The Adventures of the Doctor and Rory the Roman: Nine

[jesterladyfic]

502 AD

Rory missed the old days. Not just the really old days when he’d been human and had a not-block Amy, but the old days when it had just been him and the Pandorica underground and he could talk to Amy and pretty much spent his time trying not to go crazy with boredom.

These days he had to try to make sure that all the vying forces of the world didn’t harm Amy or her prison. It was now about four hundred years since he’d been left behind to guard but he hadn’t been left to do it alone for long. About 118 the Romans had come back. Some person he can’t quite remember the name of had been named Emperor and decided to celebrate at Stonehenge. Or something like that. Despite the rather serious discipline – Rory had horror memories on that score – Romans were rather good at celebrating for no reason at all. His memories on that were equally as horrendous in some ways. Whatever the reason, some rather riotous Roman celebrating had led to a bunch of drunken men somehow getting into the cavern and only Rory’s super plastic powers had kept them from killing him on the spot. Or de-plastifying him or whatever the term for making plastic not be walking and talking was.

Eventually he’d managed to convince them of the box’s magical powers and his necessity for guarding it. For the glory of Rome, don’t you know. Though they’d insisted on moving the thing to Rome and that had been a long, fun trek over oceans and continents. Now, though the Pandorica – and they had all been so impressed with the name – was considered sacred and him only less so, there were so many warring factions around him that he’d had to become quite the politician. It wouldn’t exactly have been easy to hoist the thing on his back and make a break for it. So…he changed again and became more than he’d ever imagined Rory Williams, the staff nurse from Leadworth, could be.

But, as always, he was concerned for the box. The western Roman empire was no more and Rome had been sacked more times than history was probably going to record - at least the previous version of history. This one was already wonky from what he could tell and he’d definitely not gotten an A-level there - and he didn’t want the Pandorica there anymore. But while he could probably drag it out himself if he wanted to take a very long time about it – sometimes he wished Amy was truly there to see how much stronger he was now, though if she was there would be no need to drag it anywhere – he didn’t really want to take that long. Now would be a good time for technology to kick in.

Still, he was currently fighting off multiples of the attacking hordes who had decided the Pandorica would make a grand prize. Those he could reason with he did and that’s how he’d stopped hundreds from trying to get into the box before. He was a legend now and he found it actually a little bit bothersome. Legends were always getting pestered and challenged and he had to constantly be very mysterious and oracle-like.

Not the sort of things one should be thinking about when one was fighting for their plastic life. Naturally that’s when the Doctor showed up.

One minute Rory was skewering a Vandal and the next he was being grabbed roughly by the shoulders and pulled behind the Tardis.

“Can’t even guard a box properly, what are we going to do with you, Rory Williams?”

“Uh, help?” Rory suggested, peeking around the box, not even looking at this version of the Doctor, assuming it was some version of the man.

“Cover your ears.”

“What?”

“Don’t argue with me; just cover your plastic ears. Unless you want to get disconnected from the signal.”

“About that, if whatever is controlling me doesn’t exist, how do I exist?”

“What?”

“We should probably talk about it later,” Rory said and covered his ears as tightly as possible.

The Doctor stood up and pulled out a smaller, blue-er version of the sonic screwdriver and something exploded. The hordes started to run.

The Doctor turned to Rory and grinned largely. Rory was rather taken aback by this Doctor. Black leather jacket, combat boots, shaved head, and the biggest ears he’d ever seen.

“Your ears,” he said, staring rudely and not seeming to be able to stop himself.

“What’s wrong with my ears?” the Doctor asked in a hurt tone of voice. “It’s all very well to talk, Mr. Plastic. Didn’t you even think about getting a nose reduction with the body makeover?”

“I have a million things I want to say to you right now, Doctor,” Rory said, getting up, “but I’ve got to get this box somewhere safe. Is there anything inside the Tardis that could help?”

“Where do you want it?”

“Underground, a burial tomb, anything that doesn’t involve people trying to get inside it.”

“We’ll have the Tardis tow it,” the Doctor said. “I know a great place outside of Abyssinia. Won’t get unearthed for another thousand years or so, barring unusual circumstances.” Rory didn’t like the way he said unusual circumstances. “How long are you waiting anyway?”

“1990s…” Rory trailed off because he really wasn’t certain.

Amy would be born in the eighties, but what was he supposed to do…kidnap a baby and chuck her at the Pandorica hoping that would be able to satisfy the genetic material criteria?

“Hope you last that long,” the Doctor said and darted into the Tardis. Rory stood and waited and the Doctor poked his head back out. “Well, come on. I haven’t got all fifteen hundred years even if you do.”

Rory hesitated, sheathing his sword and looking back at the Pandorica. He put his hand on it briefly and whispered a brief promise to keep her safe and then entered the Tardis.

Which was different again. Very coral. But it was much closer to the Tardis he was used to and this time he felt an even more overwhelming feeling of being home.

“I cannot get swept out into space, Doctor. Pilot very carefully.”

“Stupid plastic ape,” the Doctor muttered, flipping switches and levers. “It’s all your fault I’m here at all, you know. I got a signal and I thought to myself, ‘what a great idea! I’ll just go take care of the plastic.’ Looked like it was going to be in 2005 and then the signal jumped time tracks like crazy and I ended up here. It was you all along, polluting the timelines.”

Rory paused for a moment and then grasped a hold of a coral strut as they rocketed forward. He pushed to see the scanner and was amazed to see the city of Rome burning as they sped away from it, towing the Pandorica. He hadn’t known the city was that bad off and felt grateful the Doctor had come along when he had. Sparks flew out from the console.

“Rome’s burning,” Rory said unnecessarily.

“Rome’s always burning,” the Doctor said quietly and Rory looked at him.

“What body are you?” he asked.

“The ninth.”

“And you must know the same things my Doctor knows.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, the Time War. You were in it.”

The Doctor looked at him briefly and then glanced away.

“I go around broadcasting that now?”

“More like we had to try and get you drunk which apparently is very difficult because of some amazing Timelord bit of physiology that I’m pretty sure you made up and it was Amy who really wheedled it out of you, but you could put it like that.”

“Then this discussion is moot, yeah?” the Doctor said firmly, looking rather upset.

Rory fell silent and tried to remember anything else that had happened during that one night and that revealing conversation.

“You should go back to 2005,” he said finally. “I think something good is going to happen to you there.”

“Rory the Oracle,” the Doctor said and smiled again.

They started to really shake and Rory wondered if they were going to crash. Then there was a huge jolt and silence.

“Full stop,” the Doctor said and when Rory opened the doors, they were underground and since he was pretty sure they hadn’t dematerialized, he was confused as to how they’d gotten there.

But the Pandorica had arrived as well, even sitting prettily on a dais of some sort and they were in a tomb.

“This isn’t going to give me nightmares for centuries or anything,” he muttered.

“Autons don’t sleep,” the Doctor said.

“Oh, thanks for letting me know. I just thought the last four hundred years were a bad case of insomnia.”

“You’re all right, Rory,” the Doctor said and clapped him on the shoulder. Then he froze and looked at the Pandorica. “Why is it green?”

Rory looked and saw that the sigils on the box were starting to glow green, just like when he’d opened it for the Doctor.

“No, no!” he cried and then wheeled on the Doctor. “It must have been when you used the sonic. You have to close it again.”

“I can’t,” the Doctor said, though he was doing all sorts of things with the sonic that were making Rory dizzy. “The Tardis tow combined with the sonic signal must have set it on automatic.”

Rory watched in horror.

“She can’t wake up now, she’ll die, Doctor.”

“It won’t happen for another couple of minutes. I want you to tell me exactly what is going on. What’s wrong with the universe, why did I leave you here, and what’s in that box?”

Rory took a deep – unnecessary - breath and kept his eyes trained on the Pandorica while he explained everything that had happened to the Doctor.

“And you decided to wait for two thousand years?”

Rory turned to the Doctor.

“Of course I did.”

The Doctor started to grin and then he danced around a little bit and then he hugged Rory and then he started to fiddle with the screwdriver.

“You’re marvelous, Rory Williams. I could definitely do with more like you. Can’t wait to meet you.”

“I wasn’t as marvelous then,” Rory interjected.

“No matter.”

“And, technically, you’ve already met me. Multiple times.”

“No bother.”

“Uh, Amy.”

“Right.” The Doctor stopped messing around and they faced the Pandorica. “It’s almost open.”

“Can you close it again?”

“Yeah, I can. Just…quickly.”

The box split open and Amy appeared in a pool of light, still strapped in. Her eyes opened – but just barely - and she gave a weak grin at Rory.

“Oi, stupid.”

“You’re really marrying her?” the Doctor asked.

“Who’s that and where’s little me?” Amy demanded, her voice hoarse.

Rory was too busy rushing forward and kissing her and it had been almost half a millennium since his last snog and he figured he was good for that.

“I missed you too,” she said between kisses, “but, seriously, where’s Amelia?”

“It’s the wrong time, Amy,” he said, finally pulling back. “We have to put you back or you’re going to die.”

“Then we’ll be even,” she said, but she reached one hand up as far as she could – not only was she locked into the Pandorica, but she looked incredibly weak - and touched his face softly.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, closing his eyes and then turning to the doctor. “Doctor, can we close it and she’ll be okay? Your – his - your plan will still work?”

The Doctor scanned Amy with the screwdriver and then shook his head.

“The Doctor?” Amy asked, looking puzzled. “Not my Doctor.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

“Stupid humans,” he grumbled. “Always with the explaining. Listen up, Amy Pond, your boyfriend here is saving your life, so shut it and listen to him.”

“Why won’t it work?” Rory asked.

“One minute till she dies. And this encounter has wiped my message from her head. She won’t remember what to do in the future.”

“Can you erase this time and put it back in?”

“Yes.”

“Then do it.”

“Stop messing with my head,” Amy said, her face going white.

“Amy, you’ve got to. It’s the only way to save you.”

Amy looked at him for a second.

“Forty five seconds,” the Doctor said.

“Do it,” she said.

The Doctor leaned forward and put his hands on Amy’s temples.

“I love you,” Rory said.

“Love you too, idiot,” Amy said and then her eyes fluttered closed.

The Doctor stepped back and Rory watched the box close, shutting Amy in again.

“I guess I got more than I’d hoped for when I agreed to wait that long,” Rory said. “That’s the first time she’s ever told me she loved me, you know.”

“Better hope for a better next first time,” the Doctor said. “That was rubbish.”

“Stamp on a boy’s dreams, why don’t you, Doctor?” Rory said, feeling a bit giddy now that Amy was safe again and she’d at least given him a clue about what his Doctor had been planning for restoring her.

“Cheerfully,” the Doctor answered and then they looked awkwardly at each other for a moment.

“So, you’re probably headed out,” Rory said.

“Yeah, gotta keep living those pointless years until I fix everything.”

“How many more of you can there be?”

“Four more after me,” the Doctor said softly. “Yours can’t be that far off.”

“You’re a very confusing alien, Doctor.”

“Yup,” the Doctor said, grinning. “Listen, Rory, time’s all in a mess, but it’s going to right itself out if this works. But you might need to do a little manual fixing. Keep that in mind for the next couple of centuries, huh?”

“What?” Rory asked and then didn’t bother repeating the question.

It was somehow all very pointless arguing with the Doctor and with time and with whatever was going to happen. He had his job to do and that was the point. That was the point of being plastic, of waiting, of being Rory the Centurion.

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Doctor.”

The Doctor stepped back into the Tardis and then stepped back out with a cardboard box and handed it to Rory.

“You had that ready,” Rory said, looking into it.

“Yup. Alleviate the boredom a bit.”

“You are my favorite alien,” Rory said.

The Doctor simply waved and vanished back into the Tardis and it left again.

Rory smiled and thumbed through his box. Some of his favorite books. Practically all of them hadn’t been written yet.

There were language books and history books and instruction manuals.

Yes, this would be very useful.

He found a safe corner and explored his surroundings. Safety of the Pandorica above all else.

Then he opened a book and started reading it out loud. Amy might as well enjoy this too.

Comments

[storywriter84.livejournal.com]

Books! The best weapons and friends you could ever have. I miss the ninth doctor. Great job!

[jesterladyfic.livejournal.com]

He's absolutely fantastic! Thank you!

[rosaxx50.livejournal.com]

Awww, books. You have a very deft hand when relating all the history, adding a twist of humour (Rome is always burning!) to the situation, as well as all the references to RTD!Who.

[jesterladyfic.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm not a history buff by any means so this was a challenge for me.