I LOVE this chapter. So I really hope you guys do too. Thanks to everyone who's been giving feedback!

Recommended soundtrack for the first half of this chapter is Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No.1 Movement 2. A beautifully devastating piece that I've always associated with what I call "Marion's Downfall", aka where she finds out the truth.

Enjoy!

Spoiled, selfish little child

Went out to play out in the wild

I found you shaking like a leaf

Underneath your family tree

And you've been crying out for forever

But forever's come and gone

You keep begging for forgiveness

But you don't think you've done wrong

When You Break – Bear's Den

If you love me let me go

'Cause these words are knives and often leave scars

The fear of falling apart

And truth be told, I never was yours

This Is Gospel – Panic! At The Disco

Marion, who had her hand at her throat after being released from the beam, gaped at the Doctor. "You're dying. And you found time to change into an even more obscene outfit?"

He beamed at her. "Oh, you should always waste time when you don't have any," he told her brightly as he came towards her and swung his cane, "Time is not the boss of you. Rule four hundred and eight. Now." He turned to the machine that looked like Aliya but wasn't. "Aliyanadevoralundar, judgement death machine. Why am I not surprised?" When his daughters eyed him with scepticism, he held up the cane. "Sonic cane."

"You can't be serious," Marion said.

"Never knowingly. Never knowingly be serious. Rule twenty seven. You might want to write these down."

He glanced at the results from the cane's scan while Marion shot Jenny a disbelieving look.

"Oh, it's a robot, with four hundred and twenty two life signs inside. A robot worked by tiny people. Love it. But how do you all get in there, though? Bigger on the inside?" He scanned again and seemed excited by his findings. "No, basic miniaturisation sustained by a compression field. Ooh, watch what you eat, it'll get you every time. Aliya, if you're okay, give me a sign."

There was a pause, and then the robot said, "I think the hat's too much."

The Doctor chuckled. "Thanks." Then he cried out as one of his legs gave out on him and he almost fell over. Jenny rushed to his side and helped him stay upright. "I'm so sorry, leg went to sleep. Just had a quick left leg power nap. I forgot I had one scheduled. Actually, better sit down." Jenny assisted his sitting down in a chair from one of the nearby tables. "I think I heard the right one yawning."

Marion's hands went for her gun at lightning speed, but the robot's beam got her before she could shoot anyone. The gun clattered to the floor.

"Don't you touch her!" The Doctor shouted, a fierce protective instinct rising in his eyes in less than a second. "Do not harm her in any way!"

Marion remained stuck in the energy field, unable to move and not quite conscious. Jenny doubted she was aware of what was going on around her while inside it. Given the circumstances, it was probably best for the moment.

Something about hearing the Doctor's concern for Marion put a lump in Aliya's throat as she watched from the Teselector control room. Hearing the woman's plans for her death had been far from pleasant, but hardly unexpected. What she hadn't seen coming was what she had said about freedom. The fact that only now did Marion have it.

In all her selfish denial of the current situation, the Time Lady had never stopped to think about how it was their fault that her life had been so miserable. That she had been trapped in a way Aliya could barely conceive.

I can have a life now. A life that isn't just lying and waiting and pushing away every single person…

How much of the Marion Narke that Aliya knew and despised would be left if she was finally freed from the burden that she had shouldered her entire life?

The Doctor's protectiveness over Marion hadn't only gone noticed by her, though.

"What do you care?" The Teselecta leader, who was apparently called Carter, asked him through the robot's microphone. "She's the woman who kills you."

The Doctor took off his hat and spread his arms while beaming at them. "I'm not dead."

"You're dying."

The Time Lord scoffed. "Well, at least I'm not a time travelling shape shifting robot operated by miniaturised cross people, which, I have got to admit, I didn't see coming." He then nodded towards Marion, who was still hovering in the air with her head to one side, imprisoned by the energy field. "What do you want with her?"

"She's Mariakanerolunar. According to records, the woman who kills the Doctor."

"And I'm the Doctor, so what's it to you?"

Carter, with a solemn look on his face, got up from his seat. "Throughout history, many criminals have gone unpunished in their lifetimes. Time travel has…responsibilities."

Aliya pulled a face at the same time that the Doctor laughed.

"What?" He asked. "You got yourselves time travel, so you decided to punish dead people?" He made the last three words sound particularly absurd, which they were.

"We don't kill them. We extract them near the end of their established timelines."

"And then what?"

"Give them hell."

The Doctor frowned slightly and when he spoke again, there was no humour and very little pleasantry in his tone. "I'd ask you who you think you are, but I think the answer is pretty obvious. So who do you think I am, huh?" He paused. "The woman who killed the Doctor. It sounds like you've got my biography in there. I'd love a peek."

Carter sat back down. "Our records office is sealed to the public. Foreknowledge is dangerous."

The Doctor rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Yeah, well, I'll be dead in three minutes, there isn't much foreknowledge left."

"Sorry, can't do that."

Aliya knew she had to intervene, and so took a deep breath before addressing Carter. "Look, this is all more complicated than you could imagine," she said, "Mariaka is our daughter. Which is screwed up beyond reason, I know, but she is. Tell him anything he wants to know."

Jim, the one who had gotten her away from the robots which were apparently called antibodies, glanced up from his screen. "If she's family, she has privileges."

Carter, somewhat grudgingly, reached for Aliya's wristband and tapped a code into it.

"Say access personal records, the Doctor," Jim instructed her. She nodded.

"Access personal records, the Doctor." It was then possible for Carter to answer any questions that the Doctor put to them.

"I'm dying. Who wants me dead?"

"The silence."

"What is the Silence? Why is it called that? What does it mean?"

"The Silence is not a species. It is a religious order, or movement. Their core belief is that silence will fall when the question is asked."

"What question?"

"The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight."

"Yes, but what is the question?"

There was a pause before Carter said into the microphone, "Unknown."

The Doctor sighed with great frustration. "Oh, well, fat lot of use that is, you judgy blonde. Call yourself a Records-" His insult never got to be finished because it turned into a yell of pain as the poison continued to destroy his body. "Ow! Kidneys are always the first to quit. I've had better, you know."

"Okay, he's finished," one of the women near Aliya said.

Aliya shook her head adamantly. "No. He can't be."

"Well then, let's do what we do," Carter said rather apathetically, ignoring her, "Give her hell."

The force field holding Marion turned an angry red and the ginger woman started screaming as the energy in it tortured her. Aliya winced. Just as she hadn't wanted her dead earlier, she didn't want her being tortured now, no matter what she thought of her.

"Aliya," the Doctor said weakly, bringing her eyes back to him through the screen. "Can you hear me?"

Carter looked to Aliya and handed her the microphone, which she tentatively took. "You can talk to him."

"I can hear you," she said quietly, shaking slightly as she realised just how dismal their entire situation was and how ill-equipped she was to deal with it, "This is me. The real me. What do I do?"

"Stop them," he replied, his voice strained, "She's our daughter-"

"No she's not," Aliya choked, unable to stop the automatic denial from escaping her, "I can't-"

"She is our daughter," the Doctor repeated, his voice as firm as it was desperate, "And I know that's hard, and that it hurts, but denying it won't change the fact that it's the truth. And she needs you. She's your daughter." Aliya squeezed her eyes shut as she fought the urge to yell and scream and cry that he was wrong and always would be. But it didn't block out Marion's screams. Mariaka's screams. "Stop them."

For a moment she just stood there, frozen. Then she shoved Carter out of his seat and onto the floor with strength she hadn't thought she possessed. Her fingers flew across his control screen as she determinedly sought out whatever controlled the wristbands. By the time Carter was on his feet and trying to get her out of his chair, she had found what she was looking for.

"Let her go or I bring you all down," she threatened.

"You can't," he said, scoffing. She lifted an eyebrow and slammed her hand down on the button.

Every single wristband in the room turned red. A second later alarms starting blaring and antibodies came out of the floor. Aliya, who knew that she was also in trouble, leapt from the seat and sprinted for the lift door. Because of course, her plan had one fatal flaw.

Now she was in a lot more trouble than the woman she had just saved.

While Marion had been imprisoned in the energy field and her father conversed with the people inside the robot, Jenny had taken it upon herself to grab both her gun and Marion's so that if she got free, no one would get shot.

Watching her newly ginger friend and sister drop to the ground upon release and immediately scan the area for her guns told Jenny that she had made the right call. Marion's eyes held a potent mix of panic, anger, and confusion as the three of them listened to the faint chorus of voices relaying the chaos that was occurring inside the robot.

"What's happening?" She asked, frowning deeply and constantly glancing at the door.

"Aliya just saved your life," the Doctor told her solemnly, even as he lay on his back on the floor and spoke with a weak voice, "And now I think you might need to return the favour."

There was a moment of hesitation before Marion rolled her eyes. "Dream on."

"Doctor! Everyone else got teleported off, but I'm still here and the Antibodies are coming after me," the robot said, its stiff voice masking the real tone of the words of the person it was mimicking. "I could really use a rescue right now!"

"How can we save her?" Jenny asked the Doctor urgently.

"The TARDIS is the only way. I know your driving could use work-"

"My driving is a lot better than you like to think," Jenny told him, smiling even as she crouched down beside him and watched him with worry, "But I'm gonna need another set of hands."

They both directed their gazes at Marion, who scowled and crossed her arms. "You must be joking." When neither of them so much as blinked, she sneered. "Why would I help you save her when I could listen to her die?"

As the yells from the robot got more panicked, Jenny got back on her feet and stared Marion right in the eye.

"You said our friendship was doomed because after this I was always going to hate you," the small blonde said, licking her lips nervously, "But you're wrong. I don't hate you, and I won't. Unless you let this happen."

Something in Marion's eyes faltered for a moment, the hardness slipping just enough for a touch of hope to be visible. "Fine," she muttered, her mask coming back up, "But only because my whole day would be ruined if I didn't get to watch her watch him die."

Despite that being the opposite of reassuring, it was a step in the right direction. Jenny grabbed her hand and yanked her towards the TARDIS. There wasn't any time to lose.

The Doctor was right in saying that Jenny had a lot to learn when it came to flying the TARDIS. But she wasn't totally inept, and she had fully embraced the most important lesson, which was knowing that the TARDIS was alive and very much a friend. As Jenny pulled Marion into the box and up to the console platform with her, she did her best to open her mind in the way Aliya had told her about so many times before.

Help me save my mum, Jenny asked the TARDIS, please help us save her.

"Do everything I say and for once in your life don't argue," Jenny told Marion. She received no verbal answer, but when she began relaying her instructions they were obeyed with only mild hesitation. Within thirty seconds, the box was materialising and they could see Aliya appearing near the door, her eyes squeezed shut and her hands clutching the fabric of her dress with white knuckles.

"Mum," Jenny said when the box finished landing and she knew that they had succeeded, "You're okay."

Aliya opened her eyes and smiled at her with a relief that Jenny had seen before in her Torchwood teammates when they had had close brushes with death. A relief to be alive. She ran to Jenny and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you," she said. Her throat tightened when she locked eyes with Marion over Jenny's shoulder. Both of them abruptly looked away. "The Doctor, is he-"

"He was alive when we left him, but he's not looking good," Jenny replied. They hurried to materialise the box back in the restaurant so that they could run from the box back to his side. Sure enough, by the time they had, the Doctor was barely conscious.

Aliya and Jenny crouched by him while Marion lingered on her feet nearby, her expression dangerously neutral.

"Hey," Aliya whispered, grabbing his hand. He smiled weakly at her.

"Hey."

"No dying on me, okay?"

He gave her hand a faint squeeze. "No promises, sorry." He looked to Jenny and lifted his hand to cup her face affectionately. "Our big girl. I think your little sister is going to need your help."

"Yeah," Jenny agreed, nodding and holding his hand to her face, "But she'll need yours too."

The Doctor just let out a long breath and let his eyes wander to the one female in the room who wasn't necessarily worried for his life. She was, after all, the one who had succeeded in extinguishing it.

"I need to talk to Marion," he said, his eyes cautious but soft. They all looked at the woman in question, who frowned at him.

"No."

"You've killed me. The least you can do is listen to an old man's last words."

Marion bit her lip before slowly pushing past Aliya and Jenny, who had moved back to give her space. She knelt near his head and held her hands in her lap.

"What?" She asked, rather sharply.

"We came here looking for our daughter," the Doctor said, his hand twitching as if he wanted to reach up and touch her but knew he couldn't, "Her name is Mariaka, or it was. But the important part is that I want you to give her a message." She opened her mouth to protest but he continued to speak before she could. "You might think you have no reason to deliver it, but at least hear it, and you can change your mind later."

"What's the message?"

His voice was deathly quiet, but Jenny managed to catch his words even if he had eyes only for Marion in that moment. "Tell her that she is always and completely forgiven," he whispered, his eyes watery, "And even if no one in her life ever has, I love her no matter what."

His hand reached for hers, but she yanked it out of his reach and jumped to her feet before the contact could be made. A moment later his hand and head dropped to the floor.

"No," Aliya said, her face crumbling but her feet apparently unable to take her to his side.

"I did it," Marion whispered, quietly in awe of her own actions, "I did what even River Song failed to do."

"River?" Jenny repeated, frowning at her. "What does she has to do with any of this?"

Aliya bit her lip. "She was their first try. We never knew who was behind her training, but…it makes sense now."

"But she failed," Marion said, "Stupid of them, really. She was a descendant of his companions, her very disposition put her at a disadvantage. Personal connections kill missions quicker than any other obstacle."

Jenny noticed that her mother was staring at Marion with a new disbelief. "They really did a number on you," the Time Lady said, aghast, "Those memory proof creatures fried your brain with repeated wipes just enough to stop you from seeing the obvious."

"Which is what?" Marion asked, smirking.

"That you're contradicting yourself. River was Amy and Rory's great granddaughter, but they're the only married couple who have travelled with the Doctor," Aliya explained, and seemed to get a sort of satisfaction when the other woman's face dropped slightly. "Their two children weren't conceived in the Time Vortex because they were on a honeymoon planet and then they were on Earth. Which means they couldn't possibly be your biological parents."

The redhead was eyeing her with an odd frown, her eyes showing the hundreds of thoughts likely flying around behind them. "But – no. It did make - then what? You know the truth, I can see it all over your face. What really happened?"

Aliya's hands disappeared into her hair and she almost laughed from sheer hysterical desperation. "There was never more than one baby, Marion! That's what makes this whole thing so supremely fucked up!"

"Jenny, explain before I wrestle one of those guns off you and shoot her," Marion commanded.

Jenny paused, unsure of what to say before an idea hit her. She approached the robot Aliya which was still standing aimlessly nearby. "Hey, are you still on? Because I'm family which means you have to work for me."

"Jenny, you had better find a point very quickly-"

"I never told you my sister's full name," Jenny said, her throat thick with fear and conflicted emotion, "I just said Mariaka. But her full name is Mariakanerolunar."

Marion scowled. "And I'm supposed to care because-"

Jenny ignored her and spoke to the robot instead. "Access records on Mariakanerolunar. Please."

"Records available."

"I'm pretty sure you can change your appearance. Show me Mariaka," Jenny told it, her gaze flicking to Aliya who was watching the whole thing with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes guarded. Even so, she saw the pain in her mother's eyes when she said the name. "Show me my sister."

The robot's form changed until Marion was looking at a perfect duplicate of herself. Curls of red hair, an hourglass figure, the solemn hazel eyes that stared right at her without wavering. Even the clothes were the same, except the robot wore a jacket as well.

"No," Marion said automatically, not having moved a muscle.

"This whole time, the name was an anagram-"

"No!"

The woman with the red hair dropped to the floor, her face becoming vaguely contorted and her eyes staring ahead at the robot with no acceptance or comprehension. She was just blank, like a slate that had been violently wiped clean without warning.

Jenny's hearts panged because she could see in her sister's eyes the depth of the crisis she was experiencing. An entire world of what she had thought was true was gone. Like her mother, she was too stubborn to be able to take the real truth and use it in the place of the lies. The truth was too strange, too wrong. But she couldn't ignore the power of the proof in front of her either.

"This is sick," Marion whispered, continuing to stare at her duplicate even as her entire body started shaking. Jenny rushed to try and offer some kind of comfort, a touch on the arm or a hug perhaps, but all Marion did was scramble to her feet in her desperation to get away. "Leave me alone!"

But the Doctor had been lying dead too long, and Aliya was done with waiting around, even if tears had entered her eyes from watching their exchange.

"Marion-"

The redhead turned to glare at her. "Shut up! Don't you dare try and talk to me!"

"Marion, they used you," Jenny said quietly, taking a step towards her, "They rewrote your brain over and over until you would believe their lies and kill for them without knowing who you were killing-"

"Shut up!" Marion shouted. Then she halted, her face twisting again. "His message," she breathed, disgust and disorientation ruling her expression as her eyes came to rest on the body on the floor. It was obvious she was reliving his words. Always and completely forgiven…even if no one else ever has, I love her no matter what.

Jenny could see just how sickened her sister was by all of it, by the situation itself but also at how she has been used as a weapon to commit a crime considered unforgivable by most of the universe. Frankly she looked so overwhelmed that Jenny would have expected anyone else to drop to the floor in a dead faint.

"Jenny…is everything you ever told me about him true?" For the first time, she sounded truly vulnerable.

Aliya tried to help by saying, "Yes, it is-"

"Be quiet!" Marion yelled at her, tears filling her eyes even as she screamed. "You shut your fucking mouth right now or I swear to every god that might possibly exist that I will let him die."

Aliya, her own eyes far from dry, clamped her mouth shut and waited to see what she would do.

Jenny could never remember seeing someone look as lost and torn as Marion did then, her eyes moving around the room to rest on Jenny, Aliya, and the Doctor in turn. Calculating yet frantic, devastated yet determined…none of it made sense and Jenny knew that her head was the last place anyone in the universe would currently want to be.

But she was asking Jenny's opinion. One she trusted but knew to be opposite to her own. Or what had been her own until now.

"Yes," Jenny answered softly, "He's not perfect. I heard my fair share of stories about him when I was travelling and trying to find him. Most of them are true and not all of them are good. But he is good. He's the best father I could have asked for and the best man I've ever known."

Marion's gaze rested on her for a moment, just long enough to show she had listened to every word, before the redhead shut her eyes and stood completely still. Her face was still shadowed by a frown of the worst indecision, and her fists were clenched. Then her eyes snapped open and immediately went to the Doctor's body.

"I am no one's puppet," she murmured, spitting the word out bitterly, "I kill on my terms."

Marion's eyes briefly shut again, but only long enough for her to take a few deep breaths. By the time they opened, Jenny blinked when she realised that her sister's hands had started glowing again, but this time the regeneration energy wasn't spreading.

"Oh my god," Aliya breathed from beside Jenny, barely audible.

Marion began to approach the Doctor, a frown of great concentration crinkling her forehead. She sighed. "Oh, I'm going to regret this," she muttered. With the two blondes watching her with wide eyes, she knelt by the Doctor's body and leaned over him so that she could plant her glowing palms on his cheeks. A moment later his eyes opened so quickly that Aliya and Jenny both jumped.

"Marion…" He breathed, staring her right in the eye. Her mouth just tightened. "This is going to cost you."

"Shut up," she said sharply, before letting her forehead press against his.

The golden energy from her hands brightened and spread until it was swirling around the two of them in cascades of light that were so beautiful that Aliya and Jenny gaped, Aliya especially because she knew what they meant and the true miracle that was occurring.

By the time they had faded and they could see the Doctor and Marion again, the former was gasping with new breath while the latter had collapsed on her side next to him, completely unconscious.

"Doctor," Aliya said, running to him and pulling him up into a tight hug, "Oh, that was too close. Don't you dare take poisoned sweets from anyone ever again."

"I'll do my best," he murmured, chuckling a little as he hugged her back. Jenny could see the colour returning to his skin with every second that passed. The anomaly got in for a quick hug too. But then they all looked at the unconscious redhead on the floor.

"I can't believe she saved you," Aliya said, her joy having faded from her voice. Jenny knew she was back to despairing about Marion being Mariaka. It wasn't going to be something that her mother accepted easily.

The Doctor, for once, had nothing to say. He just got onto his knees so that he could scoop up Marion into his arms and lift her off the ground as he stood up. Jenny wordlessly pushed her sister's hair out of her face since his hands were too busy to do so. He smiled in gratitude.

"Now what?" Jenny asked.

"She shouldn't have done that," he said, sighing, "It will have taken a lot out of her. Literally. But I know the best people for looking after her." He carried her into the TARDIS and they followed. He gave Jenny coordinates for the hospital of the Sisters of the Infinite Schism and told them to pilot without him, even giving permission for the blue stabilisers to be used. It would seem that he had no intention of letting go of his unconscious daughter under any circumstances.

When they arrived, the Doctor's connections got Marion an instant room and the best doctors. Before leaving her to their examination, he glanced at Aliya and Jenny before bending to kiss the forehead of the ginger woman now in a hospital bed.

Jenny smiled at him, but Aliya said nothing and just stared at Marion with the same heavy expression she had been wearing since Daher's palace.

It had been a long day for the Doctor. He had found out that his best friend's enemy was in fact their daughter, and that she had stealthily poisoned him, and then he had died only to be brought back to life by the one who had been so gleeful about killing him. And all that told him was just how much hurt his daughter had endured, if she had become someone as bitter and cold as Marion Narke.

Marion's friendship with Jenny had been a stroke of luck. Or perhaps it was what less scientific minds would call fate. Either way, it had likely been the reason that Marion had decided to save his life, meaning that he owed them both.

Even now, as the small family waited outside the hospital room, Jenny was standing so that she could look in the window, concern all over her young features. Contrary to what Marion had expected, the revelation about her identity and intentions had only seemed to intensify Jenny's care for her. But then, Marion hadn't known the crucial detail, and the Doctor hadn't actually ended up dead.

The real problem lay with Aliya.

He was currently sitting next to her on the seat underneath the window that looked inside the room. The older blonde was silent and staring at the plain white wall opposite them, the same pain and denial on her face that had been there all day.

"Aliya," he said quietly, making her finally look at him, however reluctantly.

"What?" She asked, an edge in her voice.

"We need to talk about this."

Aliya opened her mouth, looking ready to deliver some razor sharp response, but no words came out. Instead her features just caved and she burst into tears as unexpectedly as someone who cried as frequently as she did could. She looked away from him and bent over so that her face was in her hands, which were in her lap.

He just let his hand rest on her back and rub it gently, knowing how much turmoil she had to be experiencing. "I know. It's too much. But we'll figure this out."

"They hurt her and lied to her until she turned into that," she cried, "That's not something you can figure out. She hates me and I hate her and a sudden biological connection doesn't change that."

"They did all of that because of us," the Doctor said slowly, "The least we can do is give her a chance."

"To what? Commit more murders?" Aliya lifted her head enough that her chin could rest in her hands and she could meet his eye. "Doctor, every bit of her shitty behaviour towards me and everyone else aside, Jenny and I watched her commit genocide. That's not something I can just forget."

He felt a queasiness in his stomach upon hearing that. Sure, he had been concerned by the comment when Aliya had called Marion a genocidal bitch, but hadn't wanted to dwell on it at the time.

"What species was it?"

"What?"

"What species did she kill?"

Aliya frowned. "The Kalgarians. A group of refugees, who said they were the last, came to Earth and were going to take over by converting humanity."

With a small sense of relief, the Doctor realised that he recognised the name. "Aliya, there are Kalgarians all over the galaxy. Those ones were lying to you. They weren't the only ones." She blinked at him. "What she did might still have been horrific, but it wasn't genocide."

Aliya let out a long breath as she sat up. "Well, that's something, anyway." Her hands twisted together in her lap. "I just don't know what to think. Or feel. This is all so fucked up."

"Maybe if you realise that you only ever saw one side of her, you might have a better shot at accepting all of this," Jenny said, not shifting her eyes from the window.

Her parents both looked at her, and her mother raised an eyebrow. Before either of them could say anything, though, the Sister of the Infinite Schism who had been treating Marion slipped out of the door next to Jenny and shut it behind her.

The Doctor immediately got to his feet. "How is she?" He asked, worried.

"She needs rest, but she'll be just fine," the Sister replied, "She'll likely be awake soon if you want to be in there when she comes to."

"Thank you."

The Sister nodded and headed off down the corridor, leaving the three Gallifreyans to wordlessly look through the window at the unconscious redhead.

"Jenny, I think you should be the only one in there when she wakes up," the Doctor said quietly, "Leave the door open though, and we'll be right outside."

Jenny eyed him thoughtfully and nodded a moment later. "I think that's a good idea." She opened the door and moved to sit in the seat next to the bed. The Doctor and Aliya watched through the window as she took Marion's hand and wordlessly held onto it.

"Oh god," Aliya exclaimed without warning, her face twisting with a new sort of disgust, "I walked in on her having sex with Rex! Ewww."

"Oh," the Doctor said mildly, and upon giving it further thought, frowned with similar sentiment. "Urgh. Ew indeed."

She pressed the heel of her palms into her eyes as if that would remove the horrific memory from her brain. "This cannot be real. I'm going to wake up and this is going to be some bizarre dream brought on by hallucinogens." He chuckled morosely and rubbed her back in an attempt to be comforting. She just sighed and went back to silently eyeing their daughters through the window.

Within ten minutes, Marion stirred. Her eyes opened a few moments later. Thanks to the door being slightly open, the Doctor and Aliya could hear everything that was happening inside the room.

"Hey," Jenny said softly, giving her hand a squeeze.

An automatic frown creased Marion's face. "Hello. What happened?"

"Dad says that you used half of your future regenerations bringing him back." It was a conversation that had been held on the way to the hospital. "But that if you had been anyone else it would have been all of them."

Marion didn't reply, she just sighed and flicked her eyes to the window, where they briefly met the Doctor's. He offered her a tiny smile, in an attempt to be friendly or reassuring, but her frown only deepened and her eyes hardened.

"What I did doesn't mean-"

"It doesn't have to mean anything," Jenny said quickly, "But thank you for doing it." She was still holding her hand, and her sister's hazel eyes landed on the place where they were touching.

"Yes, well," Marion murmured, "Kovarian doesn't get to feed me lies my entire life and expect me to still follow her orders." She paused. "So what happens now?"

"I don't know."

"I think I just…want to go home."

Jenny smiled at her. "I think that's definitely an option." Her smile faded slightly and her eyes flicked to the window. "But…I'm pretty sure they're gonna want to talk to you first." When Marion's free hand moved to prop up her chin and cover her mouth thoughtfully, Jenny hesitated. "Would that be okay?"

"As long as they keep it short and she keeps her mouth shut," Marion replied after a few second's thought. Jenny met the Doctor's eye and gave him a nod, as if he hadn't heard her affirmative answer. He nodded back. When he glanced sideways at Aliya, he saw her biting her lip. He took her hand in his and gently pulled her with him into the hospital room.

"Hello again, Marion," the Doctor greeted pleasantly, but being sure to tone down his usual cheer. He knew how delicate the situation was.

"Hello," she said, her voice stiff and her eyes back to being as guarded as they had always been in her old body.

He pursed his lips. "You saved my life. Thank you." Her gaze just dropped to her lap. She gave no reply. "Look, I know this is all…complicated. But you're not alone. We're all in this together."

"Perhaps I just want to be left in peace," Marion said sharply, lifting her head so that he could see the flash of steel in her eye.

He swallowed. "That can be arranged too. I was just…hoping that we might be able to hear about you first. Your life. How you got here."

"No one wants to hear about my life."

"I do," Jenny said from her left.

The Doctor nodded. "So do I."

Marion narrowed her eyes. "Why? So that you can add to the blame you obviously already carry? So that you can sit in your box and angst for a few months about how everything that happened is your fault, and then get on with pitying me?"

"He's trying to take an interest," Aliya said quietly, frowning at her.

"I don't need his fucking interest," Marion snapped, "But fine. You asked for it. You can stand there and listen to every detail about what they did to me because of you. You can know the exact extent to which you ruined my life before it began."

"That's not quite what I-"

"That's too bad. You asked and now you can shut your mouth and listen."

"…okay."

"From the moment I can remember being able to walk, they were training me. Languages in the morning and shooting practice in the afternoon. All the targets were shaped like people and half of them had two hearts marked out on them. And then at the end of the day they would sit me down and those creatures would sit around my chair. Kovarian would tell me about you, tell me everything you had ever done and why you had to die, tell me that I had to kill you as soon as was possible. And they did it over and over until it was more deeply engrained in my brain than my own personality was. At that age, I was more weapon than person."

The Doctor swallowed, doing his best to hold his devastation at bay. The idea that the baby he had so happily held had experienced such a childhood was almost too much for him to bear. "And then what?"

"Then you came to the orphanage, but I barely remember it. All I know is that I ran away as far as I could, and ended up in New York. I was dying, so I regenerated. They found me not long after that and took me a few decades into the future and dropped me off at that Yorkshire children's home. I'd been given more instructions. The new job was infiltration, to just live so that no one could doubt that I wasn't who I said I was. That was when they finally gave me a name."

"Marion Laura Narke," the Doctor said quietly. She nodded.

"That was my first taste of freedom. I was about seven years old physically, but had spent at least 15 years under their thumb. I was smarter than all the children around me. Not necessarily more mature, though, because I hadn't been living, only learning. I could speak eight languages and already do complex mathematics, but the children around me had more to them than I thought I ever would. I hated them for that."

"You can speak eight languages?"

Jenny answered in her stead, apparently having known that much. "English, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Korean, Japanese."

Marion nodded before continuing. "I didn't have a single friend but I didn't care. I was free to do what I wanted. But I never lost sight of my goal. I went running a lot even from that age, making sure I was always strong and fast, doing push ups on the floor of the bedroom I shared with the other girls. And when I got to school I put my head down and got to work. Being a doctor was my best shot at getting into Torchwood, which was how it was always planned that I would meet you both. And as a teenager, I was actually sort of happy. I knew it couldn't last, but for a while I got to be normal. Learn violin, actually have a friend however briefly. But then I was 18. Then school finished."

The Doctor realised what she meant. "The gap year."

"They got me on my way home from my graduation," Marion said, her voice sounding more constricted, "And so began the worst year of my life. I was underground and didn't see sunlight or breathe fresh air for that entire time. They started the mental conditioning all over again, knowing that I had been too long without it and was starting to get too many ideas about living my own life and not being dedicated to my purpose. They tortured me in almost every way possible to make sure I was strong enough to withstand any interrogation. That body of mine never shed a single tear in its entire life, but…I screamed so loudly that it was lucky they had me miles underground. They had medics on stand-by to heal me just so that they could hurt me all over again. I was so covered in scars that you'd have seen soldiers in better shape. You should have seen the faces of the few people who ever saw them. Priceless."

"Rex," Aliya murmured, frowning. Marion nodded.

"All the while they had those creatures there, keeping it imprinted in my mind that I couldn't be weak, I couldn't cry, and that when all of it was over I had to work to complete the objective with everything I had. They told me that no one would ever care about me because I was destruction and darkness and death."

"And then you went to university."

"I screamed in pain like a fucking vampire when I went back out into the sun for the first time," she said darkly, "And every night I had nightmares that they were coming back for me. Or that I had never actually left. That they were hurting me all over again. Putting me on the rack and stretching me until all my joints dislocated, shooting me with darts that simulated gunshot wounds so that they could fill me up with twenty and make me still try to walk and fight. Whipping me like I'd committed mutiny. Getting clerics in the dozens to descend on me and if I couldn't fight them off with my bare hands then I got beaten to a pulp-"

"Stop it," Aliya said, having turned a sickly shade of green.

"No," Marion retorted, "They did that to me because of you so you can shut up and listen." She gave a tiny smirk. "But with that incentive, once I learnt how to fight despite being in debilitating pain, I started getting good. Taking out more and more clerics each time until one day I was standing in the middle of thirty bodies on the floor and each one of them had died by my hands. And you know what I did?"

The Doctor was fairly sure he wasn't going to like the answer, but he had to hear it. "What?"

His daughter grinned, the cold grin of the psychopath he had glimpsed back in Daher's palace. "I stood there and I started laughing. I was so proud of myself. I simply couldn't stop."

His queasy expression only seemed to satisfy her more, but that only lasted a minute. She was more solemn when she spoke next.

"Kovarian was so pleased, she let me play my violin for a whole half an hour." She grit her teeth. "And then she made me watch as one of her clerics smashed it to pieces with a sledgehammer. That was when I learned to stop caring about anything. That any sort of feelings were a weakness I couldn't afford. I stood there and kept my face completely blank because I knew anything else would mean a punishment. And since she was satisfied with my combat skills, they intensified the conditioning. Kill the Doctor. Kill the Doctor. Neutralise his companion, and kill the Doctor."

The Doctor lifted an eyebrow. "I see."

"I see?" She repeated, her face twisting. "Is that all you have to say?"

"What else would you have me say?"

"The truth, the things I know you're thinking!" She shouted. "Tell me I'm a monster! Tell me I'm a thing that no one could ever care about because there isn't enough in me to amount to a whole person, because they scooped me out and filled me with hatred!" When he said nothing, she just got angrier. "You know that they got inside my head so badly that the first time I saw you I nearly shot you on pure instinct? Even now I have to fight to not leap out of the bed and strangle you with my bare hands, so stop acting like it doesn't bother you!"

"I never said it didn't bother me," he said honestly.

"Then tell me!" Marion yelled. "Tell me how you know you should put a bullet in me for the good of the entire universe, tell me I'm just a weapon who needs to be decommissioned, tell me that I deserve to die and just do it, put me out of my misery because I don't want it anymore!" Tears were running down her cheeks and her voice had become so choked that they could barely even hear the end of her final sentence.

His hearts heavy and aching, the Doctor kept his eyes on her. "I'm not going to say any of that."

She stared at him, not understanding. "How can you not?"

"Because you're not any of those things. You're my daughter."

It was the wrong thing to say. Her face twisted. "No! I'm not! I'm not your fucking daughter, and I never will be your precious fucking baby! GET OUT!" She screamed and threw everything at them she could reach – trays and needles and then the lamp - until they fled the room. Through the window, they saw her continuing to scream and sob into her pillow.

The Doctor felt his own eyes fill with quiet tears as his hearts ached for his daughter and the hardships that had befallen her because of him. Because he had done something – or was going to do something – that inspired so much fear that they had turned his infant daughter in a killer in order to take him out.

For the first time, Jenny was teary too. "Everything makes sense now, everything she ever said," the girl said, "But I'm starting to wish it didn't."

Aliya, of course, didn't have dry eyes either. "Do you think she really wants to die?" She whispered.

"No," Jenny answered, with a strange certainty, "But I think right now she thinks she does."

As soon as the noise from inside the room quietened down, the determined generated anomaly slipped back into the room despite her parent's quiet disagreement. Thankfully, she was met with no argument from the room's occupant, even if Marion didn't say a word to her. There was no resistance when Jenny took her hand again either.

The Doctor and Aliya watched them sit in silence for a few minutes before Marion finally looked at Jenny and whispered something to her, getting a nod in response before the girl got up and came to the door.

"She wants you to come in, but she wants you to just let her talk and not argue," she told them.

The Doctor agreed to the terms and Aliya just nodded. They went into the room and stood opposite the bed while Jenny took up her spot on Marion's left.

Marion watched them with those eyes that were so lost, so heated, and so broken all at once. For nearly half a minute she just took them in, her thoughtful frown at least more peaceful than some of the possible alternatives.

"I can see how you would be desperate for some kind of connection or understanding," she finally said, her refined voice speaking every word very deliberately. Perhaps being polite to them was just that difficult for her, or perhaps she truly just wasn't sure of what to say. "I can even do my best to possibly believe you're not wrong for wanting it."

"But?" The Doctor prompted.

Her gaze was steady as it rested on him. "But, to put it very simply, this just isn't a conversation I can have today. Or tomorrow. Almost everything I thought I knew has been revealed to be a lie. It's going to take me a long time to come to terms with that."

"Not everything," he said, "You're still Marion Narke. You're still a brilliant Doctor who studied in Cambridge, who works at Torchwood. All those things, all those years…all that pain…it's still yours."

"I'm well aware," she snapped, "But intent is everything, and mine was founded on lies."

"You're more than just the person who was waiting to kill me."

"I know!" Marion shouted, glaring. "I said you needed to not argue. I'm merely telling you the truth. That I can't do whatever all this is. Not at the moment. I just want-" She broke off rather abruptly, and pursed her lips with apparent indecision.

"What do you want?" Aliya asked, her voice barely more than a whisper and her eyes barely daring to meet Marion's.

"I want to go back to Cardiff."

"Why?"

Marion bit her lip. A strange sort of reluctance entered her features. "In all of this," she said slowly, "In finding my whole world to be built on lies, there is only one thing left that I am certain of. And currently that is the only thing that is keeping me sane."

The Doctor and Aliya shared curious glances, but when the former looked at Jenny, he was surprised to see a knowing look on his blonde daughter's face.

"And what's that?" He asked. Marion's eyes flicked to Jenny, and it was obvious on her face that she wanted Jenny to say whatever it was that she was struggling to.

Jenny smiled, just slightly. "Esther," she said, looking at their parents, "She's in love with Esther."

Oh. The Doctor felt his eyes widen at the same time that he saw Aliya's mouth drop slightly in the corner of his vision. "Ah," was all he ended up saying.

"When you mentioned having to push people away, you meant her," Aliya deducted, with wide eyes, earning a tiny nod from Marion, "That…actually explains a lot. But she has no idea?"

"She didn't," Marion said, an odd look crossing her face, "Until I kissed her right before flying away in your box with you."

"What?" Jenny's shock and delight lit up her face. "Really?"

"You never forgot anything," the Doctor realised, starting to smile a little.

Marion shrugged. "I didn't know if I was going to see her again. Or that she wouldn't hate me if she did, given that in my plans I would have been returning after killing the parents of our friend."

"What did she say?" Jenny asked, almost squealing because she was so excited.

Her sister's expression became almost sheepish. "I didn't really give her much chance to say anything. I apologised for my previous actions and the ones I was about to take, kissed her, and, well…ran for it."

The Doctor met her eye, and a moment later started laughing. When she lifted an eyebrow at him, he couldn't quite get himself to stop, and just gave her an apologetic grin. "Sorry," he said, scratching his cheek, "It's just that you really do seem to have my genes, is all. Probably not what you want to hear, I know, but…"

"I'll let it pass if you have a way for me to get to Cardiff," Marion replied, her expression back to true neutral, "Alone."

"We can just take you in the TARDIS-"

"I'm not getting in that box again," she said, her voice firm, "So either you have an alternative or you're no use to me."

He gave it some thought for a moment before a solution presented itself. "River's vortex manipulator," he said, "It's still in the TARDIS. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

"That's better."

It took less than ten minutes for him and Aliya to retreat to the TARDIS to find the manipulator and return with it in the Doctor's hands. He approached the end table by her bed and put it down.

"Thank you," Marion said, the words sounding heavy and reluctant on her tongue. No doubt her mental conditioning made it contrary to her very nature to be civil to him. "And now I need you to leave. Properly."

The Doctor nodded and gave her a small smile. "Alright." He reached for the manipulator and saved a set of coordinates into it. "If you do want to talk, even if it takes years, or-" He pursed his lips. "Use these coordinates. We'll be there."

Her eyes dropped to her hands. "I'll keep it in mind."

"And Marion?" At her name, she looked up curiously just in time to see him smile at her more widely. "Good luck with your girl. Woman. Immortal being." He made a face and waved his hand dismissively. "You know what I mean."

For a second he thought she was going to smile at him, but she just ended up biting her lip. "Thank you."

Jenny got up and hugged Marion. The Doctor could see unease on the redhead's face, but her arms ended up curling around her sister and holding on longer than he would have expected.

"You'll have to tell me how it goes," Jenny said.

"We'll see."

By the time they released each other, the Doctor had noticed the tension that had returned to Aliya's frame. When Jenny had moved to the door, Marion and Aliya met eyes, both of them guarded and hopelessly unsure.

"Good luck," Aliya said, mainly echoing the Doctor's words but at least sounding like she more or less meant them.

Marion didn't reply, but gave a fraction of a nod.

"Goodbye for now," the Doctor said to her as they left, and got no response before he shut the door behind them. The three Gallifreyans walked back to the TARDIS and went inside, for once not having many words to say to each other.

Eventually the silence got to be too much.

"So, back to Torchwood for you then, Jenny?" The Doctor asked, doing his best to sound cheerful.

Jenny shook her head. "I think I'd like to stay for a while. If that's okay."

"Okay?" He repeated, lifting his eyebrows and beaming at her. "It's more than okay! We'd love you to stay, you know we've wanted that for ages."

She relaxed and hugged him happily. The Doctor reached out and pulled Aliya into the embrace. He was glad to feel her tense body relax as she wrapped her arms around them.

"It's going to be okay," he said, knowing that he had to believe it, "Everything's going to be alright in the end."

I'm not sure how many people I will have surprised with the Marion/Esther thing, given I'm sure I've mentioned it before in ANs, but I suppose within the actual story I've been pretty subtle, so I bet at least a few of you didn't see that coming. But the hints have been there from the beginning for sure!

We'll see how that plays out next chapter. And meanwhile, Jenny's finally on the TARDIS! *excited dance party* But yeah, there's definitely some complicated family stuff to work through, and it probably doesn't help that Marion's definitely got Aliya's stubborn streak.

Let me know what you thought!

Love you guys!

-MayFairy :)