A/N: I'm sorry for not updating in forever! I've been working on other projects and kind of... forgot about this one *braces self to be pelted with rotten fruits and vegetables* but here is the next chapter and more is on the way!

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Golden River

River rose to her feet and ran towards the scanner monitor, bringing up environment checks and any information the TARDIS could provide on the world outside. The Doctor ran towards the TARDIS doors.

'Sweetie, don't you think just this once we should wait to find out what we're walking into?'

The Doctor glanced back at the TARDIS interior, brows creased together as if in pain. Then he poked his head out the doors. 'I find an atmospheric shell usually works just as well.'

River muttered something about how he was much less reckless when he was a woman, but never looked away from the console. She studied it closely, probing it with her fingers and her mind, trying to find the source of the ship's strange behaviour.

'Doctor, has the TARDIS ever talked to you before?'

'What do you mean? We talk all the time,' he bounded back up to the console and began administering the same care as his wife.

'She doesn't usually talk back,' River pointed out. 'Not in words anyway.'

The Doctor's frantic hands stilled. 'No. Something is enhancing the TARDIS's mild telepathic abilities.'

'Why?' River asked. 'Anything that powerful would have no need, surely, to use a TARDIS to communicate.'

The Doctor looked up at the time rotor. 'What's doing this to you?' he asked quietly. River began typing something on the keyboard. 'What are you doing?'

'What do you think?' she replied. 'I'm running diagnostics.'

'Nothing will show up,' he said. River scowled at him. Unfortunately, he was right.

'It's like even the TARDIS doesn't know what is wrong,' River sighed.

'Or she's being forced to hide something.'

'What could be that powerful?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I have no idea. Some viruses, I suppose. Rhino, Trojans, a strong, intimate mental link. I'd say a hidden protocol but if it existed, I'd know about it by now.'

'We can find out about at least one of those,' River said and resumed typing.

'If it didn't show up on diagnostics, I don't know what you think you're going to get,' the Doctor complained.

River's eyebrows shot up and she sent the scanner swinging in his direction. 'See for yourself.'

The scanner showed a reading of how many mental links the TARDIS was maintaining at the time.

The number was 3.

'We should get out of here,' River murmured.

'And leave the TARDIS under the control of an unknown entity?' the Doctor countered. He had already had the TARDIS stolen from him enough that he liked to avoid it if at all possible.

'Where are we, anyway?' River sighed, mentally acknowledging his statement without voicing it out loud. When the Doctor didn't answer immediately she sent him a look. 'You checked, so where are we? Doctor?'

The Doctor licked his lips. 'We didn't move. In space, that is,' he sighed.

'What? Why all that just to move us in time?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'I don't know yet,' he grumbled.

'You must have a theory,' River pressed, eyebrows raised.

'Yes, all right, I'm still working on it.'

River walked up to the Time Lord and placed her hands on his shoulders, surprisingly gently. 'Doctor, listen to me.' His big brown eyes met hers, but they looked sad, perhaps even a little afraid. River chose to file that away until the appropriate moment. 'Listen,' she repeated and he nodded. 'Right now, you need to focus. Something or someone other than your sentimentality is anchoring us on the Game Station. We need to find out what and why.'

'I know,' he said. River released him and he followed her back to the console.

After a minute of trying different commands, River sighed. 'We're not going to get anything from the TARDIS, sweetie. Hopefully outside will be more informative.'

'But the TARDIS-' the Doctor protested.

'Will power down as soon as we exit,' River interrupted, hoping she was right. 'Come on.'

The Doctor, who was closer, lead the way, bouncing down the steps and out the doors with his usual energy, though something about it seemed forced. River eyed him warily, highly conscious of the fact he would probably know more than he was saying.

'Doctor, what-' River began, but the quick snap of the TARDIS doors swinging shut in her face cut her off. 'Doctor!' she screamed. 'I am going to kill you!'

'It's not me!' he yelled back. Shouts from outside, ones she recognised, reached her ears, echoing strangely in the dead station and through the doors. River heard the scrape of a key in the lock and a rattle as it stuck. Next was the familiar buzz of the sonic screwdriver, to no avail.

'Doctor!' River cried, trying to open the door. It was locked fast.

Behind her, something bright began to glow.

'Doctor,' River said, this time with an air of enforced calm. 'Let me out.'

'I can't!'

She turned and found the source of the sudden glow. 'Doctor! Let me out!'

A frustrated scream of 'Dammit!' and something hand sized slamming into the door now at River's back told her he wasn't coming to her rescue any time soon.

'I know what it is that took control of the TARDIS!' River yelled through the door, never taking her eyes off the golden glow. It was familiar, of course, but had never been this terrifying before. 'I don't know how, but its-'

The glow, seemingly having built up a critical mass, surged forward and River screamed.

River's scream nearly broke the Doctor's hearts. Ianto and Jack, now on either side of him, were both pushing at the door trying to force it open, but the Doctor knew it would be no use.

River's scream cut off suddenly and tipped the Doctor over the edge. 'Back! Get back!' he ordered and Jack and Ianto stepped away. The Doctor brandished his screwdriver, prepared to blast the doors open with a sonic charge in order to get River out.

Instead, the door swung open from the inside and out streamed all the power of the time vortex.