A/N: You're all in for a very tragic ending. Just to warn you. No spoilers, of course. But I would suggest grabbing a box of tissues for the end. Also, I haven't watched this episode in a while, so little details on movements and such could be slightly wrong. I have also taken the liberty of adding things. Lots of things. And Diana says one bad word. Sorry in advance.

By the way, I'm very sorry this took so long to update. This chapter was difficult for me to finish. And I know it kinda sucks. Really sorry about that.

"Hey, who turned out the lights? Hey, who turned out the lights?"

River grabbed the gun in the holster at her hip and pointed it at the bookcase closest to us. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward, out of the Doctor's arms and through the opening. "This way, quickly. Move!"

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

River shot another hole in the next wall we encountered and pushed me ahead. I ran forward and tripped over my own feet. I fell on my stomach, right in the center of a circle of light. We had come full circle and returned to the circular room the Doctor, Donna, and I had first come to. Close to the half open doors was Talulah's body, now a skeleton covered in tattered shreds. I stared at her body in frozen shock, the tears on my cheeks now completely dry.

"Okay," River started, "we've got a clear spot. In, in, in!" She helped me to my feet and smiled warmly at me, resting a hand on my shoulder. The rest of the group flooded in through the opening. "Right in the center. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross. Doctor-"

"I'm doing it," he reassured her.

River and I looked up at the glass ceiling. "There's no lights here. Sunset's coming. We can't stay long. Have you found a live one?"

"Maybe. It's getting harder to tell." He glanced back at me and River. "What's wrong with you, Professor?"

I then noticed how shaken she looked, the fear shining in her eyes and her face looking tired and older than it really was. "We're going to need a chicken leg. Who's got a chicken leg?" Other Dave pulled a chicken leg out of his lunch and handed it to her. "Thanks, Dave."

She threw the leg into the shadow and before it could touch the ground, it was nothing but bone cleaned of any sort of meat. River swallowed and stepped back from the swarm. "Okay. Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet."

The Doctor gave River a worried look. "They won't attack until there's enough of them. But they've got our scent now. They're coming."

Then he started to scan the shadows again. I walked over to him and stood behind him just sightly, watching. River followed me after she finished talking with Anita and Dave.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked.

The Doctor looked up at her for a moment. "There's a signal coming from somewhere, interfering with it."

"Then use the red settings."

"It doesn't have a red setting."

"Well, use the dampers."

Wearing a very startled expression on his face, the Doctor stared at the woman. "It doesn't have dampers."

"It will do one day."

The Doctor took Susan's screwdriver from River's hands and looked over it. Susan had noticed our small gathering and joined us. She looked from her father's face to the screwdriver in confusion.

"Is somezing wrong, Papa?"

"So, some time in the future, I just give you my screwdriver."

"Oui."

"But I never gave you a sonic screwdriver. Why would I suddenly change my mind?"

"I do not know, Papa," she answered, "but Mother never quite understood why you would not give me one. Neither did I, actually."

"But Susan, I would never give you one. You never really seemed to like them that much and-"

"Nonsense. You did not want me to become like you."

The Doctor's eyes flashed dangerously. "You watch your tone, young lady."

"You felt I was too young at first for such a tool and zen ze Time War-"

"I was trying to protect you," he said in frustration. "Of course I didn't want you to become like me, Susan. I was- am still a murderer. You know that. After everything I've done in my lives, of course I couldn't bear for you or Sarah or Hope to become anything like me."

Susan shook her head. "But you and Mother are ze greatest people I could ever wish for as parents. I have always felt zis way. So have my sisters."

Sisters? I asked myself in disbelief. Boy, Theta really did get pretty busy with River.

"Dispite all zat has happened to me and all zat I have done, I love you and Mother and wish for nozing more zan to be like ze both of you."

The Doctor set his jaw and looked away from his daughter. He sighed and nodded relucatantly, although I could see that he was suspicious of the situation. Then he looked up at River and narrowed his eyes.

"And you, Professor Song? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know about me and Diana and my daughter. How can I trust you? You say you know me, but I've never seen you before in my life."

"Not true," she replied. "You've seen me lots of times, but you don't remember. You never do."

"Who are you, Professor Song?"

River put a hand on her hip and looked at the ground as she thought of her answer. "Listen to me. You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now."

"Less emotional? I'm not emotional."

I put a hand on his elbow and tugged on it gently. He looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Theta?" I asked cautiously. "Please believe me when I say that River is completely trustworthy. To you and I, at least. She's my friend and if she's helped Susan, then she can't be as bad as you seem to think."

"Let me guess", he countered. "Spoilers?"

"Yes. Very much spoilers."

"Just for once, could you not use that as your answer? Could you maybe help instead of just saying spoilers?"

"What?"

The Doctor took a deep breath and pulle dhis arm back, turning to face me head-on. I tilted my head back so I could look him in the eyes. "Donna is dead and you didn't tell me she would die."

"No! No, she's not dead! She's saved! She'll be back, Doctor! Really!"

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Lux snapped in annoyance, drawing our attention. "Look at the pair of you. We're all going to die right here, and you're just squabbling like an old married couple. The Doctor and his bloody misses."

I had the deceny to blush and look away in embarassment. The Doctor continued his arguement in a softer voice. "We could have stopped it from even happening-"

"You know she can't stop too many things from happening, Doctor," River interrupted. "If she does, then the very structure of the universe could be destroyed. She knows that too, which is why she says 'spoilers'. She only wants to protect you."

I nodded eagerly in agreement with her words. The Doctor looked from River to me and eventually let out a sigh. "Very well."

River looked at me and swallowed slowly. "Doctor, one day I'm going to be someone that you trust completely, but I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry." She put a hand on his shoulder and stood on her toes, whispering a long phrase in his ear. It took longer than it had when I watched the program and I wondered if it was possible that she was telling him something other than his name. She pulled back and sighed. "Are we good? Doctor, are we good?"

"Yeah, we're good."

"Good." She took the screwdriver back and tossed it in the air. "Come on, Susan, dear."

I kept my eyes on the ground. "Doctor? Are you... very mad at me?"

"I'm frustrated," he replied. "And worried and confused and I don't know how to fix this. Two people are already dead. I can't let more people die. I can't."

I put my hand on his wrist and looked shyly up at him from beneath my bangs. "Back home, I believed in you. That you could always save the day. I still do. I have not changed in that respect."

He lifted my hand and gently kissed the back of it. Then he smiled widely and seemed to relax slightly. "What would I do without you?"

"Be less arrogant, I'm sure."

Gently releasing my hand, the Doctor turned to the others and took a deep breath. "Know what's interesting about my screwdriver?" he asked the others. "Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers, but I'm working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed? Come on! What's new? What's different?"

Other Dave shrugged. "I don't know. Nothing. It's getting dark?"

"It's a screwdriver. It works in the dark." The Doctor pointed through the glass roof at the moon. "Moon rise. Tell me about the moon. What's there?"

"It's not real," Lux explained. "It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon."

"What's a Doctor Moon?"

"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."

"Well, still active. It's signalling. Look." He pointed at his sonic, even though no one else except maybe River and Susan understood what the tiny lights meant. "Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair. Oh, wait... No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through."

A picture of Donna suddenly appeared. The Doctor, River, and I all called out her name before the images disappeared completely. River looked at me in surprise, then started to approach the Doctor. "That was her. That was your friend! Can you get her back? What was that?"

The Doctor held his screwdrier to his ear. "Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm trying to find the wavelength. Argh, I'm being blocked."

"Professor?" Anita asked with a slightly wobbley voice.

I felt my heart drop down to my stomach and tears welled up behind my eyelids. I lowered my head slightly and tried to block the guilt flooding through my heart and mind. Another person I had failed to save.

"Just a moment," River said dismissively.

"It's important. I have two shadows."

River's eyes widened in relaization. She turned back to Anita and the others. "Okay. Helmets on, everyone. Anita, I'll get yours."

"It didn't do Proper Dave any good."

"Just keep it together, okay?"

Anita set her jaw and I couls just see the tears in her brown eyes. "Keeping it together. I'm only crying. I'm about to die. It's not an overreaction."

River put Anita's helmet over the woman's head and sighed. The Doctor came up behind River and held his sonic out. "Hang on," he said. He fixed Anita's visor so that it was completely dark.

River panicked at first, thinking the vashta Nerada had gotten to her already. I knew that they probably had, but didn't say a word so I wouldn't upset Anita.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no. I just tinted her visor. Maybe they'll think they're already in there, leave her alone."

"Doctor, do you think they can be fooled like that?"

"Maybe. I don't know. It's a swarm. It's not like we chat."

"Can you still see in there?" Other Dave asked.

"Just about."

The Doctor held a hand out to Dave, who had started forward. "Just, just, just stay back. Professor, a quick word, please."

"What?" River questioned.

"You said there are five people still alive in this room," I managed to hear him whisper.

"Yeah, so?"

"No time!" I shouted. "Everybody, run!"

Proper Dave, still possessed by the Vashta Nerada, had walked through the hole in the wall and was slowly approaching us. The others all gasped and ran in the opposite direction where River and the Doctor were directing them.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"Run!" The Doctor ran to my side and grabbed my arm. I had been frozen with fear and would never have moved if he hadn't forced me to. "Diana, hurry!"

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

We all ran through the closest door. There was a high walkway that towered over the rest of the planet which stretched hundreds of feet to another large building. I could hear proper Dave's calls through the doors we had come through and worriedly gripped the Doctor's arm.

"Susan, Professor, go ahead," he instructed. "You too, Diana. Find a safe spot for everyone to stay."

River shook her head. "It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit. You can't reason with it."

"Five minutes."

She thoguht about it and finally nodded once. "Diana, stay with him. Pull him out when he's too stupid to live."

"No," he said forcefully. "Not her."

I twined our fingers together. "There's no time to argue, Doctor. River, hurry! Please."

River gave me a mock salute, then pointed her finger at the Doctor. "Two minutes, Doctor."

"Diana," the Time Lord started as he turned his head so he could look at me, "you go right now."

Proper Dave suddenly burst through the doors. "Hey, who turned out the lights?"

The Oncoming Storm had returned. He let go of my hand and took a step towards Dave, his eyes narrowed and his voice deadly. "You hear that? Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him. Talk to me. It's easy. Neural relay. Just point and think. Use him, talk to me."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests. What are you doing in a library?"

"Doctor, please. We should go. I can tell you how they got here. Just, please-"

"In a minute, Diana." He waved his hand at me and took another step. "You came to the library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why?"

"We did not." The voice was Dave's, but also not. It sounded like a million voices hissing the same words ahd been compressed into one voice and shoved through Dave's voice box.

The Doctor was shocked that the Vashta Nerada had responded. I gripped his hand and held it tightly. He returned the firm grip and rubbed his thumb against the back of my hand. "Oh, hello."

"We did not."

"Take it easy, you'll get the hang of it. Did not what?"

Dave paused for a moment before continuing. "We did not come here."

"Well, of course you did. Of course you came here."

"Doctor," I urged. "Please. We need to go."

"Diana, just a moment."

"We come from here."

"From here?" the Doctor repeated incredulously.

"We hatched here."

I grabbed the Doctor's arm and pulled him back. He looked at me in confusion and annoyance. "Doctor, please. Let's go."

He ignored my pleas and turned back to Dave. "But you hatch from trees. From spores in trees."

"These are our forests."

"You're nowhere near a forest! Look around you!"

"These are our forests," Dave repeated.

"Books, Doctor! Books! They're made of trees! Now let's go!"

The Doctor's shoulders slumped a little. He gasped and ran a hand through his hair. "You came in the books. Microspores in a million, million books."

"Doctor!" I shouted as I tried, in vain, to pull him back again.

"Where is the Doctor?" asked the vocie of Other Dave.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Other Dave appraoching us from behind. Praying that River and Susan hadn't been infected, I tugged hard on the Doctor's arm and pulled him into my body. "Doctor, we need to go now!"

"The forests of the Vashta Nerada," he mumbled, "pulped and printed and bound. A million, million books, hatching shadows."

"Where is the Doctor?" Other Dave asked again.

The Doctor finally seemed to realize how much trouble we were in. He looked in the direction I was and let out a deep breath. "Oh Dave, I'm so sorry."

Other Dave's skeleton face leaned against the visor of his helmet and I had to look away because the sight was too terrible and terrifying for me.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"Where is the Doctor?"

"Thing about me," the Doctor started as he backed up to the very center of the walkway, wrapping my arms around his waist. "I'm stupid. I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Except maybe for Diana. But you want to know the only reason I'm still alive? Always stay near the door."

He pointed his sonic screwdriver at the ground and a trapdoor suddenly opened in the floor, dropping us through the floor. I screamed and clung even tighter to his torso. My legs wrapped around his to keep myself from slipping and falling the thousands of feet to the surface of the planet. The Doctor had grabbed at a metal pole that ran underneath the walkway and only just managed to keep us both on.

"Diana, I need you to let go of me."

I shook my head and clamped my eyes shut. "N-No. I can't."

"You really need to."

"Why?" I squeaked.

"Because my hands are slipping."

I panicked and wildly reached for the pole above my head. My left hand wrapped around the metal, but my right slipped and I nearly lost my balance. I was able to keep from falling my keeping my legs wrapped around the Doctor's waist.

"I can't. Doctor, I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"If I fall, I'll die."

"I won't let that happen," he promised. "Now just put your other hand on the pole and hold on. You can do it."

"I'm scared. I'm really, really scared. If I fall, I can't regenerate," I said slowly, tears welling in my eyes.

"I'll catch you. I always do. Now put your hand on the pole." I recoiled my arm from around his neck and slowly reached up for the pole. "Have you got it?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Now your legs."

My arms started to shake and I let out a small cry. "I can't. I'm not strong enough. I weigh too much and I can't-... I can't hold myself up."

The Doctor sighed heavily and shook his head. "Look at you," he snapped. "You're useless."

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"Oh, you heard me. Completely useless. I don't even have that much upper body strength and I can hold myself up just fine even with your weight added on."

"Doctor!" I was confused by his sudden dislike towards me and considered the possibility that I had just been imagining that he cared for me. "Why on Earth-"

"Oh, shut up. Your whining isn't helping. I don't know why I even bring you along on trips like this. You always get into trouble or get hurt and all you can tell me is 'spoilers'. You've been nothing but a nuissance today."

Angered by his remarks, I unwrapped my legs and pushed away from him. "Yeah, well you're an asshole. I don't need you to carry me anyways."

He slowly turned to face me, moving his hands on the pipe very carefully so he wouldn't lose his grip. "Well then how about you turn around and get moving? I'd prefer not to hang here all day with those two looking down at us."

I looked up through the trapdoor and saw both Daves staring at us. I very slowly turned myself around to face the direction that River and the others had run in. "How about you shut up, Doctor?" I snapped as my arms shook slightly.

"Why should I? I'm the smarter one. If anyone should be talking it should be me."

I grimaced and started forwards, trying to ignore the heavy shaking in my arms. I told myself to take slow, deep breaths to calm myself and did my best not to look down.

"I don't have to be a scientist slash mathematician slash arrogant Time Lord slash whatever to be allowed to talk," I snapped. Then my left arm gave out and I screamed.

Only a few seconds after, an arm wrapped under my left arm and pulled me up; it was the Doctor. He held me up until I was able to yank my arm back and grab the pole again. I was glad that he had helped me, but didn't want to be in close contact with him because I was still hurt and angered by the way he had spoken to me.

"You're welcome."

"Thank you," I said sarcastically. "Like you even care."

"Of course I do."

I grunted and continued forward. "Well, good news for you, Doctor. We're almost at the other side and then you don't have to worry about saving me again. And I don't have to worry about dying because you thought this place was such a brilliant idea."

"You didn't tell me otherwise."

"I can't tell you because I can't change your timeline." Even if I am planning to do it anyways, I added mentally. "God knows I'd love to, but I can't. Not all the time."

"What happens that's so important?"

"Nothing."

He lowered his voice and asked sweetly, "Diana, please tell me."

"I can't!" My left arm slipped again and the Doctor caught me again. I pulled my arm back to grab the pole, but then my right arm slipped just as my other touched the pole. I let out something that was a mix of a shriek and a hiccup and hurriedly brought my other arm to wrap around the Doctor's neck. "Oh my God, don't you dare drop me."

"We're almost there. Don't you think you can make it?"

"You said back there that I couldn't," I retorted.

"I was trying to make you angry so you'd be able to do it. That's what I did with Sarah. Don't you remember?"

I sighed and closed my eyes in exasperation. "You were insulting me just to encourage me to- Oh, I could hit you."

"Yes, dear, that's lovely. Now can we keep going?"

"I don't think I can," I replied with a glance down. "Yeah, definitely can't. My arms have been shaking the whole time. I've barely been able to hold on and-"

"You're not going to fall, Diana. I promise. You'll be fine."

"I believe in you," he told me with a smile.

Shakily, I reached one arm up and took hold of the metal. Then I brought my other arm up and took hold of it. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I untangled my legs from the Doctor's and propelled myself forward by one hand length. My arms were shaking violently and I tried to push myself forward another few inches.

"We're almost there. Just a few more feet and then we can lie down."

I nodded and forced myself to continue. Once we were about a half a foot away from the edge of the building, the Doctor put his arm over my shoulder and made me take the sonic screwdriver. "Just press the button on the bottom and point it at the wall," he instructed. "The glass will shatter inwards and then we can jump inside."

I did as he said and shied away from the window when the glass broke. Then the Doctor nudged me in the thigh with his foot. With arms that were shaking violently and my chest heaving, I moved forward the necessary inches and then swung myself through the open window. I landed on top of a pile of tiny glass shards with a groan of pain that stopped short when the Doctor landed half on top of me, knocking the air from my lungs.

He rolled off me immediately and got to his knees, leaning over me with a worried expression on his face. One of his hands came to my head and ran through my hair. The sensation made my eyes slide shut and a smile work its way onto my face.

"Your head isn't hurt, I don't think. At least you haven't been cut by any glass there." He rubbed his hand against my cheek and asked me to open my eyes. "You just missed landing on that sheet of glass."

I rolled onto my side and tilted my head so I could see where he was pointing. I had landed mere inches away from a large piece of broken glass that would have seriously injured me had I landed on it. Relief flooded through my veins when the realization that I hadn't fallen to my death swept over me. I let out a shaky breath and started crying.

The Doctor gently pulled me up so I was sitting and then put his arms around me. "Oh, no. Don't cry," he said softly. "You're alright now."

"I thought I was-... I almost-"

"No, you didn't. You were very brave." He pulled back and smiled at me, brushing a lock of hair from my eyes. "You haven't seen much yet because you're still so early, but you were incredibly brave."

"No, I wasn't."

"Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway."

The hint of a smile crept across my face. "You said that once a very long time ago."

"Eight incarnations ago. But those words still hold true."

I buried my head in the Doctor's chest and sniffled. "I'm sorry."

"Just rest for now. I know you're probably tired. We'll have to leave soon, though." He looked through the broken window and we both saw that the sun was beginning to set. There would only be about five or ten minutes of sunlight left in the day. "Once the sun goes down, we'll go look for the others."

"Do you think Susan and River are alright?" I asked.

"I certainly hope so."

"They should be through here," the Doctor told me, his grip on my hand firm and comforting. "This place seems the safest and if I really gave that sonic screwdriver to Susan, then it would tell where to go."

As we approached a door with a label that read "Reading Room", we heard speaking from the other side of the door. It was River.

"You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. My Diana, but not the Doctor I've always known. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away, Diana standing next to him and ready to defend him with her last breath. And they'd just swagger off back to their TARDIS and one of them would open the doors with a snap of their fingers. The Doctor and his beautiful Diana in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere."

Anita's voice followed. "And what about you, Susan? You seem to know the Doctor and that girl pretty well."

"I do. Ze Doctor is my papa and Diana is... one of my greatest friends. She has always been my greatest comfort and I love her very much."

The Doctor pushed the doors open and dragged me in after him. "Spoilers. Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers, Professor. It doesn't work like that. And Susan-"

"I know, Papa."

River stood and looked straight into the Time Lord's eyes. "It works for the Doctor."

"I am the Doctor."

"Yeah. Some day."

After giving her a curious look, the Doctor ignored her comment. "How are you doing?"

"Where's Other Dave?"

He avoided her gaze. "Not coming. Sorry."

Anita, who had stayed quiet, readjusted herself and gently cleared her throat. "Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?"

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference."

I looked at the Doctor and gave him one slight shake of my head. I tried to make sure no one saw our brief interaction, but he understood what I was trying to say.

Anita let out an annoyed and very upset noise. "It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again."

The Doctor's face softened. "Can I get you anything?"

"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?"

"I'm all over it."

I smiled and added, "We're working on it, Anita. I promise. If there's a way to stop this, the Doctor'll find it. He's good at that."

"Yeah, right."

"Anita, really. We're both trying to figure out how to save you."

Anita leaned forward. "Doctor," she started quietly, "when we first met you, you didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in your ear, and you did. My life so far. I could do with a word like that. What did she say? Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."

Realization swept over the Doctor's face. "Safe."

"What?" Anita asked.

"Safe. You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say safe." He turned to Lux and rushed forward in excitement. "The data fragment! What did it say?"

Lux thought for a moment, then answered, "Four thousand and twenty two people saved. No survivors."

"Doctor?" River asked in confusion.

"Papa, what is it?"

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant, saved."

The Doctor had started leafing through shelves and found a stack of files. "See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out."

River and I looked over his shoulder at the paper in his hands. "It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?" River asked.

"It succeeded. Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails." The Doctor looked at us in excitement. "So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"

River smiled, causing my lips to curl upwards in a similar fashion. "It saved them."

"The Library," the Doctor explained excitedly. "A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."

Suddenly, an alarm went off and startled the entire group. "What is it?" Lux asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

A computerized voice answered with a blank voice, "Autodestruct enabled in twenty minutes."

The Doctor went off on a tangent, explaining things with very long, scientific words that went right over my head. Susan and River seemed to be the only ones in the room who understood what he was saying and even River was confused.

"What's maximum erasure?" River asked.

The Doctor gave her a strained expression. "In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg."

"No," Lux protested. "No, it's all right. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect Cal."

"I need a terminal. Where's the terminal?" the Doctor asked as he spun around in a frantic search for a terminal-computer thing. "Ah, there!"

He ran off and started typing on the keyboard, then pointed his sonic screwdriver at the screen. The screen, which had been functioning normally, suddenly went black. Frustrated, the Time Lord cried out, "No! No, no, no, no, no, no!"

The computerized voice spoke again. "All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly-"

"We need to stop this," Lux told the Doctor. "We've got to save Cal."

The Doctor was obviously confused. "What is it? What is Cal?"

Lux seemed to want to avoid answering the question and I knew why. My dislike for him lessened and I felt bad for badmouthing him earlier. He had a reason for acting the way he was, whether I thought it was justified or not. "We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you."

"But it's at the core of the planet," the Doctor said slowly.

River smiled. "Well, then. Let's go."

She pointed Susan's screwdriver at the Library logo in the middle of the compass pattern made by various types of stone in the floor. The logo opened and revealed a platform. "Gravity platform," River explained.

The Doctor stared curiously at her. "I bet I like you," he said.

"Oh, you do. Although, probably not in the way you might think." She looked over her shoulder at me and winked. "Diana, Susan? Come on down with Anita after us. Got that?"

"What?" the Doctor protested. "No. Absolutely not."

Susan linked our arms together and grinned. "Papa, zere is no need to worry. We can take care of ourselves."

I gave him a mock salute. "We're right behind you, Doctor."

Once Lux, River, and the Doctor had started to descend, Susan looked back at me. Her face and eyes shone with wonder. I smiled awkwardly and searched her eyes with mine.

"Is something wrong" I asked slowly.

"Non. Not at all. It is just zat you looked so much younger. Of course, you look beautiful no matter what age you are. But seeing you like zis... It is interesting."

I blushed at her sweet compliment. "Well, that's very nice of you, Susan. But, I really have no idea what you mean."

Her smiled lessened slightly and I felt something tug in my heart. "It is no matter. Ze life of a time traveler, as River always says, can be very difficult."

"Yes," I answered with a sigh. "I know."

"Autodestruct in fifteen minutes," the computer alerted as Susan, Anita, and I traveled down the gravity platform.

Once we reached the data core, as Susan informed me it was called, we all stepped off the platform and started searching for the Doctor. Down the corridor in front of us, a young girl's voice cried out.

"Help me. Please, help me."

"What's that?" Anita asked.

"It's a child," I told her.

"A child" Susan and Anita repeated in shock.

"Yes. Lux was hiding a family secret and that secret is CAL, the little girl who's crying for help. She's not in pain or anything."

"How do you know zis?" Susan asked.

"I know a lot. Trust me."

Up ahead, I could hear the Doctor's voice. "The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up. I'm trying."

"Doctor, these readings," River responded.

"I know. You'd think it was dreaming."

"It is dreaming," Lux answered as we approached quietly, "of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written."

"But computers don't dream," Anita muttered behind me.

The little girl was crying out again. "Help me. Please help me."

At the end of the corridor, Lux, River, and the Doctor were standing in front of a door. "No, but little girls do," Lux said as he looked over his shoulder at us. Then he pulled on a lever and the doors opened.

We all ran in after the other three, letting the doors close behind us. At the front of the room was a node with a little girl's face on it. "Please help me. Please help me," she pleaded.

River's jaw fell open. "Oh, my God."

Anita shakily raised her arm a few inches. "It's the little girl. The girl we saw in the computer."

Lux bowed his head, avoiding everybody's gaze. "She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is Cal."

I saw the Doctor's eyes flash with anger and hurriedly put my hand on his chest to keep him from advancing on Lux. "Cal is a child?" he hissed. "A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!"

"Because she's family! Cal. Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

The Doctor relaxed and nodded in understanding, looking from Lux to Cal. "So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her."

Lux nodded in return. "This is only half a life, of course. But it's for ever."

"And then the shadows came."

Cal started to speak again. "The shadows," she told us. "I have to. I have to save. Have to save."

"And she saved them," the Doctor said in awe. "She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe."

"Then why didn't she tell us?" Anita asked.

"Because she's forgotten. She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well, me."

"Papa," Susan said in a scolding tone.

River let out a breath. "What do we do?"

"Autodestruct in ten minutes," the computer said ominously.

"Easy! We beam all the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space."

"Difficult," River responded. "It'll kill you stone dead."

The Doctor waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, it's easy to criticize."

"It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate."

"I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing."

I grabbed his arm and forced him to look at me. "You listen to me right now, Doctor. You do that and you die. I know that for a fact. And I'm not letting that happen."

"Diana, it's alright."

"No," I protested. "It's really not. I'm not letting you die."

"I'll be fine."

"No you won't! If you die here, do you have any idea how many other people and worlds so far away would never even exist?"

He smiled reassuringly at me. "I'm right, this works." He noticed River open her mouth to protest and stopped her. "Shut up. Now listen. You and Luxy boy, back up to the main library. You too, Susan, Diana. Don't even think about staying behind. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention in passing as you're here, shut up."

River set her jaw and shook her head. "Oh, I hate you sometimes."

"I know!"

"Mr Lux, with me. Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!" Then River, Susan, and Lux left.

"You too, Diana."

I raised an eyebrow. "As if I'm leaving you here to kill yourself. I may scared out of my mind, but I'm not going to leave you."

"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Anita asked slowly.

The Doctor looked away from me and let out a sigh. "These are their forests. I'm going to seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."

"So you think they're just going to let us go?"

"Best offer they're going to get."

"You're going to make 'em an offer?"

"They'd better take it, because right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all." He stepped forward and stared angrily at what was left of Anita. "You know what? I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying. And she never gave in. And you ate her." He held up his sonic screwdriver and made Anita's visor return to normal. The skull inside the helmet rattled gently against the helmet. "But I'm going to let that pass, just as long as you let them pass."

"How long have you known?"

"I counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Be kind."

Anita's Vashta Nerada voice startled me and chills down my spine. "These are our forests. We are not kind."

The Doctor's face turned hard. "I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go."

Shadows stretched out from Anita's feet in our direction. "These are our forests. They are our meat."

"Don't play games with me." The Oncoming Storm had returned to avenge Anita and to save every other innocent life trapped in the Library. "You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up."

The Vashta Nerada paused. Then they spoke one last time. "The Doctor and the Wolf. Very well. You have one day." Then the spacesuit collapsed and Anita's body fell to the floor, now nothing but a skeleton covered with cloth.

River's sad voice reached my ears. "Oh, Anita," she breathed.

"I'm sorry. She's been dead a while now." He looked at River and finally realized she was still there. "I told you to go! And- Susan? What the hell are you doing?"

"Lux can manage without us," River said, motioning to Susan behind her, "but you can't."

River punched the Doctor with her right fist, sending him onto his back. She turned to me and smiled with tears gathering in her eyes. "Oh, Diana," she said as she pulled me into a hug. "I've never told you this and I never thought I would, but it seems my time is over."

"River, there's got to be another way. You don't have to-"

"I do. And I just wanted to tell you this: I love you. You have been my best friend for so many years, been like a sister and my closest confidant. You were there for me when I had no one. You will always be my sister in my hearts."

I pulled back and looked up into her eyes; they were glistening with unshed tears. "River, please."

"I'm sorry."

She tried to punch me, but I blocked her arm and stepped out of her reach. I stared at her, ready to fight back if necessary but remaining relatively calm. "I know what you want to do. I won't let you."

There was a gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw Susan standing behind me. Her name had just begun to form on my lips when she hit me in the side of the head with her fist. I fell instantly and everything turned black.

I felt something jerk beside me. The movement startled me and caused me to wake up. My movements were restricted because my hand had been handcuffed to somebody's else's. Looking up to my wrist, I saw that the chain wrapped around a copper pipe by the wall and then continued down to a man's arm: the Doctor.

I sat up a little and leaned over his unconscious form. "Doctor? Doctor, wake up! Please. River needs you."

"It is no use," said the sweet voice of Susan.

I looked up to the chair where River should have been sitting. Susan was strapped into the chair and was making some final adjustments to the wires around her body.

"Susan!" I cried as I pulled against the handcuffs, ignoring the digging of the metal on my skin. "What are you doing? Get down from there!"

"I'm saving Papa," she said with a gentle smile. "And River. She was going to sacrifice herself. I could not let her."

"Susan, your father! He will never be able to live with himself if you do this!"

"He will not live at all if I do not do zis. Neither will you."

I struggled against the handcuffs. "Susan, please. Let me do it instead. It won't matter if I do it, but if you do... Susan, don't make him lose his daughter. He loves you. Don't do this to him."

"Diana, I cannot. I love my papa and River and you. You are all my friends and family and I will not let you die."

"You don't even know me," I countered, desperate to make her change her mind. "Please. Just let me do this."

The Doctor suddenly jerked against his end of the handcuffs, pulling me back slightly. He groaned in pain and loked up. "What's-... What on Gallifrey- Susan?! Oh, no, no, no, no. Come on, what are you doing? That's my job! You get down this instant!"

"Oh, and I am not allowed to have a career, I suppose?"

She sounds just like River, I noticed as I gazed sadly up at her, completely helpless to fix it.

"Why am I handcuffed? Why do you even have handcuffs?"

"River gave zem to me," Susan explained as she tweaked another wire that lay across her lap.

The Doctor lunged forward, pulling me back painfully. He reached for his daughter with tears already streaming down my face. "Susan Elizabeth Smith, listen to me! Listen to me! This is not a joke! This is going to kill you! I'd have a chance, you don't have any!"

"You would not have a chance, Papa, and neither do I. I have timed it for ze end of ze countdown. Zere will be a blip in ze command flow. Zat way it should improve our chances of a clean download.

"Susan, please. I am begging you with both my hearts, stop. I don't care if everyone else dies. I don't care about Donna right now. Or any of the others. I don't care! You're my daughter and I love you! Just stop this now!"

Susan let out a sob and hung her head, tears running down her cheeks and neck. I could see her hands shaking and wished with all my heart and soul that I was in her place, if only to spare the Doctor from the pain of losing his child and to spare Susan. "Oh, Papa, zis is how it ends. I was with your future before zis. You knew. I told you I was going to find River and we would go to ze Library. You knew, didn't you? But you could not change it."

"Susan, please!" the Doctor screamed.

"Autodestruct in one minute," the computer annouced.

"You would not tell me why, but I suppose you knew zat it was time. My time. You gave me your screwdriver. I should have been suspicious. But you were doing what you had to." Susan bowed her head and closed her eyes. "When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it will never end. But however hard you try, you can't run for ever. Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever, for one moment, accepts it."

Then I noticed that Susan's diary, her screwdriver, and the Doctor's were a few feet away, just inches out of the Doctor's reach. He strained against the handcuffs and tried desperately to reach them. "Zere is nothing you can do, Papa."

"You can let me do this! Please, let me do this!"

"Papa, if you die here, it will mean zat River never met you. So many lives would not have been saved, so many people left cold and alone. Amelia, Rory, Clara. So many more poeple zat will love you until the day zey die. No, I cannot let you."

I felt a tear escape my eyelids and roll down the side of my face. "Let me do it, Susan. I'm not important, I'm not the Doctor's daughter. Time can be rewritten."

"Not zose times!" Susan answered, her voice low and dangerous. "Not one line. Don't you dare. You have always been ze two most important people in my life. And River. Wonderful River Song. Now it's okay, Papa. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You have so much to look forward to you. You and me and Mother, time and space."

"Susan, let me do it!" I protested with a scream. "Please!"

"Autodestruct in ten," the computer said.

"Susan," the Doctor pleaded. "You're my daughter. You were your mother's first child. Don't do this to her, to me. Please!"

"Nine, eight, seven-"

"Tell River to look in my diary. I left somezing for her." She smiled and looked sadly at her father. "Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today."

"Four, three-"

The Doctor sobbed. His plea came out as a desperate whisper, "Susan, I love you."

"Two, one."

Susan said something in a language I didn't recognize and then joined the two power cables together. A flash of bright, white light erupted from the chair and she was gone. The Doctor screamed in agony, his face contorted in rage and pain and sorrow. He slumped forward, crying heavily. I put my free hand to my face and covered my mouth as I started crying as well. River had been saved and so had the people who had been saved to the computer, but the one person who really, truly mattered at all was dead and I couldn't do anything about it. I knew the Doctor would be feeling the same thing I was, but to a much greater extent. It wasn't my child that had died, it was his. But I still felt an empty, gaping hole in my heart. The inexplicable feeling of losing someone who was close to you was all I could feel, even though I hadn't known Susan for more than a few hours.

Lux had come down to check on us after everyone who had been saved reappeared in the Library. He found the Doctor leaning against the wall crying silently, my hand handcuffed to his, and River unconscious and tied to another metal pole with a couple of thick wires around the corner of the room.

Once the Doctor was free he crawled to where Susan's diary was and ran his fingers across the cover, tears dripping down his cheeks and falling onto the book. I scrambled to his side and put an arm around his shoulder. Letting out a sob, he turned and buried his head in my shoulder. His arms came around my waist and held me tight.

I felt tears welling up in my eyes again and I let them fall, some into his hair and some onto his blue pinstriped jacket. His sobs wracked his body continuously for what felt like hours and I all I could do was cry and hold him. His fingers dug into my skin through my shirt and then lossened repeatedly as he sobbed on my shoulder.

"Doctor, I'm so sorry," I breathed.

He pulled back and looked into my eyes. His eyes were red and watery and full of pain and the deepest sorrow imaginable. His gaze dragged down to the journal and two screwdrivers by our feet. He grabbed Susan's screwdriver and carefully looked over it.

"I never allowed her to have a sonic screwdriver. I never wanted her or her sisters to be anything like me and so I never let them have anything that might lead them to become like me. Why would I give her a sonic screwdriver?"

"Perhaps it was your way of saving her," I suggested, thinking of how the Doctor saved River by giving her his screwdriver.

"Future me had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her, and what he did was give her a screwdriver. Why would I do that?"

I leaned in close to him and watched as he pulled off a panel in the screwdriver that revealed a small box with lights that looked nearly identical to the ones on the suits the people in the expedition wore. I smiled and gently put my hand on the Doctor's cheek. He looked at me with hope now shining in his eyes. "You can save her," I told him.

"I can save her."

He leaped to his feet and plugged the screwdriver into a sort of relay in the wall close to the node of Charlotte. The energy that was Susan's life was transferred into the computer and Charlotte smiled at us. I knew Susan had been saved. Even though she was phsyically dead, she would be alive in the computer and be able to make a new life. She'd also be with Anita, Proper and Other Dave, and Talulah. She'd have friends and maybe even children. The Doctor's daughter was still alive, in one way or another.

"Tell Donna that Lee is real. She needs to stay where they're teleporting everyone and look for him. He's real."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just tell her," I said. "I'll be right behind you."

The Doctor gave me a concerned expression. "Are you alright?"

"I don't count. I'm more worried about you."

"I'm alright."

I cautiously raised a hand to his face, brushing my fingers against his cheek. His eyes closed and his head bowed. "Oh, Doctor, I'm so sorry. I tried to stop her. I-... I wanted to stop her. It wasn't supposed to be like this. River was supposed to die. I was going to save her, take her place. But then Susan knocked me out."

"I don't want to talk about it," he muttered before pulling back and walking away.

The Doctor leaned against the balcony, holding his daughter's sonic screwdriver and diary against his chest. River and I stood back at the foot of the stairs, watching in silence and not wanting to disturb his mourning. Donna, still traumatized and unsure of how to comfort the Doctor, had gone to the TARDIS with Lee after giving the Time Lord an awkward half hug.

"I was going to take your place," I told River. "I didn't want to think about what your death would do to the Doctor."

River looked curiously at me. "Didn't you ever stop and think about what your death would do to him?"

"No," I answered truthfully. "Why would I? I just wanted to make sure that his wife survived."

"Diana," River said with a sad smile, "I'm afraid it's much, much more than that. The life of a time traveller, of you and the Doctor, is a difficult one. But it is also a beautiful one."

Confused, I asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" An amusing thought then entered my mind. "What, is Susan my daughter or something? Please, River. You're his wife. And he was in love with Rose and Sarah as well. I just wanted to keep my new best friend from dying and keep the Doctor from having to lose you."

River shook her head, her hair bouncing slightly. "One day this conversation will make much more sense and your heart will break and for that, my dearest friend, I am truly sorry. When that moment comes, I will be more than willing to be your comfort."

"Well, I'm glad of that," I said. "And likewise, by the way. For your parents... I understand what it's like."

"I know you do." She pulled me into a hug and sighed into my hair. "By the way, dear, as lovely as you look in my clothes, I'll have to request that you give them back."

We both parted and when I studied River's eyes, I saw that this was her form of coping with the death of her closest friend: making silly and flirtatious comments. I glanced down at the jeans she had leant me and slipped a finger through one belt loop.

"Do you have any idea how fat I feel in these? I mean, my God, River. You've got one killer body. I can barely squeeze my arse into your jeans."

"It's sexy," she commented with a sparkle of mischief and sorrow in her eyes.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "You should go. Have some time alone. Don't come back here. The Vashta Nerada would kill you."

"Yes. I know."

"She asked that you take her diary. She said she left something for you in it."

Her right hand flew up and covered her trembling mouth. I threw my arms around her neck and gave her the longest, tightest hug I had ever given. "I know she meant the world to you," I whispered, "and please believe me when I say that I did everything I could to convince her not to do it. I really did."

River pushed me away and looked down at me. "Thank you for everything, Diana. But I think there is someone else who really needs you right now."

I looked over at the Doctor, whose frame had crumpled so that he was crouching and leaning heavily against the pillars of the balcony. Tears were streaming down his face and his lips were pressed tightly together as he sobbed. I wanted to run to him, hold him, comfort him, make him happy again, but it felt wrong.

"It should be the mother of his children," I told River. "It should be Susan's mother. Not me."

"But he needs you."

"Why me? I'm nothing special. Why not you?"

"Because I'm not his wife."

Then River grabbed my wrist, pressed a few buttons on her vortex manipulator, and we vanished immediately. We reappeared in the TARDIS, minus Donna and her sort-of husband, Lee. River looked at me and nodded once. "Don't worry about it. I know what I'm doing and you'll both thank me later."

"Wait, River. What- Really? You're just going to disappear on me again?" I scowled at the empty space River had just occupied seconds before. "Typical."

"I'm not his wife." River's words fully processed in my mind as I stared at the empty space in front of me. "Oh my God," I breathed. "Something's wrong. This is wrong."

"Diana?"

I turned and saw the Doctor leaning against the doorframe that lead into the console room. His arms were crossed casually across his chest, his closely shaved head was resting lightly against the doorframe, and he had a wonderful smile on his face, but I didn't really think about any of that. The only words I could make myself say were: "What did she mean, she's not your wife?"

I know, I know. It sucks. Don't kill me. I also apologize for any spelling errors.