The next time Amy woke up, the cell was gone, replaced by a white-walled room that smelled of antiseptic and looked far too much like one in a hospital. She was lying in an actual bed this time, the gray blanket pulled up over her bump, an IV inserted into her hand and her knuckles bandaged. She figured they must have drugged her at some point in the night to have accomplished both bringing her here and patching her up. She half-wished they would have just left her to die instead.

Sitting up, Amy fully intended to continue her attempts of escape when she discovered that her other wrist had a metal cuff around it, a length of chain running from it to the bedpost near her head. She yanked at the chain angrily, but the lock held fast no matter how hard she pulled.

"As you may have noticed, struggling isn't going to do anything but tire you out. Not a bad idea, now that I come to think of it."

Amy swiveled her head around to find that she was no longer alone. A woman had entered the white room, which was starting to feel more like a prison than the cell had. She was unusually tall, her rail-thin body clad in a pressed black pantsuit and spike-heeled alligator boots. Her hair white, although she couldn't have been more than forty, and was cut close to her head. Her skin was papery and almost as white as her hair, her lips over-enhanced with pepper-red lipstick, and her talon-like nails painted a poisonous black. Her eyes were the same color as her nails and were merciless.

"Who are you?" Amy demanded, her tone full of ire.

The woman's lip curled. "Rhododendron."

"Come again?"

"I go by Rhodes, if that's easier for you."

"Right, whatever. I'll have you know you are making a big mistake, woman. When my husband gets his hands on you—"

"The Doctor is of no concern to us, Amelia Pond. Stealing you away from him was child's play."

"I'm warnin' ya now, lady. You're not the only one who's thought you could outwit him. He always finds a way. Always."

Rhodes laughed. "The Doctor is nothing more than a coward and a fool! Hiding you away for so long, thinking he could escape us, like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand."

Amy strained against her bond with such force that the bed shuddered violently, and the machine monitoring her vitals went haywire for a few seconds. She shot a dirty look at her captor. "If I could reach you, you'd be so dead right now."

"Amusing, really. I've never seen such spirit in a human." Rhodes inspected her nails as if the conversation was boring her. "A shame we're going to be killing you eventually."

Amy's blood ran cold. "What's stopping ya from doing it now?"

"We need the child to finish growing, and we can't easily do that if you're dead. Once he's born, however, we shall have no further use for you."

Amy's hands splayed over her stomach protectively. "What could you possibly want with him?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Time Lords are very hard to come by, especially fledgling ones impressionable enough to bend to our will. It was quite fortunate when we heard tales that the last Time Lord in existence had picked up a wife. We knew it was only a matter of time before a child came along."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"I have spent most of my life in pursuit of one thing; dominion over all races and peoples in this universe. He's my key to that."

"And how's that supposed to work?"

"Every Time Lord has the knowledge of the universe locked away in his or her brain, which can only be unlocked willingly by him or her. It's a code, the guideline, if you will, to building a craft capable of travel through both time and space, which would give me the power I crave. Trying to drag it out of the Doctor, of course, would be pointless. And the TARDIS is too smart to allow us to control it; don't think we haven't tried. Always was the problem with the types that were grown, not made."

"You can't mess with time, especially for a purpose like that. There's a reason the Time Lords fell, ya know. And what if he doesn't tell you what it is?"

"He will. If he wants to make his mummy happy," Rhodes responded, placing a hand on her chest.

Amy bristled. "I'M his mum."

"Maybe biologically, but he'll never know that. You'll be dead long before he has a chance to remember you."

"Monster!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Rhodes leered at her. "I suggest you get some rest now. The IV will supply you with all the insulin you require, so no need to worry about that."

"How do you know about that?"

"A certain Gretchen Teach kindly supplied us with your medical file. So unfortunate that we had to eliminate her."

Amy gulped. "You didn't have to."

"Can't have the Doctor finding any leads, now can we?" Rhodes pulled a vial out of her pocket and inserted it into Amy's IV. Against her will, the ginger's eyes began to droop. "Sleep tight, dear. I want my son to be nice and healthy."

Amy grasped at insults to hurl at the woman, but she was asleep before they even left her mouth.

"So do you have a plan?" River asked as the TARDIS door closed behind her and Clarion.

"Yes!" The Doctor said as he dashed around the console, setting coordinates.

"Do you mean that or are you bluffing again?" River asked skeptically.

"Yes!"

"Yes to which one?"

"Sorry, River, can't quite hear you."

"Doctor!"

"Alright, alright! It's sort of in the beginning stages; a very brilliant and exceptional plan in the making."

"Which means that, as usual, you have no plan."

"No plan yet. One must be specific."

River rolled her eyes. "Okay, would you rather specifically tell us where we're going?"

"Don't know. Wait! Lightbulb! Yes I do. Back to New London. That's where it happened, and the only way I reckon they found her was due to a tipoff. We need to find the tipoff-er."

"Is that even a word?"

"It is now. I just said it." The Doctor pulled the dart that had felled him out of his pocket and tossed it to her. "I need a full analysis done on that."

"What, do you have a chemical lab in here or something?"

"Down the hall, take a left down some stairs and it'll be the fifth door on your right," the Doctor said, pointing. River sighed and headed in that direction.

"Can we help her, Daddy?" Ian asked excitedly.

"Sure, why not?" Answered the Doctor indulgently. Both his son and daughter whooped and chased after River.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Clarion asked in a tone that clearly indicated he thought otherwise. In fact, he seemed quite alarmed.

"Never too early to teach them how to do a good drug analysis, eh? By Ian's age I was already learning how to make my first poison and antidote. And I was the slow one in class."

"Really? But they're only half Time Lord."

"Should be quite enough. Besides, I think it's best if it's just me and you for this job." The Doctor opened the door, beckoning for Clarion to exit first.

"River's going to kill you once she finds out you left her behind."

"Yes, well, there are always risks. Honestly, I have her best interests at heart. We might be getting ourselves into danger."

"She's been in dangerous situations before. That didn't seem to matter so much to you then."

"True, but this time's…different."

"How so?"

"Well well, look at the time! We better get going!" The Doctor announced hurriedly, making a show of checking his non-working watch. Before Clarion had a chance to question him further, he was already bounding out of the TARDIS and down the street, leaving the king no choice but to follow.

Amy stopped to catch her breath, sweat trickling down her forehead.

"WEAK! That's all you are, Amelia Pond. A weak human with little reason to live."

Amy looked up and glared at the white-haired woman in the middle of the circular track, hating her with every ounce of her being but determined not to give her the satisfaction of a reply. Sweat was pooling in between her shoulder blades, dripping down to the small of her back. Her forehead and collarbone shone with it, as did her ponytailed hair. She'd never perspired this much in her life and she loathed it, loathed Rhodes for making her run in the first place, loathed the Auton standing just behind the woman with the guns in his hands pointed at Amy.

It had been a week since she'd been taken, and during the time they didn't have her knocked out with a narcotic, she'd learned more about her prison. She was on what she'd heard them refer to as a warship, and an eventual peek out a window revealed that it was one that traveled through space. Her room was located in the medical bay at the rear of the ship, where she had stayed confined for the first few days and given unappealing food for sustenance. When Rhodes had learned Amy was protesting by not eating, she sent a team of medics to force a feeding tube down her throat, which the girl fought against but was soon outnumbered. It was an experience that did not have to be repeated.

The exercise routine was a new development. Rhodes wanted to make sure the gestational diabetes didn't have any ill effects on August, and so she had Amy dragged out of bed nearly every morning and taken to the ship's jogging track despite the resistance she was met with. The trip did allow Amy a chance to see the rest of the ship, however, and she soon discovered that the warship housed an army of Autons. Their blank-faced, inhuman presence in the corridors sent a shiver down Amy's spine every time she passed them, but she dared not stop walking. After the last six odd escape attempts, Rhodes had taken to following close behind her with a taser gun that, although not strong enough to hurt the baby, was enough to make all of her nerves scream in agony for a few seconds.

If there was one thing Amy was glad for, it was that neither Rhodes nor the people (the living ones, anyway) who worked for her were aware of the existence of Ian and Jenna. They could put her through whatever hell they could think of as long as her children were safe. She only wished August was; she wanted to keep him inside her forever, where he would be protected, but she realized it was impossible. The idea of him in the arms of the Monster—as she had spitefully taken to calling Rhodes in her mind—was too much to bear.

"One more lap, Amelia. NOW!"

Amy wanted to cry, to properly bawl her eyes out and not care who saw it, but all of her tears had long since been used up. Not to mention she had already sweated a good amount of liquid from her body. She picked up one foot, and then the other, and, feeling as if she was trying to run through sand, set off again.

She was almost to the end of the track when she began seeing double and slowed down, squinting against the suddenly-harsh artificial light overhead. A second later, blinding pain exploded behind her eyes, and her vision went black. Stumbling, she collapsed, her head pounding as if someone had split it in two and her neck stiff. She heard Rhodes yelling at her, but it was muted, all sound gradually fading away as she slid into a liberating unconsciousness.

Thanks for reading, and please drop the nunchucks and pitchforks long enough to review. :D