Chapter Twenty-nine
"What the..."
Laying on a cold hard surface Rory groaned in pain from his violent trip through time. He had flashes of images in his mind of events he remembered and other he had a feeling hadn't happened yet. Wondering what would make him and Amy move to live New York he opened his eyes but then quickly closed them against a powerful headache. Laying still for a moment he worked on calming his rebelling stomach and easing the pounding in his head. Once his symptoms eased a bit he turned his head to the side and opened his eyes once more.
Furrowing his brow in confusion Rory tried to figure out what he was looking at. Close to his face was something hidden under a blue cloth that held a dark dry stain. Disoriented from his trip Rory didn't think twice about reaching over and lifting up the cloth. Beneath the cover Rory revealed the lifeless body of Jackles staring sightlessly up at the ceiling, the bloody foam long since dried to his colourless lips.
"Yah!" Rory cried out in alarm as he scrambled back.
Jumping to his feet Rory looked around in disbelief at the broken lab in the belly of the Minyan ship. At first he thought that other than the dead body he was alone, but the soft sound of a shuddering breath suddenly caught his attention. Hunting around the piles of metal debris Rory found the Valeyard sitting in corner with his knees hugged to his chest. Staring forward blankly tears rolled down his cheeks. On the wall next to him was a gory finger painting in drying blood, the same circular pattern that had been on the note in Stormcage that had upset the Doctor so much the first time.
"Uh...Doctor? Or Valeyard, whatever...you alright?"
Rory got no response from the Valeyard, he just continued to silently cry, occasionally drawing a shuddering breath as he hugged his knees tighter to his chest. Unsure of what to do Rory kept his distance. The Doctor had been treating this 'Valeyard' as some sort of criminally insane villain and had warned them how dangerous he was, but he certainly hadn't seemed like much of a threat so far. If anything he seemed no better or worse than the Doctor he already knew.
"Maybe that's what he's really afraid of: competition," Rory mused out loud "of being replaced. I can't I even being to understand any of this, not sure I even want to."
Still unresponsive the Valeyard just rocked gently as he winced in apparent pain. Rory watched with growing medical concern as the Valeyard reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose revealing a nasty wound in the underside of his wrist. Sighing heavily Rory slowly approached and knelt down. The Valeyard shied away from him slightly and pressed himself harder into the corner, but he didn't protest when Rory took his injured arm. There was a piece of loose silk wrapped around his wrist that had been worked nearly free when he had been fighting with the cuff that River had secured him with. Since he didn't have anything to treat the still bleeding injury with Rory just re-secured the silk in a tight bandage.
"That will have to do for now. What happened? How did we get all the way back here?"
The Valeyard's only response was to reach out and start tracing the drying pattern on the wall.
"Great." Rory sighed in defeat.
Rory snapped his fingers in front of the Valeyard's face a few times in an attempt to get his attention but the Valeyard refused to even make eye contact with him. Getting back to his feet Rory noticed a familiar small blue crystal laying in a puddle of blood on the floor. Going to the crystal he picked it up and brought it back over to the Valeyard. He knelt back down and tried offer the crystal to him, but the Valeyard had no interest.
"This is that crystal thing that you, or the Doctor, was wearing to control his life force. How can it be here? At this point in the past shouldn't he still be wearing it?" Rory asked despite getting no answers. "I suppose I could go ask him, he should be somewhere on this ship...then again so should I, my past version. Would that muck things up? Can I just go talk to myself, or will that put a hole in the Universe or something? If I go now wouldn't I already remember having done so since this is the past? Gah...I hate time travel!"
Bowing his head in defeat Rory closed his eyes. He had no idea what he had done to deserve the silent treatment but he was starting to seriously worry about how he was going to get back to Amy. Rory wasn't sure that if he went to the past version of the Doctor now for help if he'd end up a paradox like River or not, he wasn't exactly clear on all the rules when it came to crossing his own timeline.
The Valeyard suddenly reached out and took the crystal away from Rory. Looking up hopefully Rory was disappointed to find that the Valeyard was simply using the shimmering crystal like a piece of chalk to try and draw a new symbol on the wall. Making a noise of frustration Rory got back to his feet and turned to go in search of the Doctor no matter the consequences.
"Rory?" The Valeyard called. "Where are you going?"
"Doctor?" Rory asked in surprise as he turned back around.
"Valeyard." He corrected as he got to his feet. "How did this get here?" The Valeyard mused as he studied the circular bloody Gallifreyan on the wall.
"Right, whatever, what the hell happened?" Rory demanded.
"I'm sorry about that." The Valeyard apologized as he lost interest in the patterm on the wall and rubbed at his injured wrist. "Every once in a while I get dragged back through time to where this all started. Sort of like a post traumatic stress disorder episode, only when I get caught up in thoughts of past torments I actually get brought back here."
"I thought you didn't remember anything that happened?"
"The Doctor doesn't remember because he was too cowardly to stay and face the consequences of the mess he'd landed himself in." The Valeyard growled darkly "*I* was the one who suffered and *I* remember every second of the tortures Jackles put me through."
"I...uh...I'm sorry." Rory apologized awkwardly.
"And it was more than just pain, Rory, it was fear and panic and terror that tore at my very essence, not to mention the humiliation, and now I am left with so much pain and rage and...I...I..." The Valeyard gave up on explaining with a heavy sigh and turned a baleful look on Rory. "Rory, the fact of the matter is, is that the only thing that helps me cope, the only thing that keeps me sane...is being with your daughter."
"I'm...uh...not so sure it's working." Rory said honestly. "Maybe you should see a therapist or something."
"A therapist?" The Valeyard repeated with a bitter laugh. "There isn't a doctor in the Universe qualified to help a Time Lord who has been tortured beyond the point of death as I was. No, River is the only soul who can heal my own tattered spirit. Her love is the only thing that brings me peace."
The sincerity in the Valeyard's voice was deeper than anything Rory had ever heard from the Doctor. The Valeyard seemed to truly love her, and yet the Doctor had been so convinced that the Valeyard posed a deadly threat to River. Having spoken his peace the Valeyard looked around the broken lab and visibly shuddered.
"Unfortunately I think we are going to have to wait here until the ship gets pulled into the future. We can hitch a ride along with it." The Valeyard said as he started to inspect the blood on the wall again. "I can get us back to Alkinar once we are within a few hundred million years, but five billion years is a long way to go. Hopefully this tim..."
"I'm not going to let you hurt River." Rory interrupted suddenly, speaking as confidently as he could muster.
"Hurt her?" The Valeyard repeated as he drew his attention back to Rory. "I would never. I love her. More than anything."
"If..if that's true," Rory stuttered being under the Valeyard's intense gaze "why did you take her out of her time line?"
"I'm doing everything in my power to steer River away from her original time line because if I don't she is going to die...and the Doctor knows that, he's always known that."
"What are you talking about?"
"River and I first met over a hundred years in my life ago. She died that day saving my life. I knew nothing about her, and she knew everything about me. We have been meeting out of order ever since and even though that day is far behind me it still awaits her and it is fast approaching."
"H...how fast?"
"I don't really know, but it can't be more than a few years in her life time away. But it doesn't have to happen, not any more. I am working on a device, the Timonic Fusion Device, that will severe the connection from any fixed point I choose for past, present and future. It will create a kind of loophole in Time that will allow for paradoxes."
"Like River in the TARDIS?" Rory asked hopefully.
"Exactly." The Valeyard nodded. "I can save your daughter, both of them, but I need your help getting something."
"My help?" Rory asked surprised.
"Yes, I need to get A piece of the TARDIS."
"Any piece?"
"No, not just any piece, a piece of her heart. However, now that the TARDIS is working over time to keep River in Paradox I can't risk tampering with her. Luckily there is another way."
"I don't understand."
"The Doctor would have needed to use a part of her heart to recreate the Matrix."
"So why do you need my help?" Rory asked confused. "Why not just go get it yourself?"
"Because you know where the Matrix is and I don't."
"I thought you were supposed to be the Doctor's future, how can you not know where it is?"
"It's complicated, I have to admit I don't fully understand it all myself...but it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that I am the only hope either River has to survive. But only if you help me."
"I don't know if I can trust you." Rory admitted simply. "The Docto..."
"Has the Doctor offered any hope of saving River's paradox life?" The Valeyard demanded. "Has the Doctor even *tried* to help her?"
"No, but he said she's not rea..."
"No excuses, Rory," the Valeyard interrupted "the River that has been in the TARDIS with you is every bit alive and every bit your daughter as the one who has been traveling with me. She *is* River, and she deserves every consideration that the unbroken timeline version does. You have every right to be suspicious of me, but at least I'm offering a chance for her to have a full life."
Rory fell silent for a moment while he thought about everything the Valeyard had told him. He wanted more than anything to help River, however he had a hard enough time trusting the Doctor at times. Putting blind faith in the Valeyard was a whole new risk. The Valeyard watched him closely, looking hopeful for a new ally. Thinking of Amy Rory finally came to a decision.
"Okay...I'll help you."
"Where are we going?"
"LMC-7/11MAH-Zed."
"That planet needs a new name."
"I've been told the locals are working on it."
"Good, let's go see if they've come up with one."