Chapter Twenty Two
When the group woke up, the first thing they saw was the carpeted floor of the old people's home that they had fallen asleep on. Frowning, they clambered to their feet, just as a familiar man walked into the room.
"Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad. Look at this X-ray," he said, holding up the X-ray film, "Your brain is completely see-through. But then, I've always been able to see through you, Doctor."
"You know each other?" Scarlett frowned before Amy asked, "Always? What do you mean always?"
"Now then, the prognosis is this," the Dream Lord continued, ignoring the girls previous questions, "If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality; healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me happens if you die in reality?"
Neither of them said a word except for Rory, who unknowingly took the bait, "What happens?"
"You die, stupid. That's why it's called reality," came the brash reply.
"Have you met the Doctor before?" Amy tried again, "Do you know him? Doctor, does he?"
"Now don't get jealous," the Dream Lord smirked, "He's been around, our boy. Never mind that. You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Take two and call me in the morning." And with that, he disappeared once more.
"Okay, I don't like him," Rory said simply. The more than obvious remark was enough for a small smile to make its way onto Scarlett's lips as she was highly amused by her friend's choice of words.
"Who is he?" Amy questioned, folding her arms across her chest.
"I don't know, it's a big universe," the Doctor replied, easily evading the question.
"Then why is he doing this?" Scarlett asked.
"Maybe because he has no physical form. That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel," the Doctor said, peeling off the hideous jumper that Mrs. Poggit had made him try on and throwing it onto the floor.
"What does he mean; deadly danger?" Rory shrugged, "Nothing deadly has happened here. A bit of natural wastage, obviously."
As he was speaking, the Doctor had started to gaze around the room until it finally hit him. Something was wrong here. Something was very, very wrong.
"They've all gone…" he mumbled before running outside, leaving his friends to follow behind quickly.
"Why would they leave?" Scarlett frowned when she caught up with the Doctor. He was gazing out at a group of children, who were in the playground with their teacher.
"And what did you mean about Mrs. Poggit's nice old lady act?" asked Amy.
"One of my tawdry quirks; sniffing out things that aren't what they seem," the Doctor answered. "So come on, let's think. The mechanics of this split we're stuck in... Time asleep matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."
"And we're dreaming the same dream at the same time," Rory added.
As the boys continued bouncing ideas off of each other, Scarlett slowed her gait down so that she could stroll at a leisurely pace next to Amy. After all, she was pregnant, and Scarlett knew that if that were her, she wouldn't appreciate all the constant running.
"Yes, sort of communal trance; very rare, very complicated," continued the Time Lord, "I'm sure there's a dream giveaway. But my mind isn't working because this village is so dull! I'm slowing down, like you lot have."
"Oi!" Scarlett scolded.
"Watch this," Amy whispered, causing Scarlett to frown. Watch what? She didn't get a chance to ask, however, as Amy had already bent over with her hands on her stomach. "Oh, ow! No, really; Ow! It's coming!"
Oh, Scarlett thought, watch that.
"Help her, you're a doctor!" said the Doctor, turning to Rory.
"You're a doctor!" Rory retorted.
"You're both doctors!" Scarlett pointed out, making sure to play along with Amy's game.
"It's okay; we're doctors!" the Time Lord agreed, squatting down on the ground and putting his hands out, as if he were going to catch the baby as it fell out, "What do we do?"
Finally deciding that that was enough, Amy regained her composure and stood up straight, "Okay, it's not coming."
The Doctor's eyes widened slightly as he stood up, "What?"
"This is my life now and it just turned you white as a sheet. So don't you call it dull again, ever. Okay?"
"Sorry."
"Yeah," Amy narrowed her eyes at the older man before turning and walking off, closely followed by the father of her child.
"Good one, Ames," Scarlett grinned, which caused the Doctor to pout at her grumpily in response. Rolling her eyes, she gave the Doctor's cheek a patronising pat before taking off after her friends who had found themselves at a swing set.
Amy took a seat and, before either Rory or Scarlett could even blink, the Doctor sat on the swing next to her. Rory rolled his eyes before moving to stand behind his wife, while Scarlett looked down at the Doctor with a pleading look. The Time Lord sighed, feigning annoyance despite the small grin on his face, and patted his lap. Scarlett smiled in response, plonking herself down on his lap carefully. She made sure not to put all of her weight on him but relaxed nonetheless. Oh, how she loved the swings.
"Now, we all know there's an elephant in the room," the Doctor spoke up as he swung the swing ever-so-slightly.
"I have to be this size, I'm having a baby," Amy replied irritably.
"No, no. The hormones seem real, but no…" He paused to shake his head as a small smile spread across his lips, "Is nobody going to mention Rory's ponytail? You girls hold him down and I'll cut it off?"
Scarlett snorted, Amy laughed, and Rory just looked offended.
"This coming from the man in the bowtie," he retorted.
"Bowties are cool," the Doctor shrugged before giving Scarlett a small pat as a signal for her to stand up. She did as he requested and watched as he turned to look at Mrs Poggit. "What's she doing? What does she want?"
Scarlett opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the oh-so-familiar birdsong.
"Oh, no," Amy whined, "Here we go."
"It's freezing in here," Scarlett frowned as she, Amy, and Rory joined the Doctor at the TARDIS console.
"Yeah, have you got any warm clothing?" Amy asked as she rubbed her arms in an attempt to keep warm.
"What does it matter if we're cold? We have to know what she is up to!" the Doctor snapped causing the girls to flinch slightly in shock, "Sorry," he sighed. "Sorry. There should be some stuff down there, have a look."
Amy nodded, frown still in place, and took Scarlett's arm, leading her away from the Doctor. After a moment and with one final glare at the older man, Rory followed them.
"I want the other life," said Rory when he found the pair rummaging through boxes. "You know, where we're happy and settled and about to have a baby."
"But don't you wonder; if that life is real, then why would we give up all this? Why would anyone?" Amy pondered.
"Because we're going to freeze to death?"
"The Doctor will fix it," Scarlett joined in, passing a blanket to Rory and feeling slightly awkward for interrupting their conversation.
"Okay," Rory agreed before turning to his fiancé and wrapping her in a blanket, "Because we're going to get married?"
Amy laughed, "But we can still get married someday."
Rory's face fell, "You don't want to anymore? I thought you'd chosen me, not him."
"You're always so insecure," Amy said, rolling her eyes.
"My fiancé and my best friend ran away with another man."
"Not in that way," Amy replied.
"It was the night before our wedding."
"We're in a time machine. It's the night before our wedding for as long as we want."
Clearing her throat slightly, Scarlett picked up a blanket or two before making her way back up to the console.
"We have to grow up eventually," Rory continued.
"Says who?" Amy asked before grabbing some extra blankets and following Scarlett. Rory joined them slowly.
"Ah, Rory, wind," said the Doctor as he gave Rory something that looked like a whisk. Turning to Amy, he gave her a wire. "Amy, could you attach this to the monitor, please?"
"I was promised amazing worlds," Rory frowned. "Instead I get duff central heating and a weird, kitchen wind-up device."
"It's a generator. Get winding."
"It's not enough!" Amy sighed.
"Rory, wind!" Scarlett urged.
Rory frowned but began to wind the device. "Why is the Dream Lord picking on you? Why us?"
Nobody answered as the monitor finally came to life.
"Where are we?" Amy asked.
"We're in trouble," the Doctor answered.
"What is that?" Scarlett asked in reference to the image on screen.
"A star. A cold star," the Doctor ran over to the TARDIS doors and flung them open, letting in a blinding light. "This is why we're freezing. It's not a malfunction. We're drifting towards a cold sun. That's our danger for this version of reality." He closed the doors and made his way back to the group.
"This must be the dream. There is no such thing as a cold star. Stars burn," Amy reasoned.
"So's this one. It's just burning cold," the Doctor shrugged.
"Is that possible?" Rory asked.
"I can't know everything. Why does everybody expect me to, always?" he sighed in response, taking a seat next to the console.
"Okay, this is something you haven't seen before. So does that mean this is the dream?"
"I don't know, but there it is, and I'd say we've got about 14 minutes until we crash into it. But that's not a problem."
"Because you know how to get us out of this?" Rory said hopefully.
"Because we'll have frozen to death," the Doctor replied simply.
"Then what do we do?" Scarlett asked.
"Stay calm. Don't get sucked in to it, because this just might be the battle we have to lose."
"Oh, this is just so you, isn't it?" Rory sighed.
"Rory, don't," Scarlett pleaded. She was tired and her panic level was slowly rising. She didn't need anything else getting on her nerves.
"What?" the Doctor frowned.
"What, a weird new star, 14 minutes left to live and only one man to save the day? I just wanted a nice village and a family."
"Oh dear, Doctor. Dissent in the ranks," said the Dream Lord who appeared behind the Time Lord and successfully scared the absolute crap out of Scarlett with his sudden entrance, "There –"
"Shut up!" Scarlett interrupted. The Doctor looked at her with wide eyes and Rory looked shocked. Amy just nodded in agreement.
The Dream Lord smirked, "I'm sorry?"
"Just shut up and leave! I don't know what you're doing here or what you want but we're not going to be some little piece on your chessboard. We're not playing your game!"
The Dream Lord blinked, evidently surprised at the sudden outburst. After a moment, the smirk returned, "Is that so? Oh, I can see why he likes you; a young, beautiful, feisty girl just dying for a little bit of adventure. Do you know your way around yet?" He grinned, gesturing to the TARDIS with his arms outstretched, "Has he shown you the bedroom?"
Rage swelled up inside of the Doctor and he stepped forward. Before he could say anything, Amy placed a comforting hand on his arm and looked directly at the man in front of them, "You heard what she said. Now leave."
"Can you imagine what would happen if he had never come back for you two?" The Dream Lord continued as if there had been no interruptions at all, "There would be no excitement in your lives. No adventure. Nobody there to save you." Scarlett reached out behind her and Amy immediately pulled away from the Doctor to grab her hand tightly. "You don't want to play my game right now… but you will."
That was when the birdsong started once more and Scarlett felt Amy's grip on her hand falter. The Dream Lord smirked as Scarlett fell against the console but when she glanced at the Doctor and Rory, she noticed that they were still standing up straight.
"Don't you hear that?" she managed to force out. The Doctor looked terrified as Rory ran to help Amy stand up. He was failing miserably.
"Hear what? What do you hear?" he asked frantically.
"The birds," Amy croaked.
"You don't hear them?" Scarlett tried again.
The Doctor just shook his head and wrapped his arms around Scarlett to hold her up, "No, but you can stay awake. You both can. Just block it out. Stay awake."
"We can't… stay…" Amy's voice cut off as both her and Scarlett's knees gave way. They fell slack in the men's arms and the Doctor looked up at the Dream Lord in anger.
"Where have you put them?"
The Dream Lord shrugged, "They didn't want to be a part of my little chessboard… Now they have no choice."
"Where are we?" Amy asked as Scarlett picked herself up off of the ground.
The brunette shook her head in response as she looked around the room. It was dark, but there were two beams of light a little way behind them. She fumbled in the darkness and grabbed her friend's hand, "I don't know."
"Don't you?" said a voice from behind. They turned, and although it was dark, it was difficult to not notice the faint outline of the Dream Lord.
"What's going on? Where have you put us?" Amy demanded.
The man disappeared, only to reappear closer to the beams of light. Scarlett began to move forward hesitantly and gasped. Beside her, Amy did the same, "Oh my God."
The beams of light they had noticed previously were there for a reason. Underneath one, sat the Doctor; unconscious and tied up in a chair. Underneath the other, Rory sat; asleep and tied up just like his friend.
"Figured it out yet?" the Dream Lord asked.
"Figured what out?" Scarlett asked; her eyes still glued to the men in front of her.
"Oh, and I thought you were the smart ones," he tutted, "Let me give you a hint."
With a click of his fingers, the lights in the room switched on, finally letting the girls see their surroundings. When Scarlett looked down at the floor, she saw that the piece of ground she was standing on was black, whereas under Amy's feet, it was white. They were standing on a giant chessboard.
"You sick son of a bitch," Scarlett muttered to herself before raising her head defiantly. "So where's the danger then, hm?"
"Scarlett," Amy said, fear creeping into her voice. Her eyes were stuck to something just behind Rory and the Doctor and whatever it was; it wasn't good. Scarlett followed her gaze and outwardly cringed. There, just in front of them, was a Dalek. It seemed rusty and old but it was slowly repairing itself. They wouldn't have long before it came back to life.
"Ext… ter… min… ate," it said feebly as it struggled to restore itself.
"You can't be serious," Scarlett said, glaring at the Dream Lord who had moved to stand in between the Doctor and Rory.
He held out his right hand and looked at Scarlett, all while gesturing to the Time Lord. "There once was a man from Gallifrey that ended up throwing his life away. But then he met you and his wishes came true; that lonely old man from Gallifrey."
"Stop it," Scarlett said weakly.
The Dream Lord raised an eyebrow in amusement before signalling to Rory with his left hand and looking directly at Amy, "Two of you are a perfect match, but what was the Doctor done? He's gotten other people into trouble again, and here's the catch…" He disappeared yet again and when he returned, he was a mere step away from the girls. They inhaled sharply and took a small step back as the Dream Lord finished his rhyme.
"You can only save one."