- 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 !

041

—Chapter Forty-one | The Pandorica Opens

—IT WAS AWKWARD AND SAD. Rory had come to find out that Amy Pond, his soon-to-be-wife hadn't a clue who he was. Eve watched the conversation go down from where she sat.

"There are cracks. Cracks in time. There's going to be a huge explosion in the future, on one particular day. And every other moment in history is cracking around it." The Doctor explained to Rory as he soniced the Pandorica.

"So how does that work?" Rory asked. Eve could tell he was feeling all kinds of emotions. Anger, confusion, sadness. "What kind of explosion? What exploded?"

There was a small silence for a moment before the Doctor spoke. "Doesn't matter, the cracks are everywhere. Get too close and you can fall right out of the universe."

"So I fell through a crack and now I was never born?"

"Basically." The Doctor nodded.

"How did I end up here?"

"I don't know, you shouldn't have." The Doctor suddenly dropped what he was doing and walked towards Rory. "What happened? From your point of view, what physically happened?"

"I was in the cave, with you, Eve and Amy. I was dying, and then I was just here, a Roman soldier. A proper Roman." Rory pointed at his head. "Head full of Roman... stuff, a whole other life. Just here like I'd woken up from a dream. Started to think it was a dream. You, Eve and Amy and Leadworth. Then today, in the camo, the men were talking about the visitors, the girl with the red hair. I thought you'd come back for me. But she can't even remember me."

"Oh, shut up." The Doctor said after Rory's ramble.

"What?" The Doctor smiled before tossing the ring towards him. Rory looked down at the ring as the Doctor smiled.

"Go get her."

"But I don't understand." Rory walked forward. "Why am I here?"

"Because you are." Eve stood as the Doctor spoke. "The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous, and sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles, and that's the theory. 900 years, never seen one yet. But this would do me."

"Oi, go upstairs!" Eve smiled as she put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "She's Amy and she's surrounded by Romans."

"I'm not sure history can take it." The Doctor told him. Rory nodded before going to see his Amy. Eve smiled while putting her other hand on her heart.

"I feel so proud." She pretended to wipe a tear. "Like a proud mother." The Doctor shook his head with a smile before walking back to doing what he was doing before. 

River's voice began to echo through the Radio causing Eve to walk towards the Doctor who answered it. He asked where his Tardis was but he didn't receive an answer to that question. The Romans around them were looking around. "Don't raise your voice, don't look alarmed, just listen. They're not real, they can't be. They're all right here in the storybook, those actual Romans, the ones I sent you, the ones you're with right now. They're all in a book in Amy's house, a children's picture book."

"What are you even doing there?" The Doctor asked.

"The Tardis went wrong. Doctor, how is this possible?" 

"Something's using her memories, Amy's memories." Eve looked around, watching as the supposedly not-real Romans joked around with the Cyber gun.

"But how?" 

"You said something had been there." 

"Yes, there's burn marks on the grass outside, landing patterns." Eve began to pace up and down, distracted by her own thoughts but still listening to the conversation.