CHAPTER TEN
SACRIFICE
"So, the virtual world of C.A.L. is still stable," the Doctor spoke, holding his hands behind his back.
The garden around them seemed almost real. A light breeze blew across the shrubbery, the leaves shivering in its wake. The grounds were empty; no one was around.
"Where is everyone?" asked Clara politely.
"Gone," answered River.
"Gone?" echoed the Doctor, raising an eyebrow.
"Lost, Doctor. I couldn't save them."
"What do you mean you couldn't save them? Why were they in need of saving, River?"
"The computer database has vanished," replied River, "I have only a matter of minutes before it begins."
"What's going to begin?"
River gulped and closed her eyes, "the Rip, Doctor."
"The Rip?" Clara repeated, looking between River and the Doctor.
"Can you hear it, Clara?" asked River.
Clara smiled awkwardly, confused at the question, "Hear what?"
"Doctor, can you hear it?" River directed her question onwards.
Tilting his head slightly, he smirked sarcastically, "Hear what, my love?"
"Twelve regenerations –" River began.
"Thirteen, actually," the Doctor interjected.
River cleared her throat and continued, "Thirteen regenerations and you've forgotten the sound of it. It's been hunting you, Doctor, across time and space since your Eleventh face."
The Doctor straightened his back and adjusted his suit, "The Crack?"
River smiled, "You said the Nightmare Child would have ripped a gigantic hole in the fabric of reality when breaking through. I have found it, Doctor. The question is, can you hear it?"
The Doctor glanced around, "There is nothing here."
"Oh, my …" Clara whispered, looking upwards. The Doctor followed her gaze and finally saw what River was talking about. High above, stretching across the entire atmosphere was an enormous Crack in Time. It glowed hot red with wisps of yellow energy sparking on the edges. It ripped across the whole sky and suddenly, a roaring rush of wind filled both the Doctor and Clara's ears.
"Here it is, Doctor. There's the Crack the Nightmare Child caused and what you're hearing is the Time Winds!"
"River! Why – why is it so loud?!" cried the Doctor.
"Because the Time Vortex is colliding with another, Doctor! Give me your screwdriver!" replied River. Handing over the silver sonic, the Doctor and Clara watched as River fiddled with the settings and pointed it up at the sky. Pressing the switch, the tip lit blue and the roaring wind vanished.
River spun the sonic in the air and caught it in one catch, "Created a super airstream in the upper atmosphere, blowing the wind away higher above. Won't hold for very long, but it'll do for now." She passed the sonic back to the Doctor.
"So all of the database been absorbed into that Crack?" asked the Doctor, putting the screwdriver back in his jacket. "Yes and no, Doctor," replied River, "but look! Look closely! See the yellow sparks - doesn't it look familiar?"
"But that's – no, it can't be!"
"Is that -" began Clara.
"Regeneration energy," answered River, nodding slowly.
The Doctor was at a loss of words.
"How is that possible?" asked Clara, watched the Doctor stare into space. "The Time Lords are seeping through the Cracks, Clara," River explained, "the two Time Lords you met in the lobby are the founding fathers of Gallifrey and they've been the only ones to successfully make it through."
"That's how they've been able to disappear and reappear," whispered the Doctor.
"Sorry?" Clara said, turning to the Doctor.
"They're dispersed across time and space. The majority of their bodies made it through but I'm sure bits of their molecules are still flying in the Vortex," the Doctor answered and looked back to River, "so that regeneration energy is –"
"Bits and pieces of Time Lords," replied River softly, stepping closer, "Time Lords that couldn't make it through. I'm – I'm sorry."
The Doctor slowly shook his head, his chin quivering slowly. He looked back up at the Crack, watching the energy flicker on the edges. He felt enraged. "They're all dying," whispered the Doctor, his voice breaking, "they're being ripped apart by the Time Winds and I can't do anything about it. I saved them and they didn't stop and realise they were safe! Why – why don't they ever listen?!" he looked back at River, "they said the Plan worked. This doesn't look like a success," he pointed at the rip in the sky.
"The Plan did work, Doctor," said River.
"What is it, then?" croaked the Doctor, clearing his throat as he clenched his fists.
"The Plan you foiled with the Master."
"What? The End of Time?"
"Exactly."
The Doctor scoffed, "As far as I'm aware, River, we're all still here."
"Don't you remember what I said earlier?" sighed River.
Clara tapped the Doctor's arm, her eye wide, "The Winds, Doctor. We could hear them before because –"
"The Time Vortex is colliding with another," finished River.
The Doctor became silent, "The pocket universe," he closed his eyes and shook his head. "The Time Lords unleashed the Ultimate Sanction and ripped the pocket universe's Vortex apart," River explained, "they've become creatures of pure consciousness and are bleeding through the Cracks."
"But how would they have known the Cracks existed in this universe?" asked the Doctor, "it's impossible to have a connection between a parallel universe!"
"They had a connection, Doctor," replied River.
"What connection?"
"You."
The Doctor shook his head with a smirk on his face, "Me?"
"The connection is by race," River said, "you were the Last of the Time Lords in this universe, Doctor. Their first attempt of the Plan was with the Master, remember, but it backfired – sending them not back into the Time War but back into the pocket universe along with their puppet. You are the only one left."
"But," the Doctor paused, "I'm not insane like the Master. I don't hear the Drums. What connection could I have that acts as a link to the Time Lords in the pocket universe?"
"Doctor, you left Gallifrey many centuries ago. What did you take?"
The Doctor closed his eyes, attempting to remember the first day he left Gallifrey, "Nothing. I took myself, my granddaughter and the TARDIS –"
The Doctor suddenly became silent, "Oh, no …"
"The TARDIS was the last connection between Gallifrey and the Time Lords, and they used it against you."
"It was them, wasn't it?"
"I'm afraid so."
"I'm missing something, aren't I?" piped in Clara, smiling awkwardly.
The Doctor looked round to Clara, "TARDISes are like computers connected to a server. Gallifrey is the server. All it would take would be a few lines of computer code and you could override the engines."
"You mean they took control of the TARDIS?" Clara said, attempting to understand the situation.
River explained, "The Time Lords sent a message of computer code from Gallifrey to the TARDIS, authorising the engines to triple their power output. The engines couldn't cope with the pressure and exploded. With no possible explanation as to how it erupted, the Kovarian Chapter of the Church of the Papal Mainframe took the credit."
"The Time Lords blew up their own creation," scoffed the Doctor, "all to rip the universal walls down and allow the Time Vortex of the pocket universe to collide with ours."
"Except, sweetie, they didn't anticipate someone to fix the Cracks," interjected River, "they didn't know anything about the Pandorica and its potential to reverse the Cracks.
"When they realised the Cracks had been closed, they had no way of connecting back to the TARDIS. The explosion severed the link so the Time Lords used the only thing they had left, which was on Gallifrey itself."
"The Nightmare Child," sighed the Doctor.
"Even though the Crack here in the Library had shut, the other Cracks in the future were still closing, like a wound slowly healing across time. They tested the experiment by sending a message through the Crack on Trenzalore. It was a success; so they knew the scar tissue was still there, providing weak spots in the skin of the universe," continued River, "they devised the Plan. By unleashing the Ultimate Sanction, they would rip the Time Vortex of the pocket universe apart and throw the Nightmare Child through the Winds and into this universe, bursting open the Crack here."
"Of course! That's where the information's gone!" cried the Doctor, slapping his forehead. "What?" asked Clara curiously. "When the Nightmare Child first appeared in the Library, he told me he had no memory of how he appeared in the Library," the Doctor answered, "yet Rassilon and Omega knew exactly what had happened and what was going on. It was them all along – they chose this Crack specifically. They knew that once they entered the Vortex, they'd lose their memory. They absorbed the Library's information to restore their knowledge!"
"So Doctor, is this a bad thing, the Time Lords coming back?" asked Clara.
The Doctor stood in silence. After a few moments, he spoke. "The War," he mumbled, "it changed them. But the Vortex would have wiped their memories so their conscience might have reset."
"But we have a problem, Doctor," River said, her hands shaking slightly, "this is how I have Time Lord DNA. Amy and Rory were in the TARDIS when I was conceived and the Time Lord energy of the dying Time Lords in the Vortex altered my genetics."
"Wait a second! Doctor, that's how you got your regeneration!" cried Clara.
"The Time Lords didn't give me more lives," nodded the Doctor, realising why Rassilon said he didn't provide the new regeneration, "I absorbed the energy from the Time Vortex. The Crack on Trenzalore opened in the sky and was leaking with lost regenerations from the dying Time Lords trying to pass through."
"Doctor, please," whispered River and the Doctor immediately turned around, "we have minutes before –"
Suddenly, hundreds of metres away, Librarians and Judoon began appearing in the gardens. They spotted the trio and slowly began closing in. "River, what's wrong? What's the problem?" the Doctor started panicking.
"Doctor, I am simply made of numbers here. Pieces of me are slowly disappearing into the Crack," a small tear trickled down River's cheek, "Information of the dying Time Lords is flowing out of the Crack, and I've been listening and reading."
"Oh, River," the Doctor placed his hand on her cheek, "you've absorbed the thoughts of a thousand Time Lords. That's how you figured it all out, isn't it?"
"I need to know," smiled River, "one last time, can you … save me …" every word she spoke became glitchy and broken. "River, I …" the Doctor whispered, placing his forehead to hers, "I … don't know."
"No," Clara suddenly spoke, her eyes beginning to water, "no! Doctor, think of something – anything! You have to save her!" She glanced around the gardens; more Judoon and Librarians were approaching and the Crack above was opening wider.
"I can't be saved, Doctor," smirked River, two new teardrops dropping from each eye, "I just needed to you to say it." "Oh, River," the Doctor's chin quivered, his thumb stroking a tear rolling down River's face. "It's okay," River said, placing her pixelating hand onto his, "if I go, the amount of information I've absorbed will fall back into the Crack and make it backfire. If I go, the Crack reverses and closes for good. Information is restored to the Library and the Time Lords will stop bleeding through to this planet."
"This is not okay!" shrieked Clara, stamping her foot on the grass, "I couldn't save my Mum because I'm just an ordinary human. But Doctor, surely, there must be something! She's right there in front of you – help her!"
"I … can't," whispered the Doctor, "she's absorbed too much information. She's falling into the Crack and I have nothing to stop it from happening."
"No!" screamed Clara, "let's get her to the TARDIS. We can think of something in there!"
It was then that the Doctor's eyes widened. It wasn't panic; it wasn't shock; it was revelation. He stepped away and spoke four words, "I can do it."
"What?" Clara said abruptly, a smile slowly stretching across her face.
"Doctor, it's time …" whispered River, her fizzy hair slowly fading.
"How, how can you save her?!" cried Clara, a tear falling down her cheek. "You both were in the TARDIS, right, when you went to the Shadow Proclamation?" asked the Doctor. Clara nodded, "Yes, but River couldn't leave the Console Room."
The Doctor turned around, his eyes beaming with hope, "But she could leave the Library. She's the Child of the TARDIS, born in the Time Vortex absorbing Time Lord DNA – she's directly linked the Heart of the TARDIS!"
"Oh, Doctor," said River, her face brightening in amazement, "you clever, clever man." The Doctor laughed as Clara smiled broadly. "Well, c'mon!" she piped.
"I just need the TARDIS. I can upload her data ghost into the database and she can live inside the TARDIS. She'll never again be just a book on a shelf," the Doctor grinned, "I'll never have to say goodbye to her, because she'll always be with me."
"Doctor, you can save her!" cried Clara ecstatically.
"I can –"
The Doctor turned around to see River raising her hand, a broad smile across her face. Her eyes poured with tears as she whispered three words and everything around them turned to black. The entire virtual world of the Library core vanished and the interior of the TARDIS appeared around Clara and the Doctor.
"- save her."
The Doctor's hand remained outstretched in mid-air, as if he was reaching to take River's that had long since gone. A tear fell down his cheek as the thought of never seeing the woman he'd so selfishly abandoned in the Library seeped into his thoughts. Time had been against him the moment he had entered the data core, but in what he saw as infinity, he had missed his last chance to say goodbye to the woman who had changed his entire life.