Disclaimer: I don't own what you recognise; the drill should be familiar to you by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it; I'm trying to do something a bit different here

AN: The last chapter, as Amy and the Doctor deal with their last business in Leadworth before departing (I wanted to upload this before the Eleventh Doctor regenerates); hope you like it

AN 2: In advance, I apologise if Amy comes across as cruel in her interaction with Rory; I'm trying to go for the idea that she's just never had a reason to look at him that way in Melody's absence, but I acknowledge that I might have failed to get the right balance

The History of Paradox

Standing in the clubhouse off the games field, looking at the rest of her year as they chatted amongst themselves in the school's post-graduation party- a small and simple thing, but a chance for the year heads to say goodbye- Amy couldn't stop herself from grinning.

She'd finally completed her school career, she'd passed all her exams, and she'd just had her graduation ceremony; even if Aunt Sharon was too busy with work to make it there herself, and even if she wasn't really talking to anyone else here, this day was brilliant!

Of course, it was when she turned to look out of the window at the sight of the blue box in a distant corner of the field that she remembered why she was particularly enthusiastic about this day; once she'd said her last goodbyes, she and the Doctor were on their way to the rest of the universe, and nothing was going to stand in their way.

Her actual courses may not have much relevance to what she was going out to experience in the wider universe, but she'd managed to focus on some interesting ones as well as have some fun. She'd tried to put in some extra work for the science courses, but there was only so much she could do with what a secondary school had to teach her, and English had been more about having fun with a good excuse to read some interesting books, even if history had been enjoyable beyond giving her some ideas about where she might want to go with the Doctor now. She'd even managed to successfully apply to a few universities with the Doctor's help, even if she'd concealed the response letters from her aunt; it would have just raised questions about why she was applying when Sharon didn't have the money to support her in a university course.

University might not be what she really wanted to do with her life, but the point was that she had the option to go there and was still choosing to go with the Doctor; proving her abilities to herself was what really mattered right now…

"Uh… Amy?" a familiar voice said from the side.

"Rory!" Amy said, turning to grin at her friend as he walked up to her, an uncertainty about him that she couldn't place but decided not to worry about; if it was something she could help him with, Rory knew that he could ask her for help. "Can you believe it?"

"I know; who'd have thought we'd manage to get this far?" Rory said, smiling at her before his expression became suddenly awkward. "Look, Amy… there's something I wanted to say…"

"I've got something to say first," Amy said, looking apologetically at her friend; Rory was going to take this hard, but she had made her decision long ago, and she couldn't back out of it now. "Rory… I'm leaving Leadworth."

"Leaving Leadworth?" Rory said, looking at her in confusion, his initial apprehension forgotten. "But… we're all leaving-"

"I mean tonight," Amy said, hoping that her fragile 'cover story' would work; as much as she trusted Rory, with the Faction to worry about, the less people who knew that she'd left Earth with the Doctor, the better for everyone. "I'm… well, I met someone a while back, and we're… well, he likes to travel a lot, so…"

"You're… leaving Leadworth… with some guy you never told me about?" Rory said, looking at her with pain practically written all over his face (Amy knew that they were close, but she never thought that the fact that she hadn't mentioned a relationship would be that big a deal to him). "I thought… well-"

"I'm sorry, Rory," Amy said, smiling apologetically at him; she'd never found the right time to tell him about the Doctor, and now she never would, but this wasn't the time to get lost in the past. "I just never found a good moment to tell you about him, it wasn't anything personal…"

Stuck for anything else to say, she smiled encouragingly at him. "But hey; now that I'm not holding you back, you've got a chance to find someone, haven't you?"

"Uh… right," Rory said, nodding at her with a deliberately blank expression that Amy didn't need her long experience with her friend to know meant that he was trying to hide something.

If it had been any other day, she might have tried to press Rory about whatever he wasn't saying, but looking at him like that, evidently trying to hide the fact that she'd done something to cause him pain…

The fact that he turned around and walked off to the nearest toilets before she could ask him what was wrong made it easier; whatever was wrong was obviously going to be uncomfortable for both of them to discuss, but if he'd left the room, she could use the opportunity to do the same.

Maybe she was a coward, but Amy didn't want to stick around after that; she'd said her goodbyes to Rory, there was nobody else here she was particularly bothered about when faced with the possibility that she'd never see them again, and staying here would just mean that she'd run the risk of having to see Rory looking like… like that.

She'd known it would hurt him when she left, but they couldn't just keep on playing it safe by spending all their time together; she was ready to move on to bigger things with the Doctor, but that meant that Rory would have the chance to move on with his life as well.

"Goodbye," she said, looking after her only schoolfriend with a small, sad smile, before she turned and headed for the exit as discreetly as possible.

School had been an experience, but she was more than ready for this part of her life to be over and done with…

As he stood outside the TARDIS waiting for Amy to leave her graduation after-party, the Doctor was amazed at how smoothly this was going.

Taking companions had always been a relatively impulsive decision in the past- either they decided to join to get away from it all or they ended up stuck with him by accident when he couldn't get them back- and with the exception of his time in UNIT, he'd never been able to really ease anyone into it before; they either got into the ship, saw the interior, and were generally too amazed to say no when he made the offer later, they made the relatively impulsive request to come along and the Doctor never had the hearts to say no, or they never saw the inside because he was never interested in taking them along. Amy was the first occasion where he'd really put time and effort into training someone to be a companion- Jo didn't count as he was training her as a scientist first and foremost rather than a time-traveller; even if she'd enjoyed her time with him, Jo was an employee of UNIT first and foremost- but even if he'd surprised himself when he came up with the plan, in the end, he'd actually rather enjoyed the experience.

Leadworth might have been relatively boring, and he'd been forced to limit his interaction with his friends in this timeline- Sarah and Sam in particular weren't that far away in this time, but he couldn't afford to give the Faction too many clues about where he was by visiting old companions; even his initial chat with the Brigadier had been a risk- but it had been rather relaxing to not have to worry about finding somewhere safe to recuperate, giving him a chance to think and take his time while instructing Amy in what she would need to know when they started travelling together full-time.

It might have been an ironic way to feel considering his own attitude towards his studies- he was proud of his rank as a Time Lord, but he never fully saw the point of the attached status it gave him back on Gallifrey beyond the fact that it gave him the right to own the TARDIS- but as he had stood silently at the back of the school hall, a TARDIS key around his neck generating a low-level perception filter to stop anyone noticing him, watching Amy walk up and receive her graduation certificate, the Doctor couldn't help but feel proud at all that she had accomplished since his return to her life. His own training with her had gone well, focusing on the essentials that any time-traveller would have to know, but he just felt proud of how well she'd handled conventional subjects on top of everything he had to teach her; he'd never been able to focus on his expected studies like that back on Gallifrey (Although that might have been because he had to spend so much time looking for things whereas he and Amy knew what they were trying to learn about)…

He didn't know what it was about Amelia Pond that made him feel so relaxed about taking on a new companion and preparing to take on a more active role once again, but now, for the first time since Gallifrey had been destroyed, he didn't feel afraid of the Faction any more.

That fear had driven him to force his own regeneration after he'd taken such a desperate gambit to stop the Vore from invading Earth after the TARDIS was damaged, had sent him on the run on his own to avoid subjecting anyone else to the life that he now had to live, had prompted him to avoid taking action wherever he went in case he attracted the Faction's attention…

No more.

The Doctor was firm on that decision; he wouldn't allow his fear to control him any more.

No matter the risks of travelling with him, Amelia Pond had chosen to remain with him, and he was not going to let down her faith in him by giving up so easily, regardless of how much the Grandfather still secretly scared him…

"I'm ready," Amy said, her voice bringing the Doctor's thoughts back to the present as his latest companion walked up to the TARDIS, smiling anxiously at him as she subtly adjusted her dark school uniform.

"You're not planning on wearing that full-time, are you?" the Doctor asked, indicating Amy's uniform with a slight smile; he might be committed to standing up and fighting back now, but anything that stopped him thinking of the Grandfather was a good thing in his book. "It might have worked for Turlough, but considering what he went through it just creates negative connotations…"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to travel with you permanently wearing my school uniform," Amy said, grinning at her friend as he opened the door and waved her into the ship (And no, he did not sneak a look at her as she went in; this was Amelia Pond he was looking at, she'd been through enough without… that). "But just to be sure, you did pick up my bags, right?"

"All stowed away in your room, Pond," the Doctor said, smiling at her as he closed the door behind him, before he reached over to turn Amy around so that she was facing him directly, his hands on her hsoulders as he looked at her.

"Amelia Pond," he said, hoping that the full name would emphasise the seriousness of what he was about to say, "for the last time, you're sure this is what you want? I can't guarantee your safety, and I can't be sure what we'll find out there-"

"And I don't care about that," Amy interjected, placing a finger on the Doctor's lips as she smiled at him (And he did not sniff her finger). "I know the risks, Doctor, and I'm still here; after everything you've told me, I want to see what's out there. Maybe it's dangerous, but it's dangerous for the right reasons."

"It's fun?" the Doctor said, smiling slightly at her as she lowered her finger.

"It's fun, it's incredible, it lets me see things nobody else could ever imagine seeing… and we make a difference," Amy said, looking solemnly back at him before she gave him a warm, encouraging smile. "I know it's a risk, Doctor… but if it gives me the chance to do all that, it's a risk I want to take."

Smiling gratefully back at her, the Doctor stepped back, raised one hand, and snapped his fingers, the TARDIS door swinging open behind him, allowing him and Amy to walk into the ship. The Doctor noted with a slight smile that the central time rotor almost seemed to be glowing brighter than normal, as though it wanted to mark Amy's first time entering the ship as a full-time companion rather than a 'student' on a temporary 'trip', but Amy didn't seem to notice, focusing instead on the thought of what awaited them as they walked up to the control console.

"Right then," the Doctor said, checking to make sure that the door was closed behind them before he turned his attention back to Amy, "the TARDIS has moved all your things to your new room, and I've made arrangements with UNIT to back up your cover story if your aunt tries to check it out- they call it 'backstopped', apparently; if she tries to call you someone will just say that you're out or otherwise occupied- so she'll never have any reason to think that you're anywhere that you shouldn't be until you're ready to tell her."

"What happened to you being able to have me back five minutes from now?" Amy asked with a teasing smile.

"Well, you've got to allow for some piloting errors; the Vortex isn't what it used to be these days…" the Doctor said defensively, patting the TARDIS console as though trying to sooth its wounded feelings.

"Don't worry about it," Amy said, copying the Doctor's affectionate pat to the console. "I'm not really planning to come back any time soon; if you've got a cover story prepared, that's fine with me.

"Ah, good," the Doctor said, reaching over to take Amy's hand and place it on the dematerialisation lever. "Well then, with that straightened out, if you would care to do the honours, Amelia Pond?"

"Me?" Amy said, grinning despite the simplicity of the task as she eagerly looked over the console's current settings. "Where are we going?"

"No idea," the Doctor grinned. "Coordinates are set to shuffle, so we could wind up anywhere; past, present, future, distant planet, attached pocket universe… the possibilities are endless."

"Good," Amy said, taking a deep breath as she looked at the lever in her hands, the grin on her face reflecting the Doctor's own feelings at the thought of resuming his travels. "In that case… goodbye, Leadworth; hello, universe!"

"Geronimo!" the Doctor yelled as Amy threw the lever forward to set the ship in motion, the central column rising and falling once again as the TARDIS departed, heading out into the universe once again, Leadworth vanishing from their surroundings as they headed out into the universe.

He didn't know where he and Amy were going to go in this new stage of his travels, he had no idea what would happen when they next faced the Faction, and he was dreading the possibility of confronting the Grandfather once more…

But now, for the first time since that dark day when he'd been tricked into destroying Gallifrey and been left on the run from his own twisted counterpart and the remains of his own people, as he stood in the TARDIS with Amelia Pond by his side, the Doctor actually felt like himself again…

AN 3: Well, there you have it; next time I return to this series- in an all-new story, so keep an eye out- we will be exploring 'the World of Paradox', as the Doctor and Amy meet some new/old friends and learn more about the universe that exists under the control of Faction Paradox…