I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and is having a happy new year! I was so busy on new years day with family and talking to friends online that I had no time to upload a chapter, I won't talk about the special to avoid spoilers but all I can say is that I loved it and I can't wait for Doctor Who to come back! This Chapter is SO important... I wonder if anyone can guess why.

After finding a car waiting for them outside the Pond house the Stone, Jenny, Amy and the Doctor were driven to the tower of London where Kate Stewart was waiting for them. "Every cube across the whole world activated at the same moment," Kate explained as they walked inside.

The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Now we're in business. You sent me a message to my psychic paper. You know what? I'm almost impressed."

The Stone smirked at that. She knew he was nowhere close to almost impressed. Perhaps so impressed he didn't need to be impressed again was a better answer.

"Secret base beneath the Tower," Amy muttered when they entered UNIT HQ. "Hope we're not here because we know too much."

"Yes, I've got officers trained in beheading." Kate joked. "Also ravens of death."

"I like her," Amy informed the Time Lords.

Jenny chuckled and nodded. "She is quite the character."

The group walked through a large area with armoured cubicles monitoring one cube each, "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."

Amy touched a cubicle and jumped when the cube inside had flames burst around it.

She frowned and pointed to a cubicle with a cube that had no tests being done on it. "Er, what's this one?"

"Try the door."

Amy did so and frowned when the Birdie song came blasting out the cubical.

The Doctor made a grim face and placed his fingers into his ears. Jenny chuckled and started to dance to the music. The Stone sighed shaking her head. "On a loop!" Kate said over the music while Amy shut the door.

"This is the latest." She showed them multiple computer screens on a wall with a man sat down in a chair.

"As my wife says: Oh dear." He glanced at the Time Lady grinning for a moment before looking back at the screens. "Systems breach at the Pentagon, China, every African nation, the Middle East."

"I've got governments screaming for explanations and no idea what to tell them." Kate shrugged. "I'm lost, Doctor, Stone. We all are."

"Don't despair, Kate." The Doctor smiled.

"I can't remember your dad ever doing that." The Time Lady added.

The woman looked at them shocked. The Stone chuckled shaking her head.

"Kate Stewart, heading up UNIT, changing the way they work." The Doctor smiled.

"How could you not be?" The Time Lady crossed her arms and raised a brow. "Why did you drop Lethbridge?"

"I didn't want any favours." She answered and looked at both the Time Lords. "Though he guided me, even to the end. Science leads, he always told me. Said he'd learned that from two old friends."

"We don't let him down." The Doctor answered. "We don't let this planet down."

"They've stopped." The man with glasses who was at the computer desk stated. "The cubes, across the world, they just shut down."

"Active for forty-seven minutes, and then they just die?"

"Not dead. Dormant, maybe." He suggested.

"Then why shut down?" Amy asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know."

The Stone rubbed her head. "It's so stuffy in here."

"No, it's not?" The Doctor frowned at her.

"It is Sweetheart, it's making my head hurt, I'll be outside for a moment, need to think." She kissed the Doctors cheek then hurried out. "Keep thinking, something will come into that head of yours."

Amy frowned and looked from the Doctor to Jenny. Wordlessly the Time Lord nodded at Amy headed out after the other ginger.

The Stone rubbed at her eyes and looked around hearing someone walk up behind her. She sighed after realising it was the ginger human, the Time Lady relaxed and sat on the brick wall, overlooking the River Thames in the dark night. "The moment they arrived, the Doctor and I should have made sure they were collected and burned."

Amy shook her head and sat beside her. "How? Nobody would have listened." The Time Lady sighed again. Amy opened her mouth and closed it after a moment not sure what to really ask.

"You can ask me whatever question is on your mind Amy." The Time Lady stated. "The Doctor let you follow me out here for that reason, his personal information gainer." She smiled through her words. Her husband was adorable and an idiot all at the same time.

Amy sighed at the Time Ladys words, she was exactly that, wasn't she? He wouldn't let her go after the Stone otherwise. "It wasn't really stuffy in there was it?"

The Stone sat there for a couple of moments not replying to Amy before she settled on her answer. "No. No, it wasn't at all."

"What's wrong then?"

She muttered something under her breath making the human lean in closer. "What?"

She mumbled again and groaned when Amy asked for the third time, "What's wrong?"

She sighed and gently rubbed her stomach. "I think I'm pregnant, Amy, 78% sure."

Amy froze in shock before she blinked, a smile grew on her face. "Congratulations!" She tried to brighten the mood.

"Think being a keyword." She dryly added.

"78% is quite high?" Amy frowned. "It's a very high chance that you are. Best for me to congratulate you now before you go off and disappear again." She chuckled. "Next time you appear you might have a little child running around."

"No, Time Lord pregnancys are way too long, longer than the amount of time we go without you and Rory." She shook her head. "And I'm probably not though." The ginger Time Lady huffed. "Last time I wasn't, this time will be no different."

"I'm sure the Doctor will have other words to say about it."

"He's not knowing until I'm certain. You can't tell him, Amy. When I know I will know."

"But you could always be never certain." Amy crossed her arms. "He needs to know this. You clearly haven't told him so why not?

"I don't want to hurt him." She admitted. "Last time he just looked so happy and full of joy but when he saw the results he looked so broken. I can't do that to him again, Amy, I can't see him look like that."

Amy swallowed and quietly replied: "He deserves to know Stone. He's your husband the father of your potential child."

"I know." She nodded. I promise that I will tell him when I get that thing you humans call a 'gut feeling' it's a bit different with a Time Lord though, we actually feel the child inside us, some used to say it's a heartbeat, others said it was just a deep sense, kind of like how I can always sense the Doctor, we're telepathic, it's how it works. It can happen at any time, from when they were conceived, which is quite rare but possible. The further along, the more likely it is to feel them with you."

"How long do you think you are?"

"Well..." She swallowed, her cheeks burning at the question. "From when..." She stopped waving a hand at Amy. "We, you know."

Amy laughed in understanding patting the Time Lady's back. "Just tell me how long it's been."

"A couple of months since well... that." Amy raised her eyebrows at the Stone.

"Don'y look at me like that Amelia, we've been off exploring the universe." She shook her head bringing her thoughts back to the more important topic. "If I haven't sensed the feeling of the baby in a certain  amount of time then I'll know for sure I'm not pregnant."

"How long until then?"

"Well," she paused looking down at her shoes unable to lie to her friend about this. "It would need to be before next week at the latest otherwise I'm not pregnant, it's as simple as that." Amy shook her head at the Time Lady. For someone so clever she was definitely a fool at times. "I'll just get this feeling." She sighed then looked at Amy. "Anyways enough about me and my problems, correct me if I'm wrong but you're thinking of stopping aren't you?" She guessed not looking at the redheaded human. "You and Rory."

"No." She instantly denied. "I mean, we haven't made a decision."

"But you're considering it though?"

"Maybe." She muttered. "I don't know. We don't know. Well, our lives have changed so much. There was a time, there were years, when we couldn't live without you or the Doctor and when just the whole everyday thing would drive us crazy but since you and the Doctor dropped us back here since you gave us this house, you know, we've built a life and we don't know if we can have both."

"I really don't want to sound selfish but why not?"

"Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at us, and because the travelling is starting to feel like running away."

"That's not what it is though." She frowned. How in Rassilon could it feel like that?

She chuckled. "Oh, come on. Look at your husband." She nodded back at where they had come from. "Four days in a lounge and he goes crazy."

"He's crazy anyway." She chuckled making Amy laugh as well. It died down and she sighed. "We're not running away; this is one corner of one beautiful country that is in one continent on one amazing planet and this planet is in the 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." She looked up at the stars. "There is so much out there, so much to see, Amy because it goes so fast. The Doctor and I are not running away from things, we're running to them before they flare and fade forever, but that's all right. We've got Jenny and I know our lives won't run the same. They can't. One day, soon maybe, you'll stop. I've known for a while. Even if the Doctor doesn't see it I do."

Amy frowned looking at her curiously. "Then why do you keep coming back for us? I know it isn't because you're technically my stepdaughter or whatever."

"Because you were the first human that saw the Doctors face and truthfully you're seared onto his hearts. Amelia Pond he can't just let you go." She smiled shaking her head. "He's running to you, and Rory, before you fade from him, from us. Why do me and Jenny keep coming back? Because you're now our family and to a Time Lord, back before the High Council Changed it all and bought in looms family was everything. To me it still is."

Amy chuckled and wiped a stray tear from her eye and lightly bumped her shoulder with the Stones. "Don't be nice to me. I don't want you to be nice to me."

"When am I ever not nice?" She raised a brow, "but yes you, do Amy, you do want me to be nice, and you always get what you want, especially when it involves my husband." She blinked. "They got what they wanted, exactly..."

"What?" She frowned. "Who did?"

"The cubes." She jumped up from the wall and ran inside. "That's why they stopped. Come on."

The Stone ran in the large room and to the Doctor, who was stood in front of multiple screens with Kate and Jenny. "Before the cubes shut down, they scanned everything, from your medical limits to your military response patterns. They made a complete assessment of Planet Earth and its inhabitants."

The Doctor blinked in understanding. "That's what the surge of activity was." The power went off making the room pitch black. The Stone scanned the area. "Problem with the power?"

Kate shook her head. "Not possible. We've got back-ups."

"Hmm." He frowned.

"Dad." Jenny lightly tapped his arm and looked into a cubical where a cube had the number seven lit upon it. "Look."

"Why do they all say seven?" Kate asked looking at the other cubicles.

"Seven." The Doctor tapped his head. "Seven, what's important about seven?"

"Seven Wonders of the world, seven streams of the River Ota, seven sides of a cube." The Stone muttered.

"A cube has six sides." Jenny frowned at her mother.

"Not if you count the inside." The Doctor cut in. The cube then changed from seven to six.

"It has to be a countdown." The Doctor suggested.

"Not in minutes."

"Why would it be minutes?" The Doctor asked. "Kate, we have to get humanity away from those cubes. Gods know what they'll do if they hit zero. Get the information out any way you can. News channels, websites, radio, text messages. People have to know that the cubes are dangerous."

"Okay, but why is this starting now?" Amy questioned. "I mean, the cubes arrived months ago. Why wait this long?"

"Because they're clever." The Stone answered. "Allow people enough time to collect them, take them into their homes, their lives."

"Humans, the great early adopters." The Doctor muttered. "And then, wham! Profile every inch of Earth's existence."

"Discover how best to attack us."

"Get that information out any way you can. Go!"

"Right." She nodded running over to a computer that was still working.

"Every cube was activated." Jenny frowned. "So there must be signals right?"

"Correct." The Doctor nodded. "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?"

---

The Doctor looked inside a cubicle where a cube now had the number three on it. "Doctor, please. You don't have to do this." Amy tried to convince him not to go in with the cube.

"She's right." Kate nodded."You don't have to be in there. We can do this remotely."

"Remotely isn't my style." He replied kissing the Stone and then Jenny's heads. "See you after." He entered the cubicle and sat down. The cube continued to count down going from three to two. It then changed to one. Finally, it changed to zero and a lid opened. "Geronimo." He murmured leaning over.

"What's happening?" Kate asked.

There was no reply. "Well? What's in there?" Amy asked.

The Doctor picked the cube up. "There is nothing in here."

"Er, well, that's good." She said. "It's not, it's not bombs, it's not aliens."

"Why?" He frowned stepping out of the cubicle. "Why is there nothing inside? Why? It doesn't make any sense." He walked over to the computers. "Glasses, is it the same? Is it the same all around the world?"

Kate frowned not understanding. "They're empty. We're safe, right?"

"Ah, no, no, no, we are very far from safe." The Stone shook her head. "All along, every action has been deliberate."

"So why draw attention to the cubes if they don't contain anything?" Jenny questioned.

Amy noticed the screen and froze, people everywhere were clutching their chests in pain, falling to the ground. "Look." She pointed to the screen.

"They're CCTV feeds from across the world. They're showing the same."

"People are dying," Kate said.

"What?" The Doctor stared at the screen. "They can't be dying. How? How are they dying?"

"I want information on how people are being affected," Kate ordered the man with glasses.

"The cubes brought people close together. They opened and then-" he clutched his chest in pain and cried out. "Argh!" He fell into a chair.

"Doctor!" The Stone shouted rushing to him. "Sweetheart what's wrong?"

"Argh." He cried out while Jenny was at his other side, her face full of deep worry. "Ah, I don't know!"

"Hospitals are logging a global surge in heart failures." The researcher informed. "Cardiac arrests."

"That's it." He hit his chest. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Only one heart." He winced. "Other one's not working."

"Okay, I'm going to get you to the hospital!" Amy shouted.

"No, no, no." The Stone shook her head stopping her. "We're aliens in an alien invasion. It won't go down well with anyone."

"Just a short circuit." He gritted out. While Jenny pushed him in the chair back to the computer. "Ten seconds after the cubes opened, show me the patterns in their electrical currents." An image of a heartbeat appeared on the screen.

"It's a heartbeat," Jenny said. "A human heartbeat."

"See?"

"No!" Kate stared in horror.

"Yes, the power cut." The Stone nodded. "They zapped the power They're signal boxes. People leaning in and then the pure electrical surged out of the cube targeted at the nearest human heart.

"The heart, an organ powered by electrical currents, short-circuited. How to destroy a human? Go for the heart." He winced again. "Ow. Crikey Moses."

"Doctor, the scan you set running." Kate typed onto the computer. "The transmitter locations. It's found them."

"And look at them all, pulsing bold as brass. Seven of them, all across the world." He cried out again clutching his chest. "Ow! Seven stations, seven minutes. Why is that important? Argh! Ow, ow. How do you people manage?" He looked at Amy and narrowed his eyes. One heart, it is pitiful."

"Ignore him." The Stone told Amy lightly running a hand through the Doctors hair, trying to at least soothe him a little.

"A wormhole, bridging two dimensions." The Doctor said through gritted teeth. "Seven of them hitched onto this planet, but where's the closest one? Glasses, zoom in."

Amy blinked. "It's the hospital where Rory works."

-----

Did anyone guess right? :)