"It was such a basic mistake, wasn't it Madam Kovarian?" River said, ignoring the interruptions from the woman and her daughter. "Take a child, raise her into a perfect psychopath, introduce her to the Doctor. Who else was I going to fall in love with?"

"It's not funny, River. Reality is fatally compromised. Tell me you understand that." He said in a dark voice. Evie bit her lip, realising that her mother was either not taking this seriously, or doing her best to pretend that she wasn't.

As though confirming her daughter's fears, River just smiled enigmatically. "Dinner?"

"I don't have the time. Nobody has the time, because as long I'm alive, time is dying. Because of you, River." He spat accusingly.

"Because I refused to kill the man I love."

"Oh, you love me, do you? Oh, that's sweet of you!Isn't that sweet?"

"Get him!" Amy ordered the soldiers standing behind them, interrupting the Doctor's mocking speech as he moved towards River. The woman stood firm, staring back into his face which was contorted into a snarl.

"C'mere you!" The Doctor snarled, lunging towards her. Before he could get close enough to make contact the soldiers had grabbed hold of his arms, wrenching him away and holding him firmly. Evie sighed deeply, the breath escaping through her teeth in a low whistle.

"I'm not a fool, sweetie. I know what happens if we touch." River told him quietly. Evie glanced sideways at Amy, who shook her head sharply. They turned back just in time to see the Doctor breaking free of the soldiers and seizing River's wrist tightly. "Get off me, get him off me!"

"Doctor, no, let go! Please Doctor let go!" Amy pleaded.

There was a struggle as the soldiers and River tried to get the Doctor away. Evie's attention was caught by a faint beeping sound. For a moment she couldn't work out where it was coming from. Then her heart sank as she realised what it was.

Sprinting across the room, she leapt to Doctor Kent's side, staring at the monitor with her in horror. They exchanged a look before both women started tapping furiously at the controls in an attempt to curb the violently spiking graphs. There was nothing they could do, however. They Doctor and River's contact had started a chain reaction that was irreversible.

"It's moving. Time's moving!" Doctor Kent shouted, drawing everyone else's attention to the matter.

Evie raced back to her parents, trying to pull the Doctor away. "Dad! Stop!"

"Get him off me!" River shrieked, panicking even more now.

"Doctor!"

"I'm sorry, River, it's the only way!"

Suddenly the Doctor let go and Evie moved to her mother's side, sliding an arm around her waist and rubbing her arm. River smoothed the skin on her wrist which was red and sore from his tight grip.

"Cuff him." She hissed furiously, turning and moving further away, behind Kovarian, pulling her daughter with her.

"Oh, why do you always have handcuffs?" He complained as the soldiers forced his hands behind his back and attached them together firmly. "It's the only way, River. We're the opposite poles of the disruption. If we touch, we short out the differential, time can begin again."

"And I'll be by a lakeside… killing you."

Evie turned slowly to face her mother, her mouth dropping open in shock. She stared horrified at the woman, who turned to look at her, tears forming in her own eyes. The realisation of what she'd just found out overwhelmed the young woman and she felt faint. Evie had always known that her mother had killed someone; that was why she was in Stormcage. She had never for a second thought that the person her mother had killed was the Doctor. When she had been younger she'd thought maybe her mother had killed Jack… it would have explained so much. But she had been wrong.

"And time won't fall apart. Reality will continue. There isn't another way." The Doctor continued, not noticing the look on his daughter's face. Evie was shaking uncontrollably, suddenly feeling as though ice cubes had been dropped down her back, not wanting to take in the situation.

River glanced at him, her face pale and drawn. "I didn't say there was, sweetie."

Dropping her arm from around her mother's waist, Evie moved quickly away to stand in a corner, blocking out everything else. Her mother had killed her father. River Song had killed the Doctor. Nothing made sense anymore. But… the Doctor was here. He wasn't dead. But he wanted River to go back and kill him, properly, to save time. To save reality. There was nothing else that would work.

"Evie… sweetie… listen to me…" River begged, taking her daughter's face in her hands and forcing the girl's eyes to meet hers. She bent forwards so that their foreheads were touching and sighed deeply, searching for something, anything, that would make this situation better.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Evie demanded, angrily, pulling her head backwards and not even registering that she'd smacked it hard into the wall behind her. River's face contorted with concern at the crack it made on impact, but Evie swatted her hands away as she tried to check the damage. "I'm twenty-five, mother… was there not a minute in the last twenty-five years where you could sit down and say, 'I was put in prison for killing your father'?"

"It's not that simple, sweetie." River told her, putting a hand on her cheek. Evie pushed it away angrily. "He's not dead."

"I can see that! He's not dead and time and reality is collapsing around him. You have to do it!"

River took a step back in surprise. "You… you want me to kill your father? You actually want me to kill the Doctor?"

"Of course I don't!" Evie snapped, glaring at her ferociously. "That's the last thing I want. But what choice do we have? Besides… this is the Doctor we're talking about. Nothing is as simple and straight forward as it seems, is it?"

"Evie… I…"

"Miss Song?" Doctor Kent called from the desk at the other end of the room. "There's been a sudden massive peak in the readings."

With a final glance at her mother, Evie strode away to examine what the woman was seeing. River watched her go, taking several deep breaths to try and combat the stinging behind her eyelids. Then she rubbed under her eyes and straightened her shirt, composing herself before facing the Doctor once more.

"There are so many theories about you and I, you know." River said harshly, taking out her frustrations on the Doctor who was being restrained by the soldiers once more.

"Idle gossip."

"Archaeology."

"Same thing." He said dismissively.

Evie glanced up from the lines on the computer monitor to watch the exchange, leaning on the desk. Doctor Kent laid a hand on her arm and motioned with her head that Evie should go and stand with her grandmother. Smiling weakly, she moved quickly to Amy's side, letting the woman wind a comforting arm around her waist.

"Am I the woman who marries you, or the woman who murders you?" River asked, standing directly in front of the Doctor.

He breathed out sharply, a twisted smile on his lips. "Oh! I don't want to marry you."

"I don't want to murder you."

"This is no fun at all." The Doctor murmured in a low voice as Evie and Amy both looked upwards in confusion. Both women had automatically raised their hands to their heads, sure they had felt a drop of water hitting them.

"It isn't, is it?"

Along the ceiling, where a seam ran between the great slabs of rock, were a line of water droplets waiting to fall. The women exchanged a nervous look, wondering what was happening. How could water possibly be getting through the ceiling of the control room at the centre of the great pyramid?

"Doctor... What's that?"