Chapter Two: Becoming Complicated

"Amy?" Rory whispered roughly. Amy stopped writing and put the notebook she'd been scribbling in aside on the nightstand.

"Rory, you're awake." She observed. "How're you feeling?" She asked, carefully peeling back his bandages to check how his burns were healing. They had nearly completely disappeared.

"Thirsty." Rory croaked.

"Of course! Hold on." Amy told him and jumped up to pour him a glass of water out of the glass pitcher sitting on the desk across the room from him. ~That wasn't there before.~ Rory thought to himself, as Amy helped him drink.

"There you are." She said, setting the glass down beside her notebook.

"Wait a minute… Koschei—"

"We know. It's alright. He's lost for now, but we're searching for him."

"He's—"

"The Redheaded Man. I know. He left a note."

"Oh… How long have I been out?"

"About five days…ish. It's hard to tell for sure in transit. You know how it is." Amy paused, looking Rory over with a serious expression. "You scared me."

"I'm so sorry. I just—I didn't want to hurt you. If I'd told you, it would've just made you into a target, and I couldn't risk that happening."

"The Function was already after us."

"Yes, but not you. I could still protect you. It was hard enough having them force me to turn against the Doctor and Koschei, but you?" Rory swallowed. "I couldn't handle that." Amy leaned over and kissed her fiancé lovingly, then pulled back to stare into his eyes.

"Don't ever do it again."

"Never." He agreed. Amy shifted to lie on the bed next to him with her head resting on his chest. She was careful not to jostle his shoulder, which had been the most badly injured part of him.

Just as they were drifting off to sleep, they were startled awake by a familiar beeping. Amy's eyes snapped open and she sat up, pulling the Doctor's phone out of her back-pocket, and frowning at the I.D. on the screen.

"Why was that—" Rory began. Amy put a hand to his mouth and shushed him, answering the phone.

"Hello?"


The remaining Collectors all stood together in what Darius felt was an unnecessarily theatrically staged chamber. The entire room was dark, except for the circle of light that surrounded him and his team. He could just barely make out movement on the shadowy platform before them, reminiscent of those that judges on old Earth used to sit on, Pre-Contact Era.

"Darius of Semti." An electronic voice prompted.

"Present." Darius responded lightly.

"We spare your life on the condition that you will succeed where your former Commander has failed."

"I did presume as much, yes." Darius replied coolly.

"Are you capable of this task?" The automated voice inquired. Darius looked around at the others.

"It's a good group."

"Will you and your team be capable of acquiring the Doctor?"

"Only the Doctor now, eh?" Thalis questioned, raising an eyebrow. Darius cleared his throat. "Sorry sir." Thalis apologized, bowing his head subtly.

"Pardon Thalis. He is very competent." Darius casually assured. "As I mentioned, it's a good group. Thalis here is my First Officer; Haesha is our engineer. She's genuinely brilliant, and easy on the eyes as well. Her cousin Stii loves explosives, Jolo over there is our medic—"

"The Master must be eliminated." The AI cut in impatiently. Darius paused a beat, skillfully concealing his amusement before continuing.

"…and Elim is our muscle. He's the only official assassin left on our team now. There's a terrible pun in there somewhere I'm sure." He turned back to the Function representatives with his most convincing innocent expression. The was an aggravated pause.

"Are you capable of—"

"Yes, I believe so. Is that all?" Darius finally answered.

"Yes." The bland electronic voice responded, somehow managing to sound annoyed, and the spotlight overhead went out. A second later, a transmit beam carried the Collectors to the new space ship that they would be using for their assignment.

"Orders, Sir?" Thalis requested patiently.

"Proceed to pilot us to the pre-planned coordinates." Darius ordered. Thalis nodded, taking a seat in the pilot's chair.

"Haesha." Darius called.

"Here, Dare." Haesha responded energetically.

"You know what to do."

"Yes, Sir." She agreed with a nod, and jogged over to her station, pulling an apparently improvised device out of her utility belt and plugging it into the side of the console.

"How long until the program is completed?" Darius asked.

"Five sub-cycles."

"And the systems—" Thalis began, but Haesha held up a hand.

"Wait… Systems clear. Preparing for transit. Done." Darius turned to Thalis in the pilot's seat.

"Coordinates locked." Thalis reported, flipping a couple switches on his armrest. "All hands prepare for jump to subspace in five… four…" The others all grabbed on to something, bracing themselves for the jump. "Three… two… Lock." Thalis hit the last symbol on the touchpad and the the lights dimmed turning violet. Then he reached forward to manipulate the holographic controls that appeared in front of him as the ship shifted out of phase and lurched forward into the multicolored, brightness of subspace.


Koschei landed on his face on the forest floor.

"Ow! Damnit!" He exclaimed unhappily. He began to push himself up off the moist ground, and that was, naturally, when the tattered remains of his jumper decided to give up the good fight. "Oh that's just…" He studied his dark surroundings "Where am I now? Lots of trees and moss—so much moss, ridiculously humid. Familiar—"

Amphibious Sentia let out a shriek/roar of complaint from a couple of meters behind him, not enjoying being overlooked.

"Ah." Koschei said to himself, turning to face the creature. "Here I am." He watched her for a couple of tense seconds, debating his options. ~No sudden movements.~ The tattered remains of his shirt gave out and fell off. He caught it reflexively and Amphibious Sentia hissed at him, preparing to pounce. ~What had Amy sai—Oh of course!~ "And now I do… this." Koschei announced, zipping his jacket up as he spoke, just on principle. Amphibious Sentia moved to pounce, but Koschei blew out his remaining regenerative energy into the beast's face with a loud, high-pitched whistle. The light grew amazingly bright as some built up charge channeled out of him as well, hitting Amphibious Sentia in the side. She fell to the ground with a whine, stunned by the blast.

Koschei stumbled back a step, leaning against the tree to his right and pausing for a moment to steady himself. He looked over at the Doctor's unconscious form thoughtfully, brushing a bit of Spanish moss out of his face, then turned to look at Amy. After he'd recovered, he knelt down next to her. She turned her head to look at him and he quickly covered her eyes.

"Ah, ah! Not just yet, Love." He warned. "Count to ten first and you're home free." Amy relaxed, lying back down with her eyes still shut. "Good girl." Koschei encouraged. He sniffed the air as he stood, then ran off, following the nearby Collector's scent. It didn't take too long to track him down.

"Thalis." Koschei greeted neutrally. Thalis jumped and spun to face him.

"You really must stop doing that!" Thalis replied. "What is it now?" Koschei raised an eyebrow at him. ~Now?~ He thought. ~So we've done this before.~

"Amphibious Sentia's been taken care of. You're welcome. In return, I expect you to make sure that the Doctor and—"

"Yes, yes." Thalis interjected impatiently. "Your sister and her friends will come to no harm. Am I correct?" Koschei paused a beat before responding.

"Yes."

"I'd better be off then." Thalis concluded with a curt nod.

"Exactly." Koschei agreed, vanishing into another tesseract.


He reappeared in far more drab, grey surroundings, and heard the sound of rifles being readied to fire. Prison guards, aiming rifles at him because they were guarding… his murderer.

"Don't move! Hands in the air!" The larger, slightly older looking guard demanded. Koschei sighed, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Decide." He prompted.

"Eh?"

"Well, which is it? Do you want me to remain still or raise my hands?" Koschei clarified, then shrugged. "You know, forget it." He reached out and shocked the guards. "I haven't got time for this." River smiled at him and stood.

"I've been waiting for you. This is a bit of a strange one from my perspective. We usually meet backwards."

" I see." Koschei replied, fishing the key-card out of the guard's pocket. He held it up to the scanner.

"His handprint." River reminded him. He hauled the guard up and scanned his palm, dropping him unceremoniously once the door released. "No need to be so rough. It is his first day."

"Mine too." Koschei pointed out walking up to her. "No one's given me any special treatment." River looked him over.

"Oh dear, Look at the state of you." She turned and placed her suitcase on top of her mattress, opening it and pulling out a familiar cream-colored, suede duster and an assortment of other white clothing. "The last time that I saw you, before base Octavia, you told me that I'd only be seeing you in this regeneration one more time. I would see you for the last time, one month after your murder, and you also mentioned that you'd be in need of your clothes. Put these on now. We haven't got all day." Koschei hastily began changing into the proffered garments. River looked him over appraisingly.

"It's a shame. I am quite partial to this you." She admitted. "Your past self doesn't seem to be very fond of me."

"I wasn't." Koschei confirmed, fussing with his white silk cravat. River batted his hands away and fixed it for him. "New hands." He defended.

"Hmm" She hummed in fond acknowledgement, fussing over him just a bit before he swatted her hand away from his collar. " Well… This is goodbye then. I hate goodbyes."

"Me, too."

"We'll skip it, then." River decided, with a sad smile. They looked at each other uncomfortably for a moment. "12-05-1955"

"Pardon?" Koschei asked, frowning. River winked at him.

"You'll see me soon." River informed him. He felt the strange rush of another tesseract forming behind him. "Go on. You've got an important call to make."

Koschei stepped backward into the tesseract and disappeared.


"Hello, Bhai."

"Koschei!" Amy exclaimed. Rory sat up in bed becoming more alert.

"Indeed." Koschei responded, wincing slightly. "Please don't shout. These are brand new ears and I would prefer not to damage them immediately."

"Sorry." Amy replied at a more reasonable volume. "What are you doing at my house? I don't remember you ever being there?"

"I doubt that you would. I'm fairly certain that's you out in the front yard." Koschei told her, peeking out the kitchen window at the little girl sitting on her suitcase out front. "Oh, bless. I think you've fallen asleep. You were rather adorable at this age."

"Okay, that's weird. I'm pretty sure you're there on the night that the Doctor and I first met. I waited out there for him all night after he left."

"Hmm." Koschei responded, disapprovingly. "That would explain the suitcase… Where are your parents?"

"I don't have any."

"What do you mean you don't— Never mind. Look, I haven't got long now. Do you have a pen and paper handy? I need you to take down some coordinates for me."

"Yeah. Just…" Amy tucked the phone in between her ear and shoulder and grabbed her notebook, flipping it open to a fresh page. "Okay. Go."

"Temporal coordinates: 12-05-1955." Koschei recited clearly.

"12-05-1955." Amy muttered, writing it down. "That's it?"

"For now. Sorry, just give that to the Doctor. I don't have a location yet but I've got to go now. My time's almost up." Koschei told her hastily.

"Alright. Just be careful. We're coming to find you."

"I know." Koschei assured her and hung up. He peeked out the kitchen window at little Amy curled up asleep on her suitcase outside and then checked his watch. "Oh, Doctor.." He lamented, then sighed and crept quietly outside. He scooped up the slumbering child and her suitcase and carried her upstairs to her room.


A/N: Okay guys, there it is. I hope you liked this. It might be a while longer than usual before the next update because I'm leaving in the morning tomarrow to visit some relatives down south. So, I'll be gone for a week. If there is a way for me to update from there I will try, but I make no promises. Anyway, thank you all for reading this. Special thanks to Time Travelling Animagus and EluraSeregin for reviewing. As always, I'd love to hear what you think.