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Chapter II
["How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes]
The console room shook, throwing its occupants to the floor. River caught hold of the console itself, strong arms keeping her close to the ship's command center to keep them on track through the Vortex. Breaking through the walls of the universe and into the Void proved to be a difficult task. The TARDIS fought them as they forced her to race for the edges of the universe (because four to one worked pretty well in their favor).
Clara was flung against the railing surrounding the console platform, nearly swinging over it to the cool steel below. She grunted as the cold metal dug into her stomach, fingers sliding over the slippery rail. After another tilt, she let herself fall back towards the console, hanging on like River was.
"This is worse than when we went to Trenzalore," Clara muttered to herself.
"River, what's going on?" shouted Amy, picking herself up off the grating. "I thought you were good at flying her!"
"It's not me," River said, furiously pulling levers and twisting knobs, "it's the TARDIS. She's fighting with everything she's got."
Clara took advantage of the angle the TARDIS was currently hanging at and swung the screen in front of her, typing into a keyboard. The others were too busy trying to keep themselves upright to ask her what she was doing, so she simply shouted out, "I'm trying to override the TARDIS' self control but the old cow hates me."
Amy and Rory shouted out in surprise as the ship suddenly lurched them all back to the ground. Clara hung on, trying every password she could think of. RYCBAR123 didn't work, nor did DOCTORWHO.
"River, what's his password?" asked Clara.
Fighting her way across the room to where Clara was feebly keeping herself standing, River called out, "She's probably changing it every second to keep us from guessing." But nevertheless, River scooted herself towards Clara, fingers at the ready to type. She was a child of the TARDIS, damn it, and if anyone could fight her way in, it was her.
River typed and typed, speaking loudly to the ship in English and another language that the TARDIS would not translate. Clara recognized it as Old High Gallifreyan, the language that (once she really thought about it) she had been able to read once upon a time, in an aborted reality where she was lost in the TARDIS. It was then that Clara realized that she was not alone in knowing the Doctor's name. River knew, she had to know, she was his wife. And Clara's knowing was a mistake.
The cloister bell began to ring, its eerie sound resonating throughout the ship, above the layers of noise created by the TARDIS herself. Amy reached for Rory's hand and grasped it tightly. "River, hurry up!" Amy shouted, growing increasingly frustrated at her friend's inability to hack into her own husband's computer. River was a bloody genius; it should not have been this difficult for her.
Finally, River typed in what she had suspected the password to be all along, what made her sick to her stomach: BADWOLF.
Having successfully broken through the TARDIS's defenses, River immediately leapt back into her job of flying the blue box through the Vortex, hurtling towards the walls of the universe. In a world where the universe was constantly shrinking and expanding and entirely in flux, punching through the walls would be one hell of a job. Almost impossible, if it weren't for the Doctor's Impossible Girl. River tried not to be jealous as Clara started pounding in coordinates on the screen, increasing the TARDIS's velocity and raising her energy levels to near the breaking point.
Amy and Rory cried out as they were thrown to the floor again. Clara and River guided the ship through the hole they'd created, and the console room filled with a white light. Just as soon as the light had arrived, it disappeared, plunging the room into a darkness that seemed to last forever. But then the greenish blue lights of the console began to illuminate and the time rotor began to hum again. River made a few final movements, landing them as softly as she could.
"We did it," Clara breathed, mostly to herself. The Doctor had such faith in her; it was almost frightening how much he trusted her-his Impossible Girl.
"Where are we?" asked Rory, helping Amy to her feet. River stared up at the screen with a look of dread on her face. Amy normally would have been concerned that some terrible alien force was outside the TARDIS doors, waiting to attack. Reality was so much worse: her husband's ex-girlfriend.
River was silent, but Clara walked over to Rory and said, "A parallel universe called Pete's World. This is where we're going to find the Doctor and Rose Tyler."
"The Doctor's here?" asked Amy, looping her arm through Rory's as they walked to the doors.
Clara swung the doors open, letting in fresh air and sunlight. As they stepped out of the police box, Rory took one look around and said, "We're in London."
"Parallel London," Clara corrected. "And no, Amy, the Doctor is not here, but a copy of him is, and it's him we're to find."
The parallel aspect of the universe made itself clear upon further investigation. Silver zeppelins graced the sky, a newspaper stand named the country as the People's Republic of Britain, and a campaign poster for a certain Harriet Jones flapped in the wind. Rory pulled it off a nearby bench, skimming over the words. "My dad voted for Harriet Jones a few years ago."
Amy took it out of his hands. "I think my parents did, too, after that fiasco at Downing Street."
River shivered in the wind, staring up at the sky. What she wouldn't give to be with the Doctor right now, and not here finding his, well, his Rose. There wasn't a better word for what she was to him. River might have been his wife, but she could never be his Rose, no matter how hard she tried.
Clara pulled out her mobile phone and started trying to pick up the network. She knew that under normal circumstances, even her Doctor-enhanced phone would not work in this universe, but because he knew she needed to come here, the Doctor made her phone that more special. Clara was now allowed to do internet searches and make phone calls (in-universe only). He'd made the same sort of modifications to his TARDIS before sending her off, enabling the ship to enter the parallel universe without dying as she had before, several centuries ago.
Amy walked over to River to make sure she was alright, and Clara approached Rory. "So, Rory," Clara said, bumping him with her elbow, "are you ready to start searching? It might take some patience, really, because we have an entire universe to search. They could be anywhere."
Rory gave a bitter sort of laugh and looked to his wife. "I think I'm the king of waiting."
Clara gave a little laugh that had the same meaning as smacking her forehead. "Of course. I forgot, two thousand years, Last Centurion."
Rory looked a little surprised. "Did the Doctor tell you that?"
She shook her head. "Didn't have to. I fell into the Doctor's time stream; I was splintered throughout his entire life, all of them, even ones that haven't happened to him yet. I think I saw you, probably only a few decades into your vigil. A million different me's, it's hard to keep track."
A little confused, Rory wracked his memory. If he really thought about it, he vaguely remembered seeing Clara. He never would have remembered that (two thousand years was an extremely long time after all) if she hadn't brought it up. It was somewhere around the first century point, he thought, when he got really lonely and felt hopeless.
"Don't worry," she had said to him, leaning against the Pandorica. "She'll be fine."
And it had all been fine in the long run. He kept Amy safe for two thousand years, albeit in a destroyed universe that was rewritten by the Doctor, hence the return of her parents. Really, it was the thought that counted.
"Thank you," Rory said sincerely, feeling an incredible amount of gratitude to Clara. Any reservations he had had about her dissipated, knowing that she really did have the best at heart.
Clara smiled. "No problem. It's not like I had a choice really. I was lost, looking for the Doctor. And he found me." She paused, a mischievous glint in her eye, like she was trying to decide whether to say something or not. "Lovely name, Rory. First boy I ever fancied was called Rory."
He looked straight ahead, trying not to look too deeply into this. "Okay."
"Actually," Clara continued, "she was called Nina. I was going through a phase." She could tell he was uncomfortable, bumping his arm again and nearly knocking him off balance. "Just flirting to keep you cheerful."
"Who are you?" asked Amy, walking back over with River.
Grinning, Clara answered, "Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?"
"He's called the Doctor," River said a little too quickly. Amy squeezed her friend's elbow, reminding her that being snippy would not keep the Doctor from making friends.
Clara's grin grew. "I see what you did there. Let's find a cafe. I could do with some tea and a computer. Bit of a computer genius, me. It's all thanks to the Doctor. Nearly got myself killed, uploaded to a wifi server but managed to get brilliant hacking skills. I was hopeless before. I'm hoping to do a search of the government resources to find them, and maybe hack into Torchwood if I need to."
"What's Torchwood?" asked Amy, looking both ways before leading the others across the street. There was an internet cafe on the corner of the street that looked promising.
"An old enemy of the Doctor's," River responded. "Enemy, and then ally, depending on who you ask. I interned for them a few years ago. Met an old friend of the Doctor's named Jack. Oh, the things we could get that boy to do between the two of us..."
Amy couldn't decide whether to be intrigued or horrified. Deciding to not make up her mind, Amy simply allowed River to trail off without pressing for more details. Pulling open the door for the others and allowing Rory to take it to hold open, Amy asked, "But how do you know there's even a Torchwood in this universe?"
Clara grinned as she slid onto a stool at a high table with a computer. "Because the Doctor told me so, or rather, I saw it myself in his own life."
Rory shook his head. "That's never not going to be weird, and we've known the Doctor for years." Changing his tactics, he added, "What can I get for everyone? Do they even take regular money?"
Fingernails clicking against the table's surface, Clara slid a credit card across to him. "Apparently this will work anywhere, any-when. I'll have a cup of chamomile with milk and two sugars please."
Rory nodded and turned to his wife and friend. He knew Amy would want coffee, and River shook her head to deny a want for anything. Rory walked off to go get in line at the counter. Amy peered over Clara's shoulder to watch her do a quick web search of 'Rose Tyler.'
Sixty-four million results popped up instantly. Clara clicked on the first link, a wikipedia page that detailed the recent life of the Vitex heiress who up and appeared out of nowhere some three years before. Her life was private, according to the article, but she was often seen in the company of her mother, father, and supposed boyfriend, a man named John Smith.
Rory walked over then, setting the three mugs on the table and pulling up a chair for himself. River filled him in while Amy walked over to the coffee table in the cafe's corner, sifting through the stacks of magazines. Upon a search of 'Rose Tyler John Smith,' Clara was pleased to announce that the pair were supposed to be London-based, but their current whereabouts were unknown.
"It says here that they're engaged," Clara read from an online tabloid. River instantly perked up slightly, but enough to be noticed by all. Amy walked over with a magazine in hand.
"Look," she said, putting the book down on the table. It was flipped open to a page of photos of Rose Tyler and John Smith, though progressed to pictures of Rose Tyler alone. "I think they broke up," Amy said, pointing at pictures of Rose alone with her mother, Jackie, and toddler brother, Tony. "That's going to make everything harder."
"No, it isn't," Rory said, pointing to a box at the bottom of the page. "This gala, it's tonight at Vitex headquarters. It's Rose's birthday today, says so right here. We should be able to find her there."
"But how do we get in?" asked Amy.
"Leave that to me," River said with a sly grin. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a tube of lipstick. Rory grimaced and Amy smiled. To Clara's confusion, River explained, "Hallucinogenic lipstick. It'll get us in anywhere we want. Between this and the psychic paper, presumably left somewhere in the TARDIS, we're as good as properly invited guests."
"Ooh, do you know what this means, Rory?" Amy turned to her husband, "Dress up!"
"There's a gorgeous evening gown in the wardrobe that I've been dying to wear," Clara gushed to Amy and River, quickly logging off the computer and standing. "I'm so glad I didn't have to beg the Doctor to take me somewhere so that I could wear it out for once instead of just in the wardrobe."
"I know what you mean," Amy agreed. "The Doctor finally took me to a fancy party. Rory and I got so dressed up, it was ridiculous, but it turned out that the Doctor got the millennium wrong; turns out 5340 is a lot different than 4340! Invisible clothes were really popular in the fifty-fourth century. Needless to say, we were a tad overdressed."
Rory flushed at the memory, taking a few seconds to fall behind Amy and the other girls, willingly lagging behind.
"No offense," Amy continued, not even noticing her husband's absence, "but we have no chance against River. She's drop dead sexy when she wants to be."
River patted her hair and smiled cockily before breaking into a genuine smile. "Well, he is my husband. I must dress to impress."
"I swear, River," said Amy, "sometimes you make me wish I were a lesbian."
"I went through a phase," Clara said absently, both ignoring River's grimace. She turned around and walked backwards. "Oi, Nina! Keep up, will you?"
"What did you call him?"
Clara looked to Amy and said, "I call him Nina. It's a personal thing."
The ginger let her husband catch up to her before grabbing him and planting a kiss on his lips. "Never thought to call you Nina."
"Let's not make it a thing, please," begged Rory, leaning down slightly to kiss his wife again.
Clara fake gagged. "Get a room!"
"We have one," Amy said as they approached the TARDIS. "Want to check it out before we get dressed?" Rory smiled in response, but didn't have a chance to say anything.
Just as River was unlocking the TARDIS doors with her own key, a female voice behind them suddenly gasped, "Oh my God."