CHAPTER 46

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POND LIFE REWRITTEN

"Good night, Raggedy Man," Amy muttered in her sleep.

Rory sighed and immediately started to gently shake Amy awake as she continued to speak incoherently next to him. She was having that same dream again.

"Raggedy Man, where are you? I've been out here in the cold waiting for so long. You said five minutes. Why didn't you come back?" Amy said in a muffled voice into her pillow.

"Amy, wake up. Amy," Rory said as he continued to gently shake her.

"What?" Amy said in confusion as her eyes slowly opened.

Then she saw Rory looking at her with a concerned look on his face and immediately started to cry as she said, "It was that same dream again."

"I know. I heard you calling out to the Raggedy Man again," Rory said as he began to gently stroke her hair and put his arms around her to comfort her.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to keep doing it. I just can't stop having that same stupid dream night after night. I've had it as long as I can remember, and I don't even know what it's about. Nothing like that actually happened when I was a little girl obviously. It's not like a strange man in raggedy clothes really appeared out of nowhere in my yard in the middle of the night and promised to take me away with him. That's just too crazy to be real. Every one of the psychiatrists that my parents took me to said that they had no idea what was causing it or how to stop it. A lot of good that they were! They were all a bunch of quacks," Amy said as she continued to silently cry.

"Is that why you bit them? For not helping you?" Rory asked with a small smile.

"That and they kept trying to tell me that it had to have been caused by some kind of repressed memory. What kind of thing is that to tell a seven year old? They made me afraid that I was actually going mad for a while," Amy said in an angry voice.

Then a worried look came over her as she added in a frightened voice, "Sometimes I worry that I already did."

"You're not mad," Rory said in a reassuring tone as he held her close to him and gave her a tender kiss.

"Then what's causing this then? Why can't I stop having this same bloody dream night after night? It actually went away for a long time and I thought that I was cured from whatever it was. Now all of a sudden it's back all over again. I don't understand it. It's not like I have any unresolved issues or anything. I had a happy childhood apart from those dreams and I've even been published. Melody Malone and Summer Falls are both best sellers. Every dream that I've ever had has come true so why is this happening again now? Why won't it stop, Rory? I can't get it to stop no matter what I do or who I go to about it," Amy said in an upset tone.

"It stopped before when you got older and it'll stop again, Amy. I know it will," Rory said in a confident tone.

"I hope so or I really will go mad," Amy said as she continued to cry.

"Mum, are you alright?" Amber said as she stood in the doorway of their bedroom.

Amy's face fell while looking at the little girl as she realized that she had been talking so loud in her sleep that she had probably just woke all of her children up. Again.

"I'm fine, sweetie. I just had a bad dream again. It's nothing. I promise," Amy said as she gave her a reassuring smile that she definitely didn't feel.

"Why are you crying then?" Amber said in a worried tone.

"It's because she was having a nightmare, stupid. Don't act like you've never woke up crying from one before because I know better," Melody said behind her with a frown on her face.

She and Amy and Rory's other daughter Julia had now joined Amber in the doorway along with their son Anthony. It seemed that Amy was right after all. She had just awakened the entire household. Again.

"Don't call your sister names, Melody. I've already talked to you about that several times now," Amy said in a disapproving voice.

"Sorry, Mum," Melody said in a tone that clearly said that she really wasn't.

"It was that same nightmare again wasn't it, Mum," Julia said with a troubled look.

Amy reluctantly nodded knowing that she couldn't fool her. Julia was far too intelligent not to know what was really going on after all of this time.

"Are you going to have to go to the hospital, Mum?" Anthony asked in a scared voice.

"No, of course not. Your mother's just fine. It's just a bad dream. That's all it is," Rory said in a dismissive tone.

"Every night for the last couple of weeks?" Melody asked in disbelief.

"Sometimes bad dreams keep coming back like that for a while before they eventually fade away," Rory said in an authoritative tone.

"He's a doctor so he knows what he's talking about, Mels. She's fine, okay?" Julia said even though her face seemed to suggest that she was only saying that for the benefit of the extremely worried Amber and Anthony.

"Yeah, sure," Melody said with a frown even as she looked at Amy with undisguised worry in her eyes.

"Everything's going to be okay, alright? There's nothing for any of you to be concerned about at all," Amy said in her most convincing tone.

"That's right so all of you go back to bed, okay?" The older Julia said as she instantly took charge of her siblings.

Amy couldn't help but smile at her. She had always been the sensible one among her children and the one that was the most like her father in that she remained strong no matter what happened.

"Don't tell me what to do, Jules. You're not my boss," Melody protested.

"Well, I am and I'm telling you to listen to your sister," Amy said.

"Fine," Melody said even as she flashed Amy yet another worried look.

Amy knew that she wanted to stay in the room not to be troublesome but to make sure that she was alright. Her heart immediately went out to her because she didn't want to worry her or any of the rest of the kids.

She didn't want to worry anyone.

"You know I was really hoping that this would stop sometime, Ames. I really need my beauty sleep," Selene said in a disgruntled voice as she replaced the kids at the doorway not long after they all went back to bed.

"Yeah, well I'm not exactly happy about it either, Little Sister. And yeah I agree that you definitely need all of the beauty sleep that you can get," Amy said in an irritated voice.

Selene started to say something rotten back to her but immediately thought better of it as she saw the worried look on Amy's face. She knew that Amy didn't really mean what she said and was just blowing off steam just as she had been.

"I'm sorry. It's just that this is really starting to affect my health. I know it's not your fault though," Selene said in a gentler tone.

"I'm sorry too," Amy admitted.

"Now I know that you're worried. You're actually being nice to me," Selene said as she gave her a small smile.

"Shut up," Amy said as she smiled back at her.

Rory immediately looked at Selene with silent approval because she was making Amy feel better just as she always did. It wouldn't last for long but it was enough for now. Hopefully she would at least feel well enough to go back to sleep again anyway.

It was a sleep that was destined not to come to her tonight however. In the very next moment, they all heard a loud rapping at their front door that made Amy instantly become filled with anger.

"Who could that be? It's three in the morning," Amy said through clenched teeth.

"Maybe you woke them up too," Selene said which instantly caused Rory to glare at her.

"Sorry. I just couldn't resist," Selene said with a sheepish grin.

"Whoever's at that door is the one who is going to be sorry. I was actually in a good mood for the first time tonight," Amy said in a furious voice as she quickly got dressed.

She was at the door in moments and opened it with a look on her face that would have (and frequently had) sent even the toughest souls running in pure terror. The person at the door though had faced far worse than a fighting mad Amy Pond in her time though.

In fact, she saw worse horrors every time that she looked in the mirror.

"Amelia, I'm sorry to bother you at such a late hour but we don't have much time left. The universe is literally falling apart all around us even as I speak," The woman who in another reality would have been known as Marissa Queen said.

"Am I supposed to know you or something because so far I don't recognize you a bit? Of course that might be because I'm still half asleep due to the fact that it's currently the middle of the night," Amy said in a voice dripping with anger and frustration.

"You don't know me do you? You honestly don't," Marissa said with a sigh.

"Her timeline has been altered even more than it already had been," Koschei said as he joined her at the door.

"I know. I can feel it. The Matriarch or whoever is behind this altered timeline has just altered it yet again for both Amelia and her family. They've made her forget all about us," Marissa said with a frown.

"I suppose they figured that since they had already destroyed the Web of Time anyway by what they did that they might as well make another change. What possible difference either one way or another could another change make now anyway?" Koschei said.

"This change could make all the difference, Koschei. She's also forgotten the Doctor. I can feel it with my time sense. She's never traveled with him now in this newly altered reality. If she never traveled with him, then she can't remember him and bring him back out of the crack that swallowed him," Marissa said in despair.

"What are you babbling about? What crack? How could a crack swallow someone anyway?" Amy said in a voice that was growing increasingly more and more irritated by the moment.

"She really doesn't remember does she? She doesn't even remember the crack in her wall," Koschei said with a deep frown.

Amy's eyes widened as she said, "What?"

Marissa's eyes lighted up now as she said, "You do remember, don't you?"

"It's not a memory. It's a dream that I keep having about a raggedy looking man who suddenly appeared in my yard when I was a little girl. He came to help me with a crack on my wall. How do you know about that? How could you possibly know?" Amy said in a frantic voice.

Marissa smiled as she said, "Did this man call himself the Doctor and did he have a blue box that he claimed traveled through time and space?"

Amy's jaw dropped as she said, "I've never told anyone about that part because I was afraid that I'd be put away. Where did you learn about it?"

"From the Doctor when he told me about his first meeting with you. You still remember him, don't you? Part of you could never let go of him no matter what because you're his oldest closest friend. You always loved him far too much to ever forget him completely no matter how much reality has been changed," Marissa said in a tone that was now filled with renewed hope.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know this Doctor at all except from my dreams about him," Amy protested.

"That may be so now thanks to our mysterious adversary but you still remember him. And as long as you do, you can be made to remember everything else about him too. You just need the right key to unlock that knowledge from your mind . . . Cliodna," Koschei said in a meaningful tone.

Amy stared at him intently now as she said, "How do you know that name? That's the name from my other dream. It's one that I haven't even told Rory about."

"Those dreams are about looking up at an alien sky through a completely different set of eyes, aren't they?" Marissa asked.

"Those dreams are always followed with a feeling of emptiness and despair too, aren't they? You feel as if you've lost something very important, but you're not quite sure what, right?" Koschei asked.

"How do you two know all of that? There's no possible way that you could know it," Amy asked with a sense of growing anxiety.

"We know because we've both been forced to become human and lose our memories of being Time Lords too at one point or another in our lives. We always had the exact same dreams and feelings as you do though. No matter what happens to a Time Lord they always remember the truth about themselves deep down in their hearts," Marissa said.

"Hearts. In that dream, I had two hearts. I – I was an alien," Amy said as she began to smile.

"Are you starting to remember now?" Marissa asked.

"It was just a dream. Just a funny dream," Amy said as she stopped smiling.

"Amy, what is it? What's going on?" Rory asked as he finally came to the door now after becoming worried when she had never come back inside.

"We're just some old friends of Amy's, Rory. We're catching up on old times," Koschei said.

"At three in the morning? What is this about?" Rory said in disbelief.

"Oh, I really can't deal with this right now," Koschei said with a groan.

Then he suddenly pulled out his laser screwdriver and shot Rory in the chest with it!

"Rory!" Amy shouted in horror as Rory instantly fell over and hit the ground face first.

"He'll be fine. I just put him out a while. He'll sleep like a baby the rest of the night," Koschei said dismissively.

"You shot my husband," Amy said in a voice filled with outrage as she checked Rory's pulse.

"Yes, and I just told you that he'll be fine. I fail to see what the problem is," Koschei said.

"You're about to find out in a minute," Amy said as she started to come at him with a deadly look in her eyes.

"You're always so good with people aren't you?" Marissa said with a sigh.

"You said yourself that we have less than twenty hours left before the end of the universe, Ushas. I don't have time to waste with social niceties," Koschei said.

"Don't worry. I'm definitely not going to be nice," Amy said as she punched him in the jaw so hard that it was instantly dislocated.

As Koschei screamed in agony, Marissa said in an unsympathetic voice, "What else did you expect? This is Cliodna after all."

"Take him and get out of here. Right now," Amy said with fire in her eyes.

Marissa couldn't help but smile at her as she said, "Same old Clio no matter what she calls herself. No one messes with her and gets away with it. I'm sorry about this, Amelia. I really am."

"Sorry about what?" Amy asked in confusion.

"This," Marissa said as she suddenly head butted Amy.

"What the?!" Amy said in surprise.

Then her mind was suddenly bombarded with memories as Marissa force fed her all of her memories of her both as Amy and Cliodna in that single moment of contact. Amy stumbled backwards and grabbed her head in pain now as the gates began to finally unlock in her memory at last thanks to Marissa's little nudge.

"I – I remember. I remember . . . my Raggedy Man. I remember traveling with him until he finally left me behind on Earth for the last time because I asked him to let me have a normal life now that he had Clara to look after him. That's not right though. It can't be. I left him because I remembered that I was a Time Lord, and I wanted to travel in my own TARDIS again. How can both memories be true though?" Amy said in confusion.

"I've already told you. It's because someone's altered time, Amy. In fact, they're altered your timestream twice now in an attempt to keep you from remembering the Doctor. You have to remember him though in order to get him out of the crack that's swallowed him and Rose. We need Rose to fix all of this, Amy, before it's too late," Marissa pleaded.

"Rose. I seem to remember a Rose or was her name Arkytior? Nicest girl in the universe who always had a huge smile for everyone, right?" Amy asked in an uncertain voice.

"That's her. Concentrate on her and your Raggedy Man. Please, Amy," Marissa said.

Amy began to smile as she said, "My Raggedy Doctor with his stupid pointy chin and his dumb fezzes."

Marissa began to become concerned now as she said, "No, that's what he used to look like. Then he became the angry old man with the Scottish accent. You have to remember the right one or this might not work."

"I don't remember an old man. I just remember the huge dork who talked a mile a minute and wore that silly bow tie," Amy said.

Suddenly a very familiar voice said, "There's nothing silly about it, Pond. Bow ties are the ultimate in cool. The entire universe knows that."

Amy became filled with joy now as she rushed into her Raggedy Man's arms and hugged him tightly.

"Doctor," Amy said as she began to cry.

"Yes, more or less only I'm not quite right. You botched the job didn't you, Pond? You got me out of the crack alright but it's the wrong me," The Doctor said with a frown.

"You're lucky that I remembered you at all," Amy said as she began to become angry.

"Well, I suppose that it could be worse. I could be Shouty again or Sand Shoes," The Doctor said with a shudder.

"Doctor, did the others come with you? Where's Rose?" Marissa said as she finally decided to interrupt him.

The Doctor looked at her with surprise as he said, "I didn't even notice you there, Ushas. Sorry about that."

"Doctor, where's Rose?" Marissa said again.

The Doctor seemed to be a bit disoriented now as he said, "I . . . don't know. I remember her being in the TARDIS with me and then I suddenly found myself here looking at Pond and wearing a bow tie again."

"Amy, you have to concentrate on Rose and bring her out of the crack too. We need both of them to fix this," Marissa urged.

Amy looked at her with uncertainty as she said, "I remember her but not as well as I do him. My memories are still a bit fuzzy about everything else from those days."

The Doctor looked smug as he said, "You couldn't forget me though could you? Not that I can blame you."

"Yeah, I just can't think how a dweeb in a bow tie could ever escape my mind. You make it hard for anyone to forget you, Doctor," Amy said with an evil grin.

"I know even though I certainly tried to make everyone forget me for the longest time there," The Doctor said.

"Doctor, we need Rose's power to fix this. She's the only one who can. We have to help Amy remember her so that she can use the special abilities that her crack gave her to bring Rose back too," Marissa said as she tried to get him back on track again.

"It wasn't just Rose. I also had a couple of Claras, Jenny, Lily, and Sarah Jane with me too. Oh, and the Matriarch. The Trickster even trapped her too. He's really a devious one. He even turned on his own partner," The Doctor said.

"So the Trickster did it? I was almost sure that it was her," Marissa asked in surprise.

"No, it had to be him. He was the only one who wasn't there when it happened. He wants to get us all out of the way so that the universe will collapse. He wants things to get boring again where Chaos is equal with Order like it used to be before Rose changed everything," The Doctor explained.

"So he must have been the one to alter Amy's timestream again then instead of the Matriarch?" Marissa realized.

"The Matriarch? The Trickster? Who are they? Explain. I'm still a bit fuzzy here," Amy asked.

"The Matriarch is the evil version of Clara who caused all of this mess by altering reality in the first place. The Trickster is the one who trapped the Doctor and Rose in the crack in order to make sure that the universe was destroyed. He likes to . . ." Marissa said.

"Trick people into making deals with him that always end up biting them in the rear. Yeah, I'm starting to remember now. I remember Clara too. Short bossy brunette who has huge control issues, right?" Amy asked.

"She's not that bad really once you get past the crooked nose, the wide eyes, and the lethal cooking skills," The Doctor said.

"Oi! No more cracks about my soufflés, Chin Boy. Wait a minute. Chin Boy? Where did you come from?" Clara said in confusion as she suddenly appeared beside them along with Oswin Oswald, Cydonia, Nina Montague, and the Matriarch.

All of the Claras were now the proper age once more instead of all of them except for the Matriarch being teenagers as they had been before in this newly changed reality. Amy had never known them as teenagers after all but only as adults.

"Oh, so you can remember her but not Rose. You're definitely batting a thousand right now, Cliodna," Koschei said after he came back from finally healing his jaw in his TARDIS' medical bay.

"Since when do you know baseball references? You never even understood cricket properly," The Doctor asked in amusement.

"And you couldn't even get the right Doctor. You brought back the big chinned freak again instead," Koschei said to Amy as he ignored the Doctor.

"Oi!" The Doctor shouted in protest.

"Watch it, Kosch, or I'll do more than dislocate your jaw this time. I'd like to see you do half as well as I have with a swiss cheese brain," Amy threatened.

"You are starting to remember more now though aren't you? You remember me anyway," Koschei said with a renewed sense of optimism.

"Well, no one's perfect are they?" The Doctor said.

"Both of you shut up so that I can concentrate. I'm trying very hard to remember Rose. I can't get a proper mental image though. It's so fuzzy. It's almost as if . . ." Amy said.

"Someone was interfering with your mind?" The Trickster finished for her as he suddenly appeared with a huge grin on his face.

"You traitor!" The Matriarch screamed as she began to glow with power.

"You're the one who betrayed me. You were going to give up and undo everything just because Cassiopeia cried a little and asked you to stop. I wasn't about to let you undo all of that hard work. Not then and not now," The Trickster said.

"You're not going to have much of a choice, ugly, because I'm bringing Rose back right now," Amy said with a triumphant smile.

"No, I don't think so because I'm about to fix something that should have been set back on the right track long ago. I have some friends who have been looking forward to this for a long time now, Amy Pond," The Trickster said with a smug grin.

Suddenly a Weeping Angel appeared and started to touch Amy even while another one moved towards the Matriarch.

"Amelia, look out!" The Doctor shouted in terror as he saw the only two people who could possibly get Rose back in time about to be taken away forever.

TO BE CONTINUED IN ADVENTURES IN TIME CHAPTER 32

Next in this story: Amy runs into not just one but two of her past selves and a possible future incarnation all at the same time. What is going on here and can Cassiopeia and Charlotte help get her out of it?

As for what happens next in this storyline, that will slowly take place across every chapter of my Guardian Who stories (except Time and Space and Tales of Gallifrey) for the next few weeks and have its grand finale (along with the final fate of the Matriarch) in Chapter 18 of The Thief of Time. If you don't follow the rest of my Guardian Who stories though, don't worry. You'll find out all about what happened right here next time.