Chapter Three
The problem with manipulating events is that there's usually a limited window of time in which you can actually manipulate things. Using the space-time coordinates provided by Abby, Celesia carefully pilots her TARDIS, Abby herself helping as the quaternary, quinary and senary pilot. Between them both, they land in the core of the Library, once more disguised as a chair.
"It's more like a throne," Abby points out with a breath of obvious relief as she streams bright, white lights into the red-flashing room, setting them on the ground. To Celesia's vague interest, there are perception filters on them. Why would lights have perception filters? "River's going to sit on it."
"What are we doing here?" Celesia cuts to the chase, eyeing the shadows. Flesh-eating nanobeings of the dark…
"Rerouting the connection between the hard-drive and the databanks." Abby explains, adjusting the lights. "The Vashta Nerada hatched here, from the books. After realising what was happening- CAL, the computer, she…she used the teleports to get all the people on the planet off. But there was nowhere for them to go, so I saved them to the hard-drive. She. She saved them to the hard-drive."
Celesia glances over at Abby, counting up all the times she's slipped like this. The questions begin to pile up in her mind and as much as she wants to push them away, suppress them inside her brain, Celesia is becoming far more aware of how much meddling she'll have to do in the future. The fact that everything's flashing isn't doing me much good either, she think, glancing around and grimacing at the timer on a screen.
"That auto-destruct isn't giving us a lot of time to do anything."
"We just need to hook your TARDIS up as a secret memory bank," Abby says before hauling wires and cables out of the upright databanks. "Come on, we don't have a lot of time – the Doctor will be here any minute and we still need to go back to when the Library went silent to upload Miss Evangelista. It's the only time we've got to do it in."
"Dear Rassilon," Celesia mutters before rushing to help her future niece, scanning the tech and thanking the designers for using the most well-known schematics in the universe. Even Tristan would know what to do here.
Her TARDIS, thankfully, seems to know exactly what's needed of her. Sockets are on either side of her throne-forms arms and Celesia and Abby have the majority of them plugged in before the sound of a gravity lift attracts their dual attention.
"They're here, we have to go," Abby hisses, before they clamber behind the chair through the waiting opening – more of a slit in the fabric of reality than a door. Once inside, they shut the door and Miss Evangelista looks over at them.
"Professor Song and the Doctor are here and Anita, I think," she explains anxiously, hand on the console screen. Celesia makes her way over, watching as the younger Theta rushes to the rescue. Suicidal idiot, she thinks when he explains how he'll hook himself up to give the computer more memory space, but very soon afterwards her heart wrenches because this Anita woman is dead. Miss Evangelista screams and cries when her skull becomes visible inside her helmet.
Celesia does truly have to give her cousin credit, however, after her body finally collapses. "He bargained with them," she mutters. "He speaks to them. Who does that?"
"My dad," Abby says, sounding proud. A long moment passes as Celesia digests this, before Abby groans, putting her hands on her face. "I didn't say that. I didn't say that!"
"Dad doesn't do that, does he?" Miss Evangelista frowns, eyebrows knitting together. Abby peeks through her hands at her.
"He does, all the time. You don't- won't remember everything, but you will remember some things. That isn't Dad yet – this is the younger version, a Doctor who's barely even met our mother. I've only ever seen him like this before today as you."
Miss Evangelista swallows but nods, clearly scared and terrified. Abby goes to move closer to her then, but River Song knocking Theta out attracts their attention. Celesia stares at the screen for a long few moments, opinion of River Song rising exponentially. They watch as she moves him, handcuffing him to a rail, Abby muttering apologies on the archaeologist's behalf as she liberates him of his sonic screwdriver, setting it down with her own on top of an old blue book.
Of course this is Theta's wife. She's a self-sacrificial idiot, too. Why are all the cleverest of my House so stupid?
As Celesia thinks this, River speaks up warily, glancing around. "Abigail? Are you here?"
Abby immediately runs for the door, leaving the TARDIS and barrelling into the woman who could only be her mother.
Their reunion looks to be lovely – Celesia asks her TARDIS to mute the screen. Miss Evangelista goes to go outside as well after a few moments, but Celesia grabs her arm.
"No, you're staying in here. Don't go out those doors," she orders, staring Miss Evangelista down until she gets a timid trio of nods. Upon seeing the confirmation, Celesia herself makes her way outside, clearing her throat as she watches the end of Abby and River's mother-daughter reunion, their arms wrapped around each other tightly, black against white. In a brief moment of wishful thinking, Celesia wonders if Tristan ever would let her hold him like that.
"Professor," River greets with a trembling smile once they part, hands interlocking instead of arms. "Nice to see you." Celesia defers from speaking, instead giving a short nod. Abby clears her throat awkwardly.
"Uh…she's only just met you, Mum. In Nazi Germany. I-I just met you, as well?" Abby cringes, while River's eyebrows shoot up.
"Oh? Well now, I have to wonder what's going to happen next, then, before you go back."
"No spoilers," Celesia half snaps, still slightly angry at the situation. River gives her an unamused look, before looking to Abby.
"I'll assume the Professor's TARDIS is our actual memory space."
"Yes and maybe, if you have to be sitting on it-"
"The TARDIS can absorb me and to the Doctor's eyes, I've been disintegrated or something or other and I'll cut off the signal between my suit and the sonic after. Well done, sweetie." River reaches up her spare hand, pressing it to Abby's cheek, getting a small blush from her daughter, before River looks to Celesia. "Thank-you as well, Professor. Let's finish hooking up the TARDIS, why don't we?"
"Let's," Celesia agrees, looking away and finding a set of cables to transfer and fiddle with, crouching and communicating with her Type Seventy on how to proceed. Will you do this? The positive response she receives is both good yet disheartening. In Celesia's mind, a TARDIS should be one of the few types of beings that agrees with the Laws of Time.
"Professor?"
"Yes?" Celesia replies to River's call, being drawn out of her focus mode.
"Abby says you already have Miss Evangelista," she starts, "so I was wondering if you could let her regain her true nature inside your TARDIS. Abby's memory has always been missing from when she changed back. It would make perfect sense for it to happen while in the presence of her older self, rather than blame some form of post-trauma amnesia – and much safer."
"It would make sense," Celesia agrees, finishing the last transfer of the required cables on her side. Looking to Abby and River shows they're both finishing up as well. She leans back a little as River climbs up onto the TARDIS, who hums in Celesia's mind at her presence. Warmth, recognition, glee. "My TARDIS likes you."
"All TARDISes like me," River smiles conspiratorially at her, eyes crinkling. "I'm family and the youngest, at that. They always make me feel like a child again, even though I haven't been one in hundreds of years." As Celesia frowns, glancing to Abby's braided hair, River brings a hand up, twisting it through her hair to show three beads in the middle of her high mess of a ponytail.
"When did you become an adult?"
"I'd assume at eighty, or ninety," River says, still smiling as she pulls cables up onto her lap on either side, which she would have to plug in to activate the transfer through the TARDIS memory banks. "The me back at your home isn't quite there yet. She's got some growing to do before becoming River Song. When she takes on that mantle…then yes, I do think that's when she's ready."
"Providing you aren't lying," Celesia tilts her head, "thank-you for the information."
"Any time, sweetie – I think he's waking up though. Back into the TARDIS with the both of you. I'll join you soon."
"Okay," Abby says, reaching up to press a kiss to her cheek before stepping back and tripping over a loose cable. River lets out a short laugh as Abby tumbles backwards onto the ground with a small oomph, lying there for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm always doing that."
"Yes, you are," River agrees happily. "Now go. I've got to pretend I'm about to die."
"Make a show of it," Abby advises merrily before Celesia helps her to her feet, the two of them slipping into the TARDIS again.
Miss Evangelista's sitting in Tristan's seat, buckled in. Abby's happy expression flickers briefly, before she plods on forwards with Celesia to the console, looking at the screen. A strange admiration flows through Celesia as they watch – truly, River Song puts on an impressive show. Leaning dark hands on the console edge, Celesia glances at her jacket, the dark red fabric cast in an odd purple sheen from the time rotor.
Redecoration may be in order later, she thinks to her TARDIS, trying to recall if Chameleon Arch-reversal involves much damage. Celesia glances at Miss Evangelista. She'll scream. Chameleon Arches are no fun at all, if records from those previously experienced in the process are true to their word. Your entire biology rewritten, your memory wiped and everything you are, were and could be stored in a pocket-watch.
The countdown for the auto-destruct – Abby called it self-destruct – starts to truly end then, Theta staring painfully at his will-be wife as she connects the plugs together. Then the lights Abby had set up earlier increase in intensity enough to nearly blind Theta, who turns away right before the TARDIS sucks River inside. She appears through the ceiling, naturally, falling to the ground and letting out a yelp as she lands on white, solid ground. Miss Evangelista squeaks and Abby rushes to help her up, while Celesia watches her cousin look back, becoming despondent.
On another part of the screen however, a readout shows the data process. To Celesia's mild satisfaction, the four thousand and twenty-two beings that had been stored inside the hard-drive have already rematerialised inside the Library.
"Of all the ways I've entered a TARDIS, that is by far the strangest," River says as she sits up, pinpointing Miss Evangelista and letting out a relieved sound. "Hello."
"Hello, Professor Song," Miss Evangelista says, before straightening in her seat. "Professor, what's really going on? That- this girl who looks like me says she's- says she's me, from the future." The Arch'ed woman bites her lip briefly. "She calls you her mother. Is…is she really telling the truth? What's going on?"
"Sweetie, you'll understand soon, I promise you that," River says gently, meeting her eyes. "Just wait a little longer for all the answers to your questions. There are just a few more things we need to do."
"O-O-Okay," she stutters, before River gets to her feet.
"Good girl."
"Where now?" Celesia questions Abby, who licks her lips.
"Voice navigation: set space-time coordinates to here, but to the day the Library went silent – or the day before. Might be safer, that way." Celesia glances at the monitor, which show the day before – but inwardly, across their bond, Celesia feels something that resonates with her connection to the Vortex. Wait. Not yet. "Aren't…aren't we going?"
"Not yet," Celesia repeats, before motioning to Miss Evangelista. "I thought you needed her brain-scan?"
"Yes," Abby says, making her way over. Celesia watches long enough to see another sonic device, in the shape of a spanner with small, rectangular green lights halfway up the handle. Abby puts the bolt-hold around Miss Evangelista's green data-lights, pressing buttons on the spanner – which is when Celesia looks away, back to her console. Theta still sits, staring at the empty throne of an outer shell.
"We'll be here a few hours, at least," River says, coming up beside her. "The Doctor has to upload my data-ghost to the Library. He's told me the bare bones of my death."
"Supposed death," Celesia corrects, watching her cousin just stare abysmally at the TARDIS. So beleaguered with future knowledge that he can't see past a damn chameleon circuit.
"Hmm, yes, I suppose. Though, to be fair, I will make it very convincing – my data-ghost is going to be in for hell, in that computer, waiting for a rewritten timeline."
"The rewritten part, or the original?"
"The original, unfortunately."
"Time is strange when it comes to living beings in mainframes," Celesia says distantly, thinking of the repercussions. She isn't very familiar with this data-ghost technology and the action of uploading a consciousness preserved in such a manner, but if it's anything like the Time Lord Matrix, River Song's data-ghost will pass every second knowing it, even despite the differential in space-time between each 'realm', as it were.
I wonder if I could do something – hook up the Library to the Matrix. Then maybe, the data-ghost will have a chance at making friends with other deceased Time Lords and perhaps even renewed life instead of that eternal torture. It would have to be the Matrix of the past, if she did it. No way in hell is Celesia attempting to do that in a warzone.
Or maybe that's exactly what I do, she thinks suddenly, shoulders shifting. Maybe introducing an outside source into the Matrix- but no, the Time War is too important. But…Time Lords have been executed for less.
"What are you thinking about?" River asks. "You've got a face on."
"Everyone has a face," Celesia says blankly, not quite sure how to answer otherwise, still focused on her future and the potential of giving this data-ghost a life.
"Tell me what you're thinking about, Professor." River meets her eyes, looking serious, focussing completely on Celesia. It'd a strange feeling, to be looked at in such a way. I mean something to her in the future. Which makes sense, in retrospect – I am her brothers mother.
"I've seen myself die – it's an inevitability that I be executed by the High Council of Gallifrey, that I return to the Time War. My death is a fixed event and I know that it takes place inside the Time War, during my final regeneration. My next face. Have I ever told you that before?"
"No," River says, frown flickering. "You haven't. The you that I know in the future, she's regenerated already, but not dead or missing."
"I see," Celesia replies, before looking back to Abby and Miss Evangelista again. The sonic spanner is gone and Miss Evangelista is peering at a silver fobwatch. Abby unbuckles her from the seat and steps back as she opens the watch, golden light streaming from it. Like Celesia thought she would before, Miss Evangelista screams and unprepared, Celesia flinches, pressing up against her console.
When it finishes, Abby tilts her past self's chin up, meeting her oddly clear eyes.
"Hey, how're you doing?"
"…where's Poppy?" she rasps, looking to River, whose pleasant expression wavers. The past Abby looks to Celesia, before coughing, leaning into her future self.
"For names, call this one Abby and me Abby-Raine," the future Abby – Abby-Raine – says, before pulling young Abby to her feet. "Poppy's with Dad and Jamie, on Darillium."
"Basil," Abby says shortly, prompting a twitch from Abby-Raine's lip and confusion from Celesia as River shakes her head.
"I hate that man."
"You love him very much," Abby and Abby-Raine say in unison, before Abby staggers to a stand, shaking her head and immediately tripping over her own feet.
"I think you should get changed into something less bulky," Abby-Raine says, pulling her younger self to her feet. Abby nods and the two make their way quickly to a door, leaving Celesia and River in the console room.
"So, how's my baby brother?"
"Having tea with you in two thousand and eleven," Celesia replies.
"Would you like to know how he will be?"
"No, thank-you," Celesia replies evenly, even though she itches to know, all of a sudden. Is her son alive in River's time? Has he regenerated? How old is he? Am I still with him?
"Alright, then," River says, before tapping her chest. "I'm going to do an Abby and change. It's a bit stuffy in this."
Celesia watches as she too leaves the console room. Once River is out of sight, Celesia forces herself to sit on the ground, crossing her legs and putting her hands in her pockets. Everything is so…convoluted; and what now? Do I take Abby somewhere? Do I let River and Abby-Raine bring her along with them? Omega – this is why the Doctor is called a renegade.
She wants to see Tristan again. She wants to live in her house with her son, uninvolved and alone. She wants to teach her son Old High Circular Gallifreyan, the Laws of Time and how to fly her TARDIS. Celesia doesn't want to get involved with her cousins' affairs, even if she does want to meet with him often, as two of very few Time Lord Renegades left in the universe, who've escaped both Gallifrey and the Time War. I don't even know where in the War he comes from – if it's ended for him, or if he escaped like I did. Has he seen his death like I have? Theta is on his thirteenth regeneration, his thirteenth. He doesn't have much time left in the universe. Five thousand years at most.
"What other Renegade Time Lords are out there? Mortimus? The Rani? Madrigor? Shazar? The Corsair?" Celesia scoffs slightly, shaking her head. "The Master's probably plotting somewhere, the incorrigible oaf…"
This situation – this rescue mission, it isn't what Celesia signed up for when she ran away. You didn't sign up for Tristan either, the thought appears in her mind, but you would never take him back.
"This is different," she mumbles to herself, before cringing. "I talk to myself, no. I haven't done that since my third face."
Celesia shuts her eyes, deciding to take a nap. Blindly getting comfortable against her console, Celesia decides to get a seat-back set in around where she's sitting now, when she redecorates. Do you think you could do that, my dear? I'd be very grateful for it.
Her TARDIS hums in her mind, a far clearer and stronger presence than usual. Her brain doesn't shut off when she sleeps – or naps – only gets faster and Celesia organises her head, reviewing the events of the past few days and filing them in the appropriate section of her mind. The first experiences of this new regeneration get stored with her others, a new drawer about her blood family updates to include Melody Williams | River Song and this untidy timeline she'll have to live through – with causality loops abound, blatant abuse of time travel and averting seemingly fixed events – has its own dedicated room in her head.
"Aunty Celesia?" comes the voice of Abby-Raine. Celesia opens her eyes, startling awake at her common nickname. Looking to the culprit, Celesia has a moment where she wonders if, in actuality, it's young Abby speaking to her, until Abby-Raine – still wearing her Academy uniform, unlike Abby, who wears white Converse, a summery, pastel flower dress and a warm orange pullover under a brown pinstripe blazer, hair still up in a high ponytail – continues onwards. "Is it time for us to go, yet?"
Celesia takes a second to stand, looking to her console and asking her TARDIS. However, that is when the screen flashes to get their attention, showing Theta running through the planet core to the hard-drive, River Song's sonic screwdriver in hand. He plugs it in and the charge is visible as River's last brain-scan transfers to the hard-drive.
"There we go. He just can't do it, can he?" River herself murmurs, coming up to Celesia's side, pressing her fingers to the edge of the screen. "That man, that impossible man…he just can't give in."
"He's always been stubborn. Particularly obstinate at times as well, if I am recalling some stories correctly," Celesia replies, before watching him as he leans against the computer, just staring at the sonic with a sad, pained grin. "How long have you known each other?"
"All my life and his, too – I've popped in and out with various disguises and memory-erasing drugs before he's supposed to know me, but, well…I'm closer to four hundred than three, despite what I might say, sometimes. The longest I've gone without seeing him is probably during my childhood and even then, he checked in on me."
"I don't like this, Professor Song," Celesia murmurs, "and if you know me, then you'll understand that. I'm barely a Renegade, not like the Doctor. When and where are we heading, after leaving here and uploading Miss Evangelista?"
River sobers, smile leaving her face. "Professor, I need you to understand something. This path you're treading now, it isn't going to suddenly stop. You have been in this ever since you stepped inside your TARDIS. In some ways, you've been in it longer than you realise."
"How?" Celesia questions, looking at her sharply. River's smile reappears, a laugh escaping her.
"Spoilers, sweetie. You have to live it and realise for yourself. You know the rules better than anyone – even the Doctor."
"The Doctor didn't study in school," Celesia grumbles, looking back to the screen, which he's finally backing away from, giving her TARDIS a long, sad look. "I don't know why people hold him up as such a great Time Lord – he's practically a common Gallifreyan, how little he knows."
"Experience makes up for his theoretical knowledge, you'll find," River says wryly, amused. They watch the screen. When Theta takes the gravity lift back up to the Library's surface, Celesia pilots her TT Capsule into the past, ignoring how Abby and Abby-Raine trip in sync as they touch down.
"Get her uploaded," Celesia orders, before walking off into the TARDIS in search of the required components. River follows her, to her mild irritation.
"What are you doing?"
"Something idiotic that my cousin would either very much approve of, or would kill me for even wondering about," Celesia walks down the corridor, stopping at a door her TARDIS mentally indicates to. Going inside, Celesia finds herself in an engineer's paradise. I have to come back here, she thinks determinedly, practically salivating over all the technology around her, at her disposal, before letting her TARDIS guide her through the room. As she makes her way to a set of shelves, she sees River move to pick something up and twists quickly, a yell on her lips as she realises just what exactly it is. "Don't touch that!"
River freezes, eyes flickering over to her. "What is it?"
Celesia glances down at the circular golden disc, eyes blown wide. "If you've not seen one before, you may still be vying for your husband's affections."
"Excuse me?"
"It's a Confession Dial," Celesia whispers lowly, slightly reverent as she stares at it. "A Time Lord is summoned inside to find inner peace before being uploaded to the Matrix, a short time before their death. It's a sacred tradition. Not many things are sacred on Gallifrey, anymore."
"I've heard of them before, actually, then," River takes her hands back slowly, eyeing it with…loathing? What cause has she to hate Confession Dials? "The Doctor – the future Doctor, I mean. The Time Lords trapped him inside it and tortured him for four and a half billion years."
"…they what?" Celesia stares in disbelief at the woman, who nods shortly. "No- no. They wouldn't do that. The journey through a Confession Dial is one of the most respected traditions on Gallifrey-"
"Not after the Time War ends, Professor," River interrupts, eyes hard. "Why is one of those things here, in your TARDIS?"
Celesia takes a few moments to compose herself, before speaking her thoughts. "It wasn't always my TARDIS."
"Did the previous owner die, then?"
"Their Confession Dial wouldn't be active, if they were," Celesia says, nodding to it. "I can hear it, all the cogs turning – time manifests around it like a shroud. If you had gotten any closer, it would have zapped you. Either they're alive, or they're inside." I need to get it to the Zero Room, she thinks, frowning. Just in case. How, though?
"That's a bit dangerous."
"Yes, it is. When they come out, they'll be waiting for death, most likely thinking that they're still in the lowlands. So much time has passed out here, though – it can take from a few hours to a few hundred years. I don't know how long they've been in there already."
"Is there any way to pick it up?"
"Probably," Celesia tilts her head, mind reaching back to her years in the Academy, learning about all of these things. "I'll invent something. I know the mechanics of the Confession Dial and its defences – every Dial is the same. Do you mind leaving behind your space suits' gloves?"
Gaining River's agreement, Celesia looks back to the set of shelves her TARDIS had led her to. Eyes roving over every item, she soon finds what she's looking for, thankful that it was law for Type Sixty's and above had to have one. Taking it from the shelf, Celesia checks over small, flashing beacon, nodding to herself upon seeing it is intact.
"What's that?"
"It's a connection to the Matrix. When the Time War started, it was required of every TARDIS in circulation to have a beacon like this, so that in the event of imminent or recent death, the Time Lord pilots could automatically upload the most recent scans of their brain. There's some Time Lord technology that allows for it to happen a short amount of time prior to the device's destruction as well, in case the TT Capsule it flies in is destroyed. Using this, I can hijack the connection to the Matrix and modify when the brain scans are uploaded, rather than establish a unique trail."
"Why, though?"
Celesia glances at River. "Your data-ghost is still a person. She shouldn't be alone in that hard-drive. I'm giving her the chance to go somewhere new, if she wants to. There'd be no way back – it's a one-way connection – but millions of Time Lords that are dead and gone have been uploaded already." The look on River's face makes Celesia feel slightly embarrassed.
"You don't even know me yet."
"I do know you, Melody," Celesia murmurs, fiddling with a loose lid on one side of the beacon. "I helped you save the Doctor's life in Berlin – I had Joseph spy on you for years while you lived in Leadworth. My son is your brother. I might only know you a little, but I do know you, Ms Williams."
"…it's technically Professor Williams, nowadays, or Sigma."
"A differential," Celesia mutters with a slight smile, inwardly classing the future River Song as Professor Williams | River Sigma, happy to know that Theta let her use Sigma as her last name, as his father let Penelope. Excellent. "How many names do you have now, River?"
"Too many. Far, far too many."
Celesia smiles at the woman as she laughs, walking at her side as they go back to the console room, where the Abby's both lean against the console, chatting in Gallifreyan. Hearing her native language from people other than her son and cousin makes her chest ache sharply, but it's a good pain. There's still a future for Gallifrey, for my culture, living on in this child – and most likely, that Poppy girl, too.
Slipping out of the TARDIS, leaving the three women inside, Celesia makes quick work of hooking the beacon up to the computer, tucking it away where it can't be seen. Then comes the tricky part. Using the Library computer, Celesia starts rewriting part of the coding in the beacon, changing its protocols. Usually, a beacon doesn't open the connection to the Matrix unless it's sending brain scans, but Celesia understands that despite what she's doing, the data-ghost of River Song may not truly want to be part of the Matrix. I'll offer her that choice, at least, that no-one else did. It was – and still is, in Celesia's mind – illegal not to have at least a preliminary brain scan stored in the Matrix, if you were a Gallifreyan Time Lord, at least.
The computer – CAL – reacts to the new technology with interest, but a red light starts to flash in the corner of the room and Celesia can hear faint voices.
"Professor Song, would you mind assisting me?" she questions, the woman appearing just in time for two humanoids to turn the corner, coming into sight.
"Hey-" one starts, before River shoots them both in short succession. Celesia spares her a short glance.
"Stun gun," River smiles fondly, tucking the device into a belt holster. With the spacesuit gone, Celesia thinks maybe it had been a little…less revealing than the shirt-dress she's chosen in its place, silky blue fabric cinched at her waist. "I'll keep a lookout. How long until you're done?"
"Not too long," Celesia replies, before turning back to the computer. CAL tries to hack through the beacon, but unsurprisingly cannot get through – the beacon can tell that CAL isn't a Time Lord, though it does confuse Celesia somewhat. "River, does this computer happen to have a consciousness inside of it?"
"Charlotte Abigail Lux," River replies. "A dying little girl whose family gave her every book in creation and forever to read them. She's the main computer node."
"I see," Celesia murmurs, before making a snap decision. Tying off the unfinished reprogramming, she detours to the beacon and the Matrix's acceptance policies, using a timer of one hundred and fifty years, with a closing return to normality a minute afterwards. A dying little girl, the words reverberate through her head and Celesia thinks, Theta called me kind, once, when we were children. I think he was right, even back then. If 'kind' is interchangeable with 'decent', at least.
Celesia thinks of Abby inside her TARDIS, twice-over.
"What are you doing?" River asks idly, twirling her stun gun. "Other than connecting it to the Matrix, I mean?"
"I'm giving Charlotte a chance to have a new life, if she wants," Celesia explains distractedly. "I'm leaving some instructions for her to follow – such as leaving a copy of herself here, to run the Library and keep an eye on both the Vashta Nerada and the connection to the Matrix, if she takes this chance. She's only got so long to do so."
"You're letting her soul escape the Library, like mine."
"If she's clever – and I do believe she must be, converted into a computer as she is – then Charlotte'll may find her way to the Loom as well. She'll have a real chance then, for a new family and a new life."
"You don't call her CAL."
Celesia glances over at River. "Charlotte Abigail," she says, instead of replying to her statement. Her chest grows tight, but Celesia presses on, finishing the new coding and twisting properly to stand her ground in front of the strange amalgam of Human and Time Lord. As if Time Lords are a race of their own, she scoffs inside. "In your present, the Time War is over – you gave away as much, earlier, when we were talking about Confession Dials. The Time Lords tortured my cousin. He's obviously still alive."
"Stop pushing, Professor," River starts to warn, before Celesia shakes her head.
"No, because you know what else? Abby is wearing an Academy uniform. I knew that from the start. She is a student in the Time Lord Academy. The Time War ends and your daughter is learning what it means to become a true Time Lady. My only problem with that is how old she is and how she still, despite her supposed age, cannot keep her own cover straight. Charlotte Abigail Lux will find her way to the Looms, eventually. I may hate all of this meddling, but do not think for one second that I am blind, deaf or naïve. Charlotte Abigail Lux. You always knew I was going to do this."
River's gaze hardens. "Do you regret it?"
"Regret? No. My family keeps getting bigger every time I blink. How can I regret that?" Celesia motions angrily to the hard-drive. "That girl will call me her aunt, one day and Omega, if I am not waiting for that day, then feel free to shoot me. Time Lords are not meant to interfere. We swear not to interfere, or a Renegade we make ourselves!"
"Being a Renegade is nothing to be ashamed of-"
"Yes, it is!" Celesia shouts for the first time in this body and Rassilon, this body is made for shouting. But it makes her tremble, adrenaline rushing through her like a sickness. River seems startled by her voice and even the stunned guards shuffle in their sleep. "River," she calms herself forcefully, "I understand that you didn't grow up on Gallifrey. I really do, but please, do not make assumptions or believe anything the Doctor says. He is a good person, even if he sometimes willingly makes bad choices as every sentient being does and some might call him a Renegade for that, among other things; but the Doctor is no evil mastermind. He hasn't taken over a planet or put greed above the lives of lesser species'. He is no true Renegade. True Renegades are true criminals, River Song, murderers – not just people who leave Gallifrey's soil for adventures."
"So what are you, if not a Renegade?" River demands. "What is the Doctor?"
"That's not the point of my outburst," Celesia resists the urge to stamp her foot at her own words, for getting away with herself. Instead, she clenches her fists at her sides, ramrod straight, standing against the flow of the universe. "Maybe in the future, I have made my peace with being a law-breaking, Renegade Lady of Time. Maybe in the future, my hearts have settled some and my internal compass finds balance on this turbulent road I am taking – but right now, I am very far from calm about it. Get back inside my TARDIS so I can pilot us all off this thrice-damned planet."
River stares at her for a long few moments, before speaking.
"God, I'd forgotten how snappy this face is."
Celesia's face contorts and she experiences a sensation, as if she's been slapped. No more words escape her and she immediately rushes to her TT Capsule, terrified, skin crawling. Snappy. I'm overwhelmed-
"Are we going, now?" Abby questions, hands tucked in the pockets of her blazer as she leans up against the console. Celesia motions for her to move and she does, frowning as River follows her inside. "What's wrong?"
"Where and when do you need to be?" Celesia questions instead of answering, throat clogged, speaking without thinking. Abby-Raine replies distractedly, calling out the space-time coordinates to the navigation system. Once they're properly inputted, Celesia begins to fly her TARDIS from the Library, ignoring how she tries to press comfort across their bond. Celesia doesn't want comfort, right now. She wants absolution.
I've broken the Laws of Time.
They land near the end of the fifty-first century, in the apartment building for Luna University and Abby says goodbye to them all, slightly melancholy.
"You're leaving for your expedition soon," she says to River, shaking her head. "Time travel. It's amazing. I can't believe it gives Jenny a headache."
"Shh, sweetie," River presses a finger to her lips, glancing at Celesia. "Time to go."
"You'll see her again after she leaves, eventually," Abby-Raine says encouragingly, motioning to herself and their shared mother. Abby smiles, eyes crinkling before she gives them both a hug, leaving. Celesia watches her stumble over a cracked floor tile, bringing a hand to her head abruptly before the nearby apartment door opens, revealing an old man.
"Dad? What happened? The last thing I remember is seeing a chair in the Library-"
Realising quickly that the old man is Theta, as he hugs her tightly, pressing a kiss to her head, Celesia pilots her TARDIS into the Vortex, catching the two Gallifreyans look over in sync as they phase out. Once in the Vortex, Celesia allows herself a breather, trying – and failing – not to think about the implication of Abby's statement. You're leaving for your expedition soon.
"You worked to deliberately loop back in your own timestreams. Why?" Celesia asks.
River and Abby-Raine – or is it just Abby again? – spare each other a glance before Abby-Raine once more gives the navigation system space-time coordinates. However, unlike before, Celesia doesn't pilot her TARDIS to their destination, waiting on an answer.
I could do this all day, she thinks.
"The Doctor has enemies. One of the biggest is the Time Lords, even with everything he's done for them," River says finally, after seemingly an age. "We're just protecting our children from their wrath, ensuring they can't be snatched up and taken as hostages."
"Why involve me, then?"
"You're the only one who can," Abby replies, voice plaintive. "Aunty Celesia, you know nothing. Anything you do, everything you do changes the timestream. Do you know, that in other universes, you died when the House was buried?"
"There is no other universe with a Gallifrey," Celesia states on auto, lessons from the Academy under Borusa flashing through her mind.
"There are other universes with Gallifrey – some just get wiped out because of paradoxes, time being unwritten, etcetera, etcetera."
Unwritten?
Abby takes a step towards her, reaching out and grasping her hands. "Today, you hooked me as CAL, Charlotte Lux, up to the Matrix and I travelled through the beacon to it and then the Looms. I was born again and named Abigail Raine Sigma. Abby Smith, to the rest of the universe. Abby-Raine Song, to my grandparents. I grew up and guided you there – there, to the Library. The only reason you survived the burying of House Lungbarrow-"
"Enough, Abigail," River interrupts, grasping her shoulder and pulling her back. Abby reluctantly lets go of her hands, leaving Celesia shaking slightly as River gives the navigation system a new set of space-time coordinates. "Professor, one last favour, if you would – take us home."
Celesia takes three seconds, tallying up all the favours that Theta's family owe him and then she turns: piloting her Type Seventy TARDIS to fifty-second century Darillium.
The sky is a bright orange-yellow, when she steps outside, the ground dusty but still growing grass. A shadow falls over them, coming from the house that faces the Singing Towers, hiding it from their view.
"Home sweet home…well, backgarden," Abby corrects, before smiling at the vegetable patch. "The cahr-oats have finally grown! I haven't been back here in years-"
"Mum?" comes a new voice. Celesia finds the source in an open window on the third story of the house, in the roof. A small girl with dark, tan and freckled skin and a bright shock of ginger hair leans over, egg-and-parachute in hand, dangling. "Mummy?"
"Poppy!" River calls out, smiling widely.
"Mummy!" Poppy drops her egg-and-parachute, disappearing into the house, yelling. Celesia can hear her clearly, calling for daddy and Jamie – but then there's a harsh noise that sounds like the bastard child of a rip and a crack.
In front of her, stands a woman in a ripped Time Lord engineering jumpsuit, eyes bright blue like the Vortex, blonde hair bloodstained and scraggly.
"Time to go," she says, voice flat, before reaching out to grab the wrists of River Song and Abby, ignoring the gun in River's hand – which she fires, to no effect. The shot hits the woman in the jugular and the bullet reflects off her skin, narrowly missing Celesia's own neck, burrowing in the ground behind her. Then there's another rip-crack and Celesia feels that tear through to the Vortex as it closes, the Familiar disappearing.
River and Abby in tow.
The door to the house swings open, admitting Poppy and a teenage boy, floppy hair clearly inherited from Theta's thirteenth regeneration, somehow. When Theta regenerates, he'll understand where he gets it from, Celesia thinks without a filter, in shock from the abrupt abduction.
"Aunty Professor?" Poppy stops halfway towards her, expression flickering. "Where's Mummy and Abby?"
"Hey, Auntie Nina," the teenage boy – Jamie? – greets warily. Celesia wonders where he gets Nina from, eyeing his apparel. Blazers and suit jackets seem to be a running theme in Theta's line – and oh, Theta has a line, children, he has so many children again – because the boy wears a black velvet jacket with a matching waistcoat, buttoned over a spotted navy and black dress shirt, collar open, with blue skinny jeans and a pair of brown leather, lace-up ankleboots.
"Hello," Celesia greets vaguely. "I- is my future self around?"
Jamie's eyes narrow. "Yes. She won't be back for a few weeks, but yes, she's around. Why?"
"Tell her that it happened – another of House Dvora took River and Abigail," Celesia orders, voice stricken. Jamie immediately recoils.
"Why aren't you doing anything about it?"
"Timestreams," Celesia replies, staggering backwards to her TARDIS, feeling the warm heat of her as she stumbles against a garden shed. "I- I'm here, I know here – she can do it, I have Tristan to think about, he's waiting for me. My future self can find them."
"Tristan?" Jamie says his cousins name with disgust and something like unfamiliarity – like he doesn't say the word often. A stone drops into her stomach. "What about Daisy?"
"I've not met this Daisy person yet – I keep hearing that name," Celesia looks to Poppy, who starts to cry suddenly. Her hearts ache and she almost moves forwards, but Jamie pulls her behind him protectively.
"You're not my aunt," he says.
"N-N-No, I'm- I'm not," Celesia agrees, before launching herself backwards into her TARDIS, slamming the doors closed and locking them, rushing to the console and flying into the Vortex. Who is Daisy? Why did that Familiar – because it was a Familiar – take River and Abby? Celesia drops to her knees, knuckles paling as she grips the edge of the console.
Why am I such a coward?
Her TARDIS nudges her, sending feelings of empathy, sorrow and question. Celesia bangs her head against the console, immediately regretting it, her TARDIS sending her a soothing song that reverberates through her mind. It soothes her ragged edges, causing her to drift into a meditative state. She doesn't know how long it lasts – it could have been a few days, or maybe it was a few minutes.
Celesia lands her TARDIS again, in a nearby galaxy, in another time period. She focuses on the memory of her son, of Tristan with blonde locks that curl behind his ears and dark brown eyes. I wonder what colour eyes I have, she thinks, slightly delirious. I didn't even think to look.
Her console makes a noise. Celesia stands, watching the screen flicker. A transmission. "Let's see, then," she leans closer, peering at the readings. The video has an odd electrical component in its transmission state that her TARDIS flags as dangerous to those with Human or Humanlike brainwaves. "Print off a verbal transcript, please." Celesia would rather read through anything her TARDIS can parse from it, before watching.
Out of a thin slit in the console, a scroll begins to print out, writing in swirling dark purple ink, reminding Celesia once again that she needs to change her desktop. Picking up the end, she begins to read the 38th Century English, appropriately translated by her TARDIS.
You must not watch this. I'm warning you. You can never unsee it. But if you do watch. Gagan Rassmussen. I'm Gagan Rassmussen. This is Le Verrier lab in orbit around Neptune. I've put things together into some kind of order so that you can- er, understand, so that you can have some idea. There are bits missing. Sorry about that. I don't fully understand what's been going on here, but- er, this is what happened…
The transcript details a horror story.
"Dear Omega," Celesia whispers when she's done. The scroll is a pile on the floor and she lets the end in her hand drop to join it, before abruptly crouching down to take it again, rolling it up quickly. "I'm never going to listen to whatever that Sandman song is, never ever if I can help it."
I have to stop the transmission before it reaches anyone.
Celesia freezes, eyes widening as she realises what Abby said was true.
I do know nothing. What I don't know changes the timeline. So, to get this transmission out, but only to me… A shudder runs through her.
"I'm going to have to go to the Le Verrier to stop the transmission reaching anyone but myself, oh Rassilon, help me, please."
Piloting her TARDIS, barely glancing at the screen long enough to get the transmission number, Celesia inwardly debates over the merits of being good and kind. Her cousin, no doubt, has some silly speech locked away about doing what's right and Celesia both wants to hear it – to be validated in her illegal actions – and never listen to a word he says, ever again. He was right, in the transcript at least.
That adventure was too much like a story. The Dust-Rassmussen admitted it was meant to be one, in the end.
Celesia hesitates against landing her TARDIS inside the Le Verrier, not sure when to show herself. Eventually, she decides to park her TT Capsule some sparse minutes before her cousin escapes with this 'Clara' he's picked up.
"I can set up a barrier, preventing Rassmussen from sending out the video. Just until the base is destroyed and it stops transmitting," she murmurs to herself, grimacing slightly upon realising she's talking to herself again. "Programming your shields to expand once Theta is gone shouldn't be too hard, should it, dear?"
Her TARDIS hums in reply, before turning on her screen to the outside of the disguise, showing what looks like a storage room, or maybe some sort of rescue ship. Celesia begins to fiddle with her Type Seventy's shielding, glancing up every so often at the screen, waiting to see Theta and his companion. A small symbol in the corner tells her the mute is on. It's perhaps somewhat strange, but part of her wants to see this little Human companion, who is clearly bright and a personality and a half, to rebel against Theta and question him without recourse.
"He did always pick clever ones," Celesia takes a moment to pat her TARDIS console, briefly recalling the Confessional Dial in the workshop at the reminder of Time Lords. "Do you mind moving your previous owner's Dial to the Zero Room, dear?" Her TARDIS replies positively and Celesia is thankful she does, because really, she doesn't want to have to deal with someone suddenly trying to claim her TARDIS without prior warning. Celesia knows what that'll do to their bond – she'll be shunted to secondary pilot, if she's lucky. Pre-existing bonds between TARDISes and Time Lords are not bonds to be meddled with, much like the ones between parent and child.
On the screen, people suddenly appear and Celesia recognises Theta's old, greying face from before, from when he greeted the newly un-Arch'ed Abby. Quickly, she looks away, not sparing any attention to the people around him for the moment – she's not finished changing the programming. But that quick look rankles her for some reason, a part of her brain lighting up in recognition and bewilderment.
Celesia looks up and stifles a yell of surprise.
The screen unmutes.
"Doctor, quickly!" the body-duplicate of Closaranoktorwin exclaims, before Theta does…something. Celesia isn't paying attention, watching Closa- Clara, she realises with a horrible start, because she's dressed in twenty-first century clothes where the only other person in the room is dressed for combat.
"What did you just do?"
"Self-destructed the grav-shields."
"What?"
Something happens, the shift of gravity able to be seen through how they shift, tilting to the side. The other woman – Nagata – and Clara both cry out, while Theta exclaims that it's working. Celesia's eyes are pinned on Clara as she opens Theta's blue box of a TARDIS, Theta himself going on about Neptune's gravity and how nothing makes sense, before they run into the time machine and dematerialise. Celesia is left empty, starving for another look at her beloved's doppelganger.
"Rewind it!" she demands, before turning to manual, using a dial to turn it back and then play it again, staring at Closa's face. "Clara," she breathes her name, searching her figure – it's the same – and her clothes – so unfamiliar – for the familiar shape of a pocket-watch. But she's wearing the bare minimum. A skirt with no pockets, a long-sleeved shirt with a single necklace that doesn't have a watch-
"Where is it?" Celesia demands, hands reaching over to grab the upper edge of the screen. "Where is her watch?" Her TARDIS croons in her mind then, before prodding her brain to remember the sand-and-dust creatures. Celesia growls angrily, but gets back to increasing the shields, hyper-aware of her time limit. Rassmussen is already rushing in towards a computer.
She sets up the shield, stabilising her TARDIS outside of the ship and capsule, watching from a distance as Neptune sucks the ship into its gravity. She reaches out through the bubble for the transmission, copying and sending it along to the previous coordinates of her TARDIS, placing a firewall around it to alert her if anyone tries to intercept it. Once she's done, Celesia grasps the edge of her console, thoughts running a mile a minute.
Simultaneously, she thinks of her Closa and of Theta.
Closa was hers. They fought with each other and Celesia definitely died for her once. Sod the rest of the pilots – no, never sod them, they were the best comrades I could have ever have been given. Celesia remembers what she looked like in that regeneration, all brown hair and young, sparkling eyes. Cheeky. Clever.
Much like Theta's companion.
However, it isn't this Clara Celesia thinks of in that other part of her mind. No. She thinks of Theta. His thirteenth regeneration has the most convoluted history Celesia has ever encountered. His children – Jenny, Jamie, Poppy and Abby – live on a foreign planet with the majority of them having River Song for a mother – River Song, whose younger self has just regenerated in front of him from Mels Zucker into Melody Williams | River Song. It's like he's asking for time to collapse.
"I shouldn't have left Tristan with him," Celesia recoils from the love she has for her cousin, feeling sick for ever bonding them in the first place. Rassilon, I thought it would be a good thing! Her stomach rebels violently, but all she can do is begin piloting her TARDIS home, to where her son sits with a Renegade, a true Renegade.
Who knows what he has planned for her son, this young? What seeds of- of rebellion will he plant in her sons mind? What kind of criminal behaviour has her son already picked up?
"Jamie didn't know Tristan's name," Celesia lands in her house driveway, knees almost buckling. "Theta's own son didn't know- his own little family and his son doesn't know the names of the dead of Lungbarrow."
Celesia thinks of her own words to Theta's thirteenth regeneration. She is to be of her own House, then. Rory and Amy Williams'. How naïve she is, how bloody naïve is Celesia Larn? River Song, or rather, Melody Williams, was there when she said it – and all that shit about creating history by not knowing any, from a girl who called her aunt instead of cousin. What kind of person calls their cousin aunt? One who doesn't know their family tree, that's who. Celesia feels like crying and this body doesn't even seem fit for crying in.
He took Closa, too. He wrapped my Closa up in his history and- and she's a Time Lady, she has to be. He's taken her watch and hidden it. I have to help her, get her back…return her to her own time-stream.
Closa dies on Gallifrey, after forcing Celesia to leave her behind.
"It happened, it's fixed," Celesia thinks, ignoring how she hadn't seen her die. Not even Theta would travel into…but he would. He would travel into the Time War. He's a collector. He collects Humans all the time- "No," she stops herself from thinking more on that path, "no. His family needs me, is using me for their own ends. Perhaps she's just a consolation prize – a Human who looks like my Closa, but isn't."
Her TARDIS tries and fails to soothe Celesia as she exits her, determined to take Tristan and never return to the house they'd made their home for the last eighty years.
Inside, the Williams', Tristan and Theta still sip their tea. Celesia's mug is still warm. Upon her arrival, the group look up, expressions shifting. Theta leans forwards in his chair, setting down his tea as Celesia trembles.
"Professor? What's the matter?"
"Tristan, come with me, now," Celesia orders, tight-lipped. Tristan frowns.
"Why?"
"I'll explain later. Please, just…come with me, right now." Celesia wishes then that she'd regenerated like last time – into a warrior, into someone who wouldn't hesitate in shooting an enemy. A teacher, she thinks guiltily, I just wanted to be a teacher again.
But obviously, that isn't the kind of person she truly needed to be.
"Professor, is there something wrong?" Rory asks and Celesia briefly wonders at his part in this all. Rory and Amy, Theta's friends and family by marriage. He looks at her with genuine worry. "Professor?"
"…I don't trust my cousin right now," she admits quietly, refusing to look at him. Tristan immediately gets up, coming to her side as Theta makes a noise of confused hurt.
"Why?"
"I don't want to talk to you," Celesia snaps, suddenly glaring at him. "I don't want to speak to you."
His expression twists, before he seems to shut down. "You found out about Gallifrey, then."
"Gallifrey? What happened to Gallifrey?" Celesia questions in confusion, eyes narrowing. Theta frowns slightly, glancing at Amy, before clearing his throat.
"Professor, I used the Moment."
"No," she immediately disagrees. "If you'd used the Moment, you wouldn't be here. The Moment erases events from time, from the root and erasing the Time War would erase the Time Lords."
"But I know I used the Moment-" Theta stands, arguing, but Celesia cuts him off.
"I've talked to the Moment. The Interface promised that she wouldn't ever be used during the Time War. She swore to me she wouldn't do that."
"Why would she do that?" Theta questions, blinking confusedly and looking so young, for all his supposed years. How old is he? Celesia asks herself. How old is my cousin, who burns through regenerations? "And 'she'? The Moment is a death machine, not alive-"
"The Moment is as alive as any TARDIS, as I should know. I helped build her, so I definitely should." Celesia feels a small hand creep into hers and she looks to Tristan, who steadfastly chews on the sleeve of his woolly-pulley. The sensation of awe knocks out the breath from her lungs, even as the thought of how she knows Closa would react to this flashes in front of her eyes. Closa would clap and put her hands over her mouth, trying to hide – and then not bothering to hide – her wide smile. She'd be proud of him, so proud.
She's dead.
Forcing herself not to flinch, instead squeezing Tristan's hand so very, very lightly, Celesia glances at Theta.
"One of your former 'companions' was a close friend of mine. A Time Lord in hiding. You either didn't know, or you did. She's dead now, but recently I saw footage of you both. It was…upsetting. I know how she ends and I- I don't know how she gets from her life with you to- to dead on a mountain pass." Celesia shudders at the thought, the image that goes through her mind horrifying and probably far more gruesome than Closa's true end. "Everywhere you go, Doctor, you bend time and break the rules."
I despise you for it, she wants to say, but Celesia is intimately aware of her son beside her, holding her hand voluntarily for the first time in his life. She looks away from her cousin, locking eyes with Rory Williams. He's tense, waiting for something to happen.
"I'm sorry," she says to him, the words new and foreign on her tongue. She doesn't like saying them. This body doesn't do apologies, she thinks with a grimace, before turning, pulling Tristan along behind her.
What's going on? He asks her along their bond.
We're leaving, she replies, pausing by the front door to take his spare coats and shoes, which he'd left behind the last time they'd packed up their belongings. Tristan grabs his 'hidden' anorak, which Celesia knows not to touch unless she wants to buy him a new one, as Theta comes barrelling out of the kitchen.
"Professor- are you leaving?" his eyes flicker between the coats and shoes. "Why are you…is it me? Because- because of your friend? What was her name? Tell me, I can tell you what happened to them, if I can-"
"This is exactly why we are leaving," Celesia interrupts, voice dripping with malice and hate. Tristan's hand leaves hers abruptly, their bond growing distant as he blocks her heightened emotions from reaching him. "Telling me what happened when I am perfectly aware that the Time War has been over for you for a long time is not only illegal, but an extremely bad idea. No wonder the Council kept trying to get you executed before the War began!"
The Williams' join them at that point, following along behind Theta like puppies. Celesia has mixed feelings about Tristan's father, most of them revolving around this loyalty to her cousin – why did she ever think it a good idea to introduce Tristan to him? And that bond she'd already implemented between Theta and Tristan, Omega!
"What's this all about, anyway?" Amy questions, eyebrows knitting together. "Is this sort of like the stuff with River? And Melody? Spoilers?"
"The situation is similar but at the same time, completely different. I am displaced," Celesia explains patiently. "I should never have left the Time War. Every action I take, every conversation I have, every child I produce – it affects the universe. Time Lords are sworn never to engage, interfere or manipulate events. The Doctor breaks those vows regularly and in extravagant fashion, as Renegades do. I have broken them too, hypocrite that I am, but I, at least, attempt to minimise my involvement. This means I don't create paradoxes or use time travel for my own or my family's ends – or I shouldn't."
"So you have, already?" Amy questions.
Celesia glances at Theta. "Miss Evangelista. You know who she is, yes?"
"I do," Theta says, beleaguered with grief. Celesia's stomach flips. No.
"Is she dead?"
"Yes."
Celesia shuts her eyes, murmuring a prayer before breathing in deeply and looking at her cousin, who has already had to lose his entire family and- and now has obviously lost another one. He's in his thirteenth regeneration – he most likely knows her future, all her involvement in saving Miss Evangelista from the Vashta Nerada. Abby is dead, is what he really means. Celesia wonders about Poppy, Jamie and Jenny, if they were all dead too – if he'd ever reunited with Jenny at all.
This is why you should never ask questions, she thinks to Tristan, before leading him out of the front door, coats, boots and anoraks in hand, to her TARDIS.
