
FORTY TWO
━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━
RULE ONE
━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━
River ran from the console that sparked and shook violently up to the doors of the TARDIS with Orion and Cassiopeia behind her, she pulled them open and the trio's faces all fell as they looked up at a stone wall. "I'm sorry Holliekins." River whispered.
Orion and Cassiopeia tightened their hold on each other. "Sorry Nova." They apologised.
The scene repeated itself over and over again. The next time it went to repeat itself with River, Orion and Cassiopeia running up to the TARDIS doors the trio stopped seeing the Doctor casually leaning against the TARDIS doors, smirking at them.
"Hey, kids." He greeted. "I'm home."
River rolled her eyes as the twins laughed. "And what sort of time do you call this?"
The Doctors smirk widened and the three all linked arms before teleporting out of the exploding TARDIS back onto the rooftop.
"Amy!" River greeted and then her eyes met Hollie. "Oh, Hollie..." She smiled softly.
"Hey, Riv." She smiled and twirled slightly for her. "Like the look."
"I'm going to miss that face." She shook her head sadly.
"You'll see it again." She winked at her. "Spoilers."
River chuckled and shook her head at the other blonde before she looked at Rory slightly unsure. "And the plastic Centurion?"
"It's okay," the Doctor reassured, "he's on our side."
"Really?" River asked.
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah."
'I dated a Nestene duplicate once." She remarked as Nova hugged her brother and sister. "Swappable head. It did keep things fresh." She winked at Hollie before becoming serious. "Right then, I have questions, but number one is this." She looked around at them before her eyes landed on the Doctor. "What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?
"It's a fez." The Doctor answered. "I wear a fez now. Fezes are cool."
Amy and River looked at each other. The Doctor gasped as Amy grabbed the fez off the Time Lord's head before throwing it into the air. River then shot the fez resulting in tiny pieces.
The trio snorted while Hollie almost pouted. "The fez made him look funny."
"Funny?" The Doctor repeated with a huff.
Amy shrugged at the blonde. "It had to be done."
They all turned as a Dalek rose up from the side of the building, floating in the air. "Exterminate!" It cried.
"Run, run!" The Doctor ordered, grabbing the satellite dish from beside him, he held it up above his face as a shield as the others turned and ran back towards the roof hatch. "Move, move. Go!"
The group climbed down the ladder, standing in the small corridor watching as the Doctor used his screwdriver on the hatch as he listened out for the Dalek.
"Doctor, come on." River hissed to him.
"Shush." He ordered pausing before he continued: "It's moving away, finding another way in. It needs to restore its power before it can attack again." He continued down the ladder and checked his watch. "Now, that means we've got exactly four and a half minutes before it's at lethal capacity."
"How do you know?" Rory asked.
"Because that's when it's due to kill me." He casually replied.
"Kill you?" River snapped her head to the Time Lord before snapping to Hollie and the trio. "What does he mean, kill him?"
"Oh, shut up. Never mind." The Doctor waved her off as he began to walk down the corridor. "How can that Dalek even exist? It was erased from time and then it came back." He continued moving, now in a different exhibit in the museum. "How?"
"You said the light from the Pandorica-" Rory tried to suggest.
"It's not a light, it's a restoration field." The Doctor corrected.
"Fine restoration field." Orion sighed.
"Never mind, call it a light." The Doctor grumbled. "That light brought Amy back, restored her, but how could it bring back a Dalek when the Daleks have never existed?"
"How then?" Cassiopeia asked.
"When the TARDIS blew up, it caused a total event collapse. A time explosion. And that explosion blasted every atom in every moment of the universe. Except-"
"Except inside the Pandorica." Amy supplied.
The Doctor nodded. "The perfect prison. And inside it, perfectly preserved, a few billion atoms of the universe as it was. In theory, you could extrapolate the whole universe from a single one of them, like, like cloning a body from a single cell. And we've got the bumper family pack."
Rory winced, his head was hurting from trying so hard to understand what was going on. "No, no. Too fast. I'm not getting it."
Orion shook his head. "The Pandorica contains what's like a computer's previous memory drive and the light from the Pandorica transmits that memory."
The Doctor patted Orion on the back. "And that's how we're going to do it."
"Would that work?" Hollie questioned as the Doctor quickened his pace.
River shook her head. "No, he's being completely ridiculous." She shot the Time Lord an annoyed look as she matched his pace. "The Pandorica partially restored one Dalek. If it can't even reboot a single life form properly, how's it reboot the whole of reality?"
"What if we give it a moment of infinite power?" He countered. "What if we can transmit the light from the Pandorica to every particle of space and time simultaneously?"
River rolled her eyes. "Well, that would be lovely, but we can't, because it's completely impossible."
"Ah no, you see, it's not. It's almost completely impossible. One spark is all we need." He smirked.
River looked at him slightly confused. "For what?"
"Big Bang Two!" He grinned at her. "Now listen-" He spun around to continue walking down the hallway, he didn't even manage to completely turn around before his clothes were covered in scorch marks as his body let off smoke and the Doctor fell to the floor as a Dalek screamed:
"Exterminate!"
Rory grabbed Amy while Orion pulled his sister's back.
"Get back!" Rory shouted at the two blonde women, Hollie crouched beside the Doctor with River. "Hollie, River, get back now!"
"Exterminate!" The Dalek shouted again, Rory shot at it with his hand weapon and the Dalek powered down. "Doctor? Doctor, it's me, River. Can you hear me? What is it? What do you need?"
The Doctor's whole body trembled and ached as he gritted his teeth shut but he didn't answer her, reaching with his other hand for Nova's vortex manipulator strapped around his wrist.
The Doctor disappeared a moment later, River stood up while Hollie continued to stay crouched beside where he had been seconds ago. "Where did he go?" She looked around. "Damn it, he could be anywhere."
"He went downstairs," Hollie whispered. "Back to twelve minutes ago."
"Show me!" River demanded, Hollie snapped her head up. "He died, now we have to finish this."
"Hollie!" River snapped.
They shot daggers at one another, Hollie slowly stood matching up to River's height, the two of them not breaking eye contact for a second. They only pulled away as the Dalek Rory had shot at spoke as softly as a Dalek could. "Systems restoring" It then spoke louder. "You will be exterminated."
"We've got to move." Rory looked between the two blonde women, their expressions not even wavering as they looked at the Dalek. "That thing's coming back to life."
"You go to the Doctor. I'll be right with you." River ordered. Amy and Rory quickly left, the triplets quickly following after the couple.
Hollie squeezed her hands into fists. "Holliekins..." River began, speaking softly to the other blonde now. "I suggest going with them, this isn't going to be pretty."
"That Dalek killed the Doctor." She whispered coldly, eyes locking on said Dalek as it booted back up, her glare on it suddenly turned from cold to ice, I'm not leaving until it understands what it has done."
River swallowed hard, she shouldn't have been surprised with the blonde acting this way, not after everything she had seen her do in the future, but to hear her talk like that so soon after she had regenerated unsettled her deeply and sent a horrible shiver down her spine.
"You will be exterminated!" The Dalek announced, pulling River back from her thoughts.
"Not yet." River replied with a calm yet dangerous voice. "Your systems are still restoring, which means your shield density is compromised. One Alpha Mezon burst through your eyestalk would kill you stone dead." She took her gun out of her holster, aiming it at the Daleks eye.
"Records indicate you will show mercy. You are associates of the Doctor's."
"Oh yeah?" Hollie questioned back, stepping forward, my name is Hollie Aria and this is River Song so I suggest you check those records again."
The Dalek rolled backwards slightly as its eyestalk widened. "Mercy."
"Say it again," River ordered.
"Mercy!"
"Again," Hollie demanded.
"Mercy!"
"Again!" She snapped louder.
"Mercy!"
Hollie narrowed her eyes at it now as she spoke in such a calm quiet voice possibly giving the oncoming storm that was the Doctor a run for his money. "One more time."
River looked to the blonde, a flash of concern for her in eyes before her attention was pulled back to the Dalek as it screeched again. "Mercy!"
"You didn't have mercy for him did you?" Hollie asked a moment before she shot the Dalek square in the eyestalk.
When did Hollie steal her gun?
×××
Amy, Rory, Orion, Cassiopeia and Nova ran down the stairs where the Doctor had died twelve minutes ago, Rory's jacket lay on the floor but the Time Lord was nowhere to be found. "How could he have moved?" Rory looked at the jacket on the ground. "He was dead. Doctor?" He moved down the stairs. "Doctor!"
"But he was dead."
"Who told you that?" River asked from the top of the stairs, Hollie beside her.
"He did."
"Rule one." The trio said in sync: "The Doctor lies."
River nodded at the three and Amy frowned looking between the two blonde women who joined them at the bottom of the stairs. "Where's the Dalek?"
"Killed it." Hollie replied coldly as she continued walking.
The others followed and Hollie quickly took off in a run, her eyes finding the Doctor lying in the Pandorica, scorch marks and all.
"Doctor!" Amy shouted, following her best friend, the rest close behind her.
"Why did he tell us he was dead?" Rory frowned.
Hollie looked up at them. "We were a diversion." She shook her head. "If the Dalek was chasing us, he could work down here in peace."
"Doctor, can you hear me? What were you doing?"
Orion looked up as the light from the TARDIS exploding shone through the skylight. "It's getting closer." He stated, pointing up at it.
"What's happening?" Rory asked.
"Reality's collapsing," Nova answered, gesturing around the room. "It's speeding up and history is disappearing right in front of us."
"Soon there will be nothing left," Cassiopeia added.
Amy looked around noticing the empty exhibit stands.
"Time's running out." River placed a hand on the Doctor's cheek. "Doctor, what were you doing? Tell us."
Hollie shook her head and lightly hit the Doctor across the cheek.
The trio winced and River shook her head at the other woman. "Thanks." The Doctor sarcastically whispered through a pained breath before he coughed and added weakly: "Big Bang Two."
"The Big Bang. That's the beginning of the universe, right?"
Cassiopeia nodded at the man. "So they say."
"What, and Big Bang Two is the bang that brings us back?" Amy guessed and looked at the Doctor whose eyes were still closed. "Is that what you mean?"
River blinked as it suddenly hit her while the Doctor weakly nodded in response to the ginger's question. "Oh."
The ginger looked between the Doctor and River, but she didn't get it. "What?"
"The TARDIS is still burning. It's exploding at every point in history. If you threw the Pandorica into the explosion, right into the heart of the fire."
"Then what would happen?" Hollie crossed her arms before her eyes widened and she remembered the Doctor talking about the light. "That's how."
"You see now." River nodded at her.
"I don't." Amy pipped up.
"The light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once, just like he said." River pointed out.
"That would work?" Amy questioned. "That would bring everything back?"
"A restoration field powered by an exploding Tardis, happening at every moment in history. Oh, that's brilliant." She breathed. "It might even work." She looked at Nova's vortex manipulator. "He's wired the vortex manipulator to the rest of the box."
"Why?"
"So he can take it with him. He's going to fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion."
Hollie looked at the Time Lord. "Won't that hurt?"
The Doctor looked up at her weakly, meeting her eyes but he didn't reply.
×××
Orion, Cassiopeia and Nova helped the Doctor as best they could to work to save his energy, he was already in enough pain as it was. "You know you can't survive this," Orion whispered to the Time Lord before glancing over his shoulder at Hollie who stood against a wall with her arms crossed while biting her lip. "There's no better time than now."
The Doctor sent the man a warning glare. "We don't have the time." He reminded.
Orion nodded staying silent as he met both his sister's eyes as they kept working. River walked over to them. "Nearly done?"
"Nearly," Nova confirmed as she used her screwdriver on another wire.
"River..." The Doctor whispered as he squeezed his eyes shut while he lifted his head. "Can you get Hollie and Amy for me?"
River nodded and the trio stepped away from the Pandorica a moment later.
"Amy, he wants to talk to you."
Amy looked up frowning in confusion as she looked over at her best friend still standing in the same spot. before looking at River as she asked: "So, what happens here? Big Bang Two? What happens to us?"
"We all wake up where we ought to be," River explained. "None of this ever happens and we don't remember it."
"River, tell me he comes back, too," Hollie whispered, she desperately hoped whatever was going to happen to him could be fixed.
"The Doctor will be the heart of the explosion." She replied.
"That doesn't answer my question." The blonde crossed her arms at the other.
River slowly shook her head as she looked at Hollie with sympathy. "I'm sorry all the cracks in time will close, but he'll be on the wrong side, trapped in the never-space, the void between the worlds. All memory of him will be purged from the universe. He will never have been born." She bit her lip for a moment and Hollie almost blinked as she saw a nervousness come over River that she had never seen before. "He wants to talk to you before he goes."
"What about you?" Amy asked.
River shook her head. "I'm not as important to him as Holliekins." She replied before quietly muttering to herself as the two friends walked over to the Pandorica. "Even if he refuses to believe it at the moment."
"Amy Pond." The Doctor weakly smiled before. The girl who waited all night in a garden. Was it worth it?"
"Shut up." Amy told him before she nodded "Of course it was."
"You asked me why I was taking you and Hollie with me and I said, no reason. I was lying."
"It's not important."
"Yeah, it's the most important thing left in the universe. It's why I'm doing this. Amy, your house was too big. That big, empty house, and just you."
"And Aunt Sharon, and sometimes Hollie, depending on how noisy that home of hers got."
Hollie chuckled and slowly nodded as the Doctor raised a brow.
"Where were your mum and dad Amy? Where was everybody who lived in that big house?"
"I lost my Mum and Dad."
"How?" He asked. "What happened to them? Where did they go?"
"I," she stared in shock. "I don't-"
"It's okay, it's okay." He reassured. "Don't panic, it's not your fault."
"I don't even remember."
"There was a crack in time in the wall of your bedroom, and it's been eating away at your life for a long time now. Amy Pond, all alone. The girl who didn't make sense and her even stranger best friend... who can apparently regenerate." He frowned deeply as he looked at Hollie almost fighting the urge to say something before he shook his head. "I had so much I wanted to say to you." He sighed sadly and looked down, almost ashamed of himself before he smiled slightly at the pair. "How could I resist that?"
"How could I just forget?" Amy asked him.
"Nothing is ever forgotten." He smiled again. "Not really. But you have to try."
"Doctor..." Hollie whispered, reaching out for him with trembling hands. "What about me?"
"You?" Me smiled warmly for possibly the first time since she had woken up and he took her hands tightly in his trembling one. "Be amazing."
"I don't mean that." She shook her head. "I regenerated but how." She shook her head. "You said it yourself, I'm human."
The Doctor slowly nodded as he paused, thinking of what to exactly say to her because truthfully he didn't know. It didn't make sense, the TARDIS scans said she was human. "I know you're scared but you'll be okay. You are Hollie and whatever you do you'll be amazing."
"Doctor!" River shouted. "It's speeding up!" Hollie swallowed hard and shook her head, wiping her eyes before going to place the Doctor's sonic in his pocket. "No." He whispered. "Keep it."
"But-"
"I'm not going to need it anymore," he paused for a moment torn between whether he should say the next part of his sentence or not, "if anyone should get to keep it, it should be you."
"I won't even know what it's for." She replied.
The Doctor shook his head. "If you can remember the Daleks, the Cybermen and Rory you can remember silly old me can't you?"
"I don't know-" she whispered.
The Doctor sighed and slowly nodded. "I believe you can but there's going to be a very big bang. Big Bang Two." He directed his attention to the ginger. "Amy try and remember your family and they'll be there."
"How can I remember them if they never existed?" Amy asked.
"Because you're special. That crack in your wall, all that time, the universe pouring into your head. You brought Rory back. You can bring them back, too. You just remember and they'll be there."
"You won't."
"You'll have your family back. You won't need your imaginary friend any more." He smiled and Amy shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Ha! Amy Pond crying over me, eh?"
"She lasted longer than me" Hollie croaked making the Doctor sadly look over at her. "Please don't go..."
"I'm sorry." The Doctor whispered. "I got to do this, you know that."
"I know." She nodded "but it's not fair."
"No." He agreed with a sigh. "There were so many things I wanted to show you, things I needed to figure out but that doesn't matter, it's too late now... I'm sorry." He whispered. The Doctor sighed as River ran over to them.
"It has to happen now!"
Hollie and Amy stepped away as the doors of the Pandorica slowly shut. "Guess what?"
"What?" The girls frowned.
"Gotcha." He whispered a moment before the Pandorica closed.
River pulled them back as the Pandorica began to shake, slowly raising itself into the air, her device beeped and she pulled it out. "It's from the Doctor." She laughed slightly.
"What does it say?"
The trio chuckled as River smiled at the device. "What else would it say?" The three questioned, smirking as River answered Amy's question:
"Geronimo."
×××
The Doctor sat up suddenly and found himself sitting on the floor in the console room. "Oh! Okay. I escaped, then. Brilliant." He remarked to himself. "I love it when I do that. Legs, yes. " He patted them. "Bow tie, cool." He put his hand up to feel his head. "I can buy a fez."
"Lyle Beach." A past version of himself exclaimed as he spun the past Hollie around. "The beach is the best. Automatic sand."
The Doctor looked sadly as she laughed loudly and the past Doctor grinned widely as Amy looked at the pair: "Automatic sand? What does that mean?"
"It's automated. Totally." He explained.
His face fell further as he realised what was happening. "That's last week when we went to Space Florida. I'm rewinding. My time stream unravels, erasing. Closing." He looked at a crack in the console's scanner, the crack slowly closed before it disappeared. "Hello, universe. Goodbye, Doctor." He muttered. "Holls!" He shouted and the blonde stopped laughing and looked around slightly. "Amy!" He called next.
The Doctor blinked. He was suddenly standing on Aickman Street. "Ah, three weeks ago, when she put the card in the window." He realised seeing Amy walking up to the estate agents. "Amy! I need to tell you something." He shouted, she frowned and turned around. The Doctor nodded, so his theory was correct. "She can hear me. But if she can hear me..."
Next, he was in the Byzantium watching himself as he spoke to the Clerics, Hollie and Amy sat on a broken tree. "Good luck, everyone. Behave. Do not let that girl open her eyes. Hollie. Amy, later. River, going to need your computer!" He announced before watching himself head off with River and Octavian.
The Doctor walked up to Hollie and Amy and he swallowed hard before resting a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
She jumped at the constant and spun around to look at him, her eyes wide and so different to the ones he said goodbye to.
"Doctor?" She frowned looking at him puzzled as she noticed the jacket resting on his shoulders. "Do you keep another jacket in your pocket?" She giggled lightly. "I know you said about them being 'bigger on the inside' but I thought you were joking."
The Doctor didn't reply and he crumbled into dust at her warm gaze, a look very different to the one he had been trying so hard to get used to on her new face.
"My Holliaet." He whispered before he found himself engulfing her in a tight hug.
"What the-" She frowned not at all expecting him to do that, she had only seen him a few moments ago after all.
Amy frowned hearing them. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." The Doctor dismissed. "Not yet but that isn't the point Amy, you need to start trusting me." He looked at Hollie now. "Both of you, it's never been more important."
"But you don't always tell me the truth." Amy countered.
"If I always told you the truth, I wouldn't need you to trust me."
"Doctor, the crack in my wall. How can it be here?"
"I don't know yet but I'm working it out. Now, listen. Remember what I told you when you both were seven?"
"What did you tell us?" Hollie asked.
"Now that would be telling." The Doctor replied, he had fought against every urge so far and done it successfully but if he was really disappearing from the universe, never to come back again the universe owed him for his sacrifice, he at least deserved that.
He didn't even realise he was doing it before it happened and the Doctor sucked in a sharp breath as he found himself suddenly kissing Hollies soft warm lips. He gripped her tightly and Hollie's eyes snapped wide open in shock.
The Doctor softly smiled as he pulled away and Hollie's cheeks warmed up becoming a bright red as it suddenly caught up with the rest of her what he had done.
"I know you'll figure it out, Holls... you're clever like that."
"What?" She frowned at him, completely puzzled by what he had meant not only by kissing her but also by what he was saying. It made completely no sense. "What was that?"
"Something River likes to call a spoiler." He whispered. "But we can't talk about it."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, Hollie." He breathed. "You'll figure it out. You're smart, smarter than you think." He cryptically answered before turning away and leaving her, heading in the same direction he had in the past.
The Doctor sighed and lowered his head after looking back at the trees in the direction Hollie was in. He looked up and noticed he was no longer in the Byzantium but rather a house. He frowned before realising where he was. "Amelia's house." He looked outside a window to see she was outside, lying on her suitcase, Hollies pink dressing gown draped over her like a duvet.
"Amelia!" He suddenly heard, making him duck slightly as a brunette-haired woman ran into the garden before she stopped and sighed. "Why were you out here?" She asked, speaking more to herself as she carefully picked the young girl up and carried her inside, walking up the stairs and towards her bedroom, gently setting her in bed beside Hollie, the two of them somehow fitting in the small bed that should only really fit one of them. The Doctor quietly followed the woman and watched as she walked into another bedroom before he headed into Amy's room.
"Hello Holliaet, Amelia." He whispered with a smile. "I came back." He shook his head. "It's funny. I thought if you could hear me, I could hang on somehow. Silly me." He swallowed hard, briefly closing his eyes. "Silly old Doctor. When you wake up, Amelia you'll have a mum and dad, and you won't even remember me. Well, you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head." He then looked at Hollie. "And you Holliaet," he chuckled slightly in thought. "You'll forever be a mystery to me, my mysterious Rescuer." He hummed. "It's like a story but that's okay. We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?" He shook his head slightly at what he was saying. "Because it was, you know. It was the best. The daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it?" He chuckled. "Well, I borrowed it but I know you two, especially Hollie would just shrug it off and tell me I stole it but I was always going to take it back. Oh, that box." He smiled at them. "You'll both dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient, and the bluest blue ever. And the times we had, eh? Would have had. Never had." He sighed. "In your dreams, they'll still be there. The Doctor, Hollie Aria, and Amy Pond, and the days that never came." He sighed sadly. "The cracks are closing. But they can't close properly until I'm on the other side. I don't belong here any more. I think I'll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats. Live well, keep up with the art, no matter what." He looked at the blonde before looking at the ginger girl. "Love Rory. Bye-bye, Pond." He swallowed hard and briefly closed his eyes, "goodbye Holls."
The Doctor gave them both one last look before he turned away and stepped through the large crack in Amy's wall, watching it close behind her.
─── 。゚☆・*.☽ .* ☆゚. ───
Bye bye Doctor :(
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro