Lost In Translation

Unconventional

"Rebooting."

"Uh, what?" My brain switched back on my eyes just after my ears, so I saw Rory stood there, before the box fully disconnected form me and I gasped at all the sounds I got, falling out the box. "Whoa! Beth? Beth, your neck-"

To which I pulled free and vomited by the side of the box. "They shut me down. Base of my brain stem, it's basically a plug in point only it makes me sick when I unplug which is why I interface and not plug in. How did you just do that?"

"You gave me this."

I frowned at his hands, holding a computer thing I liked to steal from River. "River's computer is in my bag, look." I took it out, but it sparked from proximity to the other. "Oh, that explains it, I think. Sorry, still rebooting, my head is spinning. Temporal energy. Same computer at different points in time. Which means I apparently did give it to you but in my future. Wow, I have a future, even if it will apparently be fucking painful. A little like the calcified Daleks, wow."

"Yeah. What are they?"

Why had you all forgotten Dalek's? Wish I could. "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."

"Er, what does that mean?"

Still loading that bit. "Total event collapse. The universe literally never happened."

He blinked at me, taking my first aid kit and dealing with the mess of the needle in my neck. "So, how can we be here? What's keeping us safe?"

We were far from safe, Fy Annwyl. "Nothing. Eye of the storm, that's all, Fy Annwyl. We're just the last light to go out." Oh, no. "Wild Cat. Where's Wild Cat?"

Back upstairs, a blanket over her as I gently felt for brain patterns. "I killed her."

"Oh, Fy Annwyl."

"Bethy, what am I?"

I glanced up at him, needing to know he couldn't snap again. "You're a Nestene Duplicate. A lump of plastic with delusions of humanity."

This still wasn't fully computing with him. "But I'm Rory now." Were you? "Whatever was happening, it's stopped. I'm Rory."

"That's software talking. Trust me, I ought to know."

His attention was mostly on Wild Cat. "Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?"

I could feel her, her brain was still powered, even if her body was atrophying. "Yeah, probably, if I had the time."

"The time?"

Standing, I felt more sick churning in my stomach. "All of creation has just been wiped from the sky, the universe is oh so quiet, Rory. Do you know how many lives never happened? All the people who never lived? Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe."

To which I was punched. Hard. "She is to me!"

Spitting blood, I gave a smile. "Welcome back, Fy Annwyl. Sorry, you tricked me once before and I had to be sure. I must say, that's a hell of a gun arm. You're getting married in the morning, come on, stop looking so miserable."

Then got him to carry her downstairs, setting her up inside the box. "So you've got a plan, then?"

"Part of a plan, yes." I agreed, snapping off the needle to stop it doing the same to her that it did to me. "Memories are more powerful that you think, and my Fiery Wild Cat is not an ordinary girl. Grew up with a time crack in her wall. The universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestene took a memory print of her and got far more than they bargained for, like with you. Not just your face like I could have done, but your heart and soul. Her mind won't even let me inside." But carefully used her weak, dead state to allow my words to stay inside her short term memory. For her, no time would pass. "I'm leaving her a message for when she wakes up, so she knows what's happening."