Fight or Flight ( Doctor Who Fanfiction )

The Big Bang

The good news was, the army of aliens had not killed me. The bad news was, it was only because every single one of them had turned to stone, and I was still trapped with my arms locked in the motionless grips of Roman soldiers.

I didn't know why or how, and there was no one left for me to ask. I'd shouted and screamed for help, but nothing. No Amy. No Rory. No Doctor.

I was trying to fight an ever-growing fear that I would starve down here, when I heard footsteps.

I didn't dare call out, still believing it best if I laid low.

But then I realized I recognized the gait. And I caught a glimpse of the Roman garb, and I was done-for.

"Rory!" I shouted. And I was crying.

"Omara?"

"Rory, you're here! You're alive!"

"You're okay! You remember me!" He ran up to me, eyes damp, threw his arms around my shoulders.

"Rory, my arms," I said, unable to hug him back.

"Oh. Right. You can't wriggle out?"

"If I could, do you think I'd have stood here for the past hour?"

"I guess not."

"I don't know what to do, Rory," I admitted, on the verge of tears. "They put him in the box, I don't - I don't know - "

Rory held up the sonic screwdriver, and I stopped mid-sentence. I blinked a few times.

"How?"

"Long story," he said, and held it out towards the Pandorica.

The walls opened again, and there sat the Doctor.

He stared at us as his bonds opened, still not moving. "How did you do that?"

"You gave me this."

The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver out, so now there were two of them. "No, I didn't."

"You did. Look at it."

He held out the screwdriver and tapped it lightly against Rory's. A couple of sparks popped between them.

"Temporal energy. Same screwdriver at different points in its own time stream. Which means it was me who gave it to you. Me from the future. I've got a future. That's nice." He looked over at me, and saw my predicament. "That's not."

He came up to me, looking me in the eyes for a moment, and I felt a familiar pull.

"I'm sorry," I said soft enough so Rory wouldn't hear. "I should have held on longer, I should have done something to help, I - "

I went quiet when he pressed his lips to my forehead.

He pulled away and smoothed the back of his thumb down my cheek. I couldn't read his expression. It was gentle, or warm, or confused.

"Shush," he said simply, and turned his attention to my stone captors.

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"Well, history has collapsed. Whole races have been deleted from existence. These are just like after-images. Echoes. Fossils in time. The footprints of the never-were."

"Can you get her out?" Rory asked.

"Probably. Give me a mo."

"You said they were deleted?" I looked around at the dark chamber of statues, lit up only by the cold light flowing from the Pandorica.

"Total event collapse. The universe literally never happened," he answered, still scanning along the Romans' arms.

"So, how can we be here? What's keeping us safe?" Rory asked.