The year of the slow invasion. That was the year when Dad actually stayed put for a long time. It was also the hardest year of my life.

I woke up one morning. Brian stopped by and Dad was outside on the power lines. There were these black cubes everywhere. They were around my room too. I picked one of them up, but it started burning my hand so I threw it down.

"Ouch…" I said, shaking my hand. I looked at it, trying to see if it left anything visible. There was nothing. Only the lingering pain.

We turned on the news almost immediately. The governments around the world were trying to get people to calm down.

Brian started getting all these crazy ideas about the cubes. First, they were bombs, then they were mini robots, next they were alien eggs, finally they were just… cubes.

Dad decided he was going to use the kitchen as a lab. He wanted to 'cook up some cubes and see what happens'.

I went back into my room, after getting a pair of oven mitts. I started the removal process of all the cubes in my room. There was something about them that made me hate them. No, loath them. Like something bad was coming.

There was this huge crash downstairs. Men in black carrying guns all showed up. I stuck my hands in the air faster than you could imagine. They directed me downstairs and I obliged the people with big guns.

"Upstairs is secured," one of them said.

I went into the kitchen with Amy and Dad, who also had their hands up.

Rory came trudging in the kitchen. "There are soldiers all over my house and I am in my underwear…" he said.

"My whole life I've dreamed of saying that, and I missed it by being someone else…" Amy said sarcastically.

"All these muscles and they still don't know how to knock…" said someone coming in. "Sorry about the entrance. There was a spike in artron energy at this address. In light of the last twenty-four hours, we had to check it out." She smiled at us. "Hello, I'm Kate Stewart, Head of Scientific Research at UNIT. With dress sense like that… you must be the Doctor." He saluted her. "I hoped it'd be you."

"Tell me," Dad said. "Since when did science run the military, Kate?"

"Since me," she said. "UNIT's been adapting. Well, I dragged them along, kicking and screaming, which… made it sound like more fun than it actually was."

"What do we know about these cubes?" Dad asked.

"Far less than we need to," she said. "We're freighting them in from all over for testing. So far we've subjected them to plus and minus 200 Celsius, simulated a water depth of five miles, dropped one out of a helicopter, and rolled our best tank over it. Always intact."

"That's impressive," Dad said. He scowled and said, "I don't want them to be impressive. I want them vulnerable, with a nice Achilles heel."

"We don't know how they got here, what they're made of, or why they're here," she said.

"And all around the world, people are picking them up and taking them home…" Dad said.

"It's like iPads have dropped out of the sky. Taking them to work, taking pictures, making films, posting them on YouTube… I recommend we treat this as a hostile incursion. We need to gather them all up and lock them in a secure facility, but that would take massive international agreement and cooperation."

"We need evidence. The cubes arrived in plain sight when the sun rose. So, what does that tell us?"

"They wanted to be seen," I said.

"More than that," he said. "They want to be observed. So, we do that. Watch them day and night. Record absolutely everything."

"Have they hurt anyone else?" I asked.

They all looked at me weirdly. "Anyone else?" Dad asked.

"Not me," Amy said.

"Me either," Rory admitted.

"We haven't had any reports of the cubes lashing out, why?" Kate said.

"The ones that were in my room burned my hand," I said. "That's why I have these on." I gestured to my oven mitts.

Dad stared at me for a long while, as did everyone. Dad snatched my mitts off and started sonicing my hands. "What?" I asked. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"Absolutely nothing…" he said. "It must be nothing."

In four days, nothing spectacular happened with the cubes- except every time I tried to touch one, it would hurt my hands. No one else on the whole planet said this was happening to them. Dad said to give it some time.

"It could be that your Time Lord DNA doesn't like the cubes," he said. "Sometimes baby Time Lord's skin gets sensitive to other races' objects. Happened to a friend of mine."

I couldn't help but to feel that there was a much deeper cause to all this.

Dad started going crazy. He couldn't take just watching them all day when nothing happened to them. He tried to escape and take off in the Tardis, but Amy and Rory stopped him by reminding him that time travel isn't the solution for boredom.

A moth passed and still no movement in the cubes. Cassy hated them as much as I did. Everyone else used them as paper weights and put stickers on them. Not us. No, Cassy and I avoided them like the plague. I was still properly convinced that there was something sinister in these cubes, just waiting to pop out at the right moment and murder the whole world.

Lovely thought, don't you think?

But that's not all that happened over that month. Amy committed to being a bridesmaid and Rory took on full-time hours at the hospital. Also, the burning pain started growing every time I accidently touched one of the cubes. It really hurt.

Brian watched the cubes all day. He started recording them after a while. He called it Brian's Log. I guest starred in it a couple times whenever I started to feel the pain grow whenever I touched them.

By Christmas, there was still nothing about the cubes that changed. They just sat there all the time. By this time, it was excruciating to touch. Dad still hadn't come back so I didn't know what to do… I tried wearing layers, gloves and jackets everywhere I went so I couldn't touch them.

Dad actually started living with us in January. It was weird… He just parked the Tardis in the living room and that's where it stayed for four months.

I asked Dad about the cubes again. I touched one of them hesitantly in front of him. My whole hand went numb from the pain. He just gawked at me. "I've never seen a case like this…" he said. He took my hand gently and inspected it. "And it never makes any noticeable indents or burns or bruises on your skin? Just horribly painful to touch?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said. "There are never any cuts or anything. It just hurts a heck of a lot."

He soniced me for the second time, but a little longer this time. "Still says you're absolutely fine," he said. "Now that's really strange…"

April is when everything started going mad.

It was the day before my birthday, which was April 22nd, (making it April 21st) and I was going to a dance at school that night. I was getting ready when the cubes all around the house started doing different things. Brian's started moving, Rory's started scanning things, Amy's poked needles in her skin, and Dad's… well, his was special.

It started shooting everything, then surfed the Internet.

I was putting my hair into a long French braid down my back when I heard the commotion downstairs. I had just put a bow at the end of it, near the rubber band and when I rushed downstairs to see Dad hiding behind the couch with a cube floating in mid-air. It started shooting things. I screamed and ran back upstairs.

When I didn't hear it shooting anymore, I ran back downstairs and over to Dad.

"What's it doing?!" I asked. It was at the television, scanning it or something.

"It's surfing the net!" he said.

Rory ran into the room and said, "Doctor, the cube just opened!"

Amy came barreling downstairs, holding a hand up. "It just spiked me and took my pulse!" she said.

Brian came bursting through the doors, "My cube just moved! It rattled!"

Rory got called into the hospital immediately because cubes everywhere were starting to attack people. Brian decided to go with him, to help out.

Dad got out his psychic paper and smirked. "We're wanted at the Tower of London."

And so that's where we went. I was in a dress, low heels, with make up on and my hair was done up all nice. This just had to happen when I needed it least… It's not like I had a date for the dance, it was a Pre-Eighth Grade Graduation Party and everyone in the whole grade was going to be there.

We jumped in the car and Amy started driving like the Scot she was. We got out at the Tower and Kate was waiting for us. I hurried to keep up behind them, last tripping because I was clumsy already, but adding heels to the mix made things a bit worse.

"Every cube activated at the same time in the world," she said.

"Now we're in business!" Dad said. "You know, I'm impressed that you sent me a message on my psychic paper."

"Secret base beneath the Tower?" Amy asked. "I hope we're not here because we know too much."

"Yes, I've got people trained in beheading down there," she said sarcastically.

Dad looked at Amy. "I like her."

We walked down a long staircase and into a room where there were little rooms with people and cubes in them. "There are more than 50 being monitored and more coming in all the time," she said. "Every cube is behaving individually. There's no meaningful pattern."

Some of them spit fire, others made mood swings, and one played the chicken dance on loop… There were so many different things the cubes were doing.

We walked over to a bunch of monitors and computers. "This is the latest on the cubes," she said.

I didn't pay attention to them. I was looking around the room. It was pretty big and there was much to see.

I don't even know where I looked, but there must've been a mirror. I felt this huge rush of pain fill my brain as images flooded it of the past… present… and future! I was getting ahead… It was almost too much. The world started spinning. I lost my balance and fell over. The images stopped.

I couldn't breathe. I'd seen something that scared the hell out of me and it was going to happen soon… It was death.

I felt someone shaking me. I snapped out of it and took a deep breath. My vision refocused and I saw Dad standing above me. I hadn't even noticed I was on the ground.

"Are you ok…?" he asked.

I blinked a couple times and lied. "Yeah, completely fine."

He looked suspicious. "Are you sure…?" he asked.

"Yes, Dad," I said. I stood up. "I'm fine."

My hair was ruined now. The braid was coming undone. Things couldn't have gotten any worse.

But they did...

All the cubes stopped simultaneously around the world. All at once, they just stopped.

Dad started getting really frustrated with the cubes and went to go step outside. Amy followed him. I sat on one the columns in the room that had a little part of it jutting out. I started brooding over what I'd seen…

The lights shut off, jerking me back into reality. Dad and Amy were back with flashlights. I looked over to the cubes. All of them had the number seven on it.

"Dad, look," I said. "They all say seven."

"Why…?" Kate asked.

"What's important about seven?" Dad asked himself. "Seven wonders of the world. Seven streams of the rive Ota… Seven sides of a cube-"

"Cubes have six sides, Doctor," Amy said.

"Not if you count the inside," he said.

The number changed to six.

Dad started walked and we all followed him. "It has to be a countdown," he said.

"Not in minutes…" Kate said.

"Why wouldn't it be minutes, Kate?" he asked. "We have to get humanity away from those cubes. God knows what they'll do if they hit zero… Get the information out any way you can. People need to know the cubes are dangerous."

"But why is this starting now?" Amy asked. "They arrived months ago! Why wait this long?"

"Because they're clever," he said. "They let people trust them, take them into their homes. They became everyday items. There must be a trace of something when they all came on. There can't not be. We need to think of all the variables. All the possibilities. Go, go, go, go!"

They all scattered everywhere. Dad was at the monitors and Amy and Kate were looking at all the cubes. I stayed close to Dad.

The cubes had four on them now.

Then, down to three.

Dad and I moved closer to one of the small rooms with a singular cube inside of it. Amy and Kate were standing outside of it, too.

"I'm going in…" he said.

"You don't have to do this," Amy said.

"She's right. You don't have to go in there," Kate said.

"You're right," I said. "I'll do it."

They all looked at me and immediately said, "No."

"But, Dad," I said. "Listen-"

"No, you're not going in there," he said. "It's dangerous."

I stared at him angrily. "I want to do this, please!" I said. "Please!"

He scowled and looked at Kate. "Is she even allowed to do this?" he asked.

She hesitated. "There aren't any rules prohibiting it…" she said.

Dad looked extremely angry. "If anything happens, you tell me right away, you understand? Any weird feelings, we're taking you out."

I would've smiled, but I knew what was going to happen next.

The cubes went down to two and they opened the door for me. I took a deep breath.

"Be brave, ok?" Dad said, through the glass.

"I will," I said.

"Doctor…" Amy said. "I don't like this."

"Neither do I," he said.

"Then why're you letting her in there?!"

"She wanted to. But, if anything happens, I'm going to be very, very cross with you," he said.

"Yeah, ok, Dad," I said.

I waited for the cube to go down to one, and then zero. Everybody watched in anticipation. The cube opened. "It opened," I said. "But there's nothing inside it," I lied.

"There's nothing in there?" he asked. "This doesn't make any sense!"

He opened the door for me and I walked out. "Feel ok?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. For now… "Um, can I go home?" I asked. "I have a dance I want to get ready for… Sounds stupid, but please?"

Dad wasn't paying attention, but Kate was. "We can have someone drive you home, is that alright?"

"Really?" I asked. "Thanks."

"No problem."

And so I got into the car and the driver drove me to Amy and Rory's house.

It hit me while I was in the car. I could feel a stabbing pain in my left heart, like it was trying to claw its way out of my chest. I winced in pain as the driver drove on. When we arrived, I stumbled out of the car and into the house, claiming it was the heels To the driver. I fell to the floor and started screaming in pain.

My hearts were starting to give out. That was what I'd seen in the mirror.

My death.

I crunched up in a ball and screamed again as my left heart kept radiating excruciating pain much worse than anything I'd ever felt before in my whole life. It was even worse than touching the cubes.

I realized what it was that made me sense pain every time I touched one. It was a paradox. I was supposed to die because of them, so when I touched one, it made me sense a mild feeling of the pain my death would be.

I crawled my way to the door of the Tardis, which opened automatically for me. I crawled further in, until it hurt to even blink. I wasn't very far in, only a couple of feet.

I laid there on the cold floor, screaming in pain as each pump of blood gave out worse and worse pain. Finally, my left heart gave up and stopped. I couldn't feel it work anymore.

My right heart was pumping all the blood now, which was not good at all, being a Time Lord.

I screamed again and touched my face. I hadn't even realized I was crying so much, my face was extremely wet.

I chuckled darkly to myself and lay on my back, waiting to die. "Y-You were right, R-Rory…" I said. "I am g-gonna die."

~Third Person POV~

[About fifteen minutes later. Doctor had already saved the Earth and was heading back into the Tardis with Amy and Rory.]

The Doctor snapped his fingers and opened the Tardis, walking in backwards. "How do you two feel about the Boomwang Galaxy next?" He tripped over something and looked down to see what it was. His eyes widened. "Addy…? What are you doing on the floor of the Tardis?"

The girl didn't answer.

"Addy…?" he asked, squatting down. "Addy!" he yelled. "Answer me!"

"Doctor!" Amy said. "She went in the room when the cube opened!

"Her hearts… There weren't any cubes in here to resuscitate her!" he said.

Amy looked to Rory in panic. "Rory, do something quickly!"

Rory was shocked. He never expected this to happen. He rushed over to his granddaughter's body, felt for a pulse, and checked if she was breathing.

The Doctor had a tear coming down from his eyes while he paced around. Amy had her hands over her mouth in shock.

"She's still alive," Rory determined. "But she's barely breathing."

"Can you do something?" Amy asked.

He started doing CPR. "One, two, three, four…" he counted for each compression. He did five rounds of compressions and breathing before she started coughing.

"D… Dad…" she said. "R-Rory… Am-my…"

Rory stopped. The Doctor pushed him out of the way and held his dying daughter in his arms. "Addy…" he said. "Oh, why didn't you tell me?"

"It's supposed to be like this…" she said.

He shook his head. "No, no, Addy," he said. "You're going to be ok. We can save you. You're a Time Lord-" She screamed again, cutting him off. More tears fell from his eyes. "You'll regenerate," he said. "It's going to be ok. You'll regenerate-"

"Dad," she said. "Mum is only half Time Lord, and she used up all her regeneration to save you, right? If you're full and Mum's half, that means I'm only half Time Lord, too. I got two hearts and the brain of a Time Lord, but I can't regenerate, Dad. You know, I really hate genetics..."

The Doctor laughed, but his hearts were breaking. "Time can be rewritten. We can go back and-"

"This is a fixed point in time and you know that," she said. "I'm not afraid to die."

Amy looked away into Rory's shoulder. They all knew it was too late for Adeline Song. CPR couldn't save her now. One heart was finished and the other that Rory saved was well on its way to giving up again.

"But-"

Addy screamed again in pain. "I h-have to go. Even though I'll be a-alone, I have to," she said. "I'll d-definitely remem-mber you all."

"Don't talk like that! We can do something. We have to-" the Doctor said.

"Really, it's ok," she said, smiling. "Oh, it's nice b-being with everyone; I'm so glad I got to meet you and I wouldn't tr-trade it for anything."

"Addy, you can't..." His tears fell on his daughter's ever-paling cheeks.

"Once you und-understand that it's impossible to save me, a-all you need to do is let me g-go," she said. "But d-don't worry. Even when we're apart, no m-matter how far apart we b-become, we'll be together whenever you look at your reflection."

"Addy, hear me when I say this," he said. "You're not going to die today."

"You're telling me that I'm not g-going to die? I'm already familiar with rule number one," she said.

The Doctor started crying a little harder. He knew that wouldn't work, but it was worth the try. Addy found his eyes with an extremely weak hand. She wiped away a tear in his eyes.

"I know it's s-sad that I won't be able to see you, but if I close m-my eyes, Dad, I can hear everyone laughing!"

"Addy…" he cried. "Don't do this to me… Please… Don't die…"

"I l-love you... I love you, D-Dad. I love you so much..." I said.

Her body went limp in his arms. He started panicking and put his ear on her chest. There was no sound. She wasn't breathing and her heart wasn't beating.

Adeline Song had died.

The Doctor cried out in angst for his daughter. Amy was sobbing and Rory was trying to comfort her, but it didn't help that he was crying, too.

Rory spoke first. "Would anyone like to say a few words…?" he asked, sniffing.

The Doctor closed his eyes and set his daughter on the floor. He stood up and straightened his bowtie. "I would," he wanted say. But he couldn't. It wasn't physically or mentally possible for him to say anything about his daughter yet. It was too painful for everyone. He felt his hearts were ripping in two.

Adeline… he thought. My little Addy's gone…

Then, he remembered what she had written him down on a piece of paper long ago. He found it lying on the Tardis consul and read through it again.

The Angel will fall
At the worst time.
Before her friends,
Family and allies.
The Angel will fall
After her truth is revealed.
The Doctor will bring
About the murder
Even if he does not mean to do so.
When the Doctor stays still,
When her mirror breaks,
The Angel will fall.
The months will hurt
And she will almost crack,
But not this Angel.
She will fall when the four beats
Sound no more.

(I don't own any of Doctor Who. This was made for entertainment purposes only.)