day of our lives, Amy," she told the ex-Kissogram. "Those are the names we chose to be known by. Our true names can't be told to anyone who doesn't come from Gallifrey." Technically, that wasn't true – they could be told. It just wasn't traditionally done. But if their future with River was anything to go by, Romana was going to break that tradition. "Even then, Gallifreyans can only be told when another Gallifreyan wishes to form any kind of familial bond – whether it be used for adoption or engagement."
The Ponds' minds were reeling with the information Romana had imparted. It was certainly an illuminating experience to learn something about their Time Lord friends past. And speaking of which, the landscape was fading away...to be replaced by a garden which the Time Lords recognised as one of the Gardens in the TARDIS. All of the TARDIS Crew's attentions were drawn to a strawberry blonde woman in a scarlet velvet shirt and black trousers, an auburn man in a green velvet frock coat and other Edwardian garb, and a curly-haired adolescent boy wearing a rust red corduroy jacket, diamond-patterned cardigan and baggy tweed trousers.
"And they are?" Amy was waiting for the explanation when she noticed the Doctor and Romana's fond, yet sad, smiles...almost as though they were longing for what they were bearing witness to.
"Us," the Doctor told her, looking on at the scene sadly, at the boy in particular. For the boy was their son...before he'd been murdered on the orders of the Dalek Emperor, along with 50 others the incarnation of Romana before them had seen die. "The happiest the both of us have ever been..."
"My 2nd incarnation, the Doctor's 8th, and our son," the Romana they knew clarified, watching the 8th Doctor lean to whisper something into Romana II's ear...and she realised that they were watching the day the Doctor stopped being merely 'the Doctor' to her. "What we're seeing is the day the Doctor told me his name." This was the day 'Doctor' became 'Theta'...
...And evidently, from the perspective of the Ponds, the day Romana was no longer just 'Romana' to the Doctor. But before they could think any more on this, the Memory World once again changed...back to Gallifrey, but not Gallifrey as they had seen it before. No. What they were seeing now was a war-torn Gallifrey, littered with destroyed Dalek Saucers and landmarked by a ruined Time Lord Citadel. And almost immediately, the TARDIS Crew caught sight of a woman with jet-black hair, wearing a battered ladies leather jacket, tattered jeans and combat boots. Both the Doctor and Romana knew who the woman was...
"Who's that?" Rory asked, almost hesitantly. If this place was from Romana's memory, then clearly it was nothing she wanted to remember.
Had he been asking the Doctor about his wartime incarnation, the Time Lord would have tried to wave it off...and that would probably have led to a confusing explanation about how, although the man was him…he was not the Doctor. As he'd asked Romana about hers, though, the Time Lady, however reluctantly, obliged.
"The Time Tot on Gallifrey was the girl who became Romana I, and the Time Lady in the TARDIS Garden was Romana II, Ponds," Romana sighed. "They were both past incarnations. This is my memory – all that you see here pertains to me."
"So that's you? That's Romana III?" Amy asked in confusion. If that cold, dark, almost ruthless-looking woman was Romana, wouldn't that make their version Romana IV?
"Yes and no, Amy," the Time Lady replied. "Yes, she's me...no, she's not Romana III."
"Beg your pardon?" Rory inquired, both eyebrows raised in astonishment.
"Remember how I told you that Time Lords choose the name they wish to be known as?" Both Humans nodded, so their Romana pressed on with her explanation. "It's not something we choose lightly. It's a promise. Just think about the name my fiancé chose."
"So he's the Doctor as in the man-who-makes-people-better kind of Doctor?" Amy clarified, to which Romana nodded. "What about your name? What's the promise behind your name?"
"'Never surrender to another will. Never cease to strive for excellence. Never fail to bring hope,'" she recited as the Doctor divided his attention between his fellow travellers and the incarnation of Romana they were witnessing. "At the time, it was just a symbol of my trying to be as unique as can be, and the best I could be...but that was what I'd hoped to be when I fashioned my name. Over the years I spent with the Doctor, I realised just how important that promise was...and the significance of my breaking it to become her." Romana gestured to the dark-haired woman they'd stopped staring at to listen to her anecdote. "The Dream Lord called me the War Queen. She is the War Queen. I am she...and she is me...the one who could never be the woman I have hoped to be since my Naming Ceremony."
"I think we've seen enough, don't you?" the Doctor said, not wanting to expose too much of Romana's past to the Ponds. What she chose to share with them was her business...and hers only. Almost as if on cue, the mirage of memory they were caught up in began to fade from their view...
*DW* Reality... *DW*
But by the time they'd all returned to Reality, only the Doctor, Amy and Rory had fully awoken from their externally induced slumber. Romana was still stirring, evidently still emerging from the Dream Worlds they been confronted with. One thing the Doctor couldn't help but notice, however, was the presence of glowing specks of dust on the TARDIS Console, clearly having been coughed up by the Time Rotor when they'd escaped from the Nightmare World. Realising what had happened, he took them into the palm of his hand.
"What's that?" Amy asked him, her mind still reeling with the revelation she'd just learnt with Rory.
"Psychic Pollen...from the Candle Meadows of Karass don Slava," the Time Lord informed them. "It must have been hanging around for ages. It fell in the Time Rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us as we were leaving Alfava Metraxis." As his fiancé woke up fully, he walked up to the Doors, opened them, and blew the Psychic Pollen into the depths of Space.
"So...that was Noxa and the Dream Lord, then?" Rory asked the Doctor, confusion in his mind. "Those little specks?"
"And did you say that you'd met the Dream Lord before?" Amy joined in with a question of her own. This prompted the Doctor to open a telepathic conference with Romana.
Are you alright? He asked her, going over to her to help her stand, as she was still struggling with the muscles that were still half-asleep.
I'm fine, Theta, she assured him, not wanting him to fuss too much...even though she knew that it wouldn't stop the Doctor trying. Do you think we should tell Amy and Rory? Do you want to?
Do you think we should? The Doctor countered, truly debating whether they should tell them – or rather, show them – how each of them realised who Noxa and the Dream Lord were. He decided to let his fiancé be the umpire this time.
Perhaps, Romana replied. Perhaps we should, if we trust them enough.
Then let's, agreed her fiancé. He then switched to verbal communication as he spoke to the Ponds once again. "Would you like to find out how we knew who they were?" he asked them. Both Amy and Rory nodded tentatively. The Doctor accordingly began to work away at the Console...to display on the Scanner an experience he went through in the later years of his 6th life...
So how was it? The story being changed from 'Amy's Choice' to 'The Ponds' Path'? The Nightmare World? The scenes in Romana's memory with Romana I, II, and the War Queen?