I know, I didn't upload yesterday... Sorry. I did upload two the day before though, so I'm not in debt to you guys! Only one more Chapter and the Epilogue after this; thanks everyone for reading my fic and giving me the confidence to complete it. I've never finished a fic before!
Enjoy~

Chapter 26: Death Will Out

"Tell us how to bring her back!" River yelled at the vanishing Eyphah. The Doctor tried to say something about how that would result in Eyphah surviving to wreak havoc, but River silenced him.

"This is our daughter who just died," she snapped, "You don't want to lose your family again do you?!" At this the Doctor bowed his head, straightening his bow-tie as his hair flopped over his face. River was right.

Eyphah smiled to herself and began to speak. She was answering River's question, but not in a way anyone was expecting.

"Blysse S. - that's what you called your daughter, is it not? S could stand for Sigma or Song - you were never sure which was more appropriate. It was the latter, I'll have you know. Her name meant Time's Song. And that's how you will save her." She paused, looking at the Timelords' confused faces, and Jack's slightly lost expression, before continuing.

"The future is shaped by the past as the past is changed by the future. Blysse can live where now she has died only by her own hand."

"That's not possible," Jack snapped, "Blysse is dead!" Eyphah didn't respond, continuing to fade out slowly. Jack glanced at the Doctor. "She's dead," he repeated. But there was no response from any. River's quiet sobs were the only sound to travel through the air for a long moment.

Then the Doctor looked up. "She's dead..." He spoke softly, but his eyes showed no sadness, where before there had been heartbreak. Jack backed away a little, wondering if the Doctor had finally lost it. Eyphah's receding ghost simply smiled, then vanished completely.

River spoke up, her anger lancing through her tears. "Yes of course she's dead; your immortal friend SHOT HER!" She lurched to her feet, gun trained at Jack's chest. Her eyes were dark and cold as they met Jack's own. He raised his arms in defeat, quickly determining that this was no rage that could be talked down. Jack simply closed his eyes and waited for his already ruined shirt to take another bullet.

But the shot never came.

He opened his eyes. River hadn't moved, nor had the anger and hurt in her eyes receded, and her finger still lay firmly on the trigger. The difference was that the Doctor had placed his hand on her arm.

"River," he said softly. His voice was filled with so much raw emotion that Jack found himself startled. It was as if the Doctor had let all his barriers fall down. Although he appeared normal, his voice spoke volumes of sadness, grief, loss, age and - of all things - hope. It was a queer mix.

"I know what to do." The Doctor said no more than this, but it was enough. River relaxed, her grief giving way to a spark of hope. Jack allowed himself to relax as the immediate threat was removed.

"What." It was more of a statement than a question. Rucker's hard lenses eyes never left Jack's as she addressed her husband. He took her hand gently. Her eyes widened. "You don't mean- ?"

The Doctor nodded slowly. There was a look of fear sparkling in the back of his eyes, almost invisible - but definitely present. It was this, far more than River's gun, which made Jack's breath truly catch in his throat. "What's going on?" He asked quietly. He was never given an answer.

The Doctor crouched by his daughter gently. River was already there, holding Blysse's head in her lap once again. Jack approached them moments later. "Anything I can do?" He asked.

"Yes," it was River who spoke, "Hold down her arms and legs. This should be fine, but I want thou in hand in case things spiral out of control."

Jack glanced at the Doctor, who nodded. "Do as she says." Jack raised an eyebrow and did as he was told.

It was now that the Doctor explained, as River prepared her daughter's lifeless form. "You see," he began, "Eyphah was right that Blysse's name means Time's Song. She was not named that for no reason. When she was a baby, before we had named her, there was an... Incident."

Here the Doctor flashed Jack a small, twisted smile. "I caused a little... Problem in Time. Or will cause, I'm not sure. Anyway, Blysse was a tiny little thing, but when she saw what had happened... She sang, Jack. She sang the song of the Universe, and mixed it with Time itself."

Jack raised both eyebrows as far as they would go. "She sang?" He asked incredulously. He'd heard of this in the Time Agency, such a long time ago - or away, depending on how you thought about it - but never taken it seriously. "But Cantus Tempus is a myth!"

River smiled sadly. "Cantus Tempus is our daughter." She stroked the side of Blysse's face softly. "She's ready."

The Doctor nodded. Not a breath slipped past the tight lips of the group as he closed his eyes and focused his mind. Gently, not wanting to cause any damage, he exhaled, sending his consciousness out with his breath.

His conscience swirled like the starlight in Van Gough's painting. He gently reached out towards his daughter, seeping slowly into her mind.

He shivered once there. She was gone, leaving an empty shell behind. It was like walking into the house of a loved one, but they had long since left and the place was cold, dark, abandoned and beginning to rot. Except the loved one had left everything as if they were simply popping outside to pick up the milk.

He walked, ghostly and intangible, through the remnants of his daughter, searching through countless memories for the Song. He saw her life with her shadow soldiers; the life Eyphah had given her. And then he saw her life from before that; memories he shared, viewed from a different perspective. There were no barriers in her dormant mind, but everywhere there were reminders that she was gone.

Every step of his ghostwalk got harder as the Doctor approached what he sought. Everywhere, in every dark corner of this dormant mind, was a single memory being repeated. The memory of Eyphah's blue form moving away as Death claimed Blysse. It was enough to chill his old bones the first time he saw it, but having seen it so often, it now cut into him like a sharp knife every time he saw it play out. To watch your daughter die was terrible. To share her memory of death, the Doctor reasoned, was worse.

His thought-form kept moving, then finally found what he was looking for. The Song stood out. Whilst everything else within Blysse's mind was cold and beginning to fade to grey, the Song stood bright, warm and vivid. The Doctor approached it with care. His thought-form stretched out a hand - was it a hand if it was just a thought? - and touched the surface of the Song.

River jumped in surprise as the Doctor's eyes suddenly opened. The ancient orbs stared at her as he said simply "I've awoken the Song." River looked down at her daughter's peaceful, pale face. She but the inside of her lip and prepared herself. The tension in the air, which could have been cut with even a blunt piece of plastic cutlery, rose to a whole new level as the dead body of her daughter moved.

Blysse's green eyes sparkled suddenly. Her entire being began to glow softly with pure white light, increasing in intensity to the point at which the two Timelords and the Immortal had to cover their eyes. Her cold, blue lips slid open and, through the body of a dead child, Time began to Sing.

Ummm... Yeah. It all went a bit mad here. This has changed so much from my original idea, but the ending line has been in my head since the start. More still to come~