A/N: Going to try to update at least once a week now, because we're nearing the end, and I can't leave you all in suspense for long, because a lot is about to happen! Haha..."spoilers."
Anyway, as I explained to a few of you in my review replies, this chapter is HUGE, and I'm not talking about word count. See if you can pick up on some subtle clues and hints to what will be explained further on in the story.
Brace yourselves, my lovelies!
It was almost as if time had stopped the moment Amy and the Doctor saw each other. Their stunned gazes locked, both of them considering the possibility that they were dreaming, and the Doctor's eyes widened while Amy's filled with tears.
Time began again when each of them whispered the other's name, and they both surged forward. Amy faltered immediately, still weakened from her ordeal, but the Doctor managed to reach her before she could fall, his strong arms immediately embracing her frail body and drawing her into him.
"Oh Amy." He whispered thickly, tears of his own dripping onto her skin as he burrowed his face against her neck. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
"It's okay." She whispered, clinging onto him just as tightly.
The Doctor raised his head, and gazed into her tear-filled eyes, pained. "Look what they've done to you both." Trembling, he placed his hand on Amy's bump, but he couldn't even smile when he felt his daughter move under his touch. "This isn't right, and I-"
"Shut up." Amy said hoarsely, managing to muster up a smile. "It's happened, and we can't do anything about it."
The Doctor could only stare back at her in awe, never failing to be overwhelmed by his wife's selflessness. "Oh Amy, I-"
Sensing that he was about to apologise again, or say something unnecessary, Amy quickly placed her hand over her mouth. "Don't." She whispered. "Just kiss me."
Taking his hand away from their daughter, he reached up and tenderly cradled her face, his lips millimetres away from hers. "I love you."
Amy's hands slid up to grasp the collar of his tweed jacket, and she tilted her head, her lips just about touching the Doctor's. "I love you too." She murmured, her eyes fluttering closed when the Doctor finally kissed her.
They were Home.
But Amy and the Doctor weren't alone, and they were both still in incredible danger. At Jack's bellow of their names, they broke their kiss, but didn't remove their hold on each other.
"As much as I'd love to celebrate right now, I think we should get out of here. Now!" Jack exclaimed, already backing away towards the chamber entrance. "Once they realise Amy's gone, they'll kill us all!"
Everyone immediately started for the doors, but when Amy wavered again, the Doctor scooped her into his arms and began carrying her towards the door. Amy was too weak to protest, so she could only cling onto the Doctor as they made their way across the chamber.
"Doctor, we're trapped!" River realised in alarm once they'd reached her. The staircase leading into the chamber had been completely destroyed, and the entrance itself looked like it had been cemented. "How are we supposed to get out of here?"
"Vortex manipulators." The Doctor answered instantly, lowering Amy gently to the floor. "You and Jack take Antonium and Amy to the TARDIS, then come back for me."
"Absolutely not!" Antonium hissed. "Not with the Pandorica here! Go in my place, Doctor."
"Whatever is in the Pandorica will not be a threat to me. I can handle it! Now go!" The Doctor snapped, impatient for Amy to get to safety.
"The Pandorica is your threat Doctor! No one else's!" Antonium said harshly, glancing over at Amy. "Tell him Amy!"
"I...I don't know what you're talking about." Amy whispered vulnerably, lost as she gazed back at Antonium.
Antonium nearly reeled back in horror at her words. They'd only been talking and thinking about the Doctor's prison just moments before Antonium had teleported them to the chamber from the Spaceship. The Daleks were manipulating her memory. Still.
And that's when Antonium knew they were on their way.
"Antonium, what do you know about the Pandorica?" The Doctor demanded, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "What's inside?"
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light behind them, causing all of them to cover their eyes, and the Doctor immediately drew Amy into him, expecting that a crack of time was forming in the chamber.
But when the light faded away, the Doctor raised his head to see the chamber filled with hundreds of his worst enemies, from the Daleks, to the Cybermen, to the Slitheen. Rory and Hannah were with them too, being held captive by two Judoons.
"Now River!" He barked, and River immediately surged forward and grabbed Amy's arm, using her vortex manipulator to teleport them out of the chamber.
However, they didn't get very far, and the Doctor saw them reappear out of the corner of his eye, shielded from his enemies by their position behind an ancient statue. He knew then that his enemies weren't going to let any of them escape. They were trapped.
It was time for the final battle.
"You've really managed to piss me off." The Doctor began, his tone casual as he stared down his enemies. "Kidnapping my wife and forcing our baby to grow unnaturally. Don't expect to get away with this."
"We don't expect you to do anything, Doctor." One of the Judoon drawled, and Rory and Hannah quickly slipping out of their grasp, knowing that they were now distracted by the Doctor.
Once they'd reached the Doctor's side, the Doctor immediately stood in front of them, shielding all of his friends from his enemies. However, Jack suddenly darted away from them, gun at the ready, and shot at the white Dalek, exploding it in half with two bullets.
"That one was for you, Doctor." Jack told him quickly with a dry grin, just as the remaining Daleks screeched, "Exterminate!" and shot him to the ground.
Jack's bout of courage inspired River, and the Doctor watched in his peripheral vision as she withdrew her own gun. But fortunately, Amy reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her and avoiding alerting the Doctor's enemies to their presence, which the Doctor was grateful for.
"Do you know why we're here, Doctor?" One of the Cybermen demanded. "Do you understand what we all have in common?"
The Doctor could feel Rory and Hannah trembling behind him, but their apparent fear didn't make him nervous. It made him angrier. "Because you all hate me. Tell me something I don't know."
"You have killed more aliens, and destroyed more galaxies than all of us!" The Philian leader thundered, stepping out of the crowd of enemies. "You call yourself the Doctor, the Healer, when you are the most evil alien out of all of us! You must be incarcerated, for the sake of the Universe!"
The Philian's leader's words stung, but the Doctor would not be distracted, or allow himself to falter. "Shame you've already got the worst alien of the Universe locked up inside the Pandorica. And speaking of that..."
Without giving anyone the time to react, he withdrew his sonic screwdriver and unlocked the Pandorica fully, sending the doors open with a loud, resounding bang.
Only to be greeted by an empty prison.
Suddenly, everything fell into place.
The Doctor briefly met Antonium's sorrowful gaze, and understood why he'd wanted him to leave the chamber as soon as he could.
The Pandorica was for him. He was the monster that the fairytale described.
Hannah and Rory began to whisper the Doctor's name, pained, but the Doctor could barely hear them. He could only stare at the Pandorica, and then at his enemies, stunned.
He didn't know what to do.
"No!" He suddenly heard Antonium bellow, and then all he could feel was a white-hot pain, searing into his side. Glancing down through his rapidly blurring vision, he saw Rory's hand clutching a bloody knife, and then saw his own blood pouring through a gaping wound on his side.
The Doctor could barely hear Rory's hysterical apologies over Amy and River's screams, and over the sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.
And then suddenly...more blood.
The rich, iron taste of it began to choke him, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
He was dying.
He no longer had the strength to stand upright, and he felt himself slump towards the floor. But he never reached it, because he then found himself in the iron grasp of Rory and Hannah as they began to drag his limp body towards the Pandorica.
"Doctor, what's happening to us?" Hannah hissed tearfully, Rory in tears as well as they yanked him towards the Pandorica. "What have they done to us? Why can't we control our bodies? Help us!"
But the Doctor couldn't do anything. It was taking all of his strength not to regenerate, knowing that one hit from his enemies during his regeneration cycle would kill him, for good. He could only cough up more blood.
The next thing he knew, he was inside of the Pandorica, Rory and Hannah clamping his arms and legs down so that he couldn't escape from inside.
They were both still begging him to help them, their anguish a complete contrast to the mechanical way their bodies were moving, but the Doctor couldn't focus on them. His gaze was for Amy alone, and although she was crying, and screaming for him, he could barely hear her.
"I'm sorry." He finally managed to whisper. There was nothing else he could say, or do. It was over. Amy's fate, and the fate of their friends, was in his enemies hands alone. The Doctor was powerless now.
"Don't say that Doctor!" Hannah cried, as the Cybermen dragged both her and Rory away from him. "Don't give up Doctor! Help us!"
"Are you wondering what we've done to Amy's precious family and friends?" The Philian leader sneered, approaching him.
"Autons." The Doctor managed to say, glaring furiously at him. "I'm not...I'm not stupid."
"Oh but you are!" A Sontaran joined the Philian next, and both of them smirked down at the Doctor gleefully. "You didn't even realise we were planning a trap for you through your companion! Maybe if you hadn't fallen in love with her and impregnated her, you may have been smart enough to figure out that the cracks in time were fabricated for you to come looking for us!"
The Doctor could only stare wordlessly up at them, cursing himself silently for his own stupidity.
Why did he even try to find happiness? It only ruined him in the end. And it ruined all of the people he kept in his life, and in his companionship.
He was better off alone.
But he couldn't dwell on his own self-pity and self-loathing now. His wife, their unborn daughter and all of their friends were still in severe danger. And it was only a matter of time before they closed the doors of his prison, and he'd have no idea of their fate.
Suddenly, another thought struck him. He'd been helpless, and powerless only moments before because of his stab wound...but now...he seemed to be healing. And it was impossible that the time energy in his body would heal the wound, as it was far too deep. He should either be regenerating, or dying in this instance. But he was doing neither.
Glancing down at his wound, he saw that it was still open, but not bleeding anymore. Confused, the Doctor turned his gaze to his enemies, and the Philian leader grinned maliciously at him.
"Wondering why you're not healing, or regenerating? The Pandorica is frozen in time, if you will. We can do whatever we like to you, and the injuries won't kill you. But if you ever leave the Pandorica, the injuries you've sustained in here will still exist, and kill you the moment you leave. So you're trapped forever!" It explained cruelly.
The Doctor didn't even have time to react to his words before the Sontaran hit him in the face with the butt of his gun, rendering him unconscious instantly.
~I~
River had expected the Doctor's enemies to turn on her and the others once they'd knocked the Doctor out, but they hadn't even glanced in their direction. Instead, they'd lit up a ring of fire around the Pandorica, and proceeded to laugh and celebrate, the Sontarans even leading everyone into a chant about defeating the Doctor.
She was still with Amy behind the ancient statue, neither of them daring to move. Antonium had managed to join them though without attracting any of the alien's attention, and together, the three of them sullenly watched the Doctor's enemies celebration.
Jack still hadn't awoken, and Rory and Hannah were unconscious as well, their Auton side no longer active as they'd done their duty. At least, River hoped it was.
Suddenly Amy winced, and River glanced over at her. "You alright?"
"Am I alright?" Amy hissed, pulling herself up into a sitting position from where she'd been curled up on the floor. "In case you hadn't noticed, my husband is dying inside of the Pandorica and I feel like I'm about to give birth! Oh, and we could all die any minute now. So don't you dare ask me if I'm alright!"
Angry Amy was better than tearful Amy, River decided, although Amy quickly dissolved into sobs again immediately after her rant, and River sighed.
"If it makes you feel any better, I have a device that's working on disabling the deadlock the Doctor's enemies have put on the chamber." She told Amy quietly. "When it's ready, I can teleport us out of the chamber and into the TARDIS."
She expected Amy to react in a positive way to her words, but Amy glared fiercely at her. "We're not leaving the Doctor!" She snapped. "I'm not going anywhere without him!"
"Do you really think he'd want you to stay here instead of getting yourself, and your child, to safety?" River retorted angrily. "The Doctor is a strong man. You of all people should know that! He'll be fine for a while longer."
"Look at him, River!" Amy cried, on the verge of hysteria. "They've beaten him black and blue, and he's not waking up!"
"I know that Amy." River said calmly, attempting to reason with her now. "But even if we manage to rescue him now, he'll die, or regenerate. Do you want that? We're going to have to wait."
Amy gazed at her for a moment, before nodding her head slightly in defeat. "I'm sorry." She whispered, angry at herself for lashing out at her friend. River only gave her a small smile in reply, before wrapping her arm around her comfortingly, and Amy leaned into her side.
"They'll get bored eventually, and leave us all alone." Antonium said quietly, speaking for the first time, and both Amy and River glanced over at him. "But I don't think any of this will be over. They may still want your daughter Amy."
Amy was already too devastated to be saddened further by Antonium's words, but River glared at him.
"So that's why we lay low until I can get Amy out of here!" She hissed. "Now be quiet."
Antonium nodded his head, before turning his gaze back to the Doctor's enemies.
~I~
It was only minutes later that the enemies celebration ceased, and they closed the Pandorica, sealing the Doctor inside, for good. River had to cover Amy's mouth to stop her from crying out as they did so, rocking her gently in an attempt to soothe her.
"Now that he's gone, what do we do with the others?" The Philian leader demanded, casting a glance over at the unconscious Jack, Rory and Hannah. He didn't even glance in the direction of River, Amy and Antonium, which River was grateful for, although she was worried for her friends.
"Leave them." The red Dalek commanded. "They'll face a greater danger escaping to their own time. I shall see to that."
"I'm sure you will." The Philian leader said dryly, and with another bright flash of light, all of the enemies vanished, the fire extinguishing with them.
River waited with bated breath for a few moments, before releasing Amy from her embrace and rising to her feet slowly.
Taking out her gun, she stepped out from behind the statue and began to make her way cautiously towards the Pandorica, looking out for traps as she did so. Upon seeing none, she began to move faster towards the Pandorica, until she saw Rory's body twitch out of the corner of her eye.
"Rory?" She whispered, changing her course and moving over to him instead. "Rory, wake up!"
Rory's eyelids flickered for a moment, before his eyes opened fully. "What...what happened?"
"A lot." River said shortly, not wanting to remind him of what he'd done. "How do you feel?"
"I...I don't know." Rory whispered, gazing up at her. "I...I'm so...confused...I-"
"Don't try to remember." River cut him off quickly. "We have to focus."
Rory blinked, but nodded slowly, and then both of them noticed Amy beginning to crawl towards the Pandorica.
"Amy, don't strain yourself!" River hissed, immediately running over to her side. "You can't help the Doctor!"
But Amy didn't reply, so River grabbed hold of her shoulders, preventing her from moving forward. Amy didn't put up much of a fight, and she collapsed to the floor, her face pressed against the rough ground.
"River...my mind hurts." She mumbled into the dirt, her eyes shut tightly.
"Mine does too." River sighed, rubbing her temples with her fingers. "Especially after today."
"No!" Amy suddenly cried, opening her eyes and staring up at River through a blind of tears. "My mind really...hurts!"
Confused, River glanced over at Antonium who was standing behind them, his eyes wide with horror.
"I knew this was going to happen." He whispered hauntingly. "I'm so sorry Amy."
"Doctor!" Amy screamed, pushing herself up from the ground. "Doctor, help me!"
"Amy, look at me!" River commanded, lowering herself to the ground to stare into Amy's wild eyes. "Tell me why it hurts!"
To River's horror, Amy suddenly began to claw at herself, scratching and carving into her own skin, and River quickly restrained her. "Amy, what's happening to you?" She cried, gripping her wrists tightly.
"They're...they're in here." Amy whimpered, staring over River's shoulder at the Pandorica.
"Who's in where?" River demanded, shaking her slightly. "Amy, tell me!"
But Amy refused to meet her gaze, so River immediately looked up at Antonium. "What is she talking about? She-"
"-She's going insane." He said quietly, interrupting her. "I would be too, if I had the Dal-"
Suddenly, there was a loud, strangled cry from Rory, and River turned her gaze on him. "Rory?" She asked him in alarm. "What-"
"-What have I done?" He cried, staggering to his feet. "I have...blood...on my hands...and-" He broke off when he saw a bloody knife attached to his armour, and he let out another choked howl.
"Who did I kill? Tell me!" He cried, his eyes wild as he stared down River. "Where's the Doctor? What did I do to him?"
"Rory, calm down." River said quickly, rising to her feet and holding her hands up. "This isn't healthy, and you can't afford to lose control again!"
"Again?" Rory roared, beginning to tremble violently. "What have I done? Answer me!"
As River began to approach him slowly, she didn't expect Amy to rise to her feet behind her, and glare hatefully at him.
"You stabbed the Doctor!" She cried, her body wavering, and Antonium quickly moved to her side to support her. "You killed him, and you imprisoned him, and you were his friend!"
"Amy, stop!" River bellowed, but it was too late.
Enraged with grief, and self-hatred, Rory's Auton side was suddenly unleashed.
Before River could stop him, his hand snapped in half, revealing a gun, and he began to fire at Amy and Antonium.
Instantaneously, both of their bodies fell to the ground, and River didn't even have time to breathe before she was shot down too.
I think I should take cover, and hide from the virtual weapons you're throwing my way at leaving the chapter there and hurting our favourite characters. I'M SOWWY. But it's important. Trust me.
Let me know what you think! Just remember folks, someone can still save the day.
Hayley x