Forest of the Dead- Part 2

I do not own Doctor Who and I am not making a profit off of this. I only own my OC.

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The Doctor has got into a Library Archive File. "See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out."

"It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?" River asked, shocked.

"It succeeded. Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"

"It saved them." River breathed.

The Doctor draws on a large polished table. "The library. A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."

An alarm sounds. "What is it? What's wrong?" Mr. Lux asked.

"Auto-destruct enabled in twenty minutes." A computer voice echoed.

"What's maximum erasure?" River asked, running over to The Doctor.

"In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg." Jack said, pulling me close into him.

"No. No, it's all right. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect Cal." Mr. Lux said.

The terminal screen goes blank. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly-"

"We need to stop this. We've got to save Cal." Mr. Lux said.

"What is it? What is Cal?" Jack asked.

"We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you." Mr. Lux said.

"It's at the core of the planet." The Doctor said.

"Well, then. Let's go." River points her screwdriver at the library logo in the middle of the compass rose in the floor. It opens. "Gravity platform."

"I bet I like you." The Doctor said, looking at River.

"Oh, you do." River said, smiling at The Doctor.

"Oh this is so not happening." Jack said, rubbing his head. I weekly laughed. We walked on.

At the Computer Data Core. "Auto-destruct in fifteen minutes."

The Doctor looks up to see a globe with swirling energy in it. "The data core. Over four thousand living minds trapped inside it."

"Yeah, well, they won't be living much longer. We're running out of time." River said.

The Doctor finds an access terminal then the little girl we heard earlier says, "Help me. Please, help me."

"What's that?" Anita asked.

"Was that a child?" River asked, shocked.

"The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up. I'm trying." The Doctor taps at the keyboard, and toys come to life in the girl's home.

"Doctor, these readings." River said, pointing to a graph of some sort.

"I know. You'd think it was dreaming."

"It is dreaming, of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written." Mr. Lux said.

"Computers don't dream." Anita argued.

"Help me. Please help me."

"No, but little girls do" Lux pulls a breaker and a door opens. We run in. A node turns to face us.

"Please help me. Please help me." The Node said.

"Oh my God." Jack said.

"It's the little girl. The girl we saw in the computer." Anita said.

"She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is Cal." Mr. Lux said.

"Cal is a child? A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!" The Doctor said, angry.

"Because she's family! Cal. Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

"So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her." Jack said.

"This is only half a life, of course. But it's for ever." Mr. Lux said sadly.

"And then the shadows came." The Doctor stated.

"The shadows. I have to. I have to save. Have to save." The Node said.

"And she saved them. She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe." I said.

"Then why didn't she tell us?" Anita asked.

"Because she's forgotten. She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well, me."

"So what do we do?" River asked.

"Auto-destruct in ten minutes."

Back in the room with the Data Core The Doctor said, "Easy! We beam all the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space."

"Difficult. It'll kill you stone dead." River said.

"Yeah, it's easy to criticise." The Doctor said. I walked over to Jack and squeezed his hand. My plan was coming together.

"It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate." Jack said.

"I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing." The Doctor said.

"Doctor!" River yelled, exasperated.

"I'm right, this works. Shut up. Now listen. You and Luxy boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention in passing as you're here, shut up."

"Oh! I hate you sometimes." River said.

"I know!" The Doctor said.

"Mister Lux, with me. Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!" River and Lux leave.

"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Anita asked.

"These are their forests. I'm going to seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."

"So you think they're just going to let us go?" Anita asked.

"Best offer they're going to get." Jack said.

"You're going to make 'em an offer?" Anita asked The Doctor.

"They'd better take it, because right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all. You know what? I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying. And she never gave in. And you ate her." He clears her visor to reveal a skull. "But I'm going to let that pass, just as long as you let them pass.

"How long have you known?" Anita asked.

"I counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Be kind." The Doctor said.

"These are our forests. We are not kind." Anita said.

"I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go." The Doctor said.

"These are our forests. They are our meat." Anita said. Shadows stretch out from Vashta Nerada Anita towards the Doctor Jack and me.

"Don't play games with me. You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up." There is a pause, then the shadows withdraw.

"You have one day." Anita said. The spacesuit collapses.

"Oh, Anita." River said sadly.

"I'm sorry. She's been dead a while now. I told you to go!"

"Lux can manage without me, but you can't." River punches the Doctor, knocking him out. Then River takes out Jack.

I turned to River in a fighting stance. "I can't let you do this, River or should I say Melody. What would your parents say? If you do this, you'll die River. I have at least a better chance at surviving than you."

River shook her head. "Oh Susan. Playing to my emotions won't work. You of all people should know that. You told me that you would do something like this when you were younger. You gave me instructions."

"What were they?" I whispered.

"They were to give you this." River handed me her vortex manipulator. "And to tell you a name." River said. "Do you want to hear it?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Amelia Rose." River said. "I think you can figure out the last name for your self." I saw River glance at Jack then back to me. "Do you really want to do this?"

"I had a plan." I whispered, tears falling down my face.

"I know sweetie." River said. She hugged me then I felt something collide with my head and I fell to the ground unconscious.

A/N: Some notes on reviews:

copperdragon 2: Yeah, me too. Especially with her video that she posted saying 'Spoilers'! PLEASE COME BACK!