Thanks for all the feedback! This is the last proper chapter of the story, with only the epilogue to go. And yeah, it's not as fluffy as the last one, sorry.
Towards the end of the chapter, Service and Sacrifice by Jeremy Zuckerman is a great instrumental background and what I wrote the scene to, just for anyone who loves TV soundtracks (it's from Legend of Korra).
Touch my mouth and hold my tongue, I'll never be your chosen one
So crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down
I'll never wear your broken crown
I took the road and I fucked it all away
Now in this twilight, how dare you speak of grace
Broken Crown - Mumford and Sons
But when I'm standing in the gallows, I'll be staring at the sky
Because no matter where they take me, death I will survive
And I will never be forgotten, with you by my side
When I'm standing in the fire, I will look him in the eye
And I will let the devil know that I was brave enough to die
And there's no hell that he can show me, that's deeper than my pride
Cause I will never be forgotten, forever I'll fight
Somebody To Die For - Hurts
River Song. She was in the cell next to River Song's. The woman she had heard of from childhood, always hearing how she was the Silence's last hope because River Song had failed them. And more recently, the esteemed dead wife of the Doctor.
Her stepmother. Which was just a bit too bizarre to think about, all things considered. Made worse by the fact that when she'd been snooping through Kovarian's records when she was eighteen, she'd found photos of the archaeologist from during her own training and had a bit of a crush on the distant figure.
At least she could approve of some of her father's taste in women.
Once she realised the guard had left her to her own thoughts, she lay back down on the bed and wondered about how her stepmother apparently came and went out of her prison cell. But when would she be back? Was there a chance Mari would be able to actually talk to her?
"I can't stand being bored," she lamented, staring at the featureless ceiling above her.
After another seven hours, a group of five soldiers appeared outside her cell. All were wearing eyedrives. She reluctantly sat up and got to her feet, vaguely relieved something was actually happening even though she knew it couldn't be anything good.
"She'll see you now," one of them said.
"I am so thrilled."
They held her with no small degree of force as they marched her out of the cell block and down a stark corridor. Smart of them, really, because if they hadn't she would probably have been able to overpower them within seconds. She was still considering giving it a try when they came into a spacious room where Madame Kovarian stood next to a singular chair that sat in the centre.
"Marion," Kovarian greeted with a false smile, "Do sit down." Mari was forced into the chair. "And before you think of doing anything stupid, know that my boys will shoot you should you try anything."
"But are you completely sure that they could take me down before I snap you like a twig?" Mari asked, with a mild tone that could have been discussing weather if not for the actual words or the underlying venom.
She was pleased to see just a flicker of concern flash through Kovarian's eye. The human woman took another step back and indicated for the soldiers to be even more sure of their aim.
"Now, Marion, I must congratulate you on your excellent work at the lake. It would seem that for all the Doctor's faults, he at least was able to die to preserve the universe's integrity."
Mari swallowed. "Of course. He's always cared for people. It was me that had no regard for the universe."
"And that's just the problem. You let me down, Marion," Kovarian said, with the nerve to pull a little fake sad face. As if she actually had emotions when it came to all this. "You only killed him when he told you to. Not when I did."
"I'd sooner take orders from a slug than from you," Mari snarled.
Kovarian ignored that. "Not to mention, you killed me. After all I've done for you. It's not something I can take likely, alternative timeline or no."
"And yet you still have the nerve to be in the same room with me while I'm not restrained. I'm almost impressed."
Kovarian just lifted an eyebrow and shifted her weight to the other foot. Mari's hands twitched as she recalled how good it had felt to shove that eyedrive deeper into Kovarian's eye socket and hear her scream. Bloodlust that she had spent so long trying to tame rose in her gut, and she was struck by the vivid fantasy of leaping from the chair and wrapping her fingers around the brunette woman's neck until she felt the windpipe collapse.
Unfortunately, she'd never have time to manage it before being shot. It was the sort of thing one wanted to savour.
Still, Kovarian had apparently picked up on her homicidal twitch because the next thing she knew she had two soldiers twisting her arms behind the back of the chair just enough to hurt. But a little bit of pain didn't bother Mari and she just smirked.
"So, we have disobedience, downright betrayal and assault of a superior, and the fact that you're simply too volatile and dangerous to be allowed to wander around wherever you like," Kovarian continued, more confident now that she was definitely the one in control. "What do you expect me to do about that? What should I do?"
"Shoot one of us before I have to endure another minute of this conversation," Mari replied without so much as blinking.
Kovarian rolled her eyes and gave her a cold smile. "Oh, don't worry, if I kill you, Marion, your execution will be much more suited to someone of your...calibre."
Mari grit her teeth. "My name...is Mari."
Her tormenter stepped in closer and took Mari's chin in her hands. "Mari is your fantasy of escape. But you will always be Marion. My Marion. My weapon, gone terribly wrong but thanks to my intervention still successful in her purpose. You should thank me, really. You only exist as you are now because of me-"
Mari spat in her face. A backhanded slap hit the redhead's cheek so hard and so quickly that her vision briefly clouded. By the time it cleared up, Kovarian had wiped the saliva from her face and now wore a very sour expression.
"Take her back to her cell," she snapped, before looking back at Mari, "You'll have my verdict soon enough."
"The first chance I get, I will skin you using the bluntest blade possible over the course of an entire day and force you to swallow each piece as I go," Mari told her, voice dangerously low. She was in no way bluffing. A part of her was already imagining the screams and gagging in great detail.
Kovarian paid her no attention and Mari was dragged back to her cell. The concept of soon enough was apparently a loose one because twelve hours passed and no one returned for her.
Mari stretched out on the cot and found herself wishing Esther was with her, while at the same time being incredibly glad she wasn't. But already she missed the sound of her laugh and the smell of her hair, and the way her eyes shone in the artificial light of crappy take-out joints.
She shut her eyes and imagined a pair of arms around her and the soothing murmurs of an American accent.
Six days passed. There had been no sign of Kovarian or her soldiers, and the waiting was driving Mari insane.
She had finally given into the temptation of sleep, figuring she might as well get in the luxury one more time before facing the unfortunately rather strong possibility of execution.
What was not a luxury was being woken up by blaring alarms.
"Oh, turn it off, I'm breaking in, not out!" A voice from outside the cells exclaimed loudly. Mari got up and peeked around the corner of where the wall met the bars, and sure enough saw River Song talking into a phone on the wall, a smug grin on her face. "This is River Song, back in her cell. Oh, and I'll take breakfast at the usual time, thank you!"
As much as a part of Mari longed to talk to this enigma of a woman, she knew it probably wasn't wise and quickly ducked back out of sight when River made to enter her cell. She was taking her time about it, and humming what sounded like Stevie Wonder, which didn't quite add up given that she was wearing a very old-fashioned dress.
The redhead stayed still as she listened to River get changed and move to presumably sit on her bed based on the tiny creak it let out. Her ears picked up the scribbling of a pen.
What Mari wouldn't have given for a pen during these days of utter boredom. She could have doodled all the way up both her arms by now. Perhaps it was worth checking her coat again. The moment she moved to do so, however, the scribbling sound next door stopped.
"Hello?"
Mari hadn't considered that River also might have keen hearing. "...hello."
"I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing in here? They've never put anyone next to me before."
Mari laughed at that, even though it wasn't funny. "I'm not anyone. And I've been in here for almost a week now. You have merely been...out."
"I see," River replied, sounding as though she didn't know what to think of having a neighbour, "Well, I'm River Song. I suppose if we're going to be neighbours we might as well get to know each other."
"I know who you are," Mari said, "And I'm afraid that I likely won't be here much longer. They'll soon come for me."
"Who?"
Mari pressed her back to the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the cold stone floor. "What's that word? Spoilers?"
"But...that's my word. How do you know about it?"
Oh, to hell with it. I'm not in the mood for being sensible.
Answering River's question - or rather, sidestepping it - led to a whole conversation about how Mari knew about many things, such as River's origins, even a few details the Doctor had never been made aware of. Kovarian's database had given young Marion Narke quite the thorough read, and her discovery of that information had been a brief spark of triumph in the middle of an otherwise dismal year.
Of course, Kovarian had had her whipped upon discovering what she'd done. The hundred lashes had quickly snuffed out any positive emotion that had dared to rear its head in her moment of rebellion. She could still remember the sting of the plasma whip and how she had refused to cry (because her past regeneration never did, not once), as well as the look on the face of Karen, her brief university girlfriend, when she'd seen the scars. And later Rex.
But she'd never regretted it and certainly didn't now. The information had only become more valuable with time.
The topic of Utah also came up in the conversation with River. Mari explained the Silence's agenda to kill the Doctor, how the astronaut had been their third and 'successful' attempt.
River wanted to know how Mari could know all that she did, but there was no way she could possibly explain and so she told her as much. No argument came - as a time traveller, River Song knew when to accept that for the sake of the timelines some information couldn't be shared.
River was in the middle of asking another question when the sound of footsteps began to echo through the cell block. Mari could identify five sets. The same number as before. Dread struck up in her chest and affected her breathing.
"Right on time," Mari said, as if she hadn't been waiting for days without a clue what was going on.
(Maybe she wanted to seem that bit more unflappable and impressive in front of someone as renowned as River Song, or maybe pretending she was clued in helped her nerves.)
"River, I'd like you to know that I am glad to have had the chance to speak to you," she continued, speaking honestly and quickly, "I wish I could have properly known you. From what I hear, the two of us might have gotten along famously."
"Hear from who?"
"The Doctor and Aliya, of course. They both speak so very highly are you."
"Who are you?" River demanded.
Mari gave her no answer, as the soldiers had reached their cells and were unlocking the one holding the prisoner they were to take away. One of them told her that 'she' was waiting for Mari with her verdict.
"Well obviously, or else you wouldn't be here," Mari said, rolling her eyes at them as she stepped out of the cell and in front of River's. They finally got a good look at each other.
Shit, she's only gotten even more beautiful with age, and I didn't know she had a gorgeous low voice when I was eighteen, Mari thought, only to shake herself of those thoughts by reminding herself that the woman was her stepmother. Esther's face appeared in her mind and brought her back to her senses, but also brought up the problem of worrying if she was ever going to see her again. She knew her chances weren't good.
Mari gave River - who was watching her curiously - a tiny smile in the hopes of hiding her inner distress. "Well, it was nice to talk with you."
"Where are they taking you?"
"My execution, most likely. Assuming that is her verdict."
River looked confused. "What? Why? What have you done to warrant an execution? Even I didn't get that."
"Well, I can't be angry about it," Mari said, even if that wasn't quite true, "Frankly they'd be idiots to keep me alive at this point. I'm too dangerous. And when you kill someone in an aborted timeline, they tend to remember and want a chance to make you regret it." The glorious sound of Kovarian's screams filled her head again, and she grinned maliciously. "Not that I will, of course."
"Who are you?" River sounded almost awed.
Mari just shrugged. "You were the woman who was supposed to kill the Doctor. I'm the one who did."
River, eyes wide with realisation, remarked that Mari was the astronaut they had just been discussing, only to express her confusion about how she could kill the Doctor when she had been talking as if she were on his side. It was all Mari could do to say that 'complicated' didn't quite cover the situation.
But there was one last thing she could do for her. River was still very much sure that the Doctor had died and was still going to die at Lake Silencio. Mari took the chance to approach her cell and yank River right up to the bars so that she could whisper in her ear that the Doctor had again managed the impossible and survived.
The soldiers only took a few seconds to grab her arms and yank her backwards away from River.
"Time for me to go and die, is it?" Mari asked them, pretending to sound bored. "Get on with it then."
"You don't seem very concerned about your life being terminated," River said.
"I had my chance to live it. The fault is mine for somewhat failing to do so until these last few months." Mari thought of Esther, of all the time she had wasted worrying about rejection or being unworthy, or how her entire life as Marion had been so horrifically empty and all for nothing. "Besides, to quote a storybook character who the Doctor resembles in more ways than one...to die would be an awfully big adventure."
The guards started to march her away and Mari made sure to keep on her brave but sad smile as she looked back at River.
"Thank you," the other woman called out to her.
Thank you. How rarely had she heard that in her life? How many people had ever had reason to genuinely thank her for something? An odd laugh got stuck in her throat just thinking about it.
"Now there's something not many people have ever said to me!" Mari replied, having to raise her voice a little over the growing distance. "Not that I deserved any different. But you're very welcome. It was an honour to meet you, River Song."
Then they were around a corner and her father's wife was gone from Mari's sight.
The room she was taken to was the same as before, and Kovarian was waiting in almost exactly the same place. But this time she was holding a teleport similar to the one that one of her agents had used to get Mari to Stormcage in the first place. She pressed the button the moment the door was shut behind them, and they left the intergalactic prison behind.
By the time the buzzing faded from Mari's head, she realised there were murmurs of a crowd replacing it as her ears tuned in to her new surroundings. She whipped around to see that she was standing on a raised platform in front of thousands of uniformed soldiers. Above her was a night sky, but lamps emitting blue light illuminated the platform where she stood.
"Get her on her knees," Kovarian barked, and the soldiers around Mari forced her into a kneeling position.
This was not the setting for a reprieve or a simple punishment. This was public. This was being made an example of. Kovarian didn't need to give her verdict. Mari now knew without a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't leaving this place alive.
While the new TARDIS trio had intended to launch into some grand trip, they'd gotten talking and ended up just floating in the vortex instead.
It turned out that Jenny had, before Mari's disappearance, been in communication with Sarah Jane and actually gone to Ealing to meet everyone there. Having bonded with Luke instantly over being fully grown from the day of their birth, their lack of a navel, and a shared above human intelligence, they had become fast friends.
"So then I went to visit him at Oxford, because I was curious about university and he'd just broken up with his boyfriend Sanjay and needed some cheering up," Jenny was saying to the Doctor and Aliya, who were listening with great interest as the three of them enjoyed a cake that the youngest had made.
Apparently Rani Chandra had taught her how to bake, and the results were utterly delicious.
"And it was weird and funny but I sort of ended up kissing Luke," Jenny remarked, grinning all the wider when her parent's eyebrows went up. "Which was actually my first kiss other than that guard on Messaline, because I just never thought to be interested in that sort of thing when I was busy looking for you, Dad. And it's the last thing on my mind whenever I'm in Cardiff even if everyone else at Torchwood never shuts up about sex and all of that stuff."
"And what did you think? Of kissing?" Aliya asked her curiously.
Jenny's grin turned mischievous. "It was nice, yeah. A bit weird because I don't see Luke like that, but he asked so nicely with that funny cute frown of his and I didn't see why not."
"And what happened after?"
"Well, he doesn't like me like that either, he just wanted to be sure he liked girls as well as boys," Jenny said nonchalantly, shrugging, "Well, his words were attraction regardless of body parts, gender identity or gender presentation. But we agreed that his pansexuality makes perfect sense when you think about the fact that he was made from the genetic information of thousands of different humans."
"I see you've picked up the very human trait of talking about sexuality as if it's as blase as one's favourite colour," Aliya said with disapproval.
Jenny frowned at her. "Why shouldn't it be? Why does it have to matter?"
"It should be...private."
"In your opinion."
"In my - our culture."
"In yours and Dad's, maybe. But that culture isn't mine - mine is whatever I want it to be, and I like the direction humans are going with this sort of thing," Jenny said, crossing her arms.
Despite disagreeing with her, Aliya had to respect the stance she had taken and just nodded.
Appeased, Jenny went back to her story. "And then it was really funny because Santiago Jones turned up! I didn't know who he was, but the boys explained how his grandmother used to travel with you, Dad."
"She did, and she was wonderful. We actually met Santiago. Nice boy," the Doctor said, smiling.
"Really? That's great."
"Him turning up at Oxford seems a bit strange, from what I remember him saying about his life," Aliya pointed out, "Doesn't he travel around with Jo to exotic places doing political protests?"
"Yeah, but Santiago is curious about more 'normal' stuff too. So after he met Luke at Dad's wedding to River and they ended up getting on, they exchanged phone numbers so they could keep in contact and Santiago's been popping in to visit him whenever he's in the country." Jenny grinned. "To be honest, Santiago could be just what Luke needs to get over Sanjay,plus Santiago definitely has a crush on him. They'd be such a cute couple-"
"No meddling in other people's love lives, Jenny," Aliya said sternly, but Jenny only grinned harder.
"Wouldn't dream of it. I don't think I need to do any meddling anyway. They'll get there on their-ah!"
Her sentence was cut off as the TARDIS jerked into flight without prompt from them, lurching and sending them all to the floor with yells of surprise. The TARDIS had landed - silently - before they could get up and prevent it from doing so.
The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and made his way to the scanner, only to frown at it and tap the screen with his knuckles. "It's not working." He examined something else on the console and his frown deepened. "It's because we're cloaked. We're cloaked and we landed silently."
"I have a bad feeling about this," Aliya said, swallowing and moving to peek out of the door. What she saw made her hearts stop for a moment and she slammed the door shut as quickly as she could. "Oh no."
"What?" The Doctor asked urgently.
"Soldiers. Like the ones from Demon's Run. We can't let them see you, or time would probably disintegrate."
"So shouldn't we just leave? I mean, why would we want to hang around here with a bunch of the soldiers who kidnapped you anyway?" Jenny suggested, only for both of the Time Lords to shake their heads.
"The TARDIS brought us here for a reason, we need to go outside and find out why." When the Doctor saw that she still looked unsure, he added, "Jenny, if I hadn't gone outside the last time the TARDIS took me somewhere of her own accord, I'd have never found Aliya on Karn. And the time before that, you'd have never been created."
Jenny's mouth fell open. "Oh."
"The soldiers will think you're dead, so they won't be looking for you, which means a perception filter would probably do the trick," Aliya told the Doctor, "Though ideally Jenny and I should have one each too, since we would still be completely out of place at one of these rallies."
The Doctor's eyes lit up. "That is not a problem!" He ran off down the stairs, and a minute later returned with three keys threaded on string. "Ta da! From when I was with Martha and Jack trying to-"
"Take down Koschei," Aliya finished, nodding, "I remember from the memories of it you shared with me. Those will do the trick nicely."
They took one each and put them around their necks, the Doctor providing his daughter with a brief explanation about how it was crucial for them to not draw attention to themselves or the power of the perception filter would be lost. With that done, they silently stepped from the box.
Above them lay a beautiful night sky filled with stars, but they were on the edge of a mass of Silence soldiers who were assembled in front of a platform lit by artificial blue light. The trio made their way to the back where they were the least likely to bump into anyone or be noticed, putting them about a hundred and fifty metres from the currently empty platform.
"What are they waiting for?" Jenny whispered.
"I don't know, but I bet it isn't good," Aliya replied just as quietly.
They waited in silence, tense and full of anticipation. Finally, in a flash of light, a group appeared on the platform and it was all Aliya could do not to gasp. Even at a distance, Madame Kovarian was recognisable. The soldiers with her pushed someone to their knees but the figure was blocked from their sight.
Kovarian moved to the side and pulled something from her jacket and attached it to her lapel. When she next spoke, her voice resonated through the very air around them.
"Before you today is a traitor to our cause," she said, her voice as charismatic and cold as ever, "Born in our midst and raised with our singular purpose."
Just as warning bells went off in Aliya's brain, the soldiers forcibly turned around the figure they were holding in place. Messy curls of bright red hair rang home the terrible truth.
"Mari," the Doctor breathed from beside her, and Aliya made sure to grab Jenny's arm before she could do anything foolish.
"We have to do something," the smaller blonde said to them, but Aliya could only shake her head and shush her before turning her attention back towards Kovarian.
"While she did in fact succeed in killing the Doctor-" The religious leader paused and smiled fractionally when the soldiers all cheered, "She did not do it without rescinding her first attempt, and only completed her second on his orders as opposed to my own."
One of the soldiers fitted a microphone to Mari's lapel as well, but the redhead didn't look interested in speaking. As far as Aliya could tell from the distance between them, she was staring blankly ahead, barely seeming aware of her surroundings.
"Mariakanerolunar," Kovarian said, her voice full of grandeur but also of distaste, "You stand accused of disobedience, assault of a superior, and treason. How do you plead?"
"I don't currently stand accused of anything," Mari replied, her modulated voice entirely nonchalant despite her precarious position, "Anyone with eyes can see that I'm on my knees."
A part of Aliya wanted to laugh, and out of the corner of her eyes she saw a tiny smile on the Doctor's lips. But really they were both too concerned to find any joy in their daughter's bravado in the face of danger given that the danger was all too real.
A flick of Kovarian's hand had Mari yanked to her feet by the soldiers still holding onto her.
"Your dead father's flippancy will do you no good now," Kovarian told her with a snarl, "It couldn't save him and you are so much less."
"And yet you still consider me a threat."
"Answer the question! How do you plead?!"
Mari sneered and looked out at the sea of soldiers before her. "I plead guilty to every crime put to me," she shouted, "And I stand proud. Proud of having done things that have so many of you tiny, brainwashed, pathetic little people staring at me with hatred!" Her head turned to the left. "But you most of all, Madame Kovarian. I killed you in an aborted timeline and would do so again in a heartbeat-"
"And now you will cease your laughable attempt at bravery-"
"I will force you to eat one of your own eyeballs," Mari continued, the pure loathing and terrifying iciness in her voice making it clear it was no empty threat, "And cut your ribs out of you one at a time until your shriveled heart is exposed and I can yank it out of your chest with my bare hand and crush it in the second that you take your last breath-"
Her microphone was switched off and she was thrown back onto her knees with no small degree of force, her face colliding with the platform. It had to have been painful because the sound of her nose breaking echoed in the microphone.
Aliya felt sick, and couldn't be sure whether it was a mix of worry for Mari and disgust at her explicit threats or entirely the former. There was no way this was going to end well.
"There has to be something we can do to get her out of here," Jenny whispered desperately.
"There isn't," the Doctor told her, sounding as nauseous as Aliya felt.
"Couldn't we materialise the TARDIS around her? And then just take off?"
"Not without picking up the soldiers holding onto her. And bringing my very well known mode of transport into the middle of this, even if Aliya is known to be able to fly it, would not go well."
"Then what do we do?"
The Doctor gulped. "I don't know."
"What if the soldiers move and she's standing on her own? Then we could materialise the TARDIS around her without getting them-"
"Everyone here would still see the TARDIS and think of the Doctor, who for the sake of time needs to remain entirely dead in their minds," Aliya reminded her, shaking her head.
"All I'd have to do is poke my head out of the doors and say something like the Doctor doesn't need to be alive for me to rescue my sister, and then they'd still think he's dead!" Jenny argued.
The Doctor and Aliya exchanged tentative looks.
"It's good enough for me," the former said quickly.
"And me," the latter agreed.
"Okay, then we make our way back to the TARDIS very, very slowly, and wait for an opening." They began to move at a snail's pace through the crowd, being sure not to draw attention to themselves lest they be noticed.
Kovarian had meanwhile been talking about how Mari having turned from them made her too dangerous with her genes and their training, and had finally reached her point.
"It is my verdict, passed with the authority of the Papal Mainframe in her absence, that you, Mariakanerolunar, are guilty of all crimes put to you."
Mari smirked. "Good, then we are agreed on one thing, at least."
"The sentence is execution by disintegration."
Pleased murmurs ran through the crowd of soldiers, and Mari's expression remained unchanged, but the three Gallifreyans on the ground shared looks of horror and panic.
"We need to get to the TARDIS, now," the Doctor said, and they quickened their pace. The box wasn't far, but it wasn't as close as they'd have liked either.
"Any attempt to run on your part will fail," Kovarian told Mari, who just looked at her evenly.
"My last moments will not be ones of cowardice."
"Good." Kovarian gestured to a soldier who was standing on the corner of the platform. He came forward, a large weapon in his hand. "Prepare. The rest of you, step away from the convicted."
The soldiers around Mari released their hold on her and moved to flank Kovarian while the one priming the intended weapon came to stand behind her. True to her word, Mari stood her ground and made no move to escape. But her eyes did traverse the crowd, and to Aliya's shock she found herself being directly stared at.
It shouldn't have been possible for Mari to see them due to the perception filters, but she could. The only way it was possible was if Mari had been looking for them. If some part of Mari had hoped to see them.
The Doctor was looking at Mari too, not shifting his gaze even as they kept hurrying towards the TARDIS. He was mouthing something that looked like hold on. Mari gave the most miniscule shake of her head and the Doctor's movements only increased speed.
"Take aim," Kovarian ordered her executioner, who lifted the weapon so that it was pointed squarely at Mari's back. "Now, do you have any last words?"
Mari remained silent. Her gaze had moved to be fixed straight ahead of her and her expression was neutral.
"We're almost there," the Doctor said breathlessly.
Jenny shook her head desperately. "We need to be there now."
Aliya could only push them on. They had less than ten metres to go, but even that seemed like too much, and dread started to creep into her skin. It was only augmented by Kovarian's pleased little smirk that was directed at Mari.
"Very well," the vile woman said, "Colonel, fire when ready."
They'd just reached the TARDIS - or rather, collided with it clumsily due to it still being invisible. Aliya knew they should be fumbling to get inside but Kovarian's words had frozen them and they were staring at Mari. Mari who was rigidly standing at the front of the platform, impassive but for the tear on her cheek that was just visible now that they were closer.
The crowd was silent. Even the air around them seemed to have stopped.
Then the blast of the weapon rang out and Mari's eyes shut a moment before the energy hit her. The smallest cry of pain escaped her but otherwise her mouth was stubbornly clamped shut in the split second it took for the light to encompass her body and rip it into atoms.
Before Aliya could scream, a hand was over her mouth, and next to her Jenny had been similarly silenced. The noise from both of them wasn't blocked entirely by the Doctor's large hands but the cheering of the soldiers stopped them from being heard.
Before Aliya could even begin to process what had happened or the dead weight in her gut, everyone around them was suddenly gone. The three of them stood alone on the rocky terrain but for the empty platform that remained.
Jenny apparently didn't notice. Her legs had collapsed under her and she was leaning against the invisible box, her face twisted with grief.
"No," she whispered, "She can't be dead, she just can't-"
"I'm sorry, Jenny," Aliya tried to say, crouching beside her, only to be roughly pushed away with surprising hostile from the smaller blonde.
"Shut up!" Jenny shouted. "Don't act like you care! You didn't even like her!"
The tears that had already filled Aliya's eyes began to fall. "Of course I care, Jenny. Things were complicated with her, but we were getting somewhere. She was my daughter, Jenny, just as much as you are-"
"Jenny," the Doctor said quietly, kneeling next to them and letting Jenny launch herself into his arms and sob into his shoulder. He meanwhile looked at Aliya with the same devastation she herself felt. Only his ran deeper. He had cared for Mari for longer, and more - well, just more, without a reason to initially close his hearts off to her like she had had.
"Doctor, look around us," Aliya said, frowning and resisting the urge to curl up and cry when there was a mystery at hand, "Everyone's just gone. It happened in a split second. How?"
He had a frown to match hers the moment he lifted his head and realised that she was right. "I don't know." But he took in a deep breath of the air around them only to have his confusion visibly deepen. "It's been hours. They aren't just gone, they left while we were...I don't know. Frozen?"
"How could that be possible when only Mari knew that we were here? Who could have frozen us?"
"Why does it matter?" Jenny cried. "Your daughter just died, why are you talking about anything else?!"
"Because maybe I want to think about anything else!" The Doctor retorted, only to look immediately horrified at how he had risen his voice at her. Aliya suspected it would be the last time as well as the first.
"Doctor."
The unfamiliar voice made them all jump. When Aliya spun around, she saw a shining figure standing in the platform, right behind where Mari had been killed.
"Rose?" The Doctor breathed from beside her.
The figure had long blonde waves of hair and her eyes shone pure gold. No English shop-girl looked like that, or sent a shiver of apprehension down the back of Aliya's neck. But someone the Doctor had told her about - or rather, something - could.
"No," she breathed, "Bad Wolf."
"But - I - I-" The Doctor was, for once, lost for words.
"Come on," Aliya said, grabbing his hand and making sure he still had a hold on Jenny before rushing to the platform and climbing the steps until they were mere metres away from the Bad Wolf.
"Who is she?" Jenny asked, her voice barely audible and her cheeks still stained with tears.
"I am the Bad Wolf, Jenny of Messaline," came the reply, in a voice that was both beautiful and terrible, echoing in on itself. "Rose Tyler, companion of the Doctor, looked into the heart of the TARDIS and was looked into in return. Together they became me."
"But you were on Satellite Five," the Doctor said quietly, and Aliya could sense the blur of his tumultuous emotions.
"I am on Satellite Five as we speak, but I am also here," Bad Wolf told him, her powerful gaze burning into him, "I am anywhere in time and space that I am needed."
"Why are you needed?"
"Because your pain, in this moment, echoed through the universe and I heard it." The Bad Wolf stepped forward, reaching out with her hand to cup his cheek. "I want you happy and loved, my Doctor. Long after Rose Tyler is gone."
The Doctor swallowed. "I've been in pain a lot of times before and since Satellite Five. What's so special about now?"
She gave him a strange, sad smile. "It is not now that is special. It is who. Mariaka was of your very body. Your blood ran through her veins, the same blood that is so tuned to the TARDIS whose heart sustains me."
Aliya put an arm around Jenny, unsure of how she felt about the implication of someone being more special to someone else due to a blood relation. She and Jenny shared no DNA but that didn't mean shit as far as she was concerned.
The Doctor seemed to be thinking something similar. "Are you saying that she's more important because she's my biological daughter?"
"No. She is important to Rose Tyler."
"...what?"
"On the 16th of April, 1997, in the centre of London, Marion Narke, aged fifteen, saved Rose Tyler, aged eleven, from a fatal collision with a car. Rose never knew the name of her saviour until she merged with your TARDIS. Until she became me. Mariaka is important to both of us, my Doctor, and her biological link to you is a link to me. A link I am able to use."
"Meaning what?" Jenny asked.
"She is not lost," Bad Wolf said with a small smile, "The atoms that make up her being are reassembling as we speak." Her hand stretched out to the spot where Mari had been disintegrated. The air held a faint golden glow.
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Aliya said quietly.
"You're bringing her back." The Doctor was eyeing Bad Wolf with a totally unrestrained awe and gratitude. "I - I don't deserve this."
"She's doing it for her as much as she's doing it for you," Aliya told him, exasperated even now at how everything revolved around him in his own head.
"Of course, it is much simpler to take things apart than put them back together," Bad Wolf continued, "To reassemble an entire anatomical system that has been reduced to atoms…"
"Will take a very long time," Aliya finished, as she realised where the sentence was going. "But how long? We have a time machine, we can skip to when she's-"
"It is impossible to say. And there will be no shortcuts."
"How do you mean?"
"If anyone interrupts her resurrection, she will be lost forever." Meaning, Aliya guessed, if anyone passed through where her particles were reassembling, they would scatter. "Once you leave this place today, I will shield it from the eyes of the universe until the time when Mariaka has fully returned."
"So, we just have to leave, and wait?" Jenny, understandably, didn't look pleased by that scenario.
"It is the only way. I will ensure she has a way offworld when the time comes."
"Thank you," the Doctor said quietly, "I - thank you."
The Bad Wolf just stroked his cheek. "I will keep her safe for you, my Doctor. It will take a long time, but she will return to you when you least expect it."
He nodded, pursing his lips inward. "It's been nice to see you again."
She smiled at him. "I must leave you now. All of me is needed at Satellite Five. Goodbye, my Doctor."
The Bad Wolf disappeared in a flash of gold in the same instant that they found themselves standing inside the TARDIS. The ship was in the process of taking off - the Bad Wolf hadn't been joking when she had been talking about them leaving and Mari being kept away from everyone immediately.
"So, Mari is dead, but sort of just temporarily," Jenny said slowly, a frown creasing her forehead.
"I think that about sums it up," her father replied.
"Who'd have thought that would ever sound like good news?" She let out an odd laugh only to stop it short. "Oh god, this shouldn't be funny, I shouldn't be laughing, she's still gone. But-"
"But what?"
"This is the second time I thought she was dead only for her for something completely impossible and weird to happen instead."
Aliya snorted. "Regeneration isn't weird."
"At the time, it was."
"Fair point." Aliya knew how she felt - it was hard to know whether to feel devastated or elated. "It's just hard to imagine her not being around, even if it's not forever. I was just starting to-" She bit her lip, and she pulled down the tie she was still wearing that Mari had picked out for her so that she could undo one of the buttons of her shirt and take out the silver locket that had been lying against her sternum.
Jenny's eyes widened. "That's her locket."
"Yes."
"But...how did you…"
"She gave it to me," Aliya said, a lump in her throat, "When I gave her the necklace that Laura made me."
Jenny's eyes got watery. "You two really were starting to get somewhere, weren't you?"
"Yeah, they were," the Doctor said when Aliya couldn't quite bring herself to reply, putting his arm around his daughter's shoulders, "They were making jokes together and everything."
"One time," Aliya muttered, not even sure why she was irritable at his mentioning it. Maybe she was just angry at the universe, for giving her a glimmer of hope only to yank it out of her reach.
"So what do we do now?" Jenny asked.
The Doctor pulled her in close and hugged her to his side. "We wait for her to come back. We keep going. If that's still what you want."
"Yeah, it is," she said, but with less of her usual enthusiasm, "It's probably what I need too. Things to distract me. And keep me busy."
He smiled at her. "Well, luckily for you - for all of us, really - I happen to be an expert at keeping myself and anyone with me busy."
"Sounds good to me," Aliya said, smiling back at him minutely while she brushed her thumb over the locket one more time before tucking it back into her shirt and doing the button back up.
Something flashed through the Doctor's eyes. "Then it's a plan. But we have to make one stop first."
I'm sorry. Like, I'm really sorry. But Kovarian would never have let Mari live and frankly I'm amazed she ever let River did in canon anyway. But Mari will be back. Just not for a while. Again, sorry.
But on a happier note, I will now reveal the title of the next story! It is...Path of the Not Quite Lost!
It's going to be a mostly fun romp of original adventures, with WAY more Jenny because she's in the whole story. Also, it's going to be entirely from the POV of a new character - a companion who will be around for just that story (which will be shorter than DS and IBTS by quite a bit hopefully). But you guys are going to love him, I promise, and seeing the HOOTD world/relationships through an outsider's eyes is going to be really interesting. It also means people will be able to read it as a standalone because they'll learn anything they need to through his eyes.
Anyway, back to being sorry about Mari, thanks for reading and let me know what you thought/come at me with pitchforks!
-MayFairy :)