Checkmate (Doctor Who fanfiction)

Nope.

Disclaimer: I only own Ruby. Evering else belongs to BBC Doctor Who.

I ran from the room fear pumping through me. What did I just do? Now he was guaranteed to beat me. I heard him calling my name, but I didn't listen to him. I grabbed The Doctor's hand tightly. He looked at me oddly.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you think it's the best idea to put the fate of the world in his hands?" I asked. The Doctor seemed lost to my reasons for this.

"Why not?"

I didn't answer that. He already knew something was up. I couldn't let him know anything more. His fingers curled around mine protectively and pulled me out of the house.

Okay, well I'm gonna throw another time jump here, since the next five minutes we were running to a fire station. Pretty soon he was talking to Amy on the phone, who'd found Prisoner Zero at the hospital, and driving in a fire truck. It escalated quickly, I know.

Touchdown. The ladder smashed through the correct window. The Doctor was suddenly climbing up and motioning for me to follow. I swallowed. I wasn't too fond of heights. But I forced myself to put one foot and hand in front of the other, and pretty soon, I tumbled through the window.

"Ruby!" Rory ran over. I gratefully took the hand he extended. Standing up, I stumbled. Amy joined me, grabbing my shoulders to keep me up and giving me a reassuring smile.

I smiled a little. The Doctor was rambling on to a woman and two small girls who I'm assuming was Prisoner Zero, considering the menacing look in their eyes.

"The cracks in the skin of time. Don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you? The Doctor in the Tardis doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know!" It teased, switching between voices creepily.

I noticed the clock in the room was changing, one at a time, to zero. Oh. Oh! I got it! I understood! I smiled, even though The Doctor was talking seriously, and Amy and Rory didn't understand.

Then, there were three zeros were on the clock and The Doctor smiled.

"And we're there!" He pointed at the clock. "Look. Look at that!" Prisoner Zero looked at the clock, and back at The Doctor, obviously unimpressed. "Yeah, just one clock, whatever, but it's more then that. Because right now, in one bedroom, my team is working. Jeff and the world. And what they're doing, is whispering a word all over the planet. Everywhere. And do you know what the word is?"

No response.

"The word is zero." He smirked. "Now, if I was in a big old spaceship, monitoring all of earth, I'd take that as a hint. And if I took said hint, I'd be able to track a simple computer virus back to it's source in, oh, under a minute?"

Suddenly a bright light came through the window and The Doctor looked very close to laughing.

"Oh and I think they just found it!"

"The Atraxe are limited. While I'm in this form, they will not be able to identify me."

"Yes, but this is the best part, I mean, this is my favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of?"

Still no response.

"Pictures of you. In every form you've learned to take. And being uploaded..." He clicked a button. "Now. No Tardis, no sonic, two minute to spare, who da man?!"

Guess what? No response.

"I'm never saying that again," he grumbled. "Fine." It was cold, but, probably for the best that he never said that again.

"Then I shall take a new form," Prisoner Zero announced.

"Stop it, you know you can't! It takes months to form that kind of link."

"And I've had years," Prisoner Zero said mockingly. The last thing I remembered was collapsing to the cold ground. Oh, of course. I spent every spare minute with Amy. I'd be preferable, since I was more of a thinker. Of course Prisoner Zero would choose me. I was... well, different. just like it.

I woke up in a haze, the last of my dream slipping from my head. Rory was kneeling by me, and Amy stared at me with a concerned expression. The Doctor was talking rapidly on a phone. All I caught was "back here, now." Oh, great.

"What?" Rory said cluelessly as I got up and followed Amy and the Doctor from the room. "Did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" He continued rambling as we walked down a hallway. The Doctor took a detour to a locker room like room, and started rifling through clothes. "Are you stealing clothes now? He those clothes belong to people, you know!" Rory said.

"I'm saving the world, I need a decent shirt."

Okay, sure, I guess I could like him. The sass! Without warning, he started stripping down.

"And now you're taking your clothes off? Amy, he's taking his clothes off," Rory said. The Doctor scoffed.

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," The Doctor answered. Rory did just that, but I just rolled my eyes, and Amy and I exchanged glances, ignoring Rory's ramble about how the clothes he was putting on belonged to people. Rory looked at Amy and I.

"Are you not gonna turn your backs?"

Amy and I shot mischievous looks at each other and back at The Doctor. I scanned him and smirked.  I think I was speaking for both of us, when I said, "Nope."

A/N: It was kind of short, I know... still, a chapter's a chapter, right?