CHAPTER 7

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K'anpo was deep inside of both Amy and Rory's mind now as he searched for a reason for Rory's sudden loss of identity. As far as he could tell, Amy's mind wasn't overwhelming Rory's at all. So where was Rory's delusion that he was Oisin coming from?

Then after half an hour of searching, K'anpo finally found his answer. He couldn't believe it, but it was true. That would explain everything. He also knew that it would hurt Amy, but he had to tell her.

As he left Amy and Rory's minds, he said to Amy, "I know what's wrong with Rory now."

"Is it something that can be fixed?" Amy asked in a hopeful voice.

"I'm not sure. I've never come across this situation before. I've never seen a link between three people," K'anpo said.

"Three people?" Amy asked in confusion.

"Oisin is still linked to you, Cliodna," K'anpo said.

"That's impossible. A link is broken once one of the people involved dies. I felt him die. I felt the link break," Cliodna said firmly.

"The link is not broken, Cliodna. It is still there. It is very weak and barely detectable, but it is still in existence," K'anpo said.

"That's not possible unless . . . ," Amy said as her eyes widened in shock.

"Oisin is still alive somewhere. It is his presence in the link that is overwhelming Rory's mind. Rory will lose his own sense of self forever unless your link with Oisin is broken soon," K'anpo said.

"How could Oisin still be alive? It's not possible. He was killed. I saw it happen. I saw his ship explode with him still on it," Amy protested.

"Search for him in your mind, Cliodna. He is there. His presence is very small, but it still exists. I think that he is actively trying to hide from you," K'anpo said.

"Why? Why wouldn't he want me to know that he was still alive?" Amy said hurt.

"I can't answer that for you. You'll have to ask him that once you find him," K'anpo said.

"How? I have no idea where he is now. He could be anywhere in time and space," Amy said in despair.

"You have to find him somehow and get him back here in order to break the link, or Rory as you know him will never exist again," K'anpo said.

"Links are permanent. They can't be broken," Amy said.

"Actually there is a way to break the link called the K'risinger B'etann that most Time Lords don't even know exists. It's known only to a select few mental adepts. Like me. I can break the link for you, but I have to have Oisin here in order to do it. I can't do it long distance," K'anpo said.

"I'll find him. I don't care if I have to search until I run out of all of my lives. I won't let Rory just disappear that way. He doesn't deserve this," Amy said.

She left Rory with K'anpo as she went back to her TARDIS to tell the others what she was going to do. She knew that she was going to have to leave them to get on with their lives without her because who knew just how long that her search might take. It could be centuries.

It was a sacrifice that she was willing to make. Rory had waited almost two thousand years for her once. Sacrificing the rest of her lives in order to make him whole again was nothing compared to that.

She wasn't looking forward to telling her family that they might never see her again. Especially Julia. She had already lost one set of parents, and now she was going to lose another one. It wasn't right. Julia was such a sweet girl. She didn't deserve that.

As she had expected, Selene and Julia weren't too thrilled when she told them that she was going to be traveling alone to find Oisin for as long as it took. Oisin had remained in the TARDIS, but he was listening to her as well through its still open doors. He silently debated with himself whether to reveal his identity to Amy or not as he heard her basically throwing her life away.

Cassie meanwhile stood next to Selene and Julia while holding Anthony in her arms without speaking. She already knew the future and couldn't influence it in any way. She had to remain silent no matter how much she wanted to tell them what she knew.

"You do realize that you might never find him. You could easily use up all of your remaining lives and never come close to finding him," Selene said.

"I know," Amy said.

"You would die somewhere all alone, and I would never know. Oisin's doing it again! He took you away from me before, and now he's found a way to take you away from me again. Don't do it this time. Stay here and try something else. There has to be another way to help Rory," Selene argued.

"There is no other way. This is the only chance that we have to make Rory himself again. You'll have to take care of Anthony and Julia for me. I'm sorry to have to ask this of you. I truly am," Amy said as she tried to fight back her tears.

"Anthony isn't going to remember you at all. Do you realize that? He'll grow up never knowing you at all," Selene said.

"You never know. I might find Oisin before I die and use the TARDIS to come back just a few minutes after I left," Amy said hopefully.

"Do you really believe that?" Selene asked as she looked her in the eye.

"I have to. It's the only hope that I have left," Amy said as she started to lose her battle to keep herself from crying.

"Please don't go. I don't want to lose somebody else," Julia pleaded with her.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I have to help Rory. I can't let him down. He'd do the same for me if our positions were reversed," Amy said.

"Please don't leave me. Please stay," Julia said as she began to cry.

"I'm sorry," Amy said softly as she gave her one last hug good bye.

As she turned toward her TARDIS to leave, she hesitated. She stood there in indecision not knowing what to do. She didn't want to leave them, but she also didn't want to condemn Rory to be someone else for the rest of his life either. The choice that she was being forced to make was breaking her heart.

Oisin was watching her from inside the TARDIS, and he could see the look of pain on her face. He was tired of being the one to put that look on her face. That ended now.

Having firmly made his mind up at last, he stepped out of the TARDIS and blocked the entrance with his enormous metal body. He was not going to let her do this. He knew now that he had no other choice. He had to tell her the truth.

"There's no need to do this. I'm already here," Oisin said.

"Finally," Cassie said under her breath.

Selene turned to glare at her as she realized that she had known the truth all along and never said anything about it.

"I couldn't," Cassie said apologetically to her.

"I know," Selene said in a gentle tone as her expression softened.

"Oisin," Amy said in a voice so low that it was almost a whisper as a gamut of emotions played out over her face.

She didn't know how to feel since she was both elated and furious at the same time now that she knew for sure that he was alive again and standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Cliodna. I should have told you, but I didn't want to ruin your life. I could see that you had found true happiness again, and I didn't want to destroy that. It seems that I always bring you nothing but pain even when I don't intend to. I never realized that this would happen, or I would have told you the truth long ago. I'll come with you and let K'anpo remove our bond. There's no need to lose everything that you've built. I never wanted that for you," Oisin said.

Amy stared at him for a minute as she struggled to find the words to say to him. She finally settled on putting her arms around him as she stood there in silence for a moment. That one gesture seemed to say it all.

Moments later, K'anpo was surprised to see a Cyberman come walking in with Amy. He hadn't even realized that she had one with her since Oisin had stayed in her TARDIS the entire time that she had been there so as not to frighten anyone.

"I never thought that I'd see the day where you'd stand next to a Cyberman without trying to kill it," K'anpo said in surprise.

"I'll admit that it was a first. I spared this one because he regained his true personality and helped me. I've just now found out that there was a reason that he helped me. This is Oisin," Amy said.

K'anpo looked at Oisin in shock for a moment and then said, "I'll get onto breaking your link right away. I just hope that this still works with Cybermen."

Luckily it did. After several minutes of deep concentration, K'anpo was able to find the link between Amy and Oisin and break it with only the power of his will. Only an experienced and disciplined telepath such as he was would be able to accomplish such a thing without danger to himself or to the people involved in the link.

As soon as the link was broken, Rory immediately came back to himself. He looked at Amy and smiled as he said, "Time Lords really make it hard to get a divorce, don't they?"

Amy ran up to him and kissed him passionately as Oisin turned away. He was happy for her that she had gotten him back, but that didn't mean that he had to watch what happened next. He walked back to Amy's TARDIS and went inside to stand in the Console Room. As he stood there, he wondered what Cliodna would decide to do with him now that she knew.

"I won't let her send you away. You belong here now," Julia said with a reassuring smile as she put her arms around him.

"I don't belong. I never have. I belong nowhere now," Oisin said.

"You're wrong. You belong here with us. You're not leaving. No one is leaving me again. No one!" Julia said firmly.

Oisin gently put his arm around the girl and said, "Cliodna may think differently. Having me here may be too painful for her."

"Cliodna?" Julia asked.

"That's me, sweetie. I prefer Amy these days though," Amy said as she walked into the TARDIS and gave Julia a quick hug.

"Good because I like Amy better too. Mostly because I actually know how to spell it," Julia said as she smiled at Amy's show of affection.

"It is a much easier name to use in every way, isn't it?" Amy said as she kissed Julia on the forehead.

"I like Amy but I didn't think that Amelia was so bad myself. I miss that name," Rory said as he walked into the TARDIS along with Selene, Cassie, and Anthony.

"Amelia?" Oisin said in surprise.

"Yes, that was what she was called originally. She renamed herself Amy later," Rory explained.

"That's just like me. Mum called me Jacqueline, but I renamed myself Cassie after my hero," Cassie explained.

"Your hero?" Amy asked in surprise. She had never heard the story of how Cassie had gotten her nickname before.

"Yeah. You haven't really met her yet but you will. I look up to her. She was always there for me and looked out for me when I was growing up. She's my best friend," Cassie said.

"Sounds like the relationship between Cliodna and me," Selene said as she smiled at Amy.

Cassie smiled at Selene but said nothing else. She had no idea how close that she had just come to the truth there. She could say nothing else though without telling everyone the future.

"Amelia was what you called yourself back on Gallifrey when you were putting on that silly Scottish accent," Oisin remembered fondly.

"Really? You'll have to tell me more about that," Rory said eagerly.

"He's not going to tell you anything about that if he wants to stay in one piece, are you Oisin?" Amy said as she patted Oisin's arm affectionately.

"Do you mean that I can stay?" Oisin asked.

"Of course you can stay. Just because I found someone else doesn't mean that I don't care about you anymore. I don't want you out there all alone and by yourself. Someone will try to kill you because they won't know that you're harmless. They'll just see a Cyberman and start shooting. Please stay here with us. I know that Julia wants you to stay too. She's grown really attached to you," Amy said.

"How about you? How do you feel about this?" Oisin asked Rory.

"I think that with Selene around that we're going to need all of the help that we can get to keep her from blowing up the TARDIS. She's a bigger child than Anthony sometimes," Rory said grinning evilly.

"I'll put motor oil in his breakfast. Yeah, that's the ticket," Selene muttered to herself.

"You're not helping to improve your image any with talk like that," Cassie said.

"Who says I care?" Selene grinned madly.

Cassie shook her head at her. Apparently Selene had always been crazy even this far back in time.

"Yay! You get to stay," Julia said happily as she jumped up and down.

"Thank you," Oisin said to all of them.

Amy put her arms around him as she said, "I still love you even if I'm not in love with you anymore, Oisin. Never forget that."

Oisin still would prefer to be himself again with her as his wife in an ideal world, but he understood that she had moved on and found someone else. It hurt but he had accepted that. He was happy for her and glad that she had rebuilt her life. Now he just had to somehow find a life for himself so that he could finally be at peace. He wondered if that was even possible for someone such as him. He was determined to do his best to find out.

Amy and Rory decided to stay a few days longer on Iceworld to learn all of K'anpo's techniques while Amy gave K'anpo some pointers on how to ask Melanie out on a date. None of them had any idea that they were soon about to be caught up in yet another life threatening adventure that would be brought on them from a completely unexpected source. An old friend of Cliodna's was about to return and bring a mountain full of trouble with her.

Next: Someone that Cliodna had once been very close to returns to Amy's life with a vengeance.