Dedicated to my new internet best friend Writless, for reading the beginning of this and convincing me that wasn't a complete piece of crap.


.17.

A Good Man Goes To Journey's End

Part Seven

Is it sad that I really want to ask someone what the Reality Bomb is?

Because, well, as many times as I have seen this episode, with everything that has been going on today and with how long it's been since I've actually watched this episode, I have no idea what that is. It's not good, obviously, totally getting that. But… well, I'm a bit confused.

"Activate planetary alignment field!" Red Dalek, I assume Supreme Dalek, gives the command. "Universal reality detonation in two-hundred rels!"

Ohh… Universal reality detonation? That sounds very, very bad…

The Doctor is glued to the spot, but his terror and desperation is evident. "You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just STOP!"

Davros roars in laughter, sending a shiver down my spine. I don't think I have every heard something so evil, so insane, so full of malice. Not even the Master. "Nothing can stop the detonation! Nothing! And no one!"

Famous last words, buddy.

Whoop. Whoop. Whoop.

See? See! This that's why you never say things like that!

Beaming, I turn to face the sound, that amazing sound. I'm so happy the Doctor leaves the brakes on. Otherwise, we would never be able to hear her.

The Tardis.

"But that's…" the Doctor says, confused, thrown. Briefly, the Doctor and I meet eyes. I smile wider, laughing in a "I've completely lost my marbles" kinda way.

Maniacal laughter, high pitch. Dalek Caan. That oversized booger with tentacles.

Davros stares as the Tardis begins to materialize. "Impossible."

The Tardis is shining. The door opens. The Metacrisis is framed by blinding backlight.

"Brilliant…" Jack says, awed.

I glance over at the shocked Davros. "Oh, forgot to mention. I lied."

The Metacrisis rushes forward, carrying some sort of big gun in his hands. I swear to god, time has slowed down. The Metacrisis aims the gun at Davros.

I gasp and cough suddenly. A tiny trickle of orange light sparkles out of my mouth. One thought enters my brain.

No. It's not a thought. It's an action.

I run.

I jump in front of the Metacrisis.

"Don't!" the Doctor shouts.

I don't even have time to wonder why I'm doing this. Or to wonder why my back is on fire.

I fall. The Metacrisis catches me. The gun flies off to the side, useless. Somewhere in the distance, I hear the Doctor scream.

"Activate holding cell," Davros orders.

I peer up into the astonished face of the Metacrisis.

"Why did you do that?" he demands, slowly setting me on the ground.

"I don't know…" I wince. The pain in my back is fading. I blink back tears. "I wasn't thinking."

"You can't just…"

But he's interrupted.

Donna runs out of the Tardis, scooping up the gun. "Doctor! I've got it! But I don't know what to do!"

My hand flies to my mouth, muffling a scream. Davros shoots Donna with electricity. She flies back, so far, hitting the ground with a thud that makes me flinch. And that flinch makes my back spasm.

Not just my back… my whole body is starting to spasm.

"DONNA!" the Doctor screams.

Oh god, I think, twitching on the ground. Oh please. Please let her be all right. Please let her become the Doctor Donna. Please don't let my interference ruin everything!

"Are you all right, Donna?" the Doctor pleads.

No answer.

Tears prickle at the edge of my eyes. Please! Please, please, please…

"Destroy the weapon!" Davros orders.

A Dalek fires at the gun. It explodes into sparks and fire.

"I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor," Davros continues, pleased. "They are pathetic."

The Doctor and I share a look. His eyes are pleading me. He wants to know that everything is going to be ok. But I can't promise that. Because I might have made things worse.

My eyelids are so heavy…

"How comes there're two of him?" Rose asks.

"Human biological metacrisis," I answer, my voice hollow, barely above a whisper.

"Never mind that!" the Doctor spits. "Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb.

The Supreme Dalek says, "Detonation in twenty rels! Nineteen…"

"Stand witness, Time Lord," Davros says. "Stand witness, Humans." I force my eyes open. An image appears above us, displaying the planets. "Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and... oh - the end of the universe is come."

"Nine... eight... seven... Six…"

The world is getting fuzzy. I try to sit up, but my body goes slack. The Metacrisis gathers me up, bracing my upper half. My head lolls against his shoulder.

The tingling is turning into fire. But I can't move.

Donna slowly pops her head up from behind a control panel. She's ok! Oh my god! She's ok! Oh, please, please, please let the time line continue as it's supposed to! I promise I will never interfere again! If I live through this.

"Five... four... Three…"

Oh my god… oh yes! YES! She's reaching for a button!

"Two…"

My eyes close and my body goes completely slack. I'm falling. Falling into a hole of time and forever. Blackness everywhere. Nothing.

But then a hand reaches for me. I grasp it.

River Song smiles at me.

"One…"

My eyes open.

I'm completely alert.

I whip my head back to the screen. It disappears. An alarm, like the most annoying alarm clock in history, starts buzzing.

The Metacrisis lets me go. I jump to my feet, turning my attention back to Donna.

"What?" the Metacrisis asks, puzzled. I don't know if he's talking about me or Donna.

She's smiling.

"Oh... closing all Z-Neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop!" She flicks a switch. "That button there!"

She's confident. She's quirky. She's saving the universe.

She's the Doctor Donna.

And I'm… not just Lily anymore.

"System in shutdown!" A Dalek exclaims.

"Detonation negative!" another adds.

The Supreme Dalek looks like it might explode. "Explain! Explain! EXPLAIN!"

The Doctor doesn't know what to think. "Donna, you can't even change a plug!"

She just grins. "Do you wanna bet, Time Boy?"

"You will suffer for this!" Davros warns.

Cocking my head to the side, I turn to face Davros. I smile as his own weapon is used against him. His body convulses with electricity. He's shrieking.

"Oh…!" Donna says. "Bioelectric dampening field with a retrogressive arc inversion."

I turn to her. "Brilliant," I say. "Now, can you get me out of here, dear?"

Davros interrupts us. "Exterminate her!"

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

I roll my eyes and cross my arms. This is starting to get boring. Less with the talking, more with the fighting, please. I'm not exactly one to sit around on the sidelines, after all. Not when there's action afoot.

"Weapons non-functional!"

The Daleks are in a panic and I can't help but laugh.

"What?" Donna teases. "Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix?"

The Doctor is amazed. "How did you work that out? You…"

The Metacrisis shares a smile with me. "Time Lord. Part Time Lord." He lifts me into his arms and spins me around. I give a whoop.

Donna shrugs a shoulder, dainty. "Part Human! Oh, yes! That was a three-way biological metacrisis."

"Three way?" the Doctor's head whips to the Metacrisis and myself.

The Metacrisis sets me down and I smirk.

"Part Doctor. Part Donna." Donna's eyes meet mine. "And part Lily."

We share a knowing look. She knows what's inside me. And that I'm not exactly me right now. Well… I am me. I'm more me than I've been in a very long time.

The Doctor stares at her, then at me, then at the Metacrisis. "The Doctor-Donna... just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming! The Doctor Donna."

"Anytime now, Doctor Donna," I say, turning back to Davros. My arms relax into a fighting stance, ready to pluck my pistols at the slightest provocation.

"Holding cells deactivated," Donna chirps. "And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits - get to work!"

The Metacrisis and the Doctor share a surprised look, but then dash to do as she says.

"Stop them! Get them away from the controls!" Davros orders.

I slip a pistol out of it's holder and point it at him. I cock my head to the side. "I think you should stay where you are, Davros."

"And… spin!" Donna says.

The Daleks around us start spinning in circles.

But I really only have eyes for Davros.

"What is this treachery?" he asks. The giant blue eye and the two dark holes in his face stare at me. "Who are you to pull a gun on me?"

"Help me. Help me." A Dalek circles past us.

"I am Lillian Meyers," I say. There is no recognition in Davros's face. I slowly crank a dial on the gun, increasing the effectiveness of the beam, should I choose to shoot. "And I am also River Song." The voice is no longer mine. It's deeper, the vowels are more rounded.

His jaw drops.

"How can this be?" Davros asks.

I shrug, the action not mine, but my voice is back. "I'm wondering that myself."

"What is happening?" the Supreme Dalek says. "Explain!"

"Come on then, boys," Donna yells, excited. "We've got twenty-seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron."

"Stop this at once!" Davros shouts.

I step closer to him. "Do you not see this gun in your face? I will shoot you if you don't shut your mouth."

But half that sentence is lost.

Because I'm back on Demon's Run.

And I'm pointing the gun at the 11th Doctor's thunderous face.

I instantly put my arm down.

"Sorry, sweetie," I say, stuffing the gun back into the holster. "I was just about to shoot Davros." I give him what I hope is an innocent smile.

He looks me over, calculating. Oh, I love that look. The thinking look. One of my favorites.

"Well… it's a good thing you're here now."

I take a breath and look around me. Small room. Lots of computery things. Big blue man at the controls. Silurian behind me. Vastra. The Doctor has his arms crossed as he regards me.

I ignore him, focusing instead on what's on the screen. I don't understand most of it, but I can tell that they are files. On Melody.

Is this bad for time? Two Rivers, one place? Well, TECHNICALLY, there's a baby Melody and an imprint of what River once was. I mean, it is River but it also isn't. Because it's also me.

It's weird. Because I know she's here. I can feel her inside me and I can feel her taking control. But… My thoughts are my own.

"You're not you right now, are you, Lily?" the Doctor asks.

My eyes flick over to him. "What makes you say that?"

"I know that smirk. That's not Lily's smirk."

I glance at Dorium and Vastra. They're both very confused.

The Doctor lowers his voice. "Are you in a state to help us?" he asks me.

"Of course," I drawl, turning around, straightening his bowtie. "If anything, I'll be of even more help now." My body curls into his, flirting. His eyes widen in confusion, but a flirtatious smile betrays his feelings. His hands grip my hips, possibly of their own volition.

Vastra interrupts us. "We don't have time for this. I have a question. A simple one. Is Melody human?"

The Doctor immediately whips her head to her. "Sorry, what? Of course she is!" He laughs and turns back to me. "Completely human, isn't that right, Lily?"

I don't say anything. I try to keep my face as neutral as possible.

He gives me a curious look, as if I'm betraying him. He lets me go.

"They've been scanning her since she was born," Dorium says, typing something at the controls. "And I think they found what they were looking for."

I turn my attention to the screen. The one good thing about River having control of the body right now is that she's way better at lying than I am. So I don't react when I see the image of Melody's DNA.

"Human DNA," the Doctor says, stepping closer.

Vastra is beside him. "Look closer. Human plus."

The Doctor looks at me. I raise an eyebrow.

"Specifically...human plus Time Lord."

"But she's human!" the Doctor exclaims. "She's Amy and Rory's daughter. This is rubbish. Lily, tell them." He crosses his arms, not looking at any of us.

Which is good. Because, despite the River orientation of my body right now, I'm pretty sure the guilt is written all over my face.

Vastra, thank god, speaks up before I do. "You told me about your people. They became what they did through prolonged exposure to the time vortex. The untempered schism…"

"Over billions of years! It didn't just happen!" He spins back to us.

"So how close is she? Could she even regenerate?"

"No, no!" But then he studies my face. "I don't think so."

"You don't sound so sure," Vastra says.

He turns to her. "Because I don't understand how this happened!"

"Think about it, Doctor," I say. He turns back to me. "Think about the wedding."

He gives me a strange look. "Well, I was little pre-occupied with the universe rebooting—long story—and having legs again!"

I step towards him, putting my hands on his shoulders, looking deep into those light eyes. "Melody started in the Tardis. In the Time Vortex."

He scoffs, breaking away from me, pacing. "No, no, impossible! It's all running about, sexy fish vampires and blowing up stuff. And Rory wasn't even there at the beginning. Then he was dead, then he didn't exist, then he was plastic, then the universe started again. So technically the first time they were on the Tardis together, in this version of reality, was on their…" He stops. He pears at me over his shoulder, gulping.

I just nod.

"On their what?" Vastra asks.

"On their wedding night."

"I'm sorry, Doctor," I say as he starts pacing, clearly agitated. "It's not like I could tell you!"

"Doesn't make sense!" he exclaims. "You can't just cook yourself a Time Lord."

I try to reach for his shoulder, but he snatches it back.

"Of course not," Vastra says. "But you gave them one hell of a start and they've been working very hard ever since."

Dorium chimes in. "And yet they gave in so easily. Does this not that bother anyone else?"

I throw a hand to my heart. I'm so caught up in the moment, I've forgotten. The Headless Monks. They're about to wipe everyone out. Well, not everyone, but, anyway, there is about to be this huge battle.

I have to warn them.

I take one look at the Doctor. No, I shouldn't tell him. He needs to be up here, not down there. He's the mastermind… he's not the fighter. I'm the fighter. I get that now. That must be why River Song is inside me. To make me more brave.

I should have told them that Melody isn't real and that she's someplace very, very far away.

But there isn't time for words. There's never enough time. Ironic, isn't it?

"Why even do it?" the Doctor asks. "Even if you could get your hands on a brand new Time Lord, what for?"

"A weapon," I say.

He's confused, unsure. "Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?"

For a second, I wonder why he isn't asking me more. Why he's not trying to address River. Oh. Wait. Of course. He doesn't know that River is Melody. That hasn't happened yet.

"Well...they've seen you," Vastra says carefully.

"Me?" the Doctor sits down, stunned.

"You're right," I say, turning to Dorium and Vastra. "This was too easy. We need to get back to the others."

I cast a look over my shoulder, but the Doctor is staring into nothing.

"Me?" he questions.

I kneel in front of him. "There was nothing you could have done differently," I say, taking his hands. He's not looking at me. His mind is elsewhere. "This was meant to happen, my love." Not my words. River's words. But he doesn't hear them. I caress his cheek then kiss his forehead. And then I get up and turn away.

I have to leave him to his thoughts. He can't be part of this battle.

Head raised, I jog ahead of Vastra and Dorium, winding through corridors, making my way to the hangar.

Um… how do I know the layout so well? There aren't any signs that tell me where to go, but I find the hangar easily.

"Lily!" Amy squeals as she spots me. I stop jogging when I reach her and Rory. She's cradling baby Melody in her arms. "You're back!"

"We have a problem," I say, only slightly out of breath.

"What?" Rory asks, taking a protective step towards Amy.

I swallow. "This was too easy," I plead both of them with my eyes. I bite my lip as I look down at the baby. The Flesh.

Vastra and Dorium approach just as the a light, a force field, appears around the Tardis.

I whip my pistols out of the holsters, waiting, ready.

"What's that?" Amy asks.

"Force field," I say, walking in a slow circle, guns out, searching for trouble. God, why can't I see them?

Vastra confirms my comment by trying to touch the light around the Tardis.

Loud banging.

The Monks are chanting.

"And those are the doors." A female cleric says. What was her name? "Locking."

The baby is starting to cry.

Wincing, I shove one of the guns back into the holster. To Rory, I say, "We need to hide them." I cock my head towards Amy and Melody.

"Is that the Monks?" he asks.

"Oh, dear god…" Dorium cries. "That's the attack prayer."

"Rory!" I command. "Amy! With me, come on."

Rory puts his arm around Amy and Melody. I lead them away from the middle of the hangar, glancing over my shoulder. The corners of the room light up. The Monks are charging their swords. I fall back, nodding Rory ahead of me, taking the rear. Just in case.

"Rory, no offense to the others, but you let them all die first, OK?" Amy says. She's hunkering down behind some metal crates.

I glance over my shoulder at the couple and smile.

"You're so Scottish," Rory says. He kisses her, then Melody's head.

"We have to go," I tell him.

He looks up at me, nodding. Amy peaks from behind a crate.

"Lily!" she calls as I turn to leave. I look back at her. "Do you remember what you said to me in the forest with the weeping angels?"

I shake my head. "That hasn't happened for me yet."

She smiles. "Then you'll be fine."

"Centurion! Lily!" Vastra calls. "You're needed!"

Rory gives Amy one last kiss. Then we leave.

"Do you know anything about this?" Rory asks me as we make our way back to the group.

"About what?" I stare straight ahead.

He grabs my arm, stopping me, forcing me to look at him. "This isn't the time for games, Lillian. We're talking about my daughter here. Something tells me you haven't been quite honest with me."

I look up at the ceiling. "Rory, this isn't the time."

"You're always saying that. This IS the time!"

He desperation breaks my heart. I place a hand on his shoulder. "Rory," I say. River takes control. I think she knows that I don't want to lie to him anymore. "This is The Battle of Demons Run. The Doctor's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further."

He lets go of my arm. Something akin to suspicion and enlightenment battle in his eyes. "You're not the first person to say that to me today."

I smile. "I know."

But before he can say anything else, I break away from him and run back to the group.

"We don't have to fight," Dorium is saying. "I'm friends to the Monks, they know me."

"Yeah," Rory says, nearing anger. But he's looking at me. "And they know you just sold them out to the Doctor."

"Oh, they'll understand," Dorium waves the concerns off. "It's only me, only silly old me." He walks towards shadows, towards the Monks. "You understand, don't you?"

I draw my other pistol. My hands are shaking. I gulp, closing my eyes, ignoring everyone shouting at Dorium to get back here. Ignoring the sound of his head thumping to the floor. I center myself, even as my skin wants to jump off my body.

"The child!" Vastra shouts. "Protect the child at all costs!"

I open my eyes.

I aim. At Davros.