Chapter 24

The Amy duplicate opened her mouth and hit Melody with a beam of light.

"No! No! Get off me!" Melody yelled.

"Sorry, did you say she killed the Doctor? The Doctor? Doctor who?" The Doctor stood there leaning against the TARDIS wearing a tuxedo and a top hat. He also had a cane in his hands.

"You're dying. And you stopped to change?" Melody asked him.

Elise stepped out of the TARDIS. "Believe me. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen."

"One must look presentable for one's death. And you should always waste time when you don't have any. Time is not the boss of you. Rule 408. Amelia Pond, judgment death machine." The Doctor waltzed up to it. "Why am I not surprised?"

He held up his cane and the top of it popped open. "Sonic cane."

Elise rolled her eyes.

"Are you serious?" Melody asked.

"Never knowingly. Never knowingly be serious. Rule 27. You might want to write these down." His sonic cane gave him the results of the scan. "Oh! It's a robot! With 423 life signs inside. A robot worked by tiny people. Love it. But how do you all get in there, though. Bigger on the inside?"

He checked his sonic cane. "No, basic miniaturization sustained by a compression field. Ooo. Watch what you eat, it'll get you every time. Amy, if you and Rory are okay, signal me." The tip of the cane lit up. "Thanking you."

The Doctor cried out in pain and collapsed. Elise ran to his side. "I'm so sorry. Leg went to sleep. Just had a quick left leg power nap. I forgot I had one scheduled. Actually, better sit down. I think I heard the right one yawning."

Melody tried running, but the Amy duplicate grabbed her with its beam. Melody cried out in pain.

"No! Stop it!" Elise yelled. This River may not have been her mother, but she still cared about her.

"Don't you touch her! Do not harm her in any way!" the Doctor told it.

The duplicate cut the beam, but Melody was now trapped in an energy field. "Why would you care? She's the women who kills you," the duplicate said.

The Doctor took off his top hat. "I'm not dead."

"You're dying."

"Well, at least I'm not a time traveling shape shifting robot operated by miniaturized cross people, which, I have got to admit, I didn't see coming. What do you want with her?" The Doctor pointed at Melody with his cane.

"She's Melody Pond. According to records, the woman who kills the Doctor."

"And I'm the Doctor. So what's it to you?"

"Throughout history, many criminals have gone unpunished in their lifetimes. Time travel has…responsibilities."

The Doctor laughed. "What? You got yourselves time travel, so you decided to punish dead people?"

"We don't kill them. We extract them near the end of their established timelines."

"And then what?"

"Give them hell."

Elise didn't know what they meant by that, but she was pretty sure she didn't want to know.

"I'd ask you who you think you are, but I think the answer is pretty obvious," the Doctor said, "So, who do you think I am, huh? The woman who killed the Doctor. It sounds like you've got my biography in there. I'd love a peek."

"Our records office is sealed to the public. Foreknowledge is dangerous."

"Yeah, well, I'll be dead in three minutes. There isn't much foreknowledge left."

"Sorry, can't do that." A few seconds later, the duplicate said, "Records available."

The Doctor struggled to his feet, leaning on his cane and Elise. "Question. I'm dying. Who wants me dead?"

"The Silence."

"What is the Silence? Why is it called that? What does it mean?"

"The Silence is not a species. It is a religious order, or movement. Their core belief is that silence will fall when the question is asked."

"What question?"

"The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight."

"Yes, but what is the question?"

"Unknown."

"Oh. Well, fat lot of use that is, you big ginge. Call yourself a Records…" The Doctor cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor, taking Elise with him. "Kidneys are always the first to quit. I've had better, you know."

The forcefield around Melody turned red and she cried out in pain.

"No! Stop it!" Elise screamed, tears starting to stream down her face. She was watching both of her parents die, except it hurt more this time.

"Amy. Rory. Amy… Can you hear me?" the Doctor asked, panting through the pain.

"What do we do?" the duplicate asked, "This is me. This is me actually talking. What do we do?"

"Just stop them. She's your daughter. Just stop them."

"How? How?"

"Just do it!"

Whatever Amy and Rory did worked, because Melody was released from the energy forcefield.

"Please. Now we have to save your parents," the Doctor told her, "Don't run. Now, I know you're scared, but never run when you're scared. Rule seven. Please."

"Doctor, can you help us? Doctor? Doctor, help us! Doctor, help us! Doctor, please!" Amy cried out from the duplicate.

Elise struggled to help him to his feet, but it was getting harder and harder to support him. They only managed to make it to the stairs. "Come on," Elise whispered to him.

"Doctor! Help!"

"Look at you. You still care," Melody said.

"Doctor, help! Doctor, help us! Please help us."

"It's impressive, I'll give you that."

"River, please," the Doctor begged.

"Again!" Melody got up from the chair she was sitting in. "Who is this River? She's got to be a woman. Am I right?"

"Help me…save Amy and Rory. Help me."

"Tell me about her. Go on."

"Just…! …help me."

"Take the TARDIS," Elise told her.

"But I don't know how…"

"She'll show you. Now go."

Melody disappeared into the TARDIS.

"Ellie…" the Doctor whimpered.

Elise shifted him on his back and set his head in her lap.

"Sing…sing to me."

Elise sniffled and tucked some hair behind his ear. "Why are there so many, songs about rainbows? And what's on the other side…?"

The TARDIS reappeared and Amy, Rory, and Melody came out.

Elise was holding him in her arms, gently rocking back and forth as she cried.

Amy and Rory rushed to their sides.

Rory wrapped an arm around Elise and kissed her head.

"You can't die now. I know you don't die now," Amy told him.

"Oh, Pond, you've got a schedule for everything."

"But it doesn't make any sense."

"Doctor, what do we do? Come on. How do we help you?" Rory asked.

"No. Sorry, Rory, you can't. Nobody can. Ponds, listen to me. I need to talk to your daughter."

Amy and Rory moved away from the Doctor.

"Ellie…"

Elise shook her head. "No. No, I'm not leaving you."

"Ellie, please." Elise sniffled and kissed his forehead, before she stood up. She ran to Rory, who wrapped his arms around her while Amy rubbed her back.

Melody walked up to the Doctor and knelt down next to him. "Find her. Find River Song and tell her something from me," he told her.

"Tell her what?" She leaned down and he whispered something in her ear. "Well, I'm sure she knows." Melody pulled away from the Doctor.

"No!" Elise yelled and broke away from Rory, "No!" She collapsed on the Doctor's chest, wailing. He wasn't supposed to die here. What was she supposed to do without him?

Melody stood up and backed away the Doctor and his grieving daughter. Melody felt her heart breaking for the girl. She felt connected to her for some reason. Why else would she have pushed her out of the way of the bullet? "Who's River Song?" she asked.

Amy turned to the duplicate of herself. "Are you still working? Because I'm still a relative. Access files on River Song."

"Records available."

"Show me her. Show me River Song."

The duplicate transformed into the River they knew.

"Melody, what did he say? The Doctor gave you a message for River Song. What was it?" Amy asked.

Melody's hands started to glow.

"What's happening? River, what are you doing?"

"Just tell me. The Doctor, is he worth it?"

Elise stood up and looked at her. "Yes. He's the most important thing in the universe to me." Elise knew Melody cared about her. Even if she wasn't River yet.

River knelt down and poured her regeneration energy into the Doctor and he opened his eyes.

"River. No. What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Hello, sweetie." River pressed her lips to the Doctor's.

"So that's it, we just leave her there?" Amy asked.

"Sisters of the Infinite Schism. Greatest hospital in the universe," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, but she's our daughter. Doctor, she's River and she's our daughter."

"Amy, I know. But we have to let her make her own way now. We have too much foreknowledge. Dangerous thing, foreknowledge."

His eyes flitted to Elise for a second, but she wasn't paying attention. She'd been quiet ever since they dropped River off.

"What's that?" Amy asked.

"Nothing." He turned the monitor off. "Just some data I downloaded from the Teselecta. Very boring."

"Doctor, River was brainwashed to kill you, right?" Rory asked.

"Well, she did kill me, and then she used her remaining lives to bring me back. As first dates go, I'd say that was mixed signals."

"But that stuff that they put in her head, is that gone now? The River that we know in the future, she is in prison for murder."

"Whose murder?" Amy asked.

The Doctor said nothing. He only smiled before dancing around the console.

"Will we see her again?"

"Oh, she'll come looking for us," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, but how? How do people even look for you?"

"Oh, Pond! Haven't you figured that one out yet?"

Amy and Rory decided to retire to their bedroom before the next adventure.

The Doctor sat down next to Elise. "Elise?"

"You died."

"Yes, but…"

Elise stood up. "There is no but! You died! You died and left me all alone! What was I supposed to do if you did! I'm not good at this Timelord stuff! I might as well not be a Timelord!"

The Doctor stood up and wrapped his arms around her. "Shhh," he cooed.

"I was so scared."

"I know you were. But it's okay to be scared, remember?"

"Dad?"

"Yes, Ellie?"

"Who was the blonde? The one the interface showed you?" Elise felt her father tense.

"No one. Just an old friend."

Funny. That's what he called River.