I was brushing my hair when I heard Dad say, "Hey, Addy." He was knocking on my door. "There's a letter for you…"
"What?" I asked, getting up from my bed and setting my brush down. "Who from?"
"I don't know," he said. "But it says it's for you."
"Um… Ok," I said. I took the envelope he handed me and shut the door. It did say, Open when alone, after all.
I heard Dad walk away and opened the letter.
My dearest Adeline,
This is an emergency. Your father, the Doctor, I fear might be in danger. Please find and light the enclosed candle. It will release a soporific which will induce a trance state, enabling direct communication across the years. However, in case you do not have the chance to light the candle, in the event you cannot find yourself without the company of your father, I have taken the liberty of embedding the same soporific into the fabric of the paper you are now holding.
Speak soon.
That when the soporific overwhelmed me and I fell onto my bed.
I woke up in a chair. Madame Vastra, Jenny, Strax and Mum where there as well.
"So glad you could make it," Madame Vastra said. She handed me a teacup.
"Thank you…" I said. "But where are we?"
"Exactly where you were, but sleeping," Jenny explained.
Mum was looking at me weirdly, like she didn't know who I was. Perhaps she hadn't known I had regenerated just yet.
"Perhaps you two haven't met," Madame Vastra said. "This is Adeline, the Doctor's daughter."
"Addy…?" she asked, clasping a hand over her mouth. "Is that you?"
I nodded. "Regenerated," I said.
"Do you two know each other?" Clara asked.
Mum laughed. "Well, since she is my daughter, I'd find it a little bit odd if we hadn't!"
"Wait, what?" Clara asked. "You're her…?"
"She's never really looked like us…" Mum said.
"Can we please get back to the business at hand?" Madame Vastra asked, clearing her throat.
"Sorry…" I said.
Madame Vastra threw pixels into the air. They created an image of a man in a prison cell. "Clarence DeMarco, murderer, under sentence of death," she said. "He offered us this, in exchange for his life." She swished her hand and the pixels became circular Gallifreyan.
"Space-time coordinates?" Mum said.
"This, DeMarco claims, is the location of the Doctor's greatest secret," she continued.
"Which is?" Clara asked.
I took a sip of my tea, like I didn't know what it was.
"We don't know…" Jenny said. "It's a secret."
"The Doctor does not discuss his secrets with anyone, my dear," Madame Vastra said.
I beg to differ…
"If you're still entertaining the idea that you're an exception to the rule, ask yourself one question. What is his name?" Madame Vastra said.
Mum and I made eye contact for about a millisecond, and then quickly looked away. I took another sip of my tea. It really was delicious.
"Well, I know it," Mum said.
I nodded. "So… So do I."
Jenny looked like something was bothering her. She kept looking around and touching her face. I didn't pay attention to the conversation about his name.
"What else did DeMarco tell you?" Mum asked. "He didn't just buy his life with some coordinates. How did he prove their value?"
"One word, only," Madame Vastra said.
"What word?" Mum asked.
"A word I've heard in connection with the Doctor before," she said.
"Would that word happen to be… to be Trenzalore?" I asked.
Madame Vastra nodded.
"How exactly did he describe what he was giving you?" Mum asked.
Madame Vastra waved her hand and the pixels became DeMarco's face. He said, "The Doctor has a secret, you know. He has one he will take to the grave. And it is discovered."
I stopped drinking my tea and set it down abruptly. "You misunderstood," I said.
"Ma'am, sorry, I just realized I forgot to lock the door…" Jenny said.
"It doesn't matter, Jenny!" Madame Vastra said rudely. "What misunderstanding? Tell me."
"No ma'am, please, I should have locked up before we went into the trance," Jenny said. She sounded like she was about to burst into tears.
"Jenny, it doesn't matter!" she said.
"Someone's broken in," Jenny said. "Someone's with us. I can hear them…"
"Are you alright…?" Madam Vastra asked.
"Sorry, ma'am, so sorry…" Jenny said, crying. "I think I've been murdered…"
All of a sudden, Jenny's body began to pixelate and fade away.
"What's happened?" Clara asked.
"You're under attack. You must wake up now," Mum ordered urgently. "Just wake up. Do it!" Mum stood up and slapped Madame Vastra. She disappeared. "You too, Strax. Wake up, now!" Mum threw tea in his face. He disappeared.
All of a sudden, there were men with completely white faces except for their mouths, hats, and long black coats on. They surrounded us.
Mum pulled me out of my chair and wrapped her arms around me, protecting me.
"Tell the Doctor… Tell the Doctor…" they said, snarling.
"Tell him what?!" Clara demanded.
All of a sudden, the pixels became a man's face I didn't recognize. "His friends are lost forevermore unless he goes to Trenzalore."
"No he can't!" I yelled. "He's not allowed to go there!"
"The Doctor can never go to Trenzalore," Mum said.
Then all of a sudden, I was back on my bed in the Tardis. I ran out of my room so fast and into the console room. There was a note that said,
Went into Clara's house. Won't be very long.
-Dad
I burst out of the doors and ran into Clara's house and up the stairs where they were. Dad was blindfolded for some reason.
Clara and I looked at each other worriedly.
"Doctor…" she said.
"Oh, Clara!" he said. "How are you? Don't worry. Everything is under control."
"Dad…?" I asked. "Why on earth are you… are you blindfolded?"
"Mr. Maitland went next door so I said I'd look after the kids," he said. "They wanted to go to the cinema, Clara, but I said no. I said, 'No, not until you wake up.' I was very firm."
"Then why are they at the cinema?" I asked.
Clara took off his blindfold and Dad gasped. "The little Daleks!" he accused. He looked at our worried faces and asked, "What's wrong…?"
Clara invited us into the kitchen and made tea. She poured it into the tea cups with shaky hands. Clara explained everything that happened.
"What were the exact words?" he asked, extremely shocked. I sat down next to him.
"The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered," Clara quoted.
Dad looked like he was about to cry. "Daddy…" I said sadly. I hugged him.
He sniffed and said, "And it was Trenzalore, it was definitely Trenzalore?" He was actually crying.
I nodded. "Yeah," Clara said. She looked really shocked to see him like this.
He wiped a tear from his eyes and whispered, "Oh damn…"
"Daddy… Are you… Are you going to be ok…?" I asked, hugging him again.
He nodded and snapped out of it. "Yeah, sorry," he said, sniffing. He stood up abruptly and nearly ran out of the house.
Clara set down the tea and we followed him back to the Tardis. "Is it… that bad?" she asked. I nodded and bit my lip.
We walked in. I shut the doors and said, "You talk to him… He doesn't like it when I see… When I see him like this…"
She nodded. But that really wasn't it. I went back to my room and didn't bother closing the door. I just sat on my bed, staring blankly into the wall.
Trenzalore is where Dad is buried, but-
The Tardis started shaking wildly. I was nearly thrown across the room, but I grabbed hold my bed firmly.
"She knows where we're going…" I said. "She doesn't like it."
The lights in my rooms started flickering, but they completely turned off. I walked back to the console room to see what was going on.
"Wait, so we're not there?" Clara asked.
"No," Dad said. "But we must be close." We all went to the doors and opened them. "Ok, so that's where I end up…" He looked upon the ashy planet with much unease. "Maybe I should retire. Take up water colors or bee keeping or something… But apparently not."
"So, how do we get down there? Jump?" Clara asked.
"Don't be silly. We fall," Dad said, closing the doors. "She's turned off practically everything except the anti-gravs. Guess what I'm turning off." Dad soniced the console.
Dad grabbed my hand as we started falling. Clara and I screamed as we fell to the planet's surface.
"Here we are!" he said happily as if nothing happened. He let go of my hand and strutted out the doors of the Tardis, pausing at the windows to see one of them had cracked.
"Never ever let him do that ever again…" Clara said to me.
"Don't worry…" I said. "I won't."
We walked out, too. We landed in a graveyard. I heard thunder above us. Everything was very eerie and dark.
"You ok?" Clara asked, almost whispering. "Visiting your own grave… Anyone would be scared."
"It's more than that…" he said. "I'm a time traveler. I've probably time travelled more than anyone else besides you, Addy."
"Meaning?" Clara asked.
"Meaning…" he said, "My grave is potentially the most dangerous place in the universe."
I wouldn't have a grave… since I'd just go back into the mirror.
Dad looked at me worriedly. "No. Don't even say it, Dad," I said. "I'm not waiting in the Tardis."
Dad sighed. "Shall we, then?" he asked.
We started walking further into the graveyard. "Gravestones are a bit basic…" Clara noted.
"It's a battlefield graveyard. My final battle," he said.
I felt like I was going to cry. Tears were welling up in my eyes and my throat tightened and it became hard to swallow.
"Why are some bigger?" Clara asked.
"They are soldiers," Dad said. "Bigger the gravestone, higher the rank."
We came upon a place where we could see the Tardis' door.
"That's one hell of a monument," Clara said.
"It's the Tardis," he said.
"I can see that…" she said.
"No… When a Tardis is dying, sometimes the dimension dams start breaking down. They used to call it a size leak. All the bigger-on-the-inside started spilling outside. It grows. When I say that's the Tardis, I don't mean it looks like the Tardis, it actually is her. My Tardis from the future…" He continued walking. "What else would they bury me in?"
Clara and I just stood there… Then all of a sudden, I heard Mum's voice.
"Clara, Addy. Don't speak. Don't say my name," she said. We both turned to see her. "He can't hear or see me, only you two can. We're mentally linked."
"Well, come on then!" Dad yelled for us to follow.
"It's the conference call. I kept the line open," she said.
Dad finally came over and said, "What are you talking about-" He stopped abruptly. "River…" he said, walking towards a gravestone.
"That can't be right," Clara said.
"No, it can't," he said.
"She's not dead," Clara said.
"Oh, she's dead, I'm afraid," he said. "She's been dead for a very long time." I burst into tears and hugged him. He hugged me back and kissed my forehead. "Are you going to be alright?" he asked.
"Sweetie…" Mum said sadly.
I wiped my eyes and let go of Dad. "I'm fine…" I lied, putting on a brave face.
"But her grave can't be here…" he said.
I heard whispering behind me.
"Doctor!" Clara said urgently.
We all spun around and saw the men with only mouths heading straight for us.
"This man must fall as all men must," said the same voice as before.
Dad stepped in front of us and pointed his sonic, sonicing them.
"The fate of all is always dust," it said.
"If it isn't my gravestone, then what is it?" Mum asked.
"What do you think that grave is, Doctor?" Clara asked.
"Oh… I don't know!" he said, hitting his screwdriver.
"A false grave!" I said.
"Exactly, sweetie," Mum said. "Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb."
"Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!" Clara said.
"Yes, of course, makes sense," Dad said, grabbing my hand. "They'd never bury my wife out here!" Dad pointed his sonic at her false grave and before I knew what was happening, we were falling.
"The man who lies will lie no more," I heard coming from above right before we fell. "When this man lies, it's Trenzalore."
We finally landed on a flat surface. There was a stair case that led down, so that where we went. Dad found a torch and picked it up.
"Where are we?" Clara asked.
"Catacombs," Dad said.
"I don't really like catacombs all that much…" I said.
"So… How come I met your dead wife?" Clara asked.
"Oh, well…" Dad said. "You know how it is when you lose someone close to you. I sort of made a backup."
"I died saving him," Mum said. "In return, he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf. Didn't even say goodbye. He doesn't like endings…"
That's when the things with mouths popped out of nowhere and came for us again.
Dad grabbed our hands and said, "Run! Run!"
So we ran.
"Ok, come on, quickly!" he said, leading us through a door. That's when one of the men grabbed Clara. "Clara!" he yelled, flinging me out of the way.
Once he got Clara free, he closed the door.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Yeah…" she said. "I think so."
"Yowzah…" Dad said, dropping the torch. It was light enough so we didn't need it anymore.
There was a very long series of stair cases in our path. "Still a bit of a climb…" he said.
Dad went first, then me, and then Clara. It was a bit exhausting going up endless flights.
"I think I remember the way," he said.
That's when Clara started to remember the events of the day when the salvagers came aboard the Tardis.
"What do you mean you keep meeting me? You said I died. How could I die?" she asked.
I bit my lip. Dad looked at me before replying to her. I shook my head and mouthed, "I can't say…"
"That is not a conversation you should even remember," Dad said.
"What do you mean I died?" she demanded to know.
"The girl who died he tried to save," said the voice. "She'll die again inside his grave."
"Run. Run!" Dad yelled, grabbing both of our hands.
That when we came into a room. Jenny, Strax, Madame Vastra and a man I remembered from somewhere were in the room.
"The door requires a key. The key is a word. The word is the Doctor's," the man said.
"Here I am," Dad said. "Late to my own funeral. Glad you could make it."
The men with only mouths were behind us all. I hid behind Clara and Strax.
"Open the door, Doctor," the man demanded. "Speak. Open your tomb."
"No."
"Because you know what's in there," he said.
"I will not open those doors," he said.
"The key is a word lost to time," the man said. "A secret hidden in the deepest shadow and known to you alone."
Maybe not…
"The answer to a question," he said.
"I will not open my tomb," Dad said defiantly.
"Doctor… What is your name?" the man asked. They just stared at each other for a while. "The Doctor's friends… Stop their hearts!"
The men behind us started snarling. Everyone turned around. I gasped and backed away from them, unknowingly backing straight into the man.
Once I realized I backed into the man, I froze completely. He grabbed my hair and turned me around to face him. I winced and shut my eyes tightly. "You are…" he said. "The Princess! Speak his name now."
"Let go of her right now," Dad demanded.
"Not until she says your name, Doctor," he said.
I shook my head and tried to break free from his grasp.
"Let her go now!" Dad yelled.
"Doctor who?" the man asked. "Doctor who?!"
I screamed, "No!"
But then, the doors opened. The man let go of my hair and I back away from him.
He knows who I am… He knows.
"The Tardis can still hear me," I heard Mum said. "Lucky thing. Since him indoors is being so useless. You ok, sweetie?"
I nodded.
"I didn't do it…" Dad said. "I didn't say my name."
"No," Mum said. "I did."
"Is everyone alright?" Dad asked. He hugged me and I nodded and said I was fine.
I really was, just my hair was a bit sore…
"Now then, Dr. Simeon or Mr. Great Intelligence, whatever I call you!" Dad said. "Do you know what's in there?"
"For me, peace at last," he said. "For you, pain everlasting. Why don't you invite us in?"
"No…" I whispered. "Don't."
Dad sighed and walked through the doors. We all followed him up the stairs of the Tardis console room. It was covered with weeds and overgrown vines.
Inside the middle of the room was a great white light with light strings circling through and around it.
"What's that?" Clara asked.
"What? Were you expecting a body?" he asked. "Bodies are boring. I've had loads of them. That's not what my tomb is for."
"But what is it?" she asked. "Explain, Doctor."
"The tracks of my tears," he said.
"Less poetry, Doctor. Just tell them," the Great Intelligence said. That was the man, or at least what was inside of him.
I suppose I didn't really like him at all. I still don't. Never will. He's basically a plagiarized form of me, except less all-knowing. I bested him when it came to Knowledge.
"Time travel is damage," Dad began. "It's like a tear in the fabric of reality. That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through time and space. From Gallifrey to Trenzalore."
He got out his sonic and soniced his time line.
"Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension?" said Dad's first self.
"Do I have the right?" Dad's fourth self asked.
"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things," said his second self.
"Absolutely fantastic!" said his ninth self.
"I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the Constellations of Kasterborous," said his tenth self.
"My own personal time tunnel…" Dad said. "All the days, even the ones that… I, uh… Even the ones that I haven't lived yet." Then Dad collapsed on the floor. Clara and I ran over to him. "Which is… Which is why I shouldn't be here. The paradox is… It's very bad."
The Great Intelligence started walking towards Dad's time line.
"No, what are you doing?" Dad asked. "Somebody stop him."
I got up and stood in front of the time line with my arms outstretched. "You're not allowed any… any further than that," I said.
"The Doctor's life is an open wound," he said, staring at it behind me. "And an open wound can be entered."
"No… It will destroy you," Dad said.
"Not at all," he said. "It will kill me. It will destroy you. I can re-write your every living moment. I can turn every one of your victories into defeats. Poison ever friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath. Even make someone in this room never happen."
"I must ask you to step away," I said firmly.
"It will burn you up," Dad said. "What you go through, you can't come back. You will be scattered along my timeline like confetti."
"It matters not, Doctor," he said. "You thwarted me at every turn. No, you will give me peace as I take my revenge on every second of your life. Goodbye."
I tried to push him out of the way while tears streamed down my face. "No! I won't let you!" I said.
He threw me to the ground and said, "Silly little girl. You won't even exist anymore…"
All of the men with no faces except mouths disappeared as he went into the timeline.
My eyes wouldn't stop flooding. "No… No…" I said. I looked at my hands as I heard Dad start yelled. I started fading away as if I had never existed.
But I came back when Clara jumped in.
"You can't go in there…" Mum said. "It's your own time stream for God's sake!"
"I have to get her back," Dad said.
"Of course, but not like this," she said.
"But how?" Jenny asked.
"Is she still alive?" Madame Vastra asked. "It killed Dr. Simeon."
"Clara's got one great advantage over the Great Intelligence," Dad said. "Me."
"Doctor, please listen to me… At least hear me!" Mum said.
"Now," he said. "If this doesn't work out, go back to the Tardis. The fast return protocol should be on. She'll take you home, and then shut herself down."
"There has to be another way," Mum said. "Use the Tardis, use something! Save her, but for God's sake, be sensible!" Mum was going to slap him, but he stopped her hand. "How're you even doing that…?" she asked. "I'm not really here."
"You're always here to me," he said. "And I always listen. And I can always see you."
"Then why didn't you speak to me?" she asked.
"Because I thought it would hurt too much," he said.
"I believe you could have coped," she said.
"No," was his immediate response. "I thought it would hurt me. And I was right." He leaned in and kissed her.
"Since no one else but Addy and I can see you that probably looked very strange…" he said.
"There is a time to live and a time to sleep," he said. "You are an echo, River. Like Clara, like all of this. In the end, my fault, I know. But you should have faded by now."
"It's hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye," she said.
"Then tell me because I don't know…" he said. "How do I say it?"
"There's only one way I'd accept," she said. "If you ever loved me say it like you're going to come back."
He hesitated before saying, "Well then… See you around, Professor River Song."
"Till the next time, Doctor," she said.
"Don't wait up," he said.
"Oh, there's one more thing," she said.
"Isn't there always?"
"If you leave our daughter all alone, I will kill you," she said. She looked to me and said, "Give him hell, sweetie."
Dad and I laughed. "Goodbye, Mummy."
"Goodbye, Sweetie," she said to both of us as she faded.
Dad looked at me and gave me a hug and a kiss on my forehead. "You know I have to go…" he said.
"Just go and save her," I said. "Worry about something else once she's safe."
He nodded and walked into his own time line.
Clara was safe and at home, and so were Jenny, Strax and Madame Vastra. It was just Dad and I in the Tardis.
I was in my room, curled up in a ball on my bed thinking about everything.
That's when Dad knocked on my door and entered my room. He sat down next to me. Neither of us spoke for the longest time.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. "You've been in here for nearly two days." I sat up and hugged him. "Is something wrong?" he asked, wrapping his arms around me.
"Dad…" I said. "I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want… I don't want to nearly die every time I'm with you."
He didn't say anything; he just kept his arms around me and sighed. "I can understand that," he said.
"It's not that I don't love being with you…" I said. "Because I love you, Dad, I do. It's just… Too much."
"It's alright, really," he said. "But where would you go?"
"Somewhere new…" I said.
(I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)