IM BAAAAAAAACK

Yeah... I'm sorry, I looked at when I last published (I rewrite 'Amy's choice' so I've deleted those chapters and I'm going to republish them) but that was May 2022, it's now July 2023 so I'm honestly really sorry about that one. :/ Since then I've had a new promotion at work, stopped writing for a good while, found the fantastic thing that is Notion and slowly trying to salvage the work I had done before I lost a lot of it due to a windows account hack meaning I lost a LOT of my one drive documents on Scrivener. It's quite sad but luckily before I went over there I didn't delete all of the work I did over on wattpad so there is that. My notes app also have ALL the thoughts I came up with for this series and the Protectors so that's also a plus.

Anyways... I'm sure we do not care much about my life and you're all more interested in what I have been writing. I will be uploading (and already have been) uploading this fic and 'Fighting Against Fire' to the lovely site that is AO3 so if you happen to want to stay up to date and give me some love over there too that would be fantastic <3 My username is elevensbowtiee.

With that being said lets get into this!

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THEIR CHOICE
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"Rory!" Amy shouted, suddenly dropping the wooden spoon covered in cake mix into the mixing bowl, the bowl wobbling ever so slightly on her very large pregnant belly.

"Rory," she cried out again, "it's starting!"

Running into the kitchen, his ponytail swishing in the wind Rory. "Ah. Okay, okay."

"False alarm," Amy announced, contently licking the cake mix off the spoon.

"What?" He stared at her.

Amy shrugged. "Well, I don't know what it feels like. I've never had a baby before."

The two looked at each other as the sound of the TARDIS engines wheezed. "No." Amy looked at her husband.

"I know," he rolled his eyes, "leaf blowers. Use a rake."

"No, it's." She looked out the front window, barely managing to see the blue box from where she lay on the sofa.

"I knew. I just knew."

Rory ran out just as the Doctor almost tripped over a small rock, Hollie giggling behind him as she too stepped out of the TARDIS.

"Rory!" The Doctor announced.

"Doctor." Rory nodded. "Hollie."

"Hey, Rory." Hollie smiled, joining the Doctor who pointed to where the TARDIS was. "I've crushed your flowers."

"Oh, Amy will kill you."

Hollie frowned. "Where is she?" She looked at Rory. "What did you do?"

"Me!" He looked at her. "Really Holls."

"Seriously though." The Doctor frowned. "Where is Amy?"

"She'll need a bit longer." He replied.

"Whenever you're ready, Amy." The Doctor called out a moment before Amy waddled out the front door, Hollie's eyes widened before she ran over to her friend.

"Hollie!" Amy cheered, the two tightly hugging as best as they could with Amy's large stomach in the way.

"Oh, way-hey! You've swallowed a planet." The Doctor exclaimed as Hollie helped Amy to walk over to join the Doctor and Rory.

"I'm pregnant."

"You're huge."

"Yeah, I'm pregnant."

"Look at you. When worlds collide."

"Doctor, she's pregnant." Hollie giggled.

"Oh, look at you both. Five years later and you haven't changed a bit, apart from age and size."

"Oh, it's good to see you, Doctor." She smiled before her eyes widened at Hollie. "No way!" She grabbed her hand and held it up.

Hollie giggled slightly as both Amy and Rory looked at the ring on the blonde's finger. "When?"

"Two weeks ago now." Hollie looked over at the Doctor who softly smiled at her.

"Congratulations, mate" Rory patted the Doctor on the back.

The Time Lord frowned slightly. "Wait," he pointed at Amy. "Are you pregnant?"

×××

"Ah, Leadworth." The Doctor held Hollies hand as they joined by Amy and Rory walked through the village. "Vibrant as ever."

"It's Upper Leadworth, actually," Rory replied. "We've gone slightly upmarket."

Hollie frowned. "It's empty here."

"Yeah.." the Doctor nodded in agreement. "Where is everyone?"

"This is busy." The Doctor stopped for a moment, looking around. "Okay, it's quiet," she corrected, "but it's really restful and healthy. Loads of people here live well into their nineties."

"Well, don't let that get you down." The Doctor sat down on a bench next to Hollie, Rory sitting on the Doctors side while Amy sat next to Hollie.

"It's not getting me down."

"Well, I wanted to see how you were." He shrugged. "We." He gestured to himself and Hollie. "Wanted to see how you were. You know me, I don't just abandon people when they leave the TARDIS. This Time Lord's for life. You don't get rid of your old pal the Doctor so easily."

"Hmm. You came here by mistake, didn't you?" Amy guessed.

Hollie giggled slightly as the Doctor nodded. "Yeah, bit of a mistake. But look, what a result." He gestured to the bench. "Look at this bench. What a nice bench. What will they think of next?"

Hollie slowly shook her head as the Doctor glanced around. "So. What do you do around here to stave off the, you know..."

"Boredom," Amy said at the same time the Doctor finished his sentence with:

"Self-harm."

Rory and Amy looked at each other. "We relax."

Relax. The Doctor mouthed to Hollie.

"We live." Birds began to quietly chirp. "We listen to the birds."

"Yeah, see?" Amy added. "Birds. Those are nice."

"We didn't get time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS days, did we?"

"Oh blimey," the Doctor groaned, Hollie looked at him in slight concern, "my head's a bit. Ooo. Er, no, you're right, there wasn't a lot of time for birdsong back in the good old..." his head lolled to lean onto Hollies as her head rested onto of his, Amy and Rorys heads also went forwards as well, the four of them falling asleep on the bench.

⎯
TARDIS
⎯

"Days." The Doctors head suddenly shot up from where he laid on the floor of the console. Hollie frowned as she sat up a few feet away from him. "What?" His eyes widened. "No, yes, sorry, what?" He looked over at Hollie for a brief moment, the blonde looked at her hands, turning to look at the palm side before looking at the back of her hands. "Oh, you're okay." The Doctor noticed Amy and Rory both walk in as he stood up, the two of them looking equally confused.

Amy held a hand to her flat stomach, not at all showing any since of being heavily pregnant. Rory on the other hand put a hand to the back of his head for a moment.

"Oh, thank God. I had a terrible nightmare about you two." He looked at Amy and Rory. "That was scary. Don't ask. You don't want to know. You're safe now."

Hollie frowned as the Doctor hugged Amy. "Oh, okay."

"That's what counts. Blimey. Never dropped off like that before." Well, never, really. I'm getting on a bit, you see. Don't let the cool gear fool you. Now, what's wrong with the console?" He gestured to it, two small lights repeatedly flashes red. "Red flashing lights." He identified. "I bet they mean something."

"Er, Doctor, I also had a kind of dream thing."

"Yeah, so did I."

"Not a nightmare, though, just, er, we were married." Rory shrugged.

"Yeah. In a little village."

"A sweet little village and you were pregnant."

"Yes, I was huge. I was a boat."

"Wait." Hollie frowned, looking at her friends. "So I'm not going insane?"

"Not yet Holls." The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder.

"So you had the same dream, then? Exactly the same dream?"

"Are you calling me a boat?" Amy narrowed her eyes in warning.

"And Doctor, you were visiting." Rory looked at him.

"Yeah, yeah, you came to our cottage." She looked at Hollie. "And you were with him. You were engaged!"

"How can we have the same dream? It doesn't make any sense."

"And you had a nightmare about us. What happened to us in the nightmare?"

"It was a bit similar," he replied, "in some aspects."

"Which aspects?"

"Well, all of them."

"You had the same dream."

"Basically." He shrugged.

"Didn't you say it was a nightmare?" Hollie questioned.

"Did I say nightmare?" He frowned. "No, more of a really good... mare." He shook his head. "Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode. We probably jumped a time track or something. Forget it. We're back to reality now."

The birds began to sing again. Hollie groaned realising that she could hear the birds again.

"Doctor?" Amy looked over to him. "If we're back to reality, how come I can still hear birds?"

"Yeah, the same birds. The same ones we heard in the-"

⎯
Leadworth
⎯

"Dream." Rorys eyes snapped open. The Doctors head jolted up from where it rested on Hollies, the blonde blinked before also moving her head off the Doctor. Amy looked between them. "Oh! Sorry. Nodded off. Stupid. God, I must be overdoing it." Rory ran a hand down his face. "I was dreaming we were back on the TARDIS."

The Doctor pulled on one of his braces before standing up, Hollie rechecked her hand, seeing the engagement ring on her finger.

"You had the same dream, didn't you?" Rory asked.

"Weren't we just saying the same thing?"

"Yeah." Hollie nodded. "We were."

"But we thought this was the dream, didn't we?"

"I think so." Amy sighed. "Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?"

"Doctor, what is going on?" Rory asked. Hollie helped Amy to stand up, the poor woman holding her stomach as she did so.

"Is this because of you?" Amy asked, ryes on the Doctor who walked slightly away from them. "Is this some Time Lordy thing because you've shown up again?"

"Listen to me." He spun around. "Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear or feel."

"But we're awake now."

"Yeah. You thought you were awake on the TARDIS, too."

"But we're home." Amy frowned.

"And there's every possibility that we're all dreaming this up." Hollie shook her head.

"Trouble is, Holls, Rory, Amy, which is which? Are we flashing forwards or backwards? Hold on tight. This is going be a tricky one." He smiled slightly.

⎯
TARDIS
⎯

"Oh, this is bad." The Doctor woke up again, he stood up before grabbing a lever while the TARDIS groaned. "I don't like this. Argh." He complained after kicking the console. "Never use force. You just embarrass yourself." He told Hollie. "Unless you're cross, in which case, always use force."

"Shall I run and get the manual?"

"I threw it in a supernova." He replied.

Hollie blinked. "You did what?"

"I disagreed with it so I threw it into a supernova, don't talk to me when I'm cross."

Hollie shook her head, following him around the console anyways.

"Okay, but whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?" Rory asked.

"If we were dreaming of the future." The Doctor corrected.

"Well, of course, we were. We were in Leadworth."

"Upper Leadworth." Rory corrected.

"Yeah, and we could still be in Upper Leadworth, dreaming of this. Don't you get it?" He asked.

"I think I do." Hollie frowned.

"No," Amy frowned. "No, this is real. I'm definitely awake now."

"And you thought you were definitely awake when you were all elephanty."

"Hey." She threateningly pointed a spanner at him. "Pregnant."

"And you could be giving birth right now. This could be the dream. I told you. Trust nothing we see or hear or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true."

"Speaking of rings." Hollie crossed her arms. "If we're currently dreaming and Leadworth is the real 'reality' or whatever we're engaged." She gestured to herself and the Doctor.

"Yeah." The Doctor nodded.

"He's taking this well." She looked at Amy.

"We're in a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside."

"With a bow tie-wearing alien," Amy added.

"It doesn't surprise me that he's taking it so well and maybe what rings true isn't so simple."

"Valid point." The Doctor nodded.

They all blinked as the TARDIS suddenly turned off, all the lighting apart from the time rotor went out, and the hum of the TARDIS also disappeared in an instant.

"It's dead." The Doctor lightly touched the time rotor. "We're in a dead time machine."

"But how?" Hollie frowned. "How could the TARDIS just die?"

"I don't know." The Doctor replied, taking her hand as the bird song slowly returned again. Rory tightly hugged Amy. "Remember, this is real. But when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels."

"It is real." Amy nodded. "I know it's real."

⎯
Leadworth
⎯

The Doctor and Hollie both blinked as they suddenly found themselves in Leadworth again, Amy and Rory woke up a second later, her hand flying to her stomach.

"Okay, this is the real one. Definitely this one. It's all solid."

"It felt solid in the TARDIS too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it." He waved one of his hands in front of his face.

"What are you doing?" Rory questioned.

"Looking for motion blur, pixilation." He explained. "It could be a computer simulation. I don't think so, though."

A small old woman walked past and smiled. "Hello, Doctor."

"Hi." Rory automatically replied.

"Hello." The Doctor nodded before he spun around looking at Rory who stood up before helping Amy stand. "You're a doctor."

"Yeah. And unlike you, I've actually passed some exams."

"A doctor, not a nurse." The Doctor pointed out. "Just like you've always dreamed. How interesting."

"What is?"

"Your dream wife, your dream job, probably your dream baby. Maybe this is your dream."

"That doesn't explain you two though." He gestured between the Doctor and Hollie. "If it was mine and Amys dream of course."

"Of course." Amy nodded. "Yeah."

"Why would we dream up you two being engaged?"

"No idea."

The Doctor shrugged before frowning at a small building with a sign saying 'SARN Residential Care Home.' "What's that?"

"Old people's home." Amy replied.

Hollie frowned, looking at the windows. "Doctor..." she leaned over to whisper to him. "Is it me or are they staring at us?"

The Doctor gave her a quick glance, the two fo them meeting each others eyes for a moment before looking back at the old people in the windows. "You said everyone here lives to their nineties." He said to Amy. "There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick."

The Doctor ran into the care home with Hollie, Rory following them. "Oh. Can we not do the running thing?" Amy complained following after them.

"Oh hello, Doctor Williams." An old woman greeted as he, the Doctor, Hollie and eventually Amy walked into the large room filled with chairs old people sat in.

"Hello, Rory love."

"Hello, Mrs Poggit. How's your hip?"

"A bit stiff."

"Oh, easy, D-96 compound, plus." The Doctor stated. "No," he then frowned, "you don't have that yet. Forget that."

"Who's your friend?" Mrs Poggit asked as her eyes moved over to the Doctor. "A junior doctor?"

Hollie covered her mouth to hold back a laugh as Rory slowly replied: "Yes."

"Can I borrow you?" She asked the Doctor. "You're the size of my grandson."

The Doctor frowned but did so anyway, kneeling down and allowing the woman to place a jumper over his head. "Slightly keen to move on." He muttered. "Freak psychic schism to sort out." He leaned towards her making the woman lean back. "You're incredibly old, aren't you?"

"Umm..." Hollie whispered, slowly moving towards the Doctor as the old people in the room all stared at him. "Doctor..." she whispered, gently putting a hand on him. "Doctor?"

The Time Lord instantly blinked hearing a strangely familiar voice in his head making him snap back away from staring at the old woman. His eyes widened as he turned to Hollie who looked back at him in confusion. "You..." he pointed at her before his eyes grew heavy when the bird song suddenly played again.

⎯
TARDIS
⎯

"Okay, I hate this, Doctor." Amy groaned as she stood up. "Stop it, because this is definitely real. It's definitely this one." The Doctor walked up the stairs. "I keep saying that, don't I?" She looked back at Hollie and Rory.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Is anyone else freezing?"

"Yeah." Rory shivered, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It's bloody cold."

"The heating's off." The Doctor confirmed.

"The heating's off." Hollie sighed.

"Course it is." Rory rolled his eyes.

"Put on a jumper. That's what I always do." He shrugged.

"Er, yes. Sorry about Mrs Poggit. She's so lovely though."

"I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act if I were you." He warned, his eyes glanced over to Hollie ever so quickly before he shook his head. I can figure that out later. He decided.

"What do you mean, act?" Amy questioned.

"Everything's off." The Doctor huffed, checking the TARDIS again. "Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone," he grew angrier. "something, is overriding my controls."

"Well, that took a while." A voice announced. The four spun around to see a small man wearing a tweed jacket and a red bowtie stood at the top of the stairs. "Honestly, I'd heard such good things. Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Him in the bow tie." He nodded at the Doctor.

"How did you get into my TARDIS? What are you?" He narrowed his eyes.

"What shall we call me?" He hummed. "Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord." He grinned.

"Nice look." The Doctor commented.

"This?" He glanced down before frowning. "No, I'm not convinced. Bow ties?"

"Are cool." Hollie raised an eyebrow.

The Dream Lord gave her a side glance as the Doctor threw a bouncy ball he got from his pockets at the Dream Lord. The ball went straight through him. ""Interesting." He hummed. "I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there." He suddenly appeared behind them, making them all spin around to look at him. "And yet, very much here."

"I'll do the talking, thank you." The Doctor snapped slightly. "Holls, want to take a guess at what that is?"

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say he creates dreams."

"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks." The Doctors added.

"And what about the legs and gooseberry over here. Does they get a guess?"

"Er, listen, mate. If anyone's the gooseberry round here, it's the Doctor."

"Well now, there's a delusion I'm not responsible for."

"No, he is. Isn't he, Amy."

"Oh, Amy, have to sort your men out." He looked at the ginger. "Choose, even."

"I have chosen. Of course, I've chosen." She lightly hit Rory on the chest. "It's you, stupid."

"Oh, good. Thanks."

"You can't fool me. I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, we haven't even spoken to Hollie yet." He smirked. "Now there's some dreams I'd blush at if I had a blood supply or a real face."

Hollie's cheeks turned slightly pink. The Doctor frowned. "Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?"

"Me?" He questioned. "Oh, you're on shaky ground."

"Am I?"

"If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop." He stated. "The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student. I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are." He frowned for a moment. "Where was I?"

"You were..." Rory began.

"I know where I was." The Dream Lord rolled his eyes as he disappeared from next to them before reappearing on top of the stairs, looking down at them. "So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's fake. And just to make it more interesting, you're going to face in both worlds a deadly danger, but only one of the dangers is real." He grinned before waving at them. "Tweet, tweet. Time to sleep."

Hollie looked up as the birds chirped again, she gripped onto the console next to the Doctor.

"Or are you waking up?" The Dream Lord asked.

⎯
Leadworth
⎯

Hollie frowned at the suddenly empty room in the old peoples home as she, the Doctor, Amy and Rory woke up. "Oh, this is bad." The Dream Lord walked in the room, holding an x-ray of a brain. "This is very, very bad. Look at this X-ray. Your brain is completely see-through." He smirked slightly. "But then, I've always been able to see through you, Doctor."

"Always?" Amy frowned. "What do you mean, always?"

"Now then, the prognosis is this." He continued, ignoring Amys question. "If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality?"

"What happens?"

"We die in the reality." Hollie stated, crossing her arms.

"Ooo," the Dream Lord pointed at her with the x-ray in his hand while looking at the Doctor. "She's a smart one."

"Have you met the Doctor before?" Amy asked. "Do you know him?" She looked to the Doctor when no one answered. "Doctor, does he?"

"Now don't get jealous. He's been around, our boy. But never mind that. You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Take two and call me in the morning." He vanished.

"Okay, I don't like him." Rory pointed out.

"Who is he?" Amy frowned.

"I don't know. It's a big universe."

"Why is he doing this?"

"Maybe because he has no physical form. That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel."

"What does he mean, deadly danger, though?" Rory questioned. "Nothing deadly has happened here. I mean, a bit of natural wastage, obviously."

"And not to mention the thing that was living in Amys house for twelve years."

"Upper Leadworth remember?"

"Still Leadworth to me." She shrugged.

The Doctor frowned, pulling the jumper off before standing up. "They've all gone. They've all gone." He ran outside.

"Why would they leave?" Rory followed him, Amy and Hollie behind them.

"And what did you mean about Mrs Poggit's nice old lady act?" Amy asked.

"One of my tawdry quirks." He shrugged. "Sniffing out things that aren't what they seem. So, come on, let's think." He looked at the three humans. "The mechanics of this reality split we're stuck in. Time asleep exactly matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."

"And we're all dreaming the same dream at the same time." Rory added.

"Watch this." Amy whispered to Hollie.

"Yes, sort of communal trance." The Doctor nodded. "Very rare, very complicated. I'm sure there's a dream giveaway, a tell, but my mind isn't working because this village is so dull!" He groaned, slightly hitting his head, "I'm slowing down, like you two have."

"Ooo." Amy held a hand to her stomach. "Ow. Really." She complained. "Ow! It's coming."

"Okay," the Doctor looked at Rory, "you're a doctor, help her."

"You're a doctor." Rory pointed out.

"It's okay, we're doctors." The Time Lord squatted down and held his hands out under Amy.

"What do we do?" Rory asked.

The Doctor looked up at Hollie to see if she had any ideas, the blonde held a hand to her mouth, a grin on her lips. "Hold on." He looked between her and Amy, who didn't look like she was in any pain or discomfort. "Were you pretending?" He asked Amy.

"This is my life now and it just turned you white as a sheet, so don't you call it dull again, ever. Okay?"

"Sorry." The Doctor apologised.

"Yeah." Amy nodded.

"Also." Hollie began to giggle, she squatted down and copied what the Doctor did to Amy. "How was this going to work?" She giggled louder. "Did you think it was going to just materialise in your hands?"

Amy laughed as well, the Doctor and Rory looked at each other as the two women walked over to a nearby swing set. "We can't win with them can we?" Rory asked.

"Did we not already learn that?" The Doctor replied before following Hollie and Amy over to the swings. "Now, we all know there's an elephant in the room..." the Doctor stated, eyes carefully watching Mrs Poggit walk up the steps towards a ruined castle.

"I have to be this size, I'm having a baby." Amy huffed.

"No, no. The hormones seem real, but no." He shook his head. "Is nobody going to mention Rory's ponytail?"

Hollie laughed before nodding and motioning scissors with her fingers. "You two hold him down, I'll cut it off?"

"This from the man in the bow tie."

"Bow ties are cool." The Doctor replied before he looked at Mrs Poggit again, a group of children now playing in the castle ruins. "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't hire Mrs Poggit as a babysitter. What's she doing? What does she want?"

"Oh no." Hollie groaned as the birds tweeting started again.

⎯
TARDIS
⎯

"It's really cold." Amy complained.

"I think I found some blankets or something over there the other day?" Hollie frowned, pointing down some steps.

"What does it matter if we're cold?" The Doctor questioned. "We have to know what she is up to."

"Can we just get warm please." Hollie pleaded.

"Sorry." He apologised. "I think the stuff you found is still down there. Have a look."

The three humans went down the small steps.

"I want the other life." Rory stated. "You know, where we're happy and settled and about to have a baby." He looked at Amy.

"But don't you wonder, if that life is real, then why would we give up all this?" Amy questioned. "Why would anyone?"

"Because we're going to freeze to death?" He questioned.

"The Doctor'll fix it."

"Okay. Because we're going to get married?"

"We can still get married some day."

Hollie looked between them. "I'll just go help the Doctor." She told them. "Don't kill each other." She pointed at them both. "Please."

Amy and Rory watched her leave before Rory sighed. "You don't want to any more. I thought you'd chosen me, not him."

"You are always so insecure." Amy shook her head. "You ran off with another man." He reminded.

"Not in that way."

"It was the night before our wedding."

"We're in a time machine. It can be the night before our wedding for as long as we want plus I didn't plan anything, Hollies the one who had a crush on the Doctor ever since he came back two years ago, even if she doesn't want to admit it."

"She won't admit it because she can't see it." Rory pointed out. "But Amy, we have to grow up eventually."

"Says who?" She questioned, grabbing teo more blankets, handing one to Rory before she headed up the stairs.

The two watched as the Doctor fitted the final part to a device he had made out of some rope, a whisk and a bottle opener. He grinned, demonstrating to Hollie before blinking as Amy and Rory walked over. "Ah, Rory, wind." He handed the device to him. "Amy, could you attach this to the monitor, please." He handed the other part of the device.

"I was promised amazing worlds. Instead I get duff central heating and a weird, kitcheny wind-up device."

"It's a generator. Get winding."

"Not enough."

"Rory, wind." The Doctor ordered.

"Why is the Dream Lord picking on you? Why us? "

The scanner turned on, Hollie blinked looking at a light blue star. "What's that?"

"We're in trouble." The Doctor swallowed hard. "That." He pointed at the screen. "Is a cold star." He headed to the doors, the humans following him. "That's why we're freezing." He stated as he opened the doors. "It's not a heating malfunction. We're drifting towards a cold sun. There's our deadly danger for this version of reality."

"So this must be the dream. There's no such thing as a cold star. Stars burn."

"So's this one." He shrugged. "It's just burning cold."

"Is that possible?" Rory asked.

"I can't know everything." He replied. "Why does everybody expect me to, always?"

"Because you're you and you're clever?" Hollie raised a brow.

The Doctor pointed at her. "Okay, point taken."

"This is something you haven't seen before. So does that mean this is the dream?" Rory asked.

The Doctor sighed. "I don't know, but there it is, and I'd say we've got about fourteen minutes until we crash into it. But that's not a problem."

"Because you know how to get us out of this?" Rory hoped.

"Because we'll have frozen to death by then." He stated.

"Cheery," Hollie stated.

"Oh, then what are we going to do?" Amy asked.

"Stay calm. Don't get sucked into it, because this just might be the battle that we have to lose."

"Oh, this is so you, isn't it?" Rory scoffed.

"What?"

"Huh, what?" He looked at him. "A weird new star, fourteen minutes left to live and only one man to save the day, huh? I just wanted a nice village and a family." He complained.

"Oh dear, Doctor." The Dream Lord appeared. "Dissent in the ranks. There was an old doctor from Gallifrey, who ended up throwing his life away. He let down his friends and-" the Dream Lord stopped as the birds began to chirp. "Oh, no. We've run out of time. Don't spend too long there, or you'll catch your death here."