Chapter 21

A/N - I'm not a fan of the ending, but I'm leaving it for now.

"I heard her talking. This is a trap," she said, "Why would I lie to you?"

"Well, you might want to take a look at your uniform," Rory said.

"The only reason I joined the Clerics was so I could meet the Doctor again."

"You wanted to meet him, so you joined an army to fight him?" Jenny asked.

"Well, how else do you meet a great warrior?"

"He's not a warrior," Amy told her.

"Then why is he called the Doctor?"

The lights started to go out.

"It's starting. Please, listen to me."

"But no one else is here but us," Rory said.

Strax pulled out his device and scanned. "Confirmed. No life forms registering on this base, except us and the Silurians," he said.

"The Headless Monks aren't alive. They don't register as life forms," Lorna told him.

Vastra and Jenny rejoined them.

"Where's the Doctor?" Elise asked.

"He's coming," Vastra told her.

A white cone of light appeared around the TARDIS.

"What's that?" Amy asked.

Vastra approached the TARDIS, but her hand was stopped. "A force field."

There were loud thuds.

"And those are the doors. Locking," Lorna said.

"Apparently we're not leaving," Vastra told them.

There was chanting that was getting louder by the second.

"Is that the Monks?" Rory asked.

"Oh, dear God. That's the attack prayer," Dorium said.

"Quick, come with me," Rory told Amy and Elise.

"Commander Strax!" Vastra yelled.

"I'm trying to seal off this area of the lighting grid."

"This is where we'll make our stand. Clear lines of sight on all approaches." Rory led them over to a stack of boxes.

"Rory, no offense to the others, but you let them all die first, okay?" Amy said.

"You're so Scottish," Rory told her.

Amy laughed and they kissed.

"Centurion, you're needed!" Vastra called.

Rory kissed Melody on the head and then did the same to Elise. The Doctor wasn't here to comfort her, so he would instead.

"Be careful," Elise told him.

He nodded and then left them alone.

Amy and Elise listened to the chanting and there was a swish and a thud.

"Mister Maldovar?" Vastra asked.

"Dorium?" Rory asked.

"The child. At all costs, protect the child!"

Elise burrowed into Amy's side as they listened to the gunfire. Melody was crying and Elise was doing her best to be brave. Then Melody exploded in Amy's arms.

"No!" Elise yelled, "No."

"Rory? Rory! Rory!" Amy screamed.

Elise stood up. This couldn't be happening. Everything was going so well. "Lorna was right," she said, "It was a trap."

"Amy!" the Doctor yelled. He found them.

"Yeah, we know," Rory told him.

The Doctor walked over to where Jenny was comforting Amy.

Elise was sitting next to Jenny, her blue eyes blank and hazy. She was completely trapped in her own mind.

Jenny stroked the little Timelord's hair.

"So they took her anyway. All this was for nothing," Amy said, her face covered in tears.

"I am so…sorry."

Amy stood up.

"Amy, it's not his fault," Jenny told her.

"I know. I know."

Rory walked over to his wife and held her.

"Doctor, there's someone who wants to speak to you. Her name is Lorna. She came to warn us," Vastra said.

"Elise?" Jenny asked, "C'mon Elise." But Elise just sat there.

There was a flash of lightning and River stood there. "Well then, soldier. How goes the day?" she asked.

The Doctor stormed over to her. "Where the hell have you been? Every time you've asked, I have been there. Where the hell were you today?"

"I couldn't have prevented this."

"You could have tried!"

"And so, my love, could you." River looked at Amy. "I know you're not all right. But hold tight, Amy, because you're going to be."

"You think I wanted this? I didn't do this. This, this wasn't me!"

"This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends, and they're going to turn her into a weapon just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you."

River walked over to Elise. "Little star."

Elise finally snapped out of it and looked at River.

River helped her up. "Look at her, Doctor. Your daughter. Look at what all this is doing to her. She crawls inside her mind because she can't handle it all. But she will one day. One day she'll about as feared as you. She'll be a force to be reckoned with and you know it. Because you've seen it."

"Who are you?"

"Oh look, your cot. Haven't seen that in a very long while." River backed up towards it and the Doctor grabbed her.

"No, no, you tell me. Tell me who you are."

She took his hand off her wrist and placed it on the cot. "I am telling you. Can't you read?"

He looked down at the old high Gallifreyan on the cot.

Elise couldn't read it.

"Hello," the Doctor said.

"Hello," River echoed.

The Doctor laughed. "But…but that means…"

"I'm afraid it does."

He clapped and rubbed his hands together, before looking back at Amy and Rory. "Ooh. But you and I…we, we, we…" He puckered his lips and made kissing noises.

"Yes."

He rubbed his hands together and looked back at Amy and Rory again. "Ooh." He straightened his bowtie and jacket. "How do I look?"

"Amazing."

"I'd better be."

"Yes, you'd better be."

"Vastra and Jenny, till the next time."

"Doctor," Amy said.

"Rory and Amy, I know where to find your daughter, and on my life, she will be safe. River, get them all home."

"Doctor!" Rory yelled.

"No! Where are you going?" Amy asked.

The Doctor took down the force-field around the TARDIS and went inside. He popped his head out and pointed at River, before laughing.

Elise rolled her eyes and went inside.

The TARDIS took off.

"Explain," Elise said, "Who is River?"

The Doctor laughed. "River is Melody."

"Wait…what?"

"We always meet out of order, remember?"

"What did River mean? About me?"

The Doctor sighed and knelt in front of her. "There are things you don't know, Elise. Things I can't tell you. But you're just going to have to trust me and River."

"Okay, but how are we going to find little Melody?"

The Doctor smiled. "Because I'm the Doctor. That's how!"