Amy and Rory hurried up the stairs to their bedroom as the Eknodine finally broke through the living room window. They quickly locked the door behind them and Rory blocked it with a big comfy chair, which he then sat in. He looked at the window across from him thoughtfully.
"I don't think we need to worry about that, do you?" Amy asked, following his gaze. "They're ancient. I mean, what are the odds that one of them can climb?"
A silhouette climbed into view outside the window.
"You just had to jinx it didn't you?" Rory remarked. Amy looked around for a good weapon. The cord on the bedside lamp was caught up in between the wall and the table. Nothing else really looked weapony enough. She picked up one of Rory's big medical textbooks and advanced slowly as the intruder pushed open the window. She darted forward.
"No, no! Wait!" The Doctor yelled. "It's just me! Don't..." He looked at Amy speculatively. "Were you really going to hit me with a book?"
"I was thinking of more...sort of throwing it at you. You know..." Amy explained uncomfortably.
"Right..."
"You're letting in a draft." Rory told him calmly.
"Oh, yes." The Doctor said, rolling inside, and then popping back up to shut the window behind him.
"Um... Doctor?"
"Yes Amy?"
"Where's Koschei?" The Doctor looked away, clearing his throat. Amy crossed her arms, staring at him tensely. Rory's gaze was locked on the back of his head.
"He was very ill... I... He was too tired and..."
"So you hid him, right?" Amy broke in tightly. "You found someplace safe and you hid him away."
"Well..." The Doctor locked the window, still avoiding eye contact. "Yes. I did, but-"
His confession was cut short as the group of Eknodine from downstairs began ramming the door behind Rory with something heavy. ~If I had to guess I'd say that's our coffee table. They must be stronger than they look.~ Rory thought wryly. Another slam against the door behind him actually knocked him forward a bit. ~Yep. Coffee table. I was right: oak was a terrible choice.~ The Doctor hurried over to help push against the door.
"We can't hold them off forever! We need to get somewhere more secure!" Amy said as she began to pace in front of the window. "How far away is Koschei?"
"Nope, that's not viable." The Doctor replied, falling against Rory's shoulder as their pursuers rammed the door especially hard. Rory's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Amy went back to pacing.
"Have you been crying?" Rory asked quietly.
"Doesn't matter." The Doctor responded shortly. Amy didn't seem to notice, but Rory looked back and forth between them darkly.
"Where is he?" He persisted, then realization dawned. "He's dead, isn't he?"
The Doctor's jaw tensed and he shook his head. Amy was leaning closer to the window. She thought she'd seen something move across the shingles.
"No. He woke up." The Doctor said vehemently. Behind them Amy pulled the curtain aside to look out the window. She stood up straight taking a step back.
"Amy?" Rory asked, seeing her saucer-wide eyes. She swallowed.
"They can climb." She reported with forced calm.
"Shit." Rory said in a similar tone.
The Eknodine on the roof broke through the window using the handle of their rake to shatter the glass.
"Of all of the-" Rory began, stopping in surprise as Amy hurled the textbook, hard, through the window, hitting the alien right in the face. There was a sound of a struggling alien rolling across the roof, then a satisfyingly undignified squawk as he fell off. From the sound of it, he had landed directly in the rubbish bins.
"Yes!" Amy hissed victoriously.
"That was an amazing throw." Rory admitted. Amy bent down to pick up another tome that was lying by the foot of the bed, and that's when they saw it. There was a second figure creeping up the roof towards her. She burst through, and Rory grabbed Amy, shoving her out of the way and using his own body to shield her from the creature's deadly spray.
"Rory!" Amy cried, as he was immediately saturated with the nasty stuff. He wrestled the alien back out the window and she fell off the roof with a shriek. He was already disintegrating as he did so. He turned back to them and looked down at his ashy arm as it began to come apart.
"Rory?" Amy choked out somberly.
"That can't be-" Rory said looking shocked and perplexed. Then he straightened, looking at the Doctor. "It's just a dream."
Then he was gone. There was nothing left of Dr. Rory Williams but a pile of ashes already being blown about by the breeze coming in through the window.
"Rory..." Amy sobbed, crawling over to the pile of ashes on the floor. She looked up at the Doctor. "Do something."
The Doctor shook his head sadly.
"Save him."
"I'm sorry."
"You have to fix this. It's what you do!"
"I can't fix everything."
"Then what good are you?"
There was a heavy silence while they stared at each other, broken only by the continued pounding on the doors.
"Let them in." Amy said simply. The Doctor hesitated. "This isn't real. I know you think so, too, so let them in."
"Are you sure?"
"It doesn't matter. If I'm wrong, then I don't want to be awake anymore, not without him." More figures were creeping up the roof towards them, she didn't even spare them a glance as she stood. The Doctor pushed away from the door and grabbed the sides of the chair.
"Alright, this is probably going to hurt..."
Amy nodded.
"I'l do it on three." The Doctor announced."One..."
An Eknodine began to crawl in through the broken window. She watched it detachedly.
"...Two..."
Amy closed her eyes as it dropped to the floor.
"Three!" The Doctor shoved the heavy chair out of the way and the Eknodine burst into the room. They didn't struggle..They didn't scream. Amy and the Doctor just stood together as the crowd consumed them, hand in hand, as they waited to wake up.
Amy snapped awake with a gasp and turned to look over at the still, frost-covered form of Koschei lying next to her. His eyes were shut, apparently in sleep.
"Amy? Doctor?" Rory's voice called and he plopped down on her other side.
"You're awake!" He said happily.
"Oh, yes!" Amy replied with a teary smile and pulled him into a tight hug.
The Doctor jumped up from the floor and began to look over the console rubbing his hands together to try and get some feeling back. They all looked up at the sound of clapping coming from the staircase.
"Bravo!" The Dreamlord excaimed. "You have chosen correctly." He appeared next to the console and began manipulating the controls as their ship sprang to life once again. "Well, good show! Fair's fair. Here is your reward."
They quickly changed course, heading away from the cold star. He began to walk away up the stairs, already fading. Amy looked down at Koschei's still form.
"No wait!" She called after him, resting her hand on her friend's motionless arm. "You forgot Koschei! Aren't you going to wake him up?"
"Oh no, my Dear. I haven't forgotten." Amy's brow crinkled in confusion. "Didn't you know? Your fractured friend is not asleep." He looked hatefully over at the Doctor. "Is he?"
"What?" Amy whispered leaning over Koschei and shaking his shoulders. "Koschei? Koschei! Come on! Wake up!"
Behind her Rory just watched sadly. He tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off.
"Come on, we've solved it. Just wake up!" She insisted, patting his cheek. Then she froze, sucking in a sharp gasp and falling back against Rory's chest. Koschei's cheek was ice cold. They were snapped out of their trance by the sound of the drive pillar activating.
Rory jumped up.
"What are you doing?"
"It was a trick." The Doctor explained, not looking up from the controls or halting what he was doing. "I knew something was off. I just wasn't sure. Not until now."
"Sorry, what?" Rory tried again.
"It was a trick question. He's the Dreamlord. He controls the world of the dream, yet he was perfectly adapted to both scenarios. He always made sure to state it as a choice between reality and a dream, but none of it's real. It can't be."
Rory became even more worried after hearing that.
"So what're you-"
"Oh this? I'm setting us on a collision course." The Doctor answered distractedly.
"You're what?" Amy piped in, standing and hastily joining him at the controls.
"It was a false choice. This isn't real. I'm certain of that."
"And if you're wrong we're going to crash into a star and die." Rory pointed out.
"A cold star." The Doctor reminded him.
"Doctor." Amy warned, catching his eye with a dire expression. "This is serious. We could die."
"I am not wrong." He replied just as seriously. She waited a beat before nodding and leaning back against the console.
"Fine." She said simply.
"Um... Are we?" Rory muttered nervously and then took a big breath and grabbed the console. "He's sure."
"I promise I'll explain." The Doctor vowed exitedly. "Ready!"
"No." Rory replied moodily. Amy grabbed the console.
"Do it." She replied. The Doctor flipped the last lever, sending them catapulting into the massive star.
Amy fell out of her seat with a little shriek as she woke.
"Ah! Zi'jaien! Really Bhai! That was way too high-pitched!" Came a wonderfully familiar voice.
"Koschei!" Rory shouted from somewhere on the floor.
"Um... yes?" Koschei replied "Who else would I-Ooof!"
He was nearly knocked off his feet when Amy tackled him in a hug.
"You're alive!" She exclaimed happily.
"Oh! Yeah, of course, Love. I always-Ooof!" Koschei's response was cut off by the Doctor making him the center of a hug sandwich. "Oh really now, Theta! This is getting ridi-" Rory walked up in front of him. "Fine..." Koschei surrendered longsufferingly and Rory joined in, though more gently. Koschei tolerated this for a few more seconds before nipping at the Doctor's chin and declaring...
"Alright, too sweet! Time's up! Do release me now, or I just might get a few cavities."
They pulled away. Amy and the Doctor doing so a little hesitantly. The Doctor pecked him on the cheek rebelliously as he did so. Koschei growled, but only softly.
"Doctor, you said you'd explain how you knew it was a trick."
"Well first, it was because I knew who the Dreamlord was... and then- second, because of Koschei." The Doctor explained matter of factly. Koschei cocked his head to the side.
"Sorry... Koschei?" Rory questioned.
"Don't worry about it." Koschei teased, pulling a lollipop out of his pocket and unwrapping it.
"No I- Oh."
"He was ill for no explainable reason, and all his of ramblings had a similar theme to them. The illusion wasn't working on him properly." The Doctor explained, eyeing Koschei, who shrugged and popped the lollipop into his mouth. "He wasn't dying. It just looked that way to us in the illusion. It was because he was waking up."
"Why..." Amy began, and then her eyes widened as the answer hit her. "Oh." Rory looked at her questioningly.
"Exactly." The Doctor replied. Rory held his hands out in a helpless gesture.
"My mind isn't like any of yours." Koschei explained. "I'm split into three. Makes me a bit trickier to manipulate. You might catch one of me off guard but one of the others is bound to notice."
The Doctor was walking past him toward the doors.
"Okay... and the Dreamlord? You said you knew who he was?"
"Of course. Only one person in the universe could hate me that much." The Doctor replied, blowing some strange, glowing dust out the doors.
"What's that, then?" Amy asked watching the dust swirl away into the abyss before he shut the doors.
"A bit of psychic pollen from the Fields of Craston Slava. It fell in the time-rota, heated up and induced a dreamstate for all of us. It must have been lying around in there for ages."
"So you're saying only pollen could hate you that much." Amy deadpanned.
"Oh no. Not at all. I thought you'd realized. That wasn't the pollen. That was me." The Doctor said then looked over at Koschei. "Well, me with traces of the Master mixed in, I suppose, but he was resisting quite well."
"That was you?" Amy asked incredulously.
"Well, my dark side, to be more precise. Everyone has one; that's what the pollen does. It feeds off of all of the negative emotions and dark thoughts of it's host. Over nine hundred years old... there was alot to feed on."
"So then it was us too. We were all infected." Rory pointed out.
"Oh, no. You? You're too good! He would have starved to death feeding off of you lot. I choose my friends very carefully." The Doctor assured them as he began bustling about the controls. Amy walked up beside him to address him quietly.
"But Doctor, about all those things he said-"
"Amy, a question is about to occur to Rory in a moment. A very important question, and when it does you are going to want to answer it." The Doctor cut in at normal volume.
"Actually, yes. I do have a question." Rory realized.
"And there it is." The Doctor grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face her fiance. "Go on then. Off you go."
"I can't seem to remember how we all figured out the first dream."
"Yeah, well, you actually weren't really there for most of it."
"Um, Why? I don't remember going anywhere."
"You didn't... You died."
"Oh... So then how did you know for certain that it was a dream?"
Koschei, sensing the answer, and the overall sentimentality of the conversation, hastily fled the area. He popped up onto the console to sit directly in the Doctor's way. The Doctor flashed him a mildly annoyed look and stood in front of him, patiently waiting for him to speak. He waited just long enough for the Doctor to head towards full blown annoyance.
"Your dark side's an ass." Koschei informed him conversationally.
"So's the Master." The Doctor countered.
"Yeah, but you love him that way. For some unfathomable reason."
"Maybe it's because he's a part of you." The Doctor offered with a sly smile. Koschei shot him a harassed look, taking a lick of his heart-shaped candy treat.
"Nope. Nice try, but you won't scare me off that easily. The younglings are proving much more embarassing at present."
The Doctor began to peek curiously around the pillar but Koschei snapped his fingers in front of his friend's face.
"Ah! No. That's none of our buisness." Then Koschei sobered. "Do you really hate yourself that much?"
"Oh, they can't be doing anything that disturbing." The Doctor responded, crossing his arms.
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it."
The Doctor looked down at the floor panels as if they were the most interesting thing in the galaxy.
"Well I guess I've earned it, haven't I?" He said more quietly. There was a fleeting silence, and then he finally looked his companion in the eye. "You don't. Not really. I'm not sure I understand why not."
Koschei studied him with an unreadable expression on his pale face until a sly smirk slowly spread across his lips.
"Maybe it's because you're you." He said echoing the Doctor's earlier statement, and batting his eyelashes playfully.
"Very nice, Kos." The Doctor replied, falling back into their comfortable banter. "Keep saying sweet nonsense like that and someone might sweep your androgenous-"
"Oi!"
"Well you are, aren't you! All long, lush eyelashes and delicate bone-structure."
"Says the one with the unnecessary comb-over."
"It's not a-Mff." The Doctor's denial was muffled by Koschei suddenly shoving his lolipop into the Doctor's mouth. "Gff. Koschei!"
Koschei was already scampering away, laughing maniacally and leaving a flustered Doctor and two utterly confused humans in his wake.
.
A/N: Okay so, there you are thats the end of that chapter.. Sorry about the weird ending I was really tired when I finished this(at like four in the morning, I'm a raging insomniac) and might have been a little loopy. I still think it works. Thanks for reading. Special thanks to Mabudachi-trio and RoaringFall for reviewing. I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations. As always please review.