They made it to the laboratory and the Doctor sealed the door. "Elliot, you and your dad keep your eyes on that screen. Let me know if we get company". The Doctor tossed the stopwatch to Amy. "Amy, keep reminding me how much time I haven't got".

"Okay. Um, er, twelve minutes till drill impact", Amy told him.

The Doctor walked up to Tony. "Tony Mack. Sweaty forehead, dilated pupils. What are you hiding?"

Tony opened his shirt to reveal green veins crawling up his neck.

"Tony, what happened?" Nasreen asked.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pressed it to the veins, scanning them.

"Alaya's sting. She said there's no cure. I'm dying, aren't I?" Tony asked.

The Doctor transferred the results to the machine in front of him. "You're not dying, you're mutating".

"How can I stop it?"

"Decontamination program. Might work. Don't know. Eldane, can you run the program on Tony?" Eldane nodded and helped Tony into one of the decontamination pods.

"Doctor, shedload of those creatures coming our way. We're surrounded in here", Mo told him.

"So, question is, how we do stop the drill given we can't get there in time? Plus, also, how do we get out, given that we're surrounded? Nasreen, how do you feel about an energy pulse channeled up through the tunnels to the base of the drill?"

"To blow up my life's work?"

"Yes. Sorry. No nice way of putting that".

"Right, well, you're going to have to do it before the drill hits the city, in..."

"Eleven minutes forty seconds", Amy supplied.

"Yes. Squeaky bum time!" the Doctor said, running over to the controls.

"Yes, but the explosion is going to cave in all the surrounding tunnels, so we have to be out and on the surface by then", Nasreen told him.

"But we can't get past Restac's troops", Rory reminded them.

"I can help with that. Toxic Fumigation. An emergency failsafe meant to protect my species from infection. A warning signal to occupy cryo-chambers. After that, citywide fumigation by toxic gas. Then the city shuts down", Eldane said.

The Doctor turned away from him and ran a hand through his hair.

"You could end up killing your own people", Amy told him.

"Only those foolish enough to follow Restac".

Elise walked over to the Doctor and took his hand in hers. He gave her a soft smile. She was so innocent and didn't understand. He was the one who had killed the Timelords. Her family. Her. He'd have to tell her eventually.

"Eldane, are you sure about this?" he asked. Someone else was about to make the same decision he did.

"My priority is my race's survival. The Earth isn't ready for us to return yet".

"No".

"Ten minutes, Doctor", Amy told him.

"But maybe it should be. So, here's a deal. Everybody listening. Eldane, you activate shutdown. I'll amend the system, set your alarm for a thousand years time. A thousand years to sort the planet out. To be ready. Pass it on. As legend, or prophesy, or religion, but somehow make it known. This planet is to be shared".

"Yeah. I get you", Elliot told him.

"Nine minutes, seven seconds", Amy said.

The Doctor rushed over to the controls. "Yes. Fluid controls, my favorite. Energy pulse. Timed, primed and set. Before we go, energy barricade. Need to cancel it out quickly". He soniced the controls.

"Fumigation pre-launching", Eldane said.

"There's not much time for us to get from here to the surface, Doctor", Rory told him.

"Ah ha, super-squeaky bum time. Get ready to run for your lives. Now".

"But the decontamination program on your friend hasn't started yet", Eldane said.

"Well, go. All of you, go", Tony told them.

"No, we're not leaving you here", Ambrose said.

"Granddad!" Elliot yelled, running to him.

"Eight minutes ten seconds", Amy said.

The small family said their goodbyes as the toxic fumigation started.

Amy checked the screen. "They're going. We're clear".

"Okay, everyone follow Nasreen. Look for a blue box. Get ready to run", the Doctor told them. He soniced the door and it opened. "I'm sorry", the Doctor told Eldane.

"I thought for a moment, our race and the humans..."

"Yeah, me too".

"Doctor, we've got less than six minutes", Amy told him.

"Go. Go! I'm right behind you!"

Elise wanted to wait for her father, but Rory grabbed her arm.

"He's coming. Come on", he said.

Elise nodded and took Rory's hand as they ran for the TARDIS.

"Toxic fumigation is about to commence. Immediate evacuation".

They finally made it to the TARDIS and the Doctor unlocked the door. "No questions, just get in. And yes, I know, it's big. Ambrose, sickbay up the stairs, left, then left again, Get yourself fixed up".

Mo, Elliot, and Ambrose ran inside.

The Doctor turned and they saw a crack in the wall.

The one that had been following them around the universe.

"Not here. Not now. It's getting wider", the Doctor said.

"The crack on my bedroom wall".

"And the Byzantium. All through the universe, rips in the continuum. Some sort of space-time cataclysm. An explosion, maybe. Big enough to put cracks in the universe. But what?"

Amy checked the stopwatch. "Four minutes fifty. We have to go".

"The Angels laughed when I didn't know. Prisoner Zero knew. Everybody knows except me".

"Doctor, just leave it".

"But where there's an explosion, there's shrapnel". He pulled out a red handkerchief and ran over to the crack.

"Doctor, you can't put your hand in there!" Rory told him, holding Elise back.

"Why not?" The Doctor stuck his hand in the crack immediately cried out in pain.

Elise tried to run towards her father, but Amy grabbed her other arm.

"Argh. I've got something!" the Doctor yelled.

"What is it?" Amy asked.

He pulled his arm out, the piece of shrapnel in the handkerchief. "I don't know".

"Doctor?" Rory asked.

They turned and saw Restac crawling towards them.

"She was there when the gas started. She must have been poisoned", Amy said.

"You", Restac said, trying to lift her gun.

"Okay, get in the TARDIS, all three of you", the Doctor told them.

"You did this", Restac hissed. She raised her gun to shoot the Doctor.

"Doctor!" Rory yelled. He pushed the Doctor out of the way and got hit.

"Rory!" Amy screamed, dropping to her knees beside him.

The Doctor knelt on the other side of him. "Rory, can you hear me?" he asked.

"I don't understand", Rory said.

"Shush. Don't talk. Doctor, is he okay?" Amy asked, "We have to get him onto the TARDIS".

"We were on the hill. I can't die here".

Elise sat down next to her father and grabbed Rory's hand. "Rrrry", she said. It had been so long since she had spoken that she couldn't make her mouth form the rest of the letters. "Rrrry".

"Don't say that", Amy told him.

"You're so beautiful. I'm sorry".

With that, Rory took his last breath and stopped moving.

"Doctor, help him", Amy said.

The light from the crack crept towards Rory's feet.

"Amy, Elise, move away from the light. If it touches you, you'll be wiped from history. Amy, move away now", the Doctor told her.

"No! I am not leaving him! We have to help him!"

"The light's already around him. We can't help him".

"I am not leaving him".

"We have to".

"No!"

"I'm sorry". The Doctor grabbed Amy and pulled her away from Rory.

"Get off me!" Amy screamed through her tears.

The Doctor dragged Amy to the TARDIS, Elise following.

"No!" Amy yelled as the Doctor closed the door, sonicing the lock. Amy continued to scream as she pounded on the door. "No! No! No! No! Let me out. Please let me out. I need to get to Rory. That light. If his body's absorbed, I'll forget him. He'll never have existed. You can't let that happen".

The Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS engines started up.

Amy ran up to the platform. "What are you doing? Doctor, no! No! No! No!"

The Doctor grabbed the hysterical woman and pulled her away from the console. If the Doctor hadn't been so worried about Amy, he would have noticed how Elise was staring at the TARDIS door with a blank look on her face.

In the future, it would be something that frequently happened when she was unable to process what she was feeling. She would just space out until someone brought her back to the present.

The TARDIS landed roughly, knocking the three of them to the floor.

"What were you saying?" Amy asked.

Mo and Elliot came down the stairs. "I have seen some things today, but this is beyond mad", Mo said.

Amy grabbed the stopwatch. "Doctor. Five seconds till it all goes up".

They all ran outside in time to see the drilling machine explode.

"All Nasreen's work just erased", Amy said as they walked back to the church.

"Good thing she's not here to see it. She's going to give Tony hell when they wake up", Mo said.

Amy nudged Elise towards Elliot.

Elise walked up to the boy.

"You're going then?" Elliot asked.

Elise nodded.

"Do you think you'll ever come back?" he asked.

Elise shrugged.

"Goodbye then", he said. He leaned forward and kissed Elise on the cheek, causing the young Timelord to blush.

She walked back over to Amy who teased her, "Aww. Elise has a crush!"

The Doctor walked up to the two of them and picked Elise up. She nuzzled his neck with her face and grabbed onto his bowtie as they walked back to the TARDIS.

"You're very quiet", Amy told the Doctor.

Across the hill there stood only one figure, unlike earlier.

"Oh. Hey, look. There I am again. Hello, me", Amy said, waving. She then got very sad.

"Are you okay?" the Doctor asked.

"I thought I saw someone else there for a second. I need a holiday. Didn't we talk about Rio?"

The Doctor set Elise down. "You two go in. Just fix this lock. Keeps jamming", he said, pretending to have trouble opening the door.

"You boys and your locksmithery", Amy said, entering the TARDIS.

Elise looked at her father for a second. He was hiding something, but what, she didn't know.

"Go on", he told her.

She entered the TARDIS and went to her room, where she finally allowed herself to cry and mourn for Rory. She had just started to like him and now he was gone. She had many questions, but her number one was this: Would it always hurt like this?