tw: electro-shock torture
Ch 17
River and the Doctor were teleported out of their console room in an unpleasant and bumpy manner, appearing on a platform overlooking a huge, glass-encapsulated. metallic city.
"The Consort has been delivered. The Consort will be held to tria-" The android didn't get to finished before the Doctor, still unhandcuffed, soniced the thing and caused it to fall apart.
"Well, dear, that was a bit unnecessary." River murmured, raising an eyebrow. "I believe he had a bit more to say, that might have been a bit useful knowing."
"Probably not." He used the screwdriver to release her handcuffs before tucking it away. "They could've used that to track a path back to the TARDIS. Right now, I need Ohila alive. It's plan C."
She rubbed her wrists, looking out at the city before them, "This is Gallifrey..."
"I would've liked to show it to you under different circumstances." He sighed. "What do you think?"
"It's magnificent." She murmured, the glow of the city reflecting in her eyes.
He could hear hurried footsteps somewhere behind them, knowing they had only minutes before they would be taken away. He tried to focus on her instead, watching the light brush over her features and curls. "You think so?"
She nodded, smiling weakly, "It looks even more amazing than how I pictured it to look for all these years."
"Words can only take you so far." He hummed, remembering the stories he'd told her. "Action does the rest."
She reached for his hand, squeezing it tightly. He squeezed back, someone shouting behind them, "Hey, you two! What do you think you're doing."
"See you on the other side." He whispered.
"I love you." She mouthed to him, turning to face the voices, "Well, that's no way to treat a guest. We were summoned here. River Song, reporting for my trial." She flashed them a smile.
There were three of them, two men dressed in reddish-brown armor and carrying guns, and the other man dressed in velvety red robes with gold trimming. "You are not a guest, you are a prisoner. Cuff her."
She glanced over at the Doctor, "Well, normally I'd say buy me dinner first, but if you want to jump right to it..." Her husband couldn't help but smile at his wife flirting in the face of danger.
One of the armored men approached. "Wrists, please."
She held her wrists out for him, "You might want to be careful, my husband has a jealous streak you should probably be aware of."
The armored one said nothing, returning to his post behind the one in robes. "You will come with us," said the latter.
She huffed, "I really don't see where else I'd go."
They remained unamused, turning and walking back to the corridor they came from. The Doctor and River followed.
River observed their surroundings, watching them men in front of them with curiosity.
"Not that I'm complaining," The Doctor whispered. "But you'd think they'd be smart enough to cuff me, too."
"I was thinking the same thing." She murmured, giving him a half smile.
"Apparently you're more dangerous than I am. Not surprising."
"They must have looked me up." She joked. He hummed in agreement as they were led to what looked like a meeting room.
The windows were round and held a resemblance to modern Gallifreyan words. The long, brass table also had circular sentences etched into it. All who were seated at the table rose. They looked like the man in robes who'd lead them here, but in addition to what the first man was wearing, had large, golden headdresses sitting on their shoulders with the symbol of the High Council on them.
The older man at the head of the table had a unique headdress in that it was full of more writing.
"The Consort," said the man who'd lead prisoners here, gesturing to River. "And the Doctor."
"I prefer to be addressed as Professor River Song." River bit out, holding her head high. Her joking remarks were gone now, her expression stone cold.
"Are you sure it's her?" Asked the man at the head of the table.
The other man nodded, "The android that captured her was able to report back confirming scans before it was destroyed."
He nodded to himself, moving from his place and approaching them. "The Hybrid."
River's eyes flickered to the Doctor, "Why have I been summoned here?" She demanded though she knew why. She was trying to keep them talking, the plan that they had agreed upon earlier.
The man raised an eyebrow. "I understand you are not native to our planet, but you will address your Lord President as so."
"I will do so if it is agreed that I will be addressed by my name, not my marital status." She shot back in the same tone.
"Very well, Professor," Rassilon said, then nodded to the two guards who lead them here. "Put the Doctor someplace uncomfortable."
River looked back at her husband as the two guards approached him. He looked alarmed, not wanting to be put back in the place he'd been trapped last time.
She could see the alarm in his eyes, immediately jumping to his defense. "Why does he have to go? Are you afraid of what he might do? A room full of the mighty High Council is afraid of one Time Lord?"
"We are not afraid of him, Professor, but he is of no use to us. We need him out of the way." Rassilon waved his hand in a sweeping gesture, an instruction for them to take the Doctor away.
"Take him away and I promise you'll regret it. I'll make this much harder for you than it needs to be."
"I have all the time in the world." He sneered as the guards hauled her husband off.
She clenched her teeth, biting back a response.
"Chancellor Hedin, fetch the Surgeon General and his team. We're going to make a little trip of our own."
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what you're going to do." River snapped, twisting her hands in the cuffs, trying to work her way out of them.
"Don't struggle, child, it's useless." He chided as others moved around him to carry out his instructions. "We need a full medical examination."
"You don't have my permission. I will not comply!"
"You're a prisoner. I don't need your permission." He reminded.
Two more guards came up behind her, grabbing her arms. She struggled against them, bucking and yanking to get away from them. It was a struggle all the way down to the examination room, but they made it there, if not a little more bruised than when they started from River's resistance.
River refused to stay on the exam table, kicking and whacking everyone in her reach. Eventually, the medics, dressed in sterile white, were told to tie her down to the table. Any hands that drew too close were bitten until they bled and it took a head strap and metal restraints to finally get her still enough to be examined.
"You put up quite the fuss," Rassilon said. He and a few of the High Council members stood to watch over what was happening. The two guards who'd escorted them and the six others who'd been called in to help restrain River stood tiredly on the sidelines in hopes they'd have a break before being called back to duty.
"I wasn't bluffing with my warning." She snarled back at him.
"No matter. We have you still now and we will proceed."
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing that will hurt if you keep still." He warned, then ordered for the Surgeon General to approach. "You will run her blood through diagnostics. Check her for abnormalities, inside and out."
River wanted to fight, but there was no point right now since she was strapped down. She finally stopped struggling, saving her energy for when she actually had a shot at breaking free.
The medics approached her cautiously. Seeing that she was relatively resigned for the moment, they started drawing her blood. They took an entire two liter, which probably was more than necessary.
The Surgeon General stepped forwards to inject her arm with something clear and warm. "That may be uncomfortable."
"What is that?" She tried to jerk away, mind flashing back to a decade ago when she had been taken by Kovarian.
"Nothing harmful, just something of a binding agent." This man seemed a key more relaxed than Rassilon and much less cocky. "It'll go through all your systems so we can create a map of how you're built. Though side effects may include mild muscle spasms, nausea, and, um, vivid flashbacks if that's what you're wondering about."
"Why should I believe anything you say?" She struggled more.
"Believing me or not won't change the truth." He shrugged and called for a scanner. She took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.
Someone handed him a tablet. He tapped a few things on it until it produced a three-dimensional hologram of River. Things were still loading on it as the drug slowly worked through her system and relayed information back to the tablet. She was already getting nauseous.
"How long will this take?" Rassilon demanded.
"About twenty minutes, Lord President." The man bowed.
Rassilon looked behind him. "You, guard. Go see if our other prisoner has been taken care of."
The man nodded, running off to check on the Doctor. River was back to fighting her restraints, as her mind saw Kovarian towering over her.
"Is there something we can give her to calm her?" One of the medics asked.
"She doesn't need to be calmed, she's fine." Rassilon snapped, not caring whether or not River was comfortable.
The medic shrunk back, becoming silent. The minutes ticked by tediously, with River fighting and straining against the straps. It looked exactly like she was having a night terror.
It only ended when the guard came back to report his findings. "Lord President, I'm afraid to report the Doctor has...escaped."
Rassilon whipped around to face the guard. "Escaped? What do you mean escaped?!"
"He isn't in the cell where we left him, sir."
"Then you will damn well find him before he causes real trouble!" He growled. The guard nodded, running off. Three of the other guards in the room went to aid the search.
"Change of plans, Surgeon General," Rassilon said bitterly. "Interrogation is going to have to have to come before the trail. I want to know where her children are. Now."
River groaned from the table, still out of it from the drugs.
"Sir, she's not ready. Any serious trauma, while the serum is still in her system, could be permanent. It has to wear off first."
"I don't care! I want the location of those children!" He shouted.
Hesitantly, the Surgeon General bowed in compliance and moved to the corner of the room to retrieve a box-ish item with many buttons and knobs on it and wires coming from it. He started putting electrode stickers on various points of River's body; her temples, her wrists, her shoulders, and her ankles.
"Don't touch me." River growled, "Get off of me."
"I really am sorry, but I must follow orders." He murmured, now placing alligator clips over the electrodes and on her fingertips.
She twisted and jerked, making the process as difficult as possible. Eventually, he got all the clips on and moved to stand by the box device.
Rassilon took his place, hovering menacingly over River. "Professor."
"Let me go." She hissed, twisting on the table.
"If you answer honestly, then I will. Where are your children, Professor Song?"
"I don't have children."
He nodded to the Surgeon General who turned a knob on the machine, which sent electricity through the wires and into River's body. Her body jerked from the shock and she cried out, the sound echoing through the halls. The shock was turned off after ten seconds.
"It's no use lying to me, Professor. Your scan shows you and gave birth to at least one child other in this body besides the one you are currently pregnant with. Where is it?"
"He died. He was born dead." She hissed, her body quaking with aftershocks.
"You're lying. Do it again!" He ordered for another shock.
"I'm not ly-Aaah!" She withered in pain, her body straining.
"Your husband wasn't too keen on talking either, the last time he was here," Rassilon said, watching her suffer. "A thousand years and he never broke. You, child, have an accelerated deadline."
"I don't have children." She insisted once she had finally recovered.
Rassilon huffed. "If she doesn't confess when the hour is up, kill her." With that, he left, leaving the 'interrogation' to the Surgeon General. River grit her teeth prepared to die rather than give up the location of her children.