Chapter Nine
Amy Pond looked down at her beautiful gown. Once beautiful gown. "The princess has turned into a pumpkin," she said with a sigh.
"Amy. Shh." Jeremy Larkin glanced at her and then turned back and shoved aside a clump of tall grasses in order to survey the road before the inn. "Stay put. I am going to scout the area."
"You know this chivalrous stuff grows old really fast," she complained. "What do I look like? A wilted flower?"
He shifted so he was staring directly at her. "Actually? Yes."
She smacked his arm. Then she grinned. "Chauvinist."
"I beg your pardon?"
Amy frowned. "You know, a man who thinks he's better than a woman."
"A misogynist, you mean?" He looked hurt. "A woman-hater?"
"Aye. There you have it, Rebel boy." Amy pretended to flex her muscles. "Big strong man is so much better than weak soft girl."
Jeremy shook his head. He moved closer to her and touched her face with his hand. "Soft girl not weak. Big strong man want to keep her alive. All right?"
"Oi," she said, dropping the pose. She hesitated a moment and then asked him playfully, "Can you come back to the Tardis with me and give the Doctor some lessons on how to treat a woman properly?"
The Rebel laughed. He planted a chaste kiss on the end of her nose and then returned to watching the road. His lithe form seemed to stiffen a moment later, as if he was suddenly on the alert, and then he turned back to her with a grin. "You can tell him yourself. He and River are just now leaving the inn."
"Out of my way, rebel boy!" Amy gathered her skirts and before Jeremy could do anything to stop her, she burst out of the concealing foliage and dashed across the road shouting, "Oi! Elbow patches! Did you forget that you lost something?"
For a second the Time Lord stood completely still and his eyes grew distant. Then, like a light going on, he brightened and yelled in return, "Amy Pond! The girl who waited...somewhere else. I thought you'd gone on a shopping spree to Philly. Did you bring me anything from the city of brotherly love?"
"Yeah, a new bowtie," she answered. She was a little confused. He hadn't come to meet her, but remained at River's side. Then, she was a lot confused. The Doctor had his arm around River's waist and he was holding her...real close. To cover her confusion, she took hold of Jeremy Larkin who was standing close behind her and pulled him forward. "And a brother! Well, kind of a brother."
Again, there was a pause and then the Doctor beamed. "Larkin! So good to see you alive and kicking. I presume since you are with Amy that there has been some kicking?" He moved forward, bringing River with him. "No? Well, on her side then?"
"Doctor," Amy began. "Nice to see you, River. Fancy meeting you in eighteenth century Fishkill. Small universe, eh?"
"Isn't it?" River replied tersely. "Good to see you Amy. Jeremy."
As Jeremy Larkin nodded, Amy turned back to the Doctor. Her brown eyes flicked to his hand at River's waist, and then back to his face. She repeated the action several times, but he didn't clue in. Finally, being Amy Pond, she shouted, "So what's this all about then? Ay? You and River seem to have grown rather close while I've been gone."
"Never one to miss taking advantage, you know?" the Doctor answered cheerily, and then he cupped River's corseted and stayed bosom in his free hand and kissed her passionately.
"Well..." Amy blinked. "There's taking advantage, and then there's... Well."
The Doctor pivoted toward her, grinning. Amy's glance shot from his face to River's. Instead of ecstasy, she saw fear written in the older woman's eyes. River caught her gaze and almost imperceptibly shook her head.
Now what did that mean?
River smiled then and leaned into his embrace. "Sweetie, it looks like that little fishing expedition will have to wait. We have company." She took the Tardis key and held it up before him. "Here. I know how you hate to have anyone else tamper with the lock. It's so contrary." River looked one way and then the other.
"Just like its owner," he replied, closing her fingers over the key. "You keep it."
"Where is she anyway?" the older woman asked as she gently disengaged his arm. "A big blue box is a hard thing to hide."
"Big blue box?" Jeremy asked, confused. "But that's back in the – "
Amy stomped on his foot. Her whisper was fierce. "Shut up! I'll explain later." It had finally dawned on her that something was wrong. Really wrong. It shouldn't have taken that long, but well, the Doctor was a man – at least she thought he was a man, even though he was a bowtie wearing alien. To a nine hundred and seven year old bowtie wearing alien, River probably looked like a spring chicken.
She frowned. Which made her look like what? An egg?
"Around the corner," the Doctor replied, as if nothing had happened and Jeremy Larkin had not turned red in the face and was trying his best not to hop up and down. Taking hold of River's hand again, he began to draw her toward the foliage on the other side of the road. "Parked her behind the trees. Hope no one mistakes her for the privy..."
Amy turned to Jeremy and held up a finger. "Not a word. Later."
He nodded, but still seemed mightily confused as he followed her into the trees. A minute later they were standing, facing the Tardis. Amy felt a thrill of joy. She hadn't seen the bright blue box since all of this began. They could just go inside and take off, fly away to any time and place. But then, no, they couldn't. The Marquis de Lafayette was still infected with the virus and his death would change everything.
The Doctor stopped outside the Tardis door and spread his arms wide. "River. Do the honors."
The older woman walked to the door and then halted. She held the key in her hand, hesitating just in front of the lock. Then, suddenly, she pivoted and tossed it into the air. "Amy, catch!" she shouted.
Before the Doctor could react, Amy did. She held the key in her hand. She looked from it to River. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked the older woman.
"It's not the Doctor! Amy, it's a Nestene duplicate. He needs me to open the Tardis. She'll know he isn't alive and won't open! Take the key! Get out of here!"
Amy didn't move. She stared at the key. There was something she was supposed to do. Something the woman in green had told her to do. Something she couldn't quite remember.
"Amy! What are you waiting for?"
"Yes, Amelia Pond," the Doctor said, bringing his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and activating it, "what are you waiting for?"
As the sonic's green light flashed, something snapped in her. Amy felt Jeremy's hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him and then, suddenly found he was on the ground. Blinking, she realized she had done it. She had closed her fingers over the key and sucker-punched him. Her knuckles were actually bleeding.
"Amelia," the Doctor said, "you know how I hate it when you don't tidy up."
She turned, even though she didn't want to, and started walking toward River. The older woman was shaking her head. "Oh, Amy. What have they done to you?"
She saw her hand reaching up. Saw the Doctor grab River and hold her fast. Watched as her hand wrapped around the other woman's throat and she began to choke her. Amy keep pressing until River's eyes closed and the older woman slumped in her grasp.
The Doctor took hold of Amy's hand and pried her fingers free. He moved inhumanly fast to catch River's form before it hit the ground. "Can't have her damaged, now can we?" he asked. "When the Doctor's dead, we'll need her to fly the ship. Catch hold of the Rebel, Amelia. Bring him in." The familiar face lit with an evil grin. "One can never have too much insurance, can they?"
Amy laughed as expected, and did as she was told.
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The Doctor was thinking. It was something he did all the time, and tried all the time to avoid. Action thinking was one thing – what will I eat, where in the universe shall I visit next, have I seen a Dalek today? Even reflective thinking was all right. Did I clean up after myself when I created that computer virus that saved the world? What about that Android I let slip free? How is the star whale faring? But those weren't the kind of thoughts he had today. In fact, those were the thoughts he thought to keep himself from thinking.
About whether or not he had wasted his life.
One of the reasons he hung around humans was that on top of being brilliant, they died. Not that he wanted them to die, but the fact that they knew they could die – and that it would be final – gave their lives that extra little edge, that joie de vie. The last thing anyone in the universe would have said about a Time Lord was that they had any joy in their lives. His people had been ponderously important and terribly, terminally dull. It was why he had run away.
Well, a part of why.
Now that he was sitting in a warehouse stinking of fish, tied to a pole with an intolerant American, feeling the nano-robots swimming through his veins toward his hearts intent on stopping them, and thinking about the fact that this could be the end – the real end – he wondered if he had really accomplished anything. Yes, he had saved the galaxy a hundred times over. He had defeated the Daleks and Cybermen and so many more. But had he ever stopped to really love – to really connect with another soul?
Was that what he was really running from?
"Doctor."
It was Montgomery. The man had remained, for the most part, silent since their last talk. The Doctor knew he was contemplating his mortality too.
"Yes, Rowland?"
"I wish... I wish I could undo what I have done."
The Doctor turned toward him. "Good boy. You understand now that it's wrong to hate all because of the actions of one or two."
"I still hate the French."
"Oh. So exactly what is it you regret?"
"I love my country, and from what you say, I may well be its destroyer." He paused. "Is there anything I can do to make it right?"
The Doctor leaned his head back against the beam. "Rowland, old boy, to tell you the truth, I don't know that either of us are going to have a chance to do much of anything to make anything better. You, I guess, at least could die."
"What?" His voice trembled. "What do you mean? How would my dying help?"
"Well, if the mutated virus still reacts the way it used to, the cure can only be cobbled from the blood of someone who was infected who...shall we say, has moved on?"
"But not from you if you die?"
No, he couldn't even give that. "Fraid not. You see, Rowland, I'm a Time Lord. I'm what you would call an alien. My blood wouldn't help your people. It couldn't even help my own."
The soldier remained silent for several seconds. "Alien? Like from a foreigner from another country?"
"No. More like Swift's Gulliver's Travels, but in outer space. Another race, another world."
"Good God."
"Well, in my experience, some of them are," the Doctor mused. He waited. When Montgomery said nothing, he asked, "Are you all right, Rowland? I mean with the 'alien' thing, not with dying. Wouldn't expect you to be okay with that."
"Do you ever shut up?" the soldier groused.
"Oh. Is that an indication that you would like me to?"
"Yes."
"Okay. All right then. Shutting up...now."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Oh. Sorry. That's not shutting up, is it?" He took a breath. "Is it all right to tell you that I am shutting up? Or does that count as not – "
"Shut up!"
"I see you are both awake," a female voice remarked.
"Hard not to be with him talking all the time," Montgomery snarled. "Could you move me to another beam?"
The Auton in emerald, whom the Doctor had learned from listening to his captor's conversations over the last few hours called herself Constantine Strangewayes, rounded the beam they were tied to and knelt at Rowland Montgomery's side. "Are you comfortable?" she asked with an insincere smile.
"Fine. After all, isn't this how allies expect to be treated?"
She smirked, and then laughed out loud. "You were never an ally. Just a means to an end."
"But we both wanted the same thing. The destruction of France!"
"Silly boy. France means nothing to us. Destroy it, or let it reign for a million years. What do the Nestene care?" She stood and took a step back and then suddenly, swiftly, and without warning grasped the Doctor's hair and hauled his head back sharply against the wooden beam. "It is the destruction of this one that matters. He will continue to pursue us through time and space if he is not eliminated." She released her grip without a warning, dropping the Doctor's head so it struck his chest with bone-jarring strength. Swift as an adder the Auton shifted in front of him. She caught his arm and shoved the cuff of his coat back, causing the Time Lord to cry out in pain. Holding his arm up, she forced him to face the progress of the virus. A constant stream of blood flowed from one vein now, weakening him. And all around it, little tributaries were opening.
"You are dying, Time Lord. How does it feel?"
He laughed weakly. "That's something you will never know. And you know, plastic lady, I feel sorry for you, because that means you have never been alive."
"My masters will live because you die. There will be no one to stop them. They will turn the Bluhdouls loose and feast unendingly."
From behind him, the Doctor heard Montgomery speak. "I'd like to help you. Let me loose. I can bring people to you – key figures in the army. You said, for now, you need to hide what you are doing on the battlefield. I have a few generals I wouldn't mind seeing eaten alive."
"Rowland, really! A few seconds ago you were regretting one or two deaths. You are talking about mass genocide!" the Doctor protested.
"Can you save me? If I am infected?" the soldier asked.
The female Auton rose to her feet. "If I wish," came her cold reply.
Was that true, the Doctor wondered, did the Nestene have a cure? Or was she lying?
"Let me go! Let me prove myself!" the soldier shouted.
He could see her weighing it over. Well, through the duplicate's eyes, he could see the Nestene puzzling it out.
Chalk up another mark on the side of human greed.
The Doctor sighed. He was incredibly weary. "What are you going to do with me?"
The replica of Constantine Strangewayes turned and signaled someone in the distance. As several set of booted feet approached, she crouched before him again and whispered close to his ear.
"Make you watch."
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River shuddered. She had awakened in the Tardis to find both Amy Pond and Jeremy Larkin wired into the power system, with the Nestene duplicate of the Doctor holding the switch. The rebel was still unconscious. Amy sat back to back with him on the Tardis' floor, surrounded by wires, looking for all the universe like a toy that had been switched off. She was awake but her eyes were empty, as if whatever had been controlling her had shifted her into neutral. 'Whatever' being the Nestene gestalt.
She was alone with a monster made in the image of the man she loved who had just ordered her to fly the Tardis or watch them fry.
"Where to?" she asked, breathless.
"Round the corner," it answered, pocketing the sonic screwdriver, which it had programmed to trigger the execution. "Back to the warehouse."
"You carried it here. I don't have the coordinates."
"Make your best guess."
"We might end up anywhere. Any when."
The Auton sidled over. Standing close behind her, it wrapped its falsely familiar arms about her and laid those long, elegant hands on top of her own. Leaning down, the duplicate Doctor whispered in her ear. "Then you won't get to say goodbye to your 'love'."
River shut her eyes as the image flashed before her eyes – this ship, this floor, the bloody corpse. Dear God! Here they were, in need of rescuing, in the one place the Doctor must not come! If she took the Tardis to the warehouse, it was tantamount to testing that fate that she didn't believe in. The Doctor was dying. The Bluhdouls were raging in his blood. If he came through those doors...
And yet, if she didn't go back, he would die – and die without her.
She felt the duplicate pressing into her, its lips caressing the skin of her neck where it was exposed. In spite of everything, she had to fight the urge to laugh. Her Doctor had been so clever. He must have known he was being duplicated, and in the split second his consciousness was being scanned, pictured the two of them...together.
And he said he didn't peek!
"They're waiting, River. The Doctor is waiting."
She wondered just how much of the Time Lord had been transferred to his replica. Did he already know how to fly the Tardis and simply couldn't as the ship wouldn't recognize him? Or was he watching now, absorbing and learning all he needed to know so that, in the end, she would be expendable too. There were other living beings, and some of them might have no qualms about helping the Nestene achieve their goals.
"I'll do it, but you need to turn your back," she said at last.
It's fingers had been on her neck, brushing the curls upward. They shifted until they encircled it and he squeezed. "You are in no position to give orders."
"Yes, I am. You can't fly her. You need me."
The pressure remained, but went no further. "I will kill the man and woman."
"Then you lose your leverage. I won't do anything."
She could almost feel the wheels turning in its head – hear it communicating with its masters. River's chest rose and fell with each breath she drew. Her nerves might have been steel, but even steel broke against stone.
"Very well." Almost mechanically, the duplicate Doctor pivoted away. "Take us there. Now."
River moved to the part of the console where she would type in the coordinates. She shifted a few levers, checking the Tardis' earlier position – which it tracked – and then, drawing a deep breath, hit the switch to make her fly. As the annoying wheezing noise the Doctor was so fond of filled the air, she glanced at the Auton duplicate.
And, without its notice, threw another switch.
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He only realized she'd been gone when she came back. The sound of the big blue box materializing was music to his ears. Though the presence of the time machine in the Nestene enclave was a deadly danger, it was also his only chance. In the time since the duplicate of Constantine Strangewayes had visited them, he had been thinking. Action thinking.
Maybe he would regenerate.
The virus had mutated. It was transmitted by contact now. Henry Abington had survived it and, though he couldn't be certain from the readings he had taken, he didn't think the apothecary was a carrier. It was a gut feeling, but those gut feelings had saved him and countless worlds a thousand times before. So, it was entirely possible that – if he was in contact with the Tardis and her extra boost of time energy – he might be able to survive. She had saved him before. She could do it again. It made sense.
Or at least it would have had it not been for River's vision.
He had replayed that image over and over in his mind, time and time again. She was certain it was him, lying there on the Tardis floor; his body a bloody carcass deserted by Bluhdouls gorged on a Time Lord's blood. He couldn't refute it. The figure had wisps of dark brown hair remaining. The clothes were mostly gone, but there was the indefutable evidence of the sonic screwdriver in its decimated hand. Of course, he didn't have the sonic – yet. But if the body had been that of the duplicate of him it wouldn't have been bloody.
Instead River would have found a puddle of plastic.
"Still," he sniffed, "hope springs eternal."
"In the breast of man, but you are not a man, Time Lord."
As the Tardis began to appear, the duplicate of Constantine Strangewayes moved to stand in front of him. He had been loosed and then, with his hands rebound, dragged into the center of the warehouse by Rowland Montgomery who seemed to be working with the Nestene again. He glanced at his hands. The cuffs of his striped shirt were crimson now with his blood.
His internal clock told him he didn't have much time.
The emerald Auton nodded toward him, ordering Montgomery to, "Untie him. He is of little threat as he is. Remove his coat and shirt so that we can witness our associate's finest feast!"
The soldier grunted his assent and went to work. As he did, the Auton turned away to communicate with her men. Rowland was close to him now, working with the knots. The Doctor couldn't help but notice he was trembling. "Rowland, think what you are doing."
"I know what I am doing," he shot back.
"These creatures are alien, more alien than I am. Rowland, please, they will destroy your world." The Doctor's hands were free for the moment and Montgomery was unbuttoning his shirt. "I am the only one who can stop them. I have to survive. I have to get into that big blue box."
Rowland moved behind him and began to remove both his tweed coat and shirt. The Doctor heard the other man's breath catch as they came off.
"Damnation!" he breathed. "Is this what will happen to me?"
The Doctor had tears in his eyes. "To you. To everyone you love. And worse. I don't know. You may not die. You may live to feed on one another."
"Rowland! Bring the Time Lord here!" the emerald auton ordered.
The soldier dropped the blood-streaked coat and shirt on the floor. "Forgive me," he said. The whisper was terse. It came just before Montgomery placed a hand in the middle of his back and shoved – causing the Doctor to scream in pain as he fell to his knees. As he knelt there, gasping, every nerve shrieking, Rowland bent down beside him and took hold of his bleeding upper arm.
"I'll get you into that blue box if it's the last thing I do," he swore.
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River wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. She was sweating. Part of it was nerves.
It was the other part she hoped the duplicate Doctor and his plastic playmates didn't notice.
The Tardis had landed and two of the Auton males had entered. One had carried the unconscious rebel out, and another was leading Amy Pond by the hand through the open doors. The redhead looked confused, which was a good sign. Perhaps, with the fulfillment of their plans so near, the Nestene had lost interest in her.
After adjusting another couple of switches that didn't need touching – just in case someone was watching – River turned to go. She was bound and determined to get to those doors before anyone else had a chance to come in.
The replica of the Doctor blocked her way.
"What are you doing?" she snapped. "Get out of my way."
"I have something to show you first," it said as it drew closer to her.
River locked one hand on her hip. "I can assure you, you have nothing that I would want to see!"
"Are you so sure?" it asked as it reached out toward her. She thought it was going to take hold of her, but instead it reached past her and flipped a switch, turning the scanner back on.
So it was watching and learning.
"Take a look," it said as it angled the screen.
"And why would I do that?" She brushed a lock of sweat-soaked hair off her forehead. Her gaze flicked to the Auton. It's plastic skin was glowing, but it didn't seem to notice. River glanced at the time machine's chronometer. She had to get out of the Tardis. "Oh, all right, but I can't imagine what is so important..."
There, on the screen, was the Doctor. Her joy at seeing him alive was quickly overcome by horror. He had been stripped to the waist and his exposed flesh looked as if it had been flailed. Apparently he could no longer stand under his own power. Lieutenant Montgomery was holding him up. The front of the soldier's uniform was no longer buff but blood-stained.
River whirled, ready to fly through the Tardis doors, but the Auton duplicate caught her and held her fast. "I am everything he is," it said. "But I am strong and whole. I will never die, or age, or change." It caught her about the waist and pulled her close. "Come fly away with me."
That must have been some suggestion the Doctor planted, she told herself. It was overriding the Auton's programming, or maybe, just maybe the Nestene had gotten more than they bargained for when replicating a Time Lord. The duplicate was starting to think for itself. She placed a hand on its chest. "What about your masters?"
"Bah," it spat, sounding so like the man she knew. "Out there I am one among many. Here... Here, I am unique."
Her eyes flicked to the screen. The Auton in emerald was approaching the ship with the ailing Doctor in tow.
"Yes!" she breathed. It was risky, but she had to hope enough of the Doctor had transferred to this creature, that it would play along with her. "When you weren't looking, I set the Tardis to give off a pulse of extreme heat. Her temperature has been steadily rising. When it reaches two hundred and twenty five Fahrenheit, it will explode outward – "
"Melting all of the duplicates."
"Yes, but you don't have to be out there. You can stay in here. But please, I have to go." Tears filled her eyes. "Let me go to him. I promise I will come back."
The duplicate considered her words and her promise. It nodded, but before she could go, it caught her hand and held her back.
"What?" she demanded.
This new Doctor caught her and kissed her again. He brushed the hair back from her face and smiled. Not a plastic smile, but a genuine one. "When he is gone, I will do my best to take his place."
The tears flowed. Could she? If the other died?
River nodded. "Now, let me go."
The duplicate Doctor stepped back. His face twitched. "Say 'goodbye' for me."
River broke free and began to run. She had about fifteen seconds. The heat outside would be hard to bear – like being thrust into a sauna at full tilt without warning – but it was something humans could survive. She wasn't so sure about the Doctor. She needed to get him to a place of safety. In his weakened condition, the sudden blast of heat might kill him before the Bluhdouls had time to complete their work. As she exited the Tardis she realized the Autons were waking to their danger. Some of the less refined ones were already reeling and the one in emerald green – the Nestene duplicate who seemed to have a direct connection to the Consciousness – was heading straight for her, intent on getting inside the ship and disarming the trap she had set.
River glanced at the Doctor who was still being supported by Montgomery, before turning back to the Auton barreling toward her. "Get him under cover!" she shouted, hoping the man cared enough to do what she said. "The heat will kill him! Get him to safety!"
As the last word came out, she made contact with the emerald Auton. The duplicate fought and scratched like a she-cat whose kittens were threatened. She knocked River over and rolled away with her, rolling them both away from the space before the Tardis' doors. Winded, River lost the advantage and found herself staring down the barrel of the Auton's built in pistol.
And then the pulse hit.
Wave after wave of intense heat spread out from the time machine, fueled by the contained energy of the Eye that propelled her through time and space. The emerald Auton gasped, shuddered, shivered once, and then began to slowly melt. River scrambled out from under it, not wanting to be scalded by burning plastic. She glanced over at Amy and Jeremy Larkin. Both were unconscious.
She was barely holding her own.
River's hair was plastered to her cheeks. Her silk gown clung like wetted cloth. Her skin was bathed in sweat and she was breathing hard. When it was over, she and the humans were the only thing left standing.
Shoving the hair out of her eyes, River stood up and looked for the Doctor. It wasn't over yet. The Nestene Consciousness remained and he was still dying. From the look of him, it wouldn't be long. She had to do something, though she had no idea what. Maybe the Nestene had a cure. Maybe now that there were no more duplicates, she could reason with them, offer to take them elsewhere....
"Doctor?" she called. "Doctor?" Where had Montgomery taken him. "Doctor, where are you?"
She heard an answer, faint, feeble, not like him at all. Coming from behind her.
From inside the Tardis.
River whirled. He stood in the doorway of the time machine, supported by Lieutenant Montgomery. Sweat and blood dripped from him, but he was smiling.
"You fool!" she spat as the doors slammed shut. "I was right.
"Time can't be rewritten."