The Rings of Akhaten- Part 2
The Doctor, Clara and I run into the Amphitheater breathlessly and take the last three available seats. "Shush, shush. Sorry. Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me." The Doctor says as we climbed over people to them."
"Sorry, sorry." Clara repeats.
"Sorry for them." I said, nodding my head in their direction as I sat down on the right side of The Doctor while Clara sat on the left. We were in a semicircular amphitheatre facing the pyramid asteroid with tiered seating. I saw Merry standing on a small pedestal staring at the temple which was between them and the huge fiery sun.
"Are we even supposed to be here?" Clara whisper hisses at The Doctor.
The Doctor leans in closer to Clara and whispers, "Shush."
"But are we?"
"Shush!" The Doctor glances around him, "Sorry." he says to the other aliens around him.
Merry looks around at us. I smiled at her and she turns around and starts to sing "Akhaten. O god of Akhaten."
The Doctor takes out a pamphlet, "They're singing to the Mummy in the Temple. They call it the Old God. Sometimes Grandfather." The Doctor told us.
"O god of Akhaten."
"What are they singing?" I asked quietly.
"The Long Song. A lullaby without end to feed the Old God. Keep him asleep. It's been going for millions of years, chorister handing over to chorister, generation after generation after generation."
The congregation hold out their hands.
"What are they doing?" Clara asked, looking around.
"Those are offerings. Gifts of value. Mementoes to feed the Old God." The offerings dissolve into sparkles.
"O god of, O god of, O god of Akhaten."
A whole chorus starts up amongst the congregation and I sang along with them," Lay, lay down-" Something rumbles in the Pyramid. Merry stops singing. She turns around and looks straight at Clara and I in fear.
Suddenly, An energy beam lifts Merry off her pedestal and transports her through the space to the Pyramid. My eyes widened and I stood up fast along with Clara and The Doctor, "Doctor." I said in a warning tone.
"Okay, what's happening? Is that supposed to happen?" Clara asked, panicking.
"Help!" Merry yelled in fright.
"Is somebody going to do something? Excuse me, is somebody going to help her?" Clara asks around as nobody stood up to help, only shift nervously in their seats.
Clara and I followed closely behind The Doctor as we ran through the shopping area. Clara stops in place and yells at The Doctor, "Why are we walking away? We can't just walk away. This is my fault! I talked her into doing this."
I stopped as well, "It's also my fault. She was scared of getting it wrong. She didn't want to do it and we talked her back into it and now that things got her. Doctor, please."
The Doctor stopped and rounded on us, giving us an angry look, "Listen. There's one thing you need to know about travelling with me. Well, one thing apart from the blue box and the two hearts. We don't walk away."
We were by Dor'een's stall. The Doctor goes over and talks to Dor'een. Even though I could understand everything they were saying, I ignored it, nervous and scared for Merry. What if I got her killed because I meddled with her life? Now I could see why Mom didn't want me traveling until I was old enough. Our presence always had consequences, and not always good ones.
The Doctor turns around and looks at Clara, "I need something precious."
"Well, you must have something. All the places you've seen, there must be something." Clara said, not wanting to give away anything of hers. That's understandable. The only thing that I really had that I cared about was a journal of my mother's adventures that she wrote for me and that was back in the Tardis. It was one of my 'sweet' sixteen presents.
The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and flips it, then puts it back away, "This. And I don't want to give it away, because it comes in handy."
Clara stares at him, "You're a thousand years old and that's it? Your spanner?"
The Doctor glares at Clara, "Screwdriver."
Clara takes off one of her many rings and explains, "It's my mum's." She gives it to Dor'een who sniffs it, nods and puts it in one of her bags.
We road on the spreader across the space between the amphitheater and the pyramid. The Doctor was in front, then clara and lastly me. Merry floated in the beam of light just ahead of us. Clara reached out for Merry's hand, and she did the same but the light pulled Marry away from us faster into the pyramid and the door slams shut.
"Merry!" I yelled.
"Breaks! Breaks!" Clara yelled as we crashlanded outside of the pyramid. Since the pod was only designed for two, I fell off the back and landed hard on the ground while Clara grabbed hold of The Doctor.
I stood up and groaned, "That's going to hurt tomorrow."
"Okay, time to let go." The Doctor said.
"I can't." Clara responded.
"Clara, you have to."
"Why?"
"Because it really hurts." The Doctor wheezed.
Clara let's go instantly, "Sorry."
They climbed off the pod and The Doctor scans the entrance to the Pyramid, "Oh, that's interesting. A frequency modulated acoustic lock. The key changes ten million zillion squillion times a second."
"Can you open it?" I asked.
"Technically, no. In reality, also no, but still, let's give it a stab."
"How can they just stand there and watch?" Clara asked. I had the same question in mind.
"Because this is sacred ground."
"She's a child." I said.
"And he's a god. Well, he is to them, anyway."
We suddenly heard Merry's screams. "Merry! Merry, hold on! We'll be there soon. Doctor?" Clara yells.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, hello." The Doctor says, still using his sonic on the door.
"Hello what?"
"The sonic's locked on to the acoustic tumblers."
"Meaning?" Clara asked.
"The Door opens, right?" I asked.
The Doctor looks at me and nods, "Meaning I get to do this."
The door rises. The Doctor seems to be pushing it via the sonic screwdriver. He stands underneath it to hold it open, "Hello there. I'm the Doctor, and you've met Clara and Lia. They were supposed to be having a nice day out. Still, it's early yet. Are you coming, then? Did I mention that the door is immensely heavy?" The Doctor said, seeming to be under a strain. I stepped in the Pyramid.
"Leave. You'll wake him." Merry says.
"Really quite extraordinarily heavy." The Doctor is pushed to his knees, "Clara?" Clara enters the Pyramid.
"Old God, never wake from slumber." The man continues to sing.
"Merry, we need to leave." Clara says.
Merry shakes her head, "No. Go away."
Clara steps forward, "Not without you."
Merry glared at Clara, "You said I wouldn't get it wrong and then I got it wrong. And now this has happened. Look what happened!"
"You didn't get it wrong." Clara says softly, stepping closer to Merry and the box that held the strange alien.
"How do you know? You don't know anything. You have to go! Go now, or he'll eat us all."
Clara scruggs, "Well, he's ugly. But you know, to be honest, I don't think he looks big enough."
"Not our meat, our souls." Merry touches her temples and purple energy sticks Clara to the Mummy's glass box, with her back to the occupant, "He doesn't want you. He wants me. If you don't leave, he'll eat you all up too."
"Clara!" I called, stepping forward.
"Amelia Rose, don't move." The Doctor commanded. I stopped short, The Doctor using of my full name surprised me. Then to Merry, he said, "Yes, and you don't want that, do you? You want us to walk out of this really quite astonishingly heavy door and never come back."
"Yes."
"I see. Right. Clara's right. Absolutely never going to happen." The Doctor rolls out from underneath the door, and just grabs his sonic screwdriver before the door slams down upon it.
"Did you just lock us in with the soul eating monster?" Clara asked, staring at The Doctor.
The Doctor smiled. "Yep."
"Is there actually a way to get out?" I asked.
"What? Before it eats our souls?" The Doctor retorted.
Clara glares at The doctor. "Ideally, yes."
"Possibly. Probably. There usually seems to be."
"Doctor, why is he still singing?" I asked.
"Old God, rest your weary, holy head." The man sings.
The Doctor sighs, "He's trying to sing the Old God back to sleep, but that's not going to happen. He's waking up, mate. He's coming, ready or not. You want to run." The Chorister stops chanting. "That's it, then. Song's over."
"The song is over. My name is Chorister Rezh Baphix, and the Long Song ended with me." The Chorister touches a button on a bracelet, and he disappears.
"That's it, then. Song's over." The Mummy/alien in the box roars, "Ah ha! Look at that."
"You've woken him!" Merry says in fear.
"It's awake? What's it doing?"
"Oh, you know. Having a nice stretch." It's hammering on the glass trying to break out, "No, we didn't wake him. And you didn't wake him, either. He's waking because it's his time to wake, and feed. On you, apparently. On your stories."
"She didn't say stories. She said souls." Clara said.
The Doctor shrugged, "Same thing. The soul's made of stories, not atoms. Everything that ever happened to us. People we love, people we lost. People we found again against all the odds. He threatens to wake, they offer him a pure soul. The soul of the Queen of Years."
"Stop it. You're scaring her." I said as Merry backed up from The Doctor.
"Good. She should be scared. She's sacrificing herself. She should know what that means. Do you know what it means, Merry?"
"A god chose me." Merry responded.
"It's not a god. It'll feed on your soul, but that doesn't make it a god. It is a vampire, and you don't need to give yourself to it. Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story? One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejelh. And there will never be another. Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice. It is a waste."
"So, if I don't, then everyone else-"
"Will be fine." The Doctor says.
"How?"
"There's always a way."
"You promise?"
The Doctor smiled, "Cross my hearts."
Merry releases Clara. The Mummy has broken a hole in the glass, "Having a nice stretch?" The asteroid rumbles, "Something's coming."
"The Vigil." Merry says.
"And what's the Vigil?" I asked Merry.
"If the Queen of Years is unwilling to be feasted upon-" Merry stopps.
"Yes?"
Merry takes a deep breath and continues, "It's their job to feed her to Grandfather." A puff of black smoke, and the three robotic beings appear, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"Don't you dare." Clara says to the Mummy.
"Yeah, stay back. I'm armed. With a screwdriver." The Doctor says, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the Mummy. The lead Vigil sends out an acoustic blast that knocks it out of the Doctor's hand, then another that sends him somersaulting backwards. Clara is also thrown against the wall. They are both briefly knocked out. The Vigils lead Merry forward.
"Clara. Sonic." Clara gets the screwdriver and throws it to the Doctor. He sets up a shield against the Vigil's weapon and Merry runs back to Clara
I turned to Merry, "Merry, you know all the stories. You must know if there's another way out."
"There's a tale. A secret song. The Thief of the Temple and the Nimmer's Door." Merry says.
"And the secret songs open the secret door?" Clara concludes. "How does it go? Can you sing it?"
Merry sings a series of notes and a door slides up in the wall just beyond the Vigils and the Mummy.
"Go!" The Doctor yells. Clara, Merry and I run outside. Clara and I look back to see the sonic shield fail.
"Doctor!" Clara and I yelled together. The Mummy breaks free of its glass prison. An energy beam fires at the sun.
"Where are you? Where are you?" A voice asks. The Vigils disappear.
"Where did they go?" I asked The Doctor as he made his way out here.
"Grandfather's awake. They're of no function any more."
"Well, you could sound happier about it." Clara says.
The Doctor winces, "Actually, I think I may have made a bit of a tactical boo-boo. More of a semantics mix-up, really."
Dread filled me. When The Doctor messed up, very bad things tended to happen, "What boo-boo?" I asked in a cautious voice.
"I thought the Old God was Grandfather, but it wasn't. It was just Grandfather's alarm clock." The Doctor explained.
My eyes widened, "Oh crap."
"Sorry, a bit lost. Who's the Old God? Is there an Old God?" Clara asked, still not getting it.
"Unfortunately, yes." We turned around to face the sun to see it become active.
"Oh, my stars. What do we do?" Clara asked.
The Doctor looked at Clara in panic, "Against that? I don't know. Do you know? I don't know. Any ideas?"
"But you promised. You promised!" Merry said, panicking.
The Doctor sighs, "I did. I did promise."
"He'll eat us all. He'll spread across the system, consuming the Seven Worlds. And when there's no more to eat, he'll embark on a new odyssey among the stars."
"I say leg it." Clara says.
"Leg it where, exactly?" The Doctor asked.
"Don't know. Lake District?"
"Oh, the Lake District's lovely. Let's definitely go there. We can eat scones. They do great scones in 1927." The Doctor said.
"You're going to fight it, aren't you." I said softly. Clara stared between me and The Doctor.
"Regrettably, yes. I think I may be about to do that."
"It's really big." I pointed out.
The Doctor shrugged, "I've seen bigger."
"Really?" Clara asked, crossing her arms.
"Are you joking? It's massive."
"I'm staying with you." Clara says.
"So am I." I said.
"No, you're not." The Doctor said.
"Yes, I am. I can assist." Clara said.
"So can I." I said.
"No, you can't."
"What about that stuff you said. We don't walk away." Clara pleaded.
"No. We don't walk away. But when we're holding on to something precious, we run. We run and run as fast as we can and we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow. Now, off you pop. Take the moped. I'll walk." The Doctor walks around to face the sun, which has the appearance of eyes and mouth, "Any ideas? No, didn't think so. Righty-ho, then."
Not wanting to ruin my chance at an Apprenticeship with The Doctor, I returned, annoyed, with Clara and Merry to the amphitheatre to watch.
"Isn't he frightened?" Merry asks as I paced next to them.
"I think he is. I think he's very frightened." Clara responds.
"I want to help." Merry said, looking up at Clara.
"So do I." Clara responds.
Merry gets onto her pedestal and starts singing, "Rest now, my warrior. Rest now your hardship is over. Live. Wake up. Wake up. Please, wake up. And let the cloak of life cling to your bones. Cling to your bones. Wake up. Wake up."
The sun suddenly has a series of explosions.
Clara and I nodded to each other and we ran back to the modpad and zoomed back to the pyramid. We ran to the place The Doctor was and I looked up at the sun to see somewhat of a face on in.
I ran up to The Doctor and helped him into a kneeling position.
"Still hungry?" Clara asked. She reached into her purse and took out a book. She opens 101 Places To See and takes out the leaf, "Well, I brought something for you. This. The most important leaf in human history. The most important leaf in human history." The sun smiles, "It's full of stories, full of history. And full of a future that never got lived. Days that should have been that never were. Passed on to me." An energy tendril reaches for the leaf, "This leaf isn't just the past, it's a whole future that never happened. There are billions and millions of unlived days for every day we live. An infinity. All the days that never came. And these are all my mum's."
During Clara's speech, I had helped The Doctor stand, "Well, come on then. Eat up. Are you full? I expect so, because there's quite a difference, isn't there, between what was and what should have been. There's an awful lot of one, but there's an infinity of the other." The Doctor says. The leaf turns into energy, "And infinity's too much, even for your appetite."
"Home again, home again, jiggity jig."
Clara opens the Tardis door and looks at her house, "It looks different."
"Nope. Same house, same city, same planet. Hey! Same day, actually. Not bad. Hole in one." The Doctor says.
"Same day?" I asked, "That almost never happens from Mom's stories.
Clara turns around and looks at us, "You two were there. At mum's grave. You two were watching. What were you two doing there?"
"I don't know. I was just making sure." The Doctor said.
"Of what?"
"You remind me of someone."
"Who?"
The Doctor sighed, "Someone who died."
"Well, whoever she was, I'm not her, okay? If you want me to travel with you, that's fine. But as me. I'm not a bargain basement stand-in for someone else. I'm not going to compete with a ghost." Clara says angrily.
"No." The Doctor says, he holds out the ring she gave to Dor'een, "They wanted you to have it."
Clara took it, puzzled, "Who did?"
"Everyone. All the people you saved. You. No one else. Clara." Clara takes the ring and leaves the Tardis.
The Doctor closed the door behind her.
Thank you to my favorite: April Marciano