"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 passer-by just trying their luck. Whoever it was had descended 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 outside the TARDIS 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? Are you not all awfully warm in those outfits? You all look like jacket potatoes."

"Where did you come from?" the guard at the front demanded, either ignoring the slight at their appearances or just not understanding it. "This is a restricted area."

The Doctor looked at the small group of soldiers. They all looked vaguely human, with their ears set slightly too high. Amy and Rory probably couldn't tell but, well, he was the more experienced of the bunch.

"A restricted area?" the Doctor repeated. "Well, those do normally tempt me. However, me and my two friends here will just get back into our box and head back on our way." He reached behind him with no intention of heading back inside. As he had suspected, the guards all raised their guns at once and pointed them at the trio. "Oh, well, I guess we'll just go with you instead," he offered cheerfully, much to the surprise of Amy and Rory. "One, two, and all that jazz, correct?"

The head guard seemed surprised as well, but took the compliance as motioned them away from the TARDIS. "Is there anyone else in there?" he asked.

"Does it look like anyone else could fit in there?" the Doctor countered. "Just take us to your leader like good little soldiers."

He got a jab in the back from one of the guns over that, but his attitude did keep their attention off the TARDIS, which was the main reason for his bantering. If he could keep Danni and Tony away from their attention then Danni would look after the young Pond and he could find out what was stopping the TARDIS from taking off.

"Why are we going with them?" Rory whispered. "Shouldn't have we tried harder to get into the TARDIS?"

"And done what, exactly?" the Doctor replied. "The TARDIS won't start. She isn't something you can jumpstart with a pair of cables and your best friend's car battery."

"Couldn't we have just, you know, hidden inside?" he pressed.

"Well, we could have, had someone not answered the door when they knocked," the Doctor retorted pointedly.

"I just- I was—"

"You were trying to run away from your irate wife," the Doctor interrupted. He glanced up the sand dune they were heading towards. He assumed, going up instead of around, meant that wherever they were heading was on the other side. "Let me offer you this then, Mr Pond. They knew that at least one person was in there. We could have waited behind and had them do everything in their power to either get in or take the TARDIS, which they probably could have done considering they've grounded her. Or, we offer them us as 'everyone' and keep your son and granddaughter safe and sound in the TARDIS until we get back."

"Ah," Rory replied. It made a lot of sense, especially after he had been the one to reveal there had been someone in the TARDIS. "Do you think they'll be alright?"

"Of course," Amy said. "Danni's not stupid. She'll look after Tony. She's the responsible one."

"It's true," the Doctor admitted freely. "When I sort out whatever they're doing to keep the TARDIS grounded, we'll…"

He trailed off. Not because he didn't believe what he was saying, because he did. Despite Danni's newfound awkwardness around children she wasn't about to put anyone in danger, especially her family. What had made him trail off what the sight that had appeared over the top of the dune. Down below them, farther down than they had walked up, was a very large pyramid surrounded by a large metal wall with a tent village inside.

"Oh no," he said softly, horrified.

"What?" Amy quickly asked. "What is it?"

"It's bad, isn't it?" Rory added, also starting to panic. "I've got us caught in something bad, haven't I?"

"It's worse than that," the Doctor replied. "Archaeologists."

Amy hit him on the arm. "I thought it was something horrible," she snapped.

"It is!" the Doctor protested. "We've been captured by archaeologists! Do you know how embarrassing that is? Danielle is never going to let me hear the end of it!"

He was shoved in the back by one of the soldiers. "Move," they snapped.

"Yes, Doctor," Amy said mockingly. "Move."

~0~0~0~

As they were walked through the camp, Amy and Rory couldn't help but notice how everyone was staring straight at them. The people there looked like… well, they seemed human, but they had a lot more experience to know that what looked human was never that. They were all wearing some variation of the silver uniform that the guards were wearing, some more ornate than others. They must have looked pretty strange in their Earth 1950s gear.

The Doctor, however, noticed a lot more than the outfits. He was used to people looking at him. He usually commanded the attention in most places, with Danielle and himself usually being the most interesting things at any location. People were nosy. As long as they weren't being nosy and getting in his way he didn't really care.

He noticed the distinct lack of archaeological items. While a lot of things were covered in sand – they were in a desert – nothing seemed to be particularly dirty. That made sense when taking the pyramid into consideration. He just expected more… well, a lot more things being stolen from their resting place. All he saw was people hanging about, a lot of machines and not a lot of people pretending they knew what they were talking about.

He hated archaeology. When you had a time machine, making guesses about artefacts in the context of the time you were examining them seemed pointless. If he wanted to know how anything worked he could just take a trip back in time and see it in action. He had never identified a games console as a figurine of a god before.

Well, there was that time he'd been hoodwinked by what had turned out to be an apple peeler and corer. It had looked more complicated than it needed to. Danielle didn't stop teasing him about that for weeks.

Archaeological digs were normally headed up by someone looking for something, as well. Not someone trying to learn, but someone looking for that special item to prove them right, not to be shown to be wrong. Generalisations were never good, but the universe didn't have a good track record as far as he'd seen.

So, he wasn't surprised when they were taken to the biggest tent. The one without too many tents too close to it. It was all so predictable. Luckily, that just meant that he knew how he could get them out of the camp and back to the TARDIS with relative ease. He didn't particularly want to drag the Ponds deep into his life again. He missed them, but he wasn't that naïve. Their lives had moved apart in that regard. He just needed to get them back home.

Unfortunately nothing was ever that simple…

"Hello, I'm the Doctor," he greeted tiredly as he entered the tent after the guards who had captured them. "These are my friends and slash or relatives. That is my ship and slash or home and we will… what is that?"

"Was he always so…" Amy whispered to her husband as the Doctor made a beeline for the table in the middle of the room, where the surprised and outraged occupants of the tent were stood.

"Distractible?" Rory finished for her. "Yes."

"I was going to say dickish, but yours works too," Amy finished.

"What do you think you are doing?" the woman at the table exclaimed angrily. "Who are you?"

"Doctor. Friends. TARDIS," the Doctor rambled off. "I don't go over old ground. This is an engine."

The woman looked over at the guards. "Who is he?" she snapped.

"We found them over the dunes, Ma'am," the guard explained. "They were in a small blue wooden box. They appeared when the alarms rang."

"Then why aren't they in chains?" she demanded, much to Amy and Rory's surprise.

"Wait, wait, you don't need to do that," Amy started in the hopes that they could placate them all.

The Doctor, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered at all by the idea that they were about to be chained up. In fact, he just pulled out his sunglasses and put them on, leaning closer to the engine to examine it closely. "This is interesting," he declared, giving the engine a buzz. Everyone jumped and the guards all drew their guns. "This engine is over a hundred years old."

The woman held up her hand. "It is," she said slowly, analysing him closely. "And?"

He reached out, grunting slightly as he turned it around. He reached in, feeling around. "And it's barely been used. It's barely off the assembly line," he continued. He felt all the different pieces of it. "Interesting…" He pulled out a small device. "That really shouldn't be in there."

"What is it?" the woman asked.

"It's a thing that shouldn't be there," the Doctor replied shortly. "What else did you think I meant by that?" He pointed it at her. "You're the important one, right?"

"Right…" she replied slowly, seemingly a little confused before she caught herself. "I'm Captain Herrera."

"They're making archaeologists captains now?" the Doctor retorted.

"We're not archaeologists," she replied. "We're a rescue mission. How did you know that the engine was a hundred years old?"

"It's pretty obvious when you look at it," he dismissed. "Who are you rescuing?"

"I don't think that's any of your business," the captain snapped. "Take them away and lock them up until we can get someone to take them…"

"It's a homing device," the Doctor interrupted yet again. "Or, at least, it was a homing device. One use and it's gone. Whatever brought the engine to the ground was controlling it with this." He gave the device a wave in the air. "Whoever you're rescuing was pulled down here with it. I'm going to guess roughly a hundred years ago. First voyage, am I wrong?"

"They were just supposed to be scouting," she explained. "The ship stopped responding. Complete radio silence. When they went looking for what was considered the crash site, nothing was ever found. This is just the next stop on a long series of investigations into what happened to 736."

"736?" Amy repeated tentatively. "Was that the ship's number?"

The captain nodded. "We broke into the pyramid as a last resort with the thought that, if they had crashed, perhaps they might have taken up shelter inside. We've not found any remains. All we found was the engine."

"Why here?" the Doctor asked. "Why now?"

"The last known location of the ship was about three hundred miles due west," she explained. "The desert was pretty much disregarded, but 736 is pretty infamous and my higher-ups want us to investigate everything."

The Doctor didn't say anything for a moment as he chucked the homing device up and down, catching it with one hand. It was all incredibly interesting, especially since he now knew that it wasn't an archaeological dig. Danielle would have loved to see what was happening, but keeping her with Tony in the TARDIS was still the best move. He did have the Ponds with him, after all. He did work better with an audience.

"Alright, I'll do it," he declared, chucking the device at the captain.

"Do what?" she asked, catching it with ease.

"Take the case. Look into your missing crew," he replied. "Show me everything you've got."

"I don't have the foggiest idea who you are," she replied bluntly. "Why should I tell you anything?"

"Because of that," he said, nodding towards the device. "I came in here and, in the space of thirty seconds, showed you all you needed to know. Your crew didn't crash, they were pulled down here. Which means that there is something in that pyramid that you don't know about. I'm someone you want on your side." He then shrugged. "Unless you want to blunder along yourselves. I don't mind, I don't really care. We'll go on our merry way and you can fail to spot anything else important. Up to you, Captain."

Amy tried not to smile to herself. Even after all this time she knew this part well. He may have done it a little differently when he'd been her raggedy man but this was the part where he convinced them to work with him. And it always worked.

Even Rory, who was always more reluctant to travel than she was, knew what was happening now. The captain, who didn't want to seem incompetent but also had nowhere else to turn, deliberated for one long moment. Then, she looked to her guards. "Take them into the pyramid," she instructed. "See if they can find anything we've missed. If they don't; leave them there."

~0~0~0~

"I didn't sign up for this," Rory muttered. "I signed up for a twelve-year old's birthday party."

"No one ever signs up for this," the Doctor retorted. "It just sort of happens. I've tried for centuries to have a quiet life with my wife. I've tried the whole 'sight-seeing' angle, but it never works."

The tunnels in the pyramid were incredibly dark, and seemingly endless. Amy and Rory had protested as they'd been led into the pyramid, but the Doctor had seen it much differently. Even with his wife and Uncle-in-Law in the TARDIS, maybe in danger of being kidnapped and also led to their possible deaths. They were just left to wander deeper, trying to see anything out of the ordinary. The only thing that he'd deduced so far was that the pyramid felt more like a maze than a final place of resting. Like it was designed for people to get lost in.

"Oh, you would hate just sight-seeing," Amy replied. "As would Danni. She's always liked jumping head first into everything."

There had been a point in his life where he would have agreed whole-heartedly. Her first body, especially, had been much more impulsive. Now, though, she liked to have more control over everything. He understood that completely, he was just struggling to give her that. But that wasn't the issue right now. The problem was that, somewhere, inside the giant pyramid was the reason the TARDIS wouldn't fly. And the TARDIS wasn't the only thing that was being affected by it, it would seem.

"Can we get some light?" he asked loudly to the people they were following. "Is there a switch somewhere? You must have electricity."

"We have to keep the tunnels dark."

"You 'have to keep the tunnels dark'?" the Doctor repeated mockingly. "Really? That's all you're going to give me?" He sighed heavily. "Why do you have to keep them dark?"

The guard just smirked slightly. "Isn't that why you're here? To work it out?"

"This is why I need Danielle," the Doctor grumbled. She wouldn't stand for people being rude. Or, at the very least, would help keep his frustration down at the fact that no one seemed to ever want to answer his very simple questions. "Fine, let's work it out." He reached out to each side, letting his fingers drag across the sand blocks that made up the walls. He gathered a bit of the crumbling sand up, running it between his fingers. "This pyramid is, what, nine thousand years old?" The sand fell to the ground as they continued on. "With no light sources. So, definitely a tomb rather than a fancy hotel."

"Are there many pyramid hotels?" Amy asked him.

"You'd be surprised. People love a good theme. Or, in this case, rather a bad theme," he reasoned. "Have you worked it out yet?"

"Worked out what?" Rory asked.

"What's wrong," he replied. "Can you see it, yet?"

"I can't see anything," Amy muttered. "We should have just gone back to the TARDIS."

"We can't, that's the point," the Doctor said. "For both things, actually. We can't go back to the TARDIS and we can't see anything. No gold, no decorations, no remains of a ship that disappeared from the air like it was never there. There're no mummies, no ancient depictions of an animal that really deserved more worship than they were getting. Where is all of the history? There are archaeologists outside and no one has found anything."

"They're not archaeologists," Rory commented, but the Doctor didn't seem to care.

"And not one of you, not one of you, seems to have noticed the rumbling."

Rory frowned, pausing. "What rumbling?"

Amy had also come to a stop. "Yeah, I can't hear anything," she told the Doctor bluntly. "Is this like the Earth, and the Silurians? I don't want to be eaten by the ground again."

He shook his head. "No, of course not," he replied. "This rumbling is definitely coming from behind us." He turned to the guard. "You're not telling us something," he snapped. "What have you found?"

To his credit, the guard looked a little sheepish and a lot worried. "We've lost about twelve men in here since we started excavation," he explained. "There's no sign of them, no distress signals, nothing. They've all just disappeared without a trace."

"Oh, great. So instead of looking for my help you're just feeding me and my friends to a pyramid," he exclaimed. He turned to Amy and Rory. "So, I've got some bad news…"

Amy stormed over to him, trying to glare at him in the dark. It was hard, but she managed it well. "What have you gotten us into?" she demanded.

"Me?" he replied, outraged. "It was your husband who opened the front door."

"Doctor, that rumbling, it's getting closer," Rory told him as the rumbling started to get close enough for him to feel through the soles of his shoes. His guilt at not thinking before acting was starting to building to a strength that felt like he was being strangled.

"I know, I know," the Doctor snapped. "Keep moving. I need to think."

No one needed telling again and the group started heading deeper into the pyramid. "Have I managed to get us killed?" Rory continued. "We can't die here."

"Ever the optimist, I see," the Doctor drawled as his mind raced over every species he knew to try and work out what was following them and whether or not it was going to be friendly. He'd already decided that it wasn't – after all, what lived in a pyramid that ate people left and right and was friendly? – but he couldn't place the rest of the scenario. He didn't even know what planet they were on, but he doubted even if he knew the name he'd actually know anything about it. His knowledge of the universe was vast, but there was still a lot more that he didn't know than he did. "There is something in the pyramid, something that Indiana Jones out there did know about, but didn't mention."

"We're worked that out, Doctor," Rory retorted. "Anything else?"

"Something that needs to be kept in the dark. Something that is eating people and something that you don't know how to stop, correct?"

"We don't even know what it is," the guard explained. "No one has been able to get close enough to see it and survive."

"Doctor! We have a son!" Amy reminded him pointedly, as if he hadn't considered not being chased by a random, killer alien.

"I'm not exactly looking to die here either," he retorted. "The quicker we find out what is at the centre of the pyramid, the sooner we can get back to the TARDIS and I can drop you back off to clean up after the gaggle of kids you called a party."

"Wait-Wait a minute," Amy sped up her already rather speedy steps and appeared at his side. "Did you just 'middle of the pyramid'?"

"No, I said 'centre of the pyramid'," the Doctor retorted.

"Why are we heading to the centre of the pyramid?" she asked impatiently. "Shouldn't we be heading back out the other way?"

"Yes, sure, if you want to head towards the terrifying rumbling then we can head directly to our deaths right now," he told her. "After all, whatever is coming towards us is sure to let us pass after a little chat."

"Yes, alright, you've made your point," Amy grumbled. "Do you have a plan other than 'get away from the people-eating monster'?"

"I'm working on it," he told her. "I work better when I'm running for my life. You should remember that."

~0~0~0~

Danni hated running for her life. Her blood was pumping through her veins, keeping the adrenaline flowing so she could keep pulling Tony behind her. The creature, thankfully, seemed to be quite slow on the scale of monsters who had chased her and her friends in the past, but she still wanted to keep a good distance between the perusing alien and her uncle.

"What-What is that?" Tony exclaimed, terrified.

"I have no idea," Danni replied. "I think it's hungry, though. We just need to outrun in."

"To where?" Tony cried. "We don't know where we're going! We're going to be stuck in here forever!"

"Wow, you really are Rory's kid," Danni muttered to herself. Her lungs were starting to hurt, but many centuries and a rather strong survival instinct said that she could keep running for a while yet. "We've just got to keep running until we get to a place we can split off. Then we can head one way and, hopefully, it will head down the other."

"Are-Are my parents going to be there?" he asked.

Danni didn't know. She had lost all bearing of where they were in the pyramid when they'd started running and she didn't know if she was heading towards the centre, or back towards the exit, or towards some sort of dead-end where they'd never get free. She put the sonic screwdriver in her mouth so she could pull out her phone.

"Theta!" she shouted, after yanking the screwdriver back out of her mouth, when the Doctor's phone, yet again, went to voicemail. "We're going to have to add a notification feature to your watch because this is ridiculous."

She hung up then pointed the tip of her screwdriver to the screen of the phone. "You still there, Tony?"

"I-I can't keep going," he panted, but she ignored the complaint and instead focused on the fact that he was still running. They turned another corner as she loaded up the Maps app on her phone with one thumb as she kept the sonic screwdriver pointed against the phone.

"Just a little longer. I'm just trying to rework the map…" she started before, with an almighty spark, her phone exploded. She yelled, chucking it away from her where it smashed against the wall. "Bullshit!" she snapped. "Where the hell are you when I need you?!"

Tony's brows furrowed and he felt where the sweat was keeping his hair stuck to his forehead. "The Doctor?"

Danni didn't reply. She was doing so well, not getting mad at the Doctor for not being able to find and save her, but she just needed someone to shout at. She knew he'd understand if she told him.

"Look!"

She sighed in relief when she saw the 'T' junction up ahead. "Just follow me," she told him. "Don't say anything. Just follow."

She had wanted to try and turn her phone into some sort of compass. It had GPS functionality, so she'd hoped she'd be able to, at the very least, get some sort of indication as where they had been heading. Now, though, she knew they were going to have to run blind. And, without any real knowledge of where they'd come from, she didn't know which way to go next.

So she went right.

Tony kept on her heels until she came to a stop. "Right, what do we know?" she asked out loud.

"We're in a pyramid where there are monsters chasing us," Tony replied. "I-I want to go home, now."

She placed a hand on his arm and gave him a comforting, if not slightly awkward, rub. "I know. Not long," she promised. "I'll get us back to your parents. Just let me…" She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a breath to try and calm herself down. "Right. We don't have a phone, we don't have the TARDIS, and we have no idea where we are in the pyramid or, even, what planet we're on. Those all of the things that we don't have. What do we have?"

Tony pointed to her hand. "Your sonic screwdriver?" he offered and she nodded.

"Yes, yes, that's good," she said, her voice raising slightly in hope. "And I've got my…" She trailed off as she patted her coat, feeling her gun in her pocket. She held her hand in place, feeling the firmness through the fabric, taking a little bit of comfort from it. Not as much as she once had done, but there still was some there. She moved her hand away. "Right. Sonic. We might not be able to know exactly where we're going, but…" She pointed it down the hallway in front of her. She glanced at Tony. "It's going to go dark for a moment. Don't move."

He nodded firmly and she buzzed the sonic a couple of times. The light flickered and they were bathed in darkness until she popped the end out to read the results.

Tony watched her, illuminated by the pale white-ish blue-ish glow of the light on the end of the screwdriver. She looked like the whole of her life was flashing through her head as she tried to pull out the information she was looking for that correlated with what she saw.

He had no idea what she saw. He didn't understand it. His mom and dad had always said that the sonic screwdriver hadn't made any sense, and his mom said that the Doctor just pretended to see stuff on it to make himself look smarter. Danni, though, did seem to see that she was seeing something on it.

She turned around, putting the light back on and pointing it back the way they came. "We need to head back," she told him.

"Why?" he asked. "That-That monster's that way!"

"Yes, well, there's a monster this way too," she offered. "We need to head down the other hallway. Ready?"

He tried not to focus on being tired, and instead focused on how much his legs were aching. "Do we really have to run?" he whined.

"You get used to it," she told him. "Go!"

She knew that even the most active of children would struggle with keeping up with their lifestyle, and she was acutely aware that she might lose Tony to fatigue at any moment. She silently berated herself as they crossed over the junction to the other hallway. She should have just kept them both in the TARDIS. He would have been safe, and it wasn't like the Doctor didn't know how to get himself out of sticky situations. She had just wanted to find him. She'd wanted to be useful.

"Oh no," she panted, coming to a stop at the dead end. The rumbling was starting to catch up to them again, signalling that the way back way was now off limits. She grabbed Tony by the arm and flung him behind her before pulling out her gun.

"Are you really going to shoot it?" Tony asked her.

She nodded. "If I have to," she replied. "I don't want to, but if I have to." She took another deep breath. She didn't want to use the gun in front of her uncle. She hated guns, really. She always had. She hated that it made her feel safe and in control, but while it did it was a valid and necessary option for her.

"Oi, mate!" she called. "Hungry, eh? Well, if you head the other way I'm sure you'll find something nice."

There was a roar and, from around the corner, the monster appeared, striding towards them with loud, heavy footsteps. "I said go the other way," she called, voice firm and the warning was clear in her tone. "What do you say, big guy?"

The monster really wasn't keen on her suggestion and the other one was quick to join it. Danni took a step back and so did Tony. "I don't think they care," he cried.

"I noticed," she retorted. She shifted on her feet, getting ready. "I'm going to count from three," she told them. "This is your last warning. I will shoot."

Tony felt his back press up against the wall as he continued to back up. Danni was stood firm in front of him, gun cocked and ready and, no matter how terrifying the creatures coming towards them was, he was also terrified of the gun going off. His parents had always been so anti-gun that he'd never really been around them, and he was quickly wishing that it had stayed that way.

"Three," Danni counted down. "Two. One."

The gun shot with a sound Tony had never heard before. As it did, he pressed further away and closed his eyes, terrified. The wall clicked and he yelled in fright as it turned away and he fell through to the other side.

The two creatures cried out in pain, falling to the floor with the two fatal shots. Danni didn't pay attention, though, because she knew her aim was good enough that her shots would have hit their marks. She spun around, eyes wide. "Tony?" she asked, hearts suddenly racing. He was gone. "Tony!"

~0~0~0~

Sorry for yet another ridiculously long break. I'm sure all of you have left by now, but hopefully real life will let me get back to writing weekly again.

Anyway, leave a review if you're still here!