Waking up in the Tardis again, he immediately looks for Amy and Rory as the other's begin to stir. Rushing over to them he scans both of them with the sonic to find that they are are both alive but still deeply asleep, in almost a coma like state.
"What happened to Amy?" He asks John.
"She turned to dust before we could get to safety." John replies. "How are they?"
"Alive but non responsive. I don't think they are going to wake up again until we figure this out." He says keeping his voice low enough that Rose couldn't hear them. He grabs one of the blankets off of the pilot seat and covers the two of them.
"We should move them." John tells him.
"Naw their fine for now. Let's just finish this." He stands up and looks over at Rose. "The three of us have to agree, now, which is the dream."
"It's this, here." John says immediately.
"He could be right." Rose agrees with John. "Burning ice?"
"Ice can burn." He tells her and is surprised to feel his hearts breaking at the thought she would choose the other reality with John, over staying with him. "It's a big universe. We have to agree which battle to lose. All of us, now."
"Okay, which world do you think is real?" Rose asks him seriously.
"This one." He tells Rose looking her in the eyes.
"No, the other one." John speaks up.
"Yeah, but are we disagreeing or competing?" He asks John looking away from Rose.
"Competing? Over what?" Rose asks confused and then her face falls when they both turn to look at her again. "Oh."
"Nine minutes till impact." John says.
"What temperature is it?" He asks John as he finally grabs one of the blankets and wraps it around himself. He watches John smile in satisfaction as though he just won and then grab a blanket himself.
"Outside?" John shrugs. "Inside? I don't know but I can't feel my feet and other parts."
"I think all my parts are basically fine." He tells John.
"Stop competing." John says seriously as Rose rolls her eyes at them.
"Can't we call for help?" Rose says, "I mean, there is a phone on the console."
"Yeah, because the universe is really small and there's bound to be someone nearby." He says sarcastically at her.
"So, we're going to die?" Rose asks him.
"No, we're not, but our time's running out." He tells her seriously. "If we fall asleep here we're in trouble. If we could divide up, then we'd have an active presence in each world, but the Dream Lord is switching us between the worlds. Why? Why? what's the logic?"
"Good idea, veggie. Let's divide you three up, so I can have a little chat with our lovely wife. Maybe I'll keep her, and you can have your clone to yourself for all eternity, should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality."
"Can you hear that?" He asks Rose as the birdsong starts again.
"What?" She answers confused as they start to drift off. "No, please don't leave me."
"Rose, don't be scared. We'll be back." He tells her. Opening his eyes again he is back in the little store room. He stands up quickly and opens the door. The place is still full of the elderly. Pointing the sonic at the light he quickly changes the settings and the light explodes. Taking the opportunity in the confusion he rushes out of the butcher shop. Outside Mr. Nainby is attacking a camper. Inside he can hear the man crying for help.
He hesitates in the road. He is desperate to get to Kiam and Rose. "Help me," the man in the camper cries again and not being able to refuse his cries he runs at Mr. Nainby and knocks him over and then proceeds to climb into the camper's driver seat. The man looks at him confused.
"John?" The man asks.
"Nope, I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor Who?"
"Just the Doctor, now hang on tight." He puts the van into motion and starts to head towards Rose's home. As they go past the playground though, he sees a group of woman being attacked. Driving as close as he dares he stops the van and the man opens the backdoor. "Get in, get in, get in. Quickly, quickly, over here. Quickly. Get in." The man calls out.
"Come on, jump in. Quickly, get in now." He says impatiently. "Quickly. Hurry up. Are we in?" He asks them and they all nod. "All right. Allons-y." He starts up the van again and this time comes across a small family standing in front of their home. Sighing he stops the van again and allows the family to enter.
"Come on, Allons-y." He calls out to them as they slowly enter the van.
"That's it. Clear." The owner of the van tells him.
"Everyone in." He drives them until he sees a church. Stopping one more time. "Everybody, the church, that's right." He says as they all exit the van and close the backdoor. "Don't answer the door." He calls out to them as he immediately takes off towards Roses again.
As he is driving the Dream Lord suddenly appears in the passenger seat.
"It's make your mind up time in both worlds" The Dream Lord advises him.
"Fine. I need to find my family," He tells the Dream Lord and John." He adds as an afterthought.
"Family? Is that the right word for them? Family are people you stay in touch with." The Dream Lord advises him. "Your family never wanted to see you again once you left them. Rose took Kiam and married John, and never spared a second thought for the man who left her behind."
He glares at the Dream Lord as he pulls up in front of her house and the Dream Lord vanishes again. Outside of the home the elderly have gathered. Seeing an open window he pulls up next to the house and then climbs on top of the van. Reaching up he grabs the trellis and climbs up it to the window. Looking in he sees Rose holding Kiam close and John standing nearby.
"Sorry. I had to stop off at the butcher's." He jokes as he climbs in through the window.
"What are we going to do?" Kiam asks, tears streaming down his face.
"I don't know." He admits, "I thought the freezing Tardis was real but now I'm not so sure."
"Oh! I think the baby's starting." Rose says suddenly grabbing her stomach again.
"Honestly?" John asks her, doubt in his voice.
"Would I make it up at a time like this?" She angrily replies.
"Well, you do have a history of.." He pauses as Rose glares at him. "Being very lovely." He finishes and then turns to the Doctor, who is still standing by the window. "Why are they so desperate to kill us?"
"They're scared. Fear generates savagery." He tells John as he hear a noise behind him and realizes he left the window open. Turning to close it, he comes face to face with Mrs. Poggit and before he can react, green gas floods his face and he collapses to the ground.
"Doctor," Rose cries out and rushes over to him as John rushes over to the window and knocks Mrs. Poggit out.
"You were brilliant." He tells Rose with a small smile as his hand begins to turn to dust.
"Stay." Rose cries as he touches her face with his remaining hand and caresses her cheek.
"Look after our son." He says as the quiet darkness overtakes him.
-DW-
He opens his eyes slowly to a thick layer of ice covering him and everyone else in the Tardis. He looks over to Rose, who is slumped on her side and breathing shallowly. Her arms loose around Kiam. He reaches out and tries to take her hand.
"So, you chose this world." The Dream Lord says from where he is sitting on the pilot seat. "And with only seconds left. Fair's fair. Let's warm you up." The power comes back to the Tardis. "I hope you've enjoyed your little fiction. It all came out of your imagination, so I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell." The Dream Lord bows and then Vanishes.
"Something happened. I. What happened to me? I." Rory speaks up as the ices thaws. Amy sits up beside him and wraps her arms around him. "Oh. Oh, right. This is good. I am liking this. Was it something I said?"
"Doctor," Rose says her voice sounding desperate. "Doctor he's not breathing."
He immediately gets closer to her and Kiam and puts his hand on their son. Even though the Tardis had warmed up, Kiam's skin still felt like ice.
"Kiam," He says softly, "Come on Kiam, you're scaring Daddy. You need to wake up now." He takes Kiam from Rose and holds the limp little boy. "Come on Kiam you need to wake up now." He pulls out his sonic and scans him.
"Kiam, Kiam" Rose wails as tears start rolling down his face. "Doctor, help him." She grabs for their son. He lets her take him as he stands up and heads to the console and starts flicking switches.
"What are we doing?" John asks him.
"I'm going to blow up the Tardis." He says calmly.
"What?" Rory asks in surprise.
"You can't just blow up the Tardis, killing us, is not the answer." Amy says softly.
"Notice how helpful the Dream Lord was? Okay, there was misinformation," John says softly. "But he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality."
"Doctor, the Dream Lord conceded. This isn't a dream." Rory tells him.
"Yes, it is and if it isn't then I don't want to know."
"Stop him." Amy begs John.
"Star burning cold?" John says softly. "Do me a favour. The Dream Lord has no power over the real world."
"He was offering us a choice between two nightmares." He says quietly.
"How do you know that?" Amy asks.
He looks over to where Rose is clinging to Kiam. "Because I know who he is. Please John." He begs and John presses the final button filling the Tarids with a bright light.
-DW-
He opens his eyes and is happy to see he is back in his room, Rose is still sleeping soundly beside him. He pulls himself out of his bed and runs out of the room to Kiams. He holds his breath as he opens the door and looks in. Kiam is still sound asleep and he can clearly see the rise and fall of the little boys chest. He rushes over to Kiam and gathers him in his arms.
"Daddy," Kiam moans as he turns and lays his head on his shoulder. "I sleeping." Hearing footsteps behind him, he turns and sees John standing in the doorway.
"Thank you." He mouths and John salutes him, before heading out of the room. He follows him back to the console room and John leans down and picks up a small yellow speck off of the controls.
"Er, what's that?" Amy asks him.
"A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava." The Doctor says leaning close to look at it. "Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell in the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us."
John takes it to the doors and opening them blows the speck out into space.
"So that was the Dream Lord then? Those little specks." Rose says coming up to him and wrapping her arms around his waist so Kiam is smashed between them.
"No, sorry, wasn't it obvious? The Dream Lord was me." He confesses. "Psychic pollen. It's a mind parasite. It feeds on everything dark in you, gives it a voice, turns it against you. I'm nine hundred and eight. It had a lot to go on."
"But why didn't it feed on us, too?" Amy inquires.
"The darkness in all of you, even with John, it would've starved to death in an instant. I choose my family and friends with great care. Otherwise, I'm stuck with my own company, and you know how that works out." He winces.
"But those things he said about you. You don't think any of that's true?" Rose says still holding him tightly. He leans down and kisses her on the head.
He doesn't answer her. "What I don't get is, we blew up the Tardis, that stopped that dream, but what stopped the Leadworth dream?"
"We crashed the camper van." She admits to him.
"Before you crashed the van, how did you know you wouldn't just die?" He wonders aloud.
"I didn't." She looks away from him.
"Oh." He takes her face in his hand and kisses her passionately.
"So, well then, where now?" John asks him, "Or should we just pop down to the swimming pool for a few lengths?"
"I don't know. Anywhere's good for me." He replies with a smile. "It's Rose's choice."
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