"I bet you're wondering how I get out every night? Why I'm under maximum security? Yes, you heard me right," River smiled delightedly, "I've seen handsome men like you guarding my door with those big bad guns. They come and go. Now and again I get a stubborn one who doesn't think they'll succumb, but they always do in the end."

The young guard hit the prison bar with the butt of his gun. A loud ringing noise echoed through the hall.

"Was that supposed to shut me up?"

He opened his mouth to say something and River gripped her lipstick in her palm. The phone across from her cell rang.

Dr. Song rolled her eyes as the guard walked over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"he spoke, "Yes, she's here...a what...? A doctor...? The Doctor...?"

River stiffened in her cell.

The young man had a confused look on his face, "Doctor Who?"

"Give me that phone right now!" River leapt at the bars, her arm stretched out towards him. She never pleaded and begged with one of the men before, but her Doctor was calling and she never let it go to voicemail.

A smug expression crossed the male guard's face.

"No, she's unavailable at the moment."

River growled from behind her cage.

"I can take a message?" he smiled tauntingly at her.

River was the daughter of Rory and Amy Pond, she was born on an asteroid called Demon's Run, she was raised by a psychotic war general named Madame Kovarian, she had witnessed the destruction of the universe twice, one of those was caused by her. She wasn't about to let some cocky man guard stop her from talking to her Doctor. Dr. Song was always prepared. From under her cot she pulled out a device. It was a square gun, one she used with the Tenth Doctor in the library against the Vashta Nerada. The trigger pulled under her fingertips and she leapt through the freshly seared square opening in her bars. River charged the guard and dropped him to the floor. A quick application of her hypnotic lipstick, a small peck, and he was out.

Dr. Song picked up the dangling receiver which had a worried and scared voice coming through it. Definitely not Doctor like.

"Hello? River? Are you there, River?"

"Hello," she responded, out of breath, "who is this? Doctor?"

"Oh, thank God," a young female voice sighed, "it's me, Clara Oswald."

"Clara, how are you? What's going on?"

"It's the Doctor and Jack. We went to a planet called Akhatan and the Doctor was regenerating but he used his power to blow up this evil sun parasite instead. He isn't waking up and I don't know what to do. River, please someone-something is knocking at the door and I don't know what to do," Clara's voice cracked a little.

"Where is Jack?"

"He got a rock in the back trying to protect the Doctor," the young girl fretted, "I know the Captain can resurrect, but how long will it take? I hear strange alien voices outside and the banging keeps getting louder."

"The TARDIS isn't translating?" a cold feeling of dread swept up River's spine. If the TARDIS wasn't working properly then they were in deep trouble.

"I can't understand them that well, but no, definitely not English."

"Damn," she covered the receiver with her hand so Clara wouldn't hear. The Doctor and the Tardis were connected, if something happened to either one of them the other would be affected. She let her hand go, "everything is going to be fine, Clara, trust me. Go to the Doctor and Jack now."

She could hear the young girl's footsteps across the metal cage flooring of the TARDIS.

"How does he look?"

"The Doctor? He looks the same but he feels hot-burning even."

"You said he hadn't regenerated yet?"

"No, he used the power to blow up the parasite."

"A sun parasite?"

"Yeah," even Clara sounded like she was trying to convince herself of what she had seen.

"Right now the Doctor's regenerative powers are trying to reproduce. He's hovering between a life and death state, which means he'll remain catatonic until his powers are fully restored."

"Right, how long will that take?"

River didn't answer.

"Dr. Song?" Clara's voice wavered a little.

"Clara, I don't know it could be hours, days, weeks, months, years. He's the last of the Time Lords, we have no idea how his body works. Prop him up next to Jack, so when the Captain wakes up he'll know what to do. But that's not our biggest worry right now," it was, however, at the top of River's list. Her beloved was possibly dead. Her heart wrenched and she felt tears sting her eyes but pushed them away. Clara was already scared and River needed to act strong for her, so they could have a chance to save the Doctor, "go to console and you'll see a screen."

"Yeah," Clara huffed, "I see it."

"There's a blue and a red lever under it. Press the blue one, the red one is just for show, the Doctor likes it."

Clara laughed shakily and did as she was told, "Okay."

"An image should be filtering in."

"It did," Clara's voice sounded small and meek.

"Who are they? What is it?"

"It's a Sycoraxan warship, 6 of them are standing outside the door and we're caught in their ship's orbit."

River cursed under her breath, of course, it had to be the Sycorax, "Clara, listen to me very carefully. Go to the Captain and lift up his sleeve."

Clara felt a tear slide down her face and she welcomed it. However, she did do what River said and approached Jack. His jacket was torn on the floor and his white shirt hung upon him like rags. Blood stained his body and the tattered fabric hanging on him but his face was expressionless, he looked like he could be sleeping. Sleeping in a horror film.

"I'm by him."

"On his wrist he has a device called the Time Vortex Manipulator. Cheap form of travel, but it'll do the job."

"I see it," Clara gazed down at the leather strapped device clinging to Jack's pale forearm.

"Now type in these coordinates," River read her off an intricate list of numbers and letters to the young girl to type.

"Then grab his hand and press down on the blue glowing button, but step away quickly," the older woman warned the young girl, "you don't want to come with him."

"C-Come with him? Where is he going?" Clara asked hesitantly, her hand hovered above the button River instructed her to press.

"Clara?"

"Yes?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Y-yes."

"Then press the button."

What the hell,

She slammed her palm down upon the button, a jolt of pain rode up her arm as her charred flesh was irritated by the force. Clara jumped back and covered her eyes as the slightly damaged and sparking Time Vortex Manipulator pulled Jack through the fabric in time and he disappeared a moment later.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A series of alien voices spoke in an unfamiliar and menacing language.

Clara crawled over to her Doctor, careful of his body and her injured hand. She felt like he was a porcelain doll with a crack through its center. One touch, one disturbance and he would shatter. The first time she met this remarkable man, she guided him through the Asylum, the Dalek's planet for the Destroyed and Useless. He had managed to provide her with a glimpse of light, a ray of hope in her bleak captivity and he pulled her out. Chin boy. After their adventures together, she couldn't believe how boring and bleak life was without her Time Lord. His body was hunched over against one of the TARDIS walls, his head was bent over his body and his flawless hair drooped from his head. The stylish tweed jacket he wore was wrinkled and a little singed, his seamed pants were scuffed and his boots were dirty. This simply wasn't the image of the Doctor. Clara knew that she couldn't help him even if she wanted, it's not like he kept a manual on How to Cure a Time Lord. She wished there was at least that in this huge machine. The TARDIS and her had a rocky relationship at times but right now all Clara could feel was sympathy. The familiar blue police box seemed dark, the engine groaned painfully, and the lights flickered dimly. She simply wasn't the TARDIS that Clara had, reluctantly, grown to love. The Doctor and the TARDIS' connection was one of unimaginable power and she would never understand the bond that the two held after 900 and some years. If only she could-

Clara's train of thought was interrupted as she was thrown to the side, barely able to steady herself with the metal railing. Unluckily, her Doctor didn't have a railing to crash into. She screamed as he crashed against the opposite wall, a box of books and other objects fell on him. The TARDIS' seemed to come alive in that moment. The engines screamed and the lights erupted in a shower of sparks. The police box seemed to have seen her Doctor fall too.

"Doctor?" Clara choked.

The TARDIS still shook and shuddered.

"What the hell was that?" she thought to herself out loud.

Bang. Bang. Crack.

Clara slowly turned her head to look towards the entrance. The banging from the Sicorax seemed to be getting louder. The companion ran to the console to see the monitor, the aliens had brought a battering ram like object to the doors. The supernova parasite blast and the Doctor's health had the defenses down. The small glass windows lined along the top shook and cracked, the door splintered.

"River, where are you!?" Clara shouted.