The Littlest Timelord: Cracks in Time

Chapter 33

"Doctor?"

"Hush, Rory. Thinking. Why leave a Cyberman on guard, unless it's a Cyberthing in the box. But why would they lock up one of their own? Okay, no, not a Cyberthing, but what? What? No, I'm missing something obvious, Rory. Something big. Something right slap in front of me. I can feel it."

Elise thought it was funny how the Doctor was standing right in front of Rory (and addressing him by name) and still not realizing that he was talking to Rory.

"Yeah, I think you probably are," Rory told him.

"I'll get it in a minute."

The Doctor walked into the next room and dropped the guns. He re-entered the chamber and poked Rory. "Hello again," he said.

"Hello." "How've you been?"

"Good. Yeah. Good. I mean, Roman."

The awkwardness was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Rory, I'm not trying to be rude, but you died."

"Yeah, I know. I was there."

"You died and then you were erased from time. You didn't just die, you were never born at all. You never existed."

"Erased? What does that mean?"

"How can you be here?"

"I don't know. It's kind of fuzzy."

"Fuzzy?"

"Well, I died and turned into a Roman. It's very distracting."

Rory walked over to Amy and stroked her hair. "Did she miss me?"

Before the Doctor could answer his question, the ground shook.

They ran back into the chamber to find the designs on the Pandorica were glowing green and moving.

"What is it? What's happening?" Rory asked.

"The final phase. It's opening." The Doctor grabbed his communicator and called River. "Yes. Now hurry up and get the TARDIS here I need equipment!" He hung up and approached the Pandorica. "What are you? They're all here, all of them, all for you. What could you possibly be?"

The Doctor grabbed the communicator and soniced it, effectively making it a megaphone. "Sorry, sorry, dropped it. Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe," he said as they ascended the stairs, "But bad news, everyone..." The Doctor jumped up on the Altar stone. "Because guess who? Ha! Listen, you lot, you're all whizzing about. It's really very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I am talking!"

The spaceships stopped moving.

"The question of the hour is, who's got the Pandorica? Answer, I do. Next question. Who's coming to take it from me? Come on! Look at me. No plan, no back up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else. I don't have anything to lose! So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, and then, do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first."

Elise clapped as the spaceships retreated. She hoped that one day she could give speeches like that. She wanted to be exactly like the Doctor when she grew up.

The Doctor jumped down from the Altar stone and high-fived Elise. "That'll keep them squabbling for half an hour," the Doctor told them, "Romans." The Doctor, Elise, and Rory went back down to the Pandorica chamber.

"They're still out there. What do we do now?" Rory asked.

"If I can stop whatever's in this box getting out, then they'll go home."

"Right."

"Rory, I'm sorry. You're going to have to be very brave now."

Amy walked straight past Rory to get to the Doctor. "Oh, my head."

"Ah," the Doctor said, opening his mouth.

Amy did the same.

"Just your basic knock-out drops. Get some fresh air, you'll be fine," he told her.

"Is it safe up there?"

"Not remotely, but it's fresh."

"Fine." Amy turned around and bumped into Rory. "Oh, you're the guy, yeah? The one who did the swordy thing."

"Yeah," he said.

"Well, thanks for the swording. Nice swording."

Amy headed up the stairs.

"No problem. My men are up there. They'll look after you," Rory told her.

"Good. Love a Roman."

Rory turned back to the Doctor. "She doesn't remember me. How can she not remember me?"

"Because you never existed. There are cracks. Cracks in time. There's going to be a huge explosion in the future, on one particular day. And every other moment in history is cracking around it."

"So how does that work? What kind of explosion? What exploded?"

"Doesn't matter. The cracks are everywhere now. Get too close to them and you can fall right out of the universe."

"So I fell through a crack and now I was never born?"

"Basically."

"Well, how did I end up here?"

"I don't know, you shouldn't have." The Doctor stopped working on the Pandorica and approached Rory. "What happened? From your point of view, what physically happened?"

"I was in the cave, with you, Elise, and Amy. I was dying, and then I was just here, a Roman soldier. A proper Roman. Head full of Roman stuff. A whole other life, just here like I'd woken up from a dream. I started to think it was a dream, you, Amy, Elise, and Leadworth. And then today, in the camp, the men were talking about the visitors. The girl with the red hair. I thought you'd come back for me. But she can't even remember me."

"Oh, shut up."

"What?"

The Doctor tossed the ring box to Rory. "Go get her."

"But I don't understand. Why am I here?"

"Because you are. The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous, and sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles, and that's the theory. Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me. Now get upstairs. She's Amy and she's surrounded by Romans. I'm not sure history can take it." The Doctor clapped Rory on the back and he left.

Elise looked up at the Doctor with a smile.

"Oh shut up", he told her.