"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick." The Doctor informed Amy glancing over his shoulder seeing the redhead lightly coughing after waking up. The Stone stood by the Doctor who was scanning the door with his sonic.

"Where are we?" Amy asked between coughs while wiping her face.

"Overspill pipe, at a guess." The Stone replied.

"Oh, God, it stinks." She gagged.

"Oh, that's not the pipe." The Doctor flatly informed her.

"Oh." Amy blinked smelling herself. "Phew. Can we get out?"

"One door, one door switch, one condition." The Doctor said flashing a control panel nearby. "We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?" he stepped aside as a forget button lit up.

"That's the carrot." He said turn spun around seeing two of the smiler booths light up.

"Ooo, here's the stick." The Stone grinned slipping her arm into the Doctors walking with him up to the booths. "There's a creature living in the heart of this ship."

"What's it doing there?" The Doctor finished. The heads of the smilers slowly turned to the frowning faces.

"No, that's not going to work on us." The Doctor shook his head at them. "So come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?" He asked then watched as the frowning faces turned to scowling faces,

"Oh, stop it." The Stone rolled her eyes. "We're not leaving and we're not forgetting.

"And what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?" The Doctor mocked only to blink and slowly step back pulling the Time Lady with him as the booth doors opened as the smilers stepped out.

"Doctor, Stone?" Amy worryingly looked between them not knowing what to do. The three blinked when Liz Ten stepped between the three and shot at both the Smilers making them fall to the ground.

"Look who it is." The Stone blinked at the woman. "Glad to know you do actually have a real face and you're not like one of those" She joked nodded at the Smilers on the floor.

"You must be Amy." Liz beamed at the redhead after nodded at the Time Lady then held out her hand to shake with Amy. "Liz. Liz Ten."

"Hi." Amy shook her hand only for Liz to quickly take hers back wiping the sick onto her clothes. "Yuck. Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick." She then wrapped an arm around Mandy's shoulder who seemed to have went with her. "You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave."

"How did you find us?" The Doctor questioned.

"Tracker." The Stone rolled her eyes at him bringing out the device as he blinked at her. ""Don't look at me like that sweetheart." She chuckled. "The high council had me making things like this for years, well they tried to make me ones to find you one time but it never worked." She laughed. "They thought I was stupid. Did they learn nothing from my cousin." She snorted.

"You do have an ego at times dear." He fondly shook his head at her.

"Not as big as yours, however, sweetheart." She softly smiled patting his cheek teasingly before she looked at Liz.

"I've been listening in." The woman nodded at the Stone then at both Time Lords. "Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it." The Doctor said while the Stone slowly shook her head. He definitely didn't see all the clues at times. It was a good job she was with him.

"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know us?" The Doctor asked narrowing his eyes a little.

"Sweetheart you really don't know do you?" She asked as he looked at her blinking.

"You know who she is?" He asked.

"Oh, he will figure it out." She sighed patting his shoulder. "Sorry, Liz." She sent the woman an apologetic look. "He only just regenerated not long ago." She then raised a hand trying to tease the Doctor even more by holding it so he couldn't read her lips while whispering. "He's a little slow."

"I am not slow!" He looked at her offended.

"Of course not sweetheart." She kissed his cheek then turned to Liz mouthing 'Yeah he is.' only to tease the Time Lord even more. She found teasing him to be quite hilarious when he got so defensive and in denial in this regeneration. Something she knew she would end up doing a lot.

Liz glanced at him raising a brow trying to help the Doctor understand who she exactly was. "You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence..." He smugly looked at the Stone tweaking his bowtie. "...hair of an idiot." His face fell and the Stone snorted while the Doctor ran a hand through his wet hair making it go straight backwards while the Stone swallowed not wanting to admit that the look did look good on him. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."

"Your family?" He frowned.

There was a quiet buzzing and Liz glanced round the Time Lords to see the Smilers twitching. "They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move." She gestured them to follow. The Time Lords oblidged following Liz out with Amy behind them.

"The Doctor and the Stone. Old drinking buddies of Henry Twelve. He tried to marry you." Liz nodded at the Stone who grumbled a little remembering having to get the Doctor to help convince the king not to propose to the Time Lady. "...Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she?" Liz looked at the Doctor. "...Knighted and exiled you on the same day, but not the Stone." She raised a brow at the blonde.

"You could say I was another species back then..." She muttered then lowered her voice. "...literally."

"And so much for the virgin Queen." Liz looked over at the Doctor who shifted a little uncomfortably. "Must have been weird seeing her marry your husband not just before you married him yourself." She looked at the Time Lady.

"She did dislike me for an odd reason... whether it was because she knew I was already engaged to him... and he did tell her that he wouldn't be coming back."

"And nothing did ever happen between us no matter what people tell you." The Doctor huffed then blinked. "Liz Ten." The Doctor mumbled before his eyes widened in realisation.

"Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth." She nodded. "And down!" Liz shouted shooting the Smilers with a gun in both hands just after the three ducked.

Holding her guns in the air she smugly looked down at the Doctor. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule."

"I'm not denying it." The Stone laughed impressed. Not that she would ever, ever hold a gun after what happened to her family and entire planet. But she couldn't deny that it was impressive.

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The five walked through a corridor while Liz explained to them different parts of the ship as they wondered. "There's a high-speed Vator through there." She pointed in a direction then stopped beside a grating looking at a couple of tentacles hitting at it. "Oh, yeah. There's these things." She frowned not having a clue of what they were she glanced at the Time Lords. "Any ideas?"

"Doctor, Stone, I saw one of these up top." Amy said looking at them both. "There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root."

"Exactly like a root." The Doctor slowly nodded. "It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship."

"What, like an infestation?" Liz looked at him. "Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving."

The Doctor gently took the Stones hand seeing the slight pain in her eye. He gently rested his head on the grate beside hers. "You okay dear?" He softly asked closing his eyes and deeply breathing in feeling her head beside his.

"Yeah..." she sighed a little tilting her head a little amd opening her eyes a little to star into his. "I"ll be okay, Theta."

"Haven't called me that in a while." He chuckled.

"I came up with a better name for you a while ago." She softly smiled at him then looked at the tentacles once more. She felt the Doctors hand tighten around her gently squeezing then heard Amy walking up to them.

"Doctor, Stone?" She asked sounding a little worried.

"Oh, Amy." The Doctor murmured. "We should never have come here."

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The Doctor frowned carefully stepping through the group of multiple glasses filled with water on the floor. "Why all the glasses?"

"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what." Liz explained sitting on the bed of her room.

"A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?" The Stone questioned slowly nodded out of bring impressed. She had done something of the sort when she was on the high council once a long time ago way before her or the Doctor properly planned running away from Gallifrey.

"Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you two have achieved more in one afternoon." She replied looking between the Doctor and the Stone.

The Time Lord frowned a little picking up and admiring the queens white mask that looked a little worn and dirty. "How old were you when you came to the throne?"

"Forty. Why?" She frowned not seeing how the question linked to any of this. The Stone watched the Doctor clearly seeing the link herself seeing the Doctors eyes focus on the worn and dirty parts of the mask.

"What, you're fifty now?" Amy looked at her a little shocked, then again she did look around her late twentys. The Time Lady couldn't wait until she found out about her and the Doctor being nine hundred years old. "No way."

"Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps."

"And you always wear this in public?" The Doctor asked holding up the mask.

"Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting."

"Air-balanced porcelain." The Stone hummed while the Doctor held the mask up to LIz' face. "Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face."

"Yeah? So what?"

The Doctor lowered the mask. "Oh, Liz. So everything."

They all looked up at the entrance as a group of men in black robe like clothes walked in. Liz frowned at them. "What are you doing?" She then stood up. " How dare you come in here?"

"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK." One of the men stated. "You will come with us now."

"Why would I do that?" She questioned standing in front of him and other man. The men in robes heads slowly turned showing scolding faces.

Amy's eyes widened and she whispered to the Time Lords. "How can they be Smilers?"

The Doctor watched as the faces turned. "Half Smiler..."

"...half human. The Stone finished.

"Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?"

"The highest authority, Ma'am."

"I am the highest authority." She stated stepping closer to the scolding face.

"Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am."

"Where?"

"The Tower, Ma'am."

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They entered the tower and the Stones hearts sank at the sight knowing exactly what was happending. Why she stared at the gun like device above a round hole most likely exposing the brain of the creature abling the ship to fire something at the creature to scare it into moving Amy stared down at a grating where multiple of the tenticles were bashing against it with what looked like scorpian stingers at the end. "Doctor, Stone, where are we?" The redhead asked.

"The lowest point of Starship UK." The Doctor stated.

"The dungeon."

"Ma'am." An older man gained Liz' attention making her turn to him with slightly wide eyes.

"Hawthorne. So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do."

The Stone frowned turning her head to see a group of children walking in a line through a group of doors. "There's children down here. What's all that about?"

"Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast." Hawthorne explained. "For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky."

"Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky." The Doctor sarcastically said then walked towards the hole with the Stone beside him. "Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is."

"Except it isn't." The Stone cut in her hearts aching at what she wished wasn't correct when she guessed before. "Depends on your angle." She murmured seeing the pulsing brain below.

"What's that?" Liz asked peering down at it.

"Well, like the Stone said, it depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly."

"Or?" Liz raised a brow hearing the word 'either' somewhere in that sentence.

"Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button."

"I don't understand." She frowned at him.

"Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving." He slowly made his way over to one of the gratings. "Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear." He then soniced the grating allowing a tentacle to push through. He then flashed his sonic at it again allowing a ear aching screaming noise around them.

They listened in horror before Liz held her head in her hands. "Stop it!" She demanded. "Who did this?"

"We act on instructions from the highest authority."

"I am the highest authority." Liz snapped at him. "The creature will be released, now." The Stone pulled the mask out of her pocket gently brushing off some of the dirt. "I said now!" She snapper growing angrier when Hawthorne or any of the others did not more. "Is anyone listening to me?"

"Liz." The Stone softly said looking at the woman. "Your mask."

"What about my mask?" She frowned.

The Stone then tossed it to the woman. "Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say."

"Yeah?" She frowned glancing at the mask then the Time Lady. "It's an antique. So?"

"Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face." The Doctor cut in. "They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign."

"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years."

"Ten years." The Doctor nodded slowly walking over to the monitor with the two buttons. "And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here." He said leaning against the machine with one hand the other wrapped around the Stone.

Liz' eyes widend looking at Hawthorne with distrust and horror. "What have you done?"

"Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am." He replied in a calm voice. "The Winders, the Smilers, all of us." He then pressed a button and a calm Liz appeared on screen, her eyes showing hurt and looking very heartbroken.

"If you are watching this. If I am watching this." The onscreen Liz sighed. "Then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them." She explained over the images that switched showing the creature. "They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind." The Stones hearts dropped even further. She glanced up at the Doctor as he did the same back down at her planting a kiss on her forehead then rested his head on hers. "And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision."

Amy swallowed thickly tears brimming in her eyes as she looked at the Time Lords. "I voted for this. Why would I do that?"

"Because you knew if we stayed here, I- we." He corrected as he felt the Stones' hand gently squeeze his. "We'll be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save us from that. And that was wrong." He quietly growled becoming more angry. She had hurt the Stone and that hurt him. "You don't ever decide what we need to know."

"I don't even remember doing it." She protested as the Doctor turned away from her.

"You did it." He glared over his shoulder. "That's what counts."

"I'm, I'm sorry."

"Oh, I don't care." He snapped. "When we're done here, you're going home."

"Why? Because I made a mistake? One mistake?" She asked getting louder. "I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!" She shouted then blinked when he walked off. "Stone?" She looked at the Time Lady who slowly shook her head.

"He's right." She said in a much softer tone than her husband. "You can't decide what we need to know Amy." She looked at the ground not wanting to look at the human woman. She wasn't disappointed but rather hurt. Hurt that she didn't wait for them to find her so they could decide what to do. She tried to keep a secret from them. With the life they lived secrets like this got people hurt. "I'm sorry Amelia but you can't stay with us."

"But one mistake."

"Yeah, I know." The Doctor firmly cut across glaring at her. The Stone said her bit calmly without breaking down leaving only anger in its wake. "You're only human." He said coldly while fiddling with the controls for the device above the brain.

"What are you doing?" Liz frowned watching him and the Stone who slowly made her way over to help him.

"The worst thing we'll ever do." The Stone swallowed thickly.

"We're going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it."

"That'll be like killing it." Amy gasped at them both.

"Look, three options." The Doctor looked up at her tears now in his eyes. "One, we let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, we kill everyone on this ship. Three, we murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as we can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more."

"Neither will I be the Stone, it could fit to show my cold heart, but that wasn't really why I picked this name." She sighed running a hand down her face. "I wouldn't be the Stone."

"There must be something we can do, some other way." Liz asked them.

"Nobody talk to me!" The Doctor shouted briefly pausing as his eyes finding the Stones, seeing the sadness in her eyes. "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" He growled correcting himself looking at the humans before he pulled the Stone into a hug. "I'm sorry." He telepathically whispered to her while Amy and Mandy went over to sit against a wall. "I can do this. You don't have to."

"Oh sweetheart." She softly murmured into his mind. "When we united I wasn't just promising to be with you forever I also promised myself to stay by your side forever, anything you have to do I do with you." She sighed hiding her face in his neck. "No matter how much it hurts."

"Together." He slowly nodded placing a kiss on her cheek then taking her hand. He glanced at Amy from the corner of his eye as they grew cold again remembering that she chosen this for them. For his wife, his Stone. Not even he would dare choose anything for her and yet Amy Pond did. He moved around the machinery with the Doctor flashing his sonic at it and fiddling with the wires as the Stone did the same.

"Timmy! You made it, you're okay." The Stone turned her head seeing Mandy jump up from where she was sitting her eyes filled with slight happiness. 'Was this why she was upset?' The blonde thought. "It's me, Mandy." She said following the boy. The Stone looked in alarm seeing a tentacle fly up behind Mandy before it gently tapped the girl on the shoulder. Turning around Mandy smiled and stroked it. The Stone blinked in realisation and then saw the same look in Amy's eyes. 'Clever Amy...' She thought curiously watching the redhead seeing what she was going to do about it.

"Doctor, Stone, stop!" Amy shouted running over to them. "Whatever you're doing, stop it now!" The Doctor frowned as the corner of the Stone's mouth twitched up a little seeing the redheads eyes flicker to Liz. She knew the Doctor wasn't going to listen he was angry at her, so Amy made him listen. "Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand." She dragged Liz over to the voting buttons.

"Amy, no! No!" The Doctor shouted going to stop her. The Stone grabbed his arm stopping him as Amy pushed Liz' hand on the Abdicate button. The whale then roared and the ship shook. "Amy, what have you done?" The Doctor looked at her in horror.

"She hasn't done anything, nothing at all." The Stone said softly looking at the redhead who blinked at her. "Hawthorne is she right?"

"We've increased speed." He looked over at the blonde baffulled.

"Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot." Amy laughed. "Got to help."

"It's still here." Liz gasped after looking down at the gap to see the brain. "I don't understand."

"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry." Amy said then looked between the Time Lords the Stone proudly smiling while the Doctor looked confused. "What if you were really old, and really kind and alone?" She asked while the Stone slipped her hand in the Doctors locking their fingers together. "Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

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The Doctor stood on the observion deck looking through the large glass window looking out at the city. The Stone stood beside him her head rested on his shoulder.

Amy walked up to them both standing beside the Doctor holding out Liz' mask. "From Her Majesty. She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK."

The Doctor reluctantly took the mask looking at her. "Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship."

"You could have killed a Star Whale." She countered.

"And you saved it." He slowly nodded. "I know, I know."

"And you knew." Amy looked past the Doctor at the Stone. "But you didn't say anything about it?" She raised a brow at the Time Lady.  "You were going to kill it."

"I knew that you realised." She explained. "I wanted to see you redeem yourself after deciding for us. If I stepped in the Doctor would definitely be taking you home, you're his companion not mine. I don't get the final say in it." She said raising her brows. "Even if I did put up a fight. I wanted to see what you would do."

"And?" She questioned wondering what the Time Lady thought.

"You did pretty well, you knew he wasn't going to take you telling him to stop as an answer." She chuckled. "Clearly you can see how stubbon he can be at times." She joked making the Doctors lip twitch a little in her amusement.

"Amazing though, don't you think?" Amy went on to ask looking between them. "The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."

"But you couldn't have known how it would react."

"Neither could the Stone." She countered knowing he wouldn't say anything about her. After not knowing him that long even when she saw him when she was seven years old she knew that he wouldn't say anything against her in a time like this because she would win. "You also couldn't." She added. "But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?" She looked at him.

"How could you see it then?" The Doctor frowned at the Stone.

"Sweetheart." She smirked at him. "You're just a little slow."

"I am not slow." He groaned pouting at her.

"Yes you are, don't deny it." She laughed shaking her head at him and wrapping an arm around his shoulder hugging him. "Come here Amy." She ordered making the redhead blink while she shifted standing beside the blonde only for her to be pulled in by the Time Lady who wrapped an arm around her shoulder making them have a group hug.

"Hey." Amy looked at the Doctor.

"What?" he frowned.

"Gotcha." She laughed

"Huh." he laughed. "Gotcha."

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"Shouldn't we say goodbye?" Amy asked catching up with the Time Lords whose arms were linked strolling back to the TARDIS. "Won't they wonder where we went?"

"For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write. Never mind them." The Doctor waved off. "Big day tomorrow."

"Sorry, what?" She blinked stopping.

"Well, it's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine." He grinned. "I skip the little ones."

"We find them boring." The Stone shrugged. "Why do boring stuff when you can see what's out there." She smiled. "A friend taught me that."

"A friend?" The Doctor looked at her. "Your friend will be disappointed."

"My best friend." She rolled her eyes correcting herself. "and my husband."

"There we go." he grinned kissing her.

"You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning?" Amy questioned shifting on the balls of her feet. "Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just, just because you could?"

"Once, a long time ago." The Doctor smiled a little his eyes glancing at the Time Lady beside him who looked back smiling almost swearing that for a moment she could see the same smile plastered on his face that he wore in his first body when they ran away or the smile he had when they got married.

"What happened?"

The Stone smiled when the Doctor raised his hand showing the back of it and wiggled his fingers. The Stone did the same before he took her hand gently kissing the back of it where her rings were. "Hello."

"Hello." She chuckled back at him.

"Right." Amy slowly nodded at them clearly understand that they were both meaning their marriage. The Time Lady smirked a little seeing the look on Amy's face knowing what she was thinking of. The Stone and the Doctor knew it was much more than that. They both thought of three days. The day they met, the day they ran away from Gallifrey together and the day they married each other. "Doctor, Stone, there's something I haven't told you both." Amy said as the Doctor went to unlock the TARDIS before she frowned hearing a phone. "No, hang on. Is that a phone ringing?"

The Stone laughed a little as the Doctor allowed her to first step inside. She ran up to the console while the Doctor followed, the two of them pressing buttons and other controls.

"People phone you?" She frowned looking between them.

"Well, it's a phone box." The Stone shrugged.

"Would you mind?" The Doctor asked nodding at the ringing phone.

Amy nodded and answered the phone. "Hello?" She then frowned. "Sorry, who? No, seriously, who?" She said her eyes widening. She took the phone from her ear and whispered to them. "Says he's the Prime Minister. First the Queen, now the Prime Minister. Get about, don't you?" She asked.

"Which Prime Minister?" The Doctor asked.

"Er, which Prime Minister?" Amy questioned. "The British one."

"Narrows it down." The Stone sighed. "Which British one?"

"Which British one?" Amy asked before her eyes widened further handing the phone to the Time lady. "Winston Churchill for you two."

"Oh! Hello, Churchill." The Stone said into the phone as the Doctor tried to listen in. "What's up?"

"Tricky situation, Stone. Potentially very dangerous." He said. "I think I'm going to need you and the Doctor."

"Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister." The Doctor said only to get hit on the back of the head and a point of the finger by the Stone before she pointed at the phone in her hand.

"We're on our way." The Stone replied the annoyed look washed completely off her face. The Doctor gave her a sheepish look and pulled a lever.