"So this is... where it all happens." I shove my hands in my pockets, shivering at the massive guillotine. The blade is literally twice the size of my head, and dangerously sharp looking.  I swear I can see a tinge of red on the blade and even though the place is clean I can still smell there's something not right in the air. At least in the moodlight I can't see the red splatters on the pavement.

"Yeah, place de la revolution." The Doctor says without his usual enthusiasm. "Alright, everyone assemple." We stand still long enough for the Bracken to fall in. Like the blackalls, they're tiny atoms, only slightly different because they're just a bit bigger.

"Now I have a machine here." The Doctor pulls something from his pockets.

"What in heavens name is that?" Louis asks, wrinkling his nose.

"It's a machine..." The Doctor's eyes light up. "A machine that goes ding! A machine that will alert me to any unusual power fluxes. We're going to find that rift, get you back in, get my TARDIS back and seal it off. It... will be a little dangerous, but I think with a bit of cooperation we'll get everything done, alright?"

"We will do as you say." The Bracken transfer their thoughts straight through our heads. I blink a little with a smirk.

"Going to have to get used to that."

"Well let's go then!" The Doctor swivels his machine around. "Got it! Let's go!"

"Is it always like this?" Marie hurries to keep up with the Doctor's rapid running.

"Most of the time. Sometimes you just have to let him go." I manage a fast walk.

"People don't talk that way." Marie catches up, turning me around. "Just who are you?"

I sigh, letting the cold air turn into fog. "I'm... from the future, OK? I'm from the year... 2013."

"That's impossible." She gapes. Louis goes tripping down after the Doctor while we follow a little less hurriedly.

"The Doctor owns a time machine. So... yeah these events have already happened." I avoid looking her in the eye.

"The French Revolution ends?" She asks in a voice that harbours a tiny spark of hope. "Do we ever get out of this deep hole we're in?"

I sigh, looking everywhere but her baby blue eyes. "Yes... yes, it does. In fact, France pulls out of the war like it never happened."

"But at what cost?" Marie asks tears forming in her eyes.

"I don't know around - " my mind lfashes back to the essay I had to write a few years ago. "Around 25,000 people - probably more."

Marie covers her mouth with her hand, tears streaking down her face. "How could this happen? How... And us? Louis and I?" She asks the question I've been dreading all along.

"It doesn't matter." We finally catch up to an out of breath Louis. The Doctor looks around wildly.

"Why here? Why would it be here?" he looks around curiously. "AHA! Perfect!" I follow his gaaze over to what used to be a magnificent building. All that's left is a blackened pile of bricks, with glass and wood shattered on the ground. Ther'es only one other thing I can think it might be.

"Is that the Bastille?" I ignore Marie's frantic attempts to ask me what happens to her and her unfortunate husband.

"It sure is." The Doctor looks up at the smoldering building. "Destroyed by peasants in1789." He grins, pocketing his machine. "A perfect place for a rift in time - you didn't think it was just a few peasants that burnt this massive building to the ground, did you? AHA!" He leaps forward and fingers a huge crack in the crumbling sides of the brick building.

"What happens to us?!" Marie grips my shoulders, looking at me in terror. The Doctor runs his hand over the crack and scans it frantically.

"Uh..." I feel the situation slipping from my grasp. "I can't tell you, Marie..."

"Why not?" She starts to cry, not letting me go. "We still go on to be King and Queen, right? That still happens?! Well? Does it?" Her sobs deepen as she peers into my face.

I feel terrible for the young couple. Louis looks over. His slightly graying wig looks frazzled. Marie's grey hair hangs a little limply over her slender shoulders. They're such a young couple, with little idea of how to run their own lives, let alone their own kingdom.

"WHAT happens?" Marie searches my face intently.

A tear slips down my face as I bite my lip. "You... die, Marie. Both you and..." I look away. I can't bear to see her watering blue eyes. "Both you and Louis. OK?"

"How does this happen?" She dissolves into tears, releasing me and latching onto her husband who hugs her back, looking equally upset. While I look at the terrified couple I feel something tugging on my mind.

The blackness in front of me magnifies and all of a sudden I can see atoms floating in the air all around me. "Ohh oh. Doctor?" I feel slightly nauseous again. I have a sickening feeling I know what's happening. 

"Little busy...Is it urgent?" He mutters as the sound of his sonic screwdriver cuts through the ringing in my ears.

"Sort of... remember when you said the blackall would use your TARDIS to transport themselves?" I see the atoms dancing along my arm and then go shooting past my face, feeling my energy slowing draining away as they disappear.

"Mmmhhm." He mutters distractedly.

"They're not using the TARDIS." I have his full attention now. He peers up skeptically, then pulls of his glasses.

"What?"

"They're using me!" I fall to my knees as a sudden wave of the atoms rushes over me. "How... how are they doing that?!" I ask from the ground, still watching the atoms dancing around me, feeling almost choked. The atmosphere is literally full of the tiny atoms.

"Oh that's clever." The blackness in front of me is illuminated in the blue light of his sonic screwdriver. "They don't even have to use the TARDIS - but they've got it there, and they've got you here - it's a perfect transport device. The only problem is they don't have the rift energy anymore..." He groans suddenly. "Oh no. Ohh, no no nononono."

"What? WHAT?!" I ask panicked. "Am I going to die?"

"Oh this is... this is bad. This is very, very bad."

"DOCTOR!" I snap. "IF I'm going to DIE I want you to tell me RIGHT NOW! I'd rather know."

He pauses, shifting to lean back in his crouched position, a pained look on his face.

I shift a little on the ground, grimacing as energy leaves my body. "Tell me!" I manage to whisper hoarsely. "Am I going to... l..." I can't even finish my sentence. My eyes close over. Dimly, I register a few hundred atoms rushing past my face at lightning speed before I can see nothing else.

******************************

"OH YOU'VE DONE IT!" The Doctor calls out harshly. "I mean it was her mistake, but still, there was no need to keep going!" He rambles while banging his sonic scrwdriver slightly in his fist. He points it at the air with a defeated sigh. "Go on, then -use the energy from this. GO HOME!" He whacks the air in frustration as the last of the blackalls shoot past the flickering blue light. The sonic shudders for a moment and then explodes, showering his hand in sparks.

"Oh, ff....eg.." He mutters incoherent words at the night then turns back to where Marie and Louis are still hugging each other.

"Come on, you two." He runs back over to the rift and admires it. "It's closing. Hurry up, Bracken." He pulls out a pair of 3D spectacles from his pocket. "Ah, there you are. Now off you go. Back through the rift. It's going to close as soon as I get my TARDIS back. Hurry up."

*****************

"Oh, nice. Lovely." The Doctor takes the hill at a run as he spots the TARDIS materalising in front of them. "They better not have done anything to you." He breathes out, running his hand around the wood. "AND they haven't. Good." 

"Just in here!" He calls out cheerfully to the couple. They look around the blue box in awe as they admire the beautiful interior.

"Is she going to be alright?" Marie asks gently, looking at her friend curled up on the TARDIS seat.

"Oh yeah, a few more hours she'll be alright. Just basically had all the energy drained out of her. Might need a little help though..." He grins and runs down the hallway, coming back moments later with a can. "Nothing a little..." He turns the can around. "Red bull? Dang, what names the humans come up with." 

"So what happens now?" Marie asks softly.

"Nothing, I'm afraid." The Doctor avoids looking at their eyes. "I'll take you back in time to your manor - you won't remember a thing."

"That's why we're allowed in here?" Louis looks around the brown interior, the humming TARDIS and the glowing blue lights.

"Yeah." He says softly.

****************************

I wake up tasting red bull. I know, weirdest feeling ever. Except I absolutely hate red bull. "Uuuggghhhh." I grimace horribly, pulling a few hideous faces. "Did you give me red bull?"

"Something your time era suggested..." The Doctor shrugs.

"Stupid TARDIS." I mutter, then wince as it bounces me forwards on the seat. "Sorry sweetheart."

"Darcy!" Marie traps me in a hug, showering me in talcom powder. "The Doctor is going to drop us back home, and we won't remember a thing."

"That's..." I glance at him as he pushes forwards the controls on the TARDIS. "Great."

"But what you said about us... dying..." Marie looks at me longingly.

"I can't change that." The Doctor says softly. If we werent' listening we wouldn't have heard. "I'm so sorry but... fixed point in time. I really am very sorry. If I stop your deaths, then the whole course of history will be changed. You were two very important people in history, two history makers. There's no way the universe could compensate for that. I'm sorry."

"We're going to our deaths." Marie's eyes fill with tears. Louis puts his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, my dear. We have faced many hardships before, this is nothing.

"Our children?" Marie asks shakily.

"Marie Therese - she survives." I say softly, with a sad smile. "She married... it's all I can say." I shrug.

"Thank you for coming." Marie turns to the Doctor.

"My pleasure." He holds open the door of the TARDIS. "When you step out of here - you won't remember what happened. You'll be back in the manor with your children... and the blackalls and the bracken are all gone." He catches their eyes as they move towards the door. "Spend what time you have. Cherish every moment. It's going to be precious."

"Thank you." Marie leaves with tears running down her face. Louis puts an arm around her shoulders and smiles bravely.

*********************

"Hmmmmmaph." I make a weird noise and flop down on the TARDIS floor. "Why does everything we do have awful consequences?"

"Life in the TARDIS for you."

"Now I know why you're so sad and dull all the time." I laugh at his disapproving look.

"Oi! I am not dull, missy." He flips up a switch with a flick of his hand through his brown, spiky hair. "You're the dull one. The silly one." He winks.

"Oi, that was one time. And besides.... they're all home now."

"Fighting..." He grins.

"Get on with it. What do you say? Allons-y?"

"You don't do it right." he teases.