Chapter 16: The Pandorica

"Why's it exploding?" – Amy

"I assume it's some kind of warning." – River

"Something's going to happen to the TARDIS?" – Amy

"It might not be that literal. Anyway this is where he wanted you. Date and map reference on the door sign, see?" – River

River and Lucy looked stunned after Amy's announcement that she thought the Pandorica was a plan of the Silence. Amy didn't wait for a response before she started talking again.

"River, did the information I recovered from the Silence help you think of anything related to the Pandorica?"

River roused herself from her shocked state and responded. "I didn't find anything new in the data."

"Well could you tell us everything you remember about what happened before the Doctor and I arrived?"

When River finished her account she looked pensive and then said. "Isn't it odd that when I went to the Starship UK in the 52nd century to retrieve Van Gogh's painting Liz 10 was still there and guarding the Royal Collection on her own."

Amy nodded. "That would make her 2,550 years old, maybe older. And why would she be guarding the Royal Collection? That isn't the job of a queen."

Lucy looked confused. "Does it matter how the painting got to the Doctor?"

It matters very much." Amy started to pace. "The painting drew the Doctor to the Pandorica. It was an authentic Van Gogh and the Doctor theorized the signal emanating from Stonehenge reached him and caused him to paint it as a warning. If a signal about the Pandorica reached him why would he paint the TARDIS exploding? Shouldn't he have painted the Pandorica itself? And it was extremely convenient that he managed to include exact coordinates."

"Are you saying something besides the warning signal inspired his painting?" River asked.

"Yes."

Lucy wrinkled her forehead. "What does that have to do with Liz 10's age and her guarding the collection?"

"I don't know, but it's an anomaly in a series of events that already don't make sense. The Doctor didn't know anything about the painting until he was already where and when he was to be trapped, and River you led him there. Winston Churchill talked to you. You found the painting. You wrote the message that led him there, and you included a nickname for him that you don't remember writing."

"It sounds like you are saying I knowingly led him into a trap."

"Not knowingly, but I believe the Silence controlled your actions."

"They couldn't have."

"Why not? You know what they are capable of. Why would you think they would ever let you go? Plus don't you find it odd that you could escape the Stormcage at any time? That you managed to hang on to your hallucinogenic lipstick even though you were in prison?"

Lucy interrupted again. "Why was River even in prison? She spent the entire year after the Doctor's death in a coma."

"Timey-whimey, said Amy.

"What?"

"She was arrested and tried before she committed the crime in her own time stream. When I first met River she knew she would eventually kill the Doctor because she was in prison for killing him even though she hadn't personally done it yet. Time travel can reek havoc with cause and effect." Amy turned back to River. "You had the power to leave your prison cell at any time. Why did you stay?"

"To protect him; as long as I was in prison people would continue to think he's dead."

"That doesn't make sense River. You didn't need to be in prison for people to believe the Doctor is dead. It's enough that you be sentenced. I used to think you stayed because you felt guilty; that you stayed as part of your atonement. Now I think you stayed because you had orders to stay."

River starts to hyperventilate. "You're telling me my entire life everything I am has never been my own decision." she spits out in between sucking in large quantities of air. When she finally calms down she declares the whole business "insane" and stalks off.

"Your favorite school topic, your favorite story. Never ignore a coincidence, unless you're busy. In which case, always ignore a coincidence." – The Doctor

"It's a trap, it has to be. They used Amy to construct a scenario you'd believe, to get close to you." – River

It took a few days before River was willing to listen to the rest of Amy's theory. She was adamant that Amy was wrong, but she was too curious to avoid the subject forever. So one morning she let Amy pick up where she left off. Amy was once again pacing around the room when she started speaking.

"River, you were the one who opened the underhenge and took us below. You were the one who took readings to determine how many starships there were and what races were present. What if there weren't nearly as many as your readings showed? What if the only ones there were the ones we actually saw?"

River glared. Amy sighed and resumed talking.

"Every one of your actions was dictated by the Silence."

"River interrupts angrily. "But I told him to run! I didn't want him to stay and face danger."

"River, I'm not saying you didn't care for the Doctor. You did, you do, but telling him to run doesn't really mean anything. You know he would never run from something like that. The Silence would know the same thing.

The Doctor then sends you to ask the Romans for help. Your first volunteer was Rory, and he volunteers before he even knows what is going on; all he needed was the sound of your voice. A little too convenient I think."

"He was an Auton controlled by the Nestene Consciousness; my voice had nothing to do with it."

"The Nestene Consciousness controlled the Autons, but I think the Silence controlled the Nestene. Have you ever seen an Auton that sophisticated? The voices were perfect, the skin was perfect, and they acted human. The level of mimicry is far beyond anything the Nestene Consciousness has ever accomplished before." River didn't reply. After a few seconds Amy resumed speaking. "So we have our fake Romans led by Auton Rory heading to Stonehenge to supposedly help the Doctor and we have you going to retrieve the TARDIS. And that's when things got complicated."

"So can you open it?" – River

"Easily. Anyone can break INTO a prison, but I'd rather know what I'm going to find first." – The Doctor

Lucy blinks. "It doesn't seem possible that things could get more complicated."

Amy laughs. "Good point, but I'm afraid it really does get more confusing. For starters, isn't it odd that what is supposed to be the perfect prison is so easy to open from the outside?"

Lucy nodded. "Definitely."

"All you needed was a sonic screwdriver. Did they really think that the Doctor was the only one who could use one of those? River had her own screwdriver at one point. In a now erased timeline I made my own screwdriver. Plus there are other versions of the Doctor running around the universe with their own screwdrivers. It seems an awfully obvious mistake."

"The Doctor's enemies often make mistakes." Grumbled River.

"Speaking of enemies in what reality is it possible to get so many of the Doctor's enemies in one room without them turning on each other? Why would a race like the Daleks who despise all other life form agree to work with others? Who came up with the plan to capture the Doctor? How did they all know about the cracks in the first place? I think it had to be the Silence who orchestrated their alliance."

"Wait. If the Doctor was supposed to be able to escape why build the Pandorica in the first place?" River asked. She hoped her question would stump Amy, and then they could forget this whole horrible line of thought. Instead Amy answered instantly and what she said made River's breath stick in her throat.

"They needed him to use it to close the cracks, it wasn't supposed to be his prison. It was intended to be mine. It was my memories that they constructed the trap around.

Remember the prophecies.

'One for birth one for death.

One born free to a cage be bound.'

'Discord crept into the Storm, and it was both new and had always existed.'

It was my first cage. And it was my first birth. The Doctor restarted the Universe, but I brought back the Doctor. They were using me to remove the discord from the Heart of the Storm. Because that discord was both new and yet had always existed they decided he needed to touch every part of time and space. They kept me in that cage nearly 2,000 years pouring the Universe into my head and shaping me into the tool that would bring back only what they wanted, the Doctor without the Discord. They were remaking the Hear of the Storm. The Doctor brought back the Universe, but I brought back the Doctor. And because he touched every part of space and time so did I. I gave the Silence their new Universe; the first birth they needed from me."

"Why are you so sure the Pandorica was supposed to be your prison?" If anything River looks more skeptical than she did before.

Amy finally stopped pacing and fell into a chair. "I'm sure because of Rory. Funny how Rory showed up at the exact time I was being attacked by a Cyberman. The Doctor was conveniently incapacitated just long enough for Rory to rescue me. He remembered me and remembered the Doctor, but he couldn't break conditioning not even to stop himself from "killing" me, and because of that I had to be put into the Pandorica."

River wasn't convinced. "If he was under the control of the Silence why would he volunteer to guard you at such a great personal cost."

"The Silence call themselves the Sentinels of History, and I'm sure they thought it was a nice touch to have Rory stand sentinel over the Pandorica. He was the perfect person to make the Doctor more comfortable with leaving me. It was never a choice he made for himself. I didn't need a guard to keep me safe. The Pandorica was indestructible, and anyone who could let me out was already an ally. The guard was to keep the Doctor from popping back and letting me out early. I realized that Rory never needed to stay when he told me what he asked the Doctor that day; I just didn't know why until I found the prophecy.

'Will she be safer if I stay? Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn't be safer." – Rory

"Rory..." – The Doctor

"Answer me!" – Rory

"Yes. Obviously." – The Doctor'

'Yes. Obviously,' is a non-answer. It means nothing. I think at that point the Doctor had realized something was wrong, but he didn't know what it was and he didn't have time to fix it. The Silence kept him off balance with the reappearance of Rory, with the fantastical collection of his enemies, with the Pandorica itself, and with you, River. I think the Doctor had so used to the improbable that he failed to recognize the impossible until it was too late."

"You're telling me that Rory's bravery means nothing?"

"Of course not! He thought he was making the choice for himself. He was ready to make that sacrifice on his own. He really did love me." Amy turned away and whispered too low for the others to hear, "I need to believe he loved me."

Lucy who had listened intently to Amy's theory sighed and turned to River. "I know you don't want to believe this, but it makes a twisted sort of sense. I can't say I understand it all, but I trust Amy."

Amy spoke again. "It explains a lot about my life like what happened to my parents. If they had been sucked into a crack when I was a little girl I should have ceased to exist when they did. I never should have met the Doctor. They actually died when I was little, and the Silence erased that memory. The Silence created my parents in the rebooted universe, and they created a new Rory to replace the plastic one.

It'd also explains why the Doctor didn't come back until I remembered him, but you, River, left his diary for me. How did you know to do that? If you remembered him why didn't you just tell me? The Silence were intent that I be the one to remember and they manipulated events to make that happen. Long before the Pandorica they planted in you a compulsion to show up at my wedding and leave me that diary.

It also explains how I could control my ganger through time and space and even into the TARDIS. They knew if I remembered the Doctor and his Tardis back into existence I would have an unbreakable connection to both of them. It had nothing to do with advanced technology and everything to do with my brain."

River made one last effort to change Amy's mind. "If Rory wasn't really Rory how come the Doctor didn't melt him when he melted your ganger?"

"I don't think he was a ganger. My best guess is he was a clone at that point."

Amy stood and stretched. "I realize this is a theory. I can't prove it, but I believe the evidence we have supports it. And I have definitely been talking too long. I'm going to go swimming.