CHAPTER 3

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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AMY POND?

Amy Pond stood there before the Weeping Angel who had taken her husband, her very life itself, away from her and shook with emotion as she made the most important decision of her life. She summoned up all of her courage and then plunged straight ahead into the unknown as she looked away from the angel while giving the Doctor a tear-filled final goodbye.

Then in the blink of an eye, she was suddenly somewhere else.

She looked around her in amazement to see that she was now standing in front of a magnificent ornate palace that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. She knew right away that something was wrong.

"There is no way that this is Manhattan. This couldn't even be a past Manhattan," Amy said to herself with growing fear in her heart.

What if Rory wasn't here? What if the angel had taken her to the wrong time and place entirely?

What if she had just lost the Doctor and River too for nothing?

She wouldn't allow herself to think such thoughts though. Not yet. Rory could still be here somewhere. Maybe she just hadn't found him yet.

As Amy tried hard to hold onto that one last glimmer of hope, she heard a voice suddenly call out, "Halt! Who are you? Identify yourself now."

Amy turned her head to see several Musketeers with their swords and guns drawn and aimed at her now rapidly surrounding her. She now knew beyond a doubt that she was no longer in Manhattan or even the Twentieth or Twenty-First Century for that matter.

"You stupid statue! Does this look like Manhattan to you? You put me in the middle of France!" Amy shouted in frustration to the now long gone Weeping Angel.

"She's talking to statues, Captain. She must be mad," One of the Musketeers said as he looked at her warily.

"Or perhaps she merely wishes us to think so in order to draw us into a state of false security. She could be another of the Marquise's monsters in disguise," Captain Lefevre said.

"Perhaps, sir, but why would she dress in such outlandish clothes, especially such revealing ones, if she were? Wouldn't she want to fit in much better than this in order to fool us?" A Musketeer asked.

"Perhaps she isn't a particularly intelligent monster," Another Musketeer said causing the others to laugh.

Amy glared at them as she said, "Oh, I am just loving this so far. First I find out that I'm stuck in the wrong time and place entirely then I wind up being surrounded by a bunch of third-rate extras out of a Three Musketeers movie who not only insult my clothes but also my intelligence. I have had more than enough of all of this! The next person who says anything negative about me whatsoever gets their jaw broken!"

The Musketeers could see that she meant what she said from the look of pure undiluted anger and frustration on her face. They all unconsciously backed away from her at once and stood a respectful distance from her now as she began to look like she was just one step away from attacking all of them at any moment.

"This one has fire in her eyes, Captain. We need to be extra careful around her especially if she's one of the monsters," A Musketeer advised.

Even through the mixture of emotions that were now filling her heart and threatening to tear her apart at any moment, Amy still retained her keen wit and natural curiosity. She recognized that this was now the third time that they had mentioned monsters. Could they mean aliens?

"These monsters that you're looking for what do they look like? What have they been doing?" Amy asked as she automatically shifted into investigative mood.

Lefevre looked at her in surprise as she started to remind him of Reinette now. She was starting to ask questions and assess the situation just as she would.

Something told him that this woman and the Marquise just might be kindred spirits.

"The monsters come in all shapes and forms. They could be anyone and anything including a madwoman who suddenly appears out of nowhere and speaks to statues," A Musketeer said with suspicion.

"The statues could be the same ones that the Marquise fought not long ago however. She said that they could displace people in time. Perhaps she is one of their victims," Lefevre said.

"You're encountered the Weeping Angels here too? You're seen statues that move when you're not looking at them?" Amy asked with renewed optimism.

Maybe she could get a second chance at finding Rory after all. Or would they now no longer be able to affect her at all since one of them had already sent her back in time once? If they were here and there was no trace of Rory anywhere as there seemed to be, then she was certainly going to do her best to find out.

"The Marquise and the one called the Doctor fought them, yes. The Doctor and his wife destroyed them all. Hopefully they're gone forever," Lefevre said.

Amy's eyes widened as she said in a hopeful tone, "The Doctor and his wife? Was this a man with a huge chin wearing a bow tie who acted like a large overgrown child and a woman with curly blonde hair and a large smile on her face that always carries a huge gun around with her? Did they both come in a blue box?"

"Your description matches the Doctor and his box well enough but not his wife," Lefevre said.

Amy's heart felt as if it was being ripped out as she said, "River's not with him? Then this could be . . . This could be after she's already gone. Is the Doctor still here? I need to see him. Please! He's a friend of mine."

The Musketeers all looked at each other with uncertainty as Lefevre said, "He's gone but the Marquise knows him well. If anyone might be able to contact him, it would surely be her."

"Take me to her. I need to talk to her right away," Amy pleaded.

"What business do you have with her? Who are you if you're not one of the monsters?" Lefevre asked.

"My name is Amy Pond and my husband and I travel with the Doctor or at least we did anyway. We were both separated from him by some of those living statues that you came across before. I need to find him and my husband again. Have you heard of anyone else suddenly appearing out of nowhere today or anytime recently?" Amy asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. I'm sorry," Lefevre said sympathetically.

He was starting to believe what she said. He was almost convinced now that she really was exactly who she said that she was. He could tell that the Musketeers remained unconvinced though from the way that they continued to look at her with undisguised suspicion and animosity.

"Captain, word around the palace says that there is a madwoman out here talking about the Doctor and asking to see me. Is this her?" Reinette asked as she suddenly came out of the Palace of Versailles with a worried look on her face.

"Yes, this is her, Marquise," Lefevre said.

"Let me see her," Reinette ordered.

Lefevre bowed to her and the Musketeers automatically stepped aside and created a path for her as she made her way to Amy. Several of the Musketeers quickly surrounded Reinette however ready to defend her at a moment's notice if Amy turned out to not be as friendly as she claimed to be.

Amy couldn't help but smile at this display of respect and devotion as she said, "I take it that you're someone very important around here from the way that they're acting. I'm Amy Pond, a friend of the Doctor's and yours too I hope. Right now with all of these guns and swords being pointed at me I really hope so."

"I am Jeanne Antoinette Poisson and I too am a friend of the Doctor's," Reinette said as she slowly moved closer to Amy.

"Why does that name sound so familiar to me for? It's like I've heard it somewhere before but I can't remember where," Amy wondered out loud.

"You may be more familiar with my title, Madame de Pompadour," Reinette said.

Amy's mouth dropped open as she said, "THE Madame de Pompadour? You've got to be kidding me."

"Why would I joke about such a matter?" Reinette asked with seeming seriousness but with the slightest traces of a smile trying to form at the corners of her mouth.

Amy was starting to feel better now. She was starting to get the impression of Reinette as someone who had a healthy sense of humor. Surely you could always trust someone with a good sense of humor, right?

"Madame? Marquise? I'm not sure how to refer to you and I don't want to be insulting. I need your help to get back to my husband and the Doctor. The captain here said that maybe you could bring him back here. Can you?" Amy asked.

Reinette smiled at her kindly because she could sense exactly how out of her element Amy felt here as she said, "My friends call me Reinette or Jeanne, Amy. I'd like to count you among that number. Yes, I may be able to contact the Doctor or at least my friend, Clara, might be able to at any rate. She can sometimes talk to his wife across time. It's difficult to explain but she has a connection to her."

"Please talk to her and ask her to do that for me, will you?" Amy pleaded.

"Don't worry. I'm already attempting to contact her already," Baroness Clara said as she came out of the palace.

"Were you standing inside the entrance eavesdropping on us, Clara?" Reinette asked in amusement.

"I certainly was. How else would I ever find out anything around here?" Clara said with a grin.

Then she suddenly stiffened as she said, "She heard me. She said that she's sending someone to talk to you right away. She said that it's someone who you're familiar with already."

"River?" Amy asked hopefully.

"I don't know. She didn't say," Clara admitted.

Amy stared at her closely as she said, "Do I know you from somewhere? You look very familiar to me for some reason as if I've met you before, and I could swear that your voice sounds like one that I've heard before too."

Clara and Reinette exchanged glances knowing that Amy could be talking about any of the original Clara's echoes or even about Clara herself.

"No, it wasn't me," Clara assured her.

Amy nodded and then her eyes bulged out of her head and she smiled as a familiar voiced behind her said, "Orange Haired Girl!"

Amy turned to see Idris standing there with a large smile on her face looking just as she had when she had last seen her years before. Finally a familiar face at last!

"Idris, I am so glad to see you. So the Doctor found a way to bring you back after all. Are you the one that he married then?" Amy asked.

"Sort of in a manner of speaking and yet I'm not his wife at all if you look at it in another way," Idris said with an enigmatic smile.

"You're still as confusing as ever I see. Have you come to take me back to the Doctor now?" Amy asked with a smile.

"No, you're not supposed to travel with him anymore. That time has passed. Or is it passing or will pass? I always get confused about how to say these things," Idris said.

"Why are you here then? Do you know where Rory is? Is he here?" Amy asked.

"No, he's in Manhattan just as he was supposed to be. Just as you should be, Orange Haired Girl. I'm here to tell you how to get to him. It's a rift in time that will soon open up nearby. You must be looking for it and ready to jump into it as quickly as you can. It will lead you straight to the Pretty One," Idris instructed.

"It's like the crack in my wall then? How is it being created? Did the Doctor blow you up again?" Amy asked.

Idris suddenly morphed into an exact duplicate of Baroness Clara who said, "I am creating it for you, Amy. It will appear very soon now and you've got to go through it as quickly as you can when it does. I won't be able to keep it open for long."

"What the? Why does she look like you?" Amy said to the Baroness Clara.

"I'm a part of her. That's the original Clara, the Doctor's wife and the TARDIS," Baroness Clara said.

"You! I do know you. You said that you were the TARDIS before when I met you in modern day Paris* but I didn't believe you. So he married you, huh? That figures," Amy said with a grin.

"Clara, can you give us an exact time and location for this rift so that my Musketeers can be looking for it?" Reinette asked.

Clara Idris shook her head as she said, "No, I'm afraid that I can't be that accurate. All I can say is that it will be somewhere nearby in the near future. It'll send Amy to Rory and then she'll finally have the life that she wanted at last."

"Why can't you just take her there, my friend?" Reinette asked.

"I can't take the chance of the Doctor finding out. Even now I'm sending a holographic version of myself so that he won't notice me missing. I have to do it this way so that he never knows that he could have gotten Amy back. He would be tempted to rescue her if he did know and if he did she would never see Rory again. That is what you want, isn't it, Amy?" Clara Idris asked.

"Yes, it is. I just want a normal life now," Amy admitted.

"I thought so. Be looking for the rift, Amy. Good luck and goodbye," Clara Idris said as her image faded away.

The Musketeers looked on with blank looks of shock on their faces as Lefevre said with a wicked smile, "Now do you believe the stories when they say that the Marquise knows the angels?"

Reinette smiled and shook her head at him as she said, "Stop that, Captain. I can assure all of you that that was no angel. My Clara would be the first one to tell you that no version of her could ever be considered as such."

"Hey!" Baroness Clara protested with a smile.

Reinette chuckled as she said, "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that it's okay for you to go around telling everyone all about it, Jeanne," Clara said.

Lefevre smiled at the two friends' playful banter with each other just as he always did before saying to the Musketeers, "You heard what the other Baroness Clara said, men. Be on the lookout for any mysterious happenings in the immediate area in the next few days and report them to me or the Marquise immediately. Is that understood?"

As the Musketeers nodded, Amy looked at Reinette with concern as she asked, "Uh, I know that I have no right to ask this, Reinette, but could I maybe stay with you until the rift appears since I have nowhere else to go?"

Amy had decided to call her Reinette instead of Jeanne because it sounded much more formal, and she wasn't close enough to her yet to call her by her first name. She was trying to be as pleasant as possible to her because from everything that she had read about her the Madame de Pompadour had incredible power and could easily have her killed if she wanted. Yet that wasn't the feeling that she got from this woman at all.

She was could tell right away that Reinette was very kind and generous just from the way that she was looking at her. No wonder the Doctor was friends with her. She was just as kind as he was, but she could sense that she was also capable of being just as dangerous if she had to be.

Reinette smiled at Amy and nodded as she said, "I already have a room in mind for you, Amy. You'll be my guest at Versailles for as long as you wish. Don't worry about a thing from now on. I'll make certain that you're reunited with your husband."

"Thank you," Amy said as she curtsied to her.

"You don't have to do that. Treat me as you would any other friend when we're not in the presence of any of the royal family. I want you to feel at ease around me. You already look like you're worried enough as it is," Reinette reassured her.

Amy sighed with relief realizing that she had read Reinette correctly as she said, "Thank you. I really hate being this pleasant all the time. It's just not me. I'm usually a lot more aggressive, and I tend to say what I think at all times without caring how it makes anyone else feel."

Reinette laughed as she said while looking pointedly at Clara, "I already have one friend like that, and now I have another one it seems."

"You're doing a very good job at making me feel really special today with your little putdowns, Jeanne. I just want you to know that," Clara said as she rolled her eyes at her.

"It's all meant in jest of course," Reinette said as she kissed her cheek.

"I know but I just like to hear you say it," Clara admitted with a smile.

"You seem to have a real self-confidence problem," Amy observed.

This expression of frankness with one of the royal family immediately made the Musketeers look on with alarmed expressions on their faces. This sort of behavior was highly improper to say the least. Reinette smiled and silently assured them that it was alright which made Lefevre smile.

Her total unconcern with putting on airs was one of the many things that he had come to expect from both her and the Baroness. This definitely made both of them unlike anyone else at Versailles and also made them extremely beloved by both aristocrats and commoners alike.

"Oh, so you're just now noticing that are you, Mrs. Pond?" Clara joked.

Amy's face immediately fell and Reinette said with concern, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just . . . I just miss my husband a lot right now," Amy said as she tried unsuccessfully to hold back her tears.

"I understand, Amy. I promise that you will get to see him again very soon now though. Now come with me and I'll find you something less . . . revealing to wear. You'll be the scandal of Versailles wearing the fashions of your time I'm afraid," Reinette said as she eyed Amy's clothing with a frown.

"Is that really what women of your time wear?" Clara asked Amy in curiosity.

"Yeah, more or less I suppose. I tend to favor outfits with short skirts even by the standards of my time though I have to admit," Amy said with a mischievous grin.

Clara smiled as she said, "I suppose that's all well and good for you, Amy, but I prefer what the other Clara wore just now better I think."

"Tight skirts? Yeah, I guess those are good too if you're a little on the short side," Amy joked.

"I am not short," Clara protested.

Amy saw the looks on the Musketeers' faces then and froze in mid-smile as she said, "I was just kidding. They're not going to shoot me for that are they? They're really giving me the evil eye all of a sudden."

"It's alright. We'll allow it, won't we, Clara?" Reinette said in a loud voice so that the Musketeers could hear her.

"Well, I don't know. I feel kind of offended myself," Clara said.

"What?" Amy said in alarm as she saw several of the Musketeers giving her murderous glances.

Clara smiled at her warmly as she said, "It's okay."

Then she whispered to a still nervous Amy, "That'll teach you to call me short, won't it?"

Amy would have been worried about that if Clara hadn't winked at her and put her arm around her shoulder as she started to lead her inside the palace. She realized now that Clara was just as kind as Reinette if not more so.

Before the three women could enter the palace however, a young girl who looked to be in her mid-teens wearing ripped and tattered clothes came running up to them and curtseyed as she bowed her head to Reinette. Reinette instantly raised her head for her as she looked at her disapprovingly.

"Josette, I've told you time and again that you don't need to do that. Why are you still wearing that horrible dress? I gave you some of my own clothing for you to wear the last time that I saw you. Why aren't you wearing it?" Reinette asked with a frown.

"I wanted to save it for a special occasion, Marquise. I didn't want it to get dirty," Josette said.

"I've already told you to call me Reinette or Jeanne, Josette. So I see that I'll just have to give you another dress then so that you won't ever wear this thing again won't I?" Reinette said with a warm smile.

"Josette, why are you here? I'm sure that it wasn't to be reprimanded like a little girl by Jeanne, was it?" Clara interrupted.

"No, Baroness. It was to report an appearance by another of the Marquise's, I mean Reinette's, monsters. These look like knights wearing armor but they have heads that look like potatoes when they remove their helmets," Josette said.

"Sontarans," Amy said recognizing them by their description.

"Yes," Reinette agreed as she gestured for Josette to continue with her story.

"They're attacking my entire village, Marquise. I came here on foot as fast as I could to ask for your help. Will you please send someone to help us?" Josette said as she began to sway back and forth.

"Of course I will," Reinette said as she put a steadying arm around the woman to stop her from falling.

"Captain, send the Musketeers there at once. Tell them to aim for the round hole in the back of their necks for a kill shot. That's their weak spot. Give Josette something to eat and two of my dresses to wear back home. Then let her have my bed to sleep in. Her village is twenty miles from here and she just ran that entire way by herself. Never do that again, Josette," Reinette chastised her.

Josette nodded and said with a fond smile, "Thank you, Marquise. I knew that you would help."

One of the Musketeers led her inside the palace while the rest of them went to the village on horseback. Reinette and Clara meanwhile led Amy into the palace right behind Josette.

While Reinette went on ahead to make arrangements with the servants for Josette to spend the night in her room, Amy looked at Clara with curiosity. She wondered if she should ask her anything though. This wasn't her home after all.

"What is it, Amy?" Clara finally said as she led Amy into a room that Reinette always had set aside for her guests to use.

"Is Josette a close friend of hers? I just wondered why she was so nice to her. I know that it's none of my business," Amy said.

Clara smiled as she said, "That's just who she is, Amy. She's generous and kind to all of the people no matter how much or how little that they have. She likes to look after them as best as she can especially the ones like Josette who have no one else. Jeanne has been like a surrogate mother to her ever since she was orphaned in one of the monster attacks on her village a few months ago. I think that Jeanne would adopt her if she thought that Louis would let her get away with it."

"So she's extremely kind to and looks after children. Oh, yeah. I can really see why the Doctor likes her alright," Amy said as she liked Reinette more and more herself by the moment.

Clara smiled at her as she saw what Amy was thinking and said, "Come on. You need to get some rest yourself. You look like you've about had it. Hopefully soon you'll be able to find your way back to your husband again."

"I certainly hope so. I guess I'll take you up on that offer of a bed tonight, Clara. You're right. I am just about on my last legs," Amy admitted.

"Really? That must take some doing. Those legs go on for miles," Clara said with a snicker.

"Very funny," Amy said with a frown that quickly turned to a smile as Clara showed her to the closet which was filled with Reinette's clothes.

Amy looked on in disbelief as she said, "Not a short skirt in the bunch but otherwise they're all wonderful."

Clara rolled her eyes at her even as neither woman noticed that they were being observed through the still open door from the hallway nearby by a woman wearing a veil. She walked away at a brisk pace as she left the palace as fast as she could.

"It seems that one of the Doctor's friends has just arrived at Versailles. She might recognize us and stop our plan even more effectively than the accursed Sontarans ever could have," She said as she met up with another woman not too far away.

The other woman shook her head as she said, "That is highly doubtful. Amelia Pond has come across our kind before but I doubt that she will be able to see through us as long as we keep our usual low profile. Just stick to your orders and do as you have been told. Soon our plan will come to fruition at last, and the Rutans will quickly gain a final crucial advantage against the Sontaran rabble. Soon we will finally score the winning victory against them at long last and end the war between us forever."

*See Clara Who Chapter 2 for the full story.

Next: Exactly what are the Rutans up to? Find out next time as Reinette, Clara, and Amy must work together to stop all of human history from being changed forever. Also the rift appears at last. Will Amy even have a chance to get to it though with all of this going on?