Tick tock...
She wished Clara and the Doctor would pick a destination already, boredom was becoming a rather dangerous pastime.
It will come to take her...
She had tried so hard to forget, but the monster wouldn't let her. It wanted her body and soul, to invade every thought and every feeling, it wanted complete control.
Rose shall fade away...
She could see herself fading away, bit by bit the monster would erase everything she ever was, and when she was finally gone the world would never again be the same. She adjusted her hand to rest against her temple, again she wished for a bit of action to allow a reprieve from her dreary thoughts. She glanced about, there were a few demons lurking about, but hadn't decided to creep from their hiding spots. She raised an eyebrow at a particular shadow that had darted suddenly away from her, as though it had thought better of attacking just yet.
"Ah, come on now, lets have a bit of fun eh?" She teased the shadows. She slipped from her perch on the bars and sashayed about the shadows, "don't be scared, I don't bite, thats your specialty. How about we play a little game?" The shadows trembled slightly, but made no further move. She pursed her lips.
"Still talking to yourself I see."
She whirled around to see River leaning over the railing, looking at the shadows.
"Where the hell have you been?" The Creature snapped too crossly.
The parting of their last encounter had been abrupt. After she demanded her favor, an aghast expression widened River's eyes, "kill you?" she had uttered, "no I won't."
Anger had raged through the Creature's eyes. "We have an agreement, and you go back on your word?"
"We have an agreement on a favor, not of death."
"I never said you had to kill me, simply help me find the means to do it."
"No."
Anger had become a flood, washing away reasonable thought, breaking down any wall the Creature had built; leveling it to sand.
She struggled to breathe. "You dare break your word. You promised me a favor."
"I'm sorry," River had whispered.
"People will die!" the Creature had begun to screech, she waved her hand up at the black words still plastered on the wall, "those words are a warning, to me, it will come and take me, and when it does everyone will be in danger. Even him."
"And the only solution is for you do die?" River shook her head, "there has to be another way..."
"If there is another way, do you think I would have found it by now?" The Creature hissed, "you are the only hop I have left."
River looked up solemnly, "I will not give you the key that will unlock your demise."
"You promised me," the Creature breathed.
"I'm sorry."
"You promised me!" Despair bleed into the Creature's heart, she saw the world burning, the Doctor dead, and she screamed. River had backed away from the Creature, hand lowering to her gun. Rage convulsed the Creature's body, the red veins in the her eyes had swelled, blood mixed with molten gold, she had become a crazed demon herself.
"I'm sorry," River lamented, and with those words she had vanished from view.
"Damn you!" The Creature had raged, she ran her fingers through her hair, pulled at the strands.
What to do...
What to do...
Now, after a week without an appearance, the Creature dared not look River in the eyes. In a casual attempt River hoisted herself up onto the railing grinning.
"Miss me?"
The Creature grunted, "whats there to miss," she muttered.
"Why do you do that?" River motioned toward the quivering shadows, "your completely outnumbered, do you want to get hurt?"
The Creature shrugged. "I'm bored. It's not the first time I've been outnumbered."
River shook her head, "its like tempting death."
The Creature lifted a brow. "I can't die remember?"
River nodded, an unsure expression flitting across her face, "why did you ask me about the library?"
"The games over. No more questions," the Creature snipped brushing past River abruptly. She walked past the threshold of the counsel room and slipped into the library. The chatter of the Doctor and Clara could still be heard in the distance, but she stared numbly at the wall of books lining the shelves, slumped into the large sofa.
"I never asked all my questions," River's voice broke her silent reverie.
The Creature crossed her legs, looking rather regal where she sat despite her slumped state.
"And life is never fair. Get over it."
River ventured further into the room, a fingertip running along a shelf, staring intently on a book spine, her mind drifting far away.
"Where are you now, that makes you so desperate to die..." River muttered allowed.
"Fear," the Creature whispered slowly, River turned at the broken sound of her voice, "desperation, knowledge of what will come."
"You are so different," River leaned against a shelf, arms crossed against her chest; the Creature glanced up at River, annoyed.
"You used to be so different. Even your appearance changed." River's words seemed to echo in the room.
The Creature sighed, "you looked through the archives."
"I was curious. He never mentioned you, so I looked around a bit," she paused, her direct gaze on the Creature's slumped form never faltered, "you are nothing like you were then. You were so...human. A little blond girl."
The Creature grunted and lifted a long strand of auburn hair, "after two hundred years, you get bored of the same appearance."
"How are you able to change?"
"The beast likes to change things around," the Creature goaded without thinking.
"The beast?"
The Creature thinned her lips, her eyes falling to stare lamentably at the floor.
"I asked about your...library...because if it came to it, as a last resort, I wondered if the Doctor could be saved to it, if nothing else could be done."
"Are you answering questions now?" River mused, tilting her head.
"What question would I have to answer that would make you accept my favor?"
River shook her head, eyes troubled.
"How ready you are to sign away your life." Sympathy was etched on River's face. The Creature growled, and abruptly stood to her feet.
"What kind of life is this?" She spread her arms wide, "this is no life. I've lived in a false reality for too long. I've forgotten what the sun even feels like on a summer's day, what kind of life is that?" She rubbed her fingers aggressively across her eyes. River noticed how tangled and matted the Creature's hair had become, how her eyes had lost light, and the gold in them had dimmed.
"Rose, why do you want to die?" River asked softly. The Creature huffed, a laugh erupting form her throat, her hands dropped back to her sides, her eyes were red.
"Do not call me that. I never want to hear that name again." She shifted back and forth on her feet, her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach, "with my death, his life will be saved, as well as countless others, it is perfectly justified."
River's brow furrowed, "what do you mean by that?"
The Creature hiccuped a breath, a nonsensical laugh bubbled from her lips.
"This thing," her hand wavered up to her head, "inside my head...this beast...its coming for me, to take me away, the Big Bad Wolf, it wants me gone, to be in control. It ravages, burns, it kills, and when I'm gone there will be nothing to stop it."
River stood motionless. Unsure of the crazed women in front of her. The Creature had always held a demanding stature, eyes such as hers belayed great intelligence, as well as a dangerous threat, but now she wavered on her legs, blood shot eyes gazed up at River, she was going mad. The Creature took a step forward and reached out. For whatever reason River let the Creature take her hand, perhaps it was the shock the Creature made the gesture herself, but she clung to River's hand as if it were her lifeline.
"Do it, for him. Kill me, for him. He can't die, not because of me. The world will turn to ash if I don't die. I'm growing weaker every day, please help me save him...please," though she begged, the words burned the Creature's throat, how her pride and dignity wept with despair.
River withdrew her hand.
"No, I'm sorry."
The Creature could only stare. Her shoulders slumped, and her eyes dimmed, she shoved past River.
"There has to be another way," River called after her, "I'll help you find another way. That is what I will do."
The Creature stopped her step, laying a hand on a shelf she turned slightly to look at River with thin eyes.
"There is no other way," she sneered, "if one life will save millions, a universe of lives, such a sacrifice must be made."
"And who would be here to protect the Doctor form the demons?" River persisted, trying to grasp anything.
The Creature turned away, "you of course," she began to shuffle out of the room.
River's eyes hardened, "what of you being saved to the library? What of that?"
The Creature shook her head, "wouldn't stop the beast from breaking out. It draws its life form from me. It needs me alive so it can live," she laughed bitterly, "a parasites dream, living off an eternal soul that can never die. No, just locking me away somewhere else will never work," she turned back facing River, her face solemn, as if she were one who had fought a long and hard battle and had lost, "you have no idea what it is capable of, what it can do..." her voice trailed off. Her eyes flitted to the side of the room, and slowly the light began to shine through them again. She drew in a breath, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. She glanced back at River and a crooked smile stretched across her mouth.
"But I can show you," she whispered.
Strength returned to her limbs, and with purpose she strided towards River and descended on her. She acted too quickly for River to react, for she reached out and placed her hands on both sides of River head, and poured her memories of the beasts terror into her mind.
She shuffled through memory after memory, fire raging, blood running. River saw the beast through the Creature's eyes, and saw its red golden eyes. She saw a world crumbling, the streets breaking apart, forming chasms in the earth. The sky had turned dark, and the sun appeared to be disappearing, as if it were shrinking. Children cried for their parents, and in the memory River saw a child shaking the still body of a women. She heard the screams of terror, the sound was inhuman. But it wasn't just the world, the screams were heard throughout the stars, so many voices, ricocheted through Rivers ears. Then suddenly it stopped, all was silent, and that was the worst sound of all. The Creature flipped to another memory, one where she awoke to find blood once again staining her hands and a body laying at her feet. His eyes were gone, and his mouth was hanging open in a silent scream.
River squirmed in the Creature's grip, wanting an escape from these images.
"Enough!" She wanted to say, but couldn't. The Creature bombarded her with memories of the aftermath of what the beast had done, could do, it was almost a pleasure for her to know River was in distress. But then, as if she has lost control, a memory, she had locked away for years suddenly resurfaced. The door flew open and the memory was seized and relived. The Creature heard the beast laugh.
River saw the Creature strapped to a table, men in white coats and odd machinery filled the room. The Creature now resembled her human form, blond hair fanned about her head, brown eyes glared at a particular man leaning over her. Words were said, screams erupted from the Creature's mouth; begging, swearing, and a golden light running through the Creature's veins. Abruptly, River was thrown out of the memory as if she had been shoved.
The both breathed hard, neither spoke, only stared at the each other.
"That is what will happen if the beast breaks out," the Creature said between breaths, her hands slightly shook.
"Those people, the world...a whole universe...gone," River pushed a hand up to her hair, she almost couldn't comprehend what she had just witnessed.
"My world, my universe," the Creature whispered. River glanced up at her, appalled.
"I destroyed it, all of it. The whole world, all the stars, all gone..." she turned away, rubbing her face aggressively, "I will not let that happen again. It cannot."
"You were hurt." River said after a moment, "who were they?"
The Creature shook her head, "not important. They are gone now. River, do you not see why I need to do this?" She would get on her hands and knees if she must, her pride was almost non existent now.
"You're a real Jekyll and Hyde," River thinned her lips, "I'll do it," her voice ground in her throat, "I'll do it."
The Creature said not a word, could only nod, but her heart was flooded with a tilde wave of relief, joy, and terror. Perhaps there was still some human still left in her, for the urge for survival suddenly leapt in retaliation. She didn't want to die, she wanted to live, to feel the sun again on her face, to hold his hand one last time. But life is cruel, and so very unfair, get over it.
"Thank you," she whispered, then turned and walked back to the counsel room, now waiting for her execution.
