HEY PEEPS. Sorry I like, vanished for 100 years. I got sort of sick of this fic and then got caught up in some other projects. But then I started feeling guilty because I knew that I had this chapter like, half written for several months. I was only reluctant to post it because I wasn't liking where the second half was going. But I made some changes and I think I'm okay with it now. I have more of a wide view when it comes to writing this fic, and sometimes the smaller details aren't that clear, if that makes sense. But I'm working it all out. I wasn't really done with this chapter either, but I figure it's been long enough so I might as well post it and keep working.

It was dark. Very dark: The deep of space, it seemed. though there were no stars shining brightly. The Doctor saw his TARDIS spinning out of control towards a belt of meteors. He was moving. He felt as if he was resting upon a cloud, passing below a dark sky which pictured his TARDIS in peril. But... the sky wasn't dark. No, it seemed brighter. Blue, even. And The Doctor soon found that he was not moving. He wasn't moving at all, but was laying on his back, on something very solid and hard. Strangely enough, The Doctor found that this glimpse he had of his TARDIS moving alarmingly towards an asteroid belt was projected upon the countless clouds above his head, which were in fact the moving objects in this equation of disorientation.

"Doctor," came Rory's voice. He had been lying next to him, and was staring upwards at the sky with wide eyes, "Is it just me, or are the clouds showing films?"

The Doctor looked back up at the sky. He saw a golden tower collapsing, a green explosion, and a young boy driving a flying car. "It seems so," he said.

He and Rory sat up, glancing up at the clouds now and then.

"Well where are we?" Rory asked, looking around.

The two winded time travellers were sitting on a large terrain of black and white marble tiles, reminiscent of chessboard design. Between the cracked and weathered marble, green grass and other flora sprouted out. Nature also showed itself in the streams which poured out of mountains in the distance. Artificial architecture in the forms of castle peaks prevailed upon the horizon.

"Fancy a game of chess, Rory?" The Doctor mumbled.

Rory looked down at the ground, noticing something unsettling.

"There's blood on the ground," he said, pointing his finger at a medium sized red pool. The Doctor inspected it too.

Before they could question it further, they realized that the whole ground was actually covered in bright red blood. It stained the grass and tiles, and formed several pools.

"Yes... There's a lot of blood..." The Doctor said, haltingly.

"Must have been a battle recently," said Rory.

But the blood was still being spilt. Somehow, it kept falling to the ground and spraying through the air. This was because the battle was still going on around them.

Carapacian soldiers speared and sliced each-other. Bloody torsos were stepped-upon and lay mangled on the ground. All the while, opposing flags waved gallantly through the immense cries of victory and defeat which would deafen anyone who was close enough to hear them.

Yet for the Doctor and Rory, all was silent, aside from the breeze of a distant wind. And peculiarly, the soldiers seemed only half there- ghost images, slaughtering in slow motion. Their forms passed through the sitting figures of the Doctor and Rory oblivious to their existence.

"Who are they?" Rory asked.

The Doctor turned his head in question to look at Rory, who stared mouth agape at the chess-like soldiers.

"The aliens we met on Earth. You said you recognized them, right?" Rory asked.

The Doctor looked flummoxed, "Yes. The Carapacians," he said slowly, entranced by the ghostly soldiers doing their violent dance, "They are one of the universe's mysteries... Arrive on meteors, have done so since the dawn of time. Mostly harmless... but, no one quite knows quite where they come from..." The Doctor trailed off.

A dark presence appeared upon the battlefield. Rory and The Doctor felt it and directed their attention to the western horizon, where a menacing, winged figure stood raising a dark sword. They stared at it with concern. But before any thoughts could be conceived, a dark chord leered and grew in their ears, then a gush of wind hit them from behind, blowing them away like grains of sand.

Somewhere in an alternate time line, a young man in a black suit lay unconcious in a deep dark, hot pit in the earth. He has been out for several crucial hours of his existence. Descisions have been made, plans have fallen through, all because he took the wrong step. He awakens to the noise of an orange feathery prick messaging his eyeglass for the millionth time.

The boy sits up with a groan, noticing the bruises on his limbs from the fall. He looks up from the pit, only seeing a distant, red circle which is the opening of the hole. Before ascending from the pit, the boy decides to check his messages. Orange feathery prick's messages start off as lax, then get pissed, and then get really freaked out. Something went down. One look at the time and the boy's on his feet with a curse. He's late, he's late, for a handful of very important time loops and life impending events.. And maybe a date.

The boy ascends from the pit with some unreal air and knows what he has to do. He pulls out his timetables and with a scratch of the disk, reverses it all- back to the moment where it all went wrong.

The Doctor awoke with a start. He sat up straight, and looked around swiftly, trying to locate the TARDIS, Amy, and Rory. They weren't anywhere to be found. He was alone. Alone in an unfamiliar environment of wind and shade. The ground was hard and rocky, and the sky was pitch. His feet felt immersed in something strange, and upon inspection, were discovered to have been draped in a pool of all things great for leather shoes: black oil.

"Oh... It keeps happening, doesn't it?" The Doctor said. He pulled his feet out of the sludge, one by one, losing a shoe somehow, and flapping a grimy sock doused in sludge.

The Doctor stood and removed his shoes and socks, casting them onto an unfamiliar purple shrubbery. He bounced on his heels and tilted his head, "Barefoot on a rocky planet," he said, "It's not like I haven't done that before."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screw driver and clicked it a few times. The planet had habitable conditions, but an annoyingly above-average wind velocity which effected accurate life sign detection. Further readings told the Doctor that the planet's radius was about 4130 km- so, rather small- and that there was a system of pressured tunnels underneath the Earth which created minor, undetectable vibrations.

He began to wander through the dark paths of this strange world, guided by glowing fungus and trees. The wind whooshed over the landscape, harassing the Doctor's figure now and then. But besides the wind, everything was calm and quiet. The Doctor would like to have known where he was, but there seemed to be a significant lack of sentient life forms with whom he could consult for information. For a moment, he became under the impression that perhaps this planet was uninhabited. But just as he resigned to this conclusion, he spotted a dart of yellow out of the corner of his eye.

The Doctor spun around to see what it was. But all he saw was one of the wavy, luminescent trees of the land. Nothing vaguely yellow. He inched towards the tree and slowly peered around to the other side of the trunk. Nothing there either. The Doctor put his hand to his chin and looked around curiously.

Suddenly, a loud GLUB was heard from above him. The Doctor turned whipped his head upward just in time to be greeted with a big, wet, sticky bubble of what he instantly identified was fresh saliva. The Doctor winced, putting his hands to his face to remove the goo.

"Who are you?" came a croaky voice.

The Doctor slowly unsquinted his eyes and looked up at what he thought was a talking yellow salamander. He rubbed more slime out of his eye sockets and took a second look at the creature. It was indeed, a talking yellow salamander.

"What's this? Some sort of Cheshire lizard? Only less of the smile and groovy color scheme. Are you here to lead me through a world which I cannot even hope to understand?" The Doctor asked.

The lizard looked at him, and blinked, blowing another large bubble, "No," it said.

The Doctor, who had shielded himself in preparations for another loose canon spit-fall, which thankfully did not come to fruition this time, lowered his arms and looked up at the salamander again, "Oh come on then. Where are we? What planet is this? And what are you?"

"How rude," it blinked, "This is the Land of Wind and Shade. I live in the nearby town with my aunt and uncle."

The Doctor nodded, "Oh so there's more of you? Wonderful!" he smiled, "Can you take me into town, child? I'm assuming you're a child, since you said you live with your aunt and uncle, please don't take offense."

"No."

"What? Please? I could really use your help here. I need to find my friends, you understand, and, in order to do that, I need a place of information- Somewhere which tells me where I am, and where I need to go- a town, you see."

"...No."

The Doctor clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, "Oh come on. At least give me directions."

The Salamander thought for a moment, with a deep pondering gaze, which, on a salamander, looks like an empty, expressionless gaze. Then he looked at the Doctor.

"Give me your bow-tie," he said.

The Doctor tilted his head aback, "What?" He looked down at his bow tie and adjusted it, "But-" he looked up at the salamander, "I can't just- give it- give it away to some lizard. It's-" he looked around frantically, "It's mine!"

The lizard and the Doctor stared at eachother. The lizard with it's empty expression, and the Doctor with an expression of concern.

"Fine." The Doctor broke, and started messily untying his bow-tie. The salamander crawled down from the tree and stood up to the Doctor's knees. The Doctor then knelt down and draped the untied bow-tie around the salamander's neck and then took a step back, "Now then. Tell me where the town is."

The Salamander croaked, and pointed to the East, "That way, over the bridge."

"Oh, I could have figured that out!" The Doctor sighed, putting his hand to his face. He shook his head and smiled, looking down at the salamander through the corner of his eye, and started to walk away. Then he stopped another moment, staring at the salamander, "Oh!" he said. He knelt down again and grabbed the bowtie around the salamander's neck.

"Hey!" It squirmed, "What are you doing?!"

"I'm tying it for you, is all!" The Doctor said, as he looped and twisted the bow tie string.

When he finished, he left for the Salamander village, shoeless, bow-tie-less, and soaked in salamander saliva. Behind him, a small salamander child stood fashionably next to a tree, happily disgracing his family.

In a landscape of iron gears and molten lava, a young man in a black felt suit meanders lazily over turning clockwork whilst checking out the latest swings of the LoHaC stock market on his eyeglasses. He doesn't know it yet, but he is about to trip on a turning minute hand and slip through many layers of churning gears and spindles, plummeting into a deep, dark orifice in the planet's crust, where he will remain unconscious for several hours, then awaken to the urgent messages of his friends, human and alien alike, and unfortunately realize that it is too late.

But then again, to Dave Strider, nothing is too late as long as you correctly manage your stable time loops.

"Watch your step, good looking" a familiar voice sounds from behind him. A voice all to familiar.

Dave stops walking. The minute hand makes the vital move. But Dave is a step behind his scheduled plummet, and thus does not suffer. Instead, he turns around to see himself, albeit a slightly more disheveled and sweatier version.

"Yikes. Looks like I took a nap in a sauna," Alpha Dave says.

"pretty much," Alternate time-line Dave says.

"Thanks man. I mean me" Alpha dave flashes a smile and returns to his stockmarket shenanigans, shrugging off his alternate's timeline presence with a silence which both parties understand as mutual appreciation.

And it was done. Alt Dave gave a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his forehead, as he watched the alpha him walk off into the heat. Man, you just never know when it's going to happen to you. Suddenly, you're an alt timeline dave, and everything's fucked. Truth be told, sometimes Dave just really hated time travelling.

It hurt. He missed a lot of stuff in that hole. He missed screwing up the stockmarket with Terezi, hanging out with Jade and finding frogs. Hell he missed like half his session and failed everyone. Some awful shit had gone down of which he knew he was at least partly responsible. And now that he was Alt Dave, it wasn't like he could do all those things that he was going to do before. Now he was shoved to the side. His purpose was played, and now he had only one ultimate purpose in the future- one which he did not look forward to in the slightest.

Dave found a place in the shade of some swinging clocks to rest for a while and message some people. As he sat down, however, a medium sized adult man with bird-like features stumbled wearily into the shaded area.

"hey there..." Dave mumbled startled by the sudden appearance of a dazed adult human, "uhh.. who are you"

The man turned his head swiftly but wore an expression of disorientation. "Uh- Rory Williams," he said quickly and sloppily, looking away to observe something in the distant inferno. He took a double take at Alt Dave, and, mindlessly pondered aloud, "How are you wearing all that black in this heat?"

Dave shrugged where he was sitting and leaned his elbows on his knees, "maybe its because im american"

"I'm sorry what?"

"if you can't take the heat get out of America dude"

"Is that where we are? America?"

"no, not at all," Dave said.

Rory entered the shade with Dave and took a seat a couple feet away from him.

"Well then where are we?" He asked.

Dave took a deep breath and looked at Rory flatly, "hell," he said.

"Hell!?" Rory asked, raising his eyebrows in confusion.

"yeah you fucked up big time mr williams. now you have to spend all of eternity with me satan. should have accepted jesus christ as your personal trainer or whatever."

"I think you mean saviour, and uh, I don't believe you," Rory said, looking at the kid mockingly.

"yeah alright you got me, im not satan," Dave admitted, "you're actually in in a video game world where im one of the main protags. this planet we're on is the land of heat a clock work, or lohac for short."

Rory looked at him in confusion. Dave suddenly looked confused too.

"dude how did you even get here" Dave asked, "its hella weird"

"I don't know, actually..."

"wait, were you just in Texas? because that might be it. maybe paradox space accidentally beamed you up too"

"No.. I.. I think I was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean... With my wife.. and the Doctor. I don't remember much." Rory touched his head, "I wonder If I have a concussion." Rory said.

"oh, well, dont go to sleep dude. you might sleep longer than you expected,"

Rory looked at him, "That's not funny. I might die."

"dude im 13 of course its funny"

"You're only 13? What the hell are you doing in this place?"

"just chatting with some friends while playing a game. saving lives, dreaming dreams. what else would I do"

"I don't know, be on Earth? Go to school? Not making tasteless jokes on behalf of wounded strangers?"

"oh, well. i hate to break it to you, but our planets wrecked man. partied too hard with a bad bunch of meteors"

Rory's eyes widened as he remembered. The ocean he pictured in his mind turned to sand, and he remembered what had happened prior to his awakening on this planet. His moment of realization faded to grief, "Oh my god.." he said, "I remember everything..."

"hey im sorry. but its just the way things are now. i mean, id love to high tail it back to earth too, but its all over after 09"

"Oh my god.. And me and the Doctor abandoned Amy with the chess people by accident..." Rory mumbled, holding his head in his hands. He looked up at Dave, "Hey, what do you mean, after 2009?"

"like i mean the Earth and society as we know it has crumbled into dust and theres no real way to stop it from happening because it was always meant to happen like everything ever in this shitty universe of inescapable time hula hoops and paradoxical shit wagons. theres no getting back man, the best you can do is try to survive the adverse conditions of this wack ass game, alright. frankly, i dont see a light at the end of the tunnel, but im not the light player, so fuck it."

"But there has to be a way to get back. I mean, the world was never supposed to end in 2009, I thought it was supposed to die when the sun exploded."

"i dont know what to tell you. earth gets wiped out by a cosmic computer game"

"But you don't understand- I'm from the year 2011."

Dave squints his eyebrows, "seriously? hey how'd Obama do on the economy?"

"Give him a break, kid, he's only been in office for a year,"

"what the hell, then. is there some super secret 2010 year that paradox space is keeping from us?"

"Listen I know just as much about it as you do, probably even less, actually. I actually think the best thing for me to do right now would be to find my friends," Rory says, standing up from the beam and looking out into the land of heat and clockwork.

"you want me to help you out?" Dave asks.

Rory looks back at him and tilts his head, "Uh... Sure. I mean, You seem to know your way around here better than I do, kid. I could use your help, yeah."

"well okay, because I sure as hell dont have anything better to do."

"As all children..." Rory jokes.

The Salamander village seemed just as useless in supplying a location as his sonic screw driver under windy conditions. However, the Doctor did find interesting the numerous legends and myths that the salamanders almost programatically spouted out. They spoke of their awakening hero, who would go on an epic quest to save the planet skaia from a malignant tumour. They called him many names, "the heir of breath," the "Savior of the waking world," and most notably, the "planet doctor."

The Doctor found it oddly coincidental, and made it in his best interest to try and learn about this "skaia" and it's tumour. However, the Salamanders said that they didn't know much about skaia, since they could scarcely see it through the thick cloud of fireflies which surrounded the planet

What set the Doctor off on his current course was a certain tip he received from a salamander who pointed to the East and said, "That is the direction of the hero's legendary quest bed, where he will lay down and awaken on Skaia."

The Doctor could see it in the distance as he climbed the oil slicked slopes of the Land of Wind and Shade. It was on tall spire which reached far up into the cloud of fireflies. As he came closer to it, he realized that it wouldn't be that hard to surmount it due to the spiraling pathway which wrapped tightly around the spire.

When he arrived at the top, he found a sight that he did not want to see. The Doctor stopped in his tracks, staring down at the bed in heart-shattering silence at the body of a young boy, impaled through the chest. He blinked long and slow and then turned away from the bed to look out over the planet stretched around him. Wind blew violently against the Doctor's disheveled clothing as he held his head in his hands.

Into the dark sky he shut his eyes and yelled, "What in Medusa's Cascade is going on here?!" into the night air.

He opened his eyes again, and saw something on the horizon. It was another tall spire reaching far up into the clouds like the very one he stood upon. He squinted at it, trying to make out what was on the spire from between the shifting clouds. He suddenly recgonized it as a suburban house, and immediately connected it to the one which had seen on the monitor on post-apocalyptic earth, earlier. Further questions rose in his head. Oh he was going to find whoever it was who was behind this and give them a piece of his mind.

The Doctor made his descent from the spire, unable to to look at the young boy on the slab any longer. Little did he know that he was being watched.

Scarcely ten minutes had passed since Amy had been unintentionally left on a dead Earth with a group of alien vagabonds. When the TARDIS noise had gone off and she was able to make it into the capsule, she inspected the area and asked the Mendicant if she knew what what had happened. It was to no avail, however, as she had no idea. With her hands held to her head in frusteration, she made it back to the camp fire, where the Questant was still sitting.

The Aimless Renegade offered her some beans, and the Wayward Vagabond, or the Mayor, Amy had seen wander into the capsule after she left. The Mendicant had gone off somewhere as well. Amy explained her predicament to them, looking grim and sort of annoyed.

"Surely they'll come back for you," The Windswept Questant said, "I trust if you were able to make your way to this plane of existence in the first place it is definitely on the board for such a path to exist again in the future."

Amy smiled but then rolled her eyes, "You don't understand," she said, "It's always like this- I get secretly clone swapped, or I get trapped in a time-warping hospital, or..." she gestured around, "this-!" she said, exasperated. Though to be fair she knew that her husband had gone through much as well, dying and being recreated as a cyborg roman soldier and such.

"Sometimes," the Carapacian nodding at Amy from across the fire, "Our path can become blocked and we must wait until it is possible again to make the right move."

They heard a mechanical noise and noticed that the capsule was beginning to open again. The Wayward Vagabond showed himself through the hole in the capsule. He made a beeline for Amy and the Questant.

"Miss Amy-human!" the small carapace said, "I must show you something urgently!"

Amy rose her eyebrows at the mayor, "What?" She was surprised that he was speaking to her, because he had said scarcely a word to her earlier. She looked at the Questant questioningly, but she only stared after her and nodded.

Amy followed the Vagabond into the capsule.

He was a fine old man, The Doctor decided this Mr. Harley was. He'd approached the Doctor very politely after he had left the deathbed of the young man and explained to him that that boy was very much alive. The Doctor hadn't believed him at first, of course.

"What in blazes are you talking about?" The Doctor asked, "Do you know what's going on here then? What with the destruction of Earth and these planets and all," The Doctor paused and then added at the end, "Skaia."

Mr. Harley nodded his head, "Indeedly I do, Mr. Doctor. It's just the way things are and what-not in this jargogling, albeit intriguing arrangement of worlds. If you did a dilly-wop more adventuring like I have you'd've learned this sooner. That boy has no bellows to mend. He frecks about on Skaia now with much gullyfluff no doubt. Can't say the same for my granddaughter, I chary. Though she is all well and hotsy-totsy on her own planet, and thank heavens,"

"But what is all this? This strange solar system, and this world, and why are these kids here?" The Doctor stopped walking with the man and stared him in the eye.

"Gadzooks," Mr. Harley said, "Well you are surely one to ask questions bigger than us all. You might find perhaps better answers on Skaia. Something having to do with paradoxes and astrophysics, no doubt. I can take you there forthwith, if you should so wish, chap"

"Ah yes, how does one get to Skaia, then?"

"Well I have been making ways through portals in the lands. Bit of a climb to get to this one, though a sturdy young rag-a-muffin like you should have no problems."

"I think I should be fine then!" The Doctor said, delighted to have come across such an amiable guide.

"Right, then," Grandpa Harley said, "Tally-ho!"

After a bit of pestering and finagling, Dave managed to contact Rose and briefly explain Rory's situation. She then took a look in her crystal ball and found the stranger on Skaia with Jade's Grandpa. It didn't take long for Dave to take Rory there. He just lended him an unreal air skateboard and they both went up until they reached the correct portal which lead to Skaia. Rory was a bit taken aback by the experience at first, but rolled with it eventually.

They olly-outie'd through the portal and Rory followed Dave's motion to dismount. As he hit the hard ground, though he started to recognize it.

"Wait, wait, wait-" Rory said, as stood and looked around. Dave looked back at him in confusion.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I've been here before," Rory said, experiencing major deja-vu. He looked up at the clouds. They were showing things happening in them. People, places, explosions, events.

"yeah, the clouds tell you shit about the future," Dave said, 'I dont know, I'm not like, on this side of the game, so I don't even know,"

Rory blinked and looked at Dave, "the future?"

'yeah, they're prophetic and stuff. Sort of causes too many problems if you ask me," he said, then began walking, "Come on let's find your doctor dude."

"So, do you know what the Salamanders say about 'the tumour' and 'the planet doctor?'" The Doctor questioned Mr. Harley. They walked on the surface of Skaia together.

"Perhaps. Though I don't pay much attention to the ramblings of such dandiprats," he said.

The Doctor nodded, "Ah,"

"Well, I must tend to my druthers now," Grandpa Harley said, nodding and pulling a pocket watch out of his coat pocket to check it, "I wish you luck in finding your friends and the answers that you need! Godspeed, Doctor!"

The Doctor smiled, "Thanks so much for everything, Mr. Harley."

And the mad old man absconded, off to do mysterious old man things. He left the Doctor on the trail which he claimed would lead him to the White Castle, which, as he clarified, was not a fast food restaurant, but rather the headquarters for the white Carapacian army. He said that he could meet the White King there who could answer all if not most questions.

During their chats en route together, The Doctor had surmised that Mr. Harley was an Earth entrepreneur of some sort who made a hobby of adventuring, and that whatever this world was, was the result of something that his grand-daughter, and the other children did. It was a computer game of some sorts, though the Doctor couldn't imagine any sort of child's game that resulted in the annihilation of a beloved planet. The Doctor also realized about Mr. Harley that he knew more than he was telling. On the exterior he seemed a jolly, short-sighted old adventurer, but The Doctor could tell that under that there was a well-educated, quick thinking old fellow, and for whatever reason, he was keeping secrets from him.

It was just then that the Doctor heard a revving noise coming up from over the horizon in the distance. He looked to it, and saw what he comprehended as a flying car.

"Is that so?" The Doctor said to himself. He squinted at the approaching flying vehicle, noticing that there were two passengers inside. A short carapacian and.. That boy! The one that had died! Mr. Harley was correct- he was alive, after all... How.. inexplicable!

The Doctor ducked as the car flew over him, joy bursting out of his head. He suddenly felt like he had seen this bit before somewhere. And suddenly remembered the clouds in the strange dream he had had with Rory in it. Come to think of it, The Doctor began to recognize the environment around him as similar to that dream. He found it odd that he hadn't noticed it before. Ah well, perhaps he was getting old.

Perhaps Rory really was here, in this "medium," as Mr. Harley called it. Why had they shared a dream on this world then? That was strange.

"Doctor!" Came a call from behind him. He spun around to see two figures walking over the landscape of checkerboard tiles towards him. He recognized Rory immediately, and then saw that the other was a young teen.

"Where've you been then?" The Doctor asked when Rory approached him.

"Oh hell and back," Rory said, then he looked at the teen, "This is Dave. He helped me out here,"

The Doctor smiled at Dave and held out his hand for a firm handshake, "Hello, Dave! I'm the Doctor. Thanks for helping my friend, here. He's a bit dull,"

Dave shrugged and sort of swaggered his handshake, "no problem. he was wandering around looking for his mommy and daddy so i had to do something,"

Rory rolled his eyes at the Doctor, "Oi, only Amy can say that,"

"Well someone's got to say it, then, since she's off on apocalyptic Earth and not, well," The Doctor looked around, "Chess-world like we are,"

Rory nodded, "Yeah, speaking of that, this is the same place from this dream I had earlier,"

The Doctor tilted his head and looked at Rory, "Well then it appears to have been a shared dream indeed," he said, "So this is where the carapacians come from, I think," he said, sort of looking at Dave for confirmation, but Dave seemed to be lost in some sort of trance. The Doctor looked at him strangely and waved his hands over his glasses

"dude," Dave said, "im talking with some people,"

"Ah," The Doctor said backing off and returning to his conversation with Rory, "We're on this planet called Skaia. It appears to be this source of energy which rests in the center of this solar system consisting of four planets and two artificial planets called Prospit and Derse. It appears that those houses we saw on the monitors earlier belonged to children, and the apocalypse was triggered by some sort of extreme existential malware installed on their computers." The Doctor recounted to Rory.

"Seriously? So he wasn't kidding about the whole video game thing? We're in a video game?" Rory said, gesturing to Dave, who didn't seem to pay them much attention.

The Doctor shrugged, "Well that's a blunt way to put it. I think it's more than just a video game, I mean, look at this place," the Doctor gestured wildly around him, "Teeming with creative energy and potential. I doubt this place exists in any reality lesser than that of gods," he bounced on his toes, "The video game thing must only be an illusion..."

"Well what about Earth? And the TARDIS?" Rory said, "Is there any way we can get back, maybe stop it all from happening somehow?"

"I was just going to go ask someone who might know about the TARDIS, actually," The Doctor said, gesturing in the direction he had been travelling earlier and smiling, "As for getting back to our reality... I have some ideas, but let's focus on getting the TARDIS and fetching Amy, shall we"

As they spoke to eachother they were being watched from afar. But these watchers did not exist on a mountain, or in the clouds, or soaring above Skaia. The eyes that stared down upon the Doctor, and Dave and Rory existed far far above them. Their movements were projected on a monitor's screen in a capsule in the sand, on a dead planet. Two tiny fingers tapped the screen with vigor where the Doctor's head could be seen.

"Doctor!" Amy shouted, pointing at the corner of the screen, where she could just make out the head of the Doctor. Though the screen seemed to be entirely focused on young, fair-haired boy with what she gathered were dark shades on his face. He seemed preoccupied somehow, and just stood on one place, as if he could be surfing the internet his sunglasses.

Rory crept onto the scene suddenly, he was talking with the Doctor about something.

"Oh my god!" Amy said, "Where are they? How did they get in there? Can we communicate with them?" she asked the short carapacian rabidly.

WV looked a little terrified by Amy's sudden franticness, "You must enter the commands. But careful not to be rude!" he said with knowing eyes.

Amy tilted her head, and then saw that he was looking at the keyboard beneath the monitor screen. She shrugged and began to type.

"woah woah woah" Dave suddenly said, getting Rory and the Doctor's attention. He turned to look up at them with a sort of confuse look on his face, "theres this voice in my head that says You two are idiots and better come back, or else," he said, "and im assuming shes a friend of yours because the voice in my head is british and that's hella weirder than usual."

"Voice in your head?" Rory asked, wondering if the boy was ill.

The Doctor's reaction was very different from Rory's however. He walked up to Dave and looked in his face and said, "Amy? Yes? Hello?"

Dave jerked his head back as the Doctor got closer, "yooooo," he said, "im pretty sure it dont work that way." Then he looked up slightly and shook his head, "fuckin," he said, "yeah shes looking at us from above"

Amy groaned at the screen, "Oh come on you two ogres," she said. "==I am up here," she typed, speaking aloud as she did so.

After a few moments on the screen, the blonde boy recounted what she said into the monitor to the Doctor and Rory, and they all looked around and then looked up confusedly. She put her hand on her head and sighed, "==you can't see me, you dummies. I'm using one of the computer screens in that pod with the mayor" she said.

She looked behind her at the mayor who was watching the screen with interest. He glanced at her as she looked at him and she smiled and then went back to the screen. The mayor walked closer to the monitor and watched her type, admiring how fast she could move her fingers.

"==I can't hear anything you say though. Nod if you know wherever the hell you are," She typed.

The Doctor nodded and Rory shrugged and shook his head up at the sky. The teen with the glasses nodded too, he seemed to follow the commands regardless if they were directed at him or not.

"==Nod if you know where the TARDIS is," Amy said, tilting her head, expecting the worst.

They did not nod, but looked around guiltily.

"== Great." Amy typed.

The Doctor looked like he was trying to do some form of cherades, but Amy had no patience for his silliness at this moment, her head was spinning with the implications of her predicament. She put one hand to her forehead and then looked down at the Vagabond, who was staring up at her.

"You don't happen to have any fresh water, do you?" She asked him.

He nodded his head, "Yes!" he said, enthusiastically. Then he ran across the room to what Amy gathered was some sort of pre-opened safe. After vanishing inside of it for a brief moment, the carapacian popped out again, holding three cans of what looked like a very distasteful soda. He gallopped over to Amy and excitedly handed her a can of Tab. Amy took the can and shrugged, "Better than nothing, I suppose" she said, then looked back to the screen

Amy hadn't noticed that as she took her hands off the keyboard the last time, her fingers had brushed a certain key, and the screen had changed as a result. It was a completely different environment, and Rory and the Doctor were no longer there. The light haired teen was still there, however, but he was dressed in different clothing.

"==Doctor? Rory?" Amy typed into the command box. She waited for some sort of response. The teen however, just seemed to look around in confusion and shrug his shoulders, "Huh..." Amy said, her brow creasing in worry. She looked down at the Wayward Vagabond who was chugging a can of Tab, "Do you know what happened? They're not on screen anymore."

The Mayor shrugged his shoulders and scooted Amy over, looking at the keys on the terminal. He hit some buttons, but instead of getting the original view back, he ended up deactivating the screens and turning on other ones. Amy saw views of other children. One for each screen; A young light haired girl who seemed to be looking into a glass orb, a girl with black hair and rounded glasses in an environment of snow... He eventually landed on a screen of a young man with glasses wearing jeans and a t-shirt, walking around a purply sort of alien environment. When he saw the boy, he got excited and began typing to him.

Amy wasn't sure what happened, but it seemed almost as soon as he started typing, the whole capsule rumbled. She heard a loud SHING! and looked to the far end, noticing that the hole in the wall had sealed over. The Capsule had locked.