Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to various persons and corporations that are not me or associated with me. This piece of fanfiction is written with the admiration and respect for the original work. I claim no ownership of Doctor Who's creations. No profit is made from this material, now or in the future.
A/N: Sorry that it's been an extra week since the last update. I was rather sick and then I ended up writing/posting an Eleven/River AU called Timeless Dreams last week instead. I hoped that since I posted a River/Doctor story still, I might be forgiven. I plan to finish this piece within this next week.
Thanks to Armity for beta-read. Specifically with help getting the point of view correct in the last scene here. Also, thanks to FandomLucky for transcribing how River dictates coordinates in the Angel ep so that I was able to come up with similar coordinates here. My request was on very short notice and she totally delivered. Thanks to both, this chapter has really benefited from their help.
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
River Song has been received and secured into the Stormcage facility. Our Church of Supreme Authority acknowledges that the responsibility of her containment has been transferred from the Time Agency to the Church.
From: Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Message Content:
The Shadow Proclamation provides documentation that River Song entered the protection of the Church in prime physical health and that all other material demands of her plea bargain were met, namely the release of her diary into her possession.
see attached document: Witness Statement of Servant Kai
From: Doctor Dorris Holaday, The Great Guild
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Message Content:
A great injustice has been done today. I am ashamed that it appears the court has not learned from the mistakes of its past. It seems ironic and gruesomely appropriate that this should be the case when deciding on the trial of River Song. Much like her paradox, it is a mistake that keeps happening over and over. Unlike her paradox, our combined court could have put an end to it.
Throughout the years, River Song has done terrible things, ghastly crimes, and been forgiven for them because she always seemed to have something that we wanted. Usually, it was her intellect. Sometimes, it was information. I am well aware of how it has served the Empire. Many of the monumental discoveries cataloged by the Great Guild within the last hundred years have been spearheaded by Doctor Song. But at what cost? How many have lost their lives or livelihoods because the rules don't apply to River Song? How many more will suffer in the future?
There have to be consequences. There has to be justice.
Even for River Song.
From: Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Message Content:
I am very sorry that Doctor Holaday does not see the necessity of the combined court's decision to plea bargain with Doctor Song. It was in the interest of justice and the memory of those killed by this tragedy that such a deal was made. It was our hope that in solving the mystery of what happened on the Hellades colony on 82-29-5107 that some measure of peace might be granted to their families and loved ones left behind. Only through understanding what happened may we safeguard society from it ever happening again.
Doctor River Song has not escaped judgment. She has pleaded guilty to all charges. In return, the court has promised her immunity from memory-death, but her life has been forfeited to the Empire. She will serve the Empire within the Stormcage, without possibility of parole, for the rest of her natural life, without the option of medical extension. No one has ever escaped the Stormcage. Even now, she is surrounded by the consequences of her actions. Her punishment has begun. Justice has been served.
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
Our prayers are with the victims of River Song. The Church will do all within its power to make sure that she never escapes the Stormcage, from now until the hour that God has appointed for her final judgment.
From: Doctor Dorris Holaday, The Great Guild
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Message Content:
River Song has been sentenced to life imprisonment before. She was pardoned. I have little doubt that she will be pardoned again.
From: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
As long as the Time Agency stands, River Song will not be pardoned.
From: Doctor Dorris Holaday, The Great Guild
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Message Content:
I am sure you will keep your promise, Overseer Gamma. Nevertheless, one must always beware the promise of a time-traveler. What is linear time to you may not be so for me. The Time Agency has a beginning. It logically follows that the Time Agency must also have an ending. If I had a vortex manipulator, I would be able to enter a coordinate and find the day the Time Agency collapses, as every institution must. Does that mean the Time Agency is always ending?
Forgive me, I am an archeologist and because of that must see all of history as ruins in the making. I have no doubt you will keep your promise, overseer. Just as I have no doubt River Song will be pardoned in order to offend society again.
Perhaps this is the consequence of humanity's hubris, presuming to control Time. River Song is proof that Time will always control us. Again and again and again.
Entered into evidence:
Testimonial of River Song:
Part One
Interviewer: Bishop Benedicta
Witness: Servant Kai
Time-Stamp: 30-21-5108/10.08.33
Bishop Benedicta: Please place your hand upon the verifier. Understand that if you remove your hand at any point during this interview, you may be held in contempt of court and your plea-bargain might be invalidated. Do you understand?
River Song: Understood.
BB: Please state your full name.
RS: Which one?
BB: Your true name.
RS: I don't have a true name . . . But when I pretend to have one, I am Doctor River Song. Most days.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Doctor Song, in your plea bargain, you agreed to release documentation of what happened on the Hellades colony on 82-29-5107.
RS: I did.
BB: Where is this documentation?
RS: I have a house in 19th century England. Earth. It's in a city named Oxford. The street address is 253 Burnings Way. I own it under the name Mr. John Smith though the housekeeper knows me as his widow, Mary. Tell her I sent you. Oh, and make sure you have some of her biscuits. They're delicious.
BB: Can you be more specific or must we search the entire house? What are we searching for, precisely?
RS: Up the stairs, first door on your left, there is a bedroom. In that bedroom is a bed. One of its posts is hallow. Inside you will find a fifty-second century data crystal.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Is the data crystal encrypted?
RS: (laughs) Of course.
BB: How do we decrypt it?
RS: I will write you a program.
BB: How do we know that you won't destroy evidence or create a virus that will infect the systems viewing the evidence?
RS: Bishop, what is my hand sitting on?
BB: Ah. River Song, will the program you create do anything else but decrypt the information on the data crystal found in 253 Burnings Way?
RS: No.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: I repeat, your program will only decrypt the evidence stored on that data crystal?
RS: Yes.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Is there any other evidence you wish to surrender to the court?
RS: No, that is all the evidence I have to surrender.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: I repeat, that is all the evidence in your possession?
RS: That is all the evidence I have to surrender.
Servant Kai: Verified.
From: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
The Time Agency has retrieved the data crystal from 253 Burnings Way. The encrypted data will be entered into evidence as soon as the Church transmits River Song's decryption program to the Time Agency.
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
The specific wording of River Song's plea bargain reads thus: In exchange for the court's mercy, all evidence both verbal and material will be surrendered to Our Church of Supreme Authority in order that it may be heard by the court.
The court has spoken. The encrypted data will be submitted into evidence as soon as the Time Agency transfers the data crystal into the Church's possession.
From: Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Message Content:
The Shadow Proclamation will provide a witness to accompany the data crystal's journey from the Lemniscate to the Church.
From: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
The data crystal from 253 Burnings Way has begun its travel to the Church. We can only hope that it does not fall into the wrong hands upon the way. I wish it noted by the court that I find this extremely inadvisable for Empire security.
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
The data crystal from 253 Burnings Way has entered possession of the Church intact. This is particularly gratifying as there was an instance of attempted piracy in transit and Doctor Song believes there was also an attempt to copy the data crystal. Thank God neither attempts were successful. Also, our thanks must go out to the Shadow Proclamation for providing a witness to accompany the evidence. Without her quick thinking and dedication, Overseer Gamma's premonition might have come true.
entered into evidence:
Burnings Way Data Crystal:
Visual File 1
The recording begins.
On the screen, River Song sits in a chair at the end of a dining table. Behind her, two gas lamps flicker in the dark room. It makes the hunter-green, striped wall paper expand and withdraw with every flash of light and shadow. The eye and lens see it as if the walls are breathing behind River Song's back. From the architecture of the house and specifically the room around her - real wood floors, manual doors, and most importantly the date of the newspaper sitting on the serving board- this must be 253 Burnings Way, 19th century Oxford, England, Earth.
River Song is out of place.
It's most obvious in her clothing. She is only visible to the camera from the waist up but that fabric is most certainly not of Earth origin. She should know better. If even a scrap of it were left behind by accident, it could pollute the time stream.
That would be enough evidence for one count willful anachronism and one count willful perversion of Time. Of course, the data crystal and recording device were also not of 19th century Earth origin. The threat posed by their use was surely immense. Make that two counts. Each.
River Song doesn't even look at the camera. There must be an old fashioned clock somewhere in the house, large enough to reverberate in the silence. The ticking marks ten seconds, then fifteen, then twenty. At first, it appears that she is stuck in time and it is only the house moving around her, but this is an illusion. Her chin rests on her chest, her hair falling forward and obstructing even this limited view of her face. It takes awhile to notice but this pause on her part encourages a closer inspection.
She's shaking.
It's difficult to tell because of the flicker of the lamplight and the overwhelming darkness in the room, but River Song is shaking. It's only the finest of trembles yet it is hard to believe. This woman is supposed to be fearless, dauntless, and in a word unshakable.
She takes a deep breath and the walls exhale behind her. She lifts her head and looks straight into the camera. There are cuts on her face. Mostly on her left cheek but there is one gash perilously close to her right eye. There are bruises on her throat, just beneath her jaw line. It looks like the shadows have wrapped their fingers around her neck. Her anachronistic shirt reveals more bruises and cuts on her arms. There's a bloody hand print on her chest, just over her heart, and it is too big to be her own.
"Doctor," she says in an adamantine voice. It is difficult to connect the sure sound of it to the brittle woman moving her mouth. Still, it is more River Song than her face in that moment. It is the sound of a woman who has made a decision and is going to follow through with it, come what may. Doctor Holaday is wrong. It's not that consequences don't apply to River Song; it's just that she's too willing to endure them.
"Sweetie," she amends after a moment. River tries on a smile but can't make it fit. She clears her throat instead. "Remember the time I accidentally on purpose sold you to the Judoon?" She squints her eyes at the camera, as if she can see the viewer through the screen. "Well, maybe not. Don't worry, you forgive me . . . You always forgive me."
She leans forward, clasping her hands on the tabletop. There's something dark under her fingernails.
"Forgive me for this," River begs. "Not for what I've done with the Master. You forgave me for that years ago, before I had ever even heard of him. I wonder. That time you accidentally mentioned him to me was that a test? Was it to see how close I was to Hellades? Or did you ask me because I'm telling you right now that you ask me? I hope so, because that means maybe there's some hope.
"I hope you find this sometime after the Pandorica, but before the Culling Shores. I need your help and not just any you will do." She pauses and bites her lip, as if wondering how much to tell. "I've done something terrible . . . And I'm going to ask you to do something that you won't want to do. But when you hear what I've done, you'll understand why. I know you, Doctor. You'll need even more convincing. That's why I've included these visual files. Watch them. Then you'll see it's the right thing to do."
She squares her shoulders and places her palms flat on the table. "I need you to go to three, double nine, two, slash, six, four, one by ten, zero, eleven, slash, acorn. I'll be there because it's already happened to me. You'll be there too because whether you go now or not, it will someday happen to you. Twice. You see, I called for help and you came, like you always do. It was a trick. We needed you to make the key work. But then it went wrong. So I had to call you again, a different you. I didn't know Time Locks worked that way. The Master told me it was simple but now that I think about it, if it were so simple why wouldn't you have done it years ago? I'm so sorry, my love, but I just wanted to give your people and family back to you. I thought you simply weren't willing to sacrifice any innocents, even a hundred for a billion. I was willing to do it for you.
"I didn't know the Time Lock had already been opened before. Neither did the Master, since that version of him had been sealed away by the Daleks since before the Time War. You can guess what happened when we opened it again.
"The whole thing fell apart." River Song shakes her head like she's still trying to deny it happened. "We destroyed Gallifrey. In the blink of an eye a whole, burning world ripped and tore into oblivion above our heads. I thought the problem was that Time Locks were so very strong. I didn't realize the real problem was that they are so very delicate. One wrong twist and you puncture a hole in space-time. I once said that there was nothing more terrible than looking into the heart of a black hole. Now I know why you laughed at me."
She holds up a hand to the camera and there is something dark in the creases of her palms. It's like she has tried to wipe her hands clean in a hurry but done a poor job. It's the same color as the hand print over her heart.
"I'm not saying this to hurt you. Oh no, I never meant to hurt you, darling. Please, believe me. I'm telling you this because I hope that if I get a version of you from before you come to my aid, you might be able to stop me. I know we can't avoid a paradox now. It's too late for that. Instead, I hope we might exchange one paradox for another. If it's between sacrificing me or you, I'll always pick me."
Suddenly, she smiles. "I can imagine the face you're making right now." The smiles twists into hard lines again. "There's no other way, Doctor. Please, sweetie, if you care for me at all, do this one thing for me."
She pauses and stares through the screen. The next moment, she leans even closer, extending her arm on the table until her hand disappears behind the camera. She is a tableau of desperation and surrender, because there is no hiding like this. There are only cuts and bruises and shadows focused around her blue eyes and her body reaching out for something unrecorded.
"Find me and kill me, my love," River Song whispers like a prayer, "because otherwise, for all eternity, you will die and how could I live with that?" She rests her temple on her extended arm and smiles for a lover.
The recording ends.
TBC
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