Chapter 30 – The Pandorica Opens

They were dancing across the broad plaza, their feet moving in the complicated patterns of a Gallifreyan set dance. Romana and James, Rose and the Doctor, Andred and Leela, K'anpo and Geneva Murray, himself and Susan, they were moving in time to the recorded music that the Doctor had dug out of the Ark, celebrating Romana's marriage to James. The human dancers were being coached through the steps with laughter and the occasional gentle push, but no one minded if they didn't know where they were supposed to be.

Susan's eyes were bright with laughter, her hair tumbling out of its bun as she shed hair pins across the floor. Her smile was sunshine, her laugh was birdsong, and he was enjoying himself more than he had in centuries.

The soldiers had lit a bonfire and were celebrating as well. Some were dancing, putting their own steps to the Gallifreyan tunes, while others were laughing, talking, eating or drinking. It was a loud, raucous, brilliant mess of a celebration and Koschei knew that Gallifrey had seen nothing like it in millennia.

He swung Susan through the turn and hands together, they twisted, turned, and came around again, laughing. Susan was humming along to the music and he smiled to hear it, she was a touch off key, but didn't seem to care at all. They stepped close to each other, his arm slipping around her waist and he twirled her through the next figure, his eyes never leaving hers. Her smile faded to be replaced by an expression he couldn't read. He reached out to touch her thoughts and nearly stumbled as the warmth and affection she was feeling washed over him.

In all they time they'd been working through their unlikely alliance, this was the closest thing to love he'd felt from her and it gave him a sense of hope he hadn't had before.

They finished the dance and he tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and led her off away from the party. They walked for a while, arm in arm, under the rising moons, as he admired the way that the starlight gilded her hair and face with silver.

He wanted to talk to her about their future, about all the things he'd talked with the Doctor about that morning, but he was tongue tied and unsure suddenly. She stepped into his arms and kissed him and all other thoughts fled. He drew her down into the tall red grass and sank into her with a feeling like homecoming. He was lost to everything but their joining, to the intensity of what was spiraling up between them.

So caught up were they that both of them missed seeing the shuttles landing near the city and were only jerked back to awareness by the sounds of pulsar rifles firing in the distance.

In another universe the Doctor, hair flopping and his bow tie askew, was screaming as he was dragged towards the Pandorica. The blue light that poured from it illuminated the monsters and enemies he had fought for nearly all of his life. They refused to listen to him and desperation seized his mind. River! She was in danger! The entirety of the cosmos was at risk, all of space, time, and reality were threatened and he was being shoved into a box where he could do nothing about it!

The doors were closing and his screams were unheard. Everything was doomed and he was helpless.

The Doctor heard the shriek of engines and was up and running, Rose at his side, before the first shuttles hit the ground.

"We're under attack! Sontarans!" he shouted and watched the soldiers, UNIT and Torchwood alike, scrabbling for their guns. Romana and James were already in their TARDIS and no doubt her cloister bell was ringing.

He grabbed Rose and hauled her behind a fallen rock wall.

"Sontar Strategy, initiate!" Leela called and the soldiers swapped the ammo in their weapons and set up firing perimeters.

"Find and kill all beings that match the Nestene's descriptions! Destroy all time travel devices!" shouted a Sontaran soldier who charged in, guns blazing. "Sontar HA!"

"They're after us," Rose gasped in his ear and the Doctor nodded.

"And the TARDIS," he added.

Bullets and beams whizzed back and forth. More Sontarans were falling than humans, but that didn't make the Doctor any happier. Hand grenades arced and more Sontarans were killed and he didn't know quite what to do.

Leela charged out, firing to cover the retreat of some Torchwood agents and Andred moved through the Sontarans like a threshing machine through wheat, his face like stone.

Romana's TARDIS dematerialized and the Doctor looked skyward to where the Sontaran Ships were hovering above them.

"She's taking on their fleet alone?" Rose cried.

"She has a battle TARDIS, she could take on anything short of a Dalek armada with that. I just wish she didn't have to," he answered, clenching his fists and feeling helpless.

In another universe, Rory Williams opened the Pandorica and watched as the Doctor drew himself up and looked at him with dawning hope.

Koschei and Susan came running forward and flung themselves down beside him. His relief was nearly tangible seeing them and he hugged his granddaughter tightly for a moment.

"I need to get a medi-kit!" Susan told them, but Koschei grabbed her and held her back.

"They're after us, Susan! You go out there and everyone you try to help will be a target!" he shouted and she froze, with eyes gone wide. She glanced over at the soldiers fighting around them and bit her lip in helpless distress.

"I'm supposed to be a doctor," she wailed. "I can't just sit here and let them all die!" Koschei held her against him, tucking her head against his chest protectively, and exchanged a look with the Doctor.

"Ideas?" he asked.

"All out," the Doctor replied.

"Me too," Koschei admitted.

He looked at his old friend with helpless despair. They hadn't a chance against a Sontaran force of this size, not without more resources than they had right now.

"The Ark!" the Doctor suddenly remembered. His mother had crammed it full of so much stuff, maybe…

"Let's go!" Koschei answered and the four Time Lords slipped from behind the wall and headed into the Panopticon to see what gifts his mother might have left them.

"I hope it's not all tubas," Rose teased and he grinned at her, amazed by how calm she was.

They darted into the room and then skidded to a halt. The Sontarans had made it there before them. The room was filled with the short blue soldiers.

Bolts of energy shot out and they dived to find cover.

The Doctor watched his fez disintegrate with a feeling of profound sadness. He'd liked that fez. Still, he was going to be gone soon, gone from everywhere and every when. It didn't matter. He made a joke, teased River, and then got ready to be shot by a Dalek. It was his last ever chance to run, so he'd make sure it was a great one.

Susan felt the energy bolt sizzle by her and gasped, clutching Koschei's hand tightly as they staggered into the catacombs.

"Susan…" he murmured and collapsed. She spun to see him clutching at his chest, eyes wide with shock.

"Shay!" She fell on her knees beside him, cradling him against her. "Don't do this to me, you!" she demanded and he gave her a wry smile that made her want to cry.

"Well, this is one way out for you, my girl, death will break the connection," he sighed out. She ripped open his shirt to see the wound and her hand started trembling at the sight of the damage done to him. His chest was nearly ripped apart, only his superior Time Lord biology was keeping him alive at all.

"Who said I wanted out, you stupid man!" she scolded him and he smiled, hand reaching up to touch her cheek with a tenderness that broke her hearts. "Just regenerate and let's get on with it!"

"As soppy as it sounds, I seem to have fallen in love with you, Susanatrevalar," he chuckled and then started coughing.

"Yeah, well, for all your many faults, I seem to love you too, you idiot," she retorted and kissed him. "Now regenerate already, you're scaring me!"

"Hearts… damaged…," he whispered and cold horror flowed over her. If they were too badly damaged, his ability to regenerate could be compromised. She held him, tears welling up, chest constricting, and waited, watching him as he struggled. "No good… can't do it" he sighed and she frowned at him, fury boiling in her. It wasn't fair. She couldn't lose him now.

"This is not going to end here, not after everything we've gone through," she informed him and set him down, ransacking her mind for every scrap of data she could remember about regenerations. Looking around quickly she saw a gun dropped by one of the human soldiers. She ran over to it and scooped it up into her hands.

"Susan!" he raised a hand to stop her, his face a rictus of agony and panic. She could see his attempt to stop her, but she put the gun to her head and, without flinching, pulled the trigger.

Amy Pond was upset and he understood why, but there was no other way. Too many had died, were dying, would die, unless he did this. It was him in exchange for the whole of creation, a fair trade he felt. His life for the lives of those he loved. His existence to save all that had ever existed. Not bad. Besides, there was still hope. There was still Amy Pond.

Amy Pond, crying for him.

"Gotcha," he murmured and the Pandorica closed.

Her body fell to the ground beside him with a sickening thud and he was crying, trembling, unable to believe that she would do such a thing. Not for him! He didn't deserve it! He put out a hand to reach for her, shuddering with grief and anguish. What had she done? What if she couldn't regenerate here, in the caverns, without a zero room or the support of her TARDIS? What if it went wrong and there was no one to help? He squeezed his eyes closed against the image of her corpse beside him, so scared he could hardly stand it.

His eyelids flashed red as light flared in the darkness.

He stared at her greedily, desperately hoping, as she began to glow, light rising up out of her, she was regenerating! It was working, she would live! She staggered to her knees, struggling to his side and collapsed across him, her lips seeking his for a kiss. Susan was forcing her own regenerative energy to divide between them, giving him what he needed to start to heal. She was giving him her own lives and he had no way to stop her. He was too weak to fend her off, dying and frail, weak also in that he didn't want to leave her, even at this cost.

Golden light poured out of them both, flooding the underground chamber with energy and shaking the ground. Rocks fell and blocked off the exit, but neither of them noticed. They fell to the ground and lay unconscious, twined about each other, dying and being reborn again.

In another universe, the Doctor launched the Pandorica towards the heart of the explosion. He was erasing himself from history, everything he'd ever done, seen, felt, would be gone. All the lives he'd touched would go on without ever having known him. All the lives he'd saved would now die, and all the lives he'd taken would be saved. So, that balanced out anyway.

"Geronimo!" he murmured, the communicator falling from his hand.

Romana was very angry at the interruption to her wedding night, and so she wasn't feeling particularly merciful just then. She piloted the TARDIS at the fleet, cursing a blue streak as she went, hoping that her ship wasn't translating the words for James.

"Do you have a plan?" he shouted over the sound of the alarms shrilling, clinging to the console as the ship ducked and swerved through space.

"Yeah, drop them into a black hole and wave goodbye!" she retorted. "Sontarans are a race that lives only to fight and kill; they make no art, no poetry, and no music. All they want to do is to die in combat, so I am going to grant them their wish!"

"I'm not sure the Doctor would like that," James pointed out and she glared at the screen for a long moment, fingers tapping out commands to the TARDIS.

"Fine, I'll just transport them to another galaxy and leave them there, okay?" she grumbled, but shot him a grateful glance. Her temper had been raw this regeneration and she was glad that he was there to remind her of other options.

"Sounds good to me," he answered and smiled at her. She grinned back at him, flipping a wave of black hair from her face, and made the changes in the ship's time field. Another galaxy a million or so years in the future, she decided. By then, they should have come up with some way to deal with them, after all.

Far away from where they suffered and bled, Amelia Pond, the girl who waited, the girl who grew up with a crack in the wall of her bedroom, stood up at her wedding, tears in her eyes, and told a story.

"Raggedy Man, I remember you and you are late for my wedding!" she shouted.

And time was remade once more.

Koschei woke with a start and looked at where Susan lay curled against him, red hair splayed across the pillow. They were in her bedroom in her TARDIS. He reached out a shaking hand and touched her face, his same old hand, her same beautiful face. They hadn't regenerated. Time had been reordered and only the memory of that terrible sacrifice remained.

Her eyes flew open and she reached for him. They clung together, shaking with relief and the aftermath of their grief and fear.

"Don't you ever do anything that stupid again!" he berated her, anger and relief, joy and grief wrapped up so tight in him he could barely think straight. She'd died for him, killed herself to get enough regeneration energy to save him too.

"Can't promise that one," she sighed out, with a grimace of annoyance. "You don't get to die on me, you idiot man!" She frowned and poked him in the chest with a finger to emphasize her point, but the tentative way she stroked the skin where his wounds had been betrayed her.

"Omega! Why I put up with you, I will never know!" he grumbled, but his face was smiling and he hadn't let go of her yet. "You never listen to a word I say." She proved that by kissing him, her mouth stoppering up his complaints.

"Collapsing time lines!" the Doctor shouted as he burst into the room. "Something major has happened!" He was pacing across the floor, gesticulating, and Koschei wondered if he'd even noticed that Susan was half dressed and that he was laying on top of her, busily engaged with kissing her senseless. He sighed, dropping his forehead on her chest and Susan chuckled. "Several major faults have been corrected and yet we've lost at least three time lines from whatever that was!" the Doctor continued.

"Morning Susan, Koschei," Rose greeted them both, walking in, a tea tray in her hand. With an exasperated look at her grandfather, Susan pushed Koschei off of her and sat up. Rose grinned at them as she was handing over the cups of tea. "Sorry about this," she added and settled on the edge of their bed with a fond smile for the Doctor, who was still theorizing and pacing.

Koschei was sitting up now and sipping his tea, Susan was blinking sleepily at him, as she clutched her own mug, and shooting amused glances at her grandfather, who was still ranting.

"All the soldiers are all right?" Susan asked Rose, who nodded.

"They had a lovely party and went to bed last night. They have no memory of the Sontaran attack and there are no signs of damage," she informed them.

"Then I guess grandfather managed to save the universes again," Susan yawned and they all looked at her.

"What?" the Doctor asked her. "What?"

"Well, obviously his TARDIS exploded, as the Nestene said it would, and it probably was well on its way to destroying all the universes. Our warning must have gotten to him in time and he managed to repair everything somehow. If he hadn't, Grandfather and I'd have been erased from history," she murmured and yawned again.

"Erased from history?" the Doctor was staring at her and Koschei's hearts had stuttered at her words.

"Yeah, remember the bit in the vision where he would never have existed?" Koschei nodded. "Well, I'm his granddaughter, so I would never have been born," she informed him.

"Would have been a lucky escape for me then," he teased her and she nudged him with her shoulder and laughed.

"But how did he do it?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, he must have re-booted all the time lines when he repaired the explosion," Susan shrugged and sipped her tea again. "Something about the Pandorica made it possible."

"Well yes," Koschei snarked. "Obviously, I mean, what else could it be?" he scrubbed his face with his hands. Life used to be so simple, take over a planet, hypnotize a few lackeys, and slaughter your enemies. Simple. Now there was this girl blinking up at him sleepily, her lips curling up with mischief and affection and he was well and truly stuck with her.

"Susan, was this Pandorica thing part of your Vision?" the Doctor asked and she nodded. Koschei frowned.

"I don't remember that part," he admitted and she shrugged.

"They had dragged you away by that point," she told him and rage he'd felt as they'd tried to separate him from her flooded back.

"Dragged him away?" Rose asked and the Doctor frowned. "Why?"

"He was supposed to be breaking my mind, not trying to kiss me. Naughty!" she giggled and he grinned at her, all the anger fleeing.

"Kissing you seemed far more appealing just then," he admitted and she giggled again. The Doctor and Rose were both grinning at them.

"We'll just be going to get breakfast started," Rose informed them and dragged the Doctor out, as he protested that he wasn't done discussing things. Koschei was very grateful to her; at least one of them had some tact.

He set down his teacup and removed the one from her hand, before pushing her back down on the bed and picking up from where they'd left off.

"So, you've finally succumbed to my irresistible magnetism, eh?" he teased, when they finally came up for air, and she grinned at him.

"I suppose so, though really, it's probably a sign that I've gotten soft headed," she laughed and he silenced her with another lingering kiss.

"Well, then we probably ought to make it official," he mock-sighed. "No getting out of it now, after all."

"I suppose, if you insist," she told him with a shrug, but her eyes were shining and her mind was filled with such happiness that he was hard pressed to maintain his pose of indifference.

"I do insist, rather a lot, in fact," he told her and kissed her again, quickly losing his train of thought as she wriggled beneath him. "You aren't getting away from me again."

"Ha! Gotcha!" she laughed and he quickly turned it into a moan, showing her exactly what he'd learned over centuries of being the Master. She didn't seem to mind.

"Geronimo," he murmured, but he wasn't really sure why he said it.