DOCTOR WHO: THE FINAL STOP
Chapter 9
As the two sides stood facing each other unsure of what was to happen next, the Occupier built up power even further. The whirlwind and lightning dominated all around them and all everyone else could do was look on amazed as the strength of the featureless being.
"You appear to have underestimated me somewhat..." he gloated as the power around him intensified. The lightning too grew stronger and was now directing itself in the direction of the Langhorn, the Doctor, Rory and Flick. The Doctor, the Langhorn and Flick atleast were armed with something during this fight, but Rory was without any form of a weapon and he feared this the most. He'd rather had enough of dying after several 'instances' on his travels with the Doctor, and he wasn't prepared to die again, not now.
"If you carry on like this, Occupier..." shouted the Doctor. "You know it can only mean one thing..."
"That I win?" it laughed before using the whirlwind around itself against its opposing enemies. The Occupier directed the whirlwind at them and blew them off their feet, all except the Langhorn. The Doctor, Rory and Flick went flying and landed with a crash. Dazed and confused, Rory got up to see the Doctor unresponsive. He rushed over immediately and found that he was unconscious. For now, the Doctor was out of action. Rory tried to wake him, but it was no use. Flick meanwhile had got back up and back into position with her gun firmly pointing at the Occupier.
"No point in trying that again, mister..." she warned. "UN.I.T has a much bigger presence than you'd think!"
"Its doubtful..." laughed the Occupier as lightning scattered around everyone. Rory now had to protect himself and took the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver as his defence. He'd seen the Doctor use in numerous times and once or twice he'd used it himself, so he knew what he was doing, sort of. Meanwhile, the Langhorn was readying itself for the key moment. Parting some his fur, he revealed a box on his arm that blinked quicker than the human eye. No-one else had seen this before and the Langhorn smiled on at the Occupier for revealing it.
"What is that?" asked Rory as he joined the front-line.
"That is my Duo-Sensesphere Module." explained the Langhorn. "Its my link with the Occupier..."
"We share mind patterns, but I occupy the most..." added the Occupier. "Hence the name..."
"But if I short-circuit it or brake it altogether, I know what happens..." warned the Langhorn as it then pointed its gun at the Module. The Occupier could only laugh.
"Suicide? Really?" he chortled. "I expected higher of you...since you're a part of me..."
"That's the point though..." replied the Langhorn as Rory and Flick then realised what the Langhorn meant.
"Oh..." smiled Flick. "If he's a part of you and he then dies...what happens to you?" The Occupier didn't reply. It just glared back.
"Would you die? Or would a bit of you?" said Rory. "Because if its a little, I'm sure this device could fluctuate that somewhat." he added making a clear point of the Sonic Screwdriver.
"If he dies..." began the Occupier. "I live on, regardless of sonic technology and however rudimentary it is."
"Let's see about that..." said the Langhorn. He quickly ushered Rory and Flick to a safe distance before readying himself with his gun. His last words before he shot his gun were simple. "Send love to all the Langhorn's...family or otherwise...goodbye!"
The gun shot from the Langhorn caused something similar to an Earthquake and soon popping into view from the distance was Captain Albatross and Derek Roughly, now without his rifle. They were stunned like everyone else. The Langhorn now beamed a bright white in colour as energy from its Module escaped into the atmosphere. The Occupier was stumbling with a decreasing sense of power as the lightning and whirlwind around it became slower. Flick then made her way closer and nodded at Rory who selected a familiar setting on the Sonic Screwdriver and then powered it at the Occupier. Its green glow beamed out and caused a ripple of energy with it. The energy caught the Occupier right in its midriff and from that it began to shrink in both size and power.
"What is that?" cried out the Occupier. "How can something be so powerful?"
"Because it can be..." smiled Rory. "Its a Sonic Screwdriver...it is very powerful!"
"And so is a gun!" smiled Flick before firing at the Occupier to weaken him even more. Her gun echoed loudly as the Occupier then dropped to the floor.
"You cowards..." it cried. "You have killed a way of life..."
"You killed over 5,000 people..." spouted Flick.
"So, it was always going to come back at you!" added Rory as he blasted the final, fatal blow. In that moment, both the Occupier and Langhorn then disappeared as they were engulfed in a bright white light. When that vanished, there was nothing left of them. There was nothing to say they even existed. In the background, a woozy Doctor woke as the whirlwind and lightning ceased to a halt to see everyone happy. As his eyes adjusted he saw no sign at all of the Langhorn or the Occupier.
"Oh, well done..." he said before passing out once more.
A little later when the Doctor was fully back with everyone he explained fully what happened.
"That Sonic blast, brilliantly executed by Rory hit the Duo-Sensesphere lodged within the Occupier. It killed him stone dead." he said as he patted Rory happily on the shoulder. "The only issue is that with both the Occupier and Langhorn gone, the memories of those taken have faded away."
"How'd you mean?" asked Rory. The Doctor then used Derek as an example to everyone.
"How's your Daughter, Derek?" he asked plainly.
"I don't have a Daughter..." replied Derek. "Two boys, no Daughter..."
"How's that happened?" asked Flick. "He's forgotten her..."
"The Langhorn's work has been eradicated from time." began the Doctor solemnly. "Those who vanished under it over the years will still have vanished, but those close to them will have forgotten all about them. Pictures, belongings and whatnots of theirs will still remain, but there will be a question of who they are..."
"That's terrible..." said Rory. "What about us and the Press though? We'll still remember about them..."
"We will..." replied the Doctor. "The Press won't...like everyone else, the memories are to fade...by tomorrow morning, they'll be gone. We, at the heart of it will remember, always..."
As the clear-up operation began to take pace and other UN.I.T soldiers came to help out the Colonel and Captain Albatross, the Doctor and Rory saw it as their time to leave.
"I think we best be off..." smiled the Doctor to Flick. "Don't want to outstay our welcome..."
"You could never do that, Doctor..." she smiled back before giving the Doctor a hug. "You know, I always thought if I ever got the chance to meet you, you'd be odd, manipulative and just a control freak, but you proved me wrong..."
"He's definitely some of them from time to time..." joked Rory. The Doctor just gave him a jokey punch on his arm. It did actually hurt but Rory didn't mind too much.
"Well, both of you have been excellent today. It'll be another couple of days before we open the Underground once again, but without you, we wouldn't have got this far..." smiled Flick before giving a goodbye hug to Rory like she'd done with the Doctor. "Who knows, we may see one another again!" she then laughed before saluting the Doctor and Rory on their way. As they entered the TARDIS, she braced herself for her last look at its magnificence. Then, as it whirred into life and began to vanish before her, Flick just smiled knowing that life as a Colonel can be very good indeed.
The TARDIS hummed quietly as the Doctor and Rory just sat down and waited to arrive in Leadworth. For Rory, the day had felt good but strange all in one go. For the Doctor, it had just been another day at the office. He then just looked over to Rory who he could see did look very shattered by it all.
"Rory Williams…" he then said proudly. "The Nurse from Leadworth…saves the world by being bloody idiotic and on the verge of sacrificing yourself by doing that with my sonic."
"Well you were going to do the same before you were knocked out…" Rory pointed out.
"That's true, but it's just odd seeing you transform in the way you have. It's not unusual for that to happen with people around me, but you just stand out." the Doctor smiled towards his friend. Rory blushed and was thankful of some praise for once from his bow-tied friend. Amy always took the centre of attention when it was the three of them, but he was glad of something from the Doctor for once.
"Will UN.I.T keep in contact with you do you think?" Rory then asked. "Give you the latest on the Underground."
"No need…" the Doctor said simply. "Flick moves to the Paris branch shortly while Captain Albatross and his soon-to-be husband will be off for a while with their adopted son. Life moves on Rory. I think I even wanted to adopt at one point."
"Don't you already do that technically?" Rory asked. "You take people onto the TARDIS, nurture them, make them stronger and then let them go live their life some time later."
"You make a good point Nurse Williams." the Doctor smiled as he went over to hug Rory. As they hugged, the Doctor just kissed Rory on his forehead. Apparently, the Doctor believes a forehead kiss is much friendlier.
"So long as that's the only place you kiss me, it's fine…" Rory said nervously.
"I'll ask if it's going to be anywhere else for future reference…" the Doctor smiled. Rory looked on confused.
"And why would you be doing that?" Rory asked.
"Well you never know. You may need the kiss of life again if you 'die' once more or if were just drunk again." the Doctor laughed.
"We've kissed?" Rory said as he pulled a big frown.
"We were drunk!" the Doctor explained. "Everyone was! Don't worry, it shouldn't happen again…" Rory just sat back down again but the Doctor just came over and patted him on the shoulder.
"You are joking aren't you?" Rory asked.
"Of course…" the Doctor smiled. "We've kissed much more than that once, and we were sober too!" he then joked as Leadworth neared on the TARDIS. Rory knew that the Doctor lies and could tell that this was a lie. Well, he hoped it was, otherwise he has random bouts of amnesia without realising…
When the TARDIS arrived back in Amy and Rory's back garden, it was the day after they'd departed. As he exited out of the door, Rory could see Amy in the Kitchen looking much better. He made his way in before picking her up in a big hug before giving her a kiss on the lips. Rory hoped she wasn't still ill, but Amy assured him otherwise. The Doctor looked away at that moment knowing that Rory did miss Amy a lot, so he let it pass by. Amy then rushed over to the Doctor and gave him a big hug too.
"How you two been then?" she asked quite jollily. "My Boys? My Beefcake and my Best-mate? Crime-fighting? Alien-busting? Pint-drinking?"
"Well, we solved the mystery of the 'issues' at the Underground if that's what you mean, Pond..." said the Doctor simply as he straightened his Bow-Tie. "Infact, it was actually Rory who saved the day..." he added as he smiled at Rory. Amy didn't believe him though in the slightest.
"Yeah, of course, but what did you really do to save it all?" she asked looking at the Doctor. He then explained but winked at Rory as if to say it'll be their secret on how he saved the day since Amy would never believe him. The three of them then just sat down in the kitchen for a while and chatted on a variety of things. Aliens, chips, shoes and somehow who wears what kind of pants crept in too but the three of them were just glad to be back together.
"Right!" said the Doctor as he slammed his fist on the table. "Where next?"
"Bed…" said Rory simply. "I need sleep…"
"Oh, but I've been bedridden for the last day…" said Amy. "I want to do something a bit more fun!"
"Well, whatever you choose, can it involve me getting some sleep in the process?" Rory asked sleepily.
"We'll see…" said the Doctor as he and Amy went out to the TARDIS. Rory eventually followed and once inside, everything felt back to normal as the TARDIS trio were now reunited and back in action...