The Adventures of the Doctor and Rory the Roman: Seven
1397 AD
Rory breathed in the fresh air - though not really - and was glad to be back on British soil. It had definitely been a few centuries for him. But this was his home, his native land, and he really wished the Doctor hadn’t given him that book of poetry by Sir Walter Scott. But whatever words he used, Rory was heart glad to be back in Britain, even Yorkshire.
It was a good time to be alive with the Renaissance about to be a worldwide event and all that; still, the Hundred Year’s War was currently being fought all around him, and Rory was leading his own cult. Yes, he had followers. The Cult of the Centurion - somewhat akin to the star cults that had started rising up, which he thought were actually kind of wonderful - and he thought it was absolutely rubbish, but he didn’t seem to be able to do anything about it. It was like in Forrest Gump when everyone just started running alongside him. It was like that only Rory moved a lot slower and perhaps talked even less. And it’s not like he could just shoot them all. That wouldn’t have solved anything.
But about thirty years before a group of younger people had started following the Pandorica from place to place, leaving their homes, their families, and while he’d tried to stay mainly out of sight, they’d seen him when he’d had to defend the box and they knew he was there. They left him presents by the box and they had campfires at night where they sang songs about him and the box. Really, the only person Rory wanted to know about it was Jeff and see how the other man liked his chances then. As for Amy and the Doctor and his parents - both sets - and anyone else he’d ever known, he hoped they never ever found out. It was highly embarrassing.
The only good thing was that it somewhat protected the box. While he wouldn’t want any of those people’s lives on his conscience, Rory could tell they’d give their lives for the Pandorica. Which was humbling and wrong and reassuring all at the same time. Rory tried not to learn their names. But there was Rioldo and Tristan and Frances and James and Isabella and others and he couldn’t help but overhear their hopes and dreams and plans and see who was falling for who and it was all so human and so wonderful and so isolating for him.
But they were back in England and he was attempting to keep the box out of sight of any military influences. He didn’t want anyone suddenly deciding the Pandorica was a prize of war. That had happened too often and was getting rather old. It had been relatively quiet so far and he was hoping to keep it that way so they could make an extended stay. He communicated his wishes through James who was sort of the middle man between him and the rest of the cult. Rory would rather that not be the case, but he had to make his wishes known about the box somehow and that was the only way he could think of without getting too involved. So he talked to James and James talked to everyone else and acted like a mother hen over them and Rory had to hope that it would be enough.
Rory stood on a hilltop looking at the sky. Just below him and to his right was the Pandorica with a few guards standing at each side. A campfire glowed a bit away from that and the rest of the group was laughing and singing. He kept his hand on his sword and his ears trained in the direction of the box and named all the stars, the ones he’d been to and the ones he hadn’t. Just because they weren’t there anymore didn’t mean that he didn’t think he could really see them if he tried. He wished they were there, not just because it would mean the universe was all right, but because of how beautiful they must have looked before man had discovered how to block out their brilliance with artificial light.
The next day Isabella wasn’t there anymore. Rory didn’t think too much of it, sometimes they wandered off, losing their faith/devotion or growing tired of the constant roughing it. It wasn’t unusual for new faces to suddenly show up when he did his patrols or for old ones to disappear. The generations came and went while Rory stayed the same.
Tristan was gone the next day. Sophia the next. Philippe the next. Rory knew he shouldn’t care and knew he should care and he felt a little bit of both. But no matter the degree, he was worried over these people who had put their faith in his mystery and summoned James to find out what was going on. The younger - he was going on at least fifty now - man appeared shaken and disturbed.
“O Centurion, I don’t know where they went. They didn’t say anything about leaving. They didn’t seem unhappy. I’ve failed them. I’ve failed you.”
Rory thought a couple of hard thoughts against the Doctor - yes, he’d made the choice to stay - for putting him in the position of manipulating these people for his own ends.
“It isn’t your fault,” he said, staying in the shadows. “I want you to look for them.”
“What about the Pandorica?”
“The Pandorica is my responsibility, not yours. Find your own and keep them safe.”
“But-“
“That is what you can do. Do it in daylight. Stay in pairs at least.”
James nodded and left, Rory could see him issuing instructions to the others and extra torches being lit. Rory was left to his inner self-flagellation.
“Admirable, you handle that well,” came a voice out of the darkness.
Rory didn’t jump, he hadn’t in over five hundred years - Marco Polo didn’t count since he hadn’t actually moved - really, but he was startled.
He turned to face the figure.
“What do you want?”
“Not you,” the voice said in rather accented English, “not box. I simply crave sustenance.”
“You’re taking these people?” Rory asked, his anger rising.
“These people, they leave, and I’m helping them,” the figure said and then melted back into the shadows.
Rory cursed and pulled his sword, standing even more vigilantly.
“He’s quite right, you know,” came another voice out of the dark.
Rory turned around - wasn’t anyone at home in bed at night anymore? - and faced the new voice.
“About?”
“You’re rather good at getting people to do things because you need them to without knowing why.”
“That might be the worst thing anyone’s ever said to me,” Rory said, using his night vision to look at the new intruder as he strolled into more visible lighting.
“My apologies then. I’ve always thought that a rather masterful thing myself.”
“Mastery isn’t always best.”
“I do agree.”
The man was leaning against a tree, holding an umbrella, with a hat, and his vest had…question marks on it. The voice had a bit of a brogue as well.
“You’re not from around here,” Rory said quietly.
“Nor are you. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the Doctor.”
Rory’s eyebrows shot up.
“The Doctor?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“What body are you?”
The other man looked somewhat surprised at that.
“I’m in my seventh body at the moment. Have we met before?”
“You could say that,” Rory said, studying him. Something about the man bothered him, making him think it wasn’t really the Doctor. “What are you doing here?”
“I see I must reveal all before you will,” the Doctor said, taking off his hat and bowing low. “I have heard tale of you and the mysterious Pandorica. I’m here to investigate. I’m sure you know how much I love doing that.”
“It does seem to be one of your favorite things to do,” Rory said and the feeling dissipated a little. “But I can see you don’t remember that you already know about the Pandorica.”
“Do I? How lovely for me. Now if only I could remember.”
Rory clicked open his hand-gun - it wasn’t quite as impressive anymore with the widespread fad of handguns now, but no one would ever have a handgun quite like him - and kept it trained on the man.
“Let me see if I can’t help you remember. Rory.”
The Doctor paused for a moment as if remembering something - which, he probably was - and then smiled.
“Ah, Rory. I see I’m on rather a fool’s errand, aren’t I? How have you been?”
“Plastic, you?”
“Rather relieved I’m not wearing that lively coat anymore.”
Rory laughed and lowered his hand.
“It’s good to see you, Doctor, I am glad you’re here. I think you may have noticed I have a bit of a problem.”
“Thank you,” the Doctor said, looking at Rory’s hand with an expression of distaste. “I never took you for a cult leader,” the Doctor said, a bit disapprovingly.
“I never took myself for one and still don’t. But those kids…they don’t take no for an answer and I don’t think shooting them is exactly the way to go.”
“No, certainly not. But there are always ways and means around or through or over.”
“You’re rather tricky now,” Rory said.
The Doctor winked and put his hand to his hat.
“Now, now, I mustn’t give away my secrets. Though I gather you probably know a lot of them.”
“I do at that,” Rory said. “But I need your help, Doctor. I have to figure out what that was and why it wants my kids.”
“Have you and Amy ever discussed children?”
“Not really. She’s sort of in a box and I’m sort of plastic,” Rory said, rolling his eyes and feeling a bit frustrated at the man’s lack of urgency.
“Pity, I think you’d make a wonderful father.”
Rory couldn’t deny he felt a little bit of a glow of happiness at the thought, but it was quickly overshadowed by the knowledge that it could never happen now. He was pretty sure that’s not how more plastic people were made even if he had never really got the Nestene version of the birds and the bees chat.
“A little off the point there, Doctor,” he said. “I need to stop that thing.”
“It’s a Rezer,” the Doctor said calmly, twirling his umbrella. “I’ve met them before. They are carnivorous and nomadic and prey on similarly nomadic creatures. Your wandering band would make the perfect buffet. You can find them almost everywhere and every time due to their propensity for travel. Though I’ve seen considerably less of them around lately. Almost like they’re disappearing.”
The Doctor looked knowingly at Rory and Rory understood his meaning at once. But he couldn’t worry over there being less Rezers in the universe than there should be. He had people missing.
“How do we stop it?”
“I think…” the Doctor said, looking at his watch, a genuine pocket watch at that, “…ah, yes.”
An explosion lit up the night air and rocked the hill. The Doctor never wavered but Rory jumped in shock - the first time in five hundred years - and tried not to fall down. There were more hills to the southeast and they were on fire.
“What the hell was that?” he blurted out.
“I think your French is very good,” the Doctor noted before walking over and placing his hand on Rory’s arm. “That was Ace.”
“Ace?”
“Ace. I sent her to follow the Rezer. She’s very good at that.”
“Ace?”
“Here, Professor,” came the voice of a young woman who, up till this point, Rory had called Sophia.
Rory opened his mouth in shock.
“You’ve been following me!” he told the Doctor.
“I told you, I didn’t know who you were. But I’m glad we were here to help anyway.”
Rory swore again, this time deliberately in Latin.
“He’s got a mouth on him, ain’t he?” Ace said, taking off her outer clothes to reveal much more modern - for the eighties anyway - ones underneath.
“Sorry,” Rory apologized somewhat automatically. “I don’t usually; I’m just a little surprised.”
“He’ll do that to you,” Ace said, pointing her thumb at the Doctor.
“Tell me about it,” Rory said and thought about how he was going to - if the universe didn’t fully die and he could manage it - arrange a meeting between all the companions of the Doctor he could find and have a grand tell all about the Doctor.
“It appears we can be on our way,” the Doctor said. “How fare the missing ones, Ace?”
“Tristan’s a goner, but Izzy and Phil are on their way back. James was gonna handle it from there.”
“Excellent work,” the Doctor said. “I see you favored a smaller explosion this time.”
“Smaller?” Rory asked, still watching the fire burn merrily.
“Ace could probably blow up the whole country at the moment,” the Doctor said and sighed. “Something I can’t seem to dissuade her from.”
“Yes, well, I’ve got things that can’t get blown up, so you’d better go,” Rory said, a little nervously.
“You look tired,” the Doctor said. “Would you like to come with us for awhile? A short trip could do wonders for you.”
Rory stared at him.
“You can’t even ask me that, Doctor. I’m not leaving here.”
“Are you sure? I could have you back here before they even knew you were gone.”
“No offense, Doctor, but I don’t exactly trust your driving. And I wouldn’t leave her even for a second if I didn’t have to.”
“Good,” the Doctor said, sounding satisfied. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Rory thought this Doctor was just as exhausting as all the rest, for all his lack of manic energy and racing about.
“Get out of here,” he said, smiling ruefully. “And forget me.”
“See ya,” Ace said, waving goodbye. “Look after those ones for me.”
“I guess,” Rory said. “I guess I have to.”
“They’ll tire of it sooner rather than later, I imagine,” the Doctor said. “You’ll be alone again sooner than you’d wish.”
“I hope so,” Rory said, waving goodbye as the two walked back into dark.
He shook his head to clear it and then watched the fires burn down.