The Power of Three
(Jared's POV)
London...
I was walking around the city until a parallel version of me approached me. That version of me was wearing a hoodie, jeans, and some flip flops.
"Oh no. No. I thought we were done with this." I said, crossing my arms. "Okay, so when are you from? I know you're from the real world and all."
"October…" Parallel me said, sadly.
"October. That's awesome. That's a lot of 2020 left."
"I don't want to be in this dimension longer than you want me here, okay? So, can we just do this and get it over with?"
"Yeah. Sure. Let's get it over with." I said, shrugging my shoulders.
"Good news or bad news?" Future me asked.
"Who fucking cares? I'm about to lose my dog any day now. Let's get this over with. And end this adventure with positivity all around. Honestly, things are so bad right now. I'm sure things will get better now."
"When are you at?"
"A lot has happened since then. At Atlas and such. I think the other version of me had to deal with watching protests for racial injustice. I think it had to do with…"
"George Floyd and Jacob Blake."
"Two? Two African Americans within a couple month gap? Have things gotten better? I assume things have gotten better back home. I've been keeping up with the news over there. People must have posted for Black Square, right?"
Parallel me started laughing at me and I rolled my eyes a little.
"Yeah. Sorry." I said, frowning.
"It's okay." Parallel me said, letting out a sigh. "Well, some things are better. You've been spending a lot of time at your grandparents' condominium. You got yourself into something called HoloLive. The NBA players have been getting a lot more active. Along with Black Lives Matter."
"Well, that's awesome. I love it. You got the likes of Kobe Bryant. And Shaquille O'Neal. Those are some proud boys representing basketball."
"Proud boys? Let's not say that."
"Why not?"
"How about we rewind time a little? How about you say you denounce the proud boys?"
"Why?"
"Just say it. Please. It's better if you say it for our sake."
"I don't want to say it."
"Please. I'll treat you to some Rita's Ice." Parallel me said.
I took out my New Nintendo 3DS out of my pocket and loaded up a copy of Pokemon Green.
"Whatcha playing?" Parallel me asked.
"Oh. Just playing generation one of Pokemon. Also known as Red, Blue, and Green." I said, catching a Pokemon in the game.
"That's awesome."
"Also known as RBG."
"Great. Where's Yellow in that mix?" Parallel me asked, looking at my New Nintendo 3DS. "How about we skip that one for now?"
"What?" I asked, looking at parallel me.
"Maybe this is a bad idea after all. Dimension traveling."
"It's fine. I can obviously handle it."
"After everything you, Team RWBY, Team JNR, Oscar, and Penny have gone through at Atlas so far. I don't know."
"Okay. What are you gonna tell me next after me wanting another break from Remnant? Earth's sky is on fire again? After the Doctor used the atmospheric converter during the 2009 Sontaran Invasion of Earth."
"Yeah."
"Holy shit. Did history repeat itself while I was away?"
"Well, the sky isn't on fire. It's just orange. Like the atmospheric converter, cleaning the sky of the toxic fumes. It is a bit interesting, now that I think about it. I guess the forest fires went full circle this year. With y'know, Australia and then California. It's a bit funny."
"How? How is that funny?" I asked, looking at parallel me. "It isn't funny at all."
I placed my New Nintendo 3DS back inside my pocket.
"I'm not laughing at it. It's ironic now." Parallel me said.
"The hell are you gonna bring up now? That a city explodes?"
"Wow, that's a bit too soon. For that."
"What? A city exploded?! Where? Was S.O.N.G there to stop it? Or at least T.S.A.B?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"Oh yeah. That reminds me. Don't go to any gender reveal parties."
"The fuck?! That doesn't make any sense. This is all wibbly wobbly timey wimey."
"It will." Parallel me said, frowning.
"Is there any good news that comes out of this?"
"Um, well. Your family loves the articles you wrote for the campus newspaper. And you're doing pretty well in English and history."
"Okay." I said, looking away for a moment. "You're only thinking about yourself."
"No. I'm not. It's been a hard year. We lost our dog. We've been spending a lot of time at the beach. We have to have some wins whenever we can."
"I guess. So, did we find anything entertaining to watch? Besides HoloLive."
"Yeah. You got yourself into the Fate franchise and Neon Genesis Evangelion. And thankfully, I didn't pick up on any stupid catchphrases watching HoloLive. Haachama-chama."
"Dumb. This is so dumb." I said, studying my parallel self.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Someone has COVID-19."
"Who is it? Me? My mom?"
"Nope."
"My dad? My brother?"
"No, it's someone higher up. I can't tell you. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey."
"Is it Trump?"
"Well, you didn't hear it from me."
"That's the least surprising thing I've heard all day."
"It's true."
"At least this is Donald Trump we're talking about here. He can mask up and social distance. That's how people deal with a global pandemic back home, right? It's not like he has to meet anyone important." I said, kicking my foot back and forth.
Parallel me walked up to me with his iPhone X, with Amelia Watson loaded up, "Want to watch her?"
"No, I'm good." I said, walking away from my parallel self. "I've got Pokemon Red, Blue, and Green."
"No, you don't." Parallel me said.
"What?"
"What?"
"Oh, since this is what? 2012 in this world? You better stock on some toilet paper just in case. Get an eight year supply's worth of it."
"Really? Isn't that overkill?"
Front door…
Rory and Amy are woken by the doorbell. They look out of their bedroom window.
"Dad, it's half past six in the morning." Rory said.
"What are you doing lying around? Haven't you seen them?" Brian asked, while he had one of the boxes.
"Look!" Madoka said, looking at lots of the boxes scattered around the street like three inch square black hailstones. "They're everywhere."
"Tell me about it." Sayaka said, crossing her arms.
"What are they?" Rory asked.
"Nobody knows. They're everywhere." Mami said, picking up a cube.
"Well, where have they come from? Wait." Amy said, and a man in a tweed jacket is sitting on top of a child's climbing frame examining a box while I'm examining a box and eating some Pocky with Kyoko. "Doctor! Jared!"
"Invasion of the very small cubes. That's new." The Doctor said.
"And it's the perfect distraction to what's going back at Atlas." I said, eating a strawberry Pocky. "I thought I could bring in some of my extended family with me."
The BBC News channel provides information.
"World leaders are appealing for calm." Matthew Amroliwala said, on BBC News.
"After the global appearance of millions of small cubes. Despite official warnings, people have been taking the cubes from the streets into offices and homes." Joanna Gosling said, on BBC News.
"What are they?"
"Where do they come from?"
"And why are they here?"
"Well, they're certainly not random space debris. They're too perfectly formed for that. Are they extra-terrestrial in origin? Well, you'll have to ask a better man than me." Professor Brian Cox said, on TV.
Tardis…
"Um, these cubes are all identical." Homura said, sadly.
"And there isn't a difference between them." Mami said, looking at her cube.
"The hell? There's no blemishes, imperfections, individualities." Kyoko said, annoyed.
"What if they're bombs? Billions of tiny bombs? Or transport capsules maybe, with a mini robot inside. Or deadly hard drives. Or alien eggs? Or messages needing decoding. Or they're all parts of a bigger whole. Jigsaw puzzles that need fitting together." Brian said.
"Did you spoil the plot of Surviving Mars?" Sayaka asked.
"I think he did." Madoka said, frowning.
"Anyway, this is still very through, Brian." I said, smirking. "Brian. Stay here. Watch the cubes. Mami, Kyoko. Look after him. Yell if anything happens."
I exited the TARDIS with Madoka, Homura, and Sayaka.
"Doctor, Jared, is this an alien invasion? Because that's what it feels like." Amy said.
"There couldn't be life-forms in every cube, could there?" Rory asked.
"I don't know. And I really don't like not knowing." The Doctor said. "And I hate how Jared knows what will happen."
Kitchen…
The Tardis is parked in the lounge.
"Right, I need to use your kitchen as a lab. Cook up some cubes. See what happens." The Doctor said.
"Right, I'm due at work." Rory said.
"What? You've got a job?" The Doctor asked.
"Of course I've got a job. What do you think we do when we're not with you?" Rory asked.
"Don't you two kiss?" Sayaka asked.
"Sayaka!" Madoka said, angrily.
"Um, what do you two do these days?" Homura asked.
"I write travel articles for magazines and Rory heals the sick." Amy said, looking at Homura.
"My shift starts in an hour. You don't know where my scrubs are?" Rory asked.
"In the lounge, where you left them."
"What's gonna happen today?" Sayaka asked, telepathically.
"Hope you like soldiers. Because they're gonna be here any moment now." I said, telepathically.
"All the Ponds, with their house and their jobs and their everyday lives. The journalist and the nurse. Long way from Leadworth." The Doctor said.
"And the Puella Magi Holy Quintet. Defeating Witches. Saving people and the world. Five Magical Girls working together. Long way from fighting with each other." I said, looking between Madoka, Sayaka, and Homura. "You five are literally a parallel of me and Team RWBY."
The Doctor is sonicking a gizmo together.
"We think it's been ten years. Not for the both of you or Earth, but for us. Ten years older. Ten years of the Doctor and Jared, on and off." Amy said.
"Look at you now. All grown up." The Doctor said, looking at Amy.
"You guys have been doing things pretty well without me." I said, smirking.
The front door is smashed down.
"Clear! Trap one, kitchen secured." A man said.
"Trap three, back garden secured." Man 2 said.
The rest of the squad are outside the patio doors.
Rory is marched in at gunpoint, "There are soldiers all over my house, and I'm in my pants."
"My whole life I've dreamed of saying that, and I miss it by being someone else." Amy said.
"Tell me about it." Sayaka said, sadly. "That would have been incredibly embarrassing."
A woman enters the house.
"All these muscles, and they still don't know how to knock. Sorry about the raucous entrance. Spike in Artron energy and magic readings at this address. In the light of the last twenty four hours, we had to check it out, and the dogs do love a run out. Hello. Kate Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT. And with dress sense like that." Kate said, holding out a scanner, which shows two hearts beating in the Doctor's chest. "You must be the Doctor. And you must be Jared. I hoped it would be the two of you."
"Yeah. Sorry about the incident at the Black Archive a couple years back. With Sarah Jane and all that." I said, looking at Kate.
"It's okay. That's off your record. We know you were trying to help save the world."
"So, when did science run the military, Kate?" Sayaka asked.
"Since me. UNIT's been adapting. Well, I dragged them along, kicking and screaming, which made it sound like more fun than it actually was." Kate said.
"Um, what, what do we know about these cubes?" Homura asked, playing with her hands a little.
"Far less than we need to. We've been freighting them in from around the world for testing. So far, we've subjected them to temperatures of plus and minus two hundred Celsius, simulated a water depth of five miles, dropped one out of a helicopter at ten thousand feet, asked Magical Girls from Kamihama City to use their Magia or their Doppels, had Symphogear use their Superb Songs, and rolled our best tank over it. Always intact." Kate said.
"Well, that's impressive." Sayaka said, looking at Kate.
"Wait, um, can we not have them be impressive?" Homura asked.
"You're right, girls. We want them vulnerable where Mami or Homura can nuke them." I said, laughing a little.
"We don't know how they got here, what they're made of, or why they're here." Kate said.
"And all around the world, people are picking them up and taking them home." Madoka said, looking at a cube.
"Like iPads have dropped out of the sky. Taking them to work, taking pictures, making films, posting them on Flickr and YouTube. Within three hours, the cubes had a thousand separate Twitter accounts." Kate said.
"Twitter?" The Doctor asked.
"I've recommended we treat this as a hostile incursion. Gather them all up and lock them in a secure facility. But that would take massive international agreement and co-operation."
"We need evidence. The cubes arrived in plain sight, in vast quantities, as the sun rose. So, what does that tell us?"
"Maybe they wanted to be seen. Noticed." Amy said.
"Or more than that, they want to be observed. So we observe them. Stay with them round the clock. Watch the cubes, day and night. Record absolutely everything about them. Team cube, in it together." The Doctor said.
Lounge…
"Four days. Nothing! Nothing! Not a single change in any cube anywhere in the world. Four days, and we're still in your lounge!" The Doctor said.
"You were the one who wanted to observe them." Madoka said.
"Yes, well, I thought they'd do something, didn't I? Not just sit there while everyone eats endless cereal!" The Doctor said, angrily.
"You said we had to be patient." Rory said.
"Yes, you! You, not me! I hate being patient. Patience is for wimps. I can't live like this. Don't make me. I need to be busy." The Doctor said.
"Fine! Be busy! We'll watch the cubes." Amy said.
So the Doctor creosotes the garden fence, plays a little football, mows the lawn and does something to their car.
"Ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred. Amy!" The Doctor said, keeping the football off the ground.
"Um, why is he doing this?" Homura asked.
"He's trying to make a point." I said, placing my hand on top of Sayaka's.
"I don't know how doing all of this is fair." Sayaka said.
"Tell me about it." Madoka said.
The Doctor also vacuums the house.
"Four million nine hundred ninety nine, five million." The Doctor said, finishing with whatever he was doing with the football.
The Doctor returns to the sofa, "That's better. Nothing like a bit of activity to pass the time. How long was I gone?"
"Er, about an hour." Rory said, checking his watch.
"I can't do it. No." The Doctor said, entering the TARDIS.
"Where are you going?" Amy asked.
Tardis…
"Brian, you're still here." The Doctor said.
"Jared told me to watch the cubes." Brian said.
"I told you to do that four days ago." I said, looking at Brian.
"Ah! Doesn't time fly when you're alone with your thoughts?" Brian asked.
"Where's Mami and Kyoko?"
"The blonde is in the kitchen baking and the ginger is in the arcade."
"Right, of course they are." I said, smiling.
"Um, we should get them out of there." Homura said.
"Good idea. If the Doctor is gonna leave again." Sayaka said, her hand on her hip.
"Right." Madoka said, raising her fist.
The three Magical Girls ran down the stairs to the nearby hallways.
"You can't just leave, Doctor." Rory said.
"Yes, of course I can. Quick jaunt, restore sanity. Ooo, hey, come if you like." The Doctor said.
"They can't just go off like that." Brian said.
"Can't they? Can't you? That's how it goes, isn't it?" The Doctor asked.
"No, it doesn't." I said, crossing my arms. "Magical Girls defeat Witches and I defeat Grimm. We don't have time to see the universe. We're heroes."
"He's right. I've got my job as a nurse." Rory said.
"Oh yes, Rory. The universe is awaiting, but you have a little job too." The Doctor said.
"It's not little. It's important to me. Look, what you do isn't all there is."
"I never said it was."
"All right. Fine. I'll be back soon. Monitor the cubes. Call me. I'll have the Tardis set to every Earth news feed."
"At the end of a week of cubic questions and theories, but no answers, could this be the greatest stealth marketing campaign in business history? And if it is, will those behind it ever come forward and explain exactly what it's for?" Joanna asked, on TV.
Mami's home- October 2012…
"Happy birthday, Madoka!" I said, along with the rest of the Puella Magi Holy Quintet.
"Gee, thanks." Madoka said, looking at me, Sayaka, Kyoko, Mami, and Homura. "What did you all get me?"
"Something awesome." Sayaka said, looking down at her gift she will give to her best friend.
Kirito and Asuna's home - October 2026…
"God, Madoka's birthday was yesterday and today is Silica's." I said, sitting on the couch.
On the table was my slice of strawberry cake on a nice pink plate. I looked at all of the SAO survivors around me.
"You should come and celebrate my birthday next." Kirito said, looking at me.
"Oh, you should come and help us out in some tournaments." Asuna said.
"Helping you guys too?" I asked, looking between Kirito and Asuna. "Um…"
S.O.N.G headquarters - October 2012...
"I just committed to helping out the SAO survivors and the Puella Magi Holy Quintet." I said, frowning.
"You did in advance." Miku said. "Like you're actually gonna be here."
"Did you just start real life and settle down?" Kirika asked.
"Yeah. I did. I like it. No more traveling around the universe that much. I like it." I said, laughing a lot.
"I'm glad that you're helping your friends more often now." Tsubasa said, looking at me.
Banbanzai- October 2012…
"More ramen please!" I said, looking over at Felicia.
"Sure. It's been what? Sixty seven days. Yep yep." Tsuruno said, entering the eating area. "Thanks for sticking around and helping us."
"What are friends for?"
"Oh. Hi." Iroha said, entering the restaurant. "Stopping by?"
"Yup." I said, looking at Iroha. "Lunch is on me. Think of it as thanks for saving this city years ago."
"How long will you be on Earth?" Yachiyo asked. "Don't you have to help save Atlas?"
"I will. Eventually. I'm in no rush to help them. Unless they absolutely need me."
Mitakihara City arcade- December 2012…
The decorations are up and a Christmas remix of the Madoka Magica theme song, Connect, is playing out of the Dance Dance Revolution machine that Kyoko Sakura is dancing on.
"So, what are you gonna do now?" Kyoko asked, dancing with a Pocky in her mouth.
"I don't know." I said, going up against Kyoko in the rhythm game. "It's been a long several months."
"You helped us defeat some Witches here and there. You can't stay on Earth forever."
"I know. I know that."
"Do you?" Kyoko asked, offering me a chocolate Pocky stick.
"Of course I do." I said, plucking the Pocky from the redhead's hand. "What do you think I do for a living?"
"Being a hero. What else do you do? Can you keep this up?"
Back garden - June 2013…
The Williams are hosting a barbeque.
Amy makes a telephone call, "Hey! Doctor, it's me. Hello. So, the UN classified the cubes as provisionally safe, whatever that means, and Banksy and Damien Hirst put out statements saying the cubes are nothing to do with them."
"Amy, the cubes are still here." I said, walking over to Amy. "And I'm still here. It's been nine months."
"I think people are taking them for granted." Kaede said, sadly.
"It is a bit annoying as to why we'll never know why they came." Rena said, crossing her arms.
"Don't forget, you went to Laura's wedding." Momoko said, walking up to Amy.
"Thanks for reminding me, Momoko. It was great. She's here tonight, along with Jared and the KMR triangle. As you can hear. Being as it's our wedding anniversary. We thought you might have dropped by. I left you messages." Amy said.
A man carries a large bouquet of flowers up behind Amy.
"I know! Happy anniversary! Come with me. And Pond, bring your husband. Jared, bring the KMR triangle." The Doctor said, excitedly.
Savoy Hotel…
"26th of June, 1890. The recently opened Savoy Hotel. Dinner, bed and breakfast for six. Bonjour, bonjour. Merci, Auguste. You'll be back before the party's over. They won't even notice you went. No complications, I promise." The Doctor said.
"What could possibly go wrong?" Kaede asked. "It is a nice day in the past."
"Shit." I said, looking at Kaede.
"She jinxed us…" Rena said.
"This won't end well." Momoko said.
Rory kisses the Doctor continental style, "Don't worry. Things will be fine."
"Ooo!" The Doctor said, smiling.
Street…
Still dressed for 1890, and it is snowing.
"Bit of a shock, Zygon ship under the Savoy, half the staff impostors. Still, it's all fixed now, eh?" The Doctor asked.
Bedchamber…
"Gentlemen, open the doors!" Henry said, his voice nearby.
"I thought we were going home?" Amy asked.
"You can't miss a good wedding. Under the bed. Under the bed! Jared can't mask us all with his Semblance." The Doctor said.
The Doctor and the Ponds hide under the big four-poster. I used my Semblance to turn myself and the KMR triangle invisible.
"Shush!" The Doctor said, angrily.
"It wasn't my fault." Amy said.
"It was totally your fault!" Rory said.
"Somebody was talking, and I just said yes."
"To wedding vows! You just married Henry VIII on our anniversary."
"Um, why do we keep getting sidetracked?" Kaede asked, telepathically.
The monarch enters.
"That's because the Doctor is being a massive idiot." I said, telepathically. "The Time Lord loves getting us lost."
The Doctor sneezes, "Sorry."
Lounge - June 2013... again…
A party. I brought the KMR triangle back home to Kamihama City, knowing that they had enough traveling for a while.
Brian goes up to the Doctor and I.
"How long were they away?" Brian asked.
"The hell are you talking about, Brian? The Ponds have been here the entire time." I said, sipping on a bottle of Mountain Dew.
"Because they're wearing totally different clothes from earlier."
"Seven weeks. I got side-tracked. A lot." The Doctor said.
"What happened to the other people who travel with the both of you?" Brian asked.
"Some left us. Some got left behind. And some, not many but, some died." The Doctor said.
"The ones who left us were Martha, Jack, Mickey, and Sarah Jane. The one who got left behind were Rose and Ilia. The ones who died were Donna and Pyrrha." I said, letting out a sigh.
"Not them. Not them, Brian. Never them. We're not leaving behind the Ponds and Team RWBY."
The Doctor and I looked between Amy and Rory having a good time at their wedding anniversary.
Back garden…
"Amy, can we ask you something?" I asked, looking at Amy.
"Sure." Amy said, looking between me and the Doctor. "What's up?"
"Can the Doctor and I stay here. With the both of you. For a bit."
"We want to keep an eye on the cubes. However long that takes." The Doctor said.
"I thought it would drive you mad." Amy said.
"No, no, no. I mean, I'll be better at it this time. We miss you." The Doctor said.
(Open POV)
Mami's home - July 2013…
"Can't believe we took that Witch down." Sayaka said, entering the apartment with the rest of the Puella Magi Holy Quintet. "How long has it been since the cubes appeared?"
"About a year." Kyoko said, looking at the blue haired Magical Girl.
Lounge…
"I sent you out to sell as many cubes as you could in twenty four hours. And look at you, you've made a right hash of it, haven't you. Well, Craig, you're fired." Lord Sugar said, on TV.
The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Jared are eating what looks like fish fingers and custard.
"Who knew British TV is still funny to this day." Jared said, smiling.
"If I had a restaurant, this'd be all I'd serve." The Doctor said.
"Yeah, right. You running a restaurant." Amy said.
"I've run restaurants. Who do you think invented the Yorkshire pudding?"
"You didn't." Rory said.
"Pudding, yet savoury. Sound familiar?" The Doctor asked.
Mami's home...
A box moves on the table as Madoka is eating her share of cake.
"Did that box…" Madoka said, looking down at the black box.
The box starts to spin around.
"It's, um, it's spinning." Homura said, staring at the box.
S.O.N.G headquarters…
"Shirabe! Can I get the usual?" Kirika asked.
"After we defeat the Noise." Shirabe said, entering the main part of the headquarters.
"You two aren't needed today." Elfnein said. "We didn't call you. I was studying the cubes."
"Any progress?" Genjuro asked, looking at the screen.
"Nothing at all."
The cube on the dashboard opens its lid and closes it again.
Lounge…
"Oh, yes! Second set, Doctor! Ha ha!" The Doctor said, excitedly.
"No fair, Spaceman!" Jared said, holding his Wii Remote. "You can't beat me at Wii Sports."
"I did. And I will keep doing it. Oh, if Fred Perry could see me now, eh? He'd probably ask for his shorts back."
Banbanzai...
Tsuruno sees the cube in here glowing.
"Let me move this a little." Tsuruno said, putting her hand on it and getting stabbed by a square of 25 short needles. "Ow!"
The needles disappear back inside the cube then a heartbeat line appears through the middle of it.
S.O.N.G headquarters...
Down in the headquarters, Shirabe spots the cube opening and closing.
"Look at this." Shirabe said, as she tries to see what is inside it. "It tried to open just now."
Lounge…
"Third set decider, come on, then." The Doctor said.
"You're not gonna win, Doctor." Jared said, looking at the Doctor. "I'm not gonna win that easily."
A cube flies around the Doctor and Jared and blocks their view.
"Out of the way, dear, we're trying to." The Doctor said.
"Okay, whatever you are. I already know who your masters are. This planet, these people, my friends who I consider my family. They're precious to me." Jared said, looking at the cube. "And the Ponds, they're precious to me and the Doctor. And we will defend them to our last breaths."
"Is that all you can do, hover? I had a metal dog could do that." The Doctor said, while the cube points a tube at him. "What's that?"
The cube fires, the Doctor and Jared dodge and a vase shatters.
"I would take a Grimm over this any day." Jared said, annoyed.
The Doctor and Jared escape after two more pot shots, then the cube settles in front of the TV cum computer console and images flicker across the screen very quickly.
"Dalek any day for me." The Doctor said.
Hallway…
The Doctor and Jared look round the door.
"Ooo, you really have woken up." The Doctor said.
"Doctor? Jared? Hi. Er, the cube in there, it just opened." Rory said.
"The cube upstairs just spiked me and took my pulse!" Amy said, terrified.
"Ha! Really? Ours fired laser bolts and now it's surfing the net." Jared said, laughing a lot.
Brian enters, "You're never going to believe this. My cube just moved. It rattled."
Rory answers his mobile phone, "Hello?"
Hospital…
"Rory, mate, I'm desperate for help. People are saying they've been attacked by the cubes. It's going to be a long night." Ranjit said.
The little girl is still sitting there with a glowing cube. Since December 2012?
"Okay, I'm on my way." Rory said, his voice over the phone.
Hallway...
"I have to get to work. They need all the help they can get." Rory said.
"Let me come, help out." Brian said.
"Take your dad to work night, brilliant! Okay, are you going to be all right here?"
"Keep away from the cubes." Amy said.
"Right." Rory said.
Rory and Brian leave. The Doctor is looking at his psychic paper. And Jared gets a message on his Augma headset.
"What are the both of you grinning about?" Amy asked, looking between the Doctor and Jared.
"We're wanted at the Tower of London." Jared said, happily. "Let's go, Spaceman, Pond."
Tower of London…
They arrive by car.
"Every cube across the whole world activated at the same moment." Kate said.
"Finally! It was nice helping my friends defeat Noise and Witches for a year. And relaxing my physical body while exploring through virtual worlds." Jared said, looking at Kate. "Now we're in business. The cubes, huh. I almost forgot they were the big threat of this adventure."
"Of course you did. I was out exploring the universe in the meantime. And I only stuck around for the last month." The Doctor said. "Kate, you sent me a message to my psychic paper. You know what? I'm almost impressed."
UNIT HQ…
"Secret base beneath the Tower. Hope we're not here because we know too much." Amy said.
"Yes, I've got officers trained in beheading. Also ravens of death." Kate said.
"I like her." Amy said.
"Same. She's like Jack and Sarah Jane." Jared said, smiling. "Haven't seen either in a while. Wonder how the two of them are doing right now. How many cubes do we have adding up?"
They enter an area with lots of individual armoured cubicles, each containing a cube.
"There are fifty being monitored, and more coming in all the time. I don't know how useful it is. Every cube is behaving individually. There's no meaningful pattern. Some respond to proximity. Some create mood swings." Kate said.
Amy touches one cubicle and the cube produces a flames. In another, a woman weeps.
"Er, what's this one?" Amy asked.
"Try the door." Kate said, while Amy opens the door and the Birdie Song starts playing. "On a loop!"
"Symphogear?" Amy asked, looking at Jared.
"Yeah…" Jared said, when Amy shuts the door again quickly. "I brought all of Symphogear with me and the Doctor to the 1950s. Shirabe and Kirika were on a sugar rush that day. And they introduced Werner Thomas to the Chicken Dance..."
"This is the latest." Kate said.
"Shit. There's system breaches at the Pentagon, China, every African nation, the Middle East…"
"I've got governments screaming for explanations and no idea what to tell them. I'm lost, Doctor, Jared. We all are."
"Kate, don't despair. I've been helping people for years now. With the help of my friends. I don't regret becoming a Huntsman, an ally of justice for another's sake. If I regret my decision now, the feelings upon which it was based will be for naught." Jared said, looking at the computer screen.
"And your dad never did. Kate Stewart, heading up UNIT, changing the way they work. How could you not be? Why did you drop Lethbridge?" The Doctor asked, looking at Kate.
"I didn't want any favours. Though he guided me, even to the end. Science leads, he always told me. Said he'd learned that from old friends." Kate said.
"Kate, we don't let Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart down. And we don't let this planet down." Jared said, smirking.
"They've stopped. The cubes, across the world, they just shut down." The researcher said.
"Active for forty seven minutes, and then they just die?" Kate asked.
"They're not dead. Maybe they're dormant. I don't know." Jared said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Then why shut down?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. I don't know. I need to think. I need some air. Who has an underground base? Terrible ventilation." The Doctor said.
By the Thames…
"The moment they arrived, I should have made sure they were collected and burned. That is what I should have done." The Doctor said.
"How? Nobody would have listened." Amy said.
"You're thinking of stopping, aren't you? You and Rory." The Doctor said, looking at Amy. "And Jared, you're thinking of stopping at being a hero of justice."
"No. I mean, we haven't made a decision." Amy said.
"I haven't made one either. A lot has been happening at Remnant with my friends. It all just became too much for me to handle." Jared said, placing his hand on top of Amy's.
"But you two are considering it." The Doctor said, looking between Jared and Amy.
"Maybe. I don't know. We don't know. Well, our lives have changed so much. But there was a time, there were years, when I couldn't live without the both of you. When just the whole everyday thing would drive me crazy. But since the two of you dropped us back here, since Jared gave us this house, you know, we've built a life. I don't know if I can have both." Amy said.
"And I don't know if I can have three lives. Real life, Doctor life, and Remnant life. I built a life at Remnant, I did. But I also built a life here on Earth. I'm dealing with three lives instead of two." Jared said, frowning.
"Why?" The Doctor asked.
"Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at us, and because the travelling is starting to feel like running away." Amy said.
"It really is starting to feel like running away. I've been running away from Remnant from quite a while now. And things are ever so dire at Atlas." Jared said, squeezing the Doctor's hand. "Traveling is like running away to me and Amy. We need some real life."
"That's not what it is." The Doctor said.
"Oh, come on. Look at you, four days in a lounge and you go crazy." Amy said, scoffing.
"I'm not running away. But this is one corner of one country in one continent on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that's a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond. And there is so much, so much to see, Amy, Jared. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things, I am running to them before they flare and fade forever. And it's all right. Our lives won't run the same. They can't. One day, soon maybe, the two of you will stop. I've known for a while." The Doctor said.
"Then why do you keep coming back for us?" Amy asked.
"Because you were the first, Amelia. The first face this face saw. And you're seared onto my hearts, Amelia Pond. You always will be. And Jared, you are one of the longest serving companions I ever had. You might have not been there when I had this face. But you're also seared onto my hearts, Jared Shay. You always will be too. I'm running to both of you, and Rory and Team RWBY, before you two fade from me." The Doctor said, looking between Jared and Amy.
"Don't be nice to me, Doctor. I don't want you to be nice to me." Amy said.
"Same. Don't be nice to me, Spaceman. I don't like that one bit." Jared said, letting out a sigh.
"Yeah, you do, Pond, Shay, and you two always get what you want. They got what they wanted." The Doctor said.
"What? Who did?" Amy asked.
"The cubes. That's why they stopped. Come on." The Doctor said.
UNIT HQ…
"Kate? Before they shut down, they scanned everything, from your medical limits to your military response patterns." The Doctor said.
"They assessed Earth in its entirety. Including its inhabitants which have Magical Girls, Magus, and Symphogear here." Jared said, looking around the place. "That's what the surge of activity was." The power cuts off. "Do you have a power outage?"
"Not possible. We've got back-ups." Kate said.
"Are you sure?"
"Doctor? Jared? Look." Amy said.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Why do they all say seven?" Kate asked.
Every cube is showing the same number.
"Seven. Seriously? What's so important about the number seven? There's seven wonders of the world, seven Symphogear wielders, seven sides of a cube." Jared said, pacing back and forth.
"A cube has six sides." Amy said.
"Not if you count the inside." The Doctor said.
Clunk, six.
"God! Why am I so forgetful? It's a countdown." Jared said, taking out some Pocky to eat them.
"Not in minutes." Kate said.
"Why would it be minutes? Kate, we have to get humanity and Magical Girls away from those cubes. God knows what they'll do if they hit zero in this universe."
"Get the information out any way you can. News channels, websites, radio, text messages. People have to know that the cubes are dangerous." The Doctor said.
"Okay, but why is this starting now? I mean, the cubes arrived months ago. Why wait this long?" Amy asked.
"Because they're clever. Allow people enough time to collect them, take them into their homes, their lives. Humans and Magical Girls, the great early adopters. And then, wham! Profile every inch of Earth's existence." The Doctor said.
"Discover how best to attack us." Kate said.
"Get that information out any way you can. Go!" Jared said, finishing up the box of strawberry Pocky he was eating.
"Right." Kate said.
The computers are still working.
"Every cube was activated. There must be signals, energy fluctuations on a colossal scale, there must be some trace. There can't not be. We need to think of all the variables, all the possibilities, okay? Go, go, go, go, go!" The Doctor said.
"This is a national security alert. The Government advises that members of the public dispose of all cubes. If there are cubes inside your house, remove them immediately." Matthew said, on TV.
The number drops from five to four.
Mikazuki Villa / UNIT HQ…
"Jared, the cubes…" Yachiyo said, telepathically.
"Yachiyo, the Doctor and I can fix this." Jared said, telepathically.
Jared is looking between the Doctor and Amy. As Yachiyo is sitting in her living room with Iroha, Ui, Tsuruno, Felicia, and Sana.
"You sure you don't need our help?" Tsuruno asked, telepathically.
"Positive." Jared said, telepathically.
"How is your telepathy good?" Sana asked, telepathically. "And long distance too."
"Years of practice."
UNIT HQ…
"Doctor, please. You don't have to do this." Amy said.
"She's right. You don't have to be in there. We can do this remotely." Kate said.
"Remotely isn't my style. See you after." The Doctor said, while he enters a cubicle as the number on the cube changes to two. Then it goes to one rather quickly, and finally zero. Then it switches off and opens its lid. "Geronimo."
"What's happening?"
"Well? What's in there?" Amy asked.
"Amy, there's nothing in there." Jared said, rolling his eyes.
"Er, well, that's good. It's not, it's not bombs, it's not aliens." Amy said.
"Why? Why is there nothing inside? Why? It doesn't make any sense." The Doctor said, coming out of the cubicle and going to the bespectacled Researcher. "Glasses, is it the same? Is it the same all around the world?"
"They're empty. We're safe, right?" Kate asked.
"Nope, we're far from safe." Jared said, letting out a sigh. "Every action they did had a purpose. Why make us go for the cubes if they don't contain anything?"
"Doctor, Jared, look." Amy said.
On the monitors, humans are clutching at their chests and Magical Girls are clutching at their Soul Gems in pain as they walk near cubes on the ground.
"They're CCTV feeds from across the world. They're showing the same." The researcher said.
"Humans and Magical Girls are dying." Jared said, looking at the screen.
"What? They can't be dying. How? How are they dying?" The Doctor asked.
"I want information on how humans and Magical Girls are being affected." Kate said.
"The cubes brought humans and Magical Girls close together. They opened and then argh!" The Doctor said, clutching his chest.
"Doctor, what's the matter?" Amy asked.
"Argh. Ah, I don't know!" The Doctor said, angrily.
"Hospitals are logging a global surge in heart failures. Cardiac arrests. And the color of the Soul Gems of Magical Girls are getting black hues." The researcher said.
"That's it. Oh! Oh! Oh! Only one heart. Other one's not working." The Doctor said.
"Okay, we're getting you to the hospital!" Jared said, looking at the Doctor.
"Oh, no, no, no, no. Just a short circuit. Turn around, turn around. Tell us, show us. Ten seconds after the cubes opened, show me and Jared the patterns in the humans' electrical currents and the amount of magic the Magical Girls' have." The Doctor said, looking at an image of a heartbeat and an almost completely pitch black Soul Gem. "See?"
"No!" Jared said, worried.
"Yes, the power cut. They zapped the power and then argh! They're signal boxes. People leaning in, wham. Pure electrical surge out of the cube targeted at the nearest human heart and at the nearest Soul Gem. The heart, an organ powered by electrical currents, short-circuited for humans. The Soul Gem, a small container powered by a wish, short-circuited for Magical Girls. How to destroy a human? Go for the heart. How to destroy a Magical Girl? Go for the Soul Gem. Ow. Crikey Moses." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, the scan you set running. The transmitter locations. It's found them." Kate said.
"And look at them all, pulsing bold as brass. Seven of them, all across the world. Ow! Seven stations, seven minutes. Why is that important? Argh! Ow, ow. How do you people manage? One heart, it is pitiful. A wormhole, bridging two dimensions. Seven of them hitched onto this planet, but where's the closest one? Glasses, zoom in." The Doctor said.
"It's the hospital where Rory works." Andy said.
S.O.N.G headquarters…
Miku looked down at an unconscious Hibiki who is currently lying down on the ground.
"Hibiki…" Miku said, letting out some tears.
Miku looked over at Elfnein who was at a loss for words.
"Can you fix this?" Miku asked.
Hospital…
"How many deaths have been recorded?" Jared asked.
"We don't know. We think it could be a third of the human population and a third of the Magical Girl population." Kate said.
"Kate, we have to find the wormhole, but the attacks could still happen. Tell the world. Tell them how to deal with this. The world needs your leadership right now." The Doctor said.
"I'll do my best." Kate said.
"Of course you will. Good luck, Kate."
Jared is wearing his Augma and he immediately calls Elfnein, "Elfnein."
"The cubes are killing people." Elfnein said, as a hologram. "What do we do?"
"The world needs the leadership of Symphogear. They need to let everyone know that they have to stay away from the cubes."
"Right."
Elfnein's hologram disappeared in the room.
"Argh! Argh!" The Doctor said, clutching his chest in pain.
"Okay, how long are you gonna last with one heart?" Jared asked.
"Not much longer. Jared, we need to locate the wormhole portal." The Doctor said, while the sonic screwdriver buzzes. "Hello. Hello!" He finds the little girl. "You are giving off some very strange signals."
The girl's face glows blue.
"Oh, my God." Amy said.
"Outlier droid, monitoring everything. If I shut her down, I can." The Doctor said, while he does, then staggers again.
Corridor…
"Ah. It's all right, it's all right. I can't, Amy, Jared. I can't do it. I need both hearts!" The Doctor said.
Jared raised his arm up and Mjolnir flew into his open hand where he grasped the hammer, "I'm worthy. Wow! I was raising my arm up as a joke. Didn't expect it to actually work. Okay. Desperate measures."
"What? No. No, no, no. That won't work. Jared, you can't use Mjolnir on me. I'm a Time Lord."
Jared used the hammer to channel electricity and lightly smacked the Doctor's chest with said object, "Right, clear!"
"Whoo! Ooo. Ooo! Welcome back, lefty! Whoa-ho! Two hearts! Woo! Back in the game. Ah. Never do that to me again." The Doctor said, looking at Jared.
Jared lets go of Mjolnir and the hammer is flying back all the way to Asgard towards the God of Thunder. The fanboy knows that the realm is real due to having a picnic there with the Doctor, River, and the Puella Magi Holy Quintet years ago. He then walked towards the goods lift with the Doctor and Amy where the bell dings.
"Ah, portal to another dimension in a goods lift?" Amy asked.
"The energy signals converge here." The Doctor said.
"Isn't it a bit cramped?" Jared asked.
They find the wibbly wall.
"Through the looking glass, Amelia, Jared?" The Doctor asked.
Spaceship…
"Where are we?" Amy asked.
"We're in orbit. One dimension to the left." Jared said, sadly.
"Rory!" Amy said, running up to Rory who is laid out on a slab next to Brian.
The Doctor produces a small vial, "Ah. Soborian smelling salts. Outlawed in seven galaxies."
Amy waves it under Rory's nose and he sits up quickly. Someone shoots at them.
"Whoa! Whoa! What kind of a welcome do you call that?" The Doctor asked.
"Ponds, get the patients out of here!" Jared said, looking between Amy and Rory. "You too should leave now!"
"What are the both of you going to do?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. Get Brian out of here too. The Doctor and I can handle this. Just get him to the portal."
Brian wakes as soon as Amy and Rory move his trolley. The alien shoots again.
"Whoa!" The Doctor said.
"So many of them crawling the planet, seeping into every corner." The Shakri said.
Amy, Rory and Brian leave. The alien vanishes then reappears in front of a bank of monitors.
"It's not possible. I thought the Shakri were a myth. A myth to keep the young of Gallifrey in their place." The Doctor said.
"The Shakri exist in all of time, and none. We travel alone and together. The Seven." The Shakri said.
"The Shakri spaceship. It is connected to Earth. Through seven portals and seven minutes. But why do that?" Jared asked.
"Serving the word of the Tally."
"Why the cubes? I know why you chose it. Because it's better than a global pandemic. But why choose Earth?"
"Not Earth, humanity and Magical Girls. The Shakri will halt the human and Magical Girls plague before the spread." The Shakri said.
"Erase humanity and Magical Girls before it colonises space. We thought the cubes were an invasion. The start of war." The Doctor said.
"The human and Magical Girls contagion only must be eliminated."
"Seriously? Why call us that?" Jared asked, looking at the Shakri.
Rory and Amy return.
"Thank you, Jared. Who are you calling a contagion?" Amy asked.
"Ponds. I told you both to go." Jared said, crossing his arms.
"You and the Doctor should have learned by now." Rory said.
"Yeah, and what is this Tally anyway?" Amy asked.
"Some people call it Judgment Day, or the Reckoning." The Doctor said.
"Don't you know?" Amy asked.
"I've never wanted to find out."
"Before the Closure, there is the Tally. The Shakri serves the Tally." The Shakri said.
"The pest controllers of the universe, that's how the tales went, isn't it?" The Doctor asked.
"Wow. That's some seriously weird bedtime story." Amy said, scoffing.
"You can talk. Wolf in your grandmother's nightdress?" The Doctor asked.
"One, Little Red Riding Hood is awesome. And two, Ruby Rose did a stage play on it." Jared said, playing with his hands a little.
"One where Ruby was a total Mary Sue. Where Zwei was the stagehand. Blake Belladonna was the Big Bad Wolf. Weiss Schnee was the Woodsman. And Yang Xiao Long was the Grandmother." The Doctor said, walking up to the Shakri. "So, here you are, depositing slug pellets all over the Earth, made attractive so humans and Magical Girls will collect them, hoping to find something beautiful inside. Because that's what they are."
"Yup, you're not wrong there, Raggedy Man. We're hopeful. Humanity. And so are Magical Girls. We're not pests or a plague. We make mistakes like any other creature out there. We're forever progressing as a species. And we learn from our mistakes to achieve something better." Jared said, happily.
"Jared's right since he's human. You want a tally. Put their achievements against their failings through the whole of time, Jared and I will back humanity and Magical Girls against the Shakri every time."
"The Tally must be met. The second wave will be released." The Shakri said.
"What does that mean?" Amy asked.
"It's going to release more cubes to kill more people." Jared said, frowning.
Hospital…
"Tell the Secretary General it's not just hospitals and equipment, it's people. Our best hope now is each other." Kate said.
(Jared's POV)
Spaceship…
"The human and Matical Girl plague breeding and fighting. And when cornered, their rage to destroy. You're too late, Doctor, Jared. The Tally shall be met." The Shakri said.
The alien vanishes.
"He's gone?" Amy asked.
"He was never really here. It was just a non playable character or an automated interface. Like a talking propaganda poster." I said, playing with my hands.
"I can stop the second wave. I can disconnect all the Shakri craft from their portals, leave them drifting in the darkspace. Ah, but all those people who were near the cubes, so many of them will have died." The Doctor said.
"Jared restarted one of your hearts." Amy said.
"You'd need mass defibrillation." Rory said.
"Of course. Ah, beautiful. But, Ponds, Shay, Ponds, Shay. We are going to go one better than that. The Shakri used the cubes to turn people's hearts off and tint Soul Gems of Magical Girls to black. Bingo! We're going to use them to turn the hearts back on and make the hues of Soul Gems colorful again." The Doctor said.
"Will that work?" Amy asked.
"Well, Amy, Rory. It will. I promise." I said, placing my hand on top of the machine to transfer some of my mana to the screen as a green light came out of my pendant. "Divide Energy. How long do we have?"
"You used a spell to share some of your mana to help purify the Soul Gems of Magical Girls. Clever." The Doctor said, while he finishes sonicking the alien computer. "We have thirty seconds. Don't let us down, cubes, you're working for me and Jared now."
"Shit. That's a lot of energy. Science mixed with magic. In all of the cubes. It will be ricochet around the ship any second now. We have to run, you guys!"
"I'm going to miss this." Rory said.
The spaceship goes KaBOOM! The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and I land in the corridor. All around the world, humans and Magical Girls start to get up off the ground.
"Emergency hospitals and field units are working at full capacity around the world, as millions of survivors of cardiac arrests are nursed back to health after an unprecedented night across the globe." Someone said, on TV.
Tower of London…
"You two, er, you two really are as remarkable as Dad said." Kate said, kissing the Doctor on the cheek and then proceeded to hug me. "Thank you. Both of you."
"My! A kiss from a Lethbridge Stewart. That is new." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, we're late for dinner!" I said, looking at the time on my Augma headset.
The Doctor and I salute Kate before getting into the UNIT Range Rover.
Kitchen…
A family meal, Chinese with chopsticks.
"Dear me. I'd better get going. Things to do, worlds to save, swings to swing on. Look, I know, the three of you have lives here. Beautiful, messy lives. That is what makes you so fabulously human. You don't want to give them up. I understand." The Doctor said, looking between Amy, Rory, and I.
"Actually, it's you they can't give up, Doctor. And I don't think they should. Go with him. Go save every world you can find. And Jared, don't give up saving every world you can find. Don't give up helping your friends save Remnant. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here." Brian said, looking at Amy, Rory and I.
"Brian, come with us." I said, smiling. "There's a lot of room. I don't mind."
"Somebody's got to water the plants. Doctor, just bring them back safe." Brian said.
"Okay, this adventure was nice and laid back. I wasn't sure on what I wanted to do for a while. Now I know. I'm still needed as a hero of justice. I can't give up yet. Even knowing it's bad in Remnant and what might happen next with the Doctor." I said, smirking.
I looked over at the Doctor, Amy, and Rory, before the four of us entered the TARDIS.