A/N: Review? :)

Reckoning

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Chapter 3

what the water gave me

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Amy wasn't even aware she'd dropped the sword that Jenny had given her before she'd made the journey from the Hangar to the main control room. She swallowed dryly, confused. She had assumed that both her children would share the same father. She never could have imagined this. Not in a million years.

The child of a Time Lord. Aria Pond.

The child of a Tardis. Melody Pond.

"Amy," the Doctor shook his head at her helplessly, "Amy, I'm so sorry."

"Why would they want my daughters?" Amy couldn't even begin to process the situation she had on her hands. She had wanted the Doctor to be the father, but now that he was, and Rory was as well, it was so much more complicated than before. She couldn't imagine raising her daughters in the Tardis and she couldn't imagine raising them on Earth. The Doctor and Rory Williams... both fathers to her daughters. How the hell would she explain that one to everyone back home?

"This is too easy," Dorium said suddenly, "There's something wrong."

"Why even do it?" the Doctor had to compartmentalise his emotions and his brain so he could work more efficiently and figure it out. "Even if you could get your hands on somebody with plus Time Lord DNA, what for? Just to wave it about and say that they've got one?"

"To repopulate?" Dorium suggesting, grimacing.

"A weapon?" Vastra asked.

"Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?" the Doctor frowned.

Vastra exchanged a tired look with Dorium, "Well... they've seen you."

"Me?" the Doctor whispered, stunned. He was right after all. This was all his fault, as usual.

"Oh no," Amy panicked suddenly. She swooped down, picked up the sword and ran back the way she'd come.

"Mr Maldovar, you're right," Vastra nodded, "This was too easy. We should get back to the others."

"Me?" the Doctor repeated softly, heartbroken.

Vastra and Dorium headed after Amy.

The Doctor suddenly the remembered the girl in the spacesuit, examining it with River. "She climbed out of this suit. Like she forced her way out. She must be incredibly strong."

Madame Kovarian suddenly appeared on the screen. "I see you accessed our files."

The Doctor stood and faced the screen.

"Do you understand yet?" Kovarian continued "Oh, don't worry, I'm a long way away. But I like to keep tabs on you. The babies then, what do you think?"

"What is this?" he growled, flashing back to angry again.

"Hope," she replied, "Hope in this endless, bitter war."

"What war? Against who?" he spat.

"Against you, Doctor," Kovarian said.

The Doctor slammed his hands down in anger as he shouted, "Two babies are not a weapon!"

"Oh give us time. They can be. They will be. There's an age old prophecy, Doctor, have you heard it? No?"

The Doctor glared at her. "What prophecy?"

"A child was to be born from bloodshed and war; one with enough power and evil to rule the entire universe at her mercy. It goes like this; One heart of fire, one heart of ice, a child of time and a devil's dice. Roll the first and roll the second, the child of time will evil beckon. Aren't you curious as to what child that'll be? Rings a bell though doesn't it, Doctor?

"Enough with your riddles, that's a rhyme from a children's storybook. No child of mine, and no child of Amy's will ever be capable of what I am!" he screamed, ready to pound his fists into the screen. "And you've already lost them and I swear I will never let you anywhere near them ever again!"

"Oh Doctor," Kovarian smirked, "Fooling you once was a joy, but fooling you twice, the same way, it's a privilege."

The Doctor's face fell and suddenly he was turning on his heel and racing from the room down the corridor, "Amy! Amy!"

::

Amy was ducked around a storage box with the double bassinet holding her daughters. She shushed them gently, rubbing their heads and letting them know she was there. Rory, Vastra, Jenny, Strax and Lorna were currently fighting the headless monks and Amy was somewhere being trying to keep her head focused in the now and trying to work out what she'd say to Rory exactly.

"It's okay," she pulled them closer to her. The sounds of guns and lasers and swords hitting swords blasted through the Hangar. Amy breathed heavily, anxiety working it's last nerve inside her. She had to make it out of this okay. She had to. There was no other option. Her babies had to make it out to this okay.

She glanced around, trying to work out where the Doctor was. She knew he was feeling some form of responsibility but he was practically boycotting the entire thing. This was his daughter as well. Where was he?

A holographic panel behind Amy's head opened up and Madame Kovarian's face was peering through the open slit. Amy was unaware, too busy in making sure that Rory wasn't dead in the battle of the monks versus anyone they had left here.

"It'll be okay," Amy whispered to her daughters. She leaned down and pressed her lips to each of their heads.

"Wakey wakey," Madame Kovarian slithered.

One minute, Amy had one hand on each of her baby, patting their stomachs and trying to comfort them. They were there, just underneath her fingertips. And then—

Amy screamed. Both of her babies turned to white liquid flesh between her fingers. She stared at her hands in horror, screaming again and again and again until somebody – Rory – rushed to her in a frenzied panic.

No. It wasn't supposed to end like this.

::

The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to get into the Hangar, looking around at all the carnage and wreckage. He only had one thing on his mind. "Amy."

Rory was standing a few yards away, his expression sombre and cold, "Yeah. We know."

The Doctor stood, frozen. Strax was wounded. Lorna was wounded. Rory walked over to Strax and knelt beside him. The Doctor watched, unable to be of any help to anyone. He glanced to the right and saw Amy, sitting on a storage box, her limbs limp and lifeless. Her expression had a ghost written across it. She was no longer someone he recognised. Only someone he had hurt.

He walked over to her, his eyes cast downward.

Amy turned to him but she couldn't meet his eyes. "So, they took them anyway," silent tears were still pouring down her cheeks. "All this was for nothing."

"I'm uh, so..." he shook his head, unable to process. Amy stood up, staring at him with such pain and disappointment in her eyes. Rory was right behind him. The Doctor couldn't bare to see his Amelia, in such agony it almost destroyed him.

He moved to hug her but she stepped back, wary. He had never felt so alone in that moment. Amy didn't want anything to do with him and he couldn't blame her. He should have found her sooner, quicker. He should have shown less mercy. Now, two children had been taken and one was the Doctor's.

"Amy," Jenny murmured, "It's not his fault."

"I know, I know," Amy choked out, but her eyes said something different. She moved away from them, intending to break into a run but Rory slid past the Doctor and caught her into a hug. She crumpled against his chest, crying into his shoulder.

The Doctor struggled to keep it together. Rory didn't know that he was only the father of one baby; Melody, and the Doctor couldn't break down without blurting the secret. He bit the inside of his cheek and tried to mentally count to ten slowly.

"So what now?" Vastra asked him after Lorna had passed away, "They'd most certainly take the babies to Earth, raise them in the correct environment."

The prophecy, Kovarian's voice rang out in the Doctor's head, One heart of fire, one heart of ice, a child of time and a devil's dice. Roll the first and roll the second, the child of time will evil beckon.

He nodded, full of dread, "And if they did, then it's already too late."

"You're giving up?" Vastra cried, "You never do that!"

"And don't you sometimes wish I did?"

A flash of electricity erupted behind him. A familiar voice asked, "Well then solider, how goes the day?" River Song was standing in front of the Tardis, smiling at him.

The Doctor strode towards her, "Where the hell have you been? Every time you've asked, I have been there, where the hell were you today?" he's so close to losing it. He doesn't know how much more he can take.

"I couldn't have prevented this," she shook her head.

"You could have tried," he barked. He strode away.

"And so, my love, could you," she said softly. River glanced at Amy and Rory, "I know you're not alright but hold tight Amy, because you're going to be."

"You think I wanted this?" the Doctor snapped, pointing at Amy and Rory. He's so close to blowing up an uninhabited planet right now. "I didn't do this! This—this wasn't me!" he knows he played a hand in this but for River to act like his main mission in life was for this specific end result is absolutely out of order.

"This was exactly you," River replied, and harshly as well. "All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor; the word for healer and wise man, throughout the universe, we get that word from you, you know, but if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, and they're going to turn her into a weapon just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you."

He walked towards her, his head down, his eyes boring straight into hers. "You said child."

"I did," River nodded.

"Two babies were taken," Amy said shrilly, pushing Rory off of her. "Two."

River's face fell, "What?"

"My daughters were taken," Amy was practically shaking with rage. "Why did you say child? Do you know something? You're from the future, what do you know?"

"Who are you?" the Doctor added darkly. Amy stepped into line with him and they both stared at River with such unknowing untrusting expressions, it cut her to the bone.

River backed away, playful, "Oh look, your cot. Haven't seen that in a very long while."

"No," the Doctor followed her, "No. Tell me. Tell me who you are," they were standing by his old cot now.

River pushed his hand into the cot and said, "I am telling you. Can't you read?"

The Doctor glanced up to River, his eyes wide and his expression stunned. He couldn't believe it. "Hello."

"Hello." River smiled back.

The Doctor gaped, remembering when River had kissed him the last time he had seen her. He had kissed Amy and Rory's daughter? He had kissed his daughter's half sister? That was too much, even for him. He said, "But you said child. As in only one."

"Until right now, I wasn't aware there was another one," River said softly. "I never met anyone else like that."

"What is going on?" Amy demanded, "Tell me!"

The Doctor glanced warily from River to Amy.

Amy narrowed her eyes. That was it. She had had enough. She walked over to the nearest gun and picked it up, loading it.

"Amy, stay calm," River said.

"Amy!" the Doctor cried.

"No!" Amy screamed, "Tell me what you told the Doctor."

"No, stop it," Rory demanded.

"It's okay Rory, she's fine, she's good," River added, "It's the Tardis translation matrix, it takes a while to kick in with a written word. You have to concentrate."

Amy stared down at the cot and then shook her head, "I still can't read it."

"That's because it's Gallifreyan, it doesn't translate," River shook her head.

"River," the Doctor said slowly.

"Shut up!" Amy pointed the gun at him, "I am so sick of you talking and talking and never making any goddamn sense, so just shut up for once!"

Rory wrapped his hand around the gun and pulled it downwards. River bent down to pick up the prayer leaf that Lorna had sown earlier for Melody. Aria's had gotten ruined when the liquid flesh dissolved. "But this will translate," River put the prayer leaf into Amy's palm, "It's your daughter's name in the language of the forest."

"I know my daughter's name," Amy snapped.

"Except they don't have a word for Pond," River continued, "Because the only water in the forest is the River. The Doctor will find your daughter and he will care for her whatever it takes and I know that."

Amy turned over the prayer leaf and gasped as the word Pond was transformed into the word River. Amy flipped the prayer leaf over and saw the word Song on the back.

Melody Pond. River Song.

"It's me," River's voice broke, full of emotion, "I'm Melody. I'm your daughter."

Amy and Rory gaped at River.

"But your sister," Amy continued, "Aria. Where is she?"

"Until today, I didn't know I had a sister," River admitted, "My past self didn't reach this point obviously, and if my future self knew anything about Aria when she saw you then she couldn't tell you anyway. Time travel and spoilers. Madame Kovarian must have split us up when she took us away."

Amy and the Doctor shared a look with each other. He broke away from them and spun around, "Vastra, Jenny, until next time. River, get them all home!"

"No, Doctor!" Amy cried, following him, "What about Aria?"

"I swear on my life I'll find her," he told her and she knew he meant it. There were so many things left unsaid between them. The Doctor hadn't told Amy about the supposed prophecy surrounding Melody and Aria. Rory still had no idea Aria wasn't his. And River had no idea that she was continually flirting with her half sister's father. Call that an awkward family reunion. Not to mention other conversations that Amy and the Doctor didn't have time to have.

"The second you find something out," Amy whispered hoarsely, "Do you understand me?"

The Doctor nodded. He stepped into the Tardis and slammed the door shut behind him. The Tardis made it's usual whirring noise and disappeared.

"River, give me your Vortex Manipulator," Amy demanded the moment he was gone.

River frowned, "What—"

"Don't talk back to your mum," Amy found herself snapping. She held her hand out and watched as River unstrapped her wrist manipulator and handed it over. Amy strapped it to her own wrist. "River, use Vastra's manipulator to get home," she said, "Take Rory and Jenny too. Vastra, you're staying with me for now. Don't worry, I'll get you home safe."

Everyone started, frowning.

"Amy," Rory shook his head.

"I need you to trust me," Amy looked at Rory, "I need all of you to trust me. Okay?"

Vastra slowly unstrapped her vortex manipulator and handed it to River.

"No," Jenny shook her head.

"I'll be home soon," Vastra captured Jenny's lips in passionate kiss.

"Just trust me," Amy said to a reluctant Rory. "If you can't do that, Rory, then we're back to square one."

Rory brought his own lips to Amy's and clutched the side of her head. "Be careful," he murmured. Amy and Vastra took a step backwards as River held her wrist out and Rory and Jenny put their hands on the manipulator. In a flash, they were gone.

Vastra glanced sideways at Amy and asked, "Are you sure about this? Once you do something like this, there's no going back."

"The fact you even know what I want to do should prove that I definitely don't want to turn back," Amy said to Vastra as they started walking towards the main controls room.

"You asked me," Vastra concluded, "Because you think I'm cold blooded. Heartless."

"Absolutely not," Amy kept her face straight ahead, "I met your sister Restac. To a certain extent, she was just looking out for her family. I need someone who's not going to shy away from getting their hands dirty. I need to protect my family. Rory wouldn't agree. Neither would the Doctor."

Vastra smiled back as they kept on walking, "Well, I'm no Rory."

Amy shrugged back, "I'm no Doctor. It's time I sent the Universe a little message about what happens if they mess with my daughters."

"That's what a military asteroid is for."

"I like your way of thinking."