Fight For Freedom |4| The Ascension

Chapter Thirteen: The Hungry Earth

"Behold, Rio!" the Doctor exclaimed, throwing the TARDIS doors open to reveal... a graveyard.

"Not how I remember it," McKenzie frowned, stepping out of the TARDIS in shorts, a t-shirt and, of course, high heels.

"Nah," Amy shook her head.

Pietro raised his eyebrows, hooking his shades in his t-shirt. "Climate change?" Zoë rolled her eyes.

"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe," Rory admitted.

"No?" the Doctor asked absently, bouncing slightly. He was in his usual bow tie and tweed. "Ooh, feel that, though. What's that?" He jumped up and down. "Ground feels strange." The others all stared at him, and he blinked. "Just me, then."

"Wait, that's weird," Zoë frowned, heading over to a patch of blue grass nearby. The Doctor and McKenzie followed immediately.

"What's weird?" Rory asked.

Amy sighed, folding her arms against the breeze. "Guys, stop trying to distract us. We're in the wrong place. Doctor, it's freezing and I'm dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here. Doctor!" The man didn't look up. "You listening to me? It's a graveyard. You promised me a beach."

"Blue grass," the Time Lord frowned, straightening. "Patches of it all around the graveyard. Okay, so, Earth, 2020-ish, about four years in your future. Wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot."

"Not by your standards, from what I've heard," Pietro smirked.

"Oi!"

The Sokovian raised his eyebrows. "5 minutes vs 12 years?"

The Doctor pouted. "The engines were phasing!"

"How about that time you dropped Mum and Rose off a year late and made Nana Jackie think they'd died?" Zoë pointed out.

He rubbed his cheek self-consciously. "Yeah, okay, I'm never gonna forget that one." He turned to McKenzie, circling his fingers around her wrist as usual. "Why do you keep me around, again?"

"Basically, you're cute and you have a nice ass," she replied, grinning. "Also, the whole 'all of time and space' thing. Oh, and you can dance. But mostly the ass." She winked.

"Who are those people waving at us?" Amy frowned, gesturing over to a pair of people on the other side of the valley.

McKenzie turned to look, then frowned. "Can't be."

Rory started to wave back, but Amy grabbed his hand. "Don't."

"Hang on," McKenzie mumbled, using JENSEN to zoom in. Her eyes widened. "It is! It's you two."

Rory blinked. "No, we're here. How can we be up there?"

"Four years in your future," the Doctor shrugged. "Come to relive past glories, I'd imagine. Humans, you're so nostalgic."

"We're still together in 2020?" Amy marvelled.

"No need to sound so surprised," Rory frowned.

"Hey, let's go and talk to them," Amy suggested. "We can say hi to future us. How cool is that?"

"Uh, no, best not," McKenzie intervened hurriedly. "Really best not. These things get complicated very quickly, and -"

"Oh, look!" the Doctor exclaimed, having wandered off. "Big mining thing!"

McKenzie grinned. "Oh, I love a big mining thing! See, way better than Rio. Rio doesn't have a big mining thing."

"We're not going to have a look, are we?" Amy groaned.