CHAPTER 8

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DON'T BLINK

"Wait! You're about to make a huge mistake. I am the real Reinette and I can prove it. You, Henri, are about to have a baby any day now. Your wife will have quite a time with this new child and Marie at the same time won't she?" Reinette said as she spoke quickly.

The Musketeers hesitated now as Clara picked up where Reinette had left off and said with a smug smile, "And you, Jacques, are about to get married to Veronique or at least you should anyway. You've certainly been dating her long enough."

The Musketeers slowly started to lower their weapons while looking at Amy as if they somehow expected her to say something revelatory as well.

"Don't look at me. I barely know any of you. I only came here a few weeks ago," Amy said.

"You could have at least tried to come up with something. Our lives are on the line here," Clara said with a frown.

"There's no need for that, Baroness. We believe you now. It seems that the monster was right and the Monk lied after all. He told the King that she had killed all three of you," Henri Du Val, one of the Musketeers, said with a reassuring smile.

"Monster? What monster?" Clara asked in confusion.

"The Rutan. She must have survived somehow and tried to pose as me," Reinette deduced.

"Yes, I think the Monk did call her that. She fled for her life as soon as Josette discovered the truth about her," Henri said.

"I knew that she was a clever girl. The two of you are too close for her to ever get taken in by a phony," Clara said proudly.

"Where is Josette now?" Reinette asked with trepidation as she began to have an uneasy feeling come over her.

"I'm not sure. She disappeared around the same time as the imposter did come to think of it," Henri said.

"She must have followed her," Clara said in alarm.

"We should use the alternate Monk's TARDIS to search for her," Amy suggested.

"I don't think we're going to get a chance to, Red. Look," Clara said as she pointed behind her.

Amy whirled around to see that the TARDIS was fading away. It wasn't dematerializing. It was being completely erased right in front of their eyes.

"Apparently the Time Lords from that other universe didn't want us to keep it," Reinette said.

"Well, I guess we can forget about that idea then," Amy said with a groan.

"We'll just have to do this by ourselves then. Josette's in danger and so is the King because the Monk is far more dangerous than the Rutan. Henri, you must go back to the palace immediately. Tell the King that you're doing so on my authority and that I'm very much alive. If he doubts you, show him this," Reinette said as she gave Henri an ornate golden locket that contained a small painting of the King inside of it.

"He'll have no reason to doubt me now," Henri said as he realized the significance of the locket.

"Go right away then. There's no time to lose. Whatever you do, you must not let the Monk escape," Reinette warned.

"Aren't we going there ourselves, Jeanne?" Clara asked in surprise.

"Not yet. I have to find the Rutan before she does something to Josette," Reinette said in an emotional voice.

Clara smiled as this just confirmed to her exactly how much Reinette cared about the girl. She knew that Reinette needed to take the initiative and stop the Monk first and foremost though. Clara knew that her friend couldn't leave it all up to the Musketeers because as good as they were they were nowhere near as effective as she was at stopping extraordinary threats like the Monk.

"Jeanne, let me and Amy find her. You go with Henri to warn the King," Clara insisted.

"Josette could be in even more danger though. At least the Monk isn't likely to kill the King right in the middle of the palace, but the Rutan will try to kill Josette if she finds her all alone and following her," Reinette protested.

"We'll find her. Don't worry. You need to help Louis now," Clara insisted.

"I don't know how you thought you were ever going to find them anyway. It's not like they left much of a trail. At least we know where the Monk is," Amy pointed out.

Reinette hesitated for a moment and then gave her sonic pen to Amy as she said, "This can track the Rutan's unique energy signature that she constantly gives off due to the bio-electricity that she generates in her body. It operates similarly to the sonic screwdriver so you should be able to understand how to use it very quickly, Amelia. Please find her. Quickly."

Amy smiled as she said, "I can tell that you have the Doctor's memories alright. You sound so much like him sometimes that it's scary. Don't worry about it, Queenie. I've been doing this sort of thing for a long time now so I'm a bit of an expert."

"Why didn't I get the pen?" Clara said with undisguised jealousy in her voice.

"Do you even have a clue how to use it, Shorty?" Amy asked.

"No, but I'm a quick learner so that's beside the point," Clara protested.

"Amy's going to do this by herself, Clara. I need you to come with me," Reinette said.

"Oh. Well, that's different then. Good luck, Amy," Clara said with a relieved smile as Amy looked at Reinette in surprise.

"Did you think that I was replacing you?" Reinette asked her in amusement.

"No, of course not. I just didn't want to be left out of the action is all," Clara said as she looked away from her friend with a look of shame on her face.

"You'll never be left out of anything as long as I'm around. Let's go," Reinette said as she put her arm around Clara while the two of them began to follow the Musketeers back to the palace.

"So you want me to do this alone?" Amy asked Reinette.

"You're more than capable from what I've seen but no you won't be alone. Some of the Musketeers will go with you. Jacques, take your men and help her capture the Rutan. You are to follow her orders just as if they were my own," Reinette ordered another of the Musketeers.

"Yes, Marquise," Jacques Armand said as he briefly bowed to her.

"This is your chance to be the Doctor, Amelia. Save her. Please," Reinette said to Amy as she and Clara mounted two of the Musketeers' horses.

"Don't worry about her, Queenie. You just keep that nightmare that we saw from happening," Amy said with a reassuring smile as she waved good bye to her.

As they left her behind, Jacques asked Amy in a curious tone, "Are you royalty, Ma'am?"

Amy didn't even hesitate as she smiled and said, "Yes. Yes, I am. I'm the Queen of Leadworth. It's a tiny little place so you've probably never heard of it. You can just call me Amy though. I'm not hung up on titles."

"Of course, Your Highness," Jacques said as he bowed to her while Amy smirked and silently wished that Rory could see her now.

Then she activated the sonic pen, which really wasn't that hard to figure out for her just as Reinette had guessed, and started to use it to track down the electricity in the Rutan's body. It was easy enough to do in this time since there was no electricity anywhere else.

"Come along, Jacques. We have a little girl to save. Geronimo!" Amy ordered as she started to follow the pen.

She smiled and raced off thinking just how good those words made her feel. She could almost imagine that she was right beside the Doctor and Rory once more by saying them. Almost.

Reinette and Clara meanwhile arrived at the palace just in time to see a demonstration to the King of what Reinette immediately recognized to be a Gatling Gun. She knew then that she had to put a stop to this immediately. As much as she loved Louis, she knew that such destructive power didn't belong in his hands.

The Monk was smiling in triumph as he fired the powerful gun at a series of targets and showed just how truly deadly that it was to his stunned audience. He was certain that the King would blindly follow his every suggestion now that he had seen what his weapons could truly do. He had finally succeeded at last and all of history would soon be his to mold and shape as he chose.

Then he suddenly heard Reinette's voice cry out and all of his hopes were instantly dashed.

"Halt! I arrest you in the name of the King," Reinette said as she rode up to the Monk with an entire company of Musketeers who all had their guns aimed at the Time Lord.

"Jeanne?" The King asked in a voice filled with hope once he saw that Clara was with her.

Henri gave the King Reinette's locket as he said, "Yes, Your Majestry. It really is her. She had this with her."

The King instantly recognized it and smiled with undisguised joy before turning to the Monk and saying, "So you lied to me then. You were working with the Rutan all along to trick me."

"No, Your Majesty. I had no idea that the Marquise was still alive. I was sure that the Rutan had killed her," The Monk said.

"No, you were sure that I was gone is what you really mean because you sent me back to the past yourself. Luckily for me a group of Time Lords from another reality sent me back home to stop you after showing me the possible future that you would create. You definitely want me to prevent that world from coming to pass, Monk. Believe me on that if you wish to keep your head," Reinette said as she gave the Monk a pointed look.

"So the Revolution still happens after all. I was certain that I could change it," The Monk said with a frown as he instantly understood the hidden meaning of her words.

"Revolution?" The King asked with a worried expression.

"It's far in the future and nothing for you to worry about, Your Majesty," Reinette assured him.

"Jeanne, does this mean what I think that it does for my lineage?" The King asked knowing that she knew more about the future then she would ever admit even to him.

"All things have their time and place and then they must come to an end just as everything does, My Lord. There's nothing that we can do to change that I'm afraid," Reinette admitted with great sadness in her eyes.

The King nodded and quickly let the subject drop as he said to the Monk, "My line won't end today though. Today is the day of your end instead, traitor. Take him to the dungeon, Musketeers."

"Oh, I don't think so. Just because this particular experiment failed doesn't mean that I'm ready to give up just yet. I'm not about to spend the rest of my lives rotting here in some primitive prison when I have plenty of other major turning points in this world's history that I can still visit and easily manipulate to my advantage," The Monk said as he pulled a staser out of his robe and aimed at the Musketeers.

"No, you're not going anywhere else I'm afraid. Your interference in our world's past ends here," Reinette said firmly.

"Really? And just how are you going to stop me, Marquise? You're a very intelligent and resourceful woman to be sure, but you are still limited by the technology of your time. You have nothing at your command that can stand up to the power of my people's technology. If you try to prevent me from leaving, I'll kill all of your men in the blink of an eye before they can even fire a single shot against me," The Monk warned.

Reinette nodded as she said, "I have no doubt that you would which is why I'm glad that I searched your alternate future self's TARDIS so thoroughly before it disappeared."

"What are you talking about?" The Monk asked in confusion.

Reinette smiled as she pulled a staser, the Monk's very own staser in fact, out of her dress and aimed it at him. The Monk's eyes immediately widened in fear as he instantly recognized it.

"So I really did die in some alternate future then. I owe you an enormous debt of gratitude for preventing that timeline from becoming our future, Marquise. That doesn't mean that I'm about to give up however. For one thing, you couldn't possibly know how to use that. It's far beyond even your great intellect to comprehend," The Monk said.

"All guns are remarkably the same no matter where they originate. If you know how to use one, then you can use any of them if given enough time for study. It makes them all too easy for anyone to use I'm sad to say. Don't underestimate me, Mortimus. I know exactly how to use this, and I will if have to defend my world. If you give up now, I'll still show you mercy however," Reinette promised.

"You're bluffing," The Monk said as he briefly looked down the barrel of his own gun with a nervous glance.

"Am I?" Reinette asked with a hard look on her face.

The Monk and Reinette locked gazes with one another for one long seemingly interminable moment as they studied each other intently while looking for any signs of weakness that they could exploit. Everyone around them seemed to collectively hold their breath in quiet anticipation as they all eagerly waited to see what would happen next.

Then the Monk blinked.

The Monk sighed in defeat as he reluctantly let go of his staser and it hit the ground with a thud. He had seen no signs of weakness in Reinette whatsoever. He knew that she would kill him without hesitation if she had to, and he had no doubts about her ability to master even Time Lord technology if given enough time to do so. He wasn't about to take a chance by betting against her. Not today anyway.

"You win. I'll go peacefully," The Monk said as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Good because I really didn't want to use this," Reinette admitted with a small smile as she lowered the gun.

"I know because you have a kind heart, Reinette Poisson. That's one of the reasons why the Doctor likes you so much of course because you're just like him. You only kill if you have no other choice," The Monk said as the Musketeers began to quickly move towards him to capture him.

Then he began to smile maliciously as he said, "That good nature of yours was exactly what I was counting on in order to make my escape. Good bye, my dear."

"No!" Reinette screamed as the Monk suddenly activated the remote that he had hidden in one of his hands and was instantly surrounded by his TARDIS.

Before anyone could even try to stop him, the Monk quickly dematerialized his TARDIS and was gone within seconds. Reinette instantly groaned in frustration because she knew that this meant that the Earth was still in danger from him and that she had only delayed the inevitable here today instead of winning a total victory.

"Hey, you still saved the world from becoming Napoleon's private playground, Jeanne. That is what the Time Lords wanted you to do after all. You did just save the day, you know? So smile a little already," Clara said as she realized exactly what her old friend was thinking from the look on her face.

Reinette briefly smiled as she said, "Yes, I suppose you're right. It's still not over just yet though. We still have to stop the Rutan and find Josette before anyone can truly say that we have saved the day."

"Well, what are we waiting for then? I certainly don't want Red to take all of the credit for herself. At least we've got a weapon to use against the Rutan now anyway. All of our fights with the monsters are going to be much easier from now on with one of those guns in our hands," Clara said encouragingly.

Reinette frowned as she said, "Actually . . ."

Clara smiled as she said, "You were bluffing! You didn't have any idea what you were doing with it, did you? I can't believe you, Jeanne."

"Sometimes you have to take a calculated risk in order to win, Clara," Reinette said with a grin.

"You got lucky is what you mean. Bring the gun anyway. It still might come in handy. Maybe you could pull off that bluff of yours again with it," Clara said.

"Perhaps," Reinette said in an unconvinced tone as she picked up the Monk's gun off of the ground where he had dropped it so that it didn't fall into anyone else's hands.

"Now you have a second one too. That's an even better bluff," Clara noted.

"I just wish that I knew where to look for them. I gave Amy the only way that I had of finding the Rutan," Reinette admitted.

"It doesn't matter. I'm sure that knowing her that Red will get into trouble in no time, and the Musketeers will send someone back here to ask for our help," Clara said hopefully.

As if he had somehow overheard her, Captain Lefevre suddenly rode up to them at a rapid pace at that moment and said in an excited voice, "Marquise, the Musketeers have finally found the Rutan. She's inside of an abandoned building a mile away from here. Your friend Amy decided to go ahead and confront her by herself even though I warned her to wait for you first."

"I'm sure that she can take care of herself, Captain. It's Josette that I'm worried about. Have you seen her?" Reinette asked.

Captain Lefevre's face fell as he said, "I'm afraid that the Rutan has Josette as her prisoner, Marquise. She threatened to kill her if we didn't leave her alone. Amy hoped that she would have a better chance of surprising her and saving Josette if she went in alone."

"Take me there immediately, Captain," Reinette ordered as her heart filled with sudden dread.

"She'll be alright, Jeanne. I know she will," Clara reassured her as the three of them started to rapidly ride away together.

Even as they did so, the crack on the wall back in the palace was already starting to fade away. Amy was rapidly running out of time whether she realized it or not.

If she didn't get back quickly, she would soon become trapped in the past forever.

Next: Amy may not have much of a choice in the matter if Sally has anything to say about it. Next time it's Amy vs. Sally with the life of Josette in the balance while Reinette and Clara desperately ride to help her. Will they reach her in time?