Chapter Fourteen:
A/N: There is death (suicide) in this chapter. Please don't read if you know you shouldn't.
John brought Idris down beside an old potholed gravel road that looked as if it hadn't been looked after in years. Despite the peaceful location of the teleportation machine with the soft tweet of birds and the occasional lowing of a cow all was not calm. The tension within the machine was in direct opposition to the serenity that surrounded it.
"What are you doing?" River screamed, "We can't just leave Jack! He'll be killed!"
"He died to save your life!" John yelled back. "We need to stop the bombing at the Library. What are the coordinates?" He demanded standing next to the controls.
"You selfish bastard!" River screamed. "If I had my gun, I'd shoot you dead."
"Not the first time someone's wished to kill me." John said. "What's the coordinates?"
"Don't you give a damn?" River threw out her arm to gesture at the door, "One of my only friends has just been killed. Of course you don't." She shook her head roughly causing some curls to dislodge from their hold, "You're a bloody monolith!"
John glared at River, "There will be time to mourn him later. Right now we have people to save."
"I can't believe you." River spat stalking up to him.
"Like you're any better."
River gasped, "When this is over, I never want to see you again."
"Fine by me!" The vehemence in his voice matched hers.
"Good."
Martha stood by the door with a worried look on her face. She wasn't sure if she should intervene or let the argument ride its course and try to help them pick up the pieces when they were done.
"Hey!" John exclaimed as River hip-bumped him out of the way. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Flying this thing."
"You can't fly her!"
"Why not?"
"You don't know how."
River stopped pulling at the controls and turned to glare at him, "I bet I could fly her better than you can."
John huffed as River pulled the final lever and sent them to the Library.
They landed silently without a noise from without or within.
"Wow. That was quiet." Martha said quietly from her place near the door.
"Thank you." River smiled smugly with a quick glance at John who seemed to be pouting.
River nodded and took a breath to steady herself, "This is what's happening," she began with a pointed look at John before turning to Martha, "Martha, you contact your people; I assume you are attached to the police or a government agency of some kind? Yes? Good. They need to know about the Silence base on Trenzalore and what is going on here. John, you need to get everybody out. If either of you come across anyone who is planting bombs do not engage with them." She said firmly.
"And what are you going to do? Take a nap?" John quipped.
River glared at him. "I am going to dismantle the bombs. They will be on an internal detonation sequence and as such will need to be defused individually."
"How many of them, do you think?" Martha asked.
"I'm hoping no more than ten."
"But the Library is huge!"
"Yes, but the gas is very lethal. The Vashta Narada, if it were insects, would be like a swarm. It's as if there was a swarm of flesh eating insects in each of the different bombs. Ten is plenty. Unfortunately, it's not insects."
"Why is that unfortunate? I hate bugs."
"Because you can't see the gas, you could see the insects and maybe get away if you're lucky but there is no way you could see if the gas was in the room, you'd just be dead." River shrugged. "At best it might look like a shadow, but is it a shadow? Is it the Vashta Narada? You wouldn't know until you were dead."
"Ok, I get it." Martha tried to laugh in hopes of lightening the situation.
)(x)(x)(x)(
John scowled as he made his way through the front hall of the Library towards the main desk. He hadn't meant to start fighting with River but she had made him so mad. He felt as if there was a fire within him. He had risked everything to find her and she pushed back at every point. To cap it off, and perhaps this was the real reason why he was furious, she didn't realize her worth. She was worth more than anyone on the base but she couldn't see it. He had to get her out, it's what Jack would have wanted but she couldn't understand that.
He tried to push all thoughts of River out of his mind as he looked for a fire alarm switch. That should get everyone out and quickly, and if things went well it would get the authorities to the Library as well. Fumbling around the desk he smiled when he found what he was looking for. Triumphantly he pulled the switch and turned his thoughts once more to River as he watched people stream out of the building to the blaring sound of the alarm.
)(x)(x)(x)(
"That idiot!" River grumbled under her breath as she tried to concentrate on dismantling the first bomb that rested between her fingers. "Can't that man do anything quietly?"
Working faster than she thought possible River dismantled nine bombs. Finding them was easier than she thought. She had been apart of the strategy group that poured over the blueprints and worked out the best placement areas for the bombs. She didn't know the exact location of the bombs but she did know the area which cut down on the searching time. The trouble was her fingers. By the time she had found and dismantled five bombs her fingers were raw, by the time nine were put out of commission her fingers were bleeding. Unfortunately she didn't have any gloves and so she had to do the best with what she had, and in this case that meant wiping her bloodied fingers on her clothes in order to keep the red fluid from dripping into the circuitry. Her pants had blood streaks running up and down her thighs from wiping her bloody fingers on them. River figured a ruined pair of pants was a small price to pay for the lives of thousands.
With a sigh River brushed her curls out of her face. She needed to find that last bomb! She was pretty sure which section it was in but she was running out of time. She didn't have enough time to find the bomb, she barely had enough to dismantle the last detonator before it would release its deadly gas.
The lights from the firetrucks shone through the windows and their sirens added to the cacophony of the alarm that still sounded throughout the building. Trying to focus on the job at hand River made her way carefully through the rows of books. Coming to the end of a stack she saw one of her students. Not one from the university but one from the Silence. She had been training some of the younger recruits and seeing his young face she cursed Adam. What was he thinking putting a kid like that on this job? She knew it was because he was expendable but in her mind that didn't make it excusable.
Sighing again, River rounded the stack of books and holding a knife that she had kept hidden on her person she approached the teenage boy. Coming at him from behind she grabbed him, pinning his arms she held the knife blade loosely at his throat.
"Professor!" He squeaked.
"Always be prepared. Always be aware. Don't trust anyone." She whispered into his ear.
"Ok." The boy was smart enough to keep his head still and not nod in agreement.
"Where's your gun? No. Don't grab it, tell me."
"Back right hip."
"Got it." River loosened her grip on Nardole's shoulders. Stepping back she pointed the gun at him.
"Ma'am? I don't understand." The teenagers eyes shone with confusion and betrayal.
"This isn't right and you know it. Mass murder isn't what you signed up for, surely."
"No, ma'am. But I do what I'm told." He squared his shoulders.
"Oh, don't try to be brave. Where's the last bomb?"
"Over there." Nardole lifted his arm and pointed.
"You are going to dismantle it." River gestured with the barrel of the gun to head in the direction of the bomb.
Sweat began to bead on Nardole's forehead as he worked with the interior of the bomb. Knowing that the Professor was aware of how to disengage the device meant that he couldn't risk altering from her plans least she shoot him before he succeeded in reengaging the bomb. Once the deed was done he sat back on his heels and looked up at her.
"Up."
Running a free hand over the short soft hair on his closely shaved head Nardole stood. At River's command he began to walk towards the central desk of the library. The moment that he saw the desk come in view he stopped. He felt the nose of the gun press into his back.
"Move." River growled.
Nardole quickly turned around and looked in River's eye. "You taught me. You were the one that inspired me to continue, to make the tough decisions not to give up. I can't let you turn me in."
"Who said I'm turning you in?"
"The authorities are here, ma'am. What else are you going to do? We are both going to jail. I don't see any way out of this."
"You are not going to jail. You're a good kid. I'll get you out." River had always liked Nardole; he was a bit socially awkward but he had a quick mind and was able to sell anyone anything. It wasn't his fault that his dad had essentially "sold" him to the Silence so that his mother could get the treatment she needed. River knew that Nardole had agreed to the deal in hopes that his mother would live.
"No." Nardole shook his head, tears danced in his eyes as he took a step closer to River.
"What are you doing?" River tried to pull away as Nardole circled his hand around hers on the gun. Though he was still a teenager he was strong from all of the training that had been demanded of him.
"I'm sorry." The boy croaked. He couldn't risk being turned in to the authorities, it would break his mother's heart and he couldn't go back to the Silence.
"Nardole! No!" River cried.
)(x)(x)(x)(
John heard River's voice. Running away from the assembled group of Firefighters that he had been explaining the situation to he came into view of River and a young man. The boy was standing close to her, their hands circling around an object that was obscured from his view by the boy's body.
River was shaking her head, "Nardole! No!"
"River?" John speed up towards the two.
River's head sprang up and her eyes rested on John, "No!" She cried.
A shot sounded but before it could echo about the room the sound was absorbed into the books that filled the room. Nardole collapsed to the ground, his lifeblood spreading rapidly out on the floor. Within moments he was dead.
John felt as if time had stopped. He watched the boy collapse to the floor and then looked up at River. Her mouth was slack and tears ran down her face. Her arm flopped to her side and the gun that was in her hands clattered to the floor. A frown formed on John's face, he tried to breath but it was as if he was underwater. A bubbling gasping noise accompanied his forced breath. No longer able to stand he sunk to the floor.
River rushed to John's side. She pressed her hands hard against the bullet hole that was squirting out blood with every pump of his heart. The bullet that had gone straight through Nardole and embedded itself into John.
"John. John." She cried, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She had killed many people over her life but the knowledge that she had been apart of Nardole's death and maybe John's hurt her to the core. She didn't want to be the woman who killed John, if she was honest she wanted to be the woman who loved him. Now she may never have the chance. Tears dripped down her face as she continued to press against the bullet hole, the blood squirted out between her fingers covering her hands in the hot red liquid.
"Shh." He rasped around the blood that began to pool in his mouth. "It's ok."
"No it's not." River shook her head, her hands slippery with the blood that continued to pour from his chest. "John. John." She mumbled.
"Thete." He whispered.
River bent her head down to his mouth.
"Not. John. Thete. Thete. Sigma." He struggled to get out before his eyes rolled back and his head fell back onto the floor.
"John! John! No!" River was frantic. "Someone! Help!" She called out.
It was as if she was underwater. River saw everything as if through a fog. She watched as the paramedics came in and took over. Placing John – Thete – on a gurney they wheeled him out. River sat, her head bowed and her hands and forearms covered in blood, both his and hers. There was nothing she could do to hold back the sobs.
A/N: Only the Epilogue to go!