CHAPTER FIVE

INTERROGATION

A deep silence filled the lobby.

"The Nightmare Child?" repeated Clara, pointing at the young boy next to the Concierge Desk, "but that's just a little kid!" The Doctor slowly shook his head, "He's like a book. The physical form of him that we can see is just the cover. What did I say earlier, back in the hall?"

"Never judge a book by its cover," Clara whispered, her hands trembling slightly, "what is he going to do to us?"

"I'm surprised you haven't noticed, Doctor," giggled the Child, "back up on Level Twenty-One. Why did all the elevators open?"

The Doctor tilted his head to the side, watching the Nightmare Child smirk cunningly. The Doctor spoke softly, "Of course."

"Doctor, explain," said Clara.

"Yes, Doctor," the Nightmare Child mimicked, "explain!"

"He rewrites timelines, Clara," the Doctor began, "once he or his Librarians scan a subject, they manipulate and alter their timeline, future or past," he paused briefly, gathering his thoughts, "and he's already done it to you."

Clara stared at the Doctor, taken aback by what he just said, "What are you talking about? My timeline hasn't been altered!"

The Doctor turned to Clara, his big sad eyes staring into hers. "How would you know your timeline has changed when you haven't lived what could have happened if he didn't rewrite it."

"But I don't understand!"

"He scanned you in the stairwell," the Doctor continued, "and he interfered with your earlier timeline to ensure you would meet him down at Level Two. Remember how you chose to go down the staircase up on Level Twenty-One, instead of the elevator?"

Clara frowned and replied, "No, he didn't. I chose to go down there."

"Chose or forced to," the Doctor interjected, "every elevator door opened, an error on my behalf, but you could have taken another elevator down. Instead, you chose to walk down the steps anyway." Clara shook her head, "Because I live in an apartment block!"

Clara stormed off, and disappeared past the stairwell doorway.

The Nightmare Child let out a shrill laugh, pointing at the Doctor, "Look at your face! Tell you what, that played out just as I thought it would have in my head; Clara believing the timeline alteration of taking the stairs because she always has to take the stairs to go to and from her apartment. Perfect lie-wrapped-in-the-truth, don't you think?"

The Doctor stared at the Child, rage flowing through his two pounding hearts, "What do you want? Why are you back?"

The little boy hoisted himself up onto the Concierge Desk, "I got bored of the Time War, Doctor. It was like watching the two, most-popular girls of the universe having a fist fight because only one was could be the Homecoming Queen."

"People died," snarled the Doctor, his face reddening.

"No, Doctor. The two girls realised just how alike they were, stopping at nothing to accept the truth," snapped the Child, his eyes flashing red and his smile vanishing to a cold scowl, "seal the room!"

The lobby dome suddenly began extending a metal plate across the outside, until the entire hemisphere was sealed across. The elevator doors deadlocked themselves and soon, the Doctor heard a parading of feet.

He turned around and saw three lines of humans with a metal band across their eyes. They were marching across the lobby towards the Concierge Desk. There were at least a hundred in each line.

"The next generation of Librarians. Like it?" smiled the Child, hopping off the desk and folding his arms. "Oh, my god. This was the population of the planet, wasn't it?"

"Some of it. Some are still being, could you say, catalogued. Others couldn't handle the procedure and died within minutes," the Nightmare Child mused, stepping towards the Doctor, "now, I need information, Doctor, and you will tell me what I want to hear."

Two of the Librarians appeared by the Time Lord's side and gripped his arms in a firm hold. "Now," said the little boy, clearing his throat, "shall we begin?"

Clara marched up the staircase, her eyes reddening after wiping droplets of tears out of her eyelashes. How could someone have changed her timeline without her knowing? How could she have not realised she hates taking the stairs, because she has to walk up so many to get to the her apartment level. She sighed out loud when she realised she had chosen to run up the stairs instead of taking the elevator when she stormed away from the Doctor. She had to get away as quick as possible. She couldn't stand being in the room any longer so the decision to take the stairs seemed much more efficient rather than waiting for the elevator, at the time.

As she got to the next landing, she glanced to see what level she had made it to. Two large numbers were plastered on the wall in front of her. 19. Closing her eyes, Clara breathed in deeply and exhaled the air from her lungs when –

"Clara!"

A soft voice echoed around the stairwell as Clara opened her eyes wide, trying to find the source of the noise. "Who's there?" whispered Clara, a flush of adrenaline spreading through her body, "hello?"

Silence fell on Level Nineteen until –

"Get to the TARDIS right now!"

Clara gulped and raced up to the staircases, until she finally reached Level Twenty-One. She walked up to the doors of the hall the TARDIS was parked in when a bloody-curdling thought hit her.

Is this a trap?

Clara came to a halt at the edge of the threshold of Reading Room 21.56. "Inside now," a woman's voice came past Clara's ear as a figure in a white dress walked past her. She pushed open the doors and her large, bushy-blonde hair disappeared inside. Clara followed, "Hey! I know you!"

The woman had reached the TARDIS doors and slowly turned around. Her hair curled extravagantly from her head, in very possible direction. She smiled and whispered, "Hello Clara, it's good to see you again."

Clara smirked and jogged into the hall, following the woman into the TARDIS. "You're that woman. From the conference call, aren't you? I'm sorry, my memory from back then-"

"Don't be sorry, Clara, you jumped into the Doctor's timestream and ripped yourself apart across time and space. You saved his life, but in turn, lost your memory because of all your echoes that lived across his timeline," the woman said, pressing buttons and pulling levers on the TARDIS console.

"I – I can't remember your name," Clara choked, looking away from the Console platform.

"Clara, my name is River Song," the woman replied, "I'm the reason you and the Doctor arrived here on this planet and I'm the reason you both could most likely die. We need to get some re-enforcements."

Throwing down a lever, Clara and River took off in the TARDIS as the police box slowly disappeared from the hall.

The Nightmare Child opened his hands and created a red force field around the Doctor. The Librarians held onto his arms in with a tighter grip, as the Doctor let out a cry of agony.

"The more you attempt to move, Doctor," the Child sniggered, "the more the force field electrocutes you. I need information, Doctor."

"Information on what?!"

"Time Lords."

The Doctor's face became very still and unmoving, "What information?"

"About The Plan."

"You've been in the Time War longer than I have," the Doctor moaned, moving his leg slightly. A thin streak of electricity hit his thigh, causing the Doctor let out a scream, "How would I know anything about a Plan?"

"Because you're one of them," growled the Child, his ugly features appearing slowly on his face, "when I came into the Library, my memory of what happened at the end of the Time War was erased. I knew who and what I was, where I came from and what I did on the battlefield on Arcadia's Western Front-Line. But everything from the most recent past has been wiped. I only remember one sentence that was uttered from the mouth of a dying Time Lord who was left behind in the blood-soaked battlefield."

"And what did he say?" asked the Doctor, filling pricks of energy stabbing his cheeks.

"'The Time Lord's Plan has worked'," the Nightmare Child replied, standing millimetres from the front of the force field.

"What, you think I know what he meant? You really are a complete moron," laughed the Doctor.

The little boy's lips curled and he sent an electric charge through the force field. The Doctor's scream echoed across the lobby. The Nightmare Child stepped back and smiled, "Mock me again, Time Lord, and it'll be your second heart that stops."

The Doctor breathed slowly, feeling only one side of his chest pounding. His other heart wasn't beating!

"Now, you will tell me all that you know."

"I don't know anything! I wasn't there!"

"But you were, Doctor."

"I saved Gallifrey. Locked it away in a pocket universe so the Daleks wouldn't wipe out the planet!" the Doctor cried, "I stopped the Time War, but I have absolutely no idea what happened in that universe."

"You think you stopped the Time War?" the Child suddenly turned around and stared at the Doctor, his red eyes glowing brightly. "I was on Gallifrey when the sky lit up brighter than an exploding sun. I was on Gallifrey when you threw us all into an empty universe and locked the doors behind it."

"You're lying," muttered the Doctor.

"Like you said, Doctor, you weren't there."

The little boy scoffed and turned away, "You throw a planet, hosting the biggest war anyone could have imagined, into an isolated universe and you think the participants are miraculously going to shake hands and part ways? The war raged on, Doctor, for those of us who were on the planet. With no connections to local galaxies, no military support or resources to restock, it was a fight till the last man standing."

"I – I didn't know," uttered the Doctor, closing his eyes in despair.

"No you didn't. And yet, you're the one who got out unscathed. The Time-Lords are enraged, Doctor. They broadcasted a message from the ruins of the Glass Citadel across the planet and universe, over and over again. Do you want to know what it said?"

The Child turned around, his eye twitching in fury. The Doctor looked up, a tear slowly falling down his cheek.

"The Doctor, who killed us all."

The Doctor's eyes widened and muttered under his breath, "Doctor Who …"

"And then," the young boy continued, "I remember nothing. My memory erased by something."

"How did you get here?" asked the Doctor, "how did you get into the Library, from the pocket universe? That requires a tremendous amount of energy, impossible energy. How did you harness it?"

"I have no idea," replied the Nightmare Child.

"You don't know?" the Doctor asked, tilting his head slightly.

"The last thing I remember was the that dying Time-Lord telling me the Plan worked," the Nightmare Child explained, "then I woke up here, in the middle of the Library, in the form of this little boy. So, Doctor, if you're as clever as you seem, how did I get here and what are the Time Lords planning?"

"One question," the Doctor mumbled.

"Go ahead," replied the little boy.

"What do you know of the Cracks In Time?"