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: I know I said that I would post it all when finished. It's taking longer than I planned, both because real life refuses to understand fandom comes first and because the plotting of this ending was more complicated than I expected. I thought I'd wait until I had it all, but my beta said she thought I should update on my regular day and just quote River Song. Meaning, "I lied." I have ch. 7 finished and waiting. I'm halfway done with ch. 8. I am now tentatively promising this as 9 parts. As soon as I'm done with ch. 8, I will post ch. 7. Thank you, for your patience.
Warnings: This story is not only going to be very time-whimey. It's also going to have very dark fic moments.
Thanks to Armity for beta-read.
Entered into evidence:
Excerpt of:
Testimonial of River Song:
Part Two
Interviewer: Bishop Benedicta
Witness: Servant Kai
Time-Stamp: 30-28-5108/07.31.21
Bishop Benedicta: The data crystal from 253 Burnings Way was meant to be a message to the Doctor?
River Song: Yes.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: How did you think the Doctor would find it?
RS: He's the Doctor.
BB: Explain.
RS: At some point, someone would find that data crystal in England. Then Torchwood would find them. Torchwood and the Doctor have a . . complicated relationship. I encrypted that first file to open for two individuals. The Doctor and a mutual friend in Torchwood. It seemed like a good gamble that the crystal would find its way to the Doctor eventually.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Why leave the message?
RS: I thought that obvious.
BB: Please answer the question, Doctor Song.
RS: I hoped the Doctor could fix my mistake.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: So that you could avoid the Stormcage?
RS: (laughs) In a manner of speaking.
BB: You're confusing the verifier, Doctor Song. Please be more direct in your answers.
RS: Please be more direct in your questions.
BB: Why do you think the Doctor would be able to fix the Hellades incident when he failed twice before?
RS: That data crystal isn't about thinking, bishop. It's about hoping.
BB: Is there any hope, then, that the Doctor will answer your request?
RS: No.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Why not?
RS: Because Time can be rewritten.
BB: What does that mean?
RS: It means that I keep waiting for new memories but they never come. I keep waiting to die on some world millennia in the future and years in my past. But instead, I'm here. That means either the Doctor can't fix Hellades or he won't.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Why wouldn't he?
RS: Because he's always had a bit of a death wish. Or a martyr complex. Sometimes, it's difficult to tell the difference.
BB: What's the Pandorica?
RS: I don't know.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: You mentioned the Pandorica in the file.
RS: It hasn't happened for me yet.
BB: Then how did you know you wanted a Doctor from between the Pandorica and the Culling Shores?
RS: The hazards and benefits of a nonlinear relationship. In order to place each other, sometimes spoilers slip out. I know he doesn't know who I am before the Pandorica. I also know the Culling Shores was the last time he saw me before he answered my call and helped seal a later version of himself into the Time Lock. I needed an earlier Doctor who knew me. For us, setting a date is both a science and an art.
Servant Kai: Verified.
RS: Why is the Church so interested in the Doctor?
BB: We are simply attempting to provide as full an account as possible to the court about what happened on Hellades.
RS: Strange then that you haven't actually asked about Hellades.
BB: The court is reviewing those files now.
Entered into Evidence:
Burnings Way Data Crystal:
Visual File 2
It's the inside of a large cavern. Everything and everyone within is bathed in a silvery white light from a suspended gravity globe. Tiles cover the walls in an ancient, alien hieroglyph left over from the lost civilization of Hellades. No one is paying attention to the hieroglyphs. Instead, the whole room's focus is on a large, stone box sitting in the center of the chamber. The recorder circles the room to take in all the angles. The box is an absolute perfect square, down to the most minuscule of measurements. For a few moments, a young man in the green jacket of a Great Guild intern is visible manipulating the controller for the hovering recorder. For most of the next few seconds, the stone box fills the recorder's vision. The sides are completely smooth, so naturally unblemished that it must be unnatural. It's impossible to tell what might be inside or even how one might open it to see.
"How do we open it?" Doctor Melian's voice asks. It is barely recognizable as the same man from the personal logs archived by the Great Guild. He sounds overjoyed, awed, and a little bit annoyed.
"Maybe we should knock," River Song's voice replies.
The recorder turns the corner of the massive box and captures Doctor Melian giving River Song an exasperated but fond glance. She is too consumed with the puzzle in front of them to notice. There are at least seven other archeologists and their interns lingering around the periphery of the room staring at the box. Their excited whispers and exclamations bounce off the tiled walls until it seems like there are at least a hundred people inside.
There is a loud POP and cheer.
"What was that?" River Song demands and the room falls quiet. The whispers aren't extinguished completely but there is a respectful lull. The recorder hovers to capture the scene. Another archeologist, identified as Doctor Gajra Tatat by the Great Guild, holds up a green bottle.
"Earth win, Doctor Song," she explains. "We should celebrate, yes?"
"No," River replies. "You're contaminating the site."
"But the room has already been mapped by the droids," Doctor Tatat says.
"We're contaminating the scene just as much by standing here and talking, River," Doctor Melian adds. "Let them have their wine."
"Take it outside."
"Doctor Song," he argues.
"This box has Time traces all over it, Doctor Melian," River Song says in a calm tone, but there is a bite underneath it. Doctor Tatat is already replacing the cork into the bottle. The room falls completely quiet now. "Under the authority of the Time Agency with agreement from the Great Guild, I am to take lead in the event of Time artifacts. I am now in charge."
Doctor Melian and River Song stare into each other's faces for several long seconds of silence. Finally, Doctor Melian nods. River Song nods back, claps her hands together, and turns to the rest of their audience with a wide smile.
"So. You're right, Doctor Tatat, this is certainly a time to celebrate." She points toward the only corridor opening in the crypt. "Outside. Everyone who isn't Doctor Melian or myself, leave the site immediately. I've arranged for catering to have real food transported in just for the occasion."
The room erupts into excitement again.
"Yes, real food!" Doctor Song repeats with a laugh. "Go! Enjoy yourselves! Doctor Melian and I will join you shortly."
There is some lingering around the room by a couple of archeologists and a few interns but within a minute, the room is emptied.
"Doctor Song," Doctor Melian begins in a tight voice. She holds up a hand to stop him and turns to look at the recording device.
"George," she says, "you better go too if you want any chance at a piece of cake. I'll take care of the recorder." She holds out a hand.
"But closed circuit cams haven't been set up in the room yet and protocols, Doctor-," his voice replies from somewhere behind the camera.
"Oh, sod protocols," River says. "It's a celebration. We can bend the rules a little bit, yeah? And Doctor Melian and I aren't about to make any major discovery. We're just going to have a little talk." She smiles. "In private. You understand."
Doctor Melian cocks his head and watches River from the corner of his eyes. There is a pause before the intern answers.
"Right, Doctor." He steps forward into view of the camera and hands River Song the controller. She pats him on the shoulder.
"Enjoy yourself, George. You work too hard."
"Thanks, Doctor," he replies. With several backward glances, he exits the room.
"Doctor Song!" Doctor Melian objects as soon as the young man is gone. "What in sanity's name do you think you're doing!"
River Song looks straight into the camera, raises the controller in her hand, and the recording ends.
Entered into evidence:
Excerpt of:
Testimonial of River Song:
Part Two
Interviewer: Bishop Benedicta
Witness: Servant Kai
Time-Stamp: 30-28-5108/07.47.59
Bishop Benedicta: When did you realize the Master was inside the Time artifact?
River Song: From the beginning.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: How?
RS: The Doctor is very careful in what he lets slip. That's not just to protect the time stream. It's also because he knows I can't resist a mystery. He mentioned the Master once and I made a study of the name throughout history. I wasn't too surprised to find out that where there was the Master, there was the Doctor. I could read between the lines. Oh, the way the Doctor said his name. After meeting the Master, I can see why.
BB: How does that relate to finding the Master?
RS: The Time War was never completely erased in the Time Lock. There were shadows and whispers, fingerprints left on a million worlds. The Master was one of those. I could never find anything definite; where the Master goes, destruction tends to follow. It's amazing anything survived him, even his own name.
BB: Then how did you know about the artifact?
RS: I met a Dalek.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: And it just told you about the Master?
RS: After a fashion.
BB: Explain.
RS: The Master allied himself with the Daleks once. He underestimated them. They took a sample of his genetic code, a digital imprint of his personality and memory signature, and archived it for future use as a weapon. In the Time War, Gallifrey thought the Master would make the perfect warrior. Apparently, the Daleks agreed. They created their own version of the Master just in case and sealed him away in a stone prison outside of Time itself. Their hidden, secret weapon. The prison survived even the Time Lock.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: How do you know all this?
RS: I love the Doctor and the Time War broke him a little. He has never really healed from it. I took that personally. The Time War hurt him. I'm the only one allowed to do that.
BB: So you studied the Time War?
RS: (laughs) To put it mildly.
BB: What did you find?
RS: Many things. All you need to know is that I found the Master. When are you going to start asking about Hellades?
BB: We're getting to it.
RS: Ah, good. You were starting to sound like the Time Agency. They're always so obsessed with Time Lord technology. I'm glad the Church is above all that.
Entered into Evidence:
Burnings Way Data Crystal:
Audio File 1
The recording begins. The sounds are muffled as if the device is hidden beneath a pillow or inside someone's pocket.
"Yes, that's a genius plan, Master," River Song's voice says, "but where are we going to harvest that amount of Time energy?"
"Are you always so oblivious, pet?" a man's voice replies. This must be the Master. The Torchwood archives provided several suspected recordings of the Master's voice throughout his incarnations. This matches the oldest one of them. "We have a herd wasting a vast reservoir of Time energy all around us."
"What do you mean?"
"Time energy is in all of us. It's not just in Time Lords or time travelers. Though, ours is of a greater quality. No, it is in everything. Even the little minions scampering around outside dusting off old hard drives and playing football with dead gravity globes."
"How do we access it?"
"There is a species called the Weeping Angels," the Master says, "they perfected the art. In fact, they live off it. The Time Lords have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Angels. We're fascinated by them and terrified of them. The Rani once invented a technology that did the same thing, took a person and sapped them of their Time energy. Of course, her method drove the subject insane and often lead to death, but it had the same results."
"Insane?" River asks.
"Yes, the Angels displace their victims in Time and gather up the left-over energy," the Master replies. "The Rani's system uses the subjects as conduits. Time energy runs through them into the machine."
"They become a battery."
"Essentially."
"And all that Time energy running through their heads drives them insane." River Song's voice is so low and quiet it is almost lost to the recording.
"The subjects reported having the most vivid night terrors." The Master's voice is silky and precisely articulated. It sounds as if he were some professor noting a scientific oddity to his class. "Some of them even suffered psychosomatic wounds."
"How many die?"
"Oh, hmm . . ." The Master pauses in thought. "A little over thirty percent? Of course, that includes suicides and those the Rani felt the need to euthanize for their own good."
"How many would we need to create a key?"
"We'll need them all," he tells her. "Is that a problem, my dear?"
There are four seconds of silence.
"No," River Song answers. "Not for me."
"We're going to need the Doctor soon," the Master says. "Shall I call him or shall you?"
The recording ends.
Entered into evidence:
Excerpt of:
Testimonial of River Song:
Part Three
Interviewer: Bishop Benedicta
Witness: Servant Kai
Time-Stamp: 30-28-5108/07.59.02
Bishop Benedicta: What are the Weeping Angels?
River Song: Exactly what the Master said. They are an ancient race that feeds off the Time energy of other creatures.
BB: Do they still exist?
RS: I imagine so.
BB: What threat do they pose to the Empire and the Church?
RS: I suppose that'd matter on whether they still exist or not.
BB: You don't know?
RS: No, but I could find out, if the Church is so interested.
Servant Kai: Verified.
BB: Let's return our focus to Hellades.
RS: Where were we?
BB: The Doctor.
RS: Oh yes. My first Doctor. The last Doctor.
TBC
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A/N2: Yes, this story is supposed to involve clone!DelgadoMaster.