Let's Kill Hitler: Melody

"Mels?" Amy gasped, her eyes widening as her best friend fell to the ground, "Mels!" she ran over to her with the others. Rory on Mels's right, Amy on her left, the Doctor in the center, but Angel remained where they had been standing, unable to help the sense of dread that was filling her, before slowly walking over. It wasn't dread in that Mels would die...but in that something far worse would be coming.

"Rory!" the Doctor shouted.

"No, no, no, no, no, we've got to stop the bleeding," Rory frantically tried to move Mels' hand to check her wound but Mels just wouldn't budge...

Angel looked at the girl's hand the closer she came, shouldn't...shouldn't there be blood? As terrible as it was to think, that was what happened when someone was shot right? She'd been shot at, it grazed her arm, she'd bled but...even now, there wasn't any blood...

And if there was no blood...was there no wound?

She blinked, rubbing her head, it was starting to hurt more...

~8~

"Sir…that blue box," the young man called, "I've got a match," he looked at the information streaming on the screen, "We're trying to bag war criminals...we've got the biggest one ever right under our noses," the captain frowned at that and walked over to him, curious as to who the biggest one of them all could be, "Forget Hitler. We take this one down the Justice Department will give us the rest of the year off."

"Are you sure?" he asked, his eyes wide as he saw the read out, the scan of the five people before them, who they were.

"There's no question," the young man nodded, suddenly all of them more serious than before, "It's her."

"Oh, dear God," the captain breathed, before spinning around, "Positions!" he ordered, a bark in his words, if they could nab this one...even before the crime she committed...they wouldn't just get the year off, they'd be heroes! "Get ready for war everyone!"

~8~

"How bad is it?" Amy demanded, shaking as she tried to stay strong, but she couldn't help but worry, her best friend had just been shot in front of her and was probably dying! Why did everyone she cared for have to be shot in front of her? First Angel, now Mels...she shook her head, sniffling, "Rory what can we do?"

"Just...keep her conscious," Rory said, it was all he could really say until he could see the wound and how bad it was but Mels still wouldn't move her hand so he could get a proper look, "Stay with us Mels."

"Hey, look at me," the Doctor called, trying to help as Angel just stood behind him, looking down at the girl with a small, curious frown, "Just hold on."

"I used to dream about you…" Mels told him, panting, sounding as though she were struggling to breathe, "All those stories Amy used to tell me."

"What stories?" he asked, ignoring her first comment, "Tell me what stories. Vampires in Venice, that's a belter."

"When I was little," she smirked a bit, smiling dreamily up at him, "I was gonna marry you. Was gonna fight the Universe to get you."

The Doctor tensed at that and tried to smile despite her words, there was something...more than just a child's fantasy in her words, she sounded truly serious, "You can still get married some day, you stay alive and get married," he offered instead.

"To you?" she breathed, before wincing, pressing her hand firmer to her side, making them all tense and grow more frantic, "Suppose you'd have to ask my parents' permission first though."

His attempt at a reassuring smile tensed, "As soon as you're well you can get them on the phone, have a lovely chat."

He was a bit...worried now, not sure if she was just ignoring the fact that he was trying to politely tell her he wasn't going to marry her ever or if she was just too...dazed to realize it, probably because she was dying at the moment...he didn't want to be cruel and flat out refuse her while she was dying, didn't want the last words she heard to be rejection. But...it was bothering him how she kept going on about it, like it didn't matter to her that he was saying no, all she was hearing was 'wait' instead. He could tell it was making Angel uncomfortable how determined the girl seemed to be to see it through, he could feel it, and if she kept it up, he was going to have to tell her to stop, that he was NOT ever going to marry her, no matter how much it would hurt her for those to be the last words she heard.

"You could always do it now, since they're both right here," Mels smiled, seeing the Doctor having been about to open his mouth to do as he had planned and tell her he wasn't going to marry her only to stop and freeze at her words. Everyone exchanged a look, the Doctor turning from Amy to Rory to Mels, "Penny in the air," she smirked, before flinching in pain as her image flickered before them, too quickly for the humans to see but not the Time Lords. The Doctor half-leapt away from her, scrambling back up and to Angel's side, taking the Time Lady's hand as he stepped in front of her, as though blocking her, "Penny drops!"

"What the hell is going on?!" Rory frowned, seeing the image flicker again, this time though he managed to notice it, a change in coloring...

"Back, back, back, get back!" the Doctor pulled them away, desperate to get them away from the girl, but not as desperate as he was to get Angel out of there now. But how?! The TARDIS was a danger at the moment, Berlin was on the brink of war outside, and Hitler's Nazis were roaming around the building, there was nowhere they could go and now he knew...he KNEW exactly who was in front of them. And he felt sick realizing she'd been there the entire time, around Angel, around HIM and he hadn't noticed...

Mels stood up, "Always had a flair for the dramatic," she laughed, perfectly fine, revealing she had been faking the 'gunshot' just before to worry them. She held out her vest to the side and reached into it, pulling out a circular device as it sparked in her hands, making her flinch again as her image flickered, whatever it was...it was hurting her quite a bit.

"Ok, Doctor explain what is happening," Amy shook her head, staring at Mels...a Mels whose appearance kept...she didn't know, it was like there was static, it was jerking around and changing too quickly, but she could see, no matter what it was, Mels was being hurt by it, "Please!"

"Mels, short for…" the Doctor began, tensing, a hard edge in his voice, as the flickering happened more frequently, Mels flinching and jerking with each strike as she held the device in both hands. He recognized it now, it was like the device the Signora had been using in Venice, like the device that the Vinvocci had.

It was a shimmer, it was an advanced shimmer coupled with a perception filter, keyed onto her. Like with the Vinvocci, the image created a field around her, around only her, that contained who she really was, made others see her as another. It was constricting and, with the field starting to break down, it was painful. The jolts from the device were hurting her because he knew, the longer the shimmer was on, the more the person within was used to it, the more it hurt to have it removed by a glitch...a glitch like a gunshot wound to the center of it.

What did you know, Hitler was actually a rather good shot, the bullet was lodged right in the center of the device.

"Melody," Angel swallowed, tensing as the Doctor squeezed her hand, his thumb frantically rubbing circles on her knuckles as he tried to reassure her and calm himself. Both of them knew who this woman was going to reveal herself as...and if this was her, right at the beginning, like they both feared...they honestly didn't know what was coming.

"Yeah, I promised to name my daughter after her…" Amy shook her head, not sure what that had to do with what was wrong with Mels, "Look she's hurt..." she started forward towards Mels when the Doctor jolted forward, dropping Angel's hand to grab Amy and pull her back.

"No!"

"Doctor..."

"You'll name your daughter…after your daughter," the Doctor tried to explain to her, looking at both her and Rory, he had seen it, the flash, the flicker, exactly WHO Mels really was.

"It took me years before I was allowed to be with you," Mels smirked, flinching worse than before as her image flickered again, but this time...this time they got a bigger flash of the image that was trying to break through, an image that made the Ponds stiffen and pray the image they thought they saw was wrong, "But I'm so glad they let me. And you see. You were the ones who raised me, so, in a way, I suppose this is partially your fault as well."

"Our fault?" Amy frowned, utterly confused as to what was going on.

Rory blinked, "Wait...are you..." he looked at the Doctor, "Are you telling us that's...Melody?" Rory looked at Mels, "Our Melody, our future daughter?" he didn't understand, Mels had been a little girl, grown up with them, how was she their daughter too?!

"No, no..." Amy looked at Mels as she smirked, "She can't be 'cos, if she's Melody...then that means she's also…"

"Oh, this is going to hurt," Mels groaned loudly, pulling their attention over to see her slamming her hand down on the device to cancel out the perception filter and the shimmer. But the damage had been done, the device was too badly damaged, and the pain that struck her as it canceled, as the fields that had been around her for years broke down, made her scream, the image flickering faster and faster and faster.

Angel winced, her hand flying to her head as she saw it…

'…hello Benjamin…'

'…watch out that bowtie…'

'…I'm not complaining…'

'…I'm a psychopath, not rude…'

She gasped and glanced at 'Mels,' the girl with her eyes squeezed tightly shut as the device ran its last round, and then at the chair that Rory had tossed Hitler's revolver onto and scrambled over to it...

"Oh, right," Mels grinned as the device's functions cancelled out, leaving none other than what the Ponds knew to be River Song standing there in her place, "Let's see then…" she looked down and began to examine herself, "Oh, it's all going on down there isn't it?" she reached up to her hair, "Hair!" she felt it, "Oh my hair!" and ran over to a mirror by the cupboard Hitler was still banging against, "It just doesn't stop, does it? Look at that! Oh, I haven't seen myself in ages! Oh they didn't want you to know who I was," she sighed, shrugging as she fluffed her hair.

She'd been forced to wear that horrid device since she'd met Amelia as a child. She didn't know why, something about how Amy and Rory would certainly know who she was as she got older and that they couldn't recognize her as she was. She didn't particularly care why, her caregivers had access to time travel, she just assumed that, perhaps something in the future meant that Amy shouldn't recognize her. She didn't much concern herself with that, with the laws of time and whatnot, they were boring, rules in general were boring. She loved breaking them, but the device she'd worn, she had been curious as to why she'd needed to wear it, and now she knew, how else would she have been able to learn about the Doctor and Angel from Amy? How else would she have been able to get into the TARDIS? Get as close as she had to them? She assumed now that Amy perhaps would have met her in the future, looking as she did now, and that the girl couldn't make the connection between 'Melody' and 'Mels.' With time travel and everything, perhaps Amy wouldn't have trusted her if she looked like she did now.

Well, that and she loved tricking people. She loved lying. To everyone, her head teachers, the authorities, even to Amy and Rory. It was so much fun to trick people.

"Oh but I love it! I love it!" she spun to them, "I'm all sort of…mature…" she put her leg up on a fallen table, showing off her older figure, she was a bit older than Amy in reality, but the device made her look the girl's age to fit in, "Hello Benjamin!" she smirked flirtatiously at the Doctor, eyeing him up and down.

The Doctor shook his head, not even considering Melody's new position and pose as he looked at Angel instead, "Who's Benjamin?" he whispered.

But Angel just shook her head, watching Melody intently, unable and unwilling to look away. She was getting a VERY bad feeling. Her stomach was twisting painfully about all this.

"The teeth!" Melody suddenly shouted, making them look at her as she started feeling her teeth...though her eyes were on the Doctor, the corners of her lips quirking up as though she were pleased they were all looking at her again, "The teeth! The teeth! Oh!" she ran right over to the Doctor, "Oh look at them!" and pushed him up onto the desk behind him, making him sit there with her in between his legs despite his attempts to push himself back farther to get away from her, her hands resting on his thighs as he seemed nearly about to have a panic attack, "Watch out that bowtie!"

Angel didn't move, still standing right beside the Doctor, as she shook her head, trying to make sense of this and...a bit...afraid...to see what the Doctor would do in that position. Melody spun around to face her parents, trying to lean back into the Doctor's chest but he just leaned further back, away from her, which made Angel breathe a sigh of relief.

"Excuse me you lot, I need to weigh myself!" Melody ran off, out of the room, leaving them all in shock.

The Doctor slid just a bit down to the edge of the desk once more, reaching out and pulling Angel to him the moment Melody had stepped away from him, tugging her to settle in between his legs instead. He hugged her back to him, resting his chin on her shoulder as he closed his eyes and shook his head, inhaling her scent to calm his hearts. He needed this, needed to replace the displeasure of River with her comfort and warmth, needed to hold HER instead. Yes, it was Melody, it didn't seem to be River Song yet, but really...all he saw was River Song, that's who she was to him, that was it. And where River had been was the LAST place he EVER wanted her.

Angel turned her head to look at the Doctor, with his eyes closed as though trying to erase the last few seconds from his memory, and hesitantly rested her head to his in comfort. She felt a small smile make its way onto her face when she saw him smile and felt his arms tighten around her despite how tense she was.

Amy and Rory moved to sit on either side of them, "That's…Melody…" Amy breathed, shaking her head, but how?

River Song was apparently Melody Pond. Melody Pond was hers and Rory's daughter. So River was her daughter. Fine, ok, whatever. The woman before them was River Song, was Melody, who was also Mels. But Mels had really been Melody wearing some sort of disguise all this time. Oh she was getting a headache. How was she even there? How had she grown up beside her apparent daughter? Did her own daughter get kidnapped like Ayla in the future? But why take her back in time just to let them raise her? What was the point? What was going on?!

She could understand if her daughter had been taken by someone in the future, why she would have to be disguised as Mels if sent back in time. She would have recognized River Song in the future, with the Weeping Angels, and the SECOND she saw her she would have realized something was very, very wrong and the Doctor would have been suspicious and whatever plans that the kidnappers had would have fallen apart. So she understood the need for the disguise as Mels.

But HOW was that even possible!? She wasn't pregnant! Why would her daughter be taken in the future too?! She couldn't understand that. The SECOND she found out she was pregnant she would STOP travelling with the Doctor, she knew how dangerous it was, she would NOT risk her child like that, not when she knew that Rory wanted children more than anything. She'd have been home, what need would there be to take HER child then?

"That's River Song…" Rory shook his head, that was one thing he couldn't see past. Mels, Melody, it didn't matter, just like the Doctor...all he saw was River Song. All he saw was the woman who had been so cruel to Angel, the woman who had refused to help them rescue Ayla, the woman who...who hated Angel.

Oh dear God...his (possible) daughter hated his Pilot.

But HOW was she their daughter?! How could he ever let his daughter be raised into River Song? True, he hadn't known Mels was his daughter, but he'd tried to be a good influence like Amy had. So...what had happened? How was she even there when they were kids? Why was she there? What was the point?!

"Who's River Song?" Melody appeared in the doorway.

They all turned to look at her and Angel muttered, "…spoilers."

"Spoilers? What's spoilers?" she put a hand on her hip and felt her bum, "Hang on, just something I have to check…" and ran out again.

"Does anybody else find this day just a bit difficult?" Rory asked, rubbing his head, "I'm getting this sort of banging in my head."

"Yeah, I think that's Hitler in the cupboard," Amy remarked though she was most certainly feeling it too.

"That's not helping."

"This isn't the River Song we know yet," the Doctor gently got up, walking forward with Angel, his hand firmly held in hers, like an anchor.

If he let go of Angel now...he knew he'd go for River and no one would like what would come from that. All he could see was the woman smirking at them in Demons Run, talking about their daughter. All he could hear was her scolding him while Angel wept in his arms. All he could think was this was the woman who had tried to manipulate him away from Angel and he was NOT ever going to get over that. He wouldn't ever be able to look at her, at any point in her timeline, and not see the things she'd done to them.

If he let go of Angel now...he was fairly sure he might try to kill her.

And with them just finding out that she was Amy and Rory's daughter...essentially Angel's niece...that would not be good for anyone.

"This is her right at the start…doesn't even know her name…"

"Oh that's magnificent!" they heard Melody cry and slowly turned to see her in the doorway, "I'm gonna wear lots of jumpers!"

~8~

"That's her alright," the captain sighed, seeing the woman on screen, "Melody Pond, the woman who kills the Angel."

~8~

"Well now, enough of all that," Melody grinned and whipped out Hitler's revolver, aiming it at them, "Down to business."

Amy and Rory took an instinctive step back as the Doctor stepped forward, trying to stand just a bit in front of Angel. From that far away, they couldn't be sure who she was aiming at, but given how much the River they knew didn't like her, he could only guess the fact the future River hadn't tried to kill her came from years of restraint. This River had no problems pulling a gun on them then...who knew what she would do at her beginning?

"Oh, hello, I thought you wanted to marry me," the Doctor tried to direct the woman's attention to him, he could see her gaze starting to fix on Angel, "No use killing me before then eh?"

Melody smirked, walking closer, "I told you, I'm not a wedding person, and anyway…" she shifted so they could all see she was clearly aiming at Angel, "I don't believe in polygamy. Hard to marry me, when you're with her," she sneered, her eyes narrowing as she glared at Angel.

Rory shook his head, not at all sure why she was holding a gun on Angel. Mels had been...a handful, yeah, a bit on the edge, but never this...violent. She wouldn't pull a gun on someone, he'd never seen her do that till only just before, and...why would anyone pull a gun on Angel? Even if it was because she seemed to hold the Doctor's affection...Mels couldn't be THAT upset by it that she'd do this, could she? Amy had gotten over it. Mels had always said she'd fight anyone to get the Doctor, but he'd never thought she'd be this serious.

"Angel…what's she doing?" Rory asked, his heart racing as Melody just kept her gaze on Angel.

Angel just looked at her sadly, knowing the answer even though the Doctor didn't, "What she was programmed to do."

She didn't know why she'd said that...but she knew that was the answer.

"But where'd she get the gun?"

"Hello Benjamin," the Doctor breathed, thinking back to how that same gun had been lying on the chair by the mirror.

"You noticed," Melody nodded, "Knew you would," she started to smirk, eyeing him up again, "Were you watching me that closely? Naughty boy," she laughed, moving back to stand before the desk...and fired!

Amy and Rory flinched back, the Doctor jolting in front of Angel to protect her, not about to let ANYONE hurt her...but Angel just sighed and moved to his side when no bullets were fired.

"I noticed," Angel corrected, "I saw it coming. Literally."

The Doctor turned to look at her, a gentle smile forming on his face, making Melody frown at how awed it looked, "Psychic."

"Thief," Angel countered, though still looking at Melody sadly.

Melody rolled her eyes and dropped the gun, "I should have known you would," she glared, "They warned me about you, told me to always be prepared," and so she pulled out another gun, the gun she'd first used on them, out of her vest and aiming it.

"And again," Angel shook her head, "Saw that as well," she looked down at the banana now in Melody's hand. She had switched the fruit bowl that had been on the desk, the bowl the Doctor had hidden the gun in, around when the woman had gone for the gun after complimenting the Doctor's bowtie. She gave the Doctor a small look, a little smile, "What do you know, it never gets old."

The Doctor laughed, moving to step closer to her, draping his arm around her tensing shoulders, "Jack was rather cross with that little trick," he tapped her nose, "I think he'd have laughed if YOU did it to him though. He didn't much like me at first did he?"

"You didn't like him either," she reminded him.

"Yes, well, he was handsome," he defended.

Angel blinked, "What did that have to do with anything?"

He just looked at her gently, reaching out his hand to stroke her cheek, just staring into her liquid silver eyes, "I don't do well with handsome men around you," he whispered to her.

"Rory's around me all the time."

Rory smiled at that, Angel was actually...as odd as it was given that he'd had a girlfriend at the time and then a fiancé...the first woman who had made him feel...handsome. She complimented him at times, about his personality, his looks, defended him when the Doctor made fun of his nose, she just...she made him feel good about himself, less awkward, and now, to find out she really did think he was handsome, well that meant a lot to him. It was always nice to get a compliment like that from anyone.

The Doctor pouted at that, "But he's your brother."

"And so is Jack."

"But he wasn't at first," he sighed, still gazing at her, not seeing Melody's eyes narrow even more, her gaze drift back to the fruit bowl, to the gun, "And...handsome men...they have a better chance of taking you away from me, of making you want to leave..."

Angel blinked and looked at him, he'd really thought that she'd have left him to go with Jack if Jack had asked?

She gave him a tiny smile, touched by that, to know that, even then, even in his old old self, he'd still...wanted her to be with him, even if he hadn't realized it, "I would only leave with a great looking one," she told him, reaching up to take the hand that was still tracing her cheek to hold it, "And those sorts only disappear in TARDISes."

He beamed at that, "Oh."

Melody's jaw tensed at the sickening display before her, "Goodness, is killing you going to take all day?" she snapped, needing them to STOP, needing to stop THEM. She probably should have used that, used their distraction to grab the gun...but she wanted them to see her, she wanted them to be scared, she wanted the Angel to see her death coming and be unable to stop it.

The Doctor looked over at her, his eyes narrowing from the love-filled ones that had been directed at Angel, to anger as he strode over to her, snatching the banana out of her hand, "Why?" he asked her, suspicious, "You busy?" he scoffed, moving back to Angel's side, as though he would just let her kill his Mate, please.

"Oh, I'm not complaining," Melody turned and grabbed a letter opener on the desk, spinning around to try and throw it like a knife...only for a spark of gold between her hand and the metal to spring up, making her drop it, hissing in minor pain as she grabbed her hand. It hadn't burned her or singed her, but the little electrical shock had been unexpected.

"I think...if you REALLY wanted to kill me..." for who else could she have been after, she'd been aiming for HER all this time, "You would have done it in the cornfield," Angel remarked calmly.

Amy and Rory shifted, growing concerned both with how adamant Melody seemed in wanting to kill Angel, especially since Angel hadn't done anything to her so early in her timeline, and how calm Angel was being in the face of someone out for her life. They just didn't get it.

Both of them had briefly considered the fact that, perhaps River Song had hated Angel in the future, because of something Angel had done to her in the past. But the farther they got into River's past...the less they saw of something Angel could have done to her. They already doubted Angel would have done anything to warrant such hatred from River but...this was the very beginning of River's time...and what had Angel done? All River/Melody had heard was stories about the Doctor, and Angel, but this was the first time she was meeting them. And already she wanted to kill Angel? You didn't kill someone just because they were together with someone you wanted yourself, not like this, not so cold-bloodedly, and Angel hadn't done anything, so WHY was she so set on killing Angel?! It was really starting to alarm them as they had nothing now, no possible thing Angel had done that could make River want to kill her, nothing that was justified, nothing that made sense.

"We'd only just met!" Melody replied, "I'm a psychopath," she turned back to the fruit bowl, "Not rude," she added, grabbing the gun, Mels' gun, and firing at them. Amy and Rory ducked back, the Doctor grabbing Angel and turning her so HIS back was to Melody, ready and willing to take the bullets for her...but Angel just sighed and gently rested her hand on his chest, pushing him away enough to see Melody again, pulling the clip from her pocket.

"Honestly River," Angel sighed, "Never try to fool a psychic."

"Who's River?" Melody asked, her lips pursing as she failed, yet again, to off the Angel. This was turning out to be harder than she thought! Honestly! How was that happening!? The woman wasn't even remotely clever, was too kind to try and attack back...made for the PERFECT target! All she had to her name was visions that may or may not happen and even if they did...SHE was brilliant, she should have been able to fool the Time Lady or trick her or get something past the visions.

The Angel wasn't THAT amazing.

"You are not a psychopath!" Amy walked over to the Doctor's side as Rory did the same for Angel, "Why would she be a psychopath?" it didn't even matter if Melody was somehow her child, MELS wasn't a psychopath so what had happened?!

Melody stepped forward, "Oh, mummy, mummy pay attention," she circled the Doctor and Angel as they did the same to her, her eyes narrowing as the Doctor took Angel's hand, moving her behind him slightly as they moved, his own eyes glaring back at her, his body rigid, tense, ready for a fight, ready to defend his precious Mate, "I was trained and conditioned for one purpose. I was born to kill the Doctor."

"Demons Run," the Doctor breathed, working something out as he glanced at Amy, staying close to Angel, wary of Melody, "When you found out who River was to you? Remember? This is what they were trying to build," he faced her, "My bespoke psychopath."

THAT was what Vastra and Dorium had been trying to tell him. A weapon to be used against HIM. A weapon he couldn't fight against. Someone trying to kill him that he couldn't stop. There were just two problems with that plan...he had no qualms facing down River at the moment, not after everything she'd done, no matter who her parents were, she had HURT his MATE. And the second...

"They took Ayla though," Rory shook his head, confused, unintentionally stating what the Doctor was thinking, they had taken Ayla so what was River? "How…"

"As you said," Melody smirked, "Spoilers," she stepped up to the Doctor, "And I'm all yours sweetie," she moved to kiss him but Angel pulled him back, "Spoilsport."

"Poisoner," Angel countered.

"No one gets to call me sweetie," the Doctor determined, the word itself equating to River Song and he had to admit, he was sorely tempted to kill her right then before she could try and manipulate him in her future. But then he had to remember, she saved them in the Library, she had to be there to do that. No matter how angry he was...she saved ANGEL in the Library too...

"Not even this River woman?" Melody smirked, reaching out a finger to try and trace his bowtie.

"Especially not her," he glared, slapping her hand away from him.

"Fair enough," she shrugged, "Stupid name," and turned to walk to the window...seeming to be giving up, just like that.

"I don't understand," Rory cut in, he really was starting to get such a terrible headache about all this, he was SO confused, "You've been trained to kill the Doctor…so why are you trying to kill Angel?"

"How long have you known her Amy?" the Doctor asked, his mind racing as he worked out the same thing.

"Since I was a little girl," Amy replied, "Just after I met you two. I was seven."

The Doctor nodded, "So round about 15 years or so?"

Amy nodded, thinking about how they hadn't met her when Prisoner Zero had been there, "Yeah…she moved away for a bit when I went for university, we kept in touch…"

"So, about six years of conditioning," the Doctor looked at Melody, sizing her up, guessing at her timeline, "Training to kill me, from the moment you could walk or talk, learning everything you needed to know on how to kill a Time Lord. Then twice as long hearing nothing but stories about me from the brilliant little girl who believed in me the most. Gotta have warped the training just a bit, don't you think?"

"Wait…" Rory blinked, actually managing to follow along, "So you're saying...all the stories Amy told us what, undid the conditioning?"

"Not undid. Warped. I said warped, didn't I? Warped, yes, brilliant word warped."

"Doctor," Angel whispered, her gaze on Melody turning sad, which seemed to irritate the woman.

"Right yes," he shook his head, "She's been trained to kill a Time Lord yes? But after twelve to fifteen years of fantastic stories about yours truly, the end target shifted from me…"

"To me," Angel nodded, guessing the same.

She had seen it in Amy, the hints of obsession with the Doctor, the crush the ginger girl had developed. Amy though, had had Rory in her life, had managed to find love, had matured and grown and...had moved on. But there was a time where...well, she hated to think of it but, she felt like even if she and the Doctor had been together when Amy was there, with the Doctor remembering and everything, that Amy would have STILL tried to get to the Doctor after the Byzantium. Despite knowing that the Doctor was taken, Amy would have still tried. If she had been willing to do that to her own fiancé...there would be nothing to stop her even if the Doctor was taken.

And this was Melody, Amy's daughter. She saw the same traits in Melody as in Amy but...Melody had a VERY different upbringing. She had been raised and trained to kill a Time Lord. Her entire life had been about that, about being ready to kill someone. She had no qualms taking a life it appeared. And...she had spent most of her life obsessing over the Doctor as Amy had. But she was not as mature as Amy, she was not as capable as moving on, psychopaths rarely were. They became obsessed with something and did whatever they could to get it, got whatever obstacles were in the way out of them. And that meant...

She blinked, startled. That meant HER. That meant...River had always known she was the Doctor's Mate! It made sense that...given the Silent's command in the TARDIS that the Silence in general were well aware that she was his Mate. And if they had been the ones raising Melody like they thought they had...then River had always known who she was to the Doctor, even as a child. She had always known.

She looked down, feeling the Doctor's grip on her hand tighten and realized...he'd caught that. He'd caught her thoughts and come to the same realization. That River had always known she was his Mate and had kept it from them. If it had been something she'd learned later on in her life, they couldn't fault her for not speaking it earlier...but she had known from the start that the Doctor was Mated.

But did she even know what that meant?! If she did...why was she so determined to kill Angel if it meant that the Doctor would die as well? Just how much did she actually know?

"I wasn't lying when I said I'd marry you one day Doctor," Melody smirked, leaning in the window, amused as she watched them, glancing at her nails from time to time. She looked back out the window at Berlin, "Oh! Look at that! Berlin on the eve of war. A whole world about to tear itself apart," she glanced at them, "Now that's my kind of town."

"You can't kill Angel," Amy shook her head, "We won't let you."

Rory nodded, he was getting the feeling that Melody had NO idea what would happen to the Doctor if she killed Angel. She wanted to marry the Doctor? How could she if the Doctor died as a result of killing Angel?

"Oh mummy," she actually started laughing, "Do you really think you could stop me?"

"No," the Doctor agreed, "But I can and I will if you so much as come near Angel again," he glanced back at Amy and Rory, "Sorry."

Melody laughed, "No need for threats, my love, the deed is already done. And so is she...right...about..." she glanced at her watch, "Now."

The Doctor spun around right as Angel nearly collapsed to the ground, clutching her chest in pain. He ran to her side immediately, grabbing her as she fell, catching her before she fell to her knees, Amy and Rory running to help her as well, "Angel!" Rory gasped.

"What's wrong?" Amy breathed, scared.

"What have you done?!" the Doctor turned to shout, glaring at Melody as Angel struggled to breathe.

Melody just smirked, watching, pleased, as tears filled Angel's eyes at her struggles.

"River…" Angel ground out.

"Oh, River, River, River…" Melody rolled her eyes, "I know you're not all that clever but even YOU should be able to get my name right."

"What have you done!?" the Doctor demanded, only Angel collapsing completely against him keeping him from lunging at the woman and forcing the answer out of her.

"It was never going to be a gun for her, Doctor," Melody nearly sneered, "The woman of peace," she mocked, echoing words the Doctor had once referred to Angel as, words that he would always agree with, Angel was truly a woman of peace, but right now...right now he wanted to very much be a man of war, "To think, you, who understands every kind of warfare, didn't even see this coming, not even your psychic could," she waved at him, wiggling her fingers before turning her hand back and flashing him her bright red nails.

And it was then that the Doctor realized…he quickly took Angel's hand, extending her arm, exposing the scratch Mels had given her when she had threatened her in the cornfield, and flashed the sonic against it, traces of poison came up in the reading, making his eyes widen in horror.

"Pity it doesn't work quite as fast as with a kiss," Melody sighed, disappointed more in that it had taken so long to kick in. The effects though, would be the same, "Not that I'd ever kiss you with poison on my lips sweetie," she laughed, "Oh well, ta ta," she turned and dropped down from the window, her work there was done, now she just had to wait for the Angel to meet her fate and then the Doctor would seek her out and the real fun could begin.

"What's wrong with her?" Rory looked at the Doctor, frantic, "What has she done to Angel?"

"Poisoned her," he breathed, looking down at her as she strained to look up at him, her body tensing against his as shots of pain hit her.

"Why didn't you see it?" Amy asked her, concerned, "You saw what she was doing with the guns but…"

"I can't…see everything," she groaned before breathing heavily, "I'll be fine…"

"You're dying!" Rory shouted.

"But I've got a plan," the Doctor nodded, his mind racing to come up with one, but he'd need help, more help than the sonic could provide.

"What plan?" Amy looked at him, seeing concern etched on his face.

"Not letting her die," he replied tensely.

And he wouldn't.

He had already lost his daughter to Kovarian and the Silence, he would NOT lose his Mate as well.

~8~

"Scanning her," the young woman called, before letting out a sad breath, "She's dying alright."

"But…she can't be," the young man shook his head.

~8~

Angel groaned and pushed herself up, the Doctor helping her as was Rory, "Ok, what do we do? How do we help?"

The Doctor handed Amy the sonic, "Take this, the TARDIS can home in on it," he turned to Rory, getting a firmer grip on Angel and ushered him away, "Now go, get after her."

"Why!?" Rory shook his head, not wanting to leave his Pilot, his sister in such a state. He was a nurse, he could help!

"There's a psychopath loose in Berlin. And…she's your daughter. She's YOUR responsibility. So go."

Rory rolled his eyes and moved to run to the window, he knew what Angel would want him to do. There really WAS a psychopath loose in Berlin and who knew who else she would hurt in her rampage. Angel would want them to be saved, he had to stop Melody, for Angel. He could only guess that the poison was some sort of alien thing or some advanced one that he couldn't really help with despite wanting to. He would be a distraction and a liability, get in the Doctor's way, the man HAD to have had some experience in things like this. So while the Doctor saved Angel, he could save Berlin.

Amy took his place beside Angel, trying to help the Time Lady to the TARDIS.

Rory stopped at the window, looking down where Melody was approaching a small group of armed Nazis. They turned, locking and loading, aiming at her, "Hello boys," she called.

"You said the smoke was deadly!" Amy shouted as they reached the door to the TARDIS.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, the smoke's fine, the poison will kill her first," the Doctor struggled to get the door open, his hands were shaking too badly to get the key in, so Angel weakly reached out and touched the door, the door opening under her touch as TARDISes always had for her. He turned, kissing her forehead quickly and then shouted at Amy, "Now get after River!"

"I don't understand ok, one minute she's trying to kiss you and then she's killing someone…"

"She's been...brainwashed," Angel groaned, leaning in the doorway of the TARDIS.

"It all makes sense, plus she's a woman," the Doctor added but Amy opened her mouth, "Oh, shut up! Amelia, Angel's dying, I don't have time!" he shoved her away and moved to help Angel into the TARDIS but she struggled not to go, "Angel!" his hearts were racing and there wasn't any time to waste...

"Go...with her," Angel told him.

"No…"

"They're going to...need your...help!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"You did before!" she snapped, grunting in pain and closing her eyes, trying to breathe, but it hurt...everything hurt, "You can again," she whispered, before forcing her eyes open to look at him, "Just...go help them!"

He swallowed hard, shaking his head at her request, "Never again," and pushed her into the TARDIS, shutting the doors behind them, keeping Amy out, "Extractor fans on!" he called and the fans started up, clearing the smoke, "Oh!" he looked mildly surprised about that, "That works?"

~8~

"What are you doing here?" one of the Nazis asked as Rory snuck down behind some crates, watching Melody closely.

"Well," Melody smirked, "I was on my way to this gay gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled when I suddenly thought 'gosh the Third Reich's a bit rubbish, I think I'll kill the Fuehrer.' Who's with me?"

The Nazi lowered his gun, "Shoot her."

"No!" Rory gasped as the men fired...only to stop and look on shocked as the bullets hovered in midair before Melody.

Melody just smiled up at them, "Tip for you all? Any good assassin would never leave home without an electromagnetic force field."

And suddenly...the bullets shot back at the men, killing them as Melody laughed, walking over to them and plucking their guns from their cold, dead hands.

Amy jumped down by Rory who was watching her stone-faced at what she was doing, at the...glee she seemed to get. But then again...she had said she was a psychopath...this was what they were capable of doing, weren't they?

Melody hopped on a motorbike, "Thanks boys!" she laughed at their unmoving bodies, mockingly adding, "Call me!"

"What are you doing!?" Amy shouted as Rory held her back from trying to go after the woman, she had JUST killed Nazi soldiers, he was NOT about to let Amy be her next victim. Though he doubted Melody would kill her, if she still clearly needed to be born, but...he didn't want her to get hurt.

"New body, new town…I'm going shopping!" Melody sped off.

Rory and Amy looked around for a way to follow her when another Nazi pulled up on a motorbike of his own and looked at them. Rory and Amy exchanged a glance before Rory turned to the Nazi, "Look…I know how this looks…let me explain everything from the beginning…heil!" he saluted.

"Heil!" the soldier saluted...and Rory punched him right out.

"Come on!" he ran past the man and onto the motorbike, Amy shook herself out of her shock at seeing Rory punch the Nazi and jumped on behind him.

"Can you ride a motorbike?"

He shrugged, "I expect so. It's that sort of day," they raced off after Melody, unnoticing of the Nazi behind them getting up mechanically.

~8~

"Ok," the captain sighed, rolling his eyes, "This time, let's do the bike too," they watched the readings as the robot shifted to a have a bike under it and headed out after the Ponds.

"You see, she can't be dying," the young man pointed at the screen before him, all the information about the Angel.

"But the Angel is confirmed deceased. We have her records."

"But she doesn't die here. She does in Utah, by Lake Silencio, April 22nd, 2011…"

"Time can be rewritten," the young woman remarked, "Remember Kennedy?"

"This time can't. It's confirmed...fixed point. The Angel must always die exactly then, she always has, and she always will, protecting the Doctor."

"Then someone screwed up because she's dying right now," the captain sighed, rubbing his head.

~8~

Angel collapsed just as the fans kicked on, the Doctor immediately scooping her into his arms and carrying her to the console floor, gently setting her down as the TARDIS hummed frantically.

"I'm fine…" Angel wheezed out as the Doctor sat beside her, pulling her into his arms, her back to his front, much like they had sat after stopping that killer star, his arms wrapped around her, "Sissy, I'll be alright…" she tried to calm the box...but the TARDIS didn't quiet though, only grew more frantic in her alarm at her sister's plight.

"You're shutting down…going to need an interface. Voice interface!" the Doctor called, holding her close as she spasmed in pain, "Come on, emergency!"

A hologram of Idris appeared, "Voice interface enabled."

Angel groaned, clutching her chest, the Doctor reaching up to grab her arm and hand, holding it as he held her, "Sissy…"

"I am not your sister, I am a voice interface."

"Right," she nodded, "Right."

The Doctor swallowed hard, knowing that his sonic wouldn't be able to actually tell him much about this exact poison, it was too rare, he knew that much, "How is she doing?"

"Her system has been contaminated by the poison of the Judas Tree," 'Idris' stated, "She will be dead in 32 minutes."

Angel winced and grabbed the side of her neck.

The Doctor nodded, "Ok, so…" he looked at Angel, solemn, "You need to regenerate."

"Regeneration disabled. She will be dead in 32 minutes."

The Doctor winced at that, knowing that it also meant trying to use the Vortex to burn off the poison was useless as well. It probably could but...with Angel's pain and how tired they both were and how much focus it would take...she wouldn't be able to do it. She had an equal (probably greater) chance of burning out all her internal organs in the process. She was in too much pain to focus like that. So it was up to him!

"Unless I can cure her, yeah?" he looked up, hopeful. He knew there was one, knowing what the poison was now, he KNEW there was one out there! He just...

"There is no cure," the interface cut into his thoughts, "She will be dead in 32 minutes."

"Why do you keep saying that?!" he snapped, Angel couldn't die! He couldn't lose her! Not now! He'd JUST gotten back to her! He knew why the interface was saying that there was no cure, it wasn't that there literally wasn't a cure, but that...there wasn't one that could be made in 32 minutes even with a time machine. The cure took ages to make and the ingredients were rare and he didn't know the first place to look to find an already-made cure and...there wasn't time.

For once, the Time Lords had run out of time...

"Because she will be dead in 32 minutes."

"So you're basically skipping 31 whole minutes where she's absolutely fine!"

"She will be fine for 31 minutes, she will be dead in 32 minutes."

"Will you stop..."

"Doctor," Angel cut in, sounding near tears, "Please stop...stop yelling..."

He closed his eyes and rested his head to hers, taking a deep breath, trying to calm down, all the shouting couldn't be helping but...HE felt so helpless, he just...he was the Doctor, it was his JOB to cure things.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered in her ear, his forehead resting on her temple as he rocked her a bit, just...he felt like HE couldn't breathe knowing she was so in pain.

"We need to...help River," Angel groaned, "She needs us…"

"She did this to you!" he nearly shouted at her this time, the fear in his hearts mounting, nearly. He just...he couldn't do this, not again. She had nearly died on the Valiant, and again in the year after that, but then he'd had a year with her, he had time to think of cures, this time...he barely had a half hour.

"She's just starting..."

"That's right," he nodded, squeezing her tighter, "You can't die now."

"She will not die now," the hologram told him, "She will die in 32 minutes."

"Yes, I know," Angel nearly laughed, "You're very...persistent Sissy."

"I am not your sister, I am a voice interface."

Angel screamed, biting her lip to try and contain it, and grabbed her chest, curling her legs up, curling in on herself in the Doctor's arms. He held her tightly, cradling her as he looked at the hologram, "Ok, ok, ok, we need to get her something for the pain now…come on Idris. Please…"

"I am not Idris, I am a voice interface."

"You've got to tell me how to help her! Please! I can't lose her again. Idris PLEASE."

The hologram of Idris looked at him a moment before it blinked, and a voice, that had just slightly more emotion to it than a hologram had right to have, spoke, "Fish fingers and custard."

"What did you say?" the Doctor looked up suddenly, "Fish fingers and custard?!" he laughed, "Oh! Yes! Fish fingers and custard!" he turned to Angel, his forehead to hers as she had curled onto her side, "Did you hear that?"

Angel nodded, giving him a little weary smile, "Ayla's favorite…"

He blinked, tears in his eyes, "That's right," he nodded, "Ayla's favorite," he kissed her forehead, "You've got to be strong for her, you hear me?" he reached up to cup her cheek with one hand, his thumb stroking it, as she grabbed his wrist with one her hands, clinging to it as he stared into her eyes, "You can't give up before we've found her. She needs her mother yeah?" Angel nodded, gripping his jacket tighter in her other hand, the two of them curled together on the floor of the console room, "Fish," he held her close, moving to a kneel, "Fingers," before helping her to her feet, "And," he got her onto the jump seat, "Custard!" and grabbed a lever, sending the TARDIS flying.

~8~

A group of wealthy Germans were sitting in a restaurant, eating food and listening to live music...when suddenly gunfire rang out.

Melody walked in, two large guns facing up to the ceiling in her hands, "Ladies and gentlemen. I don't have a thing to wear," she aimed her guns at them, a dangerous smirk on her face, "Take off your clothes."

~8~

Rory just happened to pull up before the restaurant, stopping just across the street, "Ok, all of Berlin. How do we find her?"

"I don't know," Amy shrugged, "Look for clues."

"Clues?" he mimicked her accent, "What kind of 'clues?'"

"Shut up," she whacked his chest...when the patrons ran out of the restaurant in their under things, screaming.

"Ok…" Rory nodded, when another bike pulled up to them.

They looked over to see Amy sitting there, mechanically turning her head to look at them...

A/N: Confused? I know I am, and I'm the one who wrote it lol.

We'll find out quite more about dear River Song in the next chapter ;) But have you noticed something...different about her in this chapter than in the episode? There's quite a lot, but one very important detail that we'll find out for sure in the next chapter ;) We'll soon find out how River is there when it was AYLA who was taken and quite a few more things about River's upbringing/knowledge }:)

As for the poison...I was watching the movie Holes once a long time ago and one of the characters commented on how they made their nail polish with snake venom in it. That it was only dangerous when wet if she scratched someone with it. As I was writing this episode, I knew that 'River' would only ever kill Angel but...I couldn't see her kissing her and I didn't want to do a dart thing like with Proffy. I actually started thinking about Amy's red nail polish for some reason, and then thought about River as her daughter and then the movie and was like BOOM! So that's how that moment came about, River had the poison on her nails (probably wet) and when she scratched Angel pulling her back to aim her gun at her...it got into her system }:)

Lol, I can say that...you guys are a little lucky, as I was editing this chapter, it end up being so much longer than I thought it would be that I actually considered making this particular episode 4 chapters! But I wanted to really get to everything about River sooner so I decided to just leave it as a long-ish chapter :)

And, quick question. It was mentioned/wondered about who the winner of the HOTS challenge was, if there was one. I didn't originally intend for there to be a winner, with it being more of a fun little thing to do to relieve the tension of Thella withdrawals and things. But I wanted to ask, if you guys want a winner? If you do, I would NOT be able to pick it so I'd put it up for a vote on my profile with the titles of the submissions and let you guys vote yourselves. I just loved them all so much I couldn't pick only one. So if you guys do want a winner, just let me know and I'll decide whether to put the poll up or not :)

Also, the next chapter of IYC should be up in about 7-8 hours after posting this one, the family thing last night ran longer than I thought it would so I didn't get a chance to edit it :( But those little boys were THRILLED! So that made up for it :)

Some notes on reviews...

I don't think it's bad at all, even though it's the start of River's timeline in the show...we sort of saw here just how much she knows and the fact that she was gunning for Angel all along :)

There will definitely be a lot Angel will have to deal with with the Doctor, we'll really start to see them healing more when the Ponds come to stay :) Angel will forget everything, not just the Mating }:) I'm looking forward to the Oncoming Storm moment too :) There'll be a reason behind Angel's forgiveness that we'll see in the next chapter. She's already agreed to forgive River no matter what she does because of the Library, but actually doing it will be another thing. But she will have a rather...different thought process on it all than the Doctor will :) We'll have to see how the amnesia goes, I suppose we'll find out if we hit 1000 if it'll be in TWORS or not :)

The fluff will be coming more when the Ponds come to stay :) Their presence will really help the Time Lords heal and for the fluff to pick up :) It's almost hard to do them being fluffy when they're both so focused on finding Ayla :( But it'll be coming oh yes :)

We'll definitely see more of what Mels thought of Angel as she grew in the next chapter and how it changed over time :)

Hi! I'm glad you like the stories so much and I'm very happy that they were able to inspire you to write some of your own ^-^ I have no idea why this keeps happening to them lol, I think it's mostly to make them stronger. If they can make it through this, NOTHING and no one will tear them apart later ;)

I think the Doctor can't really say that they want to be left alone because...the people contacting them risked their lives to come help Angel and Ayla. It would be really terrible of him to snap at them and say shut it, go away, leave us alone, when they dropped what they were doing to come help. They didn't really know if the plan would work, if the army wouldn't just blow up the base and kill them all or something, their lives really were in danger and they still came to help :) He understands that they love Angel and Ayla too and just want to help, and, like 11 does in The Snowmen/NOTD, they helped him when he needed it and he owes them :)

I'm not entirely sure which thing you mean lol :) There's quite a few other theories floating about as to how Angel doesn't die in certain episodes and things :)

I don't hate Angel, quite the opposite lol, I almost love her more than Proffy and Evy :) I think it's just hard for her right now because...this is us actually seeing all the hardships she's enduring to become amazing :) With the Professor and her training and Evy with her Link/the war/Mason, we don't really see the bad things, just hear about them and get glimpses. Here we're seeing what Angel's going through that will make her stronger :) I really do love her quite a lot :)

Lol, I find myself thinking I might be a bit evil yup :) But things will start looking up VERY soon actually ;)

Lol, that's ok, you review whenever you want to :) And no worries, the fluff will be coming back very soon :)

For Lance, I sort of see Donna hunting him down and threatening him with bodily harm to come lol :) Like she KNOWS he felt something happen to Angel and that he's trying to deny it. I could see her storming up to him and getting in his face about how Angel saved him and he owes her...and maybe Jack standing in the background with his gun :) But omg, I would FEAR for the army if Jackie was there. She'd definitely have been able to fight the werewolf for the diamond and win on her own, the army SO wouldn't have stood a chance ;) Lol, I'm actually debating doing a chapter in the saga where we see River's entire thought process, sort of like...her 'life flashing before her eyes' in the Library where we see more of her timeline, in order, of her meeting the Doctor to make more sense of everything, but I'm not sure just yet ;)

Not sick exactly lol :) Poisoned definitely ;)

And a very Happy Birthday to Tayla! I hope you have a truly fantastic day :)