Amy Pond had known she had done the right thing as soon as it had happened, when the angel had transported her back in time to Manhattan. She had seen how it had broken the Doctor's hearts but knew that it was her only choice. She would never willingly leave Rory, even if that meant being trapped in the past for the rest of their lives. The Doctor would eventually find someone else like she knew he always did, regardless of the pain he was going through. She didn't have that luxury. She had accepted her fate, embraced it even. Rory had initially been furious when she wandered into his apartment, shouting at her for being so foolish. Then he'd held her so tightly that she thought she might die again, tears rolling down both of their cheeks as they realised that they hadn't lost each other once again. That had happened far too often and now it would never happen again.
They had spent a few years adjusting to life in twentieth century America. They had no trouble from the Weeping Angels that lurked in the shadows of the building. They could leave as they wished, have a life, get jobs. It had been difficult to adjust, especially because of the mundane aspect of it all, but their slow departure from time travelling to a semblance of normal life had prepared them for when it inevitably came to an end, as they had known it would. It was peaceful. It wasn't exciting but it was joyous in many other ways. Until the blinding white light had appeared, consuming their vision so that they could see nothing else. The entire building had shaken, the mementos of their new life tumbling to the ground as they too stumbled about. Then it had stopped, as quickly as it had started. They'd looked at each other confused and scared. Rory ran to the window, pulling the curtains open wide to try and see what happened. The view was the same but...different.
"You might want to see this…" he said quietly. Amy was by his side in a flash, gasping as she looked out the window.
"Are we…?" They could tell from the other buildings, the cars lining the streets, despite there being no sign of any other people.
"I think we are." He smirked at his wife, so many questions running through their heads. They were back in modern times although they didn't know precisely what the year was. That didn't matter. They were back. They didn't know how it had happened. Maybe it had something to do with the golden saucer that rumbled above them. Their happiness dissipated as they recognised the origin of the ship. So it didn't look like everything was going too well. Rory grabbed her hand and started leading her out of the room. "Come on." It was true that they had enjoyed their 'normal' life but the idea of what to do in an emergency like this had never left them. They slowly walked through the carpeted corridors, the lights on the ceiling flickering to make it seem even more eerie. It was far too quiet. They knew that people had lived there. They were sure of it. But there was something more troubling about the apparent emptiness of the property.
"Where are the angels?" Amy whispered cautiously, looking over her shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed by one of the creatures. For the years they had been there, the weeping angels remained as guards littered on every floor. Never moving unless someone new arrived and that never happened. So why had they decided to move now?
"Maybe they ran off scared?" Rory offered meekly with a shrug of his shoulders. "Probably didn't fancy their chances against the Daleks. Stone versus rage-filled tins. I know who I'd put my money on." Amy doubted that that was the case. There was something much larger at play here, larger than the Daleks. She could feel it in the air, almost as if it was electrified. They didn't dare use the lift, opting for the stairs as the safe bet. They hurriedly made their way to the front door, noticing that the lobby was dark with the drapes pulled together. Amy pulled on the door with little effect, letting out a frustrated yell. She yanked it a few more times and, with her final effort, it swung backwards but they realised that it wasn't entirely down to her. The Doctor stared at them dumbstruck as they mirrored his expression. The couple had no clue who the other people were behind him but they were focused fully on her Raggedy Man. She reached out a hand, wanting nothing more than to touch him, to make sure that he was actually there, to prove to herself that this figure was real. He caught her hand softly, brushing a thumb over it in a soothing fashion even if he was eyeing them with trepidation.
"Amy...Rory...what are you doing here?" he asked slowly. He dropped her hand, instead quickly scanning them with his sonic. He looked at it, his confusion getting greater as he saw the fluctuating readings coming off them. They were equally as confused. He'd seen what happened to them. He knew where they would have ended up. Unless…
It hit them hard. The thing that gave him away were his eyes. Amy could tell that they were much younger than the ones that had stared at her in farewell, filled with tears. He was yet to go through so much, she could tell that. And that meant he didn't know about their fate. The Doctor had no clue that they would die, possibly soon in his future, which made this already strange moment even more difficult.
"When did you last see us?" she said sadly.
"I just dropped you off on your space cruise, a honeymoon treat," came the answer. Amy closed her eyes, Rory placing a hand on her shoulder. "What's going on? Tell me."
"That was years ago for us," Rory explained since his wife was seemingly unable to speak. The Doctor's expression hardened.
"That's not good. That's the opposite of good. Time is really being messed up then. But why were you in here? The Tardis reckons this is an epicentre of such a temporal event or disaster in other words."
"We can't tell you," Amy whimpered.
"Why not?"
"Because we can't! You don't need to know everything. This is for your own good."
"If you're in danger in any way, you need to tell me. I can fix it." That hurt the most.
"We're fine," she answered far too quickly for his liking. She could tell that he wasn't convinced. That didn't matter. She knew from her time travelling in the Tardis that him finding out would cause untold havoc to the time stream. It didn't make it any easier, keeping something so big from him. They'd done it before, when they had seen his death at the hands of the impossible astronaut. They could do it again. "Come on then. Aren't you going to tell us what's going on? You normally love explaining complicated things to us." He stared at her for a moment longer, still hoping that she would tell him the truth. He ultimately relented, putting it to the side for the time being, understanding that she'd gotten it into her head that she was doing it for his own safety. Even if that wasn't her job.
"Well, that's the problem. I don't really know what's going on. Like I said, everything is wrong. Just look at these three." He gesticulated at the trio standing behind him. "Time Lords. On Earth! That shouldn't be possible!" Ko Sharmus, the General and Cassandra nervously waved at the new people in front of them, who reciprocated the action. "This planet is in temporal flux. And for some reason, it affected this building directly." He grumbled something under his breath as he hit the sonic frustratedly. Amy and Rory shared a knowing look - the angels were operators of time energy, feasting on it. Maybe that was why the building had been targeted. They couldn't possibly know.
"And the Daleks? What have you done this time to upset them?" She smirked at him. Despite everything, despite the sadness of him not knowing, despite the confusion as to how this was at all possible, she couldn't stop the smile growing on her face. She was being granted extra time with the mad man in the box. Regardless of the consequences, she was thankful for that miracle.
"Nothing! I just got here! The Daleks beat me here!"
"That's not strictly true," the General reminded him, a reassuring smile on his face as he looked over at Amy and Rory. They glanced at the Doctor with matching perplexed expressions.
"In a sense." He let out an irritated sigh. Why couldn't he have taken up bee keeping by now? That's all he really wanted. Lies, a voice in his head whispered. He secretly loved the adventure, the thrill of not always knowing. It was his curse. "Don't get too excited. But I think there's another...me...in play here. I'm yet to come across him so that's something to look forward to."
"Now, this I've got to see," Amy said with a grin, her eyes lighting up excitedly.
Clara eyed the Doctor carefully as he placed the metal box on one of the seats surrounding the console. That seemed to be their only use with them being too far away to be able to pilot the ship from them. She hadn't found the courage yet to bring it up with him - he was always extra defensive when it came to his Tardis. She mentally smirked as she thought back to when he had said it was hers too, when they had first met Graham and Yaz. She should have seen then how he truly felt about her. They'd both been blind. But that was in the past now and she could see something else was playing on his mind, those mystifying eyes acting as gateways to memories from long ago that still seemed to haunt him. She needed him to open up. She needed him to speak...properly speak...more.
They'd left a rather sombre Porridge behind after he had given them the weapon. He hadn't dared touch it, asking one of his servants to deal with it. The Emperor had looked at it in disdain, almost a sneer on his face as it was produced from the vaults. The Doctor had hardly hesitated from gripping it as the servant handed it over. He'd dealt with much worse. But he had still looked as if past actions were coming back to the forefront of his mind. She'd often wondered about some of those tales he had told her. He hardly ever went into great detail into how he'd won so many 'victories', if they could be seen as such. In this rare moment of solitude, even the Tardis being as quiet as it could be, she wanted to make some progress. Maybe he would be more willing now they had told each other their greatest secrets.
"You've done this before," she said. It wasn't a question. She knew the truth just from the way he was acting. She moved around the console, making sure she kept her eyes on him. If she looked away for even the briefest of seconds, she was worried that he would use his magic power of disappearing from difficult situations.
"Hmm?" He acted like he didn't properly hear, finally dragging his attention away from the device. He could feel its presence, its capabilities. His hand flexed intermittently between a fist and a flat palm as he moved a few steps away from it.
"You. You've done something like this before. To the Cybermen." He stared at her for a moment in amazement, wondering how she had figured it out. She fought the urge to wilt under his gaze, standing up straight.
"How could you possibly know that?" he asked in disbelief. She just smirked playfully, gently swaying as she stepped even closer.
"That sad face. You can never hide anything from me. You should have learnt that by now."
"I managed to hide the fact that I won gold in the water polo at the 1956 Olympics…" She observed him carefully.
"You didn't…" He raised his eyebrows in challenge as he slid away from her scrutiny. "You didn't! No way!"
"My horse didn't like the pool. Neither did the other players really, now I think about it."
"You're trying to distract me."
"Maybe I am. But now you're too intrigued about my magnificent sporting past. Focus on that instead."
"Doctor…" she growled, reaching out and tugging on his arm.
"It was the only option." She was surprised that he had been worn down so easily when she figured out he was answering her original question. It was getting far too easy. It was hardly a challenge anymore. "It was in a parallel universe. No, I can't take you there, before you ask. There was an army of them in London, a bit like now. In the end, the only way to stop them was to overload their emotions. Thousands of humans feeling the pain of what had been done to them. And I didn't even stop to think about what I was truly doing. I caused that suffering, no matter how short a time it lasted."
"But you had to stop them. That's not your fault."
"I seem to face that conundrum quite regularly. Weighing up the lesser of two evils." Her hand caressed his worn face, his eyes fluttering closed. "It's becoming more difficult to just move on. Sometimes...a person can live too long."
"Don't you dare say that. You don't have to do that alone anymore," she whispered with a sad smile.
"I'm not having you make the choices I normally do. There's nothing good about being like me." The last thing he wanted was for her to pick up on some of his worst qualities.
"Tough. Because...you should know...you are a good man. You may not think it but the fact that you're even debating what you have to do shows me what sort of a person you are."
"You've changed your mind since the last time I asked you that." She grinned.
"You're an exceptionally good kisser." His eyes widened briefly before he regained some of his composure.
"It's good to know that I've got a new way of convincing you. Makes my life a lot easier."
"I can still make it very difficult for you. That's my job. To mess with you. To stop you getting too big headed," she replied playfully, messing with his jacket.
"Oh, Clara Oswald...what did I do to deserve you?"
"Doctor...you should know by now...I'm exactly what you deserve." She placed a quick kiss on his lips but she was stopped from going further by the sound of the Tardis landing. She let out a small growl, frustrated that their time together was over. He wouldn't know what happened when this was all over and she could have him all to himself. She wandered over to the screen, expecting to see that they had landed back at UNIT so that they could get on with dealing with this first issue. She hummed in confusion as she realised that wasn't the case, eyeing up the Doctor who was heading for the door with a slight spring in his step. "Where have you taken me this time? You know, we don't exactly have time for extra adventures right now."
"Trust me, I'm saving up an extraordinary amount of adventures just for the two of us to go on when this is over." The thought of that made her smile wildly, rushing to catch up with the Time Lord. "This is a pit stop. Picking up some friends." She arched an eyebrow but still proceeded to follow him out of the Tardis. Clara stumbled into a corridor, a green rug running through it. There were small tables with an array of wild green plants lining the walls which had an assortment of paintings hanging off them. The place seemed achingly familiar as she slowly edged further, the Doctor smirking at her obvious puzzlement. It finally made sense as a frantic voice sounded from down the stairs, quickly followed by loud rushed footsteps.
"Intruders detected in the Eastern wing! They shall be terminated with as much force as I deem necessary, which is a lot." Strax rounded the corner bearing his gun, shouting madly as he smelt the presence of these obvious criminals. Maybe they were trying to steal something from the house. Maybe they wanted to get his horse. They'd die either way. He skidded to a halt, his eagerness and jubilant mood ceasing as he saw who it actually was. The Sontaran let out a long sigh, his shoulders slumping as his blaster was moved to face the floor in defeat. He never got to have any proper fun nowadays. "Oh. It's just you two."
"What a pleasant greeting as always," the Doctor said sarcastically, rolling his eyes in a playful manner at Clara. She loved getting to see this side of him when he decided to embrace his own inner child. "Sorry to ruin your fun but we're here on serious business."
"Strax," Vastra's voice shouted, drifting up from the floor she was on below. "You better not have left any scorch marks anywhere again. It took weeks last time to sort everything out." The Silurian woman appeared just behind Strax, a look of surprise on her face as she saw the unexpected guests.
"As you can see, madame, there was no need to use any firepower on this occasion," Strax grumbled with a scowl. "May I be excused to take my vengeance out on the rabbits in the yard."
"No time for that, I'm afraid," the Doctor told him. He looked at Vastra with a piercing gaze. "It's time. You said that you'd be here to help us if we needed your assistance. Guess what we now need?"
"Has the situation really regressed by such a worrying extent?" she queried. "There has been no change in the time rift on our end."
"Do you remember when I told you how bad this could possibly be? Well...it's about seven hundred times more bad than that." He frowned. "I don't know why I said seven hundred. Take any overly large number and that should do the trick." Clara patted him on the hand to get his attention, the Doctor immediately looking down at her.
"Doctor...you're rambling," she mumbled with an awkward smile. He always tended to do that when his mind was focused on other things. Vastra looked at their joined hands in concern. This was the development she had been dreading.
"Am I?" Clara nodded, nudging him gently. The Doctor seemed shocked about that fact.
"Strax, suit up," Vastra ordered. He seemed especially happy about that, his fist clenching. "And tell Jenny what's happening. She'll know what to get sorted." The Sontaran hurriedly rushed away. Clara swore that he'd been practically skipping as he did so. "Doctor, a word." She beckoned him over, bringing him into a hushed conversation as Clara stayed by the Tardis with a curious look. "So, what are we facing?"
"Every race that has ever wanted my head on a plate basically." Vastra wondered why he was grinning. He shouldn't have been enjoying this.
"Meaning the greatest threat you have ever faced. And you thought now was the wisest time to grow even closer to your companion?" she hissed. "Did you not take in anything I said to you before you left?"
"No, not really," he replied with a shrug.
"You are an old fool."
"For falling in love?" It surprised her to see him speak so openly. "If that's a foolish thing to do, then I'll gladly be that for the rest of my life. You do not get to stand there and tell me what to do. My companions have always been the best of me and Clara is the ultimate representation of that. She wants to be by my side for some strange reason. I am not going to be stupid enough to let that slip by. I've lost her too many times - I've learnt my lesson."
"You will get her killed." Vastra didn't want to hurt him but she needed him to see sense before it was too late.
"The safest place in the universe is by my side. My body would be put on the line a long time before she has to do the same."
"Do you think she would want that though?"
"I don't care. She doesn't get a say when I'm protecting her." He let out a tired sigh, glancing back at the woman they were talking about and giving her a reassuring smile. "You just told Jenny to get ready for something you have no idea about. But you think you can lecture me?"
"That's different."
"That's a lie and you know it. The universe will burn at my feet if she came to any harm and you would do the same. Everyone would for the ones they love."
"But you are the only one in existence who has the ability of actually doing that."
"Yes...so, knowing that fact...how scared do you think those pathetic creatures are of me when you put it into that perspective. They wouldn't dare touch her because they'd know they'd be wiped out in the next second." His eyes were blazing with fury, his expression one of indignant anger. "It's true that we push each other to extremes. We do things for one another that we wouldn't normally dare think about. But we bring out the best in each other as I have strived to do with every other person who has travelled with me, every other person who is waiting right now to help, willing to do what is right regardless of the cost. And that might just save Earth and the entire universe before it's too late."
The Doctor was, as ever, completely right; they were very thankful that they had brought their coats as they stepped out into the frosty Russian air. The Doctor seemed to breathe it in, in an over-the-top fashion, a broad grin on his face. The others didn't look as pleased as he was. Jack had his trench coat buttoned up with his arms wrapped around his chest. Graham had his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, pleased that he was also wearing a black jumper as he looked around this new country in amazement. He'd always wanted to travel more but hadn't expected it to happen in these frankly bizarre circumstances. Yaz was in the same boat, wishing that she could go back into the Tardis and savour its embracing warmth. The only two who weren't looking affected by the cold were Agent Mackenzie, who Graham reckoned hadn't shown any emotions for the past twelve years, and Jenny, who was too thrilled to be going on an adventure with her father once again to be perturbed by the biting climate. This was their small team, the ones given the 'easy' task of dealing with the Sontarans that had invaded a short while ago.
"I can't remember the last time I was here," the Doctor remarked, spinning about lazily with his coat billowing around him. "Normally even the aliens are too scared to come here." He glanced up at the three ships visible in the sky, smaller vessels weaving through the dense clouds around them. "Not this time, though."
"Do you have any idea how we're going to do this?" Graham asked. He had no clue why he had been chosen to go on this particular mission. He hadn't wanted to leave Yaz behind since she was the one he had grown closest to so far and he was worried about her safety so he had asked for her to come as well. She'd probably be annoyed that he was fretting about her although she seemed happy enough to be doing more exploring, the main reason why she had agreed to start this adventure in the first place. Graham's main concern was that he'd only been brought along as target practice, even if this version of the Doctor seemed less likely to threaten him with bodily harm.
"We first need to get a closer look at how many there are here. Try and see which areas they're focusing on. Might be able to use something like that against them."
"You...you want us to approach the things that you referred to as 'war-hungry potatoes'? You've always been mad, haven't you?" The Doctor just grinned.
"What we need is a defendable base and then we can focus on taking them out," Mackenzie said, cocking his gun with a determined look.
"I haven't come here to fight in a war," the Doctor told him, visibly uneasy at the sight of the gun, despite the fact that the others were also armed. He'd tried arguing that there was no need for such safeguards, that they'd be able to do this without transforming them into killers, but Kate had been incredibly stubborn, stating that she wasn't going to send people she hardly had jurisdiction over into a battle with no way of defending themselves. He was only going to let such a thing happen as a last resort. He didn't want soldiers, he needed his friends. "I'm here to actively avoid and prevent that inevitability. This planet can't survive taking them on. No one can."
"Then how do you suppose that we take on an army, seeing as we're a group of six people and they've probably got thousands of soldiers on their side."
"Oh, I can tell I'm not going to get on with you," he sighed. "We're going to do it through a lot of hard work, some cunning, and a great big whopping portion of luck." He began to trudge off, Jack patting the UNIT soldier on the back as they followed.
"You're not going to be able to convince him to follow your mindset," he advised. "He does it in a completely different way to the one you've been trained to do. Best get used to it." Mackenzie stayed in the same spot for a moment, irritated at the apparent foolishness of this plan, if it could even be called that. Kate had told him before they left to follow what the Doctor said so he would have to begrudgingly do that for the time being.
None of them enjoyed the fact that the small town was apparently empty, the bland brick buildings covered in graffiti suggesting that this area had been abandoned long before the invasion had happened. The Doctor was focusing on looking through any windows he could see, wondering if there was anyone still about. Nothing. The only noise they could hear was coming from in front of them, loud marching and barked orders. He slowed them down as they neared the edge of a building, the Time Lord poking his head slightly around the corner to see what was going on. He grimaced. The Sontarans had touched down, streams of soldiers clad in bulky blue armour appearing in long lines. He spotted a couple of generals with their helmets off, assessing their growing army as they observed the gathering. The Doctor turned back, not wanting to be spotted just yet, and glanced at the others who were all wearing the same curious looks.
"They're already forming squadrons. It looks like they're getting ready to scout the area."
"Why would they be doing that?" Yaz asked. "The other Doctor was saying how this is all meant to be a way of destroying the planet. Wouldn't it be easier to just...blow everything up?" They looked at her warily, her cheeks growing red.
"I'm glad you're not in charge of their war plans," Jack commented. "Otherwise we'd have no chance of stopping them. Brutal and lethal." Yaz didn't know whether it was meant to be a compliment.
"The Sontarans are a warrior race. There's very few other species in the cosmos that have a similar hunger for war. The so-called glory of killing." The more the Doctor spoke, the more they were becoming wary of their prospects. "There'd be no fun in just wiping us out. It's much more of an entertaining sport when your targets run."
"So, why have they chosen an area that looks inhabited?" Jenny pointed out with a frown. The Doctor looked just as flummoxed by the conundrum. "That goes against everything you just said."
"I didn't bring you here to point out the flaws in my explanations. But I...don't know. I'd need to get a closer look at what they're doing, which would mean getting to the very heart of their operations over there."
"That heavily guarded area, with the many guns and very few spots to hide?" Graham sighed, gripping his laser gun tighter. He really needed to do some stretches before they started doing any running. The worst thing to happen would be him getting a stitch as he fled from the pursuit of one of those aliens. Apart from dying. He didn't know which one Grace would be more annoyed about.
"This is all in a day's work for me." He hushed them quickly, putting a finger to his lips, as they heard the commander start shouting.
"Prepare the initial phase!" he yelled, a fist placed on his chest. "We must have patience! Then we will be able to watch the human scum flee from their homes and our fun will begin! For the glory of Sontar!" They watched as some of the Sontarans began to move into the decrepit tower buildings around them, thankfully using ones away from where they were standing.
"First phase? What are they talking about?" Jack wondered aloud. The Doctor scanned them with his sonic, squinting to focus on a form of flashing objects a member of each group held.
"They're putting something inside the buildings," he explained. "There's no way of knowing what specifically it is from this distance." After a few minutes of more focused watching, the Sontarans emerged again, joining the rest of the forces. A purple forcefield glittered into life, protecting the army from the apartment blocks. A distant low humming filled the air, getting high in pitch. Then...silence. A momentary pause and then a flash of red came inside each building before they slowly, agonisingly, tumbled to the ground with an almighty groan. The Doctor beckoned them all to hug the wall tightly as ash and dust, a cloud of dirty grew, came billowing towards them. They closed their eyes and gritted their teeth as they held on before it eventually passed. Whatever had happened, the commander looked fairly pleased about it, which only served to make them worry more.
"So...they just destroyed a building for...fun?" Yaz queried, coughing slightly.
"It's more than that. Phase one...phase one...putting something inside...with no obvious goal to kill anyone just yet...it was a test!"
"A test for what though? A weapon?" Mackenzie proposed.
"Well, it just brought a tower block to its knees so I'd reckon so, yeah. A new, experimental device by the looks of things. Imagine...it targets the internal structure, the main supports. People see this happening so know they'll get crushed if they stay inside."
"Meaning they have to run outside, getting picked off by the Sontarans who are waiting outside," Jack finished with a grim look. "Who won't be bothered by the resulting ash cloud because of that shield, I reckon."
"Like putting a snake in a rabbit hole, hoping that they come bouncing out of the other end."
"That's why he was talking about the people fleeing," Jenny said. "You were right. Turning it into an easy sport for themselves." They were too busy in discussing what this all meant that they didn't notice the short figure suddenly appear behind them. They didn't hear the sound of its gun charging up. But they turned around as they heard its gleeful shout.
"For the glory of Sontar! Sontar-ha!" it yelled as the gun fired.
