The Wedding of River Song- Pt. 1
3rd Person POV
London 5:02 pm 22nd April, 2011
It is London, but not the London we know, with steam trains running on aerial tracks through the Zurich buildings and cars carried by balloons.
"And it's another beautiful day in London. There are reports of sunspot activity and solar flares causing interference across all radio signals so apologies for that." A Newsman said.
Pterodactyls fly over children playing in Hyde Park.
"Guys, look!" A young blond haired girl yelled, pointing in amazement at the animals.
The pterodactyls swoop and the children run to the trees, past the sign 'Pterodactyls are vermin. Do not feed.' A Roman centurion in a chariot waits at the traffic lights and the headline on the Londinium Cotide is - War of the Roses Enters Second Year.
On a TV in a shop window is a breakfast television programme. "So do you think you can top last year's Christmas Special?" Bill Turnbull asked.
"And can you tell us anything about it?" Sian Williams asked.
Charles Dickens chuckled. "Well, all I can say now is that it involves ghosts, and the past, the present and future, all at the same time."
"Ooo, we love a ghost story." Sian Williams said, leaning back against the chair, with one arm resting on top of it, grinning.
"Crowds lined the Mall today as Holy Roman Emperor, Winston Churchill, returned to the Buckingham Senate on his personal mammoth." The News anchor concluded.
Churchill's Office
Winston Churchill is having his blood pressure checked by his Silurian male nurse.
"Not too many late nights in Gaul, I hope." Malohkeh said to Churchill.
"Just the one. I had an argument with Cleopatra. Dreadful woman." Winston's mouth twitches into a small smirk, and only the Silurian is able to notice it. "Excellent dancer."
Malohkeh said, not bothering to hide his smirk. "I can tell from your blood pressure."
Churchill glanced at the clock. "What time do you have, doctor?"
"Two minutes past five, Caesar." Malohkeh said, puzzled to why Churchill was asking the question. It was like asking why the sky was blue or the grass green.
"It's always two minutes past five. Day or night, it's always two minutes past five in the afternoon. Why is that?"
Malohkeh sighed. "Because that is the time, Caesar." He started packing up his equipment.
"And the date. It's always the twenty second of April. Does it not bother you?"
"The date and the time have always been the same, Caesar. Why should it start bothering me now?"
"I want to see the Soothsayer and his companion. Where are they?"
"In the Tower, where you threw them the last time."
"Get them." Churchill ordered, determination showing on his face. He would get to the bottom of this.
A bedraggled figure in toga and shackles is brought through a door by two men. Behind him, in the same state, was a women with ginger hair and cracked glasses. Both the man and the woman hide their feelings well.
"Leave us." The guards bowed then left. "Tick tock goes the clock, as the old song says. But they don't, do they? The clocks never tick. Something has happened to time. That's what you say. What you never stop saying. All of history is happening at once. But what does that mean? What happened? Explain to me in terms that I can understand what happened to time."
The Doctor lifts his head. "A woman."
Susan lifts her head a second after The Doctor said 'women.' and said, "A husband."
Earlier
Disabled Spaceship
The Doctor and Susan walked up to a battle-ridden Dalek. Imagine you were dying. 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. Hello, Dalek." Susan finished
"EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. WEAPON SYSTEM DISABLED. EMERGENCY." The Dalek said.
I open up the top of the Dalek and The Doctor points his sonic screwdriver into the open lid. "Hush, now. I need some information from your data core. Everything the Daleks know about the Silence."
The Docks of Calisto B
Two cloaked figures walk through destruction towards the figure in the stetson, who then step into a seedy space bar. "Gideon Vandaleur. Get him. Now."
"Who says he's here?" A Barman retorted.
Susan drops the Dalek's eyestalk onto the counter. A short while later, The Doctor and Susan are at a table. The Doctor reading Knitting for Girls and Susan is stirring a drink when a cloaked figure sits down with them.
"Father Gideon Vandaleur, former envoy of the Silence. My condolences."
"Your what?" Vandaleur asked.
"Gideon Vandaleur has been dead for six months." Susan said. The Doctor sonicks the figure, which is wearing the same style eyepatch as Madam Kovarian, and it goes rigid. "Can I speak to the Captain, please?" The small figure in the eye nods and runs.
"Hello again, the Teselecta time-travelling shape-changing robot powered by miniaturised people. Never get bored of that. Long time since Berlin." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, what have you done to our systems?" Carter asked, sounding annoyed.
"They'll be fine if you behave. Now, this unit can disguise itself as anyone in the universe, so if you're posing as Vandaleur, you're investigating the Silence. Tell me about them." I said.
"Tell you what?" Carter asked.
"One thing. Just one." The Doctor said.
Susan smiled deviously, "Their weakest link."
Susan stood behind The Doctor as he played a game of chess with Gantok. A game of chess is in progress, and a Queen is sizzling with voltage. The Doctor's opponent is an alien in an eyepatch. "The crowd are getting restless. They know the Queen is your only legal move, except you've already moved it twelve times, which means there are now over four million volts running through it. That's why they call it Live Chess. Even with the gauntlet you'll never make it to Bishop Four alive."
"I am a dead man, unless you concede the game." Gantok said.
"But I'm winning."
Gantok almost seems to sigh, but holds it in. "Name your price."
"Information."
"I work for the Silence. They would kill me."
"They're going to kill me too, very soon. And my friend." The Doctor nodded to Susan who kept her face impassive. "I was just going to lie down and take it, but you know what? Before I go, I'd like to know why I have to die."
"Dorium Maldovar is the only one who can help you." Gantok said.
"Dorium's dead. The Monks beheaded him at Demon's Run."
"I know. Concede the game, Doctor, and I'll take you to him."
Charnel house
Lots of skulls, some on shelves, some on the floor. "The Seventh Transept, where the Headless Monks keep the leftovers. Watch your step. There are traps everywhere." Gantok said.
"I hate rats." Susan muttered.
"There are no rats in the transept."
"Oh, good." Susan said, sighing in relief.
"The skulls eat them." The skulls on shelves turn to look at the visitors. Susan shows brief panic before wiping the expression off. "The headless monks behead you alive, remember."
"Why are some of them in boxes?" The Doctor asked. Nice boxes on pillars.
"Because some people are rich, and some people are left to rot. And Dorium Maldovar was always very rich."
The Doctor opens Dorium's box. The blue head sneezes. "Thank you for bringing me, Gantok."
"My pleasure. It saves me the trouble of burying you. Nobody beats me at chess." Gantok draws his weapon and moves forward, triggering a trap. He falls down into a pit of ravening skulls.
"Gantok!" The Doctor yelled. Gantok gets eaten, then the skulls turn their attention upwards. Susan closes her eyes for a brief second, then opens them again. The Doctor sonics the pit closed again. Dorium opens his eyes.
"Hello? Is someone there? Ah, Doctor. Thank God it's you. The Monks, they turned on me."
"Well, I'm afraid they rather did, a bit"
"Give it to me straight, Doctor. How bad are my injuries?" Dorium asked. Susan snorted.
"Well-" The Doctor said.
"Ha, ha! Oh, your face." Dorium laughed.
London 5:02 pm 22nd April, 2011
Churchill's Office
"This is absurd! Other worlds, carnivorous skulls, talking heads. I don't know why I'm listening to you." Churchill says, throwing up his hands and leaning back in his chair.
"Because, in another reality, you and I are friends. And you sense that. Just as you sense there is something wrong with time."
"You mentioned a woman." Churchill says, then looks at Susan. "And you mentioned a Husband. I didn't know you were married."
"I have a ring, don't I?" Susan asked Churchill, showing the leader her left hand.
"Yes. I'm getting to them." The Doctor said.
"What's she like? Attractive, I assume. And the man? Just as attractive?"
"Hell, in high heels." The Doctor said, talking about River.
That was all it took to get Churchill interested again. "Tell me more."
Earlier
Charnel house
"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." Dorium said.
"I need to know about the Silence." The Doctor said.
"Oh. A religious order of great power and discretion. The sentinels of history, as they like to call themselves."
"And they want Susan and I dead."
"No, not really. They just don't want you to remain alive. Susan on the other hand, well, they really, really want you dead."
"That's okay, then. I was a bit worried for a minute there." The Doctor said.
"Hey!" Susan replied, slapping The Doctor on the arm.
"You're a man with a long and dangerous past, but your future is infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted. And you, Susan. You are our leader's biggest fear. There is a huge bounty over your head. You and your daughter's." As Dorium said daughter, Susan's face grew pale.
"You know, you could've told us all this the last time we met." The Doctor said, irritated.
"It was a busy day and I got beheaded." Dorium said with a 'humph' at the end..
"What's so dangerous about my future? And the future of Amelia? What about his?" Susan asked, tilting her head towards The Doctor.
"On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can 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." The Doctor said.
"Silence must fall would be a better translation. The Silence are determined the question will never be answered. That the Doctor, Susan Jane Harkness and Amelia Rose Harkness will never reach Trenzalore."
"I don't understand. What's it got to do with us?" The Doctor asked.
"The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?"
"Yes." The Doctor and Susan said at the same time.
"Are you sure? Very, very sure?"
"Of course." The Doctor said.
Dorium sighed. "Then I shall tell you. But on your own head be it."
Susan and The Doctor are now back inside the Tardis. "It's not my fault. Put me back. Ow! I've fallen on my nose. Have you got wi-fi here? I'm 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. You do see that you two have to die."
Senate Room
The Doctor and Susan were now in the Senate room. "But what was the question? Why did it mean your death?" Churchill asked.
"Suppose there was a man who knew a secret. A terrible, dangerous secret that must never be told. How would you erase that secret from the world? Destroy it forever, before it can be spoken."
"If I had to, I'd destroy the man."
"And silence would fall. All the times I've heard those words, I never realised it was my silence, my death. The Doctor will fall."
"And how does Susan fit into all this?" Churchill asked.
"Because I know too much." Susan replied, closing her eyes for a brief second, then opening them again. "And the person organizing our deaths has a personal vendetta against me."
"Why are we here?" The Doctor asked... they were in a different room than where they were before.
"This, this is the Senate Room." Churchill said matter a factly.
"Why did we leave your office?" Susan aked, pushing her cracked glasses farther up her nose.
"Well, we wanted a stroll, didn't we?"
"I think I've been running. Why do you have your revolver?" The Doctor said.
"Well, you're dangerous company, Soothsayer." There is a single tally mark on the Doctor's arm.
"Yes. I think I am." The Doctor breathed.
"Resume your story." Churchill ordered.
Tardis
"Doctor, please, open my hatch. I've got an awful headache. Which to be honest means more than it used to. It's like some terrible weight pressing down on my-" The Doctor has put Dorium's box down upside down. "Oh. I see."
"Why Lake Silencio? Why Utah?" Susan asked Dorium.
"It's a still point in time. Makes it easier to create a fixed point. And your death is a fixed point, Doctor, Susan. You can't run away from this."
"Been running all my life. Why should I stop?"
"Because now you know what's at stake. Why your life must end. And your's Susan, yours is to fulfill revenge."
"Not today." Susan growled.
"What's the point in delaying? How long have you delayed already?"
The Doctor makes a telephone call. "Been knocking about. A bit of a farewell tour. Things to do, people to see. There's always more. I could invent a new colour, save the Dodo, join the Beatles. Hello, it's me. Get him. Tell him, we're going out and it's all on me, except for the money and driving. I have got a time machine, Dorium. It's all still going on. For me, it never stops. Liz the First is still waiting in a glade to elope with me. I could help Rose Tyler with her homework."
"Time catches up with us all, Doctor."
"Well, it has never laid a glove on me! Hello?" The Doctor asked.
"Doctor, I'm so sorry. We didn't know how to contact you. I'm afraid Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart passed away a few months ago. Doctor?" A nurse said.
"Yes. Yes, I-"
"It was very peaceful. He talked a lot about you, if that's any comfort. Always made us pour an extra brandy in case you came round one of these days." The nurse said.
"Doctor? What's wrong?" Dorium asked as Susan rubbed The Doctor's arm.
"Nothing. Nothing. It's just." He puts the phone down and takes the Tardis blue envelopes from his pocket. The Doctor looked at Susan. "It's time. It's time." Susan sighed, closing her eyes.
"Surely you could deliver the messages yourself?" The Teselecta asked.
"It would involve crossing my own time stream. Best not."
"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." Susan said.
"Doctor, 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 Teselecta asked as Susan followed The Doctor out the door.
Senate Room
"Why would you do this?"
Earlier
The postman delivers the invitation to Rory and Amy. River gets hers, too. An pregnant version of Susan gets hers and shows it to Jack.
Senate Room
"Of all the things you've told me, this I find hardest to believe. Why would you invite your friends to see your death?"
"I had to die." The Doctor said.
"I didn't have to die alone." Susan finished.
Road
The Doctor and Susan are leaning up against a car. "Doctor!" Amy yelled excitedly. "Susan!"
Senate Room
"Amy and Rory. The last Centurion and the girl who waited. However dark it got, I'd turn around, and there they'd be." The Doctor said.
Road
"My best friends." Susan said, smiling a sad smile.
Senate Room
"If it's time to go, remember what you're leaving. Remember the best. My friends have always been the best of me." The Doctor said.
"And did you tell them this was going to happen?" Churchill asked.
"It would help if you didn't keep asking questions." Susan remarked, frowning slightly.
There are three tally marks on his arm now and two on Susan's. "We don't have much time." The Doctor said sadly.
Road
River shoots off his stetson.
Senate Room
"And this woman you spoke of. Did you invite her?" Churchill's voice asked.
Road
"Hello, sweetie." River said flirtatiously.
Senate Room
"Yes, she was there. River Song came twice."
"And what about that husband?"
"He came once." Susan replied dryly.
Beach Side
"Napoleon gave me this bottle. Well, I say gave. Threw. Salud!" The Doctor said.
"Salud!" Everyone said together.
"So, when are we going to 1969?" Rory asked.
"Everything was in place. We only had to do one more thing. We only had to die."
The Doctor and Susan wave at Delaware by his pickup, and River sees two Impossible Astronauts.
"Oh, my God." River said.
"You all need to stay back."
Susan agreed, nodding her head. "Whatever happens now, you do not interfere."
"That's an astronaut. That's an Apollo astronaut in the lake." Rory said.
The Doctor and Susan go to the astronaut, who is now the adult River, not the child Melody as before. As The Doctor looks at River, Susan looks at her husband, Jack.
"Well, then. Here we are at last." The Doctor said.
"Hello Jack." Susan Harkness said.
"I can't stop it." River said, tears flowing down her cheeks.
"The suit's in control." Jack said.
"You're not supposed to be. This has to happen." The Doctor said.
"Run." Jack said, pained. "Susan, please Run."
"I did run." Susan said softly.
"Running brought me here." The Doctor told River.
"I'm trying to fight it, but I can't. It's too strong." River said and choked back a sob.
"I know. It's okay. This is where I die. This is a fixed point. This must happen. This always happens. Don't worry. You won't even remember this. Look over there."
"What about me?" Jack asked as The Doctor talked to River. "Will I remember?"
Susan winced, her expression wavered, threatening to break. "I'm sorry Jack. You will. I forgive you. I will always forgive you. Take care of Amelia for me."
"So that you know this is inevitable. And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven." The Doctor told River.
"Please, my love, please, please just run!" River cried.
"Run Susan! Run!" Jack cried as he struggled against the power of the suit. "Please!"
"I can't." The Doctor and Susan said at the same time.
"Time can be rewritten." River said.
"Don't you dare. Goodbye, River." The Doctor said.
"Bye Jack." Susan says, crying. Susan doesn't close her eyes, but keeps staring directly in Jack's. "I Love you."
The Doctor winks, then shuts his eyes. The astronaut suit zaps him multiple times but he doesn't die this time.
"Hello, Sweetie." River said.
"Hey, Susan." Jack says, starting to smile.
"What have you two done?" Susan breathed out.
"Well, I think I just drained my weapon systems." River said.
"But this is fixed. This is a fixed point in time." The Doctor said.
"Fixed points can be rewritten." Jack said, fully grinning now, not recognizing what he has done.
"No, they can't." The Doctor said, panicking. "Of course they can't. Who told you that-" Everything dissolves into white.
A/N:
Favorite:
hrodenhaver
Reviewer:
alwaystherereading: Here is Part 1! I know, I'm evil for splitting up this chapter.