I own nothing. Least of all this.
1:23
"Alright. She's resting. She's safe. Now, what on Earth is so important that you are willing to jeopardize someone's welfare by withholding information."
"There's a difference between withholding and appraising doctor. You're lucky I consider it necessary for you to know at least some of the truth before you go and do something foolish."
"Hey, I hardly think…"
"Oh shut it. I'm telling you now aren't I?"
"Fine. Get on with it."
Deep breath in. This...was not going to be easy.
"Rose has...not had the easiest life. She used to travel around a lot, doing things normal people just can't do. Saw some stuff She probably shouldn't have. Made more than a few people angry. Powerful people. And in the end, it all just crashed and burned. Still, She was strong. Built a new life out of the broken pieces. Even had a family. But eventually, some of those people She pissed off found Her. They killed Her family right in front of Her. That by itself was enough to break Her, but they didn't stop there. They kept Her alive, and...experimented on Her. No sleep, no rest. Just pain. She disconnected from the outside world entirely. Built an entirely new personality on top of Her old one. As protection. One without either mercy or morals, and full of rage and fire. She'd probably still be trapped in Her own mind, if I hadn't come across Her while finishing off the last of Her captors. I've been...trying...to help Her, but I'm afraid healing something like that is beyond me. Beyond anyone. So, all we've been doing is...managing, really."
"So when She thought She saw a young kid, running as if towards Her, while being chased and surrounded by lots of dangerous people…"
"Exactly. We're lucky all that happened was...this."
"And what is 'this', precisely?"
"I think that, for now at least, She's fallen back into Her own mind. She should wake up relatively soon. I'm just not sure which version will be the one pulling the strings."
"So we sedate Her until we know."
"NO! No. Bad idea. Terrible, in fact. The people that kept Her before tried that. Any reaction we'd get from trying the same would probably be just as bad, if not worse. Just...try and keep anyone with visible weapons out, and we should be fine."
"She's remembering."
I swiveled to face the doorway. That voice belonged to one of the most tortured souls I knew. Funny; her story and Rose's were not so different. Maybe their similarities would give people enough pause to leave off the awkward questions.
At the very least, maybe she would be someone Rose could talk to.
"She's seeing things...so long ago."
"River, we've talked about this…"
I held up my hand. "No, no. It's fine. I'd like to hear what she has to say."
And I meant it. If there was anyone capable of seeing the truth of things, it was River Tam.
"So long...and so very far away. Dreams of an Earth-That-Once-Was."
"What are…"
"Her's. But not yours."
She tilted her head.
"Two sides of a coin. You once were two, but now you're one. And so you'll be when all is done. Mile after mile; above, beneath. One has a smile, and one has teeth. The wolves that howl in forests dead will soon be joined by Gray and Red. Fire, and rage, and ice, and pain. And then it ends. Who'll stop the rain?"
"Alright River. That's enough for now."
"By all means, don't make her stop on my account. I'm rather enjoying this."
"...Thank you. You're not a...kind..man. But you don't act like it. I think. You're like Her, aren't you?"
I nodded.
"And She's like me. But I'm not like you, and neither is She. Why? Why isn't there anyone like you?"
"...I like to think it's because it's very hard to be like me without either failing...or falling."
"You fell. And yet you're still you."
"Yes. I got a second chance. I intend to make the most of it."
"You will. But not before you make the least of it. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Witcher."
"Just Witcher. Friends don't need fancy names for each other, after all. It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss River Tam."
She smiled.
"Friends. I think I like that."
A groan from the table behind me.
"...Witcher? What happened?"
I suppressed a hiss of pain as I realized Bad Wolf was now using Her back door to my mind. This was definitely not Her, then.
"After which incident are we referring to?"
"...Karn. Or...the mindscape? Still a bit fuzzy on that."
"Understandable. And to answer your question, everything worked out fine. The Sisters' helped us both, we had some lovely tea, you picked out a planet, we arrived, managed to rob both the local government and one of the biggest local gang bosses, got away thanks to some lovely people, whose ship we are now paying passengers on, and if we're not already in space, we should be soon."
"...That bit doesn't sound right."
"Which bit?"
"The bit about the tea."
"Oh, that's right. You weren't there for the tea. Sorry about that. No Jammie Dodgers, but it was Karn after all."
"...I passed out, didn't I?"
"Well, that's one way of putting it."
"That means this is the...medical room? Which means you.." she turned to face Simon (that was his name!), "must be the doctor."
"Well there's certainly nothing wrong with her critical thinking. Simon Tam."
"Rose Tyler. And who might you be?"
I watched as their eyes met. A flash of gold. From both Rose and River. That was troubling.
"...River. I'm Simon's sister."
A very long, awkward silence followed, neither one of them willing to drop the other's gaze.
Finally...
"...Witcher, I think she's like me."
I sighed "Yes, she's already said as much Rose."
"No, I mean she's like ME."
"...Oh, bollocks. You're telling me THAT'S what that was? Ohhhhhh, just wait 'til I get my hands on Fate. I'm gonna force feed her her own ledger."
"What? What's going on?"
"Doctor, I understand if you don't want to answer this question, but it is vitally important that you do so honestly. Because if what I think has happened, has happened, then we may have a very, very big problem on our hands. Do you understand?"
"Yes, but…"
"Ah, ah, ah, ah. Now, the question: did River ever attend any government-run facility?"
I already knew she did, of course. But I needed to know more about it.
"..Yes. Yes she did. How did you…
"Know? It's my job. Next question what was the name of this place?"
"...The Academy. Just...the Academy."
"Where was it?"
"Capital City. On Osiris."
"Do you know who ran it?
"...The Headmaster was a man named...Borusa, I think."
"Oh bollocks. Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks."
"Why? Does that mean something?"
"It means, my dear doctor, that I not only know exactly what happened to your sister, but more importantly, I know why. And where there's one rat, there's always more. Looks like we're gonna be catching a ride to Osiris sooner rather than later."
"Witcher? Who's Borusa?"
"A not very nice Time Lord that was supposed to be dead a very long time ago. A man obsessed with the continued survival of his race, at all costs."
"Time Lord? His race? I don't understand!"
"You're not meant to, doctor. That comes later. Come on. We're going to see the Captain, right now."
It was at that very moment that Fate decided to give another yank on her many strings. For what should come flying through the door at that very minute, followed by the entirety of the rest of Serenity's crew?
Why, a very familiar glowing blue message cube, of course!
"Looks like the Captain decided to come see us."
"Yes, I can see that, thank you Doctor Obvious."
"Somebody stop that blasted thing!"
"It's already stopped, Jayne!"
"And I, for one, would like to know not only why, but how the hell it got on my ship in the first place."
"Ah. Sorry. But I very much suspect it was, in fact, looking for me."
The glares I received could have frozen Hell.
It was then the cube decided to spit out it's apparently emergency-worthy message.
The Eleventh Doctor's voice cut the air. "Hello, Witcher. At least, really hoping it's you. This was the last thing I could think of to reach you. You said I left her. You're right, of course. And now, I need your help. Because they've taken her. They've taken Amy. And I promised myself I'd never leave anyone ever again. I should have listened to you earlier. Demon's Run. That's where she is. Where she was taken. I'm sending you the coordinates. And just this once, I want you to do what you're good at. If there's shooting, shoot back. If there's killing...burn them. Burn them all. See you in Glocca Morra."
I sighed. It never rains, but it pours.
