Through Thick and Thin
Forest of the Dead
Thanks to HeavenNHell0 for favouriting this story.
The skeleton continued to advance on everyone, still repeating "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"Use ya phaser!" Shareen hollered to River, who fired her sonic blaster at the wall, leaving a square-shaped opening large enough for everyone to escape through.
"This way! Quickly! Move!" River urged the group, who didn't need telling twice and all climbed through the opening to safety.
~8~
Donna found herself sitting on a hospital bed in pyjamas when a black man in a suit entered the room. "Who are you?" Donna asked as she stood.
"I'm Dr Moon." the man replied. "I've been treating you since you came here two years ago."
"Oh, God." Donna blinked in recognition. "Dr Moon, I'm so sorry. What's wrong with me? I didn't know ya for a moment."
"And then you remembered." Dr Moon said calmly. "Shall we go for a walk?"
~8~
Next thing Donna knew, she and Dr Moon were walking outside the hospital "No more dreams, then?" Dr Moon asked. "The Doctor, the girl and the blue box, time and space?"
"How did we get here?" Donna asked, looking at her surroundings and wandering how they'd changed at the blink of an eye.
"We came down the stairs, out the front door. We passed Mrs Ali on the way out."
"Yeah." Donna nodded. "Yeah, we did I forgot that."
"And then you remembered. Shall we go down to the river?"
~8~
Next moment, Donna found herself by a river bank with Dr Moon. "You said 'river'," Donna frowned, "and suddenly we're feeding ducks."
"Dr Moon!" a voice called, and Donna turned to see a handsome man dressed in fishing gear walk up. "Morning!" he greeted them.
"Donna Noble, Lee McAvoy." Dr Moon introduced.
"Hello, Lee." Donna greeted.
"Hello, D-D." Lee stammered.
"Ooh, ya've got a bit of a stammer there." Donna smiled. "Bless."
"D-D."
"Oh, skip to a vowel," Donna advised, "they're easy."
~8~
All of a sudden, Donna found herself walking back to the hospital with Dr Moon. "How did we leave it, him and me?" she asked.
"I was under the impression he was inviting you fishing tomorrow." Dr Moon replied.
~8~
Donna stepped into Lee's room, dressed for a date. "So, fishing?" she asked Lee, who was dressed for fishing.
~8~
Donna and Lee sat on the river bank, sheltering from the rain under an umbrella. "D-D." Lee tried to speak.
"Gorgeous, and can't speak a word." Donna smiled. "What am I gonna do with you?"
~8~
Lee carried Donna, who was wearing a wedding dress, across the threshold of a house. "Welcome home, M-Mrs McAvoy." Lee said and kissed his new bride.
~8~
Dr Moon sat in the living room of the McAvoy home, looking at a family photo album as Lee and Donna's two children ran around the room. "Stop it." Donna gently chided her kids. "Stop it now, we've got a visitor."
"You've done so much in seven years, Donna." Dr Moon smiled.
"Sometimes it feels more like 70." Donna remarked. "Mind you, sometimes it feels like no time at all." she furrowed a brow in confusion.
Dr Moon stood up and picked up his briefcase. "Can I just say what a pleasure it is to see you fully integrated."
Then, Dr Moon suddenly flicked and disappeared, replaced by a tall, slender young woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair, olive-toned skin and dark brown eyes, who appeared to be messing about with a black parker pen with a blue light at the end. "... definitely comin' from up there." she said. "I'm trying to block it, but it's breakin' through." Then she saw Donna. "Oh, my God! Donna!" she exclaimed, then disappeared and Dr Moon reappeared in his place.
"Oops, sorry." Dr Moon belched. "Mrs Angelo's rhubarb surprise. Will I ever learn?"
Donna sat down in shock. "Shareen!" she gasped. "I just saw Shareen!"
"Yes you did, Donna." Dr Moon said calmly. "And then you forgot."
Donna blinked a few times, snapping back to reality. "Dr Moon, oh, hello! Shall I make ya a cup of tea?"
~8~
In The Library, River used her blaster to cut a hole in a wall, revealing a reading room on the other side. "Ok, we've got a clear spot." River said, "In! In! In!" And everyone piled into the room. "Right in the centre, middle of the light, quickly!" River ordered. "Doctor!"
"I'm doing it." the Doctor replied, crouching down in the corner and using his sonic screwdriver to check the shadows for Vashta Nerada. Shareen followed suit with her sonic pen.
"There's no light here. Sunlight's coming." River observed, looking at the skylight. It was early evening and the moon was just starting to come out. "We can't stay long. Have you two found live ones?" she asked the two time travellers.
"Maybe. It's gettin' harder to tell." the Doctor replied, tapping the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "What's wrong with you?" he grumbled to it.
"We're gonna need a chicken leg." River determined. "Who's got a chicken leg?" Dave handed her one. "Thanks, Dave." River acknowledged and tossed the leg into the shadow the Doctor was trying to scan. The leg was stripped to the bare bone, confirming the presence of Vashta Nerada. "Ok, we've got a hot one. Watch ya feet." River warned.
"They won't attack until there's enough of 'em." the Doctor elaborated. "But they've got our scent now. They're coming."
"Who is he?" Dave asked River. "You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him?"
"He's the Doctor." River replied simply.
"And who is the Doctor?" Mr Lux demanded.
"The only story you'll ever tell," River replied, "if you survive him."
"You say he's your friend but he doesn't even know who you are." Anita said. "And neither does his friend over there. Who's she, anyway?"
"Listen, all you need to know is this: I'd trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been." River said, avoiding the question about Shareen.
"He doesn't act like he trusts you." Anita remarked.
"Yeah, there's a tiny problem, he hasn't met me yet." River sighed, then walked over to where the Doctor was struggling with his sonic screwdriver. "What's wrong with it?" she asked him
"There's a signal comin' from somewhere interfering with it." the Doctor replied.
"Yeah, mine too." Shareen added from where she was having the same problems with her sonic pen.
"Use the red setting, Doctor." River advised.
"It doesn't have a red setting." the Doctor retorted.
"Well, use the dampers."
"It doesn't have dampers."
"Mine does." River shrugged, taking out her own sonic screwdriver and showing him some things attached to the sides of the emitter head, evidently dampers, then she flicked a switch and the blue emitter changed colour to red.
The Doctor took it from her and examined it closely. "So, sometime in the future, I just give you a screwdriver?" he questioned.
"Yeah."
"Why would I do that?" the Doctor narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"I didn't pluck it from your cold, dead hands if that's what you're worried about." River rolled her eyes.
"And I know that because...?" the Doctor said coldy.
"Listen to me." River said in exasperation. "You've both lost your friend. She's upset and you're angry, I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor. Right now..."
"Less emo.." the Doctor scowled, "I'm not emotional!"
"There are six people in this room still alive." River persisted. "Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work when you're young. I don't know how you put up with him." she said to Shareen.
Shareen was about to respond but the Doctor got there first. "Young?! Who are you?!" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh, for God's sake, get some perspective will ya?" Shareen interrupted, fed up with all the squabbling. "We've lost Donna, we're been chased by a bloody skeleton in a spacesuit, an' you two are arguin' like an old married couple!"
Seeing that Shareen had a point, River took a breath. "Doctor, one day I'm gonna be someone you trust completely. But I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry, I'm really... very sorry." She leaned forward and whispered something in the Doctor's ear, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. "Are we good?" River asked the stunned Time Lord.
"Yeah." the Doctor murmured. "Yeah, we're good."
"Good." River said and took her sonic screwdriver back.
"What did she say to you?" Shareen asked the Doctor quietly.
"She told me what I needed to know." the Doctor replied, then got back to the problem at hand. "Know what's interesting about my screwdriver and Shareen's pen?" he addressed everyone. "Very hard to interfere with, practically nothing strong enough... well, maybe some hairdryers, but I'm working on that. So there is a very strong coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before, so what's new? What's changed?" The Humans all just looked at him blankly. "Come on! What's new? What's different?"
"I dunno, nothing." Dave shook his head. "It's getting dark?" he offered.
"They're a screwdriver and a pen, they work in the dark." the Doctor retorted flatly, then looked up at the skylight. "Moonrise." He turned to Mr Lux. "Tell us about the moon. What's there?"
"It's not real, it's part of The Library." Mr Lux replied. "It's just a doctor moon."
"And what's that when it's at home?" Shareen asked.
"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet." Mr Lux explained.
The Doctor examined his sonic screwdriver. "Well, it's still active. It's signalling, look. Someone in this library is alive and communicating with the moon, or alive and possibly drying their hair."
"Nope, it's definitely comin' from up there." Shareen said, checking her sonic pen. "I'm trying to block it, but it's breakin' through." Suddenly, a hazy image of Donna appeared in front of them. "Oh, my God! Donna!" she exclaimed, before Donna suddenly disappeared again.
"That was her. That was your friend." River said to the Doctor. "Can you get her back? What was that?"
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, I'm trying to the find the wavelength." the Doctor said, fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. "Ah, I'm being blocked!" he groaned.
"Me too." Shareen added, frantically waving her sonic pen around. "Come on, ya stupid thing. Work, dammit!"
River tried too, using her sonic screwdriver's red setting, but even with three sonic devices, it was no good.
"Professor..." Anita called, sounding worried.
"Just a moment." River waved her off.
"It's important." Anita said. "I've got two shadows."
Everyone looked, and sure enough, Anita had two shadows. "Ok, helmets on, everybody." River ordered. "Anita, I'll get yours."
"Didn't do Proper Dave any good." Anita muttered.
"Just keep it together, ok?" River said, picking up Anita's helmet.
"Keeping it together, I'm only crying." Anita said as River put the helmet on her. "I'm about to die, it's not an overreaction."
"Hang on." the Doctor said, walking over and flashing his sonic screwdriver over the helmet, blackening the visor.
"Sh*t! They've gotten in!" Shareen gasped.
"No, no, I tinted the visor." the Doctor told her. "Maybe they'll think they're already in there, leave her alone."
"You think they can be fooled like that?" River asked him.
"Maybe, I don't know." the Doctor replied. "It's a swarm, it's not like we chat."
"Can you still see in there?" Dave asked Anita.
"Just about." she replied
"Just-just-just stay back." the Doctor cautioned. "Shareen, Professor, quick word please?" And he, Shareen and River squatted down in a corner, out of earshot of the others.
"What is it?" River asked.
"You said there are six people people still alive in this room." the Doctor replied.
"Yeah, so?"
"So... why are there seven?" the Doctor whispered urgently.
Everyone spun round to see a figure in a spacesuit standing in the doorway, which hadn't been sealed up. "Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave's Vashta Nerada-controlled skeleton said as it stomped into the room.
"I wish it would stop sayin' that." Shareen groaned.
"Run!" the Doctor yelled, and they all took off running. The skeleton gave chase, much faster this time.
~8~
Donna returned to her living room with a cup of tea in hand. "Here ya are, Dr Moon." she said, only to see that Dr Moon had gone. Instead, her daughter Ella was there.
"Mommy, I made you!" Ella said, showing Donna a clay figure.
"Ooh, that's nice, Ella, where's the face?" Donna asked.
"I don't know."
"Did ya see Dr Moon?" Donna asked. "Did he leave?"
Just then, Lee entered the room. "Daddy!" both children cried, running up to hug their father.
"Hey!" Lee laughed. "Hello you two! Come here. Big hugs. Daddy hugs!"
"Look what I made." Ella said, showing him the clay figure.
"Oh, it's mummy." Lee noted.
"It hasn't got a face. " Donna said to him. "Did ya see Dr Moon?"
"No. Why, was he here?"
"Yeah, just a second ago. You must've passed him." Donna said and went to the window. It was dark outside whereas it'd been daylight just a few seconds ago. She could also see a figure in black disappear behind some trees.
"You alright?" Lee asked, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just..."
"Just?"
"Nothing." Donna shook herself out of it and hugged her husband. "It's been a long day, that's all. I'm just tired."
~8~
Next thing Donna knew, she and Lee were in their bedroom getting ready for bed. "You ok?" Lee asked, seeing how confused Donna looked.
"I said I was tired, and..." Donna racked her memory, "we put the kids to bed and watched television." She was just about to climb into bed when the letterbox sounded. "Was that a letter?"
"It's midnight." Lee pointed out.
"Go and see what it is."
Lee went downstairs to check while Donna peered out of the window. She saw a figure in a black cloak and veil walking along the pavement outside.
"'The world is wrong'." Lee read as he came back into the room carrying a letter.
"What?"
"For you." Lee confirmed. "Weird, though. 'Dear Donna, the world is wrong. Meet me at your usual playpark at 2:00 tomorrow." He handed her the note and they both watched out of the window as the mysterious figure walked away.
"Nutter." Donna muttered.
~8~
Next afternoon, Donna and her two children arrived at the playpark, where she could see the mysterious figure sitting on a bench waiting. "All right, you two. Off ya go." Donna told her kids. "No fighting." The kids scampered away to play while Donna walked over to the person in black. "I got ya note last night." she said. "'The world is wrong.', what's that mean?"
"No, you didn't." the person said, Donna noticing they had a woman's voice.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You didn't get my note last night. You got it a few seconds ago." the woman told Donna. "Having decided to come, you suddenly found yourself arriving. That is how time progresses here, in the manner of a dream. You've suspected that before, haven't you, Donna Noble?"
"How d'ya know me?" Donna questioned
"We met before. In The Library." the woman replied. "You and Miss Costello were kind to me. I hope now to return that kindness."
"Your voice," Donna frowned, "I recognise it."
"Yes, you do. I am what is left of Miss Evangelista."
Donna suddenly had flashbacks of a young dark-haired woman being picked on by other people in a library, and herself and the young dark-haired woman she'd seen the day before comforting the dark-haired woman.
~8~
In The Library, the group ran through hallways with the skeleton in close pursuit when they reached a walkway connecting two buildings. The Doctor stopped in the middle. "Shareen, Professor, go ahead. Find a safe spot." he ordered.
"Oh, for God's sake, Peacock, it's a bloody skeleton!" Shareen said, exasperated. "I don't think it wants to talk to us!"
"Just give me five minutes." the Doctor waved her off.
"Other Dave, stay with him." River ordered. "Pull him out when he's too stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor! Shareen, come on!" And she, Shareen, Anita and Mr Lux hurried away.
The skeleton came lumbering into view. "Hey, who turned out the lights?" it said for the umpteenth time.
"You hear that?" the Doctor said. "Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if ya don't have the decency to let him go, how 'bout this? Use him, talk to me. It's easy, neural relay. Just point and think. Use him, talk to me."
"Hey, who turned out the lights?" the skeleton repeated as it continued it's advance.
"The Vashta Nerada live on all worlds in this system but you hunt in forests." the Doctor persevered. "But what're you doin' in a library?"
"We should go. Doctor!" Dave called.
"In a minute." the Doctor waved him off and turned back to the skeleton. "You came to The Library to hunt. Why? Just tell me, why?"
The skeleton halted it's advance. "We... did... not." the Vashta Nerada spoke.
"Oh, hello." the Doctor smirked.
"We did not."
"Take it easy. You'll get the hang of it."
"We did not come here."
"Of course you did." the Doctor frowned. "'Course ya came here."
"We come FROM here."
"From here?" the Doctor furrowed a brow.
"We hatched here." the Vashta Nerada confirmed.
"But you hatched from trees," the Doctor said, "from spores in trees."
"These are our forests."
"You're nowhere near a forest." the Doctor said. "Look around you."
"These are our forests!"
"Ya not in a forest, you're in a library!" the Doctor countered. "There're no trees in a... library." he tailed off as he had a sudden realisation.
"We should go. Doctor!" Dave called again.
"Books. You came in the books." the Doctor said to the Vashta Nerada. "Microspores in a million million books."
"We should go. Doctor!" Dave repeated.
"Oh, look at that." the Doctor said, looking out of the window at the vast expanse of library beyond. "The forests of the Vashta Nerada, pulped, printed and bound. A million million books, hatching shadows."
"We should go. Doctor!" Dave repeated yet again.
The Doctor turned to Dave and saw that the lights in his neural relay were blinking and there was only a skeleton inside his suit. "Dave, I'm so sorry." the Doctor sighed, realising that the Vashta Nerada had gotten Dave while he wasn't looking.
Both skeletons began to advance on the Time Lord, repeating their last words over and over.
The Doctor stood on a trapdoor in the floor. "Thing about me, I'm stupid." he said coolly. "I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Wanna know the only reason I'm still alive? Always stay near the door!" And with that, he used his sonic screwdriver on the trapdoor, thus opening it. The Doctor fell through the opening, grabbed hold of the girder supporting the walkway and began to shimmy along it, his sonic screwdriver clamped between his teeth.
~8~
In the playground, Donna and Miss Evangelista were talking. "I suggested we meet here because a playground's the easiest place to see it. See the lie." Miss Evangelista explained.
"What lie?" Donna questioned.
"The children. Look at the children."
Donna didn't want to and changed the subject. "Why d'ya wear that veil? If I had a face like yours, I wouldn't hide it."
"You remember my face, then." Miss Evangelista remarked. "The memories are all still there. The Library, the Doctor, Miss Costello, me. You've just been programmed not to remember."
"Sorry, but you're... dead?" Donna frowned, having a flashback to seeing a skeleton.
"In a way, we're all dead here, Donna. We are the dead of The Library."
"Well, what about the children?" Donna demanded. "The children aren't dead. My children aren't dead!"
"Your children were never alive."
"Don't you dare say that!" Donna growled. "Don't you dare say that about my children!"
"Look at your children." Miss Evangelista said simply. "Look at all of them. Really look. They're not real. Do you see it now? They're all the same." Donna looked and sure enough, every child was identical, the same boy and girl over and over again, right down to the clothes. "All the children of this world, the same boy and the same girl, over and over again."
"Stop it!" Donna lashed out. "Why are ya doing this?! Why d'ya wear that veil?" She pulled the veil off to reveal that the once attractive face of Miss Evangelista was distorted and warped, like a Picasso painting. Donna promptly screamed in terror at the sight.
~8~
Night was falling on The Library. The remaining Humans had taken shelter in a yellow reading room and River and Shareen were now using their sonic devices to check the shadows for Vashta Nerada. "You know... it's funny, I keep wishing the Doctor was here." River remarked.
"The Doctor is here." Shareen replied. "Trust me, it's gonna take more than killer shadows to get rid of Peacock!"
River studied the young woman thoughtfully for a moment. "You know when you see a photograph of people you know, but it's from years before you knew them? It's like they're not quite... finished, they're not done yet." she said meaningfully. "Well... yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now, my Doctor... I've seen whole armies turn and run away, and he'd just swagger off back to the TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the TARDIS... next stop: everywhere."
"Spoilers." the Doctor's voice said, and everyone turned to see him enter the room. "Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers." the Doctor said. "Doesn't work like that."
"It does for the Doctor." River replied.
"I am the Doctor." the Time Lord retorted, offended at the implication that his current incarnation was not the 'proper' one.
"Yeah, someday." River snorted as the Doctor went over to check on Anita.
Shareen meanwhile noticed that someone was missing. "Where's Other Dave?" she asked.
"Not coming, sorry." the Doctor sighed.
"Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten ME yet?" Anita wandered.
"I dunno." the Doctor said, checking Anita's double shadows. "Maybe tinting the visor's makin' a difference."
"It's making a difference alright. No one's ever gonna see my face again." Anita said glumly.
"There's gotta be some way of beating those things." Shareen tried to lift her spirits. "Is there anything we can get ya?"
"An old age would be nice." Anita replied. "Doctor, is there ANYTHING you can do?"
"I'm all over it." the Doctor reassured her, though he knew it was just giving Anita false hope.
"Doctor, when we first met, you didn't trust River Song." Anita said. "And then she whispered a word in your ear. My life so far, I could do with a word like that. What did she say?" The Doctor didn't answer her. "Give a dead girl a break." Anita chuckled bravely. "Your secrets are safe with me."
"Safe?" the Doctor muttered thoughtfully. "Safe, ya don't say 'saved'. Nobody says 'saved', ya say 'safe'. The data fragment, what did it say?" he asked Mr Lux
"'4022 people saved, no survivors.'" Mr Lux replied.
Shareen recognised the look on the Doctor's face as the one he had when getting a brainwave. "Well?" she asked him.
"Nobody says saved." the Doctor told her, "Nutters say 'saved'. Ya say safe. It didn't mean safe, it literally meant... saved!"
Shareen stared, then realisation dawned on her. "Oh, blimey." she murmured.
~8~
Miss Evangelista had replaced her veil and Donna had calmed down from her shock. "What happened to ya face?" she asked
"Transcription errors." Miss Evangelista replied with a shrug, "Destroyed my face, did wonders for my intellect. I'm a very poor copy of myself."
"Where are we?" Donna questioned, "Why are the children all the same?"
"The same pattern over and over. It saves an awful lot of space."
"Space?"
"Cyberspace."
~8~
In The Library, the Doctor was at a computer terminal explaining what he'd realised. "See? There it is, right there. 100 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 4022 people?" River questioned.
"Suceeded, pulled 'em all out." the Doctor replied. "But then what? Nowhere to send 'em, nowhere safe in The Library with Vastha Nerada growing in every shadow. 4022 people all beamed up an' 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 to the hard drive." Shareen took over. "All those people, they're inside the computer core of this planet. And I bet Donna's in there too."
~8~
"Your physical self is stored in The Library as an energy signature." Miss Evangelista explained to Donna. "It can be actualised again whenever you or The Library requires."
"The Library?" Donna questioned, then remembered something; "If my face ends up on one of those statues..."
"You remember the statues?"
"Wait, no." Donna shook her head as she strained to remember. "Just... hang on. So, this isn't the real me? This isn't my body? But I've been dieting!"
"What you see around you, this entire world... is nothing more than a virtual reality." Miss Evangelista explained.
"So why d'ya look like that?"
"I had no choice. You teleported, you're a perfect reproduction. I was just a data ghost caught in the Wi-Fi and automatically uploaded.
"And that made you clever?"
"We're only strings of numbers here." Miss Evangelista said calmly. "I think a decimal point may have shifted, but my face has been the bigger advantage. I have the two qualities you require to see the absolute truth. I am brilliant and unloved.
"If this is all a dream, who's dream is it?" Donna asked.
"It's hard to see everything in the datacore," Miss Evangelista replied, "even for me. But there is a word, just one word... CAL."
Donna's attention was suddenly caught by her daughter calling out, "Mummy, my knee!"
Donna quickly ran over to where Ella had fallen. "Oh, look at that knee. Oh, look at that silly knee." she said as she hugged her daughter.
"She's not real." Miss Evangelista reminded. "They're fictions. I'm sorry, but now that you understand that, you won't be able to keep a hold. They are sustained only by your belief."
"You don't know!" Donna glared. "You don't have children."
"Neither do you." Miss Evangelista countered coolly as Donna walked away with her children. "Donna, for your own sake's, let them go."
~8~
In The Library, an alarm suddenly sounded. "What is it?" Mr Lux questioned. "What's wrong?"
"Auto-destruct enabled in 20 minutes." the computer announced.
"Does that answer ya question?" Shareen said to Mr Lux as she and the Doctor raced over to a computer terminal.
~8~
Donna and her children walked away from the park. "Mummy, what did the lady mean?" Ella asked. "Are we not real?"
"Where are we going?" Donna's son Joshua asked.
"Home." Donna replied, and in the blink of an eye, they found themselves in their living room. An alarm was sounding somewhere and everything was bathed in a red light.
"That was quick, wasn't it, mummy?" Joshua said.
"Mummy, what's wrong with the sky?" Ella asked.
Donna looked out of the window in horror at the red void outside.
~8~
"What's maximum erasure?" River asked as she, the Doctor and Shareen looked at the computer monitor.
"20 minutes, this planet's gonna crack like an egg." the Doctor replied grimly.
"No, no, it's alright." Mr Lux said. "The doctor moon will stop it. It's designed to protect CAL."
No sooner had he said that, then the terminal shut down. "No, no, no, no!" the Doctor groaned, frantically sonicing it to get it back online.
"All Library systems are permanently offline." the computer announced. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
"Do you have a plan B?" Shareen asked Mr Lux.
"We need to stop this." Mr Lux said. "We've gotta save CAL."
"What is it? What is CAL?" the Doctor asked.
Mr Lux swallowed, deciding that it was time he came clean. "We need to get to the main computer, I'll show you." he said.
"It's at the core of the planet." the Doctor pointed out.
"Well then, let's go!" River said and aimed her sonic screwdriver at an emblem in the middle of the floor, which opened to reveal a blue beam of light. "Gravity platform." she explained to the Doctor.
"I bet I like you." an impressed Doctor remarked.
"I think I am already." Shareen commented, and they all stepped onto a platform that was in the middle of the light beam, which then began to descend.
~8~
Donna and her children were huddled together on the settee. "Mummy, you're hurting my hand." Joshua moaned.
"You just stay where I can see ya." Donna said, disturbed by Miss Evangelista's revelation. "You don't get outta my sight."
"Is it bedtime?" Ella asked.
~8~
Next moment, the children were tucked up in their beds with Donna sitting beside them with a book, having apparently read them a bedtime story. "Ok, that was lovely, wasn't it?" Donna said. "That was a lovely bedtime. We had warm milk, and we watched cartoons, and then mummy read you a lovely bedtime story."
"Mummy, Joshua and me, we're not real, are we?" Ella asked sadly.
"Of course, you're real." Donna insisted. "You're as real as anything. Why d'ya say that?"
"But mummy, sometimes when you're not here, it's like we're not here." Joshua said.
"Even when you close your eyes, we just... stop." Ella added.
"Well, mummy promises never to close her eyes again." Donna smiled, only to blink and find that her children had gone. "Oh my God, no! Please!" she wailed, frantically searching the empty beds for any sign of her kids. "No, please! No, no, no!" She fell down to her knees sobbing.
~8~
In The Library, the group had reached the computer core. "Auto-destruct in 15 minutes." the computer announced.
"The data core." the Doctor said. "Over 4,000 minds trapped inside it."
"They won't be living much longer." River warned. "We're running out of time."
The Doctor found a four-sided terminal and he and Shareen started imputing commands when they all heard a voice calling out, "Help me. Please, help me. Please! Please, help me."
"What's that?" Anita wandered.
"Was that a child?" River frowned.
"The computer's in sleep mode." the Doctor said, urgently typing in key commands. "I can't wake it up. I'm trying."
Shareen meanwhile noticed something on her screen. "Peacock, look at these readings." she said. "This is gonna sound crazy, but..."
"I know." the Doctor replied. "You'd think it was... dreaming."
"It is dreaming." Mr Lux said. "Of a normal life, and a lovely dad, and every book ever written."
"Computers don't dream." Anita pointed out as the child's voice called out again.
"No," Mr Lux swallowed, "but little girls do." He pulled a lever inside a cabinet and led everyone into another room. Inside was a node. It turned around to reveal the face of the little girl they'd seen on the monitor.
"Oh, my God!" River breathed.
"It's the little girl." Anita said, "The girl we saw in the computer."
"She's not in the computer." Mr Lux told them. "In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL."
"CAL is a child!" the Doctor stared. "A child hooked up to a mainframe."
Shareen rounded on Mr Lux. "Why the hell didn't ya tell us this in the first place?!" she demanded. "An' how could ya do that to a kid?!"
"Because she's family." Mr Lux snapped back. "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 everything. And her 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." the Doctor said, finally understanding what all this was about.
"This is only a half-life, of course." Mr Lux said, going over to the node and stroking Charlotte's face. "But it's forever."
"And then the shadows came." the Doctor said.
"The shadows. I have to save them." the node said.
"And she saved them." the Doctor sighed. "She saved everyone in The Library. Folded them in her dreams and kept 'em safe."
"Then why didn't she tell us?" Anita wandered.
"Because she's forgotten." the Doctor said. "She's got over 4,000 living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like... being, well, me."
"So what do we do?" River asked as the computer warned that there was just 10 minutes left.
"Easy. We beam all the people out the date core." the Doctor replied. "The computer'll reset and stop the countdown."
"Good idea, Peacock, but one small problem; she doesn't have enough memory space left to do it." Shareen countered.
"Easy. I'll hook myself up to the computer, and she can borrow my memory space!" the Doctor replied.
"Difficult!" River stared. "I'll kill you stone dead!"
"What?!" Shareen spluttered in horror.
"Yeah, it's easy to criticise." the Doctor said nonchalantly as he started sonicing some wiring.
"It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate!" River told him.
"I'll try my hardest not to die." the Doctor said flippantly. "Honestly, it's my main thing."
"Doctor!" River began to protest.
"If I'm right, this'll work. Shut up!" the Doctor interrupted her. "Now, listen, you, Shareen an' Luxy-boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download. An' before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention, as you're here, shut up."
"Oh, I hate you sometimes." River snarled at him.
"That makes two of us." Shareen scowled, fed up with the Doctor's constant obsession with being a martyr.
"I know!" the Doctor waved them both off, working at the terminal.
River ground her teeth then relented. "Shareen, Mr Lux, with me." she ordered. "Anita, if he dies... I'll kill him!"
"And then I'll kill him all over again." Shareen finished as the trio left.
The Doctor and Anita were left alone. "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." the Doctor replied.
"So you think they're just going to let us go?"
"Best offer they're going to get."
"You're gonna make 'em an offer?"
"And they'd better take it, 'cos right now I'm findin' it very hard to make any kind of offer at all." the Doctor answered darkly and turned to look at Anita at last. "Because 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 strode right up to Anita and used his sonic screwdriver to clear her visor, revealing a bare skull. "But I'm going to let that pass, just as long as you let them pass." the Doctor said with barely contained rage.
"How long have you known?" the Vashta Nerada asked.
"I counted the shadows." the Doctor answered flatly. "You only have one." He looked at Anita's blinking neural relay. "She's nearly gone. Be kind."
"These are our forests. We are not kind." the Vashta Nerada said unwisely.
The Doctor was in no mood for games. "I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go." he ordered, his tone clear that it was not up for discussion.
"These are our forests. They are our meat." the Vashta Nerada said stubbornly, and shadows began to extend out from the skeleton.
"Don't play games with me." the Doctor snarled. "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."
The shadows paused as the Doctor stared down the skeleton, then the shadows retreated. "You have one day." the Vashta Nerada conceded and the suit collapsed to the floor, no longer under their control.
The Doctor turned back to the terminal just as River hurried in and knelt by the suit. "Anita!" she cried.
"I'm sorry. She's been dead a while now." the Doctor told her. "I told you to go!"
"Lux's got Shareen to look after him..." River said shortly, standing up again, "but you've got no one to look after you." And she punched the Doctor hard in the face, knocking him spark out.
~8~
Donna was sitting on the stairs in her home when Lee entered the house. "Donna, what's happening?" he asked.
"I don't know, but it's not real." Donna replied. "Nothing here is real. The whole world, none of it is real."
Suddenly, the house disappeared and Donna and Lee found themselves in a white void. "Am I real?" Lee asked.
"Of course, you're real. I know you're real." Donna said as they were pulled away from each other by an invisible force. "Oh, God, I hope you're real. I'll find you! I promise you, I'll find you!"
~8~
Shareen and Mr Lux were working at the computer terminals in The Library's main reception area when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by people. "What happened?" a man asked. "How did we get here?"
"Look at you, you're back!" Mr Lux laughed in delight. "You're all back! He did it! You're all back. Look at you!" He ran over to the balcony to see that The Library was bustling with life again. "Look at that. Oh, look at that. He did it, 4022 people saved!"
Shareen meanwhile saw a familiar face emerge from the TARDIS. "Donna!" she cried in relief and raced over to hug her friend. "Oh, am I glad to see you again! Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Donna laughed. "Oh, you are never gonna believe what happened to me."
"Huh, I bet I will." Shareen grinned. "C'mon, we've gotta find the Doctor and Professor Song. They're in the core. River went down there to try an' stop Peacock from killing himself."
The two women hurried through The Library until they reached the core. There, they found the Doctor sitting on the floor handcuffed to a pillar. "Oh, Doctor. You're still alive, then." Donna smiled in relief.
Shareen meanwhile something else. "Oh, my God!" she gasped in horror. Sitting in a nearby chair was River Song; a circlet on her head and she wasn't showing any sign of life at all. "What the hell happened?!" Shareen questioned.
"She overpowered me..." the Doctor replied solemnly, "and she took my place."
"Oh, River." Shareen sighed. "You saved us all. Thank you." Donna took her hand in comfort and they all had a moment to mourn the archaeologist who had sacrificed herself to save the day.
~8~
A little later, The Library's shop was full of people being teleported away to waiting ships. The Doctor and Mr Lux had agreed to abandon the planet and leave the Vashta Nerada alone to swarm around to their heart's content. Donna made her way through the crowd until she found the Doctor and Shareen both standing by a doorway. "Did ya find him?" Shareen asked her. After they'd released the Doctor, they'd all filled each other in about what happened to one another.
"Wasn't even anyone called Lee in The Library that way." Donna sighed. "S'pose he could've had a different name out here, but let's be honest, he wasn't real, was he?"
"Maybe not." the Doctor shrugged.
"I made up the perfect man: gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word." Donna murmured. "What's that say about me?"
"Nothing." Shareen reassured her friend.
"What about you two?" Donna asked. "You both alright?"
"Been better, been worse." Shareen shrugged.
"And I'm always alright." the Doctor said.
"Is 'alright' special Time Lord code for 'really not alright at all'" Donna questioned.
"Why?"
"Cos' I'm alright too." Donna said. The trio all shared a look of understanding then walked out onto the balcony and took in the view for a while to clear their heads.
Presently, Mr Lux came up to them. "The doors are about to be sealed." he reported. "You sure you three can find your own way out."
"Quite sure." the Doctor replied.
"Fine, have it ya own way." Mr Lux conceded and turned to leave.
"Mr Lux." the Doctor called after him.
"Please, no sentiment." Mr Lux said as he turned back to them. "I've done something none of you approve of, you've done something I approve of. That doesn't mean we're required to like each other."
"That's a relief." the Doctor remarked and offered a hand.
"Isn't it?" Mr Lux said, shaking the Doctor's hand. He nodded his farewells to the women and walked away.
The Doctor placed River's diary down on the balustrade and rested his hand on it.
"Your friend... Professor Song." Donna began gently. "She knew you in the future, Doctor, but she didn't know me or Shareen."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that." Shareen said. "Maybe she was just pretending not to know us. She knew about my sonic pen, so she obviously knew about us."
"Still doesn't explain why she didn't recognise us." Donna pointed out. "Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me..."
"Donna, this is her diary." the Doctor told her. "It contains her future. We could look you up. What d'ya think? Shall we peek at the end?"
"Spoilers, right?" Donna said.
"Right." the Doctor said and laid River's sonic screwdriver on top of the diary. "Come on, ladies." he said as he turned to leave. "Next chapter's this way." And he and Donna began to walk up the stairs.
Shareen was about to follow them when her eye was caught by a panel on the handle of River's sonic screwdriver. She picked the screwdriver up and removed the panel to reveal a neural relay underneath. "Bloody hell!" she exclaimed. "Look at this!" She showed her friends what she'd found.
"Oh, ohhhh... look at that!" the Doctor grinned. "I am very good!"
"What've you done?" Donna asked.
"Saved her." the Doctor replied.
"Then what're we waitin' for? C'mon!" Shareen urged, and she and the Doctor sped away.
~8~
The Doctor and Shareen raced through the library as fast their feet would let them. Donna had decided there was no way she could keep up with them and so had left them to it. "C'mon, River, stay with us." Shareen muttered to the sonic screwdriver as the neural relay reached it's last two bars.
They soon reached the room with the gravity platform. "Sorry, River. Shortcut." the Doctor said as he used his own sonic screwdriver to disable the gravity platform, then he jumped down into the beam of light, Shareen hot on his heels. They both landed on their feet and raced over to the computer terminal. Shareen tossed River's screwdriver to the Doctor who rammed it into the terminal, uploading River's data ghost into the hard drive.
~8~
River Song found herself standing outside a hospital. Charlotte Lux and Dr Moon walked over to her. "It's ok, you're safe." Charlotte told River. "You'll always be safe here. The Doctor fixed the computer core. This is a good place now. But I was worried you might be lonely so I brought you some friends. Aren't I a clever girl?"
"Aren't we all?" Miss Evangelista's voice called out and River turned to see the young woman walking towards her, her face restored to normal and she was accompanied by Anita and the two Daves.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, he just can't do it, can he?" River laughed. "That man, that impossible man, He can't just give in!" And she rushed over to hug her friends.
~8~
The Doctor and Shareen returned to the TARDIS both feeling much happier. Donna was waiting for them outside the box. "You saved her?" she asked.
"Saved her." the Doctor replied. He was about to reach for his key when he suddenly remembered what River had said about 'her' Doctor being able to open the doors with a snap of his fingers. He snapped his fingers and the doors opened.
"Cool." Shareen remarked, and the trio entered the box. The Doctor snapped his fingers again and the doors closed behind them.
Author's notes: And that's Moffat's magnum opus completed. Hope I managed to give Shareen some decent plot involvement. Seeing as how she's from the 21st century, it was a lot easier working Shareen into this episode then it was with Iris. Shareen's sonic pen gets a good workout in this chapter too. I just hope I'm not overusing it. The decision to make it ambiguous as to why River apparently doesn't know Shareen was to keep the door open for several alternate future possibilities. So, that's all for today. Until next time!
