Chapter One

What was a second?

A second could be nothing.

A second could also be everything.

Love or hate, win or fail, life or death, these were the stakes that could hang in the balance during one second of time.

With a second of his life violently torn from him the Doctor fought to regain balance as Time itself seemed to be screaming at him. Laying on his side on the cold stone ground of the alien world he convulsively swallowed and gasped for breath against the thick vapour of regeneration energy that kept rising to the back of his throat. The destructive rewriting of a previously fixed point in his past was having a devastating effect on his present. At least that was his best guess as to what was tearing him apart.

"Doctor?" Amy whimpered. "What do I do? How can I help?"

The Doctor tried to respond, however he couldn't find his voice as he choked on the usually healing energy that had turned toxic. Amy was keeping him on his side, something Rory had taught her to keep victims of a medical crisis from filling their lungs with various fluids. It wasn't doing the Doctor much good though since the source of his distress radiated from his hearts and didn't follow the laws of gravity or even those of physics.

Closing his eyes the Doctor gave in to the swirling dizziness that stole his sense of what was reality and what was dream. With his life so closely tangled into the fabric of time he trembled with empathy pains from the massive explosion that was literally reshaping the way time worked. Regeneration was always painful, but it was bearable because unlike now it didn't tend to last very long. As the faulty process stretched on the tearing agony escalated without seeming to have any upper limit. With his voice silenced by the congesting energy that poured into his chest the Doctor couldn't even express to Amy just how much trouble he was in.

Under different circumstance the aftershock of the Timonic Fusion explosion may have just forced a normal regeneration. Ever since his unfortunate encounter with the Minyan the energy locked in his hearts no longer served its purpose properly and it seemed to be reacting violently to new order of the Universe. It had turned to a caner, like a once harmless cell that suddenly divided and expanded out of control, destroying everything in its path. The new tide washed him back and forth between life and death but never seemed to settle on either shore.

Feeling helpless Amy brushed the Doctor's disheveled hair out of his face as he weakly struggled against his sudden illness. He had been fine for the first few moments after the explosion, but then in midsentance he had collapsed like a puppet when the strings were cut. The Nova Diamond that he still wore was shining so brightly that Amy couldn't look directly at it even through the fabric of his shirt. The Doctor's skin had a distressing golden cast to it and he kept coughing up glittering swirls of the same bright energy. Amy panicked as the Doctor began shivering as though settling into hypothermia.

"Amy!"

Amy jerked her head up at the sound of River's voice and found her daughter rushing towards them. Amy didn't question River's ability to be outside the paradox protection of the TARDIS, she was just grateful to have some help. River knelt down in front of Amy and the Doctor and instantly slipped her hand under the Doctor's head and guided him to look up at her. Opening his eyes the Doctor tried to focus on River, but his eyes just rolled back to white as he convulsed.

"I'm here, Sweetie." River assured. "Just hold on."

"What's happening to him?"

"I don't know. However I do know the Timonic Fusion Device takes time and turns it into energy and taking even just a second of time out of the life of someone as entangled with the fabric of time as the Doctor clearly has consequences."

"What do we do?"

River didn't appear to have an answer. She ran her hand through the Doctor's sweat soaked hair as he continued to spasm and cough. When she pulled her hand away she noticed the bright trail of gold that followed her. Seeing the excess energy that was pouring into the Nova Diamond gave River an idea and she searched inside the Doctor's jacket where the Vale Blades still rested in the shoulder harness. River pulled out the blades and stared at them. Deteriorating as the seconds ticked by the Doctor began exhaling golden clouds with each laboured breath as his shaking became increasingly violent. River switched her grip on the blades so that she could more easily use them.

"River?" Amy questioned.

"According to legend the Valeyard, the real Valeyard, created these blades to steal regenerations from other Time Lords to increase his own regenerations past what Rassilon had allowed."

"So?"

"So too much of anything can turn deadly. Drink enough water and it will poison you." River pointed out. "The Nova Diamond is clearly over loading with his bio-force, I think the same thing is happening with the regeneration energy. I think it's poisoning him."

"And you think you can draw it out with the Vale Blades."

"I certainly hope so."

At River's request Amy stopped supporting the Doctor on his side and guided him to lay on his back. Seemingly senseless he jerked and clawed at the stone ground as he gulped for air. Take a deep breath herself River brought the daggers up and positioned the points against the Doctor's hearts. Amy held her breath as she watched River's eyes track back and forth between where she held the daggers and the Doctor's face, clearly hesitant to pierce him.

"River...are you sure about this?"

"No."

Before she could lose her nerve she raised the twin daggers up and slammed them down on the Doctor's chest. Arching his back the Doctor finally managed to cry out. River's breath hissed sharply across her teeth as a flood of searing energy lanced up her arms from her grip on the daggers and pounded into her own chest. Just as the Blades had spoken to her before they told her when to yank the sharp weapons back out. There was no blood staining the Doctor's white shirt as River drew out the daggers. The Nova Diamond instantly calmed and the golden cast to the Doctor's skin faded.

Feeling somewhat invigorated herself River shook her head and golden dust fell from her mass of curly hair. Amy looked anxiously between the Doctor and River as they recovered. The Doctor didn't open his eyes but he did moan in a rueful tone like someone waking after a heavy night of drinking. He reached up and gingerly touched at the holes in his shirt over his steadily beating hearts.

"Doctor?" River asked.

"If we could *not* do that again I would very much appreciate it." The Doctor complained. "Seriously, it's no fun."

"I kind of liked it." River teased.

The Doctor opened his eyes and gave River a concerned look before he smiled at her. He knew the more stressed she was the more likely she was to act just the oposite. Relieved to see him smile River put down the daggers so she could lean down and draw the Doctor into a somewhat awkward embrace. When she released him he sat up and gathered up the Vale Blades to place them back in the harness he wore. He got to his feet and helped River up and then Amy. Once up Amy took the opportunity to throw her arms around his neck in a warm hug.

"I'm okay, Amy." The Doctor assured.

"You keep saying that and it keeps not being very true."

"I'm working on it." The Doctor turned his attention to River. "What about you?"

"I feel good, maybe even a little too good."

"You took a tremendous risk leaving the TARDIS." The Doctor said in a lightly scolding tone.

"No. I saw the explosion from the open TARDIS door. I knew what it meant. What moment did you lose?"

"I thought we were going to have more time to stop him." The Doctor lamented rather than answer. "If I had known he was so close to completing the Timonic Fusion Device I would never have left your other self to watch over him. Actually I didn't think he was going to succeed in building one the first place."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know how to build one."

"So how did he figure it out?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, and that worries me."

"What do we do now?" River asked. "Is this reversible?"

"I hope so." The Doctor sighed as he looked up at the haze that still shimmered across the night sky. "First we need to visit Earth."

"Earth?" Amy repeated.

"The explosion was closer to Earth than any other inhabited planet. Earth sort of hangs out in a lonely part of the galaxy."

"The Valeyard wouldn't destroy the Earth...would he?" Amy asked in horror.

The Doctor's only response was a worried expression that didn't help put Amy at ease in the slightest. After glancing at the night sky again he simply turned towards the path that would lead them back to the TARDIS. River took Amy's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze before they followed after the Doctor.

Walking at a brisk pace in front the Doctor kept glancing up at the sky and the rainbow shimmer. Each time that he did Amy could see his jaw line tighten a little more. By the time they were half way back to the TARDIS he looked like he was gnashing his teeth together. She was just about to remind him that the Valeyard's actions weren't his fault when the Doctor came to a dead stop and then took a step back.

Amy was going to ask what was wrong when she spotted the problem for herself. Just off to the left about two hundred yard in front of them was a large dark shape that was moving in the trees with jerking motions. As the clouds moved away from the bright moon the beast became more defined. A terrifying twenty foot long serpent like creature with membranous wings and four praying mantis type legs was writhing on the ground. Its long slender tail ended in a scythe hook that splintered any tree it came in contact with. It looked like it was trying to stand on its awkward legs and failing. The Doctor put his arms out to block River and Amy from stepping forward even though neither one of them was planing on getting closer to the creature.

"What is that?!" Amy hissed in a whisper.

"It's a Reaper," the Doctor replied in a grave tone "they live in the Vortex, they don't enter the regular Universe unless there is something here that they want."

"What does it want?"

"It wants me." River answered quietly.

"What's?" Amy asked.

"Reapers eat temporal paradoxes." River explained.

"That is not going to happen." The Doctor growled as stalked off towards the massive creature. "Get back to the TARDIS while I distract it."

"Doctor, wait..." River protested.

The Reaper snapped its angular head in River's direction at the sound of her slightly raised voice. The beast screeched terribly from the large toothy mouth that was set in the centre of its chest. Thrashing its scythe shaped tail it flailed its wings in an attempt to get airborne to take chase. It scrambled to turn its sinuous body and squealed again as it came crashing towards them.

"Run!" The Doctor cried.

This time River didn't have to be convinced, she grabbed Amy's wrist and took off through the dense forest to the right to try and loop up towards the TARDIS was parked. The Doctor faced the creature without any particular plan in mind other than slowing it down to give River a chance to out run it. There was nothing in the Universe that the Doctor knew of that could hurt a Reaper, but he wasn't going to let it pass without a fight. Trying to look confident in his ability to stop the indestructible Reaper the Doctor stood tall and brandished the sonic at it as though it were a proper weapon.

"Stop!" The Doctor barked. "I am a Time Lord and I *order* you back to the Vortex. Leave before...uh...before it's too late."

The Doctor knew it was pointless to verbally threaten a Reaper which was why he hadn't been able to come up with a proper consequence for it disobeying him. He held his ground as the Reaper charged towards him. The usually graceful creature slammed into several trees as it bared down on him. When the Reaper was on him the Doctor was forced to move to the side. The Reaper had no interest in him and barreled past in his pursuit for River. Not sure what else to do the Doctor grabbed onto its long thin tail as it passed and dug his heels into the forest floor as hard as he could.

The Reaper easily yanked the Doctor off his feet and took him along for the ride as it finally managed to take to the sky. If the deadly creature wasn't currently trying to run down River the Doctor felt he may actually enjoy the rare chance to fly on the tail of a Reaper. The trip didn't last long as the Reaper quickly gained on River and Amy. The Doctor cried out a warning as the winged creature swooped down.

The Reaper had the chance to attack River but instead he past over her and then slammed into the ground a few yards in front of her and gouged a long furrow into the ground as it came to a stop. The Doctor was flicked from the Reaper's tail and landed tumbling across the leaf litter floor of the forest. He jumped to his feet and looked around desperately for River and Amy. They were running towards him and he held out his hand for River to take when she reached him.

Once River had his hand the Doctor was ready to continue the race to the TARDIS when the Reaper made a bone chilling mournful call. He risked looking over at the Reaper where it had crashed landed and realized that it wasn't able to get back up. Its heavy breath could be heard rushing in and out of its oddly place jaws. Sensing that Reaper was dying the Doctor risked stepping closer.

Despite the fact that he motioned for them to stay where they were River and Amy followed him. Seeing their approach the Reaper tried to raise its head up, but it didn't have the strength. Its toothy jaw drooled a golden light the way they did when they were going to attack, but it was in no shape to fight. The Reaper made a few guttural sounds before it relaxed completely. The Doctor just stared at dead carcass of what should be an immortal creature. River stepped up and took the Doctor's hand again.

"What did it say?" River asked knowing the Doctor knew its language.

"'Please, help us, the stream holds the key.'."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked.

"I didn't expect a Reaper to have a word for 'please'." River noted.

"They don't, it's a loose translation."

"Why would a Reaper think you would help it?" River asked confused. "Reapers and Time Lords have always been enemies."

"She wasn't speaking to me, River. She was talking to you."

"Me? How do you know?"

"She called you by name."

"What?"

"Reapers don't have a word for 'river', the closest thing they have is 'stream'."