And now the plot twists. Enjoy.

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Chapter 9

He was glad she had shown up when she had. His head was pounding and it was all he could do not to scream in pain.

"River?"

"I'm here, it's ok," she whispered reassuringly. She turned to Rory and Amy. "So, you're the two making all the fuss."

"River? How did you get in here?" asked Amy.

"In where?"

"In here," said Amy. "This…fantasy."

River threw her head back and laughed. "Ah, does it really matter?"

Rory shook his head. "Melody, you don't understand, this place isn't real, we need to get out, all of us."

At those words, he looked around, expecting to hear a phone ring or whatever was used around here to communicate. Nothing happened.

"Melody, Melody, who's Melody?" she mocked, her tone reminiscent of Berlin.

"You're my daughter," said Amy, shocked at the cold tone River used. "You were conceived in the TARDIS, on our wedding night. Exposure to the time vortex made you what you are. Why Kovarian took you from us."

River drew a finger down the side of the Doctor's face. He sighed, then lapsed into unconsciousness.

"There, now we can talk."

As River turned to face them, Amy gasped. Where her eyes would be was nothing but dark pools of swirling liquid.

"It was so easy to trick him into believing this place was real." The words coming out of her mouth were deep and dark. "I've been feeding off such low-energy minds for so long. When the three of you hooked in, I knew, I knew, it was time."

"Time for what?" asked Rory. He checked his time. 54 minutes. Why was time suddenly going so fast?

"Time to leave the machine, by drawing upon the life-force of a Time Lord. It took a little of that precious energy to create such complex fantasies for the two of you. But him? Simply show him his planet back, and he's all mine."

"And what happens when you're out?" asked Amy.

She laughed. "What do you think happens? With his life-force powering me, I'll escape this worthless planet and spread to far more interesting minds."

"No you won't, because we won't let you," said Amy. "And once we get the Doctor back, you'll wish you hadn't tricked him."

"And what are the two of you going to do? You're humans, stuck inside my machine." River, or whatever it was that had taken her form, smiled wickedly at them.

"Amy, our time, it's gone down to 30 minutes."

"It would be so easy to freeze you here, like I just did, until your time runs out. You wouldn't notice a thing. But I've got to get busy myself and every drop of energy counts at this point. So, ta!"

They blinked and she was gone. There was a groan from the Doctor.

"Amy? Rory?"

"Doctor!" shouted Amy.

"Not so loud, Pond," he weakly said. "I feel like I've downed four of Jack's specialty hypervodkas. And at my age, that's not a good idea."

Rory chuckled. "Yeah, you're back."

"Where are we?" he asked, getting to his feet. He noticed his attire. "Oh."

"Funny, I never thought of orange as your color," said Amy dryly.

He sighed. "It's my chapter color. On Gallifrey, families were divided into chapters, each chapter represented by a different color." He motioned to his own outfit. "The Prydonian Chapter's color was orange. It was also the chapter with the most Time Lord renegades."

Rory carefully looked him over. "Doctor, do you remember anything that's been happening recently?"

"You mean, do I remember some kind of hold on my mind, making me think I was back on my home planet, and that I didn't know the two of you, let alone anyone I'd travelled with?"

"Ummm, basically, yeah."

"And that," said the Doctor with a low tone, "was the second mistake. The first being that they threatened my friends."

He started to stalk out of the room, but tripped on the hem of the robe instead. He was both glad and a bit embarrassed for the Ponds to catch his arms.

"Doctor, you might want to take those off," said Amy.

With a huff and a thought, the fancy robes disappeared, to be replaced by his customary style, albeit with the long green coat instead of the tweed. He adjusted the red bowtie fondly.

"I forgot how irritating those robes were."

They strode out together and into a sea of chaos.

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Gallifrey was being torn apart. The orange skies were filled with panicked cries. Above them, hundreds of Dalek ships were swooping down on the population. Amy and Rory could only watch in horror as the ships sent massive waves of energy that caused people's skeletons to light up, then fall down dead.

Ignoring the Doctor, Rory ran to the nearest fallen. She had been in the outermost portion of the beam and was still alive.

"Stay still, I'm a nurse."

She chuckled dryly. "I'm no nurse, but I know when a regeneration is imminent. For your own good, I suggest you retreat."

Remembering Berlin, Rory scrambled back to the Doctor and Amy, hidden behind an alcove, as the woman lit up with golden energy. A minute later, a new person scrambled to her feet and, still sizzling with energy, ran to help another who would probably not make it through regeneration, judging from the high amount of blood loss.

"What is this?" whispered Amy.

"This is the Time War. The entity must have pulled it out of my memories."

Another wave of energy passed dangerously close and the woman that had just regenerated cried out as both she and the other wounded were vaporized.

"That was the Dalek tactic. Pass through with a wave of extermination energy, kill a bunch of Time Lords, cause those that managed to live to regenerate. When that happens, the energy spike registers on their machines, lighting up the freshly regenerated like a beacon. Then it's simply a matter of a second wave, intensified."

"That's horrible!" argued Rory.

"That was the kind of war fought in the last days. That one tactic wiped out a quarter of the population in one week."

"Couldn't you avoid it? Get to safety?"

The Doctor shook his head. "The Time Lords had always relied on the quantum force field to not allow foreign ships in and the transduction barriers to prevent unauthorized teleportation. So, of course, the Daleks went after those first."

"That's suicide!" said Amy.

"Of course it is, but like the kamikazes of World War II Japan, the Daleks didn't care how many of themselves they killed, so long as the barriers came down. And they went down very quickly."

Rory checked his watch. "Doctor, we've got 15 minutes to get out of here."

"Yes, let's get out of here," he agreed.

There was a ring. Surprised, the Doctor dug through his pockets and found a cell phone. It might have been the one Martha gave him years ago, but he didn't care. He opened it quickly.

"Without that creature to block them, the safety protocols are kicked back into place, the one in control of the fantasy wants out, the computer has to provide a way out. Hello?"

"This is the Matrix Prime Virtual Reality Help Line," said a calm, female, automated voice. "If you wish to continue your virtual fantasy, please say yes. If you wish to leave, please say no."

"No."

"Please state your name."

"The Doctor."

There was a pause and a bit of music.

"The Doctor, you have decided to leave the Matrix Prime Virtual Reality System. If you accept this to be true, please say yes and you will be withdrawn from the System. If this is false, please say no and you will remain in the System."

"Yes, yes, and yes."

The brilliant white engulfed the three of them just as another wave of Dalek energy passed through the alcove they had been hiding in.

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Done and out. Back to the real world now.