The TARDIS locked River and me in a time loop to save our lives, that much I was aware of.

Even though River and I were fully aware of the time loop taking place, we weren't able to do anything about it.

Trying to stop the time loop would cause the immediate explosion of the TARDIS, and River and I would die. The time loop at least gave the Doctor some time to come and rescue us; however, I feared if he didn't come soon the time loop would run out and the TARDIS would finally explode taking us with her.

Looking to River who nodded, I connected the jumpers to the matrix watching as sparks flew and listening to the TARDIS wail. I had already done this same thing over fifty times. The sparks stopped a second later, River and I look to the doors hopefully, praying it worked.

We both knew it wouldn't work though, this same scenario has been playing out for who knows how long at this point. There wasn't much time left for the time loop, but the Doctor would get us, I knew he would.

Turning to the doors, River yanked them open giving me momentary relief, but it was cut short when I saw the solid wall blocking behind the doors making my eyes tear up in defeat.

River looked back at me, her own eyes welled with tears as she too was under the belief this was our end.

The time loop had happened so much at this point, that we weren't even sure how much time we had left. This could very well be our last loop, our death could be right around the corner.

Staring at the doors sadly, I held back a sob. "I'm sorry, my love." I cried out to the Doctor, knowing that he wouldn't hear me.

With those final words, a flash of bright light filtered through my vision. This was the end.

And then, the end started again.

________

Looking to River who nodded, I connected the jumpers to the matrix watching as sparks flew and listening to the TARDIS wail. Maybe he would get us this time?

The sparks stopped a second later, River and I look to the doors hopefully, praying it worked. Of course, when she yanked the doors open all we were met with was the same brick wall blocking our way out.

Slowly, River turned to me with tears in her eyes shaking her head. A sob escaped me as I began losing hope that the Doctor would get to us in time.

I couldn't even save the TARDIS from exploding, I couldn't help the Doctor. I failed him.

Sniffling, tears fell from my eyes. "I'm sorry, my love." I sobbed covering my mouth, as the familiar bright light filtered through my vision concealing me in a land of white.

And then, the end started again.

_______

I looked at River Song who this time decided to change it up a bit and instead of nodding gave me a thumbs up. Smiling through the overwhelming urge to cry. I connected jumpers cable to the TARDIS matrix. Sparks flews blocking my vision for barely a second, and the TARDIS wailed.

Turning to River, I expected to see the same thing I had every time. You know her opening the doors, me crying "I'm sorry, my love", and all that. Instead, I watched River gasp with surprise following her gaze only to see my future husband leaning coolly against the TARDIS door playing with what I recognized as River's vortex manipulator.

A coy smirk was placed on his lips as he looked up meeting my gaze. River who stood a few feet next to him put her hands on her hips looking at him in disbelief.

Oddly enough, I noticed the Red Fez adorning his head making him look goofy, but cute all at once. Like some big teddy bear you just wanted to cuddle with.

"Hi, honies..." He glanced at River before bringing his gaze back to me. "I'm home."

River furrowed her brows, mockingly checking her watch. "And what do you call a time like this?" She scolded, while I simply had to digest the fact we weren't going to die.

My hands clutched the control panel tightly as I pulled myself together closing my eyes. Breathing heavily, I listened to the approaching footsteps unsure if it was the Doctor or River Song.

My question was answered when it was the Doctor who pulled me into his arms, whispering sweet nothings.

I allowed him to embrace me for a few seconds but understood any longer could prove to be fatal for all three of us. Comfort like this could come later, after whatever the hell was happening is over.

Assuming a lot had happened since River and I were trapped in the TARDIS, of course. Pulling away, I wiped my eyes clean of any tears threatening to fall, fully aware of the Doctor's worried gaze resting on me.

"Thank God, you're safe." I heard him mumble as he began clicking a few buttons on the vortex manipulator.

River smirked at him, waltzing over. "I see you're finally traveling the fast way." The Doctor scowled at her words, looking up holding a finger in her face.

River made a face at it, swatting him away when he tried waving it at her.

"This is the rubbish way to travel." He told her, before gripping my arm and hers. "Hold on, I wouldn't want your rubbish ride to hurt us." The Doctor seemed to throw shade at River Song who narrowed her eyes as we were suddenly gone from the TARDIS.

A second later, we were standing on a rooftop. I did need to admit the vortex made me feel a bit queasy.

"Okay!" The Doctor clapped his hands, pacing in front of us. "A lot has happened in the short time you two been..." He stopped short pointing to his Fez proudly, giving us a childish grin. "I got a Fez for starters, do love a good Fez!" River rolled her eyes while I scoffed at him. "Second... well, it's too long of an explanation so I'm just going let you both roll with it." He smiled, causing me to sigh while allowing my eyes to roam the rooftop.

"Amy!" I shouted in surprise, shaking my head for not noticing her before. Immediately she turned around, and I took that time to notice Rory who after reading the Roman book I found out wasn't really Rory. He was a plastic Centurion.

"And the plastic Centurion?" River added after me, looking at Rory skeptically.

"It's okay, he's on our side." The Doctor informed us, making me nod.

"Hmm," River examined Rory, walking in a small circle around him. "I dated a Nestene duplicate once. Swappable head. It did keep things fresh." She smirked almost suggestively before snapping out of it. "Okay, we have questions..." River pointed to me, me nodding along but cutting her short.

"But before we ask anything else, I just need to ask this." I turned to the Doctor. "What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?" I shook my head at him, completely flabbergasted at his choice of style.

River nodded along with me, facing the Doctor who looked offended by our statements. "Yeah, what in the world?" She questioned, placing her hands on her hips.

"I told you it's a Fez not even a minute ago!" He threw his hands up, pursing his lips. "I wear a Fez now, Fezzes are cool." A part of me wanted to ball my eyes out at his belief.

"Absolutely not." I sighed, giving River and Amy a sign for go.

Immediately at my look, Amy grabbed the Doctor's Fez off his head and threw it in the air. River took out her sonic blaster shooting at the Fez causing it to combust. The Doctor jump at their violence, giving me a mock sad look.

However, our momentary childish banter was cut short by the sound of a robotic raspy voice repeating one phrase. "Exterminate!" My eyes widened as I watched a Dalek float over the top of the rooftop, beginning to fire at us.

"Run! Move, move!" The Doctor jumped into action pushing us all behind him to the door leading into the building and grabbing a satellite using it as a shield.

I stood behind the Doctor using my own blaster to fire at the Dalek, but unfortunately, the Dalek had its shield up making my disintegration blasts ineffective. Quickly, the Doctor grabbed my waist pulling me through the door and closing it tightly behind us.

As soon as we were down, the Doctor placed me to the side of the stairway using his sonic screwdriver to seal the door closed. River and I both had our blasters pointed at the door in case the Dalek managed to break in, Rory and Amy standing right next to us.

"Doctor, come on!" River hissed, the Doctor only listening to the Dalek's footsteps.

"It's moving away." He informed us. "Trying to find another way in." I narrowed my eyes at his words, motioning down the rest of the stairwell.

"Even better reason to leave then, come on!" I told him, only earning a hush in reply.

The Doctor turned to us, biting his lip in thought. "It's restoring its power. Now, that means we've got exactly four and a half minutes before it's at lethal capacity."

I slapped my hands on my thighs, shaking my head at that. "That wasn't lethal capacity?" I hissed, looking to the Doctor worriedly.

"How do you know?" Rory asked after my snide comment, making the Doctor look at us nervously.

"Because..." He trailed off, his eyes holding an apologetic expression toward me. I was confused, why was he looking at me like that. "That's when it's due to kill me."

My mouth popped open at that, all of us following the Doctor who was rushing down the stairs.

"Kill you!" I yelled, looking to the Doctor in shock. "What do you mean, kill you?" The Doctor only waved me off, giving a sad wink in reply.

"Oh, shut up. Never mind." He told River and me who were panicking over what he said. "How can that Dalek even exist? It was erased from time and then it came back. How?" He rhetorically questioned, something that I would definitely never know the answer to.

"How?" I blurted the question he was practically begging one of us to give.

The Doctor turned to me with a Chesire grin, pulling me to his side as we stepped out of the stairwell into what I could see to be a museum. What the hell were we doing in a museum?

"Great question, Effie." I fought the instinct to roll my eyes at him. "When the TARDIS blew up, it caused a total event collapse. A time-explosion. And that explosion blasted every atom in every moment of the universe, except..." He trailed off, looking to me to finish off his statement.

Taking a wild guess, I decided to go with the flow. "Except, inside the Pandorica?" I was surprised when the Doctor nodded, kissing my forehead before continuing.

"Yes! The Pandorica is the perfect prison. And inside it perfectly preserved, a few billion atoms of the universe as it was..." Okay, so apparently the universe somehow got messed up is what I was hearing. "In theory, you could extrapolate the whole of the universe from a single one of them." I rose my brows at his explanation, vaguely understanding part of it.

To be fair, River and I were trapped for like more than half of these events. It was bound to come back and bite us in the ass.

"Nope, too fast. I don't understand." I mentally thanked Rory for speaking up, so I didn't need to.

The Doctor gave Rory a look, before sighing and telling the same thing dumbed down. "The box contains a memory of the universe, and the light transmits the memory. That is how we're gonna do it." He smiled, making me frown in confusion.

"Do what?" I questioned him.

The Doctor smirked at all of us, fixing his bowtie. "Relight the fire..." I silently laughed at the phrase, the Doctor giving me a look of confusion not understanding why I found it funny. "Reboot the universe." He finished almost unsurely, slowly sliding his gaze away from me, the wheels in his head no doubt turning. "Come on!" He clapped his hands.

I knew that the Doctor as much as he didn't want to admit it, was having a fun time trying to solve the jigsaw of my life. As much as he wanted the truth, I knew he loved the thrill of not knowing. Of the mystery. The Doctor wanted a riddle to solve, and I was his riddle.

"Doctor, this is ridiculous!" River and the Doctor began squabbling back and forth talking in science manners that Amy, Rory, and I didn't understand.

"AHH!" My head snapped up at the Doctor's cry of pain, my breath stopping when I saw the Dalek making its way toward us.

I barely registered my feet moving to the limp form of the Doctor who was quivering with pain on the ground. The Doctor was opening and closing his eyes, face contorting to pain as I frantically began looking him over.

I had no clue how to heal a Timelord from a Dalek shot. The TARDIS usually did this type of stuff on her own.

"Doctor!" I sobbed holding his head delicately. "Doctor, it's me, Effie. Can you hear me? You need to tell me how to help!" The Doctor looked at me apologetically, his hands moving to the vortex manipulator typing something in.

"Doctor, wait!" I yelled, just as he disappeared with vortex manipulator. River was next to me, holding me as I cried from shock. "Where'd he go!" I screamed, looking to Amy and Rory who both held sad and guilty looks on their faces.

They knew this was going to happen. This is what the Doctor meant by die, they saw this version of himself in the past appear.

"He went downstairs..." Amy sniffled, looking to the ground. "Twelve minutes ago."

"Damn it!" I stood up from my crouching position. "Show me. You show me right now, Amelia Pond!" I cried, Amy, looking even sadder obviously trying to hold back tears of her own.

"Effie..." She said slowly, holding up a hand. "He died." Everything in me seemed to stop, he couldn't be dead, he wasn't dead.

I didn't believe it. I didn't even get to say I loved him, tell him goodbye and thank you. No, I didn't believe it. Not my Doctor, not my insane Timelord.

"Systems restoring! You will be exterminated!" Our heads snapped to the Dalek who was powering back up, there was obviously something wrong with it since it had to power back up everytime it shot at something.

"We need to move," Rory told us, taking lead. "That thing is coming back to life."

I sniffled, shaking in anger looking at that Dalek. I would burn it, I would burn it until it was nothing but ash. I was going to destroy that goddamn Dalek.

River turned to me as if sensing where I was going. She too was affected, I could tell by how she held herself. Swallowing, she looked to me calmly. "Effie, no. It's not the time." She gave me a look, shaking her head.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked, looking between us. "What's she talking about, Effie, the time for what?" I knew what River meant by her words, it wasn't the time to reveal myself.

Too early.

I swallowed, ignoring the gaze of suspicion Amy was throwing at me. Instead, I nodded, listening to River.

"You three go, I'll take care of things here." Knowing to trust River, I gave one last disgusted glare at the Dalek before following Amy and Rory through the museum.

As we ran, Amy turned to me curiously. "Effie, what did River mean by that?" I sighed at her, words giving Amy a pleading look.

"Amy, please, in due time, you'll know. Please, just forget this for now." Amy gave me a long look, but my heart slowed when she nodded looking forward.

"For now." She agreed causing me to nod in appreciation.

"That's all I'm asking for."

We came to a standstill in front of the staircase, my lips pulling into a line when all I saw was his tweed overcoat. Amy and Rory looked at a loss, glancing around.

"How could he have moved?" Rory questioned, stomping down the stairs. "He was dead." I swallowed, the hole in my stomach closing when I realized the Doctor could very well still be alive. "Doctor, Doctor!" Rory shouted, Amy and I to look around for him.

"No, he was dead," Amy said almost to herself, the three of us turning as we saw River walking down the stairs like a badass.

"And who told you that." She smirked, winking at me.

This woman, she knew all along!

"He did!" Amy yelled, in disbelief, River shrugging.

"Rule one: the Doctor lies." I scowled at that, ready to beat some sense into that Timelord for scaring me.

How the hell would he like it if I pretended to friggin' die!

"Where's the Dalek?" Amy suddenly asked as we followed River Song racing through more of the museum.

River gave us a sick smile, shaking her head. "It died." We all knew 'it died' meant, she killed it. And I couldn't be happier.

We were running for a barely a minute before we came to the room holding the Pandorica, seeing it open. Inside was a seat, and seated right there was the Doctor. A very unconscious almost dead looking Doctor.

"Doctor!" I yelled, racing past everyone being the first to drop to his side by the Pandorica.

River was at our side in seconds, trying to wake the Doctor up. Gulping, I didn't hear what they were all talking about focusing only on everything starting to disappear. Reality was collapsing, history was being erased.

"Big... Bang... 2." I looked up hearing the Doctor's words, him choking it out just able to keep his eyes open.

"Oh..." River hit her head, looking to us all. "Of course, think about it. The TARDIS is exploding in every point in history. If you threw the Pandorica into the explosion, right into the heart of the fire... the light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once." My eyes widened as I for once actually understood what they were on about.

"Oh!" I gasped, covering my mouth. "Oh, that's good. That's really, really, good!" I exclaimed, shaking my head at the Doctor watching as River took his sonic screwdriver scanning him with it.

"He's wired himself to the vortex manipulator to the rest of the box. He's going to fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion!" River said, causing my breath to stop.

"No!" I looked up at them all. "That's a suicide mission, there is no coming back from that!" I yelled, River looking at me pained motioning to Rory.

"Rory, take her to calm down." She said as she began helping the Doctor wire himself to the Pandorica more.

"No!" I said, allowing Rory to walk me away, I didn't want to hurt Rory so I didn't fight back. "No! Doctor, stop this! I can do it, not you! You're too important!" I screamed, the Doctor giving me a sad look before going back to wiring himself. "DOCTOR!"

________
________

"Effie..." River put her hand on my shoulder. "He wants to talk to you before he goes, he just got done with Amy."

I swallowed at her words, numbly turning around to walk to the Pandorica. I may have been upset, but if this really was the last goodbye, the last time I would see him, then I wouldn't pass it up.

I knew I wouldn't remember him once he reboots the universe. He'll be stuck in the land of not existing, never have been born. All of us will go back to how it should be.

I would be back with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Amy and Rory getting married as they should, and River exploring the universe. None of us ever meeting and no Doctor.

"Doctor, please..." I fell apart when I saw him, kneeling down on his lap as he sat in the Pandorica.

The Doctor look anything but himself, his clothing was tattered and he had cut lips. For once, he looked completely worn out, bags under his eyes and his face portrayed that of pain.

"Don't do this, there has to be another way." I desperately looked him in the eyes.

The Doctor only shook his head, gently wiping the tears from my face. "Come here, my beautiful, Effie." He pulled me up to a hug, myself hiding my head in the crook of his neck sobbing.

"Doctor, I love you..." I finally said the words I needed to. "I can't lose you, please don't leave, not like this. I won't even remember you." The Doctor only hugged me tighter, kissing my head.

"I love you too..." His voice was scratchy with unshed tears. "And I promise, you'll be fine. You'll go back to your space life with the Ravagers or maybe not." We pulled away the Doctor's eyes twinkling as he looked at me in slight amusement. "My mystery girl, the girl I have yet to solve. Nothing is ever forgotten, but you have to try." His words were stopped, all of us looking around as the world began shaking.

"Doctor!" River cried. "It's speeding up!"

Slowly, the Doctor pushed me out of the Pandorica as I sobbed. "I can come, you don't need to go alone," I whispered, the Doctor immediately shaking his head.

"Don't you dare." He told me sternly. "You are too important to me, and I love you too much to ever do that to you." He sniffled a bit before continuing. "The pain you're feeling now, it'll be over soon. Just know, that you're always loved. The Doctor will always love, Effie Quill." I wanted to scream.

Scream at him that Effie Quill was not real. I wasn't Effie Quill. This could very well be my last time seeing him, and I still couldn't bring myself to tell him. What kind of person did that make me? Not a very good one, that's for sure.

I brought my hand up covering my mouth as the Pandorica closed with him inside.

"Back!" River screamed at me, but I didn't move. "Get back!" I didn't react as she tackled me to the ground, only watching as the Pandorica lifted off the ground and launched through the roof into the sky where the TARDIS was exploding.

River laughed slightly, making us all look at her as if she were crazy. She only held out her little device which had a message from the Doctor on it.

'Geronimo.' It read, and through the tears, I was able to laugh rolling my eyes.

I would always love the Doctor, and the Doctor would always love me.

I wasn't sure when or how it happened, but it was all so fast I could barely keep up with it. One second I saw myself and the Doctor dancing in the TARDIS ridiculously, another second I saw us bantering over who Amy's favorite was (Rory won), and the next I was kissing him.

Then it changed and suddenly I was back training with my brother on Muspelheim, him being the winner, of course. Son of a bitch never loses. Next, I was speaking with my father over the dinner table, my brother and I arguing over who got the last piece of hog. Hog was rare on Muspelheim, we rarely ever got to eat it.

Finally, I was sitting in between Peter and Rocket on our starship which we had officially named Milano, all of us singing loudly to Peter's mixtape. I watched space pass us at light speed with a huge smile, this was what I had always wanted in life. To explore the wonders of the universe.

Exploring time never occurred to me until I met the Doctor, but that thought was wiped from my mind.

Besides.

Who the hell even was the Doctor? I don't need any Doctor, I am perfectly fine.

"Put Brandy on next!" I shouted to Peter while singing along to 'Rubberband Man' with everyone else in our small band of six.

"Okay, fine!" Peter groaned with a smile, Rocket snickering as he took over piloting without Peter noticing, delivering a wink in my direction.

I winked back, smiling at the stars as we passed. God, I loved being a Guardian. With that thought, everything went dark. Then, suddenly, I was sorting through junk on a moon just off of Skaro.

I sighed, examining a piece that I thought could be helpful but just turned out to be more trash. "Trash!" I sang, tossing it behind my shoulder humming along as I sorted through more junk hoping to find something that would make fixing our spaceship quicker.

It was odd, I felt like something was different. As if something was supposed happen, but it didn't. Almost as if someone was missing.

[ PART 1: CONCLUSION ]