I haven't mentioned her yet, but I want to give a HUGE thanks to my beta MadameGiry25, aka The Shadow. She has been so much help to me in editing and keeping everyone in character. Thank you Shadow!


"I have been informed of your weapon's capabilities," the Captain said quickly. "We have nothing to fear."

"I could use this to vibrate the bullets in your guns and make them explode." He waved the sonic nonchalantly as the soldiers blanched and a few of them tossed their guns a safe distance away into a snow drift. The Captain frowned angrily, but said nothing. The Doctor whistled. "Your choice, Captain."

Just then, the time window shimmered and Madame Kovarian herself stepped into 2011.

Before the Doctor could react, she raised the pistol in her hand and fired.

xxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor gasped in pain as the bullet buried itself in his right shoulder. He felt the sonic screwdriver slip from his hand and fall into the snow as he quickly clutched his left hand to the wound.

"Get going, you idiots," Madame Kovarian snarled. She holstered her gun, then turned to the time window and marched back into 1942. The soldiers and their Captain quickly followed before the Doctor could regain his bearings. The last image he saw was of Donna's ginger hair, disappearing into a metaphorical lion's den.

The Time Lord scrambled in the snow for his sonic screwdriver, but it was too late. The time window flickered and died mere seconds after the soldiers marched through. He gritted his teeth in fury, finally fishing the screwdriver from the white fluff at his feet. He haphazardly worked the object into his pocket, groaning as he accidentally moved his injured shoulder.

He took a glance at it and realised that he couldn't move it without enormous pain. His blood soaked through his coat and was still flowing freely. He had to get back to the TARDIS as soon as possible. This was not an injury that would cause him to regenerate, something that Madame Kovarian probably didn't want anyway, but it hurt. She would only want to handicap him, something that she had definitely accomplished. Unbeknownst to her, the TARDIS had a sick bay with medical advances from far into the future. If he could get there before he lost too much blood, he would be as good as new.

He swallowed and began the short walk back to the TARDIS. His rage was slowly seeping into his bones, giving way to sorrow and defeat. He had lost his best friend. He had no way of knowing what method Madame Kovarian meant to use to extract his memories from Donna's mind. Knowing her, it was likely something painful. He didn't know whether Donna would survive the process, but he didn't want to take any chances. She needed to be rescued and fast.

The TARDIS sensed his pain and opened her doors for him without prompting. He almost rolled his eyes at her. "You can't do that every other day?" She quickly shut them again, clipping his left shoe. He huffed, then walked as fast as he could to the sick bay. She had already moved it for him and he shoved the door open into the sterilised environment.

The machine in the corner was his aim and he dragged it over to the bed. The blood from his shoulder was getting dangerously close to dripping down his arm. And this... is the not fun part. He gritted his teeth and carefully peeled his tweed coat away from his arm. He instantly felt dizzy from the pain, but continued despite the intense protestations from his shoulder. The first order of business was removing the bullet, which he was fairly certain was stuck in the bone; Kovarian had shot him from the side instead of head on, and Time Lord anatomy differed enough from human anatomy that the side shot was the more damaging of the two.

He wasn't so crazy as to refuse pain medication and quickly procured an injection. Instead of going through the pain of removing his shirt, he simply ripped the sleeve off. Inspecting the injury, his fear of the bullet being stuck was confirmed. He groaned. This would take a lot longer than he hoped. He set the machine at his side to work; stealing a 51st century robotic surgeon was the best idea he'd ever had.

xxxxxxxxxx

After spending the better part of an hour wrestling with the surgical robot, the bullet was finally separated from his arm. It did nothing to ease the pain, but it was the most difficult part of the procedure. Being a proper Doctor is an odd feeling. The final and most painful part of the procedure was to rebuild his arm.

He had snatched what the Cat People, or the Sisters of Plentitude, called a 'restorative drought', meant to regenerate broken or missing limbs in a matter of hours, during his last visit to them. He had taken Amy and Rory to New Earth to visit the Face of Boe, but quickly discovered Rory's allergy to cats. Their trip was cut short when he sneezed on the Head Nurse.

The Doctor ambled to the cupboard across the room and pulled out the drought, noting that it was the same unpleasant green color as it had been when he had stolen it. It reminded him of the human vegetable called broccoli, which he had never been fond of.

He wasn't entirely sure how much of it he was supposed to drink. He settled with a single swig of the bottle, then waited.

And waited. And waited. And then he waited some more.

Exactly one half hour passed to the second before he suddenly felt a huge rush of pain in his shoulder. He groaned and wriggled as he saw the skin slowly knot together over the injury. He had long since wiped his arm of blood, but the moving and growing muscle caused the dark fluid to leak from the wound yet again. Almost two hours later, the pain finally ceased and he rotated his shoulder experimentally. He felt no pain and let out a sigh of relief, wiping his face of sweat.

His immediate thought was to rush to Donna's aid, until he realised that he was no longer wearing proper clothes. He quickly rushed into the TARDIS's wardrobe to grab another shirt and tweed coat. After hurriedly donning them both and checking his pants to make sure that no blood was on the fabric, he ran back into the console room.

It suddenly struck him that flying back into the Nazi base after setting Madame Kovarian on high alert, so to speak, was a bad idea without a little back up. His first thought was to ask Jack for another favor, but no matter which time he fetched Jack from, having so many "copies" of him in the same time period wasn't a good idea. That left only one logical choice – River.

He ran as quickly as he could, pulling levers and pushing buttons. His destination was the Stormcage and he left the timing in the TARDIS's hands, allowing her to guide him the entire way.

xxxxxxxxxx

"River!"

River raised her head from her diary, alert and suddenly wide awake. It had been two days since Octavian's visit and she was doodling, for lack of a better word. The Stormcage was boring at best and she had few ways of keeping herself entertained aside from leaving. The Doctor's voice echoed down the hall and she leapt up, rushing to the metal bars as her diary fell to the bed. She peered down both sides of the hallway, surprised to find the TARDIS to her left.

"She didn't make any noise," River said curiously, as the Doctor quickly approached the bars. He was breathing hard and she furrowed her eyebrows in a silent question. He raised a finger to pause her inquisitive nature.

"I needed the stabilisers," he explained, gasping air. His pupils were dilated and his skin was clammy and cold. The hair on his head was haphazardly combed and he looked absolutely terrified.

"You needed the stabilisers?" she asked incredulously, reaching a hand through the bars to gently cup his face. Concern flooded her features. "What's happened, sweetie?"

"I need your help," he said, finally calming his breathing. Their voices echoed in the hallway, alerting any passing guards that she had an uninvited visitor. Shadows fell across his face and she suddenly thought that he looked so... old. "Please, River. I need your help."

"What is it?" She searched his features, but all she saw was a mixture of dread and sorrow.

"They took her," he said, running a hand down his face. "They've kidnapped Donna."

River's hand recoiled from his face as if she had been burned. He watched her take a step back, then another. She said nothing, only stared into his eyes, trying to communicate an emotion that had no words. Fear.

The shadows on his face seemed to darken. "River," he said, lowering his voice. "You can't-"

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She dropped her raised hand and swallowed, suddenly nervous under his gaze. He never unnerved her. Not ever. Except now. Now he was more than angry; he was cornered and afraid. Her Doctor was truly afraid. "I can't go."

His face contorted into rage. He slammed his hands against the metal bars and grasped them with white knuckles, shaking them like he was the one trapped inside the cage. "What could possibly keep you from helping me now? What could be so terrible that you can't help me save her?"

She could never remember seeing him so angry, except at Demon's Run. It hurt to have him so upset with her, but there was nothing she could do. By all accounts, there was even less she could do this time and it hurt all the more because, for once, they were somewhat linear. It pained her more than she could say. She squared her shoulders and steeled her voice, speaking so softly that he could barely hear her. "Spoilers."

He angrily turned to go, but she stopped him with a quick step forward and the tug of a tweed sleeve. "Wait, please Doctor. I do have one thing that may help you."

The Time Lord's gaze softened, eager for any assistance she could give him. He turned back to her. "What is it?"

"Do you know the Prophecy of Demons Run?" This was as much of a spoiler as she could give, but it wouldn't make sense to him immediately. She just hoped that he would realise it in time.

"You know how I feel about destiny," he said, waving a finger at her. "It's annoying and it never calls you back after a date." He saw her smile and his own frown softened even further.

Demon's Run was not an incident he cared to remember, though it was only a few hours ago for him. He had lost baby Melody and even though he knew she would live, that didn't mean she couldn't be hurt in the meantime. He had returned her to Amy and Rory, but he knew that wouldn't be permanent and River would never tell him anything about it, no matter how hard he begged.

River fought to hold back a laugh. "It's important," she added firmly. He nodded for her to continue. She swallowed carefully and began to recite, watching the light shift in his eyes at every word.

"Demons run when a good man goes to war,

Night will fall and drown the sun,

When a good man goes to war

Friendship dies and true love lies

The night will fall and the dark will rise

When a good man goes to war

Demons run, but count the cost

The battle is won, but the child is lost"

He blinked a few times, then nodded as if expecting more. "That's it?" He did not count himself as a good man, so the prophecy seemed out of place to him.

She almost sighed. He could be so thick-headed. "I'm telling you because it will be important, sweetie." She reached through the bar to gently grasp his hand. "And I'm sorry."

He didn't shy away from the contact as she expected him to, but instead became exasperated and impatient like someone frustrated with a puzzle. "What does that mean?"

"It means..." she replied softly. "That the prophecy of Demon's Run isn't a prophecy. It's a legend."

She could see the gears in his head begin to turn furiously at her words. He recited the phrases under his breath, almost too quietly for her to hear. She watched nothing change in his face, so she recited everything once more, but emphasised certain words to give him as much of a clue as she dared. The Doctor's eyes suddenly widened.

And he ran.