Quick note- ~*~ is a flash back.
The Doctor and Star had managed to shoot one of their enemy's ships down, well Star had anyway, she had taken great pleasure in this one in particular.
The Doctor, wearing the Stetson Craig had given him, walked into one of the room in a ship to see one of their enemy's twitching, still alive, he and Star slowly walked over to it.
"Imagine you were dying," the Doctor began, "imagine you were afraid and a long way from home and in terrible pain. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse you looked up…and saw the face of the devil himself."
Star smiled, "Hello Dalek."
The Dalek, lying on its side, struggled to get away from them, fires burning all around from the crash. "Emergency, emergency, weapon system disabled, emergency! Emergency! Emergency!"
"Too late. The rest are gone. It's just the 3 of us now."
The Doctor pulled out the sonic and removed the casing lid, "Just need information from your data core. Everything the Daleks know about the Silence!"
~.~
The Dalek led them to a man, Gideon Vandaleur. So they tracked him down to Calisto B, and followed him, hiding in the shadows as they watched him, hood up, enter a bar.
They quickly followed him and headed right to the bar.
"Gideon Vandaleur. Get him. Now." The Doctor ordered.
"Who says he's here?" the bartender sneered.
The Doctor just stepped to the side allowing Star to step up to the bar and placed the Daleks eyestalk on the counter, she smirked at him. "Wanna see if it's still functional?"
The bartender scurried off.
The Doctor led her to a table, "calm down."
She leaned her head on his chest, "I just want this to stop."
He smiled lightly and wrapped his arms around her. Honestly, he was more worried about her than himself. In the 200 years they had preparing, finding out more about the Silence, she had gone a little over the top.
He was a stupid and selfish man, wasting all of his regenerations and now Star would be alone because of him. He didn't care what happened to him, just as long as she was safe and happy, that's all that mattered.
The hooded man sat down opposite them cutting the Doctor out of his thoughts, he pulled his hood down to reveal a man with pale skin, shaggy blonde hair and an eye patch, far to much like Koviarans for them to be comfortable.
"Father Gideon Vandaleur." The Doctor greeted, "Former envoy of the Silence. Our condolences."
"Your what?" Vandaleur frowned.
"Gideon Vandaleur ha been dead for 6 months," Star replied and the Doctor activated the sonic at the man making him wince and freeze.
Star leaned into Vandaleur's eye, "Can we speak to the captain please?" the soldier inside the eye ran off.
"Hello again!" the Doctor grinned as Vandaleur stiffened, "The Teselecta, time-travelling shape-changing robot, powered by miniaturized people. Never get bored of that! Long time since Berlin."
"Doctor." Vandaleur said, but they knew it was the captain this time, "what have you done to our systems?"
"They'll be fine, if you behave. Now this unit can disguise itself as anything in the universe so if you're posing as Vandaleur, you're investigating the Silence…tell us about them."
"Tell you what?"
"One thing. Just one."
"Their weakest point." Star finished.
~.~
Star sat cross legged on a chair opposite Gantok, the weakest point of the Silence, he reminded her of a Viking wearing an eye patch and he was quite the gambler, which was why she was playing a game of chess with him and winning. One of the pieces was charged with electricity. The crowded cheered from above as the Viking hesitated to move the charged piece.
"The crowd are getting restless!" the Doctor laughed from the side, "they know the Queen is your only legal move. Except you've already moved it 12 times, which means there are now over 4 million volts running through it."
"That's why they call it live chess," Star smirked, "even with the gauntlet you'll never make it to bishop 4 alive."
"I am a dead man," Gantok said, "unless you concede the game."
"But in winning."
"Name your price."
"Information."
"I work for the Silence. They would kill me."
"They're going to kill me too, very soon." The Doctor remarked, "I was just going to lie down and take it, but you now what? Before I go, I'd like to know why I have to die."
"Dorium Maldovar is the only one who can help you."
"Dorium's dead." Star stated, "The Monks beheaded him at Demons Run, I was there."
"I know. Concede the game, Star…and I'll take you both to him."
Star glanced at the Doctor who nodded, sighing she tipped over her piece, conceding the game as the crowd booed.
~.~
Gantok led them down a tunnel, a torch in his hand, they followed a step behind. There were skills on every available surface.
"The Seventh Transept," Gantok explained to them, "Where the Headless Monks keep the leftovers. Watch your step, there are traps everywhere."
"Eww!" the Doctor grimaced as something scuttled across the floor, "I hate rats."
"There are now rats in the transept."
"Oh, good."
"The skulls eat them."
"That's even worse." Star muttered.
They eyed the skulls as they walked, the skulls watching them.
"The headless monks behead you alive, remember?" Gantok continued as they walked into a room where in the centre there were wooden boxes on the pedestals.
"Why are some in boxes?" Star asked.
"Because some people are rich and some people are left to rot. Dorium Maldovar was always very rich." He turned and put the torch onto a sconce as he Doctor scanned a beautifully decorated box. The latch clicked and he slid the door open to reveal Dorium's head, he coughed.
"Thank you for bringing us, Gantok." The Doctor said to him.
"My pleasure," he drew a gun at them, the Doctor quickly pulled Star behind him, "It saves me the trouble of burying you. Nobody beats me at chess!"
"Not my fault im too good for you." Star called before flashing her eyes at the trap door on the ground, Gantok falling down it with a scream.
They rushed over to see the skulls consuming him. The Doctor quickly soniced the trap closed as the skulls looked up at them.
"Hello?" Dorium jerked awake from the slam, "is someone there?" they walked over to him, "ah, Doctor! Star! Thank god its you. The Monks, they turned on me."
"Yeah," Star nodded, "I was there."
"Give it to me straight. How bad are my injuries?"
"Well…" the Doctor began, glancing between him and Star, unsure what to say.
Dorium began laughing, "oh, your face! Oh, it's not so bad really, as long as they get your box the right way up. I got a media-chip fitted in my head years ago, and the wi-fi down here is excellent. So I keep myself entertained."
"We need to know about the Silence."
"Oh. a religious order of great power and discretion. The sentinels of history, as they like to call themselves."
"And they want me dead."
"No, not really. They just don't want you to remain alive."
The Doctor scoffed, "that's ok. I was worried for a minute there."
"Why only him?" Star asked, it had been bugging her, why not rid both Time Lords at the same time? She would end up as bad as him in the end, or maybe even worse, most likely worse, so why didn't they just rid the universe of all Time Lords?
"Hes a man with a long and dangerous past. But his future is infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted."
"But why not me?"
"Not as much trouble I suppose. They assume you wouldn't care what happens to yourself."
"What if I wanted to avenge him?" She questioned. Because she would, she'd get revenge.
"Would you go against his last wishes?" Dorium challenged.
She fell silent.
The Doctor had to smile at that. The Silence didn't want her, she would be safe, they don't think her as much trouble. And that she would respect his wishes. But it faltered a bit; they assume she wouldn't care what happens to herself. They assume she wouldn't care if they went after her because he would already be dead and so she would be alone.
"You know," the Doctor sighed, "You could've told us this, the last time we met."
Dorium rolled his eyes, "It was a busy day and I got beheaded."
"What's so dangerous about my future?"
"On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the eleventh, when no living creature could speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered."
"Silence will fall when the question is asked…"
"Silence MUST fall would be a better translation. The Silence are determined the question will never be answered. That the Doctor will NEVER reach Trenzalore."
"But what's it got to do with him?" Star shook her head.
"The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?"
"Yes!" the exclaimed in unison.
"Are you sure? Very, very sure?"
He swallowed, as the skulls turned to look at them, "of course."
"Then I shall tell you. But on your own head be it." he laughed and gestured for them to lean it.
"But..." Star frowned as he told them the question, "I can answer that, too."
"But it has to come from his mouth."
~.~
The Doctor and Star entered the TARDIS, Star carrying Dorium's head in his box.
"It's not my fault!" came Dorium's muffed voice, "put me back."
She put the box down the on the jump seat as the Doctor went to the console. "Ow! I've fallen on my nose." Star went over to the console as the Doctor got the date and time of his death on the monitor, "have you got wi-fi here? Im bored already and my nose is hurting? We all have to die, Doctor…but you more than most. You do see that, don't you? You know what the question is now, do you see that you have to die! Please open my hatch, I've got an awful headache…which to be honest means more than it used to."
"Dorium!" Star stormed over and opened the box, peering at an upside down Dorium, "I will throw you into a supernova!" she turned to box the right way up.
"Why Lake Silencio?" the Doctor asked him, "Why Utah?"
"It's a still point in time," he answered, "makes it easier to create a fixed point. And your death is a fixed point, Doctor."
"Been running all my life. Why should I stop now?"
"You can't run away from this. Because now you know what's at stake. Why your life ends."
"Not today," he moved to the phone and dialled, "Im not leaving Star again, never."
"What's the point in delaying? How long have you delayed already?"
"Last time he was supposed to die we spent years travelling the universe, why should this be any different?" Star countered.
"Yes!" the Doctor snapped his fingers at her, "we could invent a new colour, save the Dodo, join the Beatles! Star could sign a record company, she has a beautiful voice." He beamed as she blushed furiously, before he called into the phone, "Hello, it's me. Get him! Tell him, we're going out and it's all on me, except for the money and driving."
"We got a time machine," Star added to Dorium, "We have all the time we need."
"For us, it never stops," the Doctor agreed, "Liz the first is waiting in a glade to elope with me. I could help Rose Tyler with her homework; I could go on all of Jacks stag parties in one night."
"Time catches up with us all!" Dorium said.
"Well, it has never laid a glove on me. Hello?" he called into the phone.
Star didn't need to be able to read the Doctors mind as his smiled fell and turned into a frown. The Brigadier had passed away.
"Doctor?" Dorium called, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing." He put the phone down, "nothing. It's just…" he signed deeply and reached into his pocket pulling out the blue envelopes. "Its time," he breathed, "its time."
~.~
The Doctor put the envelopes on the table in front of the Teselecta, still in the form of Vandaleur. "Surely you could deliver the messages yourself." The captain spoke through the robot.
"It would involve crossing my own time stream...best not." The Doctor replied.
"According to our files, this is the end for you. Your final journey. We'll deliver your messages. You can depend on us."
"Thank you." Star took his hand and they headed to the door.
"Doctor," it stood, "whatever you think of the Teselecta, we are champions of law and order, just as you have always been. Is there nothing else we can do?"
The Doctor looked down at Star, "Ready?"
She squeezed his hand tightly, "nope." They walked out the door.
~.~
Star and a group of soldiers ran down the corridor to the Senate room of the Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill. She looked up and saw that on the ceiling in the room was a group of Silents, hanging like bats. Below them were Churchill and the Doctor in a roman garb and a beard.
She nodded to one of the soldiers and he threw a cylindrical device into the room and across the floor, beeping.
The Doctors eyes widened, "go!" he tried to run, knocking Churchill to the ground as the bomb went off. He too was knocked to the ground from the blast.
The soldiers burst into the room, "Go! Go! Keep the Silents in sight at all times, keep your eye drives active." They aimed their guns at the ceiling as Star, dress all in black stepped into the room.
"Who the devil are you?!" Churchill demanded, "Identify yourself!"
"Star." she saw the Doctor squint at her through the smoke, "Star!" he laughed and Churchill aimed his gun at her, "No! She's on our side, she's my daughter." He noticed her wearing the eye patch, "No! Star, why are you wearing that?!"
She ignored him and fired her gun at him who fell to the floor, unconscious.
~.~
Star sat crossed legged on the Orient Express, sitting on the floor next to the sofa the Doctor was lying unconscious on. They were on the train heading to Cairo to the Pyramids that were now Area 52. Time had stopped, 5:02pm 22nd April 2011. Time was falling apart before their very eyes, all of history happening at once. Everything was a mess. And all this was because River hadn't killed him at the lake, he hadn't 'died'. So she was waiting for him to wake up and get this sorted out.
She smiled as the Doctor blinked awake, "Sorry," she apologised, "stun guns aren't fun."
"Star?" he murmured.
"Hey." She hugged him tightly, and giggled, "You're beard tickles."
He slowly pulled away and looked around, "You have an office on a train."
She laughed, "No. Amy does."
"Amy? Amy!" he looked over at the doorway to see Amy standing there, also in black. "Amelia Pond for Leadworth…"
Star put a hand over his mouth, silencing him, "Look around."
Hand still over his mouth; he scanned the room, seeing drawing hanging on the wall from Amy's adventures, along with a small crafted TARDIS.
"You look rubbish." Was Amy's way of greeting him.
"You look wonderful." He smiled.
"Hey!" Star pouted, "What about me?"
"Black doesn't suit you."
"Yeah, I know. Wanted to give you a scare."
"Don't worry. We'll soon fix that." Amy reached into a small cabinet and pulled out his tweed jacket and bowtie.
The Doctor grinned as Amy handed them to him, "Geronimo!"
Star laughed and headed to the cabinet where she had kept her clothes for safe keeping.
~.~
Both Time Lords were back in their typical attire. The Doctor now shaven but his hair still long.
"Ok. You can turn round now." The Doctor told Amy as she sat at her desk, facing away from them giving them private to get changed. "How do I look?" he spun in a circle.
"Cool." Amy nodded
"Really?!"
"No."
"What about me?" Star grinned.
"Better than black." She offered.
"Cool office though." The Doctor commented, "Why do you have an office? Are you a special agent boss lady? Not sure about the eye patches."
"It's not an eye patch." Star told him, "but some of us noticed time has stopped. There's a group of us working on it."
"And you have an office on a train, this is so cool. Can I have an office? Never had an office before. Or a train. Or a train slash office."
"Hey," Star laughed, "If I don't even get an office neither do you."
Amy ran over to hug him, "god, I've missed you! It's hard being stuck with Star alone!"
"Hey!"
"Ok," the Doctor smiled hugging her back, "hugging and missing now." He looked between them, "where's the Roman?"
Amy's eyes widened, "you mean Rory!"
"Mmm."
"My husband Rory, yeah?" she held up a sketch she drew of him, "that's him, isn't it? I've no idea, I can't find him. I love him very much don't I?"
"Apparently." He looked at the sketch, 'has she seen him?' he asked Star telepathically.
'Captain Williams.' She nodded.
"I have to keep doing this." Amy continued, unaware of their silent communication, "I have to keep writing and drawing things. It's just so hard to keep remembering…it's a good thing Stars here to encourage me."
"You're very welcome." She smiled.
"Its not your fault, times gone wrong." The Doctor comforted her, "do you remember why?"
"The lakeside." Amy nodded.
"Lake Silencio, Utah. I died."
"But then you didn't. I remember it twice, different ways."
"Two different versions of the same event, both happening in the same moment. Time split wide open. Now look at it." he pointed out the window, "All of history happening at once."
"Does it matter? I mean cant we just stay like this?"
"Amy, I've already told you," Star remarked, "Time is disintegrating. It will spread and all of reality will fall apart."
There was a knock at the door and captain Williams entered his own eye patch on. The Doctor looked at Star as she grinned and waved at him.
"We're about to arrive, ma'ams." He informed them, "eye drives need to be activated as soon as we disembark."
"Good point," Amy nodded, "Thank you, Captain Williams."
"Hello." The Doctor waved.
"Hello, sir." He nodded at them, "please to meet you."
"Hey captain," Star winked.
"Ma…Star." he corrected knowing she hated it when people called her ma'am, every time he called her it she always corrected him.
"Captain William," Amy introduced, "best of the best, couldn't live without him."
The Doctor sniggered at the likeness of Amy sketch, Star nudged him playfully.
"What's wrong?" Amy frowned.
He put the sketch down, "Amy…you'll find your Rory, you always do. But you have to really look."
"I am looking."
"Oh, my Amelia Pond. You don't always look hard enough."
"Why are you older? If time isn't really passing, then how can you be aging? Star isn't, so why are you?"
"Time is still passing for me," he pulled his arms around Star, keeping her close, "every explosion has an epicentre. Im it…im what's wrong."
"What's wrong with you?"
Star closed her eyes in pain, "he's still alive."
~.~
The train entered the Great Pyramid, as Star had said, now Area 52. They quickly got off and Rory met them, and led them down a narrow set of stairs. the Doctor holding the eye patch with distaste.
"You have to put it on, sir." Rory told him.
"An eye patch. What for?" the Doctor asked.
"It's an eye drive," Star explained to him, "it communicates directly with the memory centres of the brain, helps us remember the Silence."
"Because no living thing can remember these things." Amy added leading them into a containment room, inside, chambers full of Silents suspending in fluid.
"The Silents." Rory said, "We've captured over 100 of them now, all held in this Pyramid."
"Yeah," the Doctor walked over to one, "I've encountered them before. Always wondered what they looked like." The Silent tilted its head at him.
"Whole point of the eye drive," Star told him, "You can remember them when you wear the eye drive."
The Doctor looked at her, "the Silents have human servants. They all wear these."
"They have to." She nodded, 'I don't trust them either, but there is no other way.'
They walked through the room; the Silents looked at the Doctor.
"They seem to be noticing you." Rory noted.
"Yeah. They would."
"So why aren't the human race killing them on sight any more?" Amy asked.
"Star hasn't told you?" he frowned, "That was a whole other reality. What are the tanks for?"
"They can draw electricity from anything." Rory explained, "Its how they attack. The fluid insulates them. And I don't like the way they're looking at you."
"Me neither."
"Ma'am," Rory turned to Amy, "I'm sure it's nothing, but I should check it out. They haven't been this active in a while." He turned to the soldiers, "you two, upstairs, check all the tank seals. Then the floors above get everyone checking."
"Sir!" they called before leaving.
"You go ahead, ma'am."
"Thank you, Captain Williams." Amy nodded.
"This way." Amy led the way, as Star glanced nervously at the Silents.
"Hold on," Star stopped shortly, "need to check something. Back in a sec." she turned back the way they came as the Doctor smirked knowing what she was doing.
"Captain Williams," Star called to him as he checked the tanks, "the loyal soldier, waiting to be noticed, always the patterns."
"Im sorry?"
"Amy. She likes you. She said so."
"Really. What did she say?"
"Well…"
"What exactly did she say?" he eyed her.
"She said…well, she said that you were the most beautiful, generous and amazing person she had ever seen."
Rory blinked, "she…she said that."
"See ya." She waved as she walked back to the Doctor and Amy who were waiting for her. She winked at the Doctor.
"Come on then." Amy walked off again, "Time for you to meet some old friends."
"Attention, all personal," Rory came on the speaker as they entered the kings chamber of the pyramid. "Attention, all personal. Please check all assigned containment units."
"You were right," one of the doctors, Kent, spoke to none other than River Song, "Just his present in the building caused the loop to extend by nearly 4 chronon." The digital clock she was looking at read 5:02:57. The seconds changing but not the minutes.
"Look who I brought home!" Star called jumping down the last few steps.
"Hey there. Im home." The Doctor smirked.
River turned to them, "And what sort of time do you call this?" she stepped away to reveal Kovarian bound to a chair, Stars doing of course.
"The death of time," Kovarian said, "the end of time. The end of us all. Oh, why couldn't you just die?"
"Did my best, dear," he shrugged walking around the room, "I showed up. You just can't get the psychopaths these days. Love what you've done with the pyramids. How did you swing all this?"
"Hallucinogenic lipstick." River answered, "Works wonders on President Kennedy."
"And Cleopatra was a push over." Star added.
"I always thought so." The Doctor nodded.
"She mentioned you." River continued.
"What did she say?"
"Put down that gun."
"Did you?"
"Eventually."
"Do I have to watch this?" Kovarian groaned.
"It was such a basic mistake, wasn't it, Madame Kovarian?" River called over her shoulder, "take a child, raise her into a perfect psychopath, introduce her to the Doctor. Who else was I going to fall in love with? And Star is too adorable."
"It's not funny, the pair of you." the Doctor pointed at River and Star, "reality is fatally compromised. Tell me you understand that?"
"Dinner?"
"I don't have the time. Nobody had the time, because as long as im alive, time is dying. Because of you, River."
"Because I refused to kill the man I love."
"Oh, you love me do you? Oh, that's sweet of you!" He walked over to her, "Isn't that sweet? C'mere you!"
Star pulled him away from her, "she's not stupid. She know what will happen if you touch her." The Doctor dropped a kiss on her forehead and lunged at River thinking Star was distracted but she cuffed his hands behind his back.
"Why are handcuffs always involved with you, River?" the Doctor groaned. "It's the only way. We're the opposite poles of the disruption. If we touch, we short out the differential, time can begin."
"And I'll be by the lakeside, killing you." River replied.
"And time won't fall apart. Reality will continue. There isn't another way. Star you know this!"
Star looked down at the ground, "I know."
"I didn't say there was, Sweetie." River agreed.
"What that?" Amy called.
They followed her gaze and looked up at the ceiling to see a line of water dripping down.
"The Pyramid above us," the Doctor murmured, "how many Silents do you have trapped inside it?"
"None," Kovarian replied, "they're not trapped, they never have been. They've been waiting for this, Doctor…for you."
Rory burst into the room at that moment, "they're out! All of them."
The soldiers ran to the door, placing a thick plank of wood across it, "no one gets in here!"
"Ma'am," Rory turned to Amy, "my men out there should be able to lock this down we have them outnumbered."
"And you're wearing eye drives based on mine, I think." Kovarian smirked, "Oops!"
"Actually," Star smiled innocently, "I think its you who should be going 'oops'. See, I knew not to trust the eye drives which is why I tinkered around a bit, for every eye drive they activate, it only affects you." she smirked, glaring her red eyes at the woman.
And then Kovarian screamed in agony.
Star took the Doctors hand, as her eyes went back to their usual green "We need to show you something." She led him upstairs with River, Amy and Rory following.
~.~
The Time Lords reached the top of the pyramid, "what's this?" the Doctor saw the large beacon in the middle, "oh, it's a timey-wimey distress beacon. Who built this?"
"Im the chid of the TARDIS," River waved him off, "I understand the physics. Although your daughter was very insistent in helping out."
"Yes, but that's all you've got…a distress beacon!"
"We've been sending out a message," Star explained, "a distress call. Outside the bubble of our time, the universe is still turning, and we've set a message out everywhere, to the future to the past, the beginning and the end. 'The Doctor is dying, please, please help.'"
"Star this is ridiculous. That would be nothing to anyone. This is why you're insane. You embarrass me."
"Yeah, im insane, but there's no one I'd rather be than me."
"And you," he pointed at River, "This was your idea."
Amy and Rory arrived, "We barricaded the door," Amy told them, "we've got a few minutes…just tell him, River."
"Those reports of the sun sport and the solar flares." River remarked, "They're wrong, there aren't any. It's not the sun, it's you, the sky is full of a million, million voices, saying yes, of course we'll help. You've touched so many lives, saved so many people. Did you think, when your time came, you'd really have to do more than just ask? You've decided that the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree."
"River," the Doctor sighed, "no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered, time is disintegrating."
"I can't let you die."
"But I have to die."
"Shut up! I can't let you die without knowing you are loved by so many, and so much. And by no one more than me."
"And me!" Star called.
"River, we know what this means." The Doctor stressed, "We are ground zero of an explosion that will engulf all reality. Billions on billions will suffer and die."
"I'll suffer if I have to kill you."
"More than every living thing in the universe?!"
"Yes." Both she and Star answered.
"River, River," he shook his head at him, "why do you had have to be this, Melody Pond," he looked at Amy and Rory, "your daughter. I hope you're both proud."
"Im not sure I completely understand…" Rory whispered to Amy.
"We got married, and had a kid, that's her." Amy whispered back.
"Ok."
"Star uncuff me, now." she did so and the Doctor took a deep breath, rubbing his hands, "Ok. I need a strip of cloth, about a foot long. Anything will do. Nevermind," he untied his bowtie. "River, take one end of this, wrap it around your hand and hold it out to me. Star, do the honours."
She grinned and pulled out her dagger from her boot, nicking Rivers hand as she held onto the tie.
"What am I doing?" River frowned but tied the bowtie around her nicked hand, Star nicking the Doctors hand, him doing the same with the tie.
"As you're told."
He smiled, "now, we're in the middle of a combat zone, so we'll have to do the quick version. Captain Williams, say 'I consent and gladly give.'"
"To what?" Rory frowned.
"Oh, just say it." Star nudged him playfully, grinning wildly, knowing exactly what was happening and was so excited.
"I consent and gladly give."
"Need you to say it too." The Doctor nodded at Amy.
"I consent and gladly give." She said quickly, still trusting him even after the God Complex.
"Now, River, im about to whisper something in your ear, and you have to remember it very, very carefully and tell no one what I said." He leaned in a whispered into her ear, her eyes widened at what he just told her, "I just told you my name. Now there you go, River Song. Melody Pond. You're now my…sister. Star's aunt, good luck."
"Which means…" Star cut in, "you need to also know my name." she leaned in and whispered in the woman's ear.
"And sister, I have a request. This world is dying, and it's my fault, and I can't bear it another day. Please, help me. There isn't another way."
River leaned closer to him and whispered, "it would be my honour, brother dear." She hugged him tightly and time resumed.
~.~
And then the Doctor was at the lake, River firing at him, 'killing' him.
~.~
Two hooded figures walked down the seventh transept, the taller one carrying Dorium's box back to its pedestal.
"Who's carrying me?" Dorium demanded, his voice muffed through the box, "I demand to know…im a head, I have rights! I want my doors open this time." The figure gently placed the box down, "I demand that my doors are open." The figure slid the door open and they both walked away, hand in hand. "Is it you? It is, isn't it?" The figures stopped and slowly turned around, "it IS you, I can sense it. But how did you do it? How could you possible have escaped?!"
The Doctor looked down at Star, "ready?"
She squeezed his hand tightly, "nope." They walked out the door.
Only for Star to drag him back into the room, "Actually…"
The Doctor whispered into Rivers ear, "Look into my eye." She looked in his eye to see the Doctor and the TARDIS, the Doctor inside put a finger to his lips, shushing her.
The Doctor and Star dropped their hooded cloaks to the floor; Dorium stared at them, stunned.
"The Teselecta," the Doctor stated, "A Doctor in a Doctor-Suit," they walked back over, "Time said I had to be on that beach so I dressed for the occasion barely got singed in that boat."
"Yup," Star nodded, "and I'm gonna stick to the shadows, not get involve. Make everyone think that I was only a legend, clever eh?"
"So you're going to do this, let them all think you're both dead?"
"well," She shrugged, "dead and never existed."
"Then they can all forget us. Especially me." The Doctor added, "I got too big, Dorium, too noise…time to step back into the shadows."
"And Dr Song?" Dorium asked, "In prison all her days?"
"Her days, yes." Star nodded, "her nights…well," she smirked, "that's family time."
"So many secrets. I'll help you keep them, of course…"
"Well, you're not exactly going anywhere, are you?" the Doctor joked.
"But you're fools nonetheless. It's all still waiting for you…the fields of Trenzalore, the fall of the eleventh. And the question!"
The Doctor mock saluted, "goodbye, Dorium." He turned away and he and Star walked off.
"The first question!" Dorium called after them, "The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. The question you've been running from all your life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doc…tor…WHO?"