"Why can't I go?" Tony demanded. "You were going to go with the Doctor when you were seven!"
"Yes, but I didn't," Amy countered. "And it would have been a terrible idea that I'm sure the Doctor and Danni would have realised when the Doctor had come back." She looked at the Doctor. "Right?"
"Well, I certainly wouldn't have taken you," the Doctor drawled. "But I can't speak for that idiot."
"Don't speak about my husband like that," Danni chided lightly. "He was an idiot but he wouldn't have taken a seven-year-old with him. He just needed to realise that's how old she was. Plus, there's no way I would have let him mess up the time line like that."
"Maybe in my time line I'm supposed to go travelling when I'm twelve," Tony shot back, a grin on his face as he realised he had an amazing argument.
"No one is supposed to travel in the TARDIS when they're twelve," Danni replied, dashing his hopes. "When you don't need a permission slip you can come."
Tony was absolutely besotted with the TARDIS. The console room alone was enough to cause his mouth to fall open as he'd stepped in. His mom and dad had told him stories of their time travelling around the universe, but seeing it with his own eyes was just completely different to imagining it. The TARDIS was so much better than anything he'd made up in his mind.
But, as always, the adults didn't want him to have any fun at all.
He whizzed around the console, not touching anything but also stopping to look at every control that caught his eye. "It's only one trip," he tried. "Nowhere dangerous at all. Just to the future."
"Not a chance," Amy said firmly.
"I just want to see where you grew up!" he exclaimed, reaching out to pull a lever that was just calling out to him. Danni batted his hand away before he could.
"Leadworth was boring," Danni told him. "Its greatest feature was that it had a duck pond. If we were going to take you to the future it'd be somewhere much better than that."
"Danni!" Amy exclaimed.
"But we're not taking you," Danni finished, shooting Amy a look that said the red-head should really have known better. "Not until you're older, anyway."
Tony stopped on the far side of the console, looking at all the adults that were looking down at him, trying to get him to pay attention to what they were saying. "It's not fair!" he cried. "All my family is spread right across the universe and I just want to spend time with them all!"
"That's what we're doing now," Rory pointed out patiently. "They come when they can."
Tony almost screamed in frustration. Much like other pre-teens, his parents never listened to him. They always thought they knew what was best, but that didn't mean he didn't know at all. He was relatively clever, and he had thought this over again and again.
"It's not fair!" he shouted, slamming his hands down on the console out of anger. The TARDIS shuddered as she was sent into flight but Tony didn't notice. He just turned and ran into the hallway, deeper into the TARDIS and away from all of the adults.
Amy and Rory both grabbed onto the railing that lined the walkway to the door whilst the Doctor and Danni grabbed onto the console itself as the TARDIS flew through the vortex.
"Doctor!" Amy cried in panic.
"Oh, I'd forgotten that sound," the Doctor remarked. "Amelia Pond; angry. I can't say I'd missed it."
"Oi, Raggedy Man," Amy snapped. "I'm not too old to give you a slap!"
"What's going on?" Rory asked the Time Lords. "What did he do?"
"He just set us into flight," Danni explained, pulling the monitor over to herself. "He hit random but we weren't ready for the trip so there's no one actually driving but the TARDIS."
"We can't fly away! We can't go anywhere!" Amy quickly exclaimed. "Take us back right now!"
The TARDIS came to a shuddering halt. The Doctor quickly tried to do exactly what Amy had instructed, doing everything perfectly to reverse what Tony had done. Nothing happened and he frowned before trying again.
"What's wrong?" Danni asked, watching the screen flicker but gave her nothing but the view of the landscape outside. The lights on the console had dimmed and the rotor was almost completely dark. "She's not happy."
"Not happy?" Amy repeated. "What do you mean? Can't you just fly us back?"
"If I could, you'd already be home by now," the Doctor retorted. "There's something outside stopping her from taking off. She really doesn't want to leave."
Danni took a step back, looking up and down the console with a thoughtful frown on her face. It had been a while since the TARDIS had just decided to not take flight anymore. There had been times when she hadn't wanted to land – like under the ocean with the ghosts - but just refusing to move was quite unusual for her.
"Is it her not wanting to leave, or something stopping her from taking off?" she asked the Doctor. "There's nothing much outside except sand."
"Like a beach?" Amy asked before realising that she sounded rather intrigued and cleared her throat. "Not that it matters."
"It looked like a desert, anyway," Danni offered to her. "You could sunbathe, but you might just burn to a crisp."
"Can we actually get back home, though?" Rory asked, getting them all back on track.
"Short answer; no," the Doctor replied. He was looking up at the time rotor, eyebrows furrowed. "She's not happy at all. We're going to have to go find out what's going on."
"Alright." Rory nodded. "We'll wait here and you two go investigate."
"That's a terrible idea," Danni replied bluntly.
"Why?"
"Because all that is out there is sand and heat," she said. "Why bother going out when the TARDIS will probably take off in a few minutes anyway? I'll go find Tony then we'll try again."
"Why are you going to go find him?" Amy asked.
Danni smirked. "Because he likes me the best," she declared smugly. She didn't look back as she headed into the hallway. "I'll be back in five minutes. Best. Niece. Ever!"
The Doctor watched her go with a fond smile before turning to his old companions. "This must be quite exciting for you, considering," he said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy retorted.
"Well, you know…" the Doctor said pointedly. Amy put her hands on her hips, waiting for his reply. "Oh, don't make me say it!"
"No, go on, say it," she challenged. "Tell us about our dull, ordinary lives compared to your exciting, danger-filled, amazing lives!"
"You've just found your granddaughter after she was taken away by a megalomaniac who wanted to keep her as a pet. Is that not exciting enough for you?" the Doctor retorted. "I wasn't going to call your lives boring."
"Oh." Amy deflated slightly. "What were you going to say?"
"I was going to say it must be exciting considering your age," he replied. Rory did feel a little bit of offense, but obviously not as much as his wife.
"I am not old!" Amy protested. "And I'm nowhere near as old as you, Raggedy Man!"
"Old's relative," the Doctor offered simply. "For a Time Lord I'm in the prime of my life. You're both… well, you're not spring chickens anymore, are you?"
"Not spring…" Amy spluttered before turning to Rory. "Are you listening to this?" she asked.
"We're not exactly in our twenties anymore, though, are we?" he pointed out. Amy looked outraged and he realised he really should have thought before he spoke. "That's not a bad thing, though, is it? I mean, we have a family now. That's pretty amazing."
"That's true," Amy begrudgingly admitted.
"And just because we're going grey, or getting more wrinkles, or putting on a bit of weight…"
Amy's gaze shot to him again. "Excuse me?"
Rory's eyes widened. He'd been trying to reassure her, but he should have known to keep his mouth shut before opening it. This was like Manhatten all over again. Telling her she had lines when she'd obviously been rather self-concious about it. That move had gotten them trapped back in time. Who knew what would happen now.
Knock knock.
"Ah, did you—" he motioned to the door. "Someone should get that. I should get that."
"Rory, don't open…" the Doctor started, rushing towards the other man. There hadn't been anyone out there when Danni had checked, and that really wasn't long ago enough to justify a passerby just trying their luck. Whoever it was had decended pretty quick and that was never a good thing.
But it was too late. Rory opened the door. "Hey, can I… ah!" A hand shot in, grabbing him and pulling him out of the TARDIS. Amy and the Doctor shared a look of alarm before rushing over and out.
Stood there was a group of about ten people, all in silver outfits and all of them armed. There was one guard at the front and, judging by the eyes that were visible through the visor they were wearing, they were not happy.
The Doctor realised that they were being chucked into the middle of the adventure that Amy and Rory were trying to avoid. He shut the TARDIS door behind him and grinned at the group. "Hello, there," he greeted. "Have we crashed your fancy dress party?"
~0~0~0~
Tony wasn't exactly sure where he was, but he didn't particularly care. No one ever listened to him. They always told him he was too young, or that he didn't know what he was talking about. He didn't understand why they were all against him. He wasn't just a kid. He was Amy and Rory's kid. Amy and Rory, who had travelled in the stars, who had seen all those wonderful things that they were denying him. It was unfair!
He caught himself scuffing the toes of his shoes against the floor and forced himself to stop. He reminded himself of the cartoons that were at the back of newspapers. Hands in his pockets, looking at the ground, like the pouty child that his family seemed to think he was. He wasn't some dumb kid. He wanted to try.
He couldn't stop himself glancing into the rooms he walked past, though. He didn't recognise some of the technology in them but the library looked pretty cool, and there was a whole room full of comic books that he'd definitely have a look in when he wasn't so annoyed at everything. Perhaps he could borrow a few Captain America issues. He'd read some of the older ones and couldn't understand why they'd stop producing it.
Eventually, though, he got tired of even being annoyed. He stopped and sat down in the hallway. Someone would find him soon enough, probably to tell him off, but why should he make it easy for them?
He didn't even look up when Danni came across him. She'd been walking the halls for a little while, the TARDIS taking through a twisting path, she guessed because Tony needed some time for himself.
She walked up to him. "What's with the sad face?" she asked him.
"Nothing," he muttered to himself. She rolled her eyes.
"Yes, very convincing. You've just sat down in a hallway on your own because you're so happy," she retorted. He didn't say anything and she sighed, sitting down next to me. "Talk to me," she instructed. "Maybe I can help."
"No one understands," he muttered despondently. "I just wanted to go out with my family. I can't do that. Every part of my family is off in the universe somewhere and I just want to travel with them."
"I do understand, actually," she replied. He scoffed and she shot him a look. "Really?" She looked out across the hallway. She'd been sat on the floor a lot recently, she realised. "When I was your age I was living in another universe."
He tried not to look intrigued, but he was. "You were?"
She nodded. "Oh yeah. I had a mum and a dad, and they owned a caravan and we'd go whenever they were bored. We used to visit all of these seaside towns and I'd sit on stony beaches all day and just watch people go by." She smiled sadly to herself. "I loved those holidays. But, then, I was pulled back here and they just stopped. One minute I was with a family who I could visit whenever I liked, and the next I was jumping around the Doctor's timeline." She sighed. "I'd give anything to be able to go in that stupid caravan again."
"But you have a time machine. You can visit us whenever you like!" he pointed out.
"Yeah, but my mum's in one part of the time line and my dad is in the other and heaven forbid I get them in the same room together," she retorted. "My granddad and grandma are hundreds of years younger than me. My uncle is twelve. Lord knows how many siblings I may have out in the cosmos. I can visit you whenever I like, but it's such a big affair. I can't just drop in for tea and biscuits, can I? Every time I turn up it's such a big deal because, being who we are, we're kinda a big deal."
"I wouldn't mind you just dropping in," Tony offered.
"Yeah?" she countered. "And tell me; did you plan a birthday party around me being there?" He looked a little sheepish. "Me and the Doctor, we've become so much… so much more than we ever wanted to be. We can't just drop in because dropping in means everyone else has to stop."
"Not with anyone?" he asked, frowning. "Not even one person?"
Danni paused for a moment, thinking over her friends and her family. A small smile appeared on her face as she thought on Clara, who wouldn't ever make a big deal about her turning up unless she felt Danni needed that. They never had to do anything. They could just sit there and watch TV, or she'd let Danni fix up the furniture that had been assembled incorrectly. There was no fanfare. There was no having to promise to be back soon, or waiting for the inevitable when she would be late and when she returned everyone was dead.
"Just one," she admitted. "It's hard, having a family like we have."
"It is," he agreed. "How do you do it?"
He was looking at her with wide, hopeful eyes, like she had all the answers he needed. Unfortunately, she shrugged. "I don't, really," she replied. "I guess I just… Every time I see them is one more than I'm expecting, so I just take it as the blessing it is."
Tony didn't reply straight away. "That's really lame," he said. She barked out a laugh.
"Very lame," she agreed. "But, hey," she nudged him, "at least we're not alone in the lameness, eh?" She stood up. "Come on. Let's get you back to your parents."
He stood up, finally feeling like he was being listened to. "I'm your uncle," he reminded. "I should be telling you what to do, not the other way around."
"I'm a thousand years old. No one tells me what to do," she retorted. He looked at her as they walked back towards the console room. She looked rather cool in her outfit, even if it seemed rather different to what he was used to seeing anyone dressed in. He was sure it was futuristic, even if it seemed strange. He could see no one telling her what to do. Melody was the same. He hoped he could be like that when he was older.
"Danni?" he asked. "How did you die?"
She stuttered in her step. "Why?" she asked.
"Was it why mom and dad disappeared this morning?"
She looked down at him. "You noticed that?" she asked, surprised.
He nodded. "They're not very good at hiding things," he explained. "It's how I always know what my birthday presents are going to be. Did they go to see you before you died?"
"No," she replied. "I don't know if I should tell you."
"Why not?" he asked. "I should know, shouldn't I? You're family."
"That's true. But what happened to me…" She glanced down the hallway. "What happened to me wasn't nice—"
"Of course not. You died."
"-and I don't know if Amy and Rory would want you to know that," she finished, talking over him. "I know you're going to hate hearing it, but I think it's a story for when you're older."
He didn't argue, which surprised her. He just looked at her with a calculating look on his face. "Would you tell me?" he asked. "If mom and dad weren't here."
She stopped in her step, turning to look at him with every intention of telling him it didn't matter what she thought because Amy and Rory were there. Instead her mouth opened and closed a couple of times.
"I think you're too clever to be treated so stupidly," she replied. He grinned happily. "But I'm not so good with kids this time around. And what happened to me was dark. Really dark, and I'm not sure how old a kid has to be to hear about it. I think, overall, you may be better not knowing."
He didn't look best please with his answer, which she assumed meant she'd just lost her 'cool older niece' status she may have had. His brows furrowed, though, instead of the rant she'd been expecting. "Can I ask one question, then?" he tried. "I just want to know something."
She pursed her lips together, wondering if she should be frustrated or not at him pushing it. "Alright," she muttered. "I'm not promising to answer, though."
He nodded, agreeing to her terms. "When you died, were you alone?"
She blinked, surprised into silence. She had been expecting some sort of 'how', 'where', or 'why' question. She'd found a few people in the past had asked the Doctor how it felt, so she'd thought it would have been on that line of inquiry.
How did she even answer that? Missy had been there, after all she had been the one who'd killed her. So, no, she hadn't been alone. But the Doctor hadn't been there. River and Jack hadn't been there. Clara hadn't been there.
She swallowed hard. "Yes," she said softly. Tony surprised her yet again by chucking his arms around her and hugging her tightly. She froze, arms by her sides as tears suddenly stung her eyes. His comfort was, it would seem, very much needed by her.
She cleared her throat, patting him a couple of times on the back before breaking away. "We need to find your parents," she reminded. "They're probably worried we've gotten lost."
"You can't get lost in here. It's your home," Tony pointed out.
"The TARDIS is infinite. If she wanted us to get lost, she could do it without much effort at all." Danni looked up at the ceiling. "Luckily she loves me, so that's never happened before. She's much too good to me."
Tony watched as she spoke directly to the ship and, in reply, the lights all flashed as if it was replying. "That's amazing," he said. "I love this place."
Danni chuckled. "Everyone loves the TARDIS," she said.
The console room appeared very quickly, once again down to the TARDIS being incredibly helpful. There really was a bonus to having a home whose walls could change to help. What was surprising, though, was how empty the room was. The Doctor, Amy and Rory had disappeared.
"Where's my mom and dad?" Tony asked, just as confused as she was.
"I don't know," she replied. "Maybe they went looking for you." She walked over to the console, ready to do a quick sweep of the TARDIS, looking for any other life signals. "Why does no one realise I'm fantastic enough on my own?" she grumbled.
"I don't know. You are," Tony said matter-of-factly. "Maybe we took too long?"
Danni shot him a look that told him she was very much insulted by the thought. She then frowned at the results from the scan. "They're not here," she declared.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, they're not on the TARDIS," she clarified. She tried to run the scan again. "Where are they?" she muttered to herself. "Come on, sweetie, give me a clue."
The scan started running again, progress bar and Gallifreyan symbols telling her that the TARDIS was doing as she asked. Then, the screen flickered and a feed from the console room appeared. All three were still stood around and Danni looked over her shoulder, looking for the angle.
Tony moved to the console, placing his hands on it and pressing upwards as if he was getting a better view. "Is that in here?"
Danni nodded, looking back over to the screen, then over her shoulder again. "Yeah. The Doctor's stood where I am," she told him. She looked back at the screen a final time. The video played silently and Danni quickly scouted the console top. "I don't have any headphones," she said. "I can't hear what they're saying without them, sweetie. Can't you forward it onto the speakers, or something?"
The TARDIS didn't need to. As Rory opened the door and was pulled through from the other side it became pretty clear that whoever was on the other side took the trio. The video ended then began to loop around. Danni pointed at Tony. "Stay right there," she warned him. She headed to the door and opened it up but saw nothing but sand. She cursed to herself then closed the door. "They must have been taken straight after I went looking for you," she reasoned. "There's nothing out there."
Tony looked alarmed and she really couldn't blame him. "What do we do?" he exclaimed. "Who took them? Are they dead?!"
"I very much doubt it," Danni retorted. "If they were going to kill them they'd have done it here. Whoever it was took them because they want them alive."
That didn't settle Tony much, but Danni was too busy trying to figure out what to do next. It would be foolish to just follow blindly after them, but what choice did she have? She pulled out her phone and tried to call the Doctor, but it rang out and she hung up before his rather blunt voicemail message had finished.
She stared at the video, watching the Doctor, Amy and Rory being taken away again. She pursed her lips together. Tony watched her, expecting something smart to come out of her mouth, but nothing came. She just looked deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked before his hope spiked. "Are you trying to think of a plan to save them?"
Danni shook her head slowly. "No," she replied. "I'm weighing up the pros and cons to taking you with me instead of leaving you in the TARDIS."
Tony's eyes lit up excitedly. "You mean, you'd take me on an adventure?"
"I'm not saying that," she replied. "I might be saying that. The TARDIS is a lot safer. If you go wandering back through the hallways we'll be back before you even make it to the game room. No one's getting in. The TARDIS is the safest place in the universe."
She looked over the twelve-year-old. He had the biggest grin on his face, hope in his eyes and he was hopping from foot to foot. Leaving him behind probably was the best idea.
Danni sighed. "Fine. You don't leave my side and you don't wander off, understand?"
Tony looked rather surprised. "You're actually going to take me?" he asked as if he didn't quite believe what he heard.
"Yeah, well, I'm not an idiot," she replied. "You'll do as you're told for a little while before you'll follow me out. I'd rather be able to keep an eye on you."
Tony nodded along. "I would do that, yes," he agreed.
Danni turned to him, walking closer, giving him a look of warning. "But I mean it, Tony," she told him firmly. "You can't leave my side unless I expressly tell you to, okay? It really is dangerous out there. People we've travelled with don't always come back. Not everyone can be saved. I need you to do as I say."
He crossed over his heart. "Mom and dad have told me stories. I know it can be dangerous, but I'll be good," he promised her. She accepted it with a nod before walking over to the railings, picking up her coat. She checked her pockets for both her gun and her sonic screwdriver. With a nod of her head she motioned him over. "Come on then," she said and he jogged over to her side. "Let's go find them."
She stepped out first, but didn't move too far from the front door. She looked around. It was windier than she was expecting, but it wasn't too windy to blow sand over the footprints on the ground. She followed the track with her eyes as it went over a large sand hill and down the other side.
Tony let the door shut behind him and immediately started squinting. "It's a lot brighter than it looked on the screen," he commented. Danni didn't even look down with him as she rummaged through her pocket, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and handing them to him. He took them, surprised. "Are these sonic too?" he asked excitedly.
"No, only the Doctor can pull that off," she replied. "I got them from a marketplace on…" She frowned. "On where?" she mused to herself. "I remember it being very green." She shrugged. "I can't remember. I needed them for something, anyway."
"Are your pockets bigger on the inside?" Tony asked as he slipped them on.
"No, I just carry essentials with me," she said. "Although, I might see if I can do that. Seems like a good idea. This way." She started walking across the footprints, heading towards one of the surrounding sand dunes. "Be prepared for a long walk."
Tony felt himself slide slightly on the sand as he started walking but, after a few moments struggling, he managed to find his feet. "Do-Do you think they're okay?" he asked.
"I'm sure they're fine," Danni promised. "The Doctor is very good at talking himself out of situations. Statistically that'll be what'll work now."
"Mom always said that he would always put his foot in his mouth and get you all into even more trouble," he said.
"That is always a possibility," she agreed. "However, your mum and dad have been alive enough to raise you, haven't they?" He nodded slowly. "So everything is going to be fine."
Neither of them had expected to see the giant pyramid that sat down the other side of the dune, which was a lot steeper than what they'd just climbed up. There was a large tent village surrounding it, surrounded by a tall metal wall that was obviously there to keep people out.
"Oh, great," Danni sighed. "Archaeologists."
"Archaeologists?" Tony repeated. "You mean like Melody?"
Danni nodded. "I hate archaeologists," she declared bluntly. "They get so annoyed when you touch anything. And they like to categorise everything. It's such a dull way to live your life."
"But your mom's an archaeologist," he pointed out. She shrugged.
"River's always the exception in every situation," she pointed out. "Come on."
Tony looked down the rather steep hill. It looked almost impossible to walk down, which meant that they could tumble right down to the bottom with one misstep. "Are-Are we going down there?"
Danni shook her head. "I suspect that whatever the Doctor and your parents were taken for has something to do with that pyramid. We're going to go around the back and see if we can get in another way."
"You think they're in there?" he asked. Danni turned, heading back down the hill slightly to give them both some more cover.
"I can pretty much guarantee it," she replied. "We're going to have to move quickly before they get themselves into too much trouble."
Tony quickly followed her. He couldn't help but watch her. She looked much younger than his parents and his sister, but she still looked so imposing in her jacket and in her attitude. It was almost mesmerising watching her taking control of the situation, working off what Tony thought was basically nothing. He actually felt rather safe with her, which was strange considering he was the uncle and she was the niece. Traditional families had nothing on them.
"Do you think my parents are okay?" he asked quietly. Danni glanced over her shoulder at the boy.
"Your parents are seasoned pros at this," she told him. "It's not something you forget. They'll be fine."
~0~0~0~
"Why is sand so hard to walk on?" Tony moaned.
Danni tried not to sigh in annoyance. The way around the small tent village was longer than Danni had anticipated and Tony had slowly become bored. She totally understood. The landscape wasn't exactly exciting and they kept having to stop so she could peek over the edge of the dunes that surrounded the village to have a look to see how their progress was going.
"Because the sand is small granules that move underneath your feet," she explained. "And most people find it easier to walk on a surface that doesn't yield."
"Are we there yet?"
"No, we're not there yet," she muttered through gritted teeth. "I said I'd tell you when we were."
"You said that ages ago."
"It was like ten minutes, Tony. If you can't handle walking through a desert for half an hour then you really aren't ready to come travelling with us," she pointed out.
"Do you walk through deserts often?" he shot back.
"More than you'd expect," she admitted. She came to a stop. "Wait here."
"I don't want to wait," he groaned. She ignored him and moved up to the top of the hill. She looked over and saw that, finally, they seemed to be on line with the back of the pyramid. She looked over her shoulder.
"Tony, come here," she told him. His eyes lit up and his dashed up to her. "We need to get in there," she explained to him. "It looks like they've got people guarding every side though." Tony watched a small group of people wearing silver suits patrolling. Each side seem to have a group looking out for people approaching.
"Why are they dressed up like they're in a comic book?" he asked.
"Because Earth's style isn't the only one out there," she retorted. "Imagine how weird your clothes look to them." He looked down at himself with a frown. He didn't think there was anything wrong with what he was wearing. "They, most likely, were patrolling when they saw the TARDIS. Your father then went and opened the door because he's polite and they took him," Danni reasoned. "What we need to do is not that."
"What, be polite?"
Danni looked at him. "No, we need to not get captured. Always be polite." She looked back out. "I hate bad manners," she grumbled. "How hard it is it say a 'please' or 'thank you'? Seriously, the universe would be a better place if people were politer. And don't even get me started on people pushing you out of the way to get past…"
"What do we do, then?" he asked, interrupting what he could sense was going to become quite a rant.
"We're going to have to wait," she broke to him. He groaned again. "I need to get a feel for the patrol patterns. If you look into the bottom layer, on the right," she pointed over for him, "there's an opening. We need to get in there before anyone can stop us."
"Are we going to have to wait until dark?" he asked. He didn't want to wait around any longer. Danni shook her head.
"Nah, I'm better than that," she promised. "Just give me a little bit of time." She glanced up at the sun. "Maybe I should have put some sunscreen on you before we left."
Tony's nose wrinkled up in disgust. "Why?" he asked. "That stuff is gross. Dad tries to get me to wear it all of the time."
"That's because he's in the medical profession. You should listen to him," she told him. "We'll be fine. We won't be out here much longer."
"And you're sure they're in there?" Tony pressed. "Maybe they're around the front with the people in charge?"
"Your parents told you about their adventures with the Doctor and me, right?" she asked. He nodded. "Based on that, where do you think he will be?"
Tony thought for a moment then nodded his agreement. The Doctor his parents had painted a picture of would have always been in the middle of danger the moment he found it. "So, what do you think is inside?" he asked curiously.
"A mummy? Riches, maybe," she offered. "Whatever it is it must be worth putting all that protection up around to keep people out."
"Why haven't they got the wall around the back?" Tony replied. She looked rather impressed, turning back to watch the patrols.
"Very good point," she praised. "Why haven't they protected the back?"
~0~0~0~
It didn't take long for Danni to realise that they only had a small window to try and break into the back of the pyramid, and even then it was going to be tricky. The patrols, unfortunately, were quite effective and so they had they had very little time between two groups crossing over. They needed to be quick.
"You've got to run," she told Tony. "Stay as close to me as you can, but run straight for the doorway. If I fall behind don't wait. Just run straight in."
"What if there are people in there?" he asked.
"Then we'll both be captured and meet up again anyway," she reasoned. "Ready?"
He looked down at the soldiers, who all had guns, then at the door where they were heading. They had no idea what was on the other side. It could have been more guards, or mummies, or vampires, or anything. He was about to step into something completely unknown.
He was having an absolute blast.
He nodded. "Ready," he confirmed. Danni smirked. No one could ever resist their life, not really.
"On the count of three," she instructed. "One. Two. Three."
Both of them jumped over the edge of the hill, skidding on the sand. It became apparent, as Danni stumbled and started sliding down on her backside, that it was much easier to just let gravity do its thing and take them down. Tony glanced over at her, still on his feet, and decided that her way looked a lot more fun.
"Do you do this all the time?" he cried as he slid down next to his niece.
"Not all the time. But a lot of the time," she told him. He laughed happily and she grinned. "Get ready to run!"
The guards had already noticed them and were rushing over to them. Danni stood up first and pulled Tony up. "Go!" she instructed and they both began running as fast as the sand would let them. Guards were coming from either side.
"Stop!" someone cried. "You have been ordered to stop!"
"Yeah, I don't do orders," Danni cried back, although she had no idea which one was telling her to. She looked around and saw that they were coming at them from in front of the opening. Which meant, on their current path, they wouldn't be getting inside.
"Tony," she said to catch his attention. "Go right."
He frowned. "Why?"
"Loop. Do it!" She turned, heading away from the opening. He didn't quite understand why, but he followed, slipping in the sand. The guards seemed surprised at the sudden turn and followed after them.
"You have been ordered to stop!" they continued to shout. "If you do not top then we will be forced to shoot."
"Oh-Oh of course you will," Danni panted. "Right, new plan, new plan…" she growled to herself. "Right, Tony, head for the opening."
"What?" he cried. "You said to not leave your side…"
"Unless I told you to," she cut in. "I'm telling you to." She was reaching into her pocket and pulled out something silver and small. "Go straight in!"
Tony didn't want to. He really didn't want to leave her side for one moment, but she turned off from him and waved her screwdriver in the air. "Hey! Hey, bozos, look what I've got!" she shouted, drawing their attention, and so he veered off to the side while they were distracted.
he darted into the opening and was immediately greeted by darkness. He hesitated only for a moment but did as Danni had told him, heading in further before pausing and waiting in the dark. He told himself over and over that it wasn't scary, that it was just darkness and Danni would be in any minute. He pretended that he was an explorer, that this was his adventure and was just one in many. He ignored the sound of gunshots from the outside because he did this every day. He didn't want his parents, he wasn't even fazed. He just paused to catch his breath. This wasn't because he was scared.
He jumped a mile when a figure appeared in the opening, running up to him, and he felt his worry fade when he realised it was Danni. He chucked his arms around her, hugging her tightly. "I thought they'd shot you," he said. She didn't move for a moment then patted him on the back.
"I'm fine, sport," she told him. "Come on, we need to head in."
He let her go but looked up, alarmed. "It's dark!" he exclaimed. "How are we supposed to head in…" He caught sight of the gun in her hand. "Do you have a gun?"
Danni didn't look down at it as she put the gun away. "It's fine," she told him again. She reached out and grabbed the sunglasses off his face and the hallway brightened slightly. Not a lot, but a little. "Let me get…" She put the sunglasses away and pulled out her screwdriver. She pressed a button and the blue light on the end turned on, shining down the hallway. "There, that's better." She held it out to him. "Here. Now you can see."
He took it. "Shouldn't you be holding this?" he asked.
"No, because you're going in front so I can keep an eye on you," she told him. "Head straight."
He shrugged but did as he was told. "To where, exactly?"
"I'm going to work that out as we go," she explained. "When breaking and entering you have to learn to work on the go."
"Are we breaking and entering?" he asked.
"Well… We didn't break anything," she offered. "Just keep moving."
Tony really didn't think it was a good idea to go deeper into the dark, scary pyramid. But he did as he said he was told, putting one foot in front of the other. "What do you think is in here?" he asked quietly.
"Probably treasure," she said. She kept her voice light to tell him that she really wasn't convinced that so much security would be needed had they just been scavenging for ancient treasure. Plain archaeologists weren't usually so… well, they were usually rather underfunded. The tent city, the security, the walls, all suggested that they were hiding something much bigger inside than a few gold statues and a dead guy.
"Hey, where do we go?" Tony asked. At the end of the hallway were two corners. One went left. One went right.
"Left," she told him and so he turned, following what appeared to be her arbitrary choice.
"Why left?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Because we came from the right," she offered. "There's more pyramid on this side."
She really didn't appreciate the darkness at all. She'd spent a lot of time with Missy in the dark, and she'd always been slightly scared of it. It wasn't half as scary as Missy, or Cybermen, or the multitude of creatures she'd come across in her time, but it wasn't nice. She liked to be able to see what was in front of her so she could judge if it was real or not, or if it was a threat. Having only the blue light of her screwdriver shining in front of her wherever Tony decided to point it wasn't what she wanted at all.
She pulled out her phone, deciding to give the Doctor another call. She never had to worry about signal due to how the TARDIS redirected the call, but once again he never answered. Which meant that either he was ignoring the phone or he couldn't answer. Neither were good options.
"Why were they not keeping the back entrance protected?" she mused out loud, trying to turn the situation into something she could solve.
"Maybe there's something at the front that's worth protecting?" Tony offered.
"Or maybe there's something at the back that they don't want to protect," she countered. They came to another turnoff and she motioned him deeper into the pyramid. "Maybe there's something at that back they specifically want people to find."
"Like a trap?"
"Something like that," she confirmed. "If they think people are going to break in then they might have provided them a fake entrance so they can catch all the thieves that they're anticipating."
"So we've just run straight into a trap?" Tony surmised.
"Maybe," Danni said, although she didn't like that at all. "But what are the guards for, then?" she reasoned. "If they were trying to get people to enter then why have people outside trying to stop them?"
Tony had absolutely no idea and told her as much. She couldn't blame him for it, either. She was the seasoned pro at the whole investigating new things and yet she was still stumped. "The Doctor must be in here somewhere," she reasoned. "Either in the pyramid or in the camp. We just need to find our way to the other side. We're bound to find them all either way."
Tony jumped slightly at the sound of her voice. She'd been quiet for a little while, obviously as she had mulled over their next move. "And we'll find my mom and dad?"
"Exactly," she started before being cut off by the sound of rumbling. She grabbed Tony's shoulder and pulled him to a stop and closer. "Give me the screwdriver."
He did just that and she turned, shining it back down to where they'd come from. There was nothing there but also no indication of where they'd come from. "Damn it. I should have marked our way," she grumbled to herself. "Stupid bloody Time Lord. You never did beat that out of me, Koschei."
"Who's Koschei?" Tony asked, baffled.
"Doesn't matter," she told him as the rumbling started to get louder. It was coming from behind them. "Don't worry about it. We need to keep moving."
"What's that noise?"
"Just keep moving," she instructed firmly, pushing him forward. She looked back over her shoulder. Something dark came from around the corner. "Shit! Run!"
"What-What is it?" Tony asked, suddenly back to being terrified. Danni shoved him hard.
"Just run, Tony!" she shouted. He started sprinting forward.
"I can't see!" he cried.
"I know! Just keep going and always turn left!"
She skidded to a stop, shining the torch one last time at the figure that was approaching them. It was tall, much taller than either of them. She couldn't make out any features, but it had long legs and arms, ending with sharp pointed fingers. Her eyes widened in horror when she realised the rumbling wasn't coming from its steps, or from what had to be its head, but from its stomach. The sonic's light reflected off sharp teeth and the mouth snarled hungry.
"Shit," she whispered. "Shit!" She turned and sprinted, quickly catching up with Tony. She should have locked him in the TARDIS. She should have stayed with him. She should force the Doctor to answer his bloody phone.
But, it was too late for all of that. All she could do was grab Tony's hand, taking over him and dragging him behind her.
~0~0~0~
Hey everyone! We up for a good old fashion adventure? Cause I am :D
Just a note, I've uploaded the first chapter of the third part of my Sherlock fanfic. It's called Just Another Girl and follows on straight from Can't Wait Til Tomorrow, for those who are interested :)
Reviews!
serenitysaiyan - Thanks sweetie! It was a slog to write, but I feel like it was worth it in the end. And I'm really glad you picked up on that little bit. Danni isn't overly fond of this regeneration, I just think she's good at hiding it.
bored411 - I know, she's not going to be okay for a while, but I think we're starting to see turning points with her. I've been trying to build up the Doctor learning Danni again, so I'm glad that came across :)