Chapter 3

River awoke as she heard a soft 'flump' sound from above the little nest she'd made for herself under the duvet. The something that had made the noise ending up landing right on her chest.

"Mumah!" called her daughter, who was happily bouncing up and down on top of her.

"Mmmm..." she mumbled sleepily. "Hello sweetie."

Athena jumped again.

"Oof." 'flump' "Stop, oof, bouncing, ouch, on me, aghh."

River sat up and lifted her daughter into the air. Her tiny legs wiggled about, trying, and failing to find a surface to stand on. Athena squealed in delight as she was gently thrown through the air onto the soft cushions at the end of the bed. Her cute golden curls bounced around her head as she giggled and squealed, emerging from the folds of the huge pile of squishy cushions. The Doctor scooped her up and tickled her before giving her a cuddle.

"So Athena, do you want to do something really fun today?" he asked.

"Yes yes yes!" she shouted.

"I had a feeling you'd say that! What do you want to do?"

"Theme park theme park!" she giggled.

"Ok then my little goddess, we'll do just that." He punctuated the last word by bopping his daughter on the nose. She laughed more. "Theme park it is then! Now then, you tell your mummy to get up so we can go straight away!"

"Get up lazy mummy!" Athena laughed. River mocked looking horrified.

"I am not lazy!" she retorted. "I'll get you for that!" River jumped from the bed and ran after The Doctor who was hurrying away with Athena still in his arms.

"Faster daddy!" she squealed.

River snatched Athena from The Doctor's arms and tickled her until she was in tears laughing and begging for mercy.

A short while later, The Doctor, River and Athena hopped out of the TARDIS and into the theme park. They rode almost all the rides and had rainbow candyfloss from a stall manned by a strange little green alien. Athena kept begging her parents to go on the most famous ride in the park, the spacey zoomer. They made their way towards it before coming to a sign proclaiming

'private rides, no entry'

The Doctor sighed loudly. "But the Spacey Zoomer ride is in there!" He whined. He quickly pulled out the sonic and used it on the large padlock keeping the huge, imposing metal gates firmly barred.

"I don't know if we should be in here sweetie." River said quietly, tugging on her husband's arm. The room was dark and the only source of light seemed to be from the open door behind them. Before she could say anything else, The Doctor flipped a light switch on the wall. The whole corridor lit up a brilliant white and The Doctor shrugged with fake modesty and grinned at his wife.

"You're just being silly River!" He said cheerfully. "Everything's perfectly fine! A locked door never stopped you, eh?" He elbowed her playfully.

Suddenly there was a scream from behind them and the sound of cracking electricity that turned River's blood cold. Athena was trapped in a forcefield.

"Mummy! Daddy!" She screamed desperately, throwing herself against the blue, crackling, electric shield that was binding her to one spot. It gave her a severe electric shock on impact. She was in pain but still tried to get through the forcefield, screaming for her mum and dad. River screamed at her daughter to stop, at a loss of what else to do. The Doctor tried to disable it with the sonic but it was deadlocked. That came as no surprise. Athena sat huddled in ball in the middle of her electric prison, her golden curls falling over her face.

River heard more crackling electricity from behind them, she knew that noise, she was scared of it. She didn't know why. She whipped her head around just in time to watch Kovarian and some silence march in through the door. That's why she knew that noise. She was desperate now.

"Leave her alone! Don't touch her!" She screamed at them, keeping herself between Kovarian and the forcefield.

"Oh dear, looks like my little Melody's finally lost tiny one is very cute though isn't she? Little Athena. Another timelord. Maybe she can finish what her dear mother started." Kovarian grinned.

"NO!" River screamed."NO! Please god no!"

Kovarian pressed a button on a device strapped to her wrist and stepped effortlessly through the forcefield. The Doctor stood by, looking grim, keeping the silence in sight and trying to figure out a plan. River threw herself into the forcefield to get to Athena and was electrocuted for her efforts. The Doctor shouted at her to get back and pulled her away, holding her so she wouldn't go near.

"Such a spitting image of her mother." Said Kovarian, stroking Athena's hair gently. "How adorable."

Athena was shaking with fear now, pulling away from Kovarian's unfamiliar touch. The Doctor stiffened, trying to hold back his rage. His wife was now curled up and crying, but still managing to keep the silence in sight.

Kovarian walked from the forcefield, looking smug. She made a subtle hand gesture and the silence instantly began to converge on the couple. River immediately stood up and shakily started to pick off the silence one by one. The Doctor got away for a few moments and ran to Athena's forcefield. He tried to hold back tears as he spoke softly to his daughter, who was as close to the forcefield edge as she could get without hurting herself.

"Athena, I'm going to need you to be very brave. They're going to take you somewhere, I don't know where it is but I promise I'll find they do to you just remember that mummy and I are coming back for you. We should never have come here and it's all my fault. I'm sorry. Just don't let them get to you. We love you. No matter what happens." The Doctor badly wanted to reach out to his daughter, to hug her, to hold her hand but he couldn't.

"Doctor! Help!" River screamed from behind him.

"We'll be back Athena. I promise. Be brave for us, please. I'm so sorry."

The Doctor ran off to help his wife, who was now standing unarmed, her gun lying a few feet away. Silence were converging in on all sides, electricity flicking from their long fingers. The Doctor ran to help her but the silence teleported away at his approach. He looked round in confusion but Kovarian and Athena were already gone.