Doctor Who fanfic: From Within (3/6)

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Title: From Within
Author: sarah531
Rating: PG13
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Rory, Amy, Eleven, OCs
Pairing: Amy/Rory
Summary: Amy and Rory are enslaved on a hostile world, the Doctor is a prisoner, and things can’t get any worse for them. Unless they’re given to the terrible things which lurk in the planet’s caves, unless they accept what they’re offered…

Previous:
Chapter one
Chapter two

From Within

The next day it rained, the first rain for ages, but Amy ventured into the Hole nonetheless, praying no guards or apprentices would notice, and they didn’t seem to.

Before long, Alya joined her.

“Why aren’t you on Security?” Amy asked. “Rory! Where’s Rory?”

“Relax,” said Alya. “They’ve reassigned me, just not your husband.”

“He’s there alone?”

“Yeah. But he tells me he used to be a soldier.”

“He did,” Amy said. “He was a really good one.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Today, I’m fixing up Mort’s uniform.” And she reached into a little bag she was carrying and produced the letters M, T, C and S. She gave a little smile. “Do you know what I have to do?”

“What?”

“I have to put one drop of my blood on every letter of his name. To represent the blood of humans he’s spilled.”

“Oh God, Alya…” But she had to change the subject. “What about Rory?”

“He’s fine!”

Amy sighed. “Okay. Okay, fine. You were gonna tell me something, right?”

“Yeah. About getting into the Phoenix.”

“You know a way?”

“Sort of. Back in the old days, when things were a tiny, tiny bit less nasty, people were assigned there. They went in the back way, I don’t know if it’s still there, this was years ago. And I never went. But I thought, if you sneaked away during the Retirement, or something…maybe find the back entrance, maybe go in?”

Amy considered this. “Sounds dangerous.”

“Well, you seem to be the dangerous type.”

Amy nodded, thinking familiar thoughts, feeling what she had been feeling the day she freed the Star Whale. “I am. So’s Rory. So’s the Doctor.”

“Well, good. Because there have been escape attempts before.” Alya took Amy’s note from her pocket and gave it back to her. On the back was a crude map of the compound and the Phoenix. “I handed it around, asked people to draw what they knew. Most of them don’t believe you can do it, and I’m not sure either, but…”

“Thank you,” Amy said. She put the paper in her pocket and said, “I can do it. At the next Retirement, me and Rory will get away and break in, alright? I can save you! I can save you all.”

“Slow down there, hero,” Alya said sadly. “Good luck.”

*

The next Retirement came soon, and Amy and Rory were gathered up when they tried to hide behind a rock, and they clung to each other as Mort read the names out. Theirs were not on the list.

Two apprentices came and wrenched them apart.

“Behave, lovebirds! Or you’ll be next in there.”

The four poor people chosen were forced inside the cave, and the waiting begun again. Amy had of course filled Rory in on everything, and she saw him mouth, “How do we escape?”

“Distraction?” Amy whispered.

“How have you not thought this through?” he whispered back. And it was true, she hadn’t, really. She had thought they’d get an oppotunity to hide behind the tombstones, and make their way to the Phoenix undetected, but no opportunity was coming.

She cursed herself. Stupid little Amy, stupid little Amelia, she’d learned so little!

Alya poked her in the back.

“I’ll give you a distraction,” she whispered, a weird grin on her face, and before Amy could stop her she dived forward through the crowds and screamed, “Stop! Stop this madness! This madness must end!”

All eyes turned to her, all the guards drew their guns, and Mort retreated quickly, ducking behind the stage and out of sight. Amy grabbed Rory’s hand and ran blindly, as others did. Suddenly chaos was everywhere, and Alya stood in the middle.

“Shoot me where I stand!” screamed Alya, and gunfire ran out as Rory and Amy ducked behind the biggest stone. They remained there, waiting, waiting for gunfire in their direction, but none came.

“Oh God,” Amy whispered. “She did that for us!”

Rory was shaking.

“And it was my fault!”

“No,” Rory said, “no, it wasn’t, that was her choice!”

The guards were angrily gathering people up. Peering out from behind the tombstone, Amy and Rory saw Alya’s body being kicked away.

“They’re gonna notice we’re gone,” Rory whispered. “Hurry!” And although his heart broke at the thought that a girl had just died for them, he led Amy away, ducking between the tombstones, hiding amongst the dead.

*

Mort walked through the corridors, shrugging off his ceremonial uniform, shredding leaves. He reached the Doctor’s room- he was once again tied up with the unbreakable rope- and burst in.

“Your friends,” he said to the Doctor. “They’re on their way. Coming to save you. Such noble and useless creatures!”

The Doctor just smiled.

“You can’t beat them. You can’t beat me. Not now I know who you are,” he said.

“I’ll throw them to the caves!”

The Doctor’s smile faded.

“Right,” he said. “Did I mention, Mort The Coming Son, that I have a really clever plan?”

*

Treading quietly, Amy and Rory reached the back door. They could hear faint noises from the camp behind them; it sounding like the remaining prisoners were being ordered to return to their work.

“I thought they’d be more guards,” Rory said. “I mean, I didn’t want there to be, I just thought we’d have to do more sneaking past them, I think we’re getting good at the sneaking, and I’m rambling cos I’m scared.”

Amy squeezed his hand.

“Let’s get to the door,” she said, and together they ran towards it. Neither of them expected it to be open, but it was, and they stumbled inside.

Inside it was dark, and no-one was there. There was the drip-drip of water, which made Amy tense, but it seemed to be coming from a tap. The place was quite wet, and muddy, a good environment for a plant-

“Leaves,” Amy said. “A trail of leaves.”

Both looked at them. Rory bent down and nervously picked one up.

“Like, um, breadcrumbs,” he said, and both of them thought of fairytales and all the ones they’d lived already.

*

“Yes,” said Mort, “you’re full of really clever plans, aren’t you, Doctor?”

“I am a bit.”

“So sure of your own intelligence and goodness.”

“Actually, it’s other people’s goodness I’m relying on this time,” said the Doctor. And then he smiled. “You really don’t know what you are. Do you?”

“Yes!” snapped Mort. “I am of the Forest, and human beings tried to destroy my people! They killed thousands! I, Mort The Coming Son, will have my revenge on them, these creatures who attempted to wipe out my race! I am the destroyer-”

“-of worlds,” finished the Doctor.

Mort stared in surprise but the Doctor only smiled.

“The Coming Son,” he said. “So, who are your parents?”

*

“I can’t stop thinking about what Alya did,” said Rory.

“Me neither,” Amy said.

They walked, following the leaves, through dark and dripping corridors.

“After this-” Rory began.

“Yeah?”

“D’ya want to…you know…go home for a bit?”

Amy thought about this. “You mean Leadworth?”

“That’s our home.”

“Yeah,” Amy said. “I do. I miss my parents.”

“Me too.”

With that said, they walked on.

“What should we do when we find the Doctor?” Rory asked.

“We save him.”

“He’ll be surrounded by guns…”

Amy paused and said, “Rory…”

“What?”

She shook her head angrily. “Just don’t die! Don’t get in the way of anything!”

And they walked and walked, and the corridor stretched on, and Rory thought of his first proper death. It had been like a long, dark corridor (he thought. Like many of his memories, this one was only just there) and at the end, Amy was waiting, Amy and the Doctor, and he’d run and run towards them, seeing the blurry bright orange of Amy’s hair, wanting so much to be alive again…

*

“I am the Son of the Forest! The one who will save us all, who will lead my glorious race to triumph! Over all!”

“Really,” said the Doctor.

“My race should take its rightful place, as the leaders and rulers of the world!”

“Oh dear.”

“Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “I do. But you still haven’t answered my question. Who’s your mother? Who’s your father?”

*

At the end of the corridor there were a pile of clothes. Mort’s.

Amy knelt down and picked them up. Bits of tangled leaf and flower she put aside, and then she picked up the letters that spelt Mort’s name.

“Alya had to put a drop of blood on each of these,” she said. “What a way to spend your last hours.” She felt like crying.

Rory put his hands on her shoulders as Amy threw the letters to the ground. A spot of blood was on each, O, N, C, M, S…

Something was at the back of his brain and trying to fight its way up.

“Amy,” he said.

Amy looked at the letters on the floor. Whatever was dawning on him was dawning on her too, a name she’d heard once rising to the surface. Slowly, she reached out and took some of the bloodstained pieces, and then she said,

“Oh.”

Rory understood too. Between them they arranged the letters on the dirty, wet floor. When they were done, the letters of Mort’s name spelt out something different…

THE ONCOMING STORM, was what it said.