She comes to in a room of blinding white so she keeps her eyes closed. Voices around her offer no hints, only that whatever language they're speaking isn't one that River she understands. Wait no, she does. A few words come to her out of the mess of syllables around her; Download, bio-print, something about carbon bonding and… did she just hear the word 'hybrid'?

Gravity is shifting around her, pulling at her feet, then her back, then her head. At first, River attributes this to vertigo, but as her senses slowly return she can feel she's lying on a table that is being tilted back into a Trendelenburg.

"It's not right. It doesn't add up!"

The words are said with urgency and River still can't understand what language is being spoken, only that she seems to understand it. She opens her mouth but no sound comes out.

"You told me the math was flawless," hissed a second voice that was more familiar but still out of reach. "The Council hand-checked every single equation. Every single one! Do not tell me there is something wrong unless you can fix it immediately."

"The situation is, um, slightly more complicated than that, Lord President."

River's eyes shoot open at the title as memories come flooding back to her. Is it alive? Why is it still burnt?

Faces stare at her, halting the conversation. Around her stand about eight people dressed in plain white clothes. Most of them appear, for lack of facial recognition, frightened. The only one who doesn't is the man in red who glowers at her.

River remembers the pain of fire, the pain of rebirth and trying to breathe with shredded lungs. She remembers the face who stood above her regarding her as nothing more than a troublesome errand.

She opens her mouth and this time from somewhere inside her comes a guttural scream of "You!" Whether this comes from anger or some other emotion entirely is unclear to her, but she notes that the room stays silent

There is an unsettling weight of blood pumping through her. It has been a long time since that has been true; since she'd had a pulse in her neck and air in her chest. It doesn't hurt so much as it did the first time.

She realizes there are straps holding her down to the table and she starts struggling against them while she still has feeling in her limbs. Who knows how long that will last. The straps, it seems, we made for someone who was unconscious, and to her pleasant surprise she rips her arms free is ease.

Hands grab her shoulders but she pushes back, swinging her arms like clubs as hard as she can at her surroundings. Elbows collide with ribs and knuckles collide with faces. There is no plan here but fight.

River rips her legs free and throws herself off the table. Two or three bodies follow her, trying to pin her to the floor.

"What is she doing?" Rassilon demands. "How is she doing that?"

"Her vitals are nearly restored, sir," someone answered. "You requested she is replicated exactly and this… um, well, this is how strong she was before."

"We'll take the strength level down, you idiot. You are not bioengineers so you can create the perfect escapee. I want a subject, not a wild animal!"

"We're still trying to integrate the new issue into the formula, sir."

The Lord President growled, looking away from the now six orderlies who were trying to restrain the halfbreed. "What could possibly have gone wrong?!"

"There is, er, extra mass, sir."

"Extra mass? So she's fat? That's what's throwing this off?"

"No, sir, we calculated her weight perfectly sir. When she was downloaded is seems something was downloaded with her, sir."

"A virus?"

"We're not sure sir. We're trying to figure it out."

"Figure it out faster, damn it!"

"We—"

The two were interrupted as a scream ripped through the room. The dogpile of restrainers on River stilled and slowly got off her one by one. River lay still, face down on the ground with several needles stuck in her thigh.

Rassilon sighed. "How long will that keep her out for?"

"Um," there was a pause as someone counted the number of tranquilizers.

"Perhaps, 36 hours, sir. Maybe longer."

"Figure out the problem before then. And someone get better restraints. If there is a repeat of this situation, you will regret it."

-x-

"Do you know how long you were unconscious for?" Vastra sipped her tea pointedly.

"No," River replies flatly. "There must have been a good few hours from taking me off the ship to waking up for the first time. Maybe even a few days, but I would have no way of telling until later."

"What was later?"

"The 'virus'."

"And what was the virus exactly?"

"The baby, I think. I must have been pregnant when I took the mission with Lux and the others. I didn't know, honestly, I didn't." River ran a hand through her hair and took a breath. Her eyes settled on the window as she picked nervously at her fingers. "I… I had a thought that I might be. Before I left Darillium. But I took a test and it was negative."

"There wasn't a chance of the baby happening… after?"

"No. That was the last time, so it must have been wrong, I suppose."

Vastra nodded slowly. "So they downloaded you somehow and accidentally downloaded the pregnancy as well?"

"Yes…? I don't know how they did it. I don't know how it all transferred from physicality to data then back again. It doesn't make sense, but they're Timelords . They had the tools I'm sure. And apparently the desperation to get ahold of me."

"Why did they need you back?"

"I don't know. I'd understand why they would want their hands on the baby but they didn't know, which means they wanted me."

"Right," Vastra thumbed at her teacup with equal unease. None of this was a comfortable subject, but River's memory seemed to be holding, so they made the most of it. "Right."

"When I woke up again I was pregnant. Very pregnant."

"They kept you for months, then?"

"Complicated answer."

Someone had opened the door. Pale yellow light from the hall hit River, despite the intensity, she was sure to keep absolutely still lest they thought her to be conscious.

"It's not time, Lord President!" Someone was saying. The river had become a bit familiar with some of the voices and recognized this orderly as the head engineer of her case. "There's still a few more weeks in the chronochamber."

The voice she knew painfully as Rassilon was just as impatient as ever. "I told you yesterday that the timeframe has been moved. There are parties at the north gate shouting politics and I will not let them interrupt."

"Yes, sir, you said, sir. But, em, recall if you will, sir, that this is the highest setting her biology will allow for. Any more will cause damage."

"How much damage?" It sounded like a challenge.

"Well, um sir, there is a mortality risk for both of them."

"How. Much."

The orderly coughed,"7% for the fetus, sir. And 61 for the mother."

"Can you mitigate the risk for the fetus?"

"Well, yes, but—"

"I didn't ask for but, just do it! And do it now," he demanded. "There are rumors spreading and if they get far enough you know we'll have to deal with Him."

"Sir, the mother—"

"I don't care! She's nothing but a host and her use is spent. If I don't see the child in the flesh tonight, I'll cut it out myself. Do what you will with the body after."

There was a slam of a door.

The orderly sighed deeply, alone in the room with River. "Just do your job," they said to themselves. "Do your job."