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Chapter Three

Elethia helped Renee to her feet as The Doctor paced the small room. She insisted that she was fine, but Elethia still looked concerned.

"How?" The Doctor said. "How did you end up there? When? There are no gaps!"

Renee wanted to question him, but she took a few minutes to gather herself before she spoke. "Do you know what that was?"

"OF course I do!" But he frowned. "Of course, but now I can't remember what it was..."

"You can't remember?" She said, incredulous. It seemed ridiculous. Renee didn't think that she'd ever forget the creature. It automatically sent her into a panic for no good reason. "Was it in your head?"

"No, no, no. That was you."

"Are you sure? I would have remembered something like that happening to me."

"No. You wouldn't."

"How? That thing made me-" She almost admitted her fear. "It was an actual monster."

He turned to her. "You remember it?"

She nodded. "I don't think I'll ever forget now. What was it?"

The Doctor paced again, somehow quicker than before. "You remember it? You're not supposed to remember it!"

"Doctor," Elethia said, still seeming timid. "I think we should get her to a cot or a chair."

"I'm fine," Renee insisted.

"You're trembling," Elethia shot back.

She'd known. It didn't have to be said. In fact, she was sure The Doctor knew it too. She felt so shaky, it was a wonder she was standing. "I just didn't expect it. This is probably just an automatic response. Doctor, er- Dad, you said I'm in danger? Could I get an explanation?"

"I forget! You're in danger, and I can't remember why!"

"Does it have something to do with that thing we saw?" She was getting frustrated. This didn't make any sense.

"What did we see?"

"That monster! You don't-" She stopped, trying to remember a story Amy had told her once when she and Annabella had a sleepover. They were trying to come up with the best scary stories, and Amy had told a story of monsters that no one could remember. What were they called?

"Is it one of those monsters you can't remember? The, uh..." She thought back. This seemed so long ago. "The Silence?"

He stopped pacing and turned to her again, looking surprised. "How do you know what those are?"

The reaction seemed accusatory, like she shouldn't, like the fact that she did meant she was evil. "Amy told me when I was a kid. She told it as if it was just a scary story. I didn't really believe they were real, but they sure kept Bella and I awake half the night."

"She told someone else too? Who's Bella?"

"A neighbor." Renee shrugged. "So what are they? I don't remember much of the story now."

"Do you remember what we saw?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I don't understand. Maybe it's not The Silence."

"Describe it."

She tilted her head to the side, thinking. "Pale, like dead pale. It was tall and bald. It looked like an alien. Well, more like a human depiction of an alien. I know they don't really look like that. It kind of looks like slenderman."

"What's a slenderman?"

"Never mind. Tall, thin, black suit, alien-ish thing. Does that sound like it?"

"I don't know! I don't remember."

"Why did you have me describe it then?"

"I figured it might trigger something."

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall. She still had vertigo, though not as badly as before. "Well, what do the Silence do? Why do I have to be so scared of them?"

"Do you know your mother's story?"

She shrugged. "Sort of. She had a messed up timeline. She never met you in the right order. She was an archeologist. Amy and Rory were her parents, but she grew up along side them. She died on an expedition when I was four months old. I have her diary, and I read it."

"Four months... So you don't remember her?" His worn face became grim.

"I have pictures." She shrugged off his worry.

"What is the danger?" Elethia asked. "Should I be concerned about the base?"

"No!" He said. "We'll go. I'll need to get back to the TARDIS, though."

She frowned. "I'm not authorized to let you go."

"Even if she was," Renee said, "There are guards outside."

"Then get me my sonic, and I'll handle the rest. You won't get in trouble, but if it takes longer or I fail, the base will be in danger. Not only that, but you'll have her blood on your hands." He pointed to Renee, and she crossed her arms and stepped away from the wall.

"Hold on. Why am I suddenly in danger? I mean, this can't be a new thing, right? Not if it's in my head. I've been fine so far. What more can it do? Obviously, the stupid thing can't catch me." She smirked, more to herself than him. She could outrun monsters she didn't know were chasing her. She didn't have to be scared.

"It's not an it. It's a whole lot bigger than an it."

"You're not making any sense," she pointed out. "You also aren't using English correctly. This just proves that translators don't help you improve at languages. That's why I go manual. Well, that and most of the time, I don't have much of a choice. But I've always gone manual when I do."

"You're getting distracted!" he said.

"Oh, and you don't?" She scoffed.

"No."

"Amy and Rory have different opinions on that."

There was a harsh rap on the door and a snarled bit of acerbus. The Doctor turned back to Renee. "Do you know acerbus?"

She shook her head, feeling stupid for even saying that little speech about the translators. It was invalid at this moment.

"He says we have two minutes," Elethia informed them.

"I know." The Doctor said. "It was a test."

"Tell them we'll be out there soon," Renee said.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Elethia caught on and said something loudly, and yet, somehow still timidly out the door. They responded. Then, in English, she said, "Two minutes, and they're coming in."

There was no denying to Renee that The Doctor was probably the last person in that room who should be trusted. There was also no denying that she had very few options.

"Doctor, what do we do?"

"What happened to calling me Dad?"

"Doctor!"

He raised his hands, ready to either surrender or push whenever needed.

Maybe there was one other person she could trust. Herself.

He spoke. "Fine. Alright." He pointed to Elethia. "Sonic screwdriver."

"How do I get it?"

"Shut up," Renee said. She was thinking of a plan, but she couldn't do it with him talking. He listened for the first time since they'd let him out, and she worked through the mess of thoughts in her head, gently nudging the unwanted new memories deeper as she did. They wouldn't stay down. They clouded her planning, but she had an idea, and she just hoped it was halfway decent.

"Do you have a plan?" Elethia asked.

She smiled. "Yep. Doctor, get back in the cell. Elethia, watch him."

"What are you going to do?" he asked. The tone in his voice had changed. He'd been protective since he'd seen that monster, but now it was more than that. She guessed he wanted the control.

"None of your business, Eyebrows. Get in the cell. Now."

He pouted and went to stand on the other side of the glass door. Elethia closed it and looked back to Renee for her next instruction.

"Lay down on the floor," she told her. Elethia followed instantly. There was too much trust in their race. If this plan didn't work, this would be very bad for her. "If they come in, make it look like you're unconscious. If they ask: I went insane and hit you. Doctor, can you hear me?"

He nodded at her.

"If that door so much as opens after I leave, start trying to wake her up. Pretend you witnessed me going crazy and knocking her out."

"What are you going to do?" he asked again.

"You'll see." Maybe.

She turned to the door and opened it in a swift, confident motion that told nothing of her anxiety toward the situation or the slight dizziness that got worse with the gust of air. All six guards turned to her at once.

Please be attractive by their planet's standards... she thought and put on an innocent face as she shut the door. Renee was about five foot five with enough curves to be called curvy but not enough to be an hourglass. Although, she did tend to dress for her figure. She pointed in the direction of the hallway she'd come from, cocked her hip, and said, "I forgot to tell you.. They want you out there. Some sort of security breach or something."

With her luck, none of them spoke any English, but she knew that she could use hand signals pretty well.

One said something in acerbus that she didn't understand, and she pointed in the direction of the hallway again, adding a bit more molten chocolate to her already warm and sweet tone. "They need you."

Clearly, none of them understood. The room stunk of sweat, and the men just stared in silence. It was more awkward than facing her father. She sighed dramatically and motioned them toward her as she started down the hallway. They didn't move.

"The Doctor is guarded inside. They need you out there." A bit of her impatience made it into her voice, but she managed to keep her movements smooth.

They didn't understand, and despite various tactics of hand motions that probably made her look insane, they still stood, motionless. Finally, she remembered the iPhone in her pocket. With a sigh, she pulled it out. She really was still out of it.

All six men cocked their guns at the same time, and she hit "WiFi". Luckily, she saw a few labeled "unknown source," a key indicator of them being native to whatever planet she was on. She clicked on one and looked up "English to Acerbus translator" on their search engine. It came up quickly, and she said into it, "I forgot to tell you. They need you in the main area. There's been a security breech."

It said something in Acerbus, and a few of them loosened the grip on their guns. One said something back. She translated "repeat", and clicked the switch button so it would translate acerbus to English.

"Why should we listen to you?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

"Who are you?"

"Ever heard the last name Song?"

She had the translator ready for their response, but none of them spoke for a long time. Finally, one said, "You are not River Song."

"No, but I am a Song."

"River Song has no relatives."

"You wanna bet?"

Only one was still unconvinced, but he seemed to realize what he was up against when she translated one last thing.

"Oh, and I think the security breech was near the pods."

The pods was where the children stayed most of the time. It was also the furthest area from where they were that Renee knew the name of. They began to leave, and Renee seized the opportunity that their panic gave her.

She cleared her throat, and the men stopped. With snake-like precision, she took one of their forearms. "Where is The Doctor's sonic screwdriver?"

One pulled it from his uniform and held it up to her. "Are you authorized?"

"I have pockets made with Time Lord science. You can't imagine how many weapons I'm armed with at this very moment."

He tossed it to her without further questioning, and she watched them leave before going back in. Elethia looked dead, and The Doctor gave a convincing act.

"It's just me, idiots. Stop the yelling before they hear you.'

Elethia shot up and quickly opened the door of The Doctor's cell. Renee threw him the sonic, and he caught it with ease. "Great! Let's go!"

But Elethia looked unsure. "What did you do?"

"Do you want to come with us?" Renee asked in response. "I don't know if they'll connect you to what's about to happen or not, but I wouldn't suggest risking it."

"What did you do?" she repeated.

She looked to the Doctor who was playing with his screwdriver. "I used my name. It's powerful."

He froze and looked up. "What's you're name?"

She laughed. "Renee Song!"

He shook his head. "I don't know. You say it like it's something else."

"Like yours? No. I just started using Mom's reputation a while ago to help me out of sticky situations. It works well. I think I'm building my own reputation now. Someone called me The Sister."

"Why?"

"Because they 'knew' River Song had never been pregnant, and I was too old to be her daughter anyway. That's what I figure at least, not like that's good logic."

He fiddled with the screwdriver another moment, and something occurred to Renee. "Doctor, I have my vortex manipulator."

"Where did you get that?"

"Someone brought it. It was Mom's."

"No!" The Doctor said. "We need to get Clara. They have her too!"

"The human?" Elethia asked.

"Yes, the human. Who else did I come with?"

"We can use the vortex manipulator to get her," Renee offered.

He shook his head. "A vortex manipulator shouldn't take that many people anyway."

She scowled. "Well what are we supposed to do? I got rid of the first round of guards, but unless they took the others with them, we'll have more to face. I say we go for it." She didn't really care that she hated the vortex. By that point, she honestly just wanted to get out of the situation they were in. Sure, she'd been in worse, but it'd been a while since the last time she was shot, and she didn't want to experience that again.

Elethia said, "You don't have to take me then."

"We'll figure something out," The Doctor said. She could remember a time she'd been told that as a child, but she quickly swallowed the memory, unable to process it at that moment.

"No time," she said with sudden vigor. "Where's Clara?"

Though the question was pointed toward The Doctor, Elethia answered. "The girl is being kept in the main jail. I can show you."

"Do you have the coordinates for it?"

"I have the coordinates for an x-ray room down the hall."

"Close enough."

"Renee, you shouldn't be doing this." The doctor stretched his face with his hands. That explained the wrinkles. "That vortex manipulator is going to short out."

She shrugged. "It has before. I once got stranded on a planet of poisonous gas. Let me tell you, always have an alien tech helpline on speed-dial when traveling with a very old vortex manipulator to an uninhabited planet of poisonous gas, because watching the multicolored sunrise is not worth death."

He grunted in either frustration or agreement, she couldn't tell which, and motioned for the girls to continue. Elethia reported the coordinates, and Renee typed them in. Within a minute, the three were in the doorway of an x-ray room down the hall from a jail guarded by two men with guns that Renee didn't feel like being at the wrong end of.

"I have authorization to enter the jail," Elethia was saying while they were still hidden, "But not to take prisoners out."

"Go on then," Renee said. "Try to get as many staff to leave as possible, and we'll be right behind you."

She nodded and stepped from the doorway. Renee watched the simple back-and-forth before she entered the jail, noting that they didn't ask for any ID, but also noting that her and her father's species would give away enough.

"Dad?" she said.

"We're back to 'Dad' then?"

"Shut up. Dad, I don't think I can get rid of these ones without getting physical, and I happen to have forgotten my hammer." It was under her bed as it didn't actually fit in her pockets. She may have told a bit of a lie when she said her pockets had Time Lord science. In fact, they just happened to be kind of big pockets. Currently, all they held was a quarter left over from the drink machine, her iPhone, and a gum wrapper.

Then she remembered and grinned. "Actually, I'll be right back."

Walking down the hallway, she made sure to do her runway walk Amy had taught her as a child. Amy had told her that models walk in a perfectly straight line, one foot in front of the other, because it excentuates their figure. At the same time, she slipped her iPhone from her pocket and unlocked it. Into the translator, she said, "Hey boys. I have a deal for you."

They looked suspicious. Actually, she thought they looked suspicious, but sometimes the same facial expressions had different meanings on other planets. She pulled out the quarter and held it up.

Earth money at this time in Ac's history was very valuable. A single quarter could be auctioned for at least a hundred dollars, and that was the last time she checked. From their lack of cleanliness in the base, she assumed they'd gone into a recession since then and that Earth money was worth even more.

Her hypothesis was confirmed by the drool drip coming from one man's mouth. Customs on Ac were nothing pretty.

"Okay boys," she said, maybe a little smug. "You want this quarter? Leave us for thirty minutes, and you can have it, but wait!" One grabbed for it, and she pulled it away. "Make sure you share."