A young lady of genuinely stately appearance ganders from afar as an enthusiastic Doctor fiddles with the controls on his T.A.R.D.I.S. "So, where are we going, my raggedy Doctor?"

Her voice was rather serene - like grass on a brick wall, or a patch of ice in an expansion of water - for it was as if the Doctor hadn't heard anything like that before.

Mouth agape in excitation, eyebrows raised in a sneakily flirty manner, he turned around and instinctively sighed from the utmost glory that the question had brought.

"Everywhere." He went on to state this rather prudently because to him the answer was quite obvious. "We're going everywhere. There will be no location left undiscovered; there will remain no unvisited province."

River looked deep into the Doctor's eyeballs and whilst she did so she took his hand and right then everything she ever experienced with the Doctor flew by in what seemed like a mere few seconds.

The Doctor smiled lightheartedly. "I remember that," he muttered, crying a little bit, all the while River's eyes dilated in fear of what memories the Doctor would receive and how he would subsequently react to them.

His expression suddenly devolved from happiness and general serenity to that of doom and the sight of the insufficient tears dripping down her raggedy doctor's rosy cheeks made River burst in to tears herself.

"I'm very sorry;" River tried to apologize - to compel him in to granting her her much needed repentance - but she knew her apology was as inane as the Doctor's apathy for human kindness and perseverance.

"You have to understand - I was commanded, by forces unknown, to take your life, and frankly I had no choice." River took a deep breath. She opened her eyes, and saw the Doctor's tears as they fled down his cheeks.

"Please, Doctor - you have to understand." She stuttered, but in all honesty she really didn't want her apology to be accepted, because then that would make the incessant suspense void and therefore meaningless.

He opened his eyes, for he felt commotion from afar, perhaps something that was interfering with the T.A.R.D.I.S - but when he did he saw River passed out. "River?" He asked, his eyes widened from fear and panic.

She was barely breathing, all her breaths caused her chest to quiver in anticipation; her mouth was not open, there were wounds present on her neck, and he felt a ghostly force from afar.

Whilst smoke begun to gather all around him, his chest hoisted in utter misery - and he grabbed the surface of his chest and beat it quite virulently, in an effort to relieve his pain, all the while River continued to heave.

Sweat drizzled atop his forehead and he felt himself being dragged out his T.A.R.D.I.S and thrown on to a rugged ground below him, although he was in too much pain to even open his eyes to view what was around him.

TO BE CONTINUED