Promises
"You said the smoke was deadly," Amy reminded them.
"No, no, the smoke's fine," the Doctor waved her off. "The poison will kill me first."
"And I don't plan on staying long. Get after River!"
Amy shook her head. "I don't understand, okay? One minute she's going to marry you and then she's going to kill you."
"Ah, well, she's been brainwashed. It all makes sense to her. Plus, she's a woman. Oh, shut up, I'm dying." They stepped into the TARDIS, immediately beginning to cough because of the gas.
"Extractor fans on!" Adelaide called and, thankfully, it worked in the Doctor's TARDIS.
He frowned, looking surprised. "Oh, that works."
"Shut up, you idiot," she told him, helping him towards the console.
|C-S|
Inside the head of the man who they'd left, fainted, on the floor of Hitler's study was a large collection of miniature people, since he wasn't a man at all. The robot was attempting to catch up to Melody, following the companions. "Okay," the captain of it said to his crew. "This time, let's do the bike, too."
"You see, he can't be dying," one of the crewmen said, pointing at the screen before him. "He's not the one who dies!"
The captain frowned. "It's her who's confirmed deceased, correct?"
The man nodded. "Yes. But even she doesn't die here; she dies in Utah, by Lake Silencio, April the 22, 2011. He doesn't, not ever."
"Time can be rewritten," a young woman reminded them. "Remember Kennedy?"
"This time can't. Her death is a confirmed fixed point, any Time Lord's death would be, theoretically. The Doctor doesn't die."
The captain shook his head. "Then someone's screwed up, because he's dying right now."
|C-S|
Inside the TARDIS, Adelaide leaned the Doctor against the console, though he slipped a bit further from the pain. "I'm shutting down," he said, wincing.
"Yes, I've gathered as much." She straightened, typing a few things into the console. "I think you've been poisoned with the Judas tree."
"How do you know…"
"First regeneration." She glanced at him. "I told the Universe that it could kill Time Lords."
"Oh, well, thanks then."
She smirked. "But I don't know what concentration…" She slammed a hand against the console. "It's acting up because Mels shot it!"
"Let me…" he tried to pull himself up, but Adelaide practically shoved him back to the ground.
"Stay. You're dying." Adelaide stood, working quickly to do a scan on the Doctor, needing to know exactly how long the Doctor had yet.
She knew it wasn't too strong of a concentration, otherwise, he would already be dead, but how long did they have… "You're going to be dead in thirty-two minutes," she said quietly from the other side of the console.
"What?"
"Thirty-two minutes," she repeated.
"Unless I'm cured, yeah?"
She came around the console. "There is no cure. You're going to be dead in thirty-two minutes."
"You're skipping thirty-one whole minutes when I'm absolutely fine."
Adelaide knelt next to him. "Then you're going to be fine for thirty-one minutes, and dead in thirty-two, but I don't think we should be debating language choices at the moment."
"Better regenerate, then."
She raised her eyebrows. "Unless you were lying, you don't have any left."
He closed his eyes from the pain. "You're not being very helpful."
"I discovered the Judas tree, I don't know how to prevent death." She ran a hand through her hair. "You have thirty-one minutes. We need to help Amy and Rory."
The Doctor grimaced, but he nodded. Adelaide stood and set the TARDIS into motion, the Doctor eventually helping as best as he could.
|C-S|
As Melody examined her new outfit in a mirror, an expressionless Amy stood behind her, though Melody hadn't looked that hard to notice that it wasn't, in fact, Amy. "I might take the age down a little, just gradually, to freak people out."
"You killed the Doctor," 'Amy' said. "You killed Adelaide."
"Haven't done the second one yet, exciting, unless she snogged him." Melody put on a hat. "Oh, regeneration. It's a whole new coloring to work with."
'Amy' moved to stand before the mirror. "You killed the Time Lords on the orders of the movement known as the Silence and Academy of the Question. You accept and know this to be true?"
"Quite honestly, I don't really remember. It was all a bit of jumble." 'Amy' opened her mouth, firing a beam of light at Melody and making her stumble back in pain. "No! No, get off me!"
"Sorry," someone called, and the two turned to see the Doctor leaning against the corner of the TARDIS, having changed into black tails complete with a cane, with Adelaide standing beside him, "did you say she killed the Time Lords?"
Melody's eyes widened. "You're dying and you stopped to change?"
"Oh, you should always waste time when you don't have any." He stumbled down the staircase, pointing his cane at Melody. "Time is not the boss of you. Rule four hundred and eight."
Adelaide stepped down after him, stepping in front of 'Amy'. "Amy, you seem to have become some sort of…"
"Judgement death machine?" the Doctor offered, moving to lean on her shoulders.
"That's not what I was going to say."
"Why am I not surprised?" the Doctor opened the top of his cane. "Sonic cane."
"Are you serious?"
"Never knowingly. Never knowingly be serious, unless you're Adelaide. Rule twenty-seven." He grinned. "You might want to write these down." He scanned 'Amy' with his cane. "Oh, it's a robot. With four hundred and twenty-three life signs inside. A robot worked by tiny people…love it. But how do you all get in there, though? Bigger on the inside?"
"Basic miniaturization sustained by a compression field?" Adelaide offered.
"Ooh, watch what you eat, it'll get you every time. Amy, if you and Rory are okay, signal us." His cane made a sound as Amy, undoubtedly, activated the Doctor's sonic. "Thanking you." He suddenly cried out, grabbing his leg and would have fallen, had he not already been hanging onto Adelaide, though he nearly took her down with him. "I'm so sorry, leg went to sleep. Just had a quick left leg power nap; I forgot I had one scheduled."
She guided them both to the stairs. "Better sit down." She dropped him down.
The Doctor nodded. "I think I heard the right one yawning."
Melody turned and attempted to run, but 'Amy' caught her in the beam again.
"Don't harm her!" Adelaide ordered, stepping forwards.
'Amy' turned. "Why would you care? She's the woman who kills you."
The Doctor leaned forward. "I'm not dead."
"We weren't speaking to you."
He frowned. "Rude."
"Shut up."
"You're just a rude time traveling, shape-shifting robot operated by miniaturized cross people…which I have got to admit, I didn't see coming."
Adelaide gestured towards Melody. "Why do you want her?"
"She's Melody Pond. According to records, the woman who kills Adelaide."
Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "And?"
"Throughout history, many criminals have gone unpunished in their lifetimes," 'Amy' said. "Time travel has responsibilities."
"What?" the Doctor scoffed. "You got yourselves time travel, so you decided to punish dead people?"
"We don't kill them. We extract them near the end of their established timelines."
"And then what?"
"Give them hell."
"I may never have learned every law of the universe, but I'm fairly certain that wasn't listed under time travel." She stepped towards 'Amy'. "Are you just walking around with discrete information about a Time Lady in your computer system?"
"Our records office is sealed to the public. Foreknowledge is dangerous."
She nodded. "Yes, I know that, but anything can be broken into."
"We can't tell you." There was a long moment of silence and Adelaide took the time to look back at the Doctor, nodding at him. "Records available."
Adelaide smiled. "Who wants the Time Lords dead?"
"The Silence."
"Any more information?" Adelaide was thankful that this negotiation was essentially just asking questions, because that was something she could do with ease, her arms crossed behind her.
"The Silence is not a species," 'Amy' said. "It is a religious order or movement. Their core belief is that silence will fall when the question is asked."
"The question?"
"The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight."
"What is the question?"
"Unknown."
She sighed. "Thank you."
The Doctor cried out in pain from behind them, though Adelaide didn't look, guessing what had just happened to him based on her own experience with the poison. "Kidneys are always the first to quit. I've had better, you know."
'Amy' just turned to Melody, turning the force field around her red and making her scream in pain.
"Amy," the Doctor said quickly, Adelaide stepping to the side so that 'Amy' could see him on the stairs. "Rory, Amy. Can you hear me?"
"What do we do? This is me. This is me actually talking. What do we do?"
He just shook his head. "Just stop them. She's your daughter. Just stop them."
"How? How? How?"
"Just do it!"
During the few seconds while they waited for 'Amy' to do something, Adelaide walked back to the Doctor and quickly checked him, reminding him about how much time he had left. Finally, the light vanished, releasing Melody. "Please…" the Doctor called to Melody, who was breathing hard. "Now you have to save your parents."
Adelaide looked over at her. "Don't run, Melody."
"We know you're scared, but never run when you're scared. Rule seven. Please…" he collapsed onto the stairs, weakened from the poison. But Melody hadn't moved yet, so Adelaide stood. Part of her wanted to stay with the Doctor because he was dying, but she also knew that it would be far too difficult to convince Melody to save her parents, and she couldn't just let Amy and Rory die.
"I'll be right back, Doctor," she told him, before turning and walking up the stairs and into the TARDIS.
He tried to push himself up once she'd left as 'Amy' cried for help, no doubt still transmitting what Amy was saying, but he was still too weak to do anything but lie there.
Melody, who still watched him, seeming to be uncertain about what she needed to do, shook her head. "Look at you. You still care. It's impressive, I'll give you that."
"River…" the Doctor managed to say, his voice even weaker now, "please."
Melody stepped closer. "Again? Who is this River? She's got to be a woman. Am I right?"
They were interrupted by the TARDIS reappearing in the room. Amy and Rory rushed out, running to the Doctor's side, before Adelaide, though they did leave space for her at the Doctor's side.
Amy shook her head. "You can't die now. You don't die…"
The Doctor smiled. "Oh, Pond, you've got a schedule for everything."
"But it doesn't make any sense." Amy looked up towards Adelaide, as though expecting her to offer some sort of explanation.
"Doctor," Rory said, "what do we do? Come on. How do we help you?"
Adelaide shook her head. "You can't, not now."
"Ponds, listen to me." The Doctor could only whisper now. "I need to talk to your daughter." Amy and Rory stood, allowing Melody to kneel on the other side of Adelaide, who was having flashbacks to another time when the Doctor was dying.
Thankfully, the universe wasn't going to be reborn today.
"Find her," the Doctor said, taking Melody's hand. "Find River Song and tell her something from me."
"Tell her what?" he pulled her down so that he could whisper in her ear, speaking so quietly that even Adelaide couldn't hear her. Melody pulled back, laughing slightly. "Well, I'm sure she knows."
The Doctor turned his gaze onto Adelaide, but couldn't manage to say something beyond a squeeze of the hand he held before he went completely limp.
And Adelaide didn't know what to do.
Because, suddenly, she couldn't focus on anything. Her vision blurred and there was a sharp pain in the back of her head.
"Adelaide…" Rory said, sounding like he was speaking through water. "What's wrong?"
Her vision cleared a bit, enough that she could focus, though now there was a sharp ringing in her ears, and she was beginning to know why.
There was another fixed event in their future and now it wasn't going to happen. She could feel her timeline shifting as the Doctor's ended before it should have.
"We're Aligned…" she said, looking up at them. She still knelt by the Doctor's body, still held his lifeless hand, because now motion was quite painful, so painful that all she wanted to do was die. It would fade, soon, but for the first few seconds… "A fixed event has been altered."
Even if the humans and part Time Lady before her didn't fully understand what that meant, her tone made it clear enough.
Melody, who seemed to have backed away from Adelaide and the Doctor, turned to Amy and Rory. "Who's River Song?"
Amy, her fists clenched, turned to 'Amy', who had frozen. "Are you still working? Because I'm still a relative. Access files on River Song."
"Records available," 'Amy' said.
"Show me her. Show me River Song." 'Amy' transformed into a slightly younger in appearance of Melody. She looked towards Adelaide and the Doctor, Adelaide having rested her forehead against his chest, eyes closed and breathing hard from the pain. More than one fixed event…it had to be, because this was more painful than Adelaide had expected. "What did he say?" Amy asked Melody. "The Doctor gave you a message for River Song. What was it?" Melody looked down at her hands, watching as they glowed with regeneration again. "What's happening?" Amy gasped. "River, what are you doing?"
"Just tell me," she said, taking a step forward. "The Doctor, is he worth it?"
"Yes!" Amy said, nodding frantically. "Yes, he is!"
Adelaide looked up as Melody came closer, her eyes wide. "No…" she whispered, shaking her head, but Melody just placed her hands on the Doctor's chest and let all of her regeneration energy seep into him, bringing him back to life.
His eyes opened. "River…no, what are you doing?"
She smiled. "Hello, sweetie."
|C-S|
In the TARDIS, Amy frowned. "So that's it, we leave her there?" They had left Melody, the Doctor giving her a final gift.
"Sisters of the Infinite Schism," the Doctor nodded. "Greatest hospital in the universe."
Amy nodded. "Yeah, but she's our daughter. She's River, and she's our daughter."
Adelaide nodded. She stood on the other side of the console to the Doctor, a screen on before her. "We have far too much foreknowledge; she needs to be on her own."
Amy leaned, attempting to see what she'd pulled up. "What's that?"
She pushed the screen to the other side of the console, away from the humans. "Information from the Teselecta. A present from the Doctor."
"River was brainwashed to kill one of you, right?" Rory asked both Time Lords, looking between them.
The Doctor shrugged. "Well, she did kill me, and then she used her remaining lives to bring me back."
"Though, apparently, she also kills me at some point in the future too," Adelaide added.
"But that stuff that they put in her head, is that gone now? The River that we know in the future, she is in prison for murder."
Amy nodded. "Whose murder? Will we see her again?"
The Doctor turned and dashed around the console, Adelaide ducking out of the way. "Oh, she'll come looking for us."
"Yeah, but how? How do people even look for you?"
He laughed. "Oh, Pond. Haven't you figure that one out yet?"
|C-S|
Once Amy and Rory had gone to their room, the Doctor went looking for Adelaide. He'd left the console to hunt for something in the TARDIS and when he'd returned, she'd been gone. So he'd left the room again, looking for her, only to step into the console room again about an hour later to find her standing at the console, studying something on the screen.
He came up beside her, seeing what she was looking at.
The information from the Teselecta. About her death.
"I never thought my death would be at a beach," she commented, not looking at him. She seemed to do that a lot. He wasn't certain if he liked it. "Suppose it has to happen somewhere."
"You're not going to die."
"It doesn't seem as though it will be up to you." Adelaide typed a few more things. "There's no mention of you."
"You're not going to die. Promise me that you're not going to die."
"We still don't know why I went to Lake Silencio," she reminded him. "I'm not going to promise anything at the moment."
"Please." He stepped closer. "Promise me, Adelaide."
She sighed, turning so that she was leaning sideways against the console. "Will you stop bothering me if I promise?"
"Please."
"You sound like a child." She shook her head. "For some reason, the Silence want us dead, and it seems as though they'd be happy settling for only one Time Lord. One of us has to die and it seems as though the Universe decided on me."
"Then promise to ignore the Universe." He studied her face, looking for any sign of emotion. "Please, Adelaide, don't go to your death. Don't abandon me."
"Then don't abandon me."
The Doctor said nothing more, the Time Lords just studying each other, because the Doctor knew that, whatever he said, she had already made a decision. He just knew that he would do whatever he could to keep her from doing as he knew she wanted, even if it was a fixed event.
Adelaide already knew why her future self had decided to go to her death instead of letting the Doctor sacrifice himself.
And she agreed.
A/N: Adelaide officially knows what fate has in store for her. If only the Doctor could change her mind...