A/N - ...my finger slipped. I thought I'd be nice and give you another chapter for being so nice and understanding.

"Please don't do this," Elise begged the Doctor.

"She's right. You don't have to be in there. We can do this remotely," Kate told him.

"Remotely isn't my style. See you after." He kissed his hand and hit Amy on the head.

Elise grabbed onto his jacket and silently begged him with her eyes not to do this. He took her hand in his and gave it a light squeeze before letting go.

He went inside the room as the number went down to two. He sat down and spun the cube. It went down to one and finally hit zero.

It switched off and opened up.

"What's happening?" Kate asked.

The Doctor peered inside the cube.

"Well? What's in there?" Amy asked.

"There is nothing in here," the Doctor said.

"Er, well, that's good. It's not, it's not bombs, it's not aliens."

"Why? Why is there nothing inside? Why? It doesn't make any sense." The Doctor came out of the small room and walked over to the researcher at the computer bay. "Glasses, is it the same? Is it the same all around the world?"

"They're empty," Kate said, "We're safe, right?"

"Ah, no, no, no, we are very far from safe. All along, every action has been deliberate. Why draw attention to the cubes if they don't contain anything?"

"Doctor, look," Amy said, looking at one of the screens.

People walking down the street grabbed their chests as they came near the cubes.

"They're CCTV feeds from across the world. They're showing the same," the researcher said.

Elise covered her mouth in horror as she watched the people die.

"People are dying," Kate said, shocked.

"What? They can't be dying. How? How are they dying?" the Doctor asked.

"I want information on how people are being affected."

"The cubes brought people close together. They opened and then..." The Doctor cried out in pain and grabbed his chest.

"Dad!" Elise said, rushing to his side.

"Doctor, what's the matter?" Amy asked.

The monitor started beeping.

"I don't know!"

"Hospitals are logging a global surge in heart failures. Cardiac arrests," the researcher explained.

"That's it." The Doctor cried out in pain, hitting himself on the chest. "Only one heart. Other one's not working."

"Okay, I'm going to get you to the hospital!" Amy yelled.

"Oh, no, no, no, no. Just a short circuit. Tell me, show me. Ten seconds after the cubes opened, show me the patterns in their electrical currents."

A heartbeat signature appeared on the screen.

"See?" the Doctor asked, "The power cut. They zapped the power and then..." The Doctor cried out in pain again. "They're signal boxes. People leaning in, wham. Pure electrical surge out of the cube targeted at the nearest human heart. The heart, an organ powered by electrical currents, short-circuited. How to destroy a human? Go for the heart. Ow. Crikey Moses."

"Doctor, the scan you set running. The transmitter locations. It's found them," Kate told him.

"And look at them all, pulsing bold as brass. Seven of them, all across the world." The Doctor hit himself on the chest again. "Seven stations, seven minutes. Why is that important?" The Doctor cried out in pain, grabbing his chest.

Elise wished she could help him.

"How do you people manage? One heart, it is pitiful," the Doctor snapped, "A wormhole, bridging two dimensions. Seven of them hitched onto this planet, but where's the closest one? Glasses, zoom in."

The program zoomed in before stopping.

"It's the hospital where Rory works," Amy said.

The Doctor lumbered down the hallway, leaning on Elise for support. "How many deaths have been recorded?" he asked Kate.

"We don't know. We think it could be a third of the population."

"Kate, I have to find the wormhole, but the attacks could still happen. Tell the world. Tell them how to deal with this. The world needs your leadership right now."

"I'll do my best."

"Of course you will. Good luck, Kate." The Doctor cried out in pain and stagger over to the wall to hold himself up.

"Okay, how long are you going to last with only one heart?" Amy asked.

"Not much longer. I need to locate the wormhole portal."

Elise pulled out her sonic screwdriver, scanning the area.

They walked past a little girl, who was throwing off odd signals. The girl's face glowed blue.

"Oh, my God," Amy said.

"Outlier droid, monitoring everything. If we shut her down, we can..."

Elise soniced her neck area and the girl went down.

The Doctor caught her and lowered her onto the ground. "It's all right, it's all right." The Doctor collapsed. "I can't, Amy. I can't do it. I need both hearts!"

Amy grabbed a defibrillator. "All right. Desperate measures."

"What? No. No, no, no. That won't work. I'm a Time Lord!"

Amy opened the Doctor's shirt and charged the defibrillator. "All right, clear!" She shocked the Doctor and he shot up.

He jumped to his feet. "Welcome back, lefty! Whoa-ho! Two hearts! Woo! Back in the game." He grabbed Amy's face and kissed her head. "Never do that to me again."

Elise and Amy followed him to a lift.

"Ah, portal to another dimension in a goods lift?" Amy asked.

"The energy signals converge here. Does seem a bit cramped, though."

They entered the lift, Elise unsure about the whole thing. After all, she didn't have good experiences with lifts.

The wall shifted in front of their eyes.

Amy smiled at the Doctor.

"Through the looking glass, Amelia? Elise?" he whispered.

Amy took one hand and Elise took the other.

They stepped out into a spaceship.

"Where are we?" Amy asked.

"We're in orbit. One dimension to the left," the Doctor told them.

"Rory!" Amy ran over to him. He was laying on a slab next to Brian.

Elise was having "black spot" flashbacks. She wondered how Captain Avery and his son Toby were doing.

The Doctor pulled out a small vial from his jacket. "Soborian smelling salts. Outlawed in seven galaxies."

Amy waved it under Rory's nose and he shot up.

Someone started shooting at them. Go figure.

"What kind of a welcome do you call that? Get them out of here. You too. Now!" the Doctor yelled.

"What are you going to do?" Amy asked.

"Absolutely no idea. Get him to the portal. Elise go with them."

"No. I'm not leaving you."

The Doctor stared at her for a moment before snapping, "Fine!"

Brian started to wake as Amy and Rory started to move him.

The alien shot at them again. "So many of them crawling the planet, seeping into every corner."

Amy, Rory, and Brian managed to get away now that the alien's attention was on the Doctor and Elise.

The alien disappeared and reappeared in front of a bunch of monitors.

The Doctor and Elise stepped in front of them on the other side.

"It's not possible. I thought the Shakri were a myth. A myth to keep the young of Gallifrey in their place," the Doctor said.

"Who?" Elise asked.

He looked at her. "Didn't your parents ever...? Nevermind." Although the Doctor didn't know much about her biological family, it didn't seem like they ever cared for the small Timelord.

"The Shakri exist in all of time, and none. We travel alone and together. The Seven," the alien told them.

"The Shakri craft, connected to Earth, through seven portals and seven minutes. Ah, but why?"

"Serving the word of the Tally."

"Why the cubes? Why Earth?"

"Not Earth, humanity. The Shakri will halt the human plague before the spread."

"Erase humanity before it colonizes space. We thought the cubes were an invasion. The start of war."

"The human contagion only must be eliminated."

"Who are you calling a contagion?" Amy asked, appearing behind the two Timelords with Rory.

"Oi! Didn't I tell you two to go?" the Doctor said.

"You should have learned by now," Rory told him.

"Yeah, and what is this Tally anyway?" Amy asked.

"Some people call it Judgment Day, or the Reckoning," the Doctor explained.

"Don't you know?"

"I've never wanted to find out."

"Before the Closure, there is the Tally. The Shakri serves the Tally," the alien said.

"The pest controllers of the universe, that's how the tales went, isn't it?"

"Wow. That's some seriously weird bedtime story," Amy commented.

"You can talk. Wolf in your grandmother's nightdress?" The Doctor clapped his hands and approached the alien.

"So, here you are, depositing slug pellets all over the Earth, made attractive so humans will collect them, hoping to find something beautiful inside. Because that's what they are. Not pests or plague, creatures of hope, forever building and reaching. Making mistakes, of course, every life form does. But, but they learn. And they strive for greater, and they achieve it. You want a tally. Put their achievements against their failings through the whole of time, I will back humanity against the Shakri every time."

The alien chuckled. "The Tally must be met. The second wave will be released."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked.

"It's going to release more cubes to kill more people," the Doctor said.

"The human plague breeding and fighting. And when cornered, their rage to destroy. You're too late, Doctor. The Tally shall be met," the alien said, before vanishing.

"He's gone?" Amy asked.

"He was never really here. Just the ship's automated interface, like a talking propaganda poster," the Doctor said. He ran over to the computers and started sonicing them. "I can stop the second wave. I can disconnect all the Shakri craft from their portals, leave them drifting in the darkspace. Ah, but all those people who were near the cubes, so many of them will have died."

"I restarted one of your hearts," Amy reminded him.

"You'd need mass defibrillation," Rory said.

"Of course. Ah, beautiful. But, Ponds, Ponds. We are going to go one better than that. The Shakri used the cubes to turn people's hearts off," the Doctor told them, "Bingo! We're going to use them to turn them back on again."

"Will that work?" Amy asked.

"Well, creatures of hope. Has to." He soniced the alien computer. "Thirty seconds. Don't let me down, cubes, you're working for me now."

The ship started shaking.

"Oh dear. All these cubes. There's going to be a terrible wave of energy ricocheting around here any second. Run."

They took off running and just managed to go back through the portal before the spaceship blew up.

After saying goodbye to Kate and UNIT, they met back up with Amy, Rory, and Brian for dinner.

It was getting late and the Doctor checked his watch. "Dear me. I'd better get going. Things to do, worlds to save, swings to swing on."

Elise and the Doctor got up and started to walk towards the TARDIS.

The Doctor turned around and walked back towards Amy and Rory, throwing his arms around their shoulders. "Look, I know, you both have lives here. Beautiful, messy lives. That is what makes you so fabulously human. You don't want to give them up. I understand."

"Actually, it's you they can't give up, Doctor. You and your wonderful daughter. And I don't think they should," Brian said.

Amy and Rory looked at Brian.

"Go with him. Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here."

"You could come, Brian."

"Somebody's got to water the plants. Just bring them back safe."

Amy and Rory changed, said goodbye to Brian, and they were off again.