So this was it. My death is coming and I need to run away from it, as far as I can get. But first I need to assure Amy and Rory's safety. They can't be a part of it, it's way too dangerous. They should stay away from me. Everyone should. Today's adventure with the Minotaur proved once again, but today it wasn't only Amy's life in danger, but her soul. I had to break her faith in me, to break the basics of our friendship, so I could save her. But first, before I'll drop them off, I want to give them something. Something they would remember me by. A house, maybe? And a car, Rory loves cars. I used to have a car myself. It was beautiful, yellow, masterpiece called Bessie.
Ponds went to their room now, I need to do everything quickly, they've decided to take a nap after a very hard adventure and it was my chance to do everything right. I need to let go of them, before it's too late.
The Doctor's mind drifted to the hotel and its endless corridors. First they headed to Ravan-Skala with 6 feet tall people, but the TARDIS, as always, had its own mind and brought them to this terrible place, where he was needed. There they met a bunch of scared people who was trapped the same way the Doctor and his friends were.
The Doctor was thinking about those people who didn't survive this hotel, Howie and Lucy and poor Rita. He liked Rita, he would gladly take her with him in the TARDIS but it's never meant to be. And then happened something even more scary, his Amy, his little Pond was infected with a creature and started to praise it, good thing Rory was immune, he didn't have faith, he relied on himself and things he can achieve, how much I envied him. Especially, when I saw my own door. I knew it was stupid and dangerous but it lured me, more than anything in this world. I decided to open the door, I had nothing to lose, Amy would be saved by Rory he knew that for sure and himself…well, he wanted peace and peace was real only with..her.
- Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. – the Doctor heard in his head.
The Doctor opened his "11" door. He saw a very familiar TARDIS-room, on the other side of the wall he could see the gaping crack, the one that is chasing after him in this life and right in front of it, the Doctor saw…Rose in the glory of a Bad Wolf power, he was drowned to her, he feared her, he loved her and he believed in her.
- Of course. – the Doctor said a bit bitterly - Who else? – no one else in the Universe held such power over him, not only in the Bad Wolf way, but in every other possible. She was his weakness and his strengths, he knew she's been watching his life, able to change anything in one breath, but he believed in her and he knew she never would.
He was so much like Amy. His fear and faith were connected in the most obvious way. They both believed in someone who influenced their lives the most and who held a power over them and they both feared that they would be forgotten.
The Doctor shut the door gently, he put the Do Not Disturb notice on it. He wanted to protect that room, so no one could see what he was really afraid of.
But still there was a job to do. Even though his and Amy's faiths were alike in many ways, her had a big flaw – him. In order to save her, he had to tell the truth about himself, that he is not a hero. That he took her life away because he is selfish and lonely and the worst part, that he knew that it would happen, because that's what always happens. It would be easy to break her faith in him. That was their only chance to get out of here, they had to weaken the creature. It would be impossible to break his own faith, he believed in Rose and nothing could be more perfect for him than this.
After getting out of that prison, they came to some sort of control room. In fact, the Doctor pitied the creature, he understood it. They were very alike, they both used other people's energy to keep themselves alive and they both wanted to stop but they didn't know how.
The Doctor flinched a bit. He now was thinking about the way Amy looked at him after he broke her faith. It's like she just woke up from the dream she had when she was 7, and now she saw the reality, she accepted it, but it wasn't as shiny and magical as she thought it was.
- What is it, a minotaur or an alien? – Amy finally asked - Or an alien minotaur? That's not a question I thought I'd be asking this morning. – she was trying to lighten the mood. But we both felt that something broke between us forever.
- It's both, actually. – figures and words appeared on the screen - Yeah. Here we go. Distant cousin of the Nimon. They descend on planets and set themselves up as gods to be worshipped. Which is fine, until the inhabitants get all secular and advanced enough to build bonkers prisons.
- Correction. Prisons in space. – Rory remarked
He and Gibbis were looking down through a porthole. There were different planets down there.
- Where are the guards? – Amy looked around.
- No need for any. It's all automated. It drifts through space, snatching people with belief systems and converts their faith into food for the creature. – the Doctor said. He heard Gibbs talking:
- See that planet there?
- Which one? – Rory as always was trying to be polite, even with someone like Gibbs
- There. The grey one there.
- Mmm hmm.
- That's where I'm from.
Than Amy became her usual self. And Amelia Pond…No, the Doctor thought, I have to stop thinking about her like that, she is a grown, married woman, Amelia Williams.
-It didn't want just me – Amy said - so you must believe in some God or someone, or they'd have shown you the door too. – she paused for a moment - So what do Time Lords pray to?
- According to the in-flight recorder, the programme developed glitches. – I couldn't bring myself to look into her eyes, but I couldn't talk to her. I just couldn't, I wanted Rose to be as private as possible, Amy already knew way too much. So I did was I best at, gibbering - It got stuck on the same setting, the fears from the people before us weren't tidied away.
The heard The Minotaur's growl.
- What's it saying? – Amy asked
- An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless, shifting maze. For such a creature, death would be a gift. – he came close to the creature and closed its eyes. How the Doctor wished to join him, that someone he loved was holding his hand while he was leaving this world for good. - Then accept it, and sleep well. – the creature growled and even though I knew it was a lie, I had to at least try to persuade myself - I wasn't talking about myself.
With that The Minotaur died.
The door of the Pond's room opened and it was if I woke up, I was snapped back to reality. I already bought a house and a car for them, I hope it would be enough "thank you and be safe" gift for them. Now was a hard part, saying goodbye. Oh, I am rubbish at this, even my Tenth-most-human-of-all-of-us was rubbish at saying goodbye! And I was much worse. But I had to. They needed to be safe. We landed in London.
- Don't tell me. This isn't Earth, that isn't a real house. – Amy tries to joke, I really try to smile back but everything burns within me - And inside lives a goblin, who feeds on indecision.
- No. Real Earth, real house, real door keys. – he gives keys to Rory
- You're not serious? - Amy was looking at him in disbelieve. But, she thought, after today's adventure she should have expected this.
- The car too? – Rory of course didn't understood what the Doctor was really doing - But, that's my favourite car. How did you know that was my favourite car?
- You showed me a picture of it once and said this is my favourite car.
- Rory, can you give us two minutes? – Amy asked - Two minutes?
- She'll say that we can't accept it because it's too extravagant and we'll always feel a crippling sense of obligation. – he looked back to the car and brightened - It's a risk I'm willing to take.
Rory ran into the house, he was curious and excited. After all it's all Rory ever wanted. He wanted to have a family and to share a house with the woman he loved.
- Hey.
The Doctor leaned against the long red bonnet with Amy.
- So. You're leaving, aren't you? -Amy asked quietly
- You haven't seen the last of me. – finally, he was sincere with her. No games, just the truth. - Bad Penny is my middle name. Seriously, the looks I get when I fill in a form, it's…
- Why now? - she was having none of his so-called jokes.
The Doctor looked at Amy, he tried not to cry. It was so damned hard to let Amy go! She was his friend, his family, his fairytale Amelia! The first face this face saw.
-Because you're still breathing.
-Well, I think this is about the washing up, personally. – Amy was trying to be a grown up. She really did, but her Doctor was leaving her, her raggedy Doctor.
- I mean, you're right, there's still heaps of stuff out there to look at. Do you know, there's a planet whose name literally translates as Volatile Circus? – the Doctor said and then nodded to the house - Or maybe there's a bigger, scarier adventure waiting for you in there?
Amy looked at her house, it was a bit hard to imagine her living here, like a normal human without all of time and space and this mad man.
- Even so, it can't happen like this. – she finally said - After everything we've been through, Doctor. Everything. You can't just drop me off at my house and say goodbye like we've shared a cab.
The Doctor looked into his dear friend's eyes.
- And what's the alternative? – he asked brokenly - Me standing over your grave? Over your broken body? Over Rory's body?
Amy understood that all, but it was still so impossibly hard for her to let of her Doctor, her childhood.
- If you bump into my daughter, - she finally said - tell her to visit her old mum sometime.
The Doctor smiled sadly.
-And look after him. – he waved at Rory. He was trying really hard to keep it together.
- Look after you.- she kissed him in his forehead - Bye.
The Doctor went into the TARDIS quickly, and it dematerialises. Rory came to Amy with champagne and three glasses.
- What happened? – he asked. Won't they celebrate a new house? The Doctor still was a family! - What's he doing?
Amy looked at her beloved husband and then on the spot where the TARDIS was a second ago.
-He's saving us.
They headed to their house, where a brand new journey will start for them.