Thea hesitated at the top of the stairs leading to the under console where Amy sat on the harness, the ring in her hands, staring at it like she knew it was important. She had seen the girl with it a few times now. She had been a bit of an idiot and left in lying around, clearly Amy had found it, she never said anything to the girl, curious to how the girl reacted to it.
She was hesitant to approach Amy, wanting to ask her about it, but she also didn't want to interrupt in case whatever Amy was remembering of Rory suddenly disappeared.
"Amy..." she called softly, heading down slowly to not spook her.
Amy snapped her head up, quickly hiding the ring box, "Where's the fire?"
She laughed, "there's no fire, no sparks, nothing wrong...surprising as that is." she tilted her head, "everything alright, you're rather quiet."
"So are you two." she quipped, "that's suspicious."
"Give it a moment."
A moment later, the Doctors dropped his head down with a shout, "vavoom!"
Amy blinked, startled as Thea smirked at her, not at all surprised by the sudden appearance. "Told you."
"I'm starting to hate you doing that." Amy remarked.
The Doctor grinned, getting back up and rushing back to the console, flicking switches and pushing buttons as Thea ran up after him. Amy slowly headed up after her.
"I can't believe I've never thought of this before." he was saying as he sent them off, "It's genius. Right. Landed. Come on."
"Where are we?" Amy asked.
"Planet One." Thea raised her eyebrows as she caught sight of the monitor, "Oh, that is...pretty brilliant."
"The oldest planet in the universe!" the Doctor beamed at her, "And there's a cliff of pure diamond, and according to legend, on the cliff there's writing. Letters 50 feet high. A message from the dawn of time And no one knows what it says, because no one's ever translated it." he poked Theas nose as she ran past him, eager to get outside, "Till today."
"What happens today?" Amy asked.
"Us!"
"We can use the TARDIS translation circuits to translate the message!" Thea laughed, very excited at such a brilliant idea.
"All we have to do is open the doors and read the very first words in recorded history." the Doctor pushed open the doors.
They stepped out into a tropical looking area, with large mushrooms scattered in the tall grass around them. They stopped, staring up at the large cliff before them, to see the translated message.
'HELLO SWEETHEART' with a few alien symbols below it.
"Hello sweetheart?" Amy frowned.
"That's me!" Thea nearly squealed, hitting the Doctors arm in her excitement, "you're sweetie, I'm sweetheart."
Amy chuckled, as the Doctor looked put-off that River Song was clearly leaving a message for Thea and not himself this time, "vavoom." she smirked.
"That's so chaotic!" Thea laughed, "I'm in love."
That only made Amy laugh as she caught sight of the very nearly sour expression.
It was funny to see how the pair acted, she knew Thea and the Doctor had only meet recently before crashing into her garden as a little girl and being on board the TARDIS she got to see the pair learn more about each other and trust one another. She could see it in the Doctor, a near paternal bond he had for the girl. Being how the girl seemed so young and innocent and having their own people gone she couldn't blame him taking on a protective roll over her.
~.~
Thea squinted against the sun as they stepped out of the TARDIS on a small hill overlooking a roman camp. Oh, this was so exciting! Romans! Actual proper Romans, oh she knew she shouldn't be as excited as she was about the ancient soldiers, but she couldn't help it Earthen History had always been her best topic, in the Academy and at Park Vale, even though the teachers insisted she was wrong.
"Right place?" Amy asked, fully aware now how often they did not get to the place they were aiming for.
"We followed the coordinates River left." Thea told her, "Even he can't mess that up."
"Oi!" he pouted as she stuck her tongue out, and as a mature responsible adult, he stuck his tongue back at her. "Earth. Britain." he checked his watch, "1:02 am. No, pm. No, AD."
"That's a Roman Legion." Amy breathed, staring at the camp before them.
"The Romans invaded Britain several times during this period." Thea informed her.
"Oh, I know. My favourite topic at school. 'Invasion of the hot Italians.'
"Amazing title." she laughed.
"I did get marked down for that."
A breathless soldier ran up to them, kneeling with his fist to his chest, "Hail, Caesar!"
"...Hi?" the Doctor eyed him as Thea laughed at his confusion.
"And the most beloved Empress Theodora!"
"Wait, what?" she blinked, sobering up at the name she'd been called.
"Welcome to Britain." the soldier continued, "We are honoured by your presence."
"Well, you're only human." the Doctor remarked, "Arise, Roman person."
"Why does he think you're Caesar?" Amy hissed.
The man stood, revealing a smudge of lipstick on his cheek, "Cleopatra will see you now." he turned and led them off down to the camp.
"See that lipstick smudge." Thea whispered to Amy as they followed, "hallucinogenic lipstick, makes whoever's been kissed believe what the wearer wants."
"Oh..." Amy nodded, "but who's Theodora?"
"An Empress from 500AD. Let's leave it at that because I'm thinking of killing River."
~.~
"Theodora really?" Thea huffed as they were led into a tent to see River, dressed as Cleopatra being waited on by two servants.
"I thought you'd like being an Empress." River replied innocently.
"Not one who started as a whore! What are you trying to say exactly, River Song?"
"That you are a very strong and powerful woman and will fight for your believes." she said simply.
Thea crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes, "you're on thin ice, Cleopatra."
River smirked, "whatever were you thinking, sweetheart?"
"I'm think you were calling me a whore." she hissed.
"And that's quite enough of that," the Doctor quickly cut in as Thea glared at River. He was thankful to hear the woman's reasoning behind the name and it wasn't what both he and Thea had at first thought. "You graffitied the oldest cliff face in the universe." he mock-scolded.
"You wouldn't answer your phone." she countered, clapping her hands and the servants left, moving over to her bag and pulling out a rolled up canvas.
"What's this?" the Doctor asked as she handed it to him.
"It's a painting. Your friend Vincent. One of his final works. He had visions, didn't he? I thought you ought to know about this one." she glanced at Thea, "remind me, how strong are your feelings, right now?"
"Um..." she blinked; surprised River knew about them. The woman hadn't seemed to mention them back at the Byzantium. "Well, he's only known for a few weeks." she offered, unable to really say how weak her feelings tended to be.
Sometime in their future she told River about her feelings, or River figured it out, River seemed clever enough to figure that out. Oh, that sounded like a fun conversation to have.
Rassilon how many people were going to end up knowing about her senses and feelings. She really did not want the entire universe to know.
"More fun that way," River smirked.
"Doctor?" Amy called as the Doctor unrolled the canvas, staring at it, "Doctor, what is this?"
"Doctor?" Thea turned to him at the silence. It was always bad when he went silent.
He still didn't speak as he set the painting down of the desk for them all to look at.
Thea gasped, staring down at the painting of the TARDIS exploding. the Doctor turned and heavily sat down, deep in thought as Thea ran her fingers along the strokes.
"Why is it exploding?" Amy wondered.
"I assume it's some kind of warning." River remarked.
"What, something's going to happen to the TARDIS?"
"It might not be that literal. Anyway, this is where he wanted you. Date and map reference on the door sign, see?"
"Does it have a title?" Thea tilted her head.
"The Pandorica Opens." River answered.
"The Pandorica?" Amy frowned, "What is it?"
"A box, a cage, a prison. It was built to contain the most feared thing in all the universe."
"And it's a fairy tale," the Doctor finally spoke, "a legend. It can't be real."
"Legends come from somewhere." Thea countered.
"You think it might be real?" he raised his eyebrows at her.
"Anything is possible." she shrugged, "you told me you've met the literal Devil before."
The Doctor nodded slowly at that, he had been to an impossible planet in orbit under a black hole and met the Devil, maybe the legend of the Pandorica was true. He pulled out a map from a vase and rolled it out to look at.
"If it is real," River agreed, "it's here and it's opening, and it's got something to do with your TARDIS exploding. Hidden, obviously. Buried for centuries. You won't find it on a map."
"No, but if you buried the most dangerous thing in the universe, you'd want to remember where you put it." he muttered.
"X makes the spot." Thea murmured, sticking her finger on the one place it could be.
River nodded, moving out to call for some horses.
~.~
They had only managed to get two horses, which worked for them seeing as neither Amy nor Thea had ever ridden a horse before and so Amy rode with the Doctor, while Thea held onto River as she galloped after them.
The Doctor hopped of his horse, quickly helping Amy off before scanning around the stone with the sonic.
"How come it's not new?" Amy looked at the stones.
"Because it's already old." River replied as she helped Thea down from the horse, "It's been here thousands of years. No one knows exactly how long."
"Is there a force field?" Thea wondered as River starting scanner around herself, "its' just there's a set of stone like Stonehenge down near Whitebarrow that leads to a portal to release Horath."
The Doctor paused and looked over at her, "do I want to know why you know that?"
"I walked into the force field." she said.
"Not quite what I meant."
"Mrs Wormwood wanted to rule the Galaxy with Luke as her prince."
"Let me guess she would have succeeded if she let Luke have you by his side." River smirked over at her.
"Probably." she nodded.
"Okay, this Pandorica thing." Amy shook her head. "Last time we saw you, you warned us about it, after we climbed out of the Byzantium."
"Spoilers." River said.
"No, but you told the Doctor and Thea, you'd see them again when the Pandorica opens."
River shrugged, "Maybe I did, but I haven't yet. But I will have. Doctor, Thea, I'm picking up fry particles everywhere. Energy weapons discharged on this site."
The Doctor jumped on the middle stone, "If the Pandorica is here, it contains the mightiest warrior in history. Now, half the galaxy would want a piece of that. Maybe even fight over it. We need to get down there."
"And how do we do that?" Thea asked, turning to River as she spoke, despite hardly knowing the woman she could tell she was very prepared no matter what the situation.
"I'm on it." she grinned.
~.~
River had set up small lights around the area as night began to fall, helping them see as she set four devices on each corner of the large stone in the middle of the surrounding stones.
"Right then." River brushed off her hands as she headed over to the where the trio stood, "Ready." she pressed a button on her scanner, the rock sliding aside to reveal a set of stone steps leading to the 'underhenge'
"The Underhenge." the Doctor breathed, using his sonic as a torch as he slowly headed down the steps, River quickly following him down with a torch of her own as Thea and Amy followed down.
At the bottom of the steps the Doctor noticed a few torches on the wall, taking one and using the sonic to light it, handing them to each of them before moving to the large wooden doors with a board across it to keep it locked.
The Doctor handed his torch to Amy to hold as Thea handed hers to River, both lifting the board away and pushing the doors open and stepping into the large, cavernous room, a large box at the other end with intricate circular patterned on each side.
"It is real." Thea eyes widened at the sight of it.
"It's the Pandorica." the Doctor breathed, shocked that it did exist.
"More than just a fairy tale." River remarked.
The Doctor stepped closer, his foot hitting something, looking down it to see a Cyberarm, it was deactivated and very old. Not a concern for now as he kicked it away and moved closer to the Pandorica, not seeing Thea shining her torch to where the Cyberarm moved, "There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior." he muttered, "A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."
"A Dalek?" Thea murmured, "or a Time Lord?"
"How did it end up in there?" Amy wondered.
"You know fairy tales." the Doctor sighed, "A good wizard tricked it."
"I hate good wizards in fairy tales." River said, "They always turn out to be him."
"If you call me the damsel in distress." Thea crossed her arms.
"Oh, no." River laughed, "you're the feral child running around barefoot, causing chaos in the village."
"I love it!" she cheered, "and you're the Knight in shining armour...no, the Knight in killer high heels."
"Love it." River winked.
"So, it's kind of like Pandora's Box, then?" Amy called, "Almost the same name. Pandora's Box, with all the worst things in the world in it. That was my favourite book when I was a kid."
"Really?" Thea eyed her, "interesting, your favourite school topic. Your favourite story. Never ignore a coincidence..."
"Unless you're busy." the Doctor called over, "In which case, always ignore a coincidence."
"So can you open it?" River asked him as he checked the sonics readings.
"Easily." he replied, "Anyone can break into a prison. But I'd rather know what I'm going to find first."
"We'll soon find out." Thea commented.
River looked down at her scanner at that, her eyes widening, "she's right. Its already opening. There are layers and layers of security protocols in there, and they're being disabled one by one. Like it's being unlocked from the inside."
"How long do we have?" the Doctor asked.
"A few hours." Thea answered.
"What kind of security?"
"Everything." River answered this time, "Deadlocks, time stops, matter lines."
"What could need all that?"
"What could get past all that?"
"Think of the fear that went into making this box. What could inspire that level of fear?"
"You." Thea breathed before slapping her lips shut at her own words. Shocking even herself that she had said that.
He turned to her, "me?" he frowned, hurt.
"Its' just..." she shifted trying to cover up her blubber, really, she didn't know herself why she said that it just came out, like her feelings usually did and that concerned her. Why had she said that? "You did end the Time War when no one else could."
He nodded slowly at that, still hurt that she had said that, whether she meant it how he took it to sound hurtful or if she meant it another way. It still hurt she thought he could inspire so much fear that they wanted to lock him away.
He turned back to the Pandorica, "Have we met?"
"So why would it start to open now?" River shook her head.
"No idea."
"And how could Vincent have known about it?" Amy added, "He won't even be born for centuries."
The Doctor scanned around with the sonic again, "The stones! These stones are great big transmitters, broadcasting a warning to everyone, everywhere, to every time zone. The Pandorica is opening."
"What?" Thea stiffened at that.
"Doctor, everyone everywhere?" River looked over at him, sharing a startled look with Thea.
"Even poor Vincent heard it, in his dreams." the Doctor continued, "But what's in there? What could justify all this?"
"Doctor, everyone?"
"Anything that powerful, I'd know about it. Why don't I know?"
"Doctor," River snapped, getting his attention, "you said everyone could hear it. So who else is coming?"
Thea closed her eyes, shaking her head, "I don't want to know." she whispered.
"Know what?" Amy shook her head, confused.
River moved to one of the pillars, pressing her scanner against it, "Okay. If it is basically a transmitter, we should be able to fold back the signal."
The Doctor nodded, using the sonic to help, "doing it."
"Doing what?" Amy frowned.
"Stonehenge is transmitting." River told her, "It's been transmitting for a while.
"So, who heard?" Thea murmured, looking up to the ceiling of the roof, dreading to think of what enemies were making their way above them.
"Okay, should be feeding back to you now." the Doctor responded, "River, what's out there?"
"Give me a moment." she called back.
"River, quickly. Anything?"
She stared at the results in horror, "Around this planet there are at least 10,000 starships..."
"At least?" Amy asked, eye wide at just how many there could be.
"More." Thea murmured, "too many to count."
"There's too many readings." River agreed.
"What kind of star ships?" the Doctor questioned.
"Bad." Thea blinked.
He moved to her side, "how bad?"
She just shook her head, unable to say...when a Dalek transmission came through, "Maintaining orbit."
"I obey." a second said, "Shield cover compromised on ion sectors."
"Daleks." Amy swallowed, "Those are Daleks."
"Scan detects no temporal activity." a Dalek reported.
"Soft grid scan commencing." another stated.
"Reverse thrust for compensatory stabilisation."
River looked over at the Doctor, "Daleks, Doctor."
"Launch preliminary armaments protocol."
"Yes." the Doctor nodded starting to pace, starting worry at a Dalek ships being above them. Last time they faced the TARDIS Thea had been safe enough in the TARDIS, no chance of that this time, "Okay, okay, okay, okay. Dalek fleet, minimum 12,000 battleships, armed to the teeth. Ah! But we've got surprise on our side. They'll never expect 4 people to attack 12,000 Dalek battleships."
"Because we'd be killed instantly." Thea cut in.
"So it would be a fairly short surprise. Forget surprise."
"Cyberships." River spoke up.
"No, Dalek ships. Listen to them. Those are Dalek ships."
"Daleks and Cybermen?" Thea stared at River who nodded solemnly.
"Well, we need to start a fight, turn them on each other." the Doctor determined, "I mean, that's easy. It's the Daleks. They're so cross."
"Sontaran." River called, "Four battlefleets."
"Sontarans! Talk about cross, who stole all their handbags?"
"Terileptil. Slitheen, Chelonian, Nestene, Drahvin. Sycorax, Haemogoth, Zygon, Atraxi, Draconian." she looked up seeing the Doctor staring at her in horror at all his enemies surrounding them, "They're all here for the Pandorica."
"Why?" Thea wondered.
"What are you?" the Doctor eyed the Pandorica, "what could you possibly be?"
"Why aren't they fighting each other?" she murmured, before turning and running out the room.
"Thea Smith do not leave my sight!" the Doctor shouted, instantly running up the steps after her, Amy and River quickly following back outside where the night sky was illuminated by too many ships to count.
"What do we do?" Amy breathed, knowing there was even more ships they couldn't see.
"Doctor, listen to me." River turned to him as he pulled Thea closer to him, both staring at the ships above them, "Everything that ever hated you is coming here tonight. You can't win this. You can't even fight it. Doctor, this once, just this one time, please, you have to run."
"Run where?" he shook his head.
"Fight how?" she countered.
"Dunno, but I'd like to hear a Dalek beg for mercy." Thea mumbled.
The Doctor frowned, thinking deeply, pulling out a pair of binoculars from his pocket and looking back the way they came, "The greatest military machine in the history of the universe."
"What is?" Amy frowned, "The Daleks?"
"No." he grinned, "The Romans."
~.~
Thea sighed as she laid on the large stone that hid the steps to the Pandorica, staring up at the ships above, none of them knew they were here yet, which was the only reason the Doctor was allowing her to stay out and keep look out for Rivers return as she went back to the camp to get reinforcements.
She laid back on the rock, staring up at the ships, closing her eyes and trying to focus.
They needed to find out what was in the Pandorica, if she tried hard enough maybe she could get a sense or something?
She huffed, feeling nothing...and then jumping up the moment she heard Amy scream from below, she didn't really have time to think on that though as the reinforcements arrived, without River.
One of the Roman jumped of his horse, removing his helmet...
"Rory!" Thea shouted, lunging at him, making him stumble a moment from the surprise.
"Thea." he greeted, hugging her back.
"Wait," she eyed him, poking him in the chest, causing him to gently rock on his heels, "But...you...I..."
"You didn't see this coming?" he joked.
"No," she replied, serious, "I did not. I don't anyone could. I'm sorry." she walked in a circle around him, eying him closely, "I don't want to be rude..."
He rolled his eyes, "which means the next words out your mouth are going to be rude."
"You died." she stated.
"I know. I was there."
"You were erased from time."
"Not really sure what that means."
Thea stopped and stood before him, looking in his eyes, unable to see anything other than Rory Williams, "I missed you..."
"I missed you too." he smiled.
She grinned at him, only for it to fade as Amy screamed from below, the Doctor shouting and a laser sounding like a Cyberman could be heard.
"You men, with me!" Rory shouted to the soldiers as he ran down the steps to the underhenge, putting is helmet on and drawing his sword as he went.
"Oh, wait, Rory!" Thea ran after him, cursing herself for missing the important part where Amy did not remember him.
Rory ran over, seeing Amy trying to hide from the headless Cyberman, quickly drawing his sword and impaling the body to the door, which slowly swung open at the weight.
Thea looked around find the Cyberarm on the floor near the Doctor. She crouched besides him, checking his pulse.
"Who are you?" Amy asked, only seeing the Roman soldier.
"Hello, Amy." Rory smiled, removing his helmet.
"Catch her!" Thea called as Amy swayed and fell into Rorys open arms as Thea moved to check on her, sensing the Doctor was slowly about to come round.
"Is she...?" Rory trailed.
"She's fine." Thea assured him, "just unconscious."
"Amy?" the Doctor cried as he came round, jumping up and running over, "Where's Amy?"
"She's fine, Doctor." Rory told him, "Just unconscious."
"Okay." the Doctor ran the sonic over her, "Yes, she's sedated, that's all. Half an hour, she'll be fine. Okay, Romans. Good. I was just wishing for Romans. Good old River. How many?"
"About 50." Thea shrugged, taking a guess. She hadn't really paid attention to how many Romans came. Rory had been the first to speak to her and her attention had been on that.
"Not exactly a legion." the Doctor muttered.
"Your friend was very persuasive, but it's a tough sell." Rory told him.
"Yes, I know that, Rory. I'm not exactly one to miss the obvious."
Thea raised her eyebrows, looking at Rory who stared in disbelieve, "are you sure?"
"But we need everything we can get." he continued, opening a chest and finding two large guns, "Okay, Cyberweapons. This is basically a sentry box, so headless wonder here was a sentry. Probably got himself duffed up by the locals. Never underestimate a Celt."
"Doctor..." Rory began.
"Hush, Rory. Thinking. Why leave a Cyberman on guard, unless it's a Cyberthing in the box."
"But why would they lock up one of their own?" Thea countered, crossing her arms.
"No," he sighed, "not a Cyberthing, but what? What? No, I'm missing something obvious, Rory. Something big. Something right slap in front of me. I can feel it."
"Yeah, I think you probably are." Rory deadpanned.
"I'll get it in a minute." he waved off, walking away with the weapons.
Rory blinked, staring at Thea, starting to be a bit concerned for her safety and her future the more she stayed with him. "He can't be that oblivious, can he?"
"Apparently." Thea sighed, shaking her head, "3...2...1..." as soon as she counted down there was a crash and the Doctor walked back over, gunless, staring at Rory. "There is it."
The Doctor just continued to gape at Rory, poking the man in the chest, making him rock on his heels, exactly as Thea had done only moments ago.
"Hello again." he blinked.
"Hello." Rory greeted.
"How've you been?"
"Good. Yeah. Good. I mean, Roman."
"Rory, I'm not trying to be rude, but you died."
"Yeah, I know, I've just been through this with Thea. I was there."
"You died and then you were erased from time. You didn't just die, you were never born at all. You never existed."
"Don't really know what that means."
"How can you be here?" he frowned.
"I don't know." he shook his head, "It's kind of fuzzy."
"Fuzzy?"
"Well, I died and turned into a Roman. It's very distracting."
"Trap." Thea called.
The Doctor turned to her sharply, "what?"
"Not sure." she frowned, circling Rory again, "i'll admit its suspicious."
The Doctor nodded, scanning Rory but picking up no traces, "You know when Thea think you could be a trap, I have to listen."
"Always listen to a psychic." Rory agreed.
"Exactly." he nodded only to stiffen, seeing Thea trying to sneak back upstairs, "wait? You knew?" he spun to the girl, "he knew?"
She spun to face him, sheepish, "yes?"
"You told him but not me?" he exclaimed.
That hurt him very much, how she had told him her deep little secret but hadn't told him. She didn't feel safe enough to tell him that apparently, but she trusted Rory. That hurt a lot. He wanted her to be able to talk to him about anything that was bothering her. It was just the two of them, I wasn't like he was going to kick her out of the TARDIS just because they disagreed on something.
"You found out the same day." she defended quietly.
She hadn't known how to tell the Doctor which was why she brought up Gallifrey and then stormed off and found Rory, he saw she was a bit upset and asked her what was wrong and she just blabbered on and he listened, no judgement on his half, offering to try and bring up to the man himself once they'd dealt with the Silurians but he had been erased from time before that happened.
That sucked.
"Did she miss me?"
Thea was entirely grateful that Rory was still there, cutting them off as he looked down at the unconscious Amy in his arms.
"Yes." Thea told him. Wanting him to know that. Despite he never existed, and Amy never met him, she did still miss him, all those times she caught Amy vaguely knowing something was missing.
There was a whoosh and rumbling from the other room before either Time Lord to explain to Rory that Amy did not remember him. They ran into the room with the Pandorica, seeing the pattern of the sides starting to glow green. the Doctor moved closer, scanning it.
"What is it?" Rory asked, "what's happening?"
The Doctor checked the sonics readings, "the final phase. Its opening." the communicator River left him beeped and he pulled it out, answering it.
"You're surrounded." River called, "Have you got a plan?"
"Yes. Now hurry up and get the TARDIS here. I need equipment."
"Do your eyes hurt from rolling them that much?" Thea wondered.
"What?" the Doctor turned to her, but River answered.
"Terribly."
Thea laughed at her, "be careful."
"Yes, Ma'am." River chuckled before cutting off the comm.
"What are you?" the Doctor murmured as he examined the Pandorica, "They're all here, all of them, all for you. What could you possibly be?"
"They're all here for it." Thea breathed, hearing the ships above them.
The Doctor nodded, flashing the sonic over the comm heading up the stairs again, dropping the comm, "Sorry, sorry, dropped it..." he called, picking it up again and speaking to the ships, "Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe. But bad news, everyone," he jumped on the largest stone, "because guess who? Ha! Listen, you lot, you're all whizzing about. It's really very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I AM TALKING!"
The bit her lip in excitement, absolutely loving how all the ships still at his command.
"The question of the hour is: who's got the Pandorica? Answer, I do. Next question. Who's coming to take it from me? Come on! Look at me!" he held his arms out, "No plan, no back up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else. I don't have anything to lose! So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, and then, do the smart thing." he grinned, "Let somebody else try first."
He held his arms wide daring for them to start attacking...only for the ships to retreat.
He smirked jumping back down, tossing the comm to Thea, "That'll keep them squabbling for half an hour!"
"That was so..." She shook her head.
"Impressive." the Doctor beamed, "brilliant. Amazing. Spectacular."
"Easy." she said, laughing as he pouted, "please, teach me how to do that."
"Maybe when you're older." he told her as it was her turn to pout as they headed back down to the cavern with the Pandorica.
"They're still out there." Rory remarked, "What do we do now?"
"If I can stop whatever's in this box getting out, then they'll go home."
"Right." he nodded, only to frown seeing Thea with a sad expression on his face, "what's wrong?"
The Doctor followed her gaze, seeing Amy awake again, "Rory, I'm sorry. You're going to have to be very brave now." he warned as Amy walked right past him, rubbing her head.
"Oh, my head." she groaned.
"Stay still." Thea ran Rivers scanner over, "you're fine, basic knock-out drops. Get some fresh air, and drink water."
"Is it safe up there?" Amy asked.
"Not remotely," the Doctor answered, "but it's fresh."
"Fine." she turned, only to nearly run into Rory, "Oh, you're the guy, yeah? The one who did the swordy thing."
"Yeah." Rory's face fell seeing her look right through him.
"Well, thanks for the swording. Nice swording." she patted his shoulder, walking off.
"No problem. My men are up there. They'll look after you."
"Good. Love a Roman."
"She doesn't remember me." Rory breathed, "How can she not remember me?"
"Because you never existed." the Doctor told him.
"But you said she missed me." Rory turned to Thea accusingly.
"She did." she insisted, "she does...she just...she doesn't remember that she does." she sighed, "that made more sense in my head."
"There are cracks." the Doctor explained, "Cracks in time. There's going to be a huge explosion in the future, on one particular day. And every other moment in history is cracking around it."
"So how does that work?" Rory shook his head, "what kind of explosion? What exploded?"
"A big one." Thea told him, honestly, "the TARDIS, possibly. Maybe...probably. Not sure how."
"And that caused the cracks?" Rory tried to follow, "and I fell through one and now I was never born?"
"Basically." the Doctor nodded.
"Well, how did I end up here?"
"I don't know, you shouldn't have. What happened? From your point of view, what physically happened?"
"I was in the cave, with you two and Amy. I was dying, and then I was just here, a Roman soldier. A proper Roman. Head full of Roman stuff. A whole other life, just here like I'd woken up from a dream. I started to think it was a dream, Time Lords and Amy and Leadworth. And then today, in the camp, the men were talking about the visitors. The two girls with the red hair. I thought you'd come back for me. But she can't even remember me."
"Oh, shut up." the Doctor smiled, tossing him the ring box that Amy gave back. "Go get her."
"But I don't understand." he frowned, "Why am I here?"
"Because you are." The Doctor shrugged, "The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous, and sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen, and we call them miracles, and that's the theory. 900 years, never seen one yet, but this would do me. Now get upstairs. She's Amy and she's surrounded by Romans. I'm not sure history can take it."
"Go get your girl, centurion!" Thea cheered him on. The Doctor clapped him on the back as he turned to head out. "Maybe that's why he's here..." Thea murmured, watching him leave.
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked her.
"Maybe the universe knows Amy and Rory were meant to be together and not even death can part that."
"That would be nice." he laughed.
~.~
Thea picked up the comm as the Doctor frantically scanned the Pandorica trying to figure out what was inside, knowing the time was almost up. The ships would return soon.
"River, what's wrong?" she asked.
"One day someone's going to surprise the hell out of you," River huffed, "and it'll be the best day ever."
"The TARDIS, where is it?" the Doctor called, "tell her to hurry up."
"He wants to know what's taking so long." Thea repeated for him.
"That's not important right now." River said quietly, "don't raise your voice, don't look alarmed. Just listen." Thea looked over to the Romans Rory had ordered to keep guard. She shuffled closer to the Doctor so he could listen in, "They're not real. They can't be. They're all right here in the story book. Those actual Romans. The ones I sent you, the ones you're with right now. They're all in a book in Amy's house. A children's picture book."
"What are you even doing there?" the Doctor hissed.
"It doesn't matter." she quickly waved off, "The TARDIS went wrong. How is this possible?"
"Something's using her memories." the Doctor realised, "Amy's memories."
"But how?"
"You said something had been there." Thea said, "any landing patterns."
"Yes, there's burn marks on the grass outside." River replied, "but I don't recognise them."
"If somethings been to her house, they could have used her psychic residue." the Doctor reasoned, "Structures can hold memories, that's why houses have ghosts. They could've taken a snapshot of Amy's memories. But why?"
"So, who are those Romans?" River questioned.
"Projections, or duplicates." he suggested.
"Autons?" Thea guessed.
"But they were helping us." River remarked, "My lipstick even worked."
"They might think they're real." the Doctor tried to reason, "The perfect disguise. They actually believe their own cover story, right until they're activated."
"Doctor, Thea, that Centurion..." River began.
"Rory?" Thea frowned, glancing to the stairs where Amy was surrounded by roman soldiers, including Rory. That was most certainly Rory, it had to be, she knew that was Rory, and Rory would never dare do anything that may cause any harm to Amy. He was Rory Williams!
"It's a trap. It has to be." River determined, "They used Amy to construct a scenario you'd believe, to get close to you."
"But why?" Thea shook her head, unable to stop the feeling that she should go outside with Amy...just in case.
"Who'd do that?" the Doctor agreed, "What for? It doesn't make sense..." there was a shudder, and they heard the console sparking, "River? River!"
"Are you alright?" Thea called, "what's happening?"
"I don't know." River gasped, "It's the engines. There's something wrong with the TARDIS, like something else is controlling it."
"You're flying it wrong." The Doctor reasoned.
"I'm flying it perfectly. Thea taught me."
"Have you read the manual?" Thea asked.
"Of course I have." she snapped, "I'm not the Doctor!"
"Oi!" the Doctor cried, but they didn't waste time arguing over who could pilot better, "Where are you? What's the date reading?"
"It's the 26th of June, 2010."
"Amy's time." Thea breathed.
The Doctors eyes widened, "You need to get out of there now. Any other time zone. Just go."
"I can't break free." River exclaimed.
"Shut her down!" Thea instructed, "shut everything down. The emergency protocols with start and land somewhere safe."
"I can't! I tried! Someone else is flying it. An external force. I've lost control."
"But how?" The Doctor shook his head, "Why?"
Both Time Lords suddenly covered their ears with the hands at the high pitch whine. Neither noticed the Romans bending forwards at the waist.
The Doctor snatched the comm from Thea, "Listen to me, just land her anywhere." the Doctor ordered River "Emergency landing, now. There are cracks in time. I've seen them everywhere, and they're getting wider. The TARDIS exploding is what causes them, but we can stop the cracks ever happening if you just land her."
"It's not safe!" River huffed.
"Doctor..." Thea breathed, slowly turning to the Pandorica, staring at it as it slowly began to open, the ends sliding away from each other.
The Doctor stared at it as a bright light shone from inside, "Well, now. Ready to come out, are we?"
River shouted back down the comm, "I'm down. I've landed."
"Okay, just walk out of the doors." the Doctor said, "If there's no one inside, the TARDIS engines shut down automatically. Just get out of there."
"I'm going."
"Run!"
"Something wrong!" Thea gasped, spinning to see the Romans advancing on them, faces blank guns sticking out from their hands.
"Doctor, I can't open the doors!" River shouted.
"Rory!" Thea cried, ducking under the Romans and running to the stairs, dodging the Doctor as he tried to hold her back only to get yanked back by a roman at the bottom of the steps, holding her still, hands behind her back as she struggled.
"Autons," Thea huffed, seeing the Romans weren't causing no harm, just keeping her still. Ph, she had guessed Autons and she had been right but they'd all completely over looked that feeling.
"Doctor, I can't open the doors!" River cut in, "Thea, please, I've got seconds!"
The Doctor dropped the comm as two other Romans grabbed hold of him, "Plastic Romans," he muttered, "duplicates, driven by the Nestene Consciousness, eh? Deep cover, but what for? What are you doing?" he demanded, "What's in there, eh? What's coming out?"
The Nestene duplicates all faced the Pandorica, keeping Thea to the back of the room, "The Pandorica is ready." one announced.
"What, do you mean it's open?" the Doctor looked at it.
"You have been scanned," a metallic voice spoke, the white Dalek teleporting into the room, the red and yellow on either side of it, "assessed, understood, Doctor."
"Scanned?" he frowned, "Scanned by what, a box?"
"Your limits and capacities have been extrapolated." Another enemy stated, a Cyberman beaming into the room.
Thea swallowed, keeping quiet against the duplicates holding her, as more enemies beamed down into the room, Sontarans, Judoon, Silurians, and more.
"The Pandorica is ready." A Sontarian spoke.
"Ready for what?" the Doctor demanded, keeping the attention on him. So far none of his enemies seemed to have noticed Thea, besides the Autons hold on her. Good. Hopefully they won't trying to hurt her, very few of his enemies were aware of her. Very few people even scanned for Time Lords, they knew him, but very few knew about her. And why would they, as far as the universe knew he was the Last of the Time Lords.
"Ready for you." the white Dalek announced.
The Doctor struggled as the soldiers holding him began to drag him closer to the Pandorica, from the corner of his eyes, he saw Thea struggle. Shaking his head, silently telling her not to make a noise, they hadn't noticed her yet, please let it stay that way.
He grunted as he was thrown into the chair inside the Pandorica, clamps keeping him in place, restricts strapping his wrists and ankles in place.
He looked at all his enemies, craning his neck to try and see Thea amongst them, but he couldn't, she was too far back and so small, he couldn't see her amongst them. "You lot," he stared at them, "working together. An alliance. How is that possible?"
"The cracks in the skin of the universe." the white Dalek stated.
"All reality is threatened." the Sontaran added.
"All universes will be deleted." the Cyberman continued.
"What?" the Doctor scoffed, "And you've come to me for help?"
"No." the Sontaran sneered, "We will save the universe from you!"
"From me?" the Doctor gaped, recalling Thea words from earlier.
"All projections correlate." the Cyberman agreed, "All evidence concurs. The Doctor will destroy the universe."
"No, no, no." the Doctor insisted, "You've got it wrong."
"The Pandorica was constructed to ensure the safety of the Alliance."
"A scenario was devised from the memories of your companion." the white Dalek said.
"A trap the Doctor could not resist." the Sontaran nodded.
"The cracks in time are the work of the Doctor. It is confirmed."
"No." the Doctor struggled against the restraints, "no, no, not me, the TARDIS. And I'm not in the TARDIS, am I?"
Thea glanced down to the comm on the ground before the Pandorica, he wasn't in the TARDIS, but River was.
"Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS."
"Please, listen to me!" the Doctor shouted.
"You will be prevented."
"Total event collapse! Every sun will supernova at every moment in history. The whole universe will never have existed. Please, listen to me!"
"Seal the Pandorica." the Cyberman ordered.
"No! Please, listen to me! The TARDIS is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it! Listen to me!"
Thea could only watch in silence, so not to draw attention to herself as the Pandorica closed, sealing the Doctor inside.