Here is the next part. The bad news is the events of Demon's Run aren't yet over. The good news is I'm already halfway through the next chapter and 1300 words into the following one. As always thank you to my friend lastincurableromantic for her beta services and for putting up with my crazy.
From the window in her room, Amy had a prime view of the military operations this morning. Colonel Manton seemed to be in fine form today, no doubt rallying the troops against her family. Rubbish, if you asked her. There was nothing to fear from her family, unless you were a bad guy. No one in the family, to the best of her knowledge, ever went after anyone for sport. No, the members of her family were defenders of the Universe and certainly weren't dangerous. At least not if you were one of the good guys.
The door to the room slid open and Amy turned around to see a familiar face. It was the female soldier who visited her often, to let her know when they were bringing Melody around. She had seemed pleasant enough, even if she was working for her captors.
"Sorry. I shouldn't be here. I'm meant to be at the thing. I brought you something." The soldier held out a swatch of green fabric that had been embroidered with gold thread. "Your child's name in the language of my people. It's a prayer leaf. And we believe if you keep this with you, your child will always come home to you."
Reaching forward, Amy took the token with a polite thank you. Turning it over in her hand, she realized that the words weren't translating. Right, must be too far from a TARDIS then.
"There's not a word for pond in my language. I'm from the Gamma Forests and the only water in the forest is the river."
"Her last name is Tyler-Pond," Amy replied automatically. Kovarian had been purposely leaving off the Tyler part of their names. She knew that it shouldn't bother her as much as it did, but it felt like the mad woman was trying to ignore half of Melody's heritage, half of whom her daughter was. "What's your name?"
"Lorna, ma'am, Lorna Bucket."
Amy nodded. "You're not like the rest of them. You seem nicer. They're down there, right now, talking about my Rory, my mum, and my dad like they're dangerous."
"They meet a lot of people," Lorna replied with a far off look. "Some people remember them. They're sort of like dark legends."
Snorting, Amy asked, "Dark? They are the defenders of the Universe. They have saved planets and galaxies from the dark things out there. They are the most amazing, wonderful people you could ever meet. Have you met them?"
Lorna smiled softly. "Yeah, I met the Doctor and Rose. But I was just a little girl then."
"So was I," Amy agreed.
There was a slight sadness in the soldier's eyes. "You've been with him a long time, then?"
"Yeah, Mum and Dad, not this Doctor, though, another one… It's complicated, but they are the same man only in different bodies." Amy smiled, thinking of how confusing it could be to explain the nature of her Dad. "Never mind... They kind of took me in, loved me, took care of me and taught me the difference between right and wrong."
"You must be very special," Lorna whispered.
Amy knew that the young woman must be a little envious of the life that Amy led with her family. She knew what that felt like, she'd been green with envy when Sabrina had been adopted. "Hey, five minutes with them is more than enough to change your like. They are worth it, okay. The thing is, they're coming. No question about it. Just you make sure you're on the right side when he gets here. Not for my sake, for yours."
Lorna nodded. "Thank you, Amy. I have to go now. I'll do my best to let you know next time they're bringing the baby around."
Amy thanked her again before the solider exited the room. Turning back around, Amy focused her attention once more on the activities below.
Colonel Manton stood before his men, knowing that they were on the cusp of Victory. "On this day, in this place, the Doctor and his Wolves will fall. Today we will bring down dangerous enemies." He moved to stand in front of several hooded figures.
He continued his well-planned speech, talking about aligning themselves with the Headless Monks and how today the true nature of their allies would be discovered. Today, those under his command would see under a Monk's hood. "Because these guys never can be persuaded." Manton lifted the Monk's cowl to reveal a stump of a neck and no head. The crowd gasped; the Headless Monks were truly headless.
"They never can be afraid." Manton pulled the second cowl. "And they can never ever be…" He reached up to expose the third Monk, but the man stepped back.
The Doctor removed the hood from his head. "Surprised! Hello, everyone! Guess who? Please, point a gun at me if it helps you relax. You're only human."
In the main control room, Rose and Sabrina overpowered the security guards. Sabrina secured the restraints on both men's wrist. "Go ahead, resist," Sabrina hissed. "Give a reason to make you pay for what you've done."
The guard cowered and Sabrina stood and then kicked one of the men in the side for good measure.
"Come on, Brina," Rose called from the control panel. "They aren't worth it. Now which of these buttons controls the lights?"
DWDW
Manton lunged at the Doctor. "You will come with me right now."
The Time Lord easily ducked out of the way. "Three minutes, forty seconds." He laughed and his eyes darted around the room. When he saw Amy standing above them behind a glass window, he beamed. "Amelia Tyler!" Get your coat!" The lights flickered and went out.
The Doctor's voice echoed around the room. "I'm not a phantom."
Colonel Manton oozed frustration. "Doctor?"
"I'm not a trickster," the Doctor's voice mocked.
Manton's irritation grew and he spun in a circle. "Doctor?"
There was a certain glee in the Doctor's tone. "I'm a Monk."
"Doctor, show yourself!" the Colonel demanded, the last of his patience evaporating.
"It's him!" one of the soldiers cried hysterically. "He's here. It's him!" In a panic, the young man shot the monk. Dim emergency lights flickered into life. Everyone stilled at the sight of the prone figure of the headless and now dead monk on the floor.
"Weapons down! Do not fire!" Manton cried, trying to reign in his horror. "Stop. Wait. Listen to me. I am disarming my weapon pack. Monks, I do this in good faith." He pulled the power pack from his weapon and slowly laid both parts on the ground. "I am now unarmed. All of you, discharge your weapon packs. The Doctor is trying to make fools of us. We are soldiers of God. We are not fools."
The other soldiers followed suit, everyone laying down their weapons. Above them, Rose smiled. Everything was going to plan. "The Doctor's in place. Let there be light." Rose depressed a few switches and Demon's Run was flooded with light.
An armed Judoon platoon had the now defenseless soldiers surrounded. Trisha was holding a gun to Colonel Manton's head, while Tony had one trained on the man's heart.
"This base is ours," Tony said, arming his weapon. A distinct hum of the blaster powering up filled the air. "Now, where is my sister?"
"How do you know we haven't killed her already?" Manton sneered.
"You're a man of faith. You believe in a higher power and an afterlife, yes?" Tony asked calmly. "And if you have harmed one hair on Amy or that baby's head, you'll soon find out if you're right."
"You wouldn't dare." The military man sounded a little too confident. "I have a fleet out there. If Demon's Run goes down, there is an automatic distress call."
From a catwalk, the Doctor laughed. "Not if we knock out your communications array. And you've got incoming!" He lifted a communicator to his mouth. "Dad to Jenny, Come in, Jenny."
"I'm locked and loaded, Dad." Jenny's voice came over the comm link. "Just say the word."
The Doctor smirked before saying, "Give 'em hell, Jenny!"
The base rocked as the Jenny took out communications array.
Madame Kovarian braced herself against the wall as the floor shook. They were under attack and everything was going according to plan. "I need to get off this station now. Bring me the child!" she bellowed to her escort.
"Yes, ma'am," the man replied before breaking away. It was a relatively short distance to her ship and Kovarian expected there to be trouble. In fact, she counted on it.
A few minutes later, Lorna Bucket pressed herself flat against a wall as she crept along behind the eye-patch lady. When they reached the ship's airlock, Lorna hid around a corner. Luckily for her, the guard was looking down at the pod containing baby Melody when he passed her.
Taking the pod from the guard, Madame Kovarian said, "Get back in there with the rest of them. Remember, the Doctor and the Bad Wolf must think they're winning. Right until the trap closes. I'll take my ship from here."
Lorna slipped away quickly and the nameless guard saluted Kovarian before turning to leave. The guard didn't even have time to react as a leather clad man knocked him out with a blow to the head.
Rory stepped across the man's unconscious body and pulled out a blaster. Normally he detested guns, but exceptions could be made for the monsters that dared to separate his family from him.
Kovarian was typing her code into the keypad when she felt the barrel on the gun press into her neck. "I have a crew of twenty. How do you expect to gain control of my ship?" she asked, completely calm.
The airlock door hissed open and Jack stepped out, wiping his hands. "The ship is already ours." He pulled out a set of restraints and quickly bound Kovarian.
Packing away the weapon, Rory dropped to his knees in front of the pod. With trembling fingers, he pushed the release button and it opened. Inside was his sleeping child. The newest Tyler and he didn't even know if the baby was a boy or a girl. A quick check revealed that he, in fact, had a daughter.
Gingerly, he picked her up and pressed a soft kiss into her forehead. His hearts swelled with love. He chuckled at how cliché that sounded, even if it was true. Opening his mind, he reached out for hers and he felt the briefest flutter of her consciousness. He poured his love for her into her tiny mind.
Jack's voice broke his reverie. "I think it's time you reunite that little girl with her mommy."
Rory didn't question how Jack knew the baby was a girl. Jack had intimated that they weren't traveling linearly. Rising to his feet, Rory held his daughter close to him and took off down the corridor in search of his wife. He let the pull of her mental presence guide him. The tension that had been building since Mum and Dad had told him of Amy's kidnapping and her pregnancy had started to dissipate. Until the three of them were safely back on board his TARDIS, however, he knew he would not be able to truly relax.
Roughly, Jack pushed Madame Kovarian towards the control center. "I know everything that you have done, you psychotic bitch," he hissed in her ear. "You have hurt and will hurt the people I love over and over again. For that, I will make you pay."
"You have no idea what my plans are, Captain," she said with a smirk.
"Really?" He shoved her harder, making sure to run her into the doorway. "I don't know that you and Melody are no longer on this base?"
Kovarian hesitated for only a fraction of a second. "So why haven't you told your precious Doctor or the Bad Wolf?" Jack tensed but didn't respond and she started to laugh. "Oh, time travel is ever so fun. You know the truth and you won't tell them because you're from their future. And you can't tell them because I get away with it." She could hardly walk as she cackled. "This is perfect, not only will they have lost, they will have been betrayed by one of their most trusted friends."
Unable to stop himself, Jack slammed her into the bulkhead. Keeping his voice at a deadly whisper he said, "I would never betray those people. They do not deserve what is about to happen, and if I could do anything to change what happens without causing more damage to timelines, I would. But I can't, so I'll have to settle for revenge. And I'll warn you that my moral compass isn't nearly as steady as any of the Tylers'."
Before she could respond, he shoved her the last few feet into the control center. Sabrina, Rose and the Doctor were already there. Rose nodded but the Doctor didn't look up from the data from the computer he was currently pouring over. After securing Madame Kovarian to a chair, Jack walked over to Sabrina. "I gotta run, kiddo."
"You're going now?" Sabrina looked incredulous. "There's still work to be done."
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Jack lightly kissed the crown of her head. "You'll understand why I can't stay soon enough. I have a little too much foreknowledge to be here any longer. Best skedaddle while I can. Besides, looks like the base is under our control and Rory is taking his daughter back to her mother."
"The baby's a girl?" Sabrina's eyes lit up.
"Yes, and you'll see her soon enough. Now I really need to go." Jack hugged her quickly and slipped out of the room just as Trisha and Tony brought in Manton.
The Doctor's lips curled into a sinister smile as he saw the newest arrival. "Sorry, Colonel Manton, I lied. Three minutes, forty-two seconds."
"Colonel Manton," Rose said, her eyes flashing with hatred, "you will give the order for your men to withdraw."
"No," the Doctor said standing to face the military man. "Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away." He laughed a little and nervously straightened his bowtie.
Manton's eyebrows shot up questioningly. "What?"
"I want you to tell them to run away. Those exact words, I want you to be famous for them. I want children to laugh at you and adults to ridicule 'Colonel Runaway'. That way when people ask you if trying to get to me through my family is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name." He was yelling now.
Taking a deep breath, he composed himself and reached back for Rose's hand. She took it and squeezed it. "You have no idea what I am capable of when I'm angry."
"When we're angry," Rose added, her voice was filled with cold fury.
The Doctor squeezed her hand. "Yes, when we're angry. I'm not really sure what's going to happen now."
From her chair, Madame Kovarian said, "The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules."
In an instant the Doctor was in her face. "Good men don't need rules," he snarled. "Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."
Madame Kovarian still looked nonplussed but she turned to her second in command. "Give the order. Give the order, Colonel Runaway."
Rose grinned as she watched the Colonel give the order. "Right." She clapped her hands together and turned to her children. "Turn these two over to the Judoon for prosecution and Trisha, take a look at their computer systems. I want to know everything that they have done to Amy and the baby. The Doctor and I will be back in a few minutes."
"Where are we going?" the Doctor asked as he took her hand.
"Just want to check on someone real quick." Rose smiled and dragged him out the door. As much as she wanted to give Rory and Amy a proper reunion, she had to see for herself that her daughter was alright.