The Eleventh Hour (Part 2)
The trio was walking past the village green, the Doctor just looking around, confused, "What is this place? Where are we?"
"Leadworth," Amy answered.
"Where's the rest of it?" Evy joked.
"This is it."
"Is there an airport?" the Doctor tried.
"No."
"A nuclear power station?"
"Ha. No."
"Even just a little one?"
"No."
"How far away is the next city?" Evy started frowning again, so far their resources were dwindling.
"Half an hour by car."
"We don't have half an hour," the Doctor grumbled.
"We don't have a car either," Evy countered his grumbles, "Do we?"
"No," Amy agreed.
"Oh, that's good!" the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Fantastic, that is, twenty minutes to save the world, and I've got a Post Office. And it's shut. What is that?" he pointed ahead before rushing towards the object, the girls following after.
"It's a duck pond."
"Where are the ducks?" Evy frowned, looking around, there wasn't any sign of any bird actually.
"I don't know, there's never any ducks!"
"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?" the Doctor continued.
"It just is!" Amy shouted, getting annoyed, "Is it important, a duck pond?"
"I don't know. How would I…" he jerked, clutching his chest as he fell to the ground, "…know?"
"You should have rested," Evy sighed, kneeling down to check on him, her regeneration symptoms had already lessened, the women of Gallifrey never seemed to have as violent a regeneration or as many regeneration pains as the men…her mother used to say it was the Universe's way of creating balance since women gave birth.
"I should have," he admitted, "I'm not ready. I'm not done yet."
Evy looked down at him sadly, stroking his cheek as a shadow fell over them. The trio looked up to see clouds moving in.
"What's happening?" Amy asked, "Why's it going dark?" the darkness passed to reveal the sun, but it looked strange, "What's wrong with the sun?"
"Nothing at all," Evy replied, frowning at the sky, "What's wrong is how you're seeing it, through a force field."
"They've sealed off your upper atmosphere," the Doctor agreed, reaching out to Evy as she helped him to his feet, "Now they're getting ready to boil the planet."
Amy just stared at them, looking around the park at everyone who'd pulled their phones out to film what was happening…all except one, as far as Evy could see.
"Oh, and here they come," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "The human race. See, the end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."
"This isn't real, is it?" Amy asked, "This is some kind of big wind-up..."
"Why would I wind you up?" the Doctor asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
"You told me you had a time machine."
"And you believed me."
"Then I grew up."
"Never do that," Evy commented.
"No!" the Doctor shouted a moment later, "Hang on, shut up!"
"Excuse me?" Evy turned to face him, an eyebrow raised as she put her hands on her hips.
He blanched, realizing what he'd said, "Sorry, just meant...wait a moment. I missed it," he slapped himself on the forehead painfully, "I saw it and I missed it…" he went to slap himself again, but Evy grabbed his arm, holding his hand to keep him from trying to hit himself again, "What did I see? I saw! What did I see? I saw…I saw…I saw...I didn't see!" he looked over at Evy, "You saw!" he pulled her towards him and gave her a hard kiss before pulling away, beaming, "You're brilliant!"
Through her eyes he'd seen a man standing there, not with his phone pointed at the sun, but at a man and his dog a few feet away. He turned to glance at a clock.
"Twenty minutes!" he shouted, turning to the two women, "I can do it! Twenty minutes, the planet burns, run to your loved ones and say goodbye...or stay and help me," he was speaking more to Amy than Evy, he could already hear her in his mind planning to help him.
"...no," Amy said.
"I'm sorry?" he frowned.
"NO!" Amy shouted, grabbing a hold of his tie, pulling him towards a car parked just behind them.
"Amy, no, no! What are you doing?"
She opened the car door, slamming it closed on his tie, trapping him there, before taking the car keys off the man standing beside it and locked it.
"Amy!" Evy shouted, "Have you lost your mind?"
"Who are you?" she demanded, looking between them.
"You know who we are," the Doctor replied.
"I'm Evy," Evy said, "And that's the Doctor."
"No really," she repeated, "Who are you?"
"Look at the sky," the Doctor told her, "End of the world. Twenty minutes."
"Well, better talk quickly then."
"Amy...I am going to need my car back…" the owner cut in gently.
"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee."
"Right…" the man trailed, walking off, "Yes..."
The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out the apple Amelia had given him, tossing it to Amy, "Catch."
She caught it and stared down at the apple, knowing it was the one she had given him before he'd taken care of the crack in her wall, the smiley face still there, exactly the same.
"I'm the Doctor," he repeated what Evy had said, "And that's Evy…we're time travelers," Evy remained silent as she let the Doctor handle this, she could just sense that Amy associated more with the Doctor than her, so she let him take charge, "Everything we told you twelve years ago is true. I'm real. Evy's real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."
"...I don't believe you," Amy said, after a moment of considering it.
"Just…twenty minutes," Evy stepped in just a bit, "You only need to believe us for twenty minutes."
"Look at it," the Doctor nodded down at the apple, "Fresh as the day you gave it to me and you know it's the same one," Amy looked up at the Evy a moment before focusing on him, "Amy, believe, for twenty minutes."
There was a moment of tense silence before Amy lifted her hand and unlocked the car door, "What do we do?"
"Stop nurse-boy," Evy said, grinning as she and the Doctor took off running, jumping over a low chain link fence. The Doctor ran right past the nurse, nicking his phone and peering at it just as Amy caught up.
"The sun's going out and you're photographing a man and a dog, why?" the Doctor asked, handing the phone to Evy to look at before she tossed it back to the man.
"Amy!" he shouted, seeing Amy, sounding very relieved that she was safe.
Evy and the Doctor exchanged a secret smile and knowing look.
"Hi!" Amy nodded at the man before turning to them, "Oh, uh, this is Rory, he's a...friend."
"Boyfriend."
"Kind of. Boyfriend."
"Amy!"
"Man and a dog," the Doctor cut in, trying to avoid a lover's spat, "Why?"
"Oh, my gosh," Rory exclaimed, finally looking at the duo properly, "It's him…and her!"
"Why am I always an afterthought?" Evy asked, a bit amused, to the Doctor, who could only shrug.
"Just...answer his question, please," Amy half begged, growing more embarassed.
"It's them though!" Rory was still in shock, "The Doctor, the Raggedy Doctor! And Evy!"
"Yeah!" Amy smiled a bit, "He uh…they came back."
"But they were a story, they were a game…"
"Man and dog!" Evy impatiently grabbed Rory by the front of his shirt, pulling him down to her new level, the clock was ticking, "Why! Tell us! Now!"
For her new short stature, she was sure able to intimidate others well, Rory actually looked startled at the small woman threatening him, "Sorry! Because…he can't be there…because he's…"
"In a hospital, in a coma," they both said simultaneously.
"...yeah," Rory looked a bit freaked out by that.
"Knew it," the Doctor grinned as Evy let go of Rory and backed up to stand next to him, "Multi-form, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a life feed, a psychic link, with a living, but dormant mind."
Just then a dog began barking.
They turned around to see the multi-form of the man standing there, though this time both he and the dog were barking.
The Doctor stepped forward, fully intending to step in front of Evy but Evy had other ideas. She grabbed his hand and stood next to him, squeezing it in reassurance.
"Prisoner Zero," the Doctor greeted.
"What?" Rory gasped, "There's a Prisoner Zero too?"
"Yep," Evy replied.
Suddenly a spaceship with a giant eyeball sticking out of the bottom of it flew over them and hovered by a church, scanning around for their prisoner.
"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology," the Doctor began, taking out his sonic screwdriver, "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver!" he quickly held down the button of the sonic and held it in the air above his head.
Evy laughed as streetlamps began exploding, car alarms went off, a mobility scooter went berserk, and a fire engine decided to drive itself down the road with the firemen chasing after it. All the while the ship kept scanning.
"I think someone's gonna notice, don't you?" the Doctor grinned.
The man and dog barked and growled as the Doctor aimed the sonic at a telephone box which exploded quite loudly…but suddenly the screwdriver itself exploded, forcing the Doctor to drop it.
His expression morphed into one of horror as he leaned down to pick up the charred remains, "No, no, no!" he scooped it up, "Don't DO that!"
"What is it with you and destroying sonics?" Evy asked, not as shocked as Amy or Rory that the Doctor's gadget was destroyed, it seemed to be an average occurrence for him.
The ship started to head off.
"It's going!" the Doctor called, "No, come back! He's here! Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is here!"
Prisoner Zero gave a smug smirk and then disappeared, glowing orange and melting down into the drain.
"Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is...here..."
"Doctor!" Amy called from behind them, "The drain, it just...sort of, melted, and went down the drain."
"Well, of course it did."
"What do we do now?"
"It's hiding in human form," Evy said after a moment of the Doctor looking down at the sonic in sorrow, "We need to drive it into the open."
"No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes, come on..." the Doctor began to mumble, "Think. Think!"
"So that thing..." Amy asked as the Doctor began to pace around, trying to think, "That hid in my house for twelve years?"
"The average life span for multi-forms is quite a few millennia," Evy informed her, distracted, as she tried to think of something as well, "Twelve years is nothing."
"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute?"
"They're looking for him, but they followed us," the Doctor said, "They saw us through the crack, got a fix, they're only late 'cos we are."
"What's he on about?" Rory frowned.
"Nurse-boy, gimme your phone," the Doctor said suddenly, turning to Rory.
"How can they be real? They were never real!"
"Phone! Now! Gimme!"
Rory handed him the phone, distracted, focused on Amy, "It was just a game, we were…we were kids, you made me dress up as him so you could be Evy!"
"If this wasn't a life or death situation," Evy commented, "I'd be flattered Amy."
"These photos, they're all the coma patients?" the Doctor asked, holding up the phone.
"Yep," Rory nodded.
"No," Evy shook her head, leaning over to look at the pictures as well, "They're the multi-form. Eight coma patients means eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."
"He had a dog, though, there's a dog in a coma?" Amy asked.
"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog," the Doctor reasoned, "Laptop!" he looked up from the phone, spinning to face Amy, "Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the good looking one!"
"Thanks," Rory rolled his eyes.
"Jeff," Amy answered.
"Oh, thanks!"
Evy reached out and patted Rory on the shoulder, she could tell he was trying hard to impress Amy and get her to really notice him. She could understand completely how it felt to not be noticed by the person you loved, granted she had been responsible for the not noticing, but still...she could relate.
"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop," the Doctor said, "Big bag, big laptop! I need Jeff's laptop!" he pointed to Rory and Amy, "You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward, clear the floor, phone me when you're done!"
He reached forward and grabbed Evy's hand, pulling her with him back towards Jeff's house while Amy pulled Rory away on their own mission.
~8~
Like before, the Doctor barely stopped as he entered the house and ran straight to Jeff's room, throwing the door open to reveal Jeff, sitting on his bed with the laptop on his lap.
"Hello!" he called, "Laptop. Gimme," he crossed the room and tried to pry the laptop away from Jeff, who was trying desperately to cover the screen and keep it away from the Doctor.
"No, no, no, no, no…" Jeff was saying.
"No it's fine give it here…" the Doctor argued as they tugged.
"Hang on!"
Evy rolled her eyes and walked over to the two struggling men, snatching it right out from between them.
"Ha!" the Doctor shouted victoriously, he reached out to take the laptop from Evy but she stepped back, "Gimme!"
"This one's a bit demanding isn't he?" she asked, recalling his repeated use of 'Gimme!'
"Not really the time," he reminded her, taking the laptop and sitting down on the foot of Jeff's bed. He glanced down at the screen before looking away quickly, shutting the screen so Evy wouldn't have to see what was on there…not that it helped as she'd already gotten an eyeful through the Link, "...blimey! Get a girlfriend, Jeff."
Jeff looked embarrassed as he turned his eye on Evy…
"No," the Doctor said suddenly, seeing where Jeff's gaze was headed, "Just no…she's mine…and…just don't."
Jeff's grandmother then popped into the room.
"Gran!" Jeff shouted, still morbidly embarrassed.
"What are you doing?" his grandmother asked.
"Sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's gonna be a big old video conference call," the Doctor said, restarting Jeff's computer.
"All the experts will be panicking right about now and they'll be needing just one thing..." Evy added.
"Us," the Doctor smiled to himself. It felt nice to not have to say 'me,' there was an 'us.' There was most definitely an 'us.'
"Oh there they are," Evy grinned, seeing the web conference the Doctor intended to hack into, "NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Center, Patrick Moore..."
"Oh! I like Patrick Moore!" Gran exclaimed.
"I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil," the Doctor warned.
"You can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff's eyes widened, they could be arrested for this! He could probably be arrested for letting them do this!
"You're right, I can't…" the Doctor frowned for only a moment before handing the computer to Evy, knowing how much she enjoyed hacking, "But she can."
Evy grinned, cracking her fingers and began to hurriedly type code after code. She grabbed the Doctor's psychic paper out of his pocket and held it up to the webcam.
"Who are you?" someone asked, staring at the woman and man before the camera and the other man behind them, "This is a secure call, what are you doing?"
"Hello!" the Doctor waved, "Yeah, I know, you should switch us off, but before you do, watch this," he nodded at Evy who began to type something into the computer.
"It's them!" someone else shouted as their computers began to show another box.
"I know, I'm getting…" Patrick Moore began.
"Fermat's Theorem," Evy said, typing it in for them to view, "The actual proof, the one no one's ever seen before, poor Fermat was killed in a duel before he could write it down…I wonder whose fault that was?"
Evy glared up at the Doctor who looked at the group of computer whizzes, a bit ashamed, "My fault. I slept in…" he glanced at Evy, "Evy didn't speak to me for a week! Worst week of my life."
Evy rolled her eyes, before typing in some other things, "And here's another, explaining why electrons have mass, and..." she glanced at the Doctor, smiling, "One of his personal favorites, faster than light travel...with two diagrams and a joke. Don't ask."
She stopped typing as the Doctor looked at the men seriously, "Look at your screens. Whoever we are, we're geniuses. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention."
~8~
The Doctor was pacing behind Evy, fiddling with Rory's phone, while Evy continued to type something on the laptop.
"Sir!" someone shouted, spotting him, "What are you doing?"
"I am transcribing a computer virus that my lovely Link developed a while ago," the Doctor grinned, ruffling Evy's hair as she shook her head to get him to stop, "Very clever, super fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. And why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind. You'll find out. Ok, I'm sending this to all your computers."
"Get everyone who works for you on sending this wherever you can, send it everywhere," Evy instructed, "Email, text, FaceBook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish, smoke signals, whatever you can do. Any questions?"
"What's your name sweetheart?" Patrick Moore asked, flashing a grin at Evy.
"Patrick, behave," the Doctor frowned, the look on his face, though only there for a moment, clearly told the man to back down.
"What does this virus do?" someone else asked.
"Don't worry, it's only a a reset command," Evy waved him off, "It'll reset whatever counter it can through the wi-fi. Clocks, calendars, basically anything with a chip, will default to zero all at once."
"But yeah," the Doctor interrupted lightly, "We could be lying, why should you trust us? Well, I'll let my best man explain."
There was silence as the Doctor waited for something, but nothing happened. Slowly he turned to look over his shoulder at Jeff who was still sitting on his bed, staring at them curiously.
"Jeff," he whispered, "You're my best man."
"You what?" Jeff frowned.
The Doctor looked at Evy and dropped his head onto her shoulder, shaking it, humans really were so slow.
Evy turned back to the screen, "Give us a moment please," she shut the screen and they turned to face Jeff.
"Listen to me," the Doctor began, "In ten minutes, you're gonna be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is gonna be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."
Jeff looked dumbstruck at that, "…why me?"
"Because it's your bedroom," Evy grinned, "Now, hop to!"
The Doctor pulled Evy up off the bed, rushing out of the room with her as Jeff took his place at the laptop. The Doctor spun in place halfway through the house and ran back to Jeff's room.
"…let's do this," Jeff was saying when the Doctor suddenly opened the door to the room.
"Oh," he said, "And delete your internet history," he then spun around and ran back outside with Evy, he pulled her to the back gate, looked both ways, before rushing off in one direction.
Evy sighed, "Doctor!" she called, he stopped abruptly and turned to face her, she just stuck her thumb out in the opposite direction and he gave her an embarrassed grin before running off in that direction with her.
~8~
Evy had managed to hotwire a car…actually a fire truck…that the Doctor was now racing down the road towards the hospital.
The phone rang and, seeing as how the Doctor was driving, Evy picked up, "Doctor?"Amy asked.
"Evy," she corrected.
"We're at the hospital. But we can't get through…"
"Check the mirror Amy," Evy said quickly, gasping as the Doctor made a sharp turn.
There was silence before Amy spoke again, "...oh."
"What did he say?" she could vaguely make out Rory saying.
"Check the mirror," Amy said, "Ha ha! Uniform!" there was a bit of static and Amy spoke again, "Are you on your way? You're gonna need a car."
"Don't worry," the Doctor shouted as Evy held up the phone, "I've commandeered a vehicle."
Evy put the phone back to her ear, "Actually I commandeered the vehicle…the Doctor's just trying to drive it without destroying it like he does everything else he tries to use."
"Hey!" the Doctor mock whined, "I'm not that bad!"
"I seem to recall quite a few toasters in 1969."
"I was trying to make a Temporal Anomaly Detector."
"Not the first one. The first one you tried to cook pancakes in, and not just reheating already made pancakes…no, you tried to cook the batter in it…what on Earth possessed you to do that I will never know...especially when the stove was only a foot away from it!"
The Doctor grumbled something.
"What was that?" she asked.
"I said, this one doesn't breathe when she's angry, does she?" he asked.
Evy just rolled her eyes and picked up the phone again, "We'll be there soon Amy, just hang on," she flipped the phone closed to see the Doctor continuously glancing down at the button that would turn on the sirens, "Oh go on," she said with a fond smile on her face.
He grinned, slamming the button down and turning the sirens on, driving happily on.
~8~
They had only been driving a few minutes, just pulling up to the hospital, when the phone rang again.
"Are you in?" the Doctor answered this time.
"Yep," Amy replied, "But so's Prisoner Zero."
"You need to get out of there."
"He was so angry, he kept shouting, and shouting, and that dog…" they could hear someone else speaking.
"Amy?" Evy called, "Who is that?"
"The size of that dog," the voice continued, getting a bit farther away, "I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone. Where did he go? Did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the ladies."
"Amy?"
"Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I?" the woman said again as Evy and the Doctor looked at each other, "I'm always doing that. So many mouths."
"Amy?" the Doctor shouted, "Amy, what's happening?" they could hear scuffling, the sound of people running before a door slammed shut, "Amy! Talk to me!"
"We're in the coma ward, but it's here, it's getting in," Amy came back.
"Which room are you in?" Evy asked quickly, looking up at the outside of the hospital.
"What, sorry?"
"Which room, which window?" the Doctor repeated for Evy.
"Uh, first floor on the left, fourth from the end."
The Doctor snapped the phone shut, jumping out of the fire engine to see that Evy had already got to work getting the ladder up and ready, heading straight for Amy's window. He jumped onto the ladder, climbing along it as Evy maneuvered it.
He quickly whipped out the phone and sent Amy a text, a simple one, one word…DUCK!
The ladder went straight through the window, about a foot into the room, just missing Amy and Rory who had dropped to the ground. The Doctor sent an 'ok' signal back to Evy, before climbing in through the window, leaping into the room as Evy began her own climb onto the ladder after him.
"Right!" he called, draping an arm around Amy and Rory's shoulders, "Hello! Am I late?"
"Nope," Evy answered, climbing into the room as well, "There's three minutes to go," she smiled at him, "Plenty of time."
"Time for what, Time Lords?" Prisoner Zero asked.
"To break his record," Evy grinned, walking over to the Doctor as he stepped forward, away from Amy and Rory.
"Take the disguise off, they'll find you in a heartbeat," he said to Zero, "Nobody dies."
"The Atraxi will kill me this time," Zero replied, "If I am to die, let there be fire."
"Ha ha, ok…you came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."
"...I did not open the crack."
"Then who did?" Evy frowned.
"The cracks in the skin of the Universe...you don't know where they came from?" Zero asked, looking at the Doctor and Evy's face, picking up on the fact that they had no idea, something that didn't happen very often to Time Lords, "You don't, do you?"
"The Doctor and his Link in the TARDIS don't know," the mother said, but in a little girl's voice, "Don't know, don't know!" but then the mother's voice returned, "The Universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."
There was a noise behind Zero and the Doctor and Evy's eyes flickered to it, their expressions lightening as they relaxed a great deal.
"And, we're off," the Doctor grinned, "Look at that. Look, at that," he pointed and everyone looked to see the clock behind Zero had reset itself to 0:00, "Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever, but d'you know what's happening right now?" Zero turned back to them, not happy, "In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And, d'you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word. All over the world. Quantum fast. The word is out."
And so it was, everywhere, all over Earth, clocks and other devices were resetting to 0.
"Do you want to know what the word is?" Evy raised an eyebrow, neither she nor the Doctor noticed Amy and Rory staring at them, one full of amazement at the people he thought fictional, another full of pride, "It's 'zero.'"
"Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint," the Doctor continued, lazily draping an arm over Evy's shoulder, smiling when he felt her put her own arm around his waist, "And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in...what?" he looked at Evy, "Under a minute?" she nodded, "The source, by the way...is right here," he pulled out Rory's phone from his pocket and held it up moments before a blinding white light flashed through the windows, "Ooh, and I think they just found us!"
Rory and Amy ran to the window to look out at one of the Atraxi ships flying over the hospital, hovering there as it shined a spotlight from its pupil.
"The Atraxi are limited," Zero replied, not worried, "While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone. Not me."
"Yeah!" the Doctor laughed, "But this is the good bit, I mean, this is my favorite bit," he turned to Evy, "Evy?"
"This phone is full of something very interesting," she commented, taking the phone and holding it up for her to see, "Pictures...of you. Of every form you've learned to take, all right here."
The Doctor took the phone back, pushing a single button, "Oh, and, being uploaded, about...now. And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare...who da man?" he threw his arms out in joy.
Everyone just stared at him as though he'd gone insane. Even Prisoner Zero looked unimpressed.
Evy just shook her head at him, a sympathetic smile on her face.
"...oh," he trailed, lowering his arms, "Well. I'm just...never saying that again. Fine."
Evy stepped over to him, giving him a small kiss on the cheek, "You da man," she smirked, laughter in her voice, "But seriously…never say that again."
"Right…" he grinned before turning to face Prisoner Zero again.
"Then I shall take a new form," Zero said.
"Oh, stop it, you know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link."
But then Zero grinned, "And I've had years."
Zero began to glow orange as the Doctor and Evy stared, a sense of dread creeping up on them. And their feelings were confirmed when, moments later, Amy collapsed behind them. Evy and the Doctor spun around at Rory's shout and ran to her side, the Atraxi ship hesitating outside, confused.
"No!" the Doctor shouted, "Amy!" he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You've gotta hold on! Amy! Don't sleep! You've gotta stay awake, please!"
"Doctor!" Rory shouted, pointing at Zero.
Evy and the Doctor looked up, only to see himself standing here.
The Doctor straightened, bemused, "...well that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"
"You," Evy replied.
"Me?" he asked incredulously, turning to Evy, "Is that what I look like?"
"More or less."
"You don't know?" Rory frowned.
"Busy day," he remarked, turning back to Evy, "What do you see in that?"
Evy just rolled her eyes jokingly, "Not sure yet."
The Doctor just grinned at her before getting up to go look at himself, Evy remaining with Rory and Amy, "Why me, though? You're linked with her! Why are you copying me?"
"I'm not," Zero said, her voice small, as though she were a child. And then young Amelia stepped from behind the Doctor's back.
Evy couldn't help but smile softly at that, that was the moment they opened the crack and the Doctor had protected the girl from her worst fear. It was sweet that that was what she associated the Doctor with, protection, her hero, she could understand now why she was an afterthought.
"Poor Amy Pond," Zero commented, "Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."
"No…" his eyes widened, "She's not dreaming about me…she can hear me!" he ran back over to Evy's side and crouched down beside her and Amy, "Amy. Don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside, I tried to stop you but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy...dream about what you saw.
"No!" Zero shouted, "No! No!" they watched as Zero began to fade to orange, slowly turning into the form that Amy had seen in the room as the Doctor walked over to face it. It became a very serpentine figure with sharp teeth and a roar like a lion.
"Well done, Prisoner Zero," the Doctor smirked, "A perfect impersonation of yourself."
The light outside the window intensified, locking on to Zero as she thrashed.
"Prisoner Zero is located," the Atraxi announced, "Prisoner Zero is restrained."
The Doctor stared Zero down as the creature turned to face him, "Silence, Doctor. Silence will fall."
And then, slowly, it faded away into nothing as the Atraxi ship powered up and left.
The Doctor ran to the window, checking to see if it was, in fact, leaving. He turned around to see Evy now standing with Rory's phone and typing on it rapidly.
"The…the sun, is back to normal, right?" Rory asked, leaning over to try and look outside without leaving Amy's side, "That's...that's good, yeah? That means it's over."
The Doctor just nodded as Amy began to wake up.
"Amy?" Rory asked, checking her over, "Are you ok? Are you with us?"
"What happened?" Amy frowned, feeling like she'd missed the best part of a movie.
"He did it. The Doctor did it. Him and Evy."
"Not quite yet," the Doctor replied.
"What are you doing?" Rory followed the man's gaze to see Evy fiddling with his phone.
"Just tracking the signal back," she replied, "Sorry about this."
"About what?"
Evy glanced up at him, smirking, "The bill."
"Aw…" Rory's face fell.
The Doctor just grinned as Evy tossed him the phone, "Oi!" he called into it, "We didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet. And you were gonna burn it? What? Did you think no one was watching? You lot. Back here, now," he hung up and tossed the phone back to Rory, "Ok. Now we've done it."
Evy grinned and took the Doctor's hand, pulling him out of the room.
"Uh, did he just bring them back?" Rory asked as Amy got up and moved to follow them quickly, Rory going after her, "Did he just save the world from aliens, and then bring all the aliens back again?"
The Doctor pushed through a set of double doors, striding down the hall with Evy.
"Where are you going?" Amy asked, catching up to them.
"The roof!" Evy grinned, "The Doctor's got some aliens to deal with."
He turned to give her what the humans thought was meant to be a disapproving look but it was hopelessly foiled by the humor in his eyes, "You just love getting me into these situations don't you?"
Her grin widened, "I do," she admitted, "And anyway, it's not like I can talk to them, they barely know who I am…it's you everyone hears about."
"Speaking of talking to them," the Doctor veered off and into a dressing room, everyone following. He searched around the room, picking up odd pieces of clothing, keeping one, throwing others over his shoulder for Rory to scoop up. Evy on the other hand, just looked around, eyeing the clothing before picking up only the pieces she needed.
"What's in here?" Amy frowned, confused.
"Well, if I'm about to save the world, I need a decent shirt!" he stated as though it were obvious, "To hell with the raggedy, time to put on a show!" he spun around with a coat before dropping it.
"He's just summoned aliens back to Earth!" Rory looked at Amy, "Actual aliens! Deadly aliens! Aliens...of death, and...now you're..." he looked at the Doctor, before rolling his eyes, "Taking your clothes off."
Evy was watching amusedly as the Doctor proceeded to strip in a corner of the room, trying on some new shirts.
"Amy, he's taking his clothes off," Rory turned to the ginger.
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," the Doctor shot back.
"Are you stealing clothes now?" he glanced at Amy. Evy smiled softly, poor Rory was trying his hardest to impress her, "Those clothes belong to people…you know!" he turned around to give the Doctor privacy but when he glanced over at Amy again he saw her smirking and watching the Doctor, "...are you not gonna turn your back?"
"Nope," Amy replied smugly.
Evy barely let Amy's words and intention faze her as she stepped forward in between the Doctor and Amy, blocking her view of him, "Amy…" she began, reaching out to lay her hands on the ginger's shoulders, "Turn around," she nudged her, turning Amy around like Rory was.
Amy huffed, "Fine."
Evy laughed silently to herself and turned around to see the Doctor looking up at her, an odd expression on his face, "What?" she asked.
He glanced down at himself and looked up at her meaningfully.
She shook her head, "It's not like I haven't seen you before," she thought back to when the human Doctor had appeared in the TARDIS through the meta-crisis.
"Yeah but…" he actually looked a bit bashful, "…new body...new...other things…"
Evy rolled her eyes, it seemed this Doctor was just a bit shy, "You're not the only one, you know," she said before reaching behind her to the zipper of her dress and pulling it down.
Her dress was already off her shoulders when the Doctor's eyes widened and he spun around to quickly finish dressing. It wasn't that he didn't want to stare at her new body, but if he did…he would end up keeping the Atraxi waiting quite a long time and probably scar Rory and Amy for life…neither was very good. But he certainly knew one thing...his Evy appeared to be quite the tease now.
~8~
Up on the roof of the hospital the Doctor stepped out, just finishing buttoning up the pink shirt he'd finally selected as Evy followed, pulling her hair into a high ponytail while Amy and Rory came out after them. The Doctor kept trying to secretly look at Evy out of the corner of his eye, though he failed miserably as his new body hadn't quite mustered the turn of the neck yet and every time he tried his entire head would turn to stare at her.
He couldn't help it though. The outfit she'd selected suited the new her very well. It was a pair of dark blue jeans that tucked into a pair of knee high brown boots. She was wearing a dark red shirt with a brown, almost leather, jacket over it. In his opinion she vaguely resembled a hero out of a western movie. He briefly considered making her a holster for her sonic, complete the outfit so to speak.
The Doctor himself was a mess though. He had his pants half on, the braces hanging loose by his legs while Rory held a number of coats that had been tossed to him to try on later. He had about five different ties lying around his neck. But he had little time to actually think on that as he caught sight of the Atraxi waiting there for them.
"So, this was a good idea, was it?" Amy asked, "They were leaving!"
"Leaving is good," Evy defended the Doctor's actions, "But never coming back is better."
"Come oooooooon then!" the Doctor stepped up, shouting at the ship, "The Doctor will see you now!"
He turned back to see Evy grinning at him, "I love it when you say that," she laughed.
He grinned as well, turning back as the eye in the center of the ship released and zoomed down to land before him. A white light emitted from its pupil, scanning him. He waited patiently for it to finish before he pulled up his braces.
"You are not of this world," the Atraxi stated.
"Nope," he said, popping his p, "But neither is Evy over there."
Evy waved at the Atraxi, waiting as they scanned her as well.
"But I've put a lot of work into it," the Doctor said, glancing at Evy, "We both have…" he fiddled around with a tie, holding it up to examine before holding it up to the small group around him, "Um...uh...I dunno. What do you think?"
Evy shook her head fondly and walked over to him, pulling the tie in his hand away from his neck and tossing it to Rory. She continued to examine the rest of the ties as Doctor focused on the Atraxi.
"Is this world important?" the Atraxi asked.
"Important?" Evy spun to face the eyeball, utterly mad that the Atraxi could even question it, "What do you mean by important? Six billion people live here. Of course it's important!"
"Here's a better question," the Doctor cut in, resting a gentle hand on Evy's shoulder to calm her. Evy took a breath before turning back to the Doctor, tossing another tie away to Amy, "Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Come on, you're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"
A light emitted from the eye again, only this time it formed a hologram of the Earth, flickering through different images of Earth's transmissions in history, not excluding the many nuclear explosions, wars, and armies…but also taking into account the religions of the world, the praying, the good in it.
"...no," the Atraxi answered.
"Are the people of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" the Doctor continued, another tie went off.
The images flickered again, to street carnivals, crowds, costumes, more of the trivial things of the world.
"No."
"Ok!" he grinned at Evy, winking at her as she was left to pick between the last two ties, "One more, just one. Is this world protected?"
The images shifted to the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Raconoss, the Ood, the Sycorax, the Sontarians, the Silurians, the Reapers, the Hath, and many other aliens that had come to Earth at any given time, each never seeming to last long enough to do serious damage.
Evy grinned as she found the perfect tie, tossing the other to Rory so she could begin stringing it round to a bow-tie. She practically buzzed with excitement at what the Doctor was doing.
"'Cos you're not the first lot to have come here," he continued as the images played, "Oh, there have been SO many. And what you've got to ask is...what happened to them?"
They turned away, walking over to Rory, Evy selecting just one tweed coat for the Doctor to wear before helping him into it. They stepped to the side to watch the Atraxi's hologram flicker through of all the Doctor's previous incarnations. Evy looked at each fondly, seeing his past selves flashing before her. She was a bit surprised, however, when it got to his last body and her own recent incarnations were standing there beside him.
The Doctor, sensing her thoughts, reached out and took her hand. He walked forward, through the hologram of his last life, Evy pulled along with him as the hologram disappeared, "Hello," he grinned, "I'm the Doctor…" he looked over at Evy fondly, kissing the back of her hand, "And this is my Link, Evy…" he gave a small breath of happy laughter before turning back to the Atraxi, "Basically…run."
Evy had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as the eye literally shook in fear, seeming to widen, even without eyelids, and scoot back before shooting off into the ship again and taking off hurriedly.
Amy and Rory laughed behind them as they stared up at the sky, grinning.
Evy suddenly jerked, drawing the Doctor's attention. She quickly pulled out the TARDIS key from her pocket, looking up at the Doctor as it glowed in her hand.
"Is that it?" Amy asked, watching the ship fade in the distance, "Is that them, gone for good?" she waited a moment before asking, "Who were they?"
There was no answer.
She and Rory looked around, only to see that the door to the roof was wide open and the Doctor and Evy were gone.
~8~
The Doctor held on tightly to Evy's hand as they both raced through the hospital, out the front door, and towards the street. Evy couldn't help but laugh as the Doctor pulled her straight past the fire engine, forgetting it completely in the last of his memory lapse.
It was a good thing the town was so small as they managed to make it back to Amy's backyard without breaking a sweat. They smiled gently when they caught sight of the TARDIS, standing upright, looking just as blue as the first paintjob and almost brand new. There was no more smoke, no more glowing. There was a St. John's Ambulance sticker on the door and it seemed to have changed its shape just a bit, but it still looked amazing to them.
"Ok," the Doctor breathed, "What have you got for us this time?" he turned to Evy, taking the key from her and ran to the doors, quickly unlocking them and standing in the doorway, looking in.
"Look at you!" Evy exclaimed as she leaned against the Doctor, the TARDIS looked beautiful, "You sexy thing. Just look at you!"
The Doctor stepped in, Evy shutting the door behind her, and the TARDIS faded away, just as Amy and Rory rushed over.
~8~
The Doctor took the TARDIS on a quick trip to the moon, just to get her legs stretched so to speak, a short trip comparatively speaking, before heading back to Amy's, materializing just in the spot it had last appeared in.
"Not again," Evy grumbled as she stepped out to see that it was dark out, the Doctor had been trying for another five minute jump, wanting to prove he could do it without years going by. She turned to him, "Next time I'm piloting."
The Doctor looked at the TARDIS, a bit concerned, before shrugging and leaning against the door as another door shut. They looked over to see Amy stepping out of her house, pulling a dressing gown on.
"Sorry about running off earlier!" the Doctor called, "Brand new TARDIS, bit exciting! Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in," Amy stopped a little ways away from them, just beneath an arch of vines.
"She's all set for travelling now," Evy agreed, gently patting the side of the TARDIS door.
"...it's you," Amy looked between the two of them, before focusing on the Doctor, "You came back."
"Course we came back," he grinned, "We always come back. Something wrong with that?"
"And you kept the clothes?" Amy looked them over as she moved to stand next to the TARDIS.
"Well, we just saved the world. The whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge, yeah. Shoot us. We kept the clothes."
"Including the bow-tie."
"Yeah," he nodded, "It's cool. Bow-ties are cool."
"Very cool," Evy agreed, having been the one to select it for him, it just seemed to...fit...the new him. She reached out to pat the bow-tie, earning a large grin from the Doctor.
"Are you from another planet?" Amy asked them suddenly, eyeing them suspiciously.
"Yeah," the Doctor replied.
"Ok…"
"So what do you think?"
"What?"
"Other planets, want to see some?" Evy clarified.
"What does that mean?"
"It means, well, it means..." the Doctor frowned, looking at Evy who shrugged, he turned back to Amy, beaming, "Come with us."
"Where?"
"Wherever," Evy said, "Whenever. It's up to you."
Amy looked up at the TARDIS as though recalling a lovely dream, "All that stuff that happened, the hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero…"
"Oh, don't worry, that's just the beginning, there's loads more," the Doctor grinned.
"Doctor…" Evy began, really looking around…things seemed different…again…
"Yeah, but those things, those...amazing things, all that stuff…" Amy trailed as the Doctor nodded happily.
Evy just shook her head at him, realizing why things looked off…apparently years had gone by…again.
"That was two YEARS ago!" Amy shouted, a hard look on her face.
The Doctor looked over at Evy who inhaled deeply and then nodded her head, he trusted her, she was always better at that then he was, "Oh. Oops."
"Yeah."
"So that's..."
"Fourteen years!"
"Fourteen years since fish custard," the Doctor frowned, feeling very sorry that he'd taken up so much of the girl's life, "Amy Pond. The girl who waited, you've waited long enough."
"...when I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool," Amy said after a moment, "And a library...and the swimming pool was in the library.
"Might not still be there..." Evy frowned, trying to recall where the two rooms had gone.
"It'll turn up!" the Doctor waved it off, "So! Coming?"
Amy shook her head, "No."
"You wanted to come fourteen years ago," Evy argued.
"I grew up."
"Don't worry," the Doctor laughed, "We'll soon fix that," he snapped his fingers and turned to the TARDIS expectantly, only for his expression to falter seeing the doors still shut.
Evy rolled her eyes and snapped her own fingers, the TARDIS doors opening on their own for her. She laughed, "She still likes me better!"
The Doctor mumbled something under his breath before reaching out and draping an arm around her shoulders. They stepped off to the side to allow Amy to look in, both smiling smugly as she slowly started to walk towards it. As soon as she was in, they followed, Evy shutting the door as the Doctor stepped around Amy to get to the console. Evy joined him moments later, smiling widely at Amy, who was staring around at the large room, wide eyed and in shock, just taking it all in.
Evy could imagine what she was feeling. Finally getting something that you had dreamed of for years, it was how she felt when she'd first gotten to travel with the Doctor, finally being reunited with him after so many years…it was incredible. It really warmed her hearts to be able to help give that feeling to someone else.
"Well?" the Doctor asked after a moment, "Anything you wanna say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."
Amy looked completely lost for words, still looking at the room. Evy gave it a glance as well, it was larger than it had been, a bit more complex in a multi-leveled way she just couldn't describe.
"...I'm in my nightie," Amy breathed.
Evy snorted, the Doctor certainly hadn't heard that one before. She turned to Amy, "Clothes are in the wardrobe, lots to choose from…and you never know, the swimming pool might just be there too."
"So!" the Doctor shouted, clapping his hands, "All of time and space, everything that ever happened or that ever will. Where do you wanna start?"
Amy looked away from the room and focused on the Doctor and Evy before stalking up to them, "You are both so sure that I'm coming."
"Yeah. We are."
"Why?"
"Because we know exactly how you feel," Evy answered, "Being the Scottish girl in the English village..."
The Doctor walked around the console, prodding things Evy was certain he shouldn't, so she had to follow him around, reversing whatever mess he was about to get them into.
"Oh, do you?" Amy called, watching them.
"Well, all these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent," the Doctor commented, "Yeah, you're coming," he dinged a little bell on the console.
"Stop that," Evy chastised lightly.
"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?" Amy asked.
"It's a time machine," the Doctor reminded her, "We can get you back for five minutes ago."
"He hopes," Evy joked, before glancing at Amy, "Why? What happens tomorrow?"
"Nothing," she answered quickly, a bit too fast in Evy's opinion as she looked at the girl curiously, "Nothing! Just, you know...stuff."
"Alright…" the Doctor nodded slowly, picking up on what Evy had, their dear Amelia Pond was hiding something, "Back in time for 'stuff.'"
"Doctor!" Evy called, motioning for him to come over. He ran around the console to see a new sonic screwdriver popping up from the console. He snatched it up quickly and began to look at it gleefully, "Happy now? You've got your sonic back."
"So have you," he nodded at her own original sonic in her hands.
"I'm actually thinking of going sonic-free," she commented offhandedly.
He stared at her in shock, "What?"
"Joking," she laughed at his stunned face, she could never give up her sonic. She flashed him quickly, lighting his face with a white glow, tinged just a bit with a pale blue hue, before sliding it into her pocket.
He grinned, flashing her with his new green light as well. He slid the sonic into the inner pocket of his coat before laying a hand on the console, "Thanks dear," he whispered to the TARDIS. He turned quickly on his heels and ran around the console, typing away at a typewriter styled keypad.
Amy watched as Evy pulled a lever and pushed a few buttons, both she and the Doctor working in tandem, "Why me?" she asked suddenly.
"Why not?" Evy countered, smirking.
"No, seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night, it's a fair question. Why me?"
"Dunno!" the Doctor shrugged, "Fun! Do we have to have a reason?"
"People always have a reason."
"Do we even look like people?" Evy asked, repeating the Doctor's earlier words, knowing the girl would remember it.
"Yes!"
"Been knocking around on our own for a while," the Doctor sighed, glancing at Evy, "But apparently I just keep talking...all the time…"
"It's giving me an earache," Evy grumbled playfully, nudging him in the stomach lightly.
"You're lonely?" Amy frowned at them, noticing for the first time the actual weariness in their eyes, the aged feel that could only come from travelling for a very long time, "That's it? Just that?"
"Just that," the Doctor agreed, "Promise."
Evy looked sadly over at the Doctor, they had each other and that was more than enough for them, but the weight of the knowledge that their entire race was gone was a heavy burden to bear. It eased their souls to know they weren't the last, that they weren't alone, but, at the same time, knowing it was only the two of them was almost worse, if something ever happened to one of them…
She was about to say something when a flicker on a the monitor just behind the Doctor's head caught her eye. It was shaped like the crack that had been on Amy's wall. She quickly reached out and turned off the screen, knowing Amy didn't have many fond memories of that crack. The Doctor glanced up at her, seeing the crack in her mind and glancing back at the screen as well.
But the crack was gone.
"Ok," Amy was saying, pulling their attention back.
"You're alright then?" Evy asked, shaking her head, trying to forget the crack and the fact that it had managed to appear in the TARDIS.
"'Cos this place…" the Doctor continued, "Sometimes it can make people feel a bit...you know."
"I'm fine," Amy replied, "Fine. It's just...there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought, well, I'd…I'd started to think that maybe you were just like a...madman with a box."
"Amy Pond," the Doctor said, suddenly very serious, "There's something you better understand about me, 'cos it's important, and one day, your life may depend on it…"
Amy listened to him intently.
"He is definitely a madman with a box," Evy grinned, laughing until Amy did the same, both laughing at the Doctor's pout which was quickly remedied by Evy's kiss on the cheek.
"Ha ha," he smiled, before running around the console, flipping a few switches as he went, Evy moving to the other side of the console to do the same, "Yes! Goodbye, Leadworth! Hello…everything!"
He jammed down on a lever, sending a jolt through the TARDIS, forcing them to cling to the console. The TARDIS dematerialized, the Time Lords within laughing while Amy looked bewildered but excited nonetheless.
A/N: Martha Jones once said that if you stick with Evy, she'll never leave you on your own, she'll watch out for you. That will never be more true. Evy will definitely change quite a few things about this Series.
Just a teaser for this story, (if all goes to schedule) I cannot wait till the 24th! I am so excited about that chapter, the entire dynamic of the show/story will change! What will happen? Positive change? Negative? Not saying :)
Next chapter...the Doctor's pickpocketing skills have greatly improved. He's also seemed to have developed a habit whenever he sits down. And the Doctor really needs to stop talking.