River pulls out her squareness gun and fires at another wall, she tells the group to go through as the swarm in the suit draws nearer.
The little girl is watching tv and tells her dad that the library is on the screen, he tells her that the library is just her imagination. She gets a frustrated look on her face and flicks through the channels. She lands on a screen where an ambulance is pulling up to a large building, the doors open and a gurney carrying Donna is pulled out.
The group gasped as they saw Donna on screen, all were confused about how she ended up there.
Donna slouched into her seat and sighed. She had a good life, a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter. But her time in the Data Core really messed with her head, she had nightmares for weeks afterward. She really didn't know if she would be capable of watching herself live through a made up life.
In the building Donna meets Doctor Moon.
"Hello Donna."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Doctor Moon. I've been treating you since you came here two years ago."
"What? You only just got there, though?" Yaz gave Donna a confused look. Donna smiled and waved at the screen which caused the younger woman to huff, she wasn't surprised she didn't get an answer.
"Oh god. Doctor Moon, I'm so sorry. What's wrong with me? I didn't know you for a moment."
Doctor Moon gives her a secretive smile and responds,
"And then you remembered. Shall we go for a walk?"
Bill grimaced at the man, something felt off about him, she didn't like it. She sat closer to the redhead next to her, as if trying to reassure herself that the woman was okay.
Doctor Moon and Donna are suddenly outside, much to Donna's confusion. She looks around and tries to figure out how they got outside.
"No more dreams, then? The Doctor, the blue box, time and space. "
"How did we get here?"
"We came down the stairs, out the front door. We passed Mrs. Ali on the way out."
The video pans over towards the front door and there's a sign with the word CAL on it.
"Yeah. Yeah, we did. I forgot that."
"And then you remembered."
Ryan and Yaz growled as they realized what was going on on screen.
"He's gaslighting you. None of that happened, you guys just appeared outside."
They looked at the woman in question and their gazes softened when they saw the look on her face. Donna had a broken smile, like she was trying to make herself believe that she was okay. Rose had explained what gaslighting was to her a while ago.
Bill decided to wrap her arm around the woman's shoulders to give her confort, just like the older woman had done for her. Donna shot the girl a grateful smile and leaned her head onto the younger woman's.
"Shall we go down to the river?"
The scene changes around them and they're suddenly standing at a riverbank. Donna points it out only to be interrupted by a man walking up with fishing gear, he calls out to Doctor Moon.
Doctor moon introduces Donna to Lee and the man starts to stutter.
"Oh, you've got a bit of a stammer there. Bless."
"D-d-"
"Oh, skip to a vowel, they're easy."
The scene changes as the trio laugh, suddenly Donna is asking Doctor Moon how things ended after her and Lee's interaction. He tells her that it ended well, that he got the impression that he invited her fishing the next day.
Donna opens the door to Lee's room, she's dressed in heels, leggings and a sequined dress. He takes a look at Lee and asks about fishing.
All of a sudden, the couple is sitting at the riverbank, Lee casts a line into the water. He turns to ask Donna a question and stammers once more.
"Gorgeous, and can't speak a word. What am I gonna do with you?"
The scene changes once more and Lee is carrying Donna over the threshold of their new home. He has a barely noticeable stammer in his speech as he leans in to give his new wife a kiss.
"Welcome home, Mrs. MacAvoy."
The group blinked a few times while they processed the fast pace of the video. The Doctor turned to her friend and saw tears rolling down her face, she held her hand out for Donna to take.
Donna looked down at the hand in her lap and took it while giving the Doctor a sad look. She was certainly happy to have her memories back, but she could do without the visual reminder. She looked up to the ceiling when she felt the TARDIS begin to push against her mind.
"I am sorry dear, but they have to see this."
"I know, that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."
The TARDIS sent a wave of comfort and calm towards her in response.
Again, the scene changes, a photo album is opened to a picture of Lee and Donna holding a pair of twins. Children can be heard screaming in the background.
"Woah!" Ryan realized he spoke out loud and gave Donna a sheepish look in apology. The redhead shook her head with a small smile.
Doctor Moon smiles as he holds a cup of tea and the photo album. Donna tries to wrangle the kids, when the kids run out of the room she appears on the sofa next to Doctor Moon.
"You've done so much in seven years, Donna."
"Sometimes it feels more like seventy. Mind you sometimes it feels like no time at all."
Doctor Moon lifts his briefcase, on it is a little plaque with the word CAL.
"Wait, hold on. What is CAL? It was in the library when the Doctor was at the terminal, then the hospital sign had it, now his briefcase."
Yaz turned to the Doctor and pointed at the screen, the Doctor smiled.
"Good on you, Yaz. You've got a good eye, gold star!"
"You're not going to tell us, are you?"
"Nope!"
Doctor Moon stands and tells Donna that it's great to see her fully integrated. He starts to glitch out as he's replaced by an image of the Doctor, he calls out to Donna and disappears.
Doctor Moon reappears and Donna backs away from him with a terrified look.
"The Doctor! I saw the Doctor!"
"Yes, you did Donna. And then you forgot."
Donna's expression changes and she greets Doctor Moon as if he just came inside.
"I don't like him."
Graham gave the screen an angry look, he'd hung out with the Doctor's previous companions and had come to feel protective of them as if they were his family. He supposed they were in a sense. Doctor Moon's attitude and Donna's confusion throughout the video were concerning, he didn't like the feeling that Donna was in more danger than the group in the library.
In the library, the Doctor and the rest of the group appear in another circular room, River gives the group orders to stand in the light. The doctor starts scanning the room for Vashta Nerada, he tells River that it's getting harder to tell where the swarms are before knocking his sonic against the palm of his hand.
River throws a piece of chicken into the darkness and a bone lands on the other side. The Doctor tells her the Vashta Nerada won't attack until there's enough of them but that they have their scent now and they're coming.
Other Dave taps River on the shoulder and asks her who the Doctor is. Mr. Lux sarcastically asks who the doctor is and she tells him that he's the only story he will ever tell if he survives the Doctor. Anita leans forward and mentions that the Doctor doesn't know who River is.
"Listen, the only thing you need to know is this, I trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been."
Amy and Rory lean into each other, all the years of traveling with the Doctor, hearing River talk about how scared she was to see this day, and here they were. Amy sniffled a bit as she thought of what her daughter must've been feeling, here was the man she loved and he didn't know her.
Rory stared at the image of his daughter on screen, he may have been clueless to a lot of things while traveling with his wife and friend. But, he knew how to read people, he saw the look the Doctor would give River when she wasn't looking. The look that said he'd seen something horrible happen to her, for the longest time he thought it was Demon's Run, that put the look on the alien's face. Watching the screen though, he felt that he was about to watch his child die. He prayed, to whatever was listening, that he was wrong.
"He doesn't act like he trusts you."
"There's a tiny problem. He hasn't met me yet!"
She stands and walks over to the Doctor. He's holding his sonic up to his ear, he tells her that there's a signal coming from somewhere and it's interfering with the sonic.
"Well use the red settings."
"It doesn't have a red setting."
"Well, use the dampers."
"It doesn't have dampers."
"It will do one day."
She hands him her sonic and he stares at it with a questioning look.
"So sometime in the future, I just give you my sonic screwdriver?"
"Yeah."
"Why would I do that?"
"I didn't pluck it from your cold, dead hands if that's what you're worried about."
"And I know that because…?"
"Listen to me, you've lost your friend, you're angry, I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now…"
"Less? I'm not emotional!"
"There are five people in this room still alive! Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young!"
"Young? Who are you?!"
Mr. Lux stands up and yells at them, telling them they're all in danger and the pair of them are arguing like an old married couple.
River huffed with a laugh,
"You have no idea…"
The couple turn to look at each other and River gets a determined look on her face, she has tears on her eyes as she begins to speak.
"Doctor… One day, I'm going to be someone that 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."
The Master leaned forward in his seat and bared his teeth.
"No…"
The Doctor turned and gave him a smug look.
"Yes."
"You couldn't have."
"Why not?"
"She's a halfbreed! She shouldn't exist!"
The Doctor's eyes turned cold and her voice became hard, as she spoke the room dimmed further and the air grew chilly. The room listened as the two aliens spoke in a musical language, Gallifreyan.
"I would stop speaking now, if I were you. You have no right to judge, seeing as you're a halfbreed yourself. Or did you already forget?"
The Master leaned back into his seat,
"There you are. The Oncoming Storm, I wondered where you had gone to. Sitting there, all teary eyed and sad, throwing a pity party for yourself. Just watching you is starting to make me feel pathetic, grow a spine!"
The Time Lords, or well Time Lord and Unknown, stared at each other with angry looks for a moment. The room started to grow weary. Donna looked on in confusion, she understood some of the words but now all of them. River smiled, she knew this game.
The two aliens glared for a bit longer before breaking into grins and laughing. The Master was glad he was able to help the Doctor come one step closer to being herself. It was never fun, playing with broken toys, or so he told himself.
River leans in and whispers a word into the Doctor's ear. The Doctor's face fills with surprise and dread.
"Are we good?"
River asks as she leans back, away from the Doctor. He continues to stare at her, his face blank but his eyes wide.
"Doctor, are we good?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we're good."
"Good."
River takes her sonic from his slack hand and walk away with tears in her eyes.
River turned away from the screen, her eyes were filled with pain. For centuries, she had been terrified of this day, the day her husband met her. And now that she had lived it, she knew why the Doctor always held her both, at arms length and so tightly. He too was terrified, but for a different reason entirely.
Rory stared at his daughter, the look on her face telling him that his prayers hadn't been answered. He grabbed Amy and pulled her closer to him and stifled a pained whimper. His wife gave him a strange look and saw the pain on his face.
Amy stared as her husband tried to keep himself calm for her. This was it. Her fears were confirmed with his look. She was going to see her daughter die. She reached forward and placed her hand on River's shoulder. River reached up and grasped it, knowing that her parents needed the comfort of knowing she was with them.
The Doctor turns to watch her walk away before jumping into action.
"Now what's interesting about my screwdriver, very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hair dryers. I'm working on that. So, there's a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So, what's new? What's changed?"
He paces around the room and waits for an answer, when none comes he yells out, once again asking what's different. Other Dave says that it's getting dark outside.
"It's a screwdriver, it works in the dark."
The Doctor looks up to the skylight and whispers that the moon is coming out. He asks about the moon and Mr. Lux tells him it's not real, it's a Doctor Moon.
Graham slapped his knee and yelled out,
"I knew it! I knew he was creepy! See?"
The rest of the room chuckled at the man while his grandson placed his head in his hands and groaned.
"Gramps, you're embarrassing me."
"Im doing my job then."
The Doctor grinned,
"You're right Graham, ten points for you!"
"Ah no, come on. I thought we were doing stars! I like the stars better!"
"What's a Doctor Moon?"
"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."
The Doctor activates his sonic and tells Mr. Lux to look, the Doctor Moon is still active and signaling. He tells the group that someone, somewhere is the library is still alive and communicating with the moon. Or, they're possibly alive and drying their hair.
He fiddles with his sonic and a hologram of Donna appears, she seems surprised and slightly terrified. He calls out to her and she disappears. He tries to get her back by looking for the wavelength she was on.
Anita looks at the floor and speaks with a shaky voice. She tells the Doctor and River that she has two shadows.
River tells everyone to put their helmets on before putting Anita's on her head. Anita tells her that it didn't do Proper Dave any good before it's clicked into place. The Doctor steps forward and uses his sonic to tint the face shield.
"Oh god, they've got inside."
"No, no. I've just tinted her visor. Maybe they'll think they're already in there. Leave her alone?"
"You think they can be fooled like that?"
"Maybe, I don't know. It's a swarm, it's not like we chat."
The Doctor orders everyone back before asking River to have a quick chat.
"You said there are five people still alive in this room?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So… why are there six?"
The group turns and Proper Dave's suit is standing behind them.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
"Run!"
The group runs and the swarm in the suit gives chase.
The little girl is sitting in her living room, the wall behind her looks like a forest. On her tv is the group, running from the Vashta Narada. She changes the channel and finds Donna.
Donna walks back into her living room with a mug of tea for Doctor Moon, he's not there anymore. Her daughter runs up to her with a playdoh sculpture.
"Mummy, I made you!"
"Oh! That's nice, Ella. Where's the face?"
"I don't know."
In the theater, Donna huffed and crossed her arms.
"I do! It's on a bloody statue like a PARK BENCH!"
Donna asks the kids of they saw Doctor Moon leave as Lee walks through the door. The kids run to him and she greets them, there's no stutter present in his voice. Donna smiles as she watches her family.
Ella shows Lee the little sculpture he made and he guesses that it's Donna. Donna again, mentions that the statue has no face.
"BECAUSE IT'S IN THE LIBRARY, ON A CREEPY STATUE AND PROBABLY BEING EATEN BY THOSE CREATURES!"
Donna asks if Lee saw Doctor Moon and he tells her that he hasn't before asking if he'd been there. She walks to the window and sees a figure in black walk past. Lee asks what's wrong and she tells him that she's just tired, as the word leaves her lips, she appears in their bedroom.
She looks around, and again Lee asks if she's okay.
"I said I was tired and… and we put the kids to bed, and we watched television."
Lee nods and they hear a sound at the front door. Lee goes to investigate while she goes to the window. Again she sees the figure in black wearing a veil on its face, Lee walks back in and tells her it's a note addressed to her.
"The world is wrong."
"What?"
"Dear Donna, the world is wrong. Meet me at your usual play park, two pm, tomorrow."
Donna turns back to the window with the note in her hand, the figure walks away.
"Nutter."
The room giggled at Donna's reaction. Jack clapped his hands as Rory, Mickey and Graham all muttered
"Fair."
The little girl is sitting on the sofa with her arms wrapped around her legs, she begs Donna not to go.
The scene changes and Donna is at the park with her children, she tells them to play nice before sitting down at a bench to watch them. Next to her on the bench is the figure in black.
"I got your note last night. 'The world is wrong.' What does that mean?"
"No you didn't."
A familiar voice speaks from under the veil.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You didn't get my note last night. You got it a few seconds ago. 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 do you know me?"
"We met before. In the Library. You were kind to me. I hope now to return that kindness."
"Your voice… I recognize it."
"Yes, you do. I am what is left of Miss Evangelista."
Ryan held his hand out to Yaz and she dropped a couple of bills into it. Ryan turned back to the screen with a smile after Yaz muttered.
"Never betting against you again."
The Doctor and the group run through a sky bridge and the Doctor stops for a moment.
"Professor go ahead. Find a safe spot."
"It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit. You can't reason with it!"
"Five minutes."
"Other Dave, stay with him. Pull him out when he's to stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor!"
Proper Dave's suit kicks open the door and speaks. The Doctor calls out and tell the swarm to listen.
"Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit, before you climbed inside ands stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul. Trapped inside a neural relay, going round and around forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him, talk to me. It's easy, neural relay, just point and think. Use him, talk to me."
The swarm stops moving towards him and speaks
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
"The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests. What are you doing in a library?"
Other Dave tells the Doctor they should keep going, the Doctor tells them they will in a minute.
"You came to a library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why."
"We did not…"
"Oh, hello."
"We did not…"
"Take it easy, you'll get the hang of it. Did not what?"
"We did not come here."
"Well of course you did. Of course you came here."
"We come from here."
"From here?"
"We hatched here."
"You hatch in trees, from spores in trees."
"These are our forests."
The Doctor puts his hands in his pockets as Other Dave looks around.
"You're nowhere near a forest. Look around you."
"These are our forests."
"You're not in a forest. You're in a library. There are no trees in a…"
"Finally hit, did it, spaceman?"
"The BOOKS!" Bill shouted, "The books are made of paper! Honestly, you are old."
"Oi! Rude."
"Library."
"We should go, Doctor!"
"Oh no…"
"Books. You came in the books. Microspores in a million, million books."
"We should go, Doctor!"
The Doctor turns to look at the planet from the sky bridge window.
"Oh! Look at that! The forest of the Vashta Nerada, pulped and printed and bound. A million, million books hatching shadows."
"We should go, Doctor!"
The Doctor looks over at Other Dave and sees his skull hit the visor.
"Oh! Dave! Oh, Dave, I'm so sorry!"
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
"We should go, Doctor!"
He's trapped between two swarms in suits.
"The thing about me, I'm stupid, always talk too much. I was babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Wanna know the only reason I'm still alive? Always stay near the door."
He points his sonic towards the floor and a hatch opens up dropping him into the city's sky. The Vashta Nerada look down into the hatch and see his psychic paper fall to the ground, the Doctor is gone.
The little girl watches the television as the Doctor uses a support beam to inch his way to the other side of the bridge.
In the park, we see that the children are playing on the play structure while Miss Evangelista speaks to Donna.
"I suggested that we meet here because the playground's the easiest place to see it. To see the lie."
"What lie?"
"The children. Look at the children."
"Why do you wear that veil? If I had a face like yours, I wouldn't hide it."
"You remember my face, then? The memories are all still there. The Library. The Doctor. Me. You've just been programmed not to look."
Donna stops walking and turns to Miss Evangelista,
"Sorry, but you're dead."
"In a way we're all dead here, Donna."
"Creepy." Rose crinkled her nose
"We are the dead of The Library."
"Well, what about the children? The children aren't dead. My children aren't dead."
"Your children were never alive."
"Don't you say that. Don't you dare say that about my children!"
"Look at your children! Look at all of them. Really, look. They're not real!"
On the play structure, all the children are identical. Their clothes, faces, and voices are all identical.
"Do you see it now? They are all the same! All the children of this world, the same boy and the same girl. Over and over again."
"Stop it! Just stop it! Why are you doing this? Why are you wearing that veil?"
Donna takes the veil off of Miss Evangelista's head and screams. Miss Evangelista's face is horribly distorted and twisted.
Yaz jumped at the sight of Miss Evangelista's face, she reached over and grabbed Ryan. Ryan laughed at his friend's reaction, nudging Graham to join in.
The little girl screams into her pillow as she watches the television.
In the library, River is using her sonic on a portion of the floor. She tells Anita that she keeps thinking that she wishes the Doctor was here. Anita points out that he is here, and River tells her it's the Doctor just not the right one.
"Now, my Doctor… I've seen whole armies turn and run away, and he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS. And open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor, in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere."
From behind them the Doctor calls out.
"Spoilers. No body can open the TARDIS by snapping their fingers. Doesn't work like that."
"It does for the Doctor."
"I am the Doctor."
"Yeah, someday."
He turns towards the other two and speaks to Anita, he asks her how she's doing. River looks around and asks where Other Dave is, he tells her that Other Dave didn't make it.
"Well if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?"
"I don't know. Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference?"
"It's making a difference alright. No one's ever going to see my face again."
"Can I get you anything?"
"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?"
"I'm all over it."
He turns to walk away but Anita calls him back, she asks what River said to make him trust her.
"Safe."
"What?"
"Safe. You don't say 'saved'. Nobody says 'saved'. You say 'safe'. The data fragment, what did it say?"
"Four thousand and twenty two people saved. No survivors."
"Doctor?"
"Nobody says 'saved'. Nutters say 'saved'. You say 'safe', buy it didn't mean safe, it meant… IT LITERALLY MEANT SAVED!"
The people in the theater, minus those who had been in the library, all gasped in realization.
"Oh!"
The scene changes, Donna and Miss Evangelista are back on a bench. Donna asks what happened to her face and Miss Evangelista tells her that it was a transcription error. Her face was destroyed but her intellect flourished, she's a very poor copy of herself.
The little girl watches as Donna asks where they are and why the children are the same. Miss Evangelista tells Donna that using the same pattern over and over saves space. Cyberspace. The little girl runs to the television while screaming that Miss Evangelista mustn't tell Donna.
In the library the Doctor is looking at the Library's archive file. He points out that a hundred years ago, all the teleported went off at once.
"As soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attacked. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out."
"It tried to teleport four thousand and twenty two people?"
"Succeeded, pulled them all out. But then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"
"It saved them."
The Doctor draws a diagram of the planet on a table. He points out that the computer saved everyone to the hard drive at the center of the planet.
"That's kinda cool! It's like that cartoon you made me watch with you, Ryan."
Ryan sighed
"It's not a cartoon, Yaz. It's an anime."
"What's the difference?"
"Nevermind."
In a gazebo, Miss Evangelista tells Donna that her physical body is stored in the library, like an energy signature.
"The Library? If my face ends up on one of those statues…"
"IT DID!"
"You remember the statues?"
"Wait. No. Just hang on. So… this isn't the real me? This isn't my real body. I've been dieting!"
"Loving your priorities."
Donna poked Bill in the side and the girl squealed, nearly losing her popcorn.
Miss Evangelista tells Donna that the world around her is nothing more than virtual reality. Donna asks why Miss Evangelista looks the way she does, Miss Evangelista tells her that Donna is a perfect copy because she was teleported. Miss Evangelista's data ghost was caught in the Wi-Fi and automatically uploaded.
"And it made you clever?"
"We are only strings of numbers in here. I think a decimal point may have shifted in my IQ. 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."
In the living room, the little girl is crying.
Donna turns to Miss Evangelista and asks,
"If this is all a dream, whose dream is it?"
"It's hard to see everything in the data core, even for me, but… there is a word. Just one word. CAL."
The little girl turns and grabs the remote she changes the channel and Donna runs up to her daughter after she cries out that she hurt her knee. Miss Evangelista tells her that the child isn't real but Donna tells her that she doesn't know since she doesn't have children.
"Neither do you."
Donna flinched, she may not have actually birthed them but, they were her children. She loved them and cared for them, they were hers, even if they weren't real. They were real to her.
"Didn't do anything for her empathy, did it?"
Mickey muttered while he shook his head.
Donna walks away and the little girl, in the living room, screams at Miss Evangelista to stop, that she'll ruin everything and that she hates her. Her father runs up and asks what's wrong but she points the remote at him and he disappears, she throws the remote on the ground and an alarm blared in the library.
In the library, the lights turn red and the group starts to panic.
"Auto destruct enabled in twenty minutes."
The Doctor and River run to a terminal and see that a countdown has started.
Donna and her children walk away from the park, her son asks what Miss Evangelista said, and asks if they aren't real.
The little girl is laying on her living room floor, crying, with her arms wrapped around her legs.
Donna tells her children that they're going home, they appear in the living room. The children asks what's wrong with the sky.
River asks what 'maximum erasure' means, he tells her that in twenty minutes, the planet's going to crack open like an egg.
"No, no it's alright. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect CAL."
Doctor Moon is in the living room, nudging the little girl and speaking.
"Now you really must stop this, you know. You've forgotten again, it was you who saved all those people, haven't you?"
"Wait, so the little girl is the computer? How?"
Graham looked around hoping to see if anyone had the answer but everyone else was looking at the trio that had been in the library.
"Just watch, you will see, it's almost over." River spoke gently. She squeezed her mother's hand again as she heard her take a deep breath.
Amy and Rory looked at each other, it was almost over. Their child was going to die soon.
"And then, you remembered."
"Shut up, Doctor Moon!"
She grabs the remote and sends him away too.
In the library the screens go dark and the Doctor starts hitting the terminal.
"All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for the inconvenience."
Mr. Lux turns to the couple and speaks
"We need to stop this! We gotta save CAL!"
"What is it? What is CAL?"
Mr. Lux swallows before speaking in a resigned tone
"We need to get to the main computer, I'll show you."
"It's at the core of the planet?"
"Well then, let's go."
River walks to the center of the room and opens a gravity platform.
"I bet I like you."
"Oh, you do."
"Yes, I do." The Doctor spoke at the same time as her wife had on screen.
They step on and ride the platform to the core of the planet.
Donna sits with her children clasped into her sides, her son tells her that she's hurting his hand with her squeezing. Her daughter asks if it's bedtime and they are transported to the children's bedroom. One of the children asks if they're real, donna tells them that they are, of course they are. Suddenly the beds are empty, the children are gone.
"Oh, Donna."
The Doctor, River, Mr. Lux and Anita run towards the main computer as the voice overhead tells them they have fifteen minutes till auto destruct.
The little girl is still on the floor begging for someone to help her.
"Help me, please help me. Please, please help me."
"What's that. Was that a child?"
"The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up, I'm trying."
Toys start making noise, papers fly around, and lights start flickering in the living room while the little girl covers her ears.
"Doctor, these readings…"
"I know. You think it was… dreaming."
"It is dreaming, of a normal life. And a lovely dad, and every book ever written."
"Computers don't dream."
"Help me. Please help me."
"No, but little girls do."
He opens a door and an Information Node turns its head, it's wearing the little girl's face.
"Please help me. Please help me."
"Oh my god."
"It's the little girl, the girl we saw in the computer."
"She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL."
"CAL is a child! A child hooked up to a mainframe! Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!"
"Because she's family! CAL. Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside. The moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything. And he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace, a secret. Not a freak show."
"So you weren't protecting a patent. You were protecting her."
Mr. Lux walks up to Charlotte and places a hand on her cheek
"Hers was only half a life, of course. But it's forever."
"And then the shadows came."
Charlotte speaks
"The shadows. I have to… I have to save… have to save…"
"She saved them. She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe."
"Then why didn't she tell us?"
"Because she's forgotten."
There wasn't a single dry eye in the theater, no matter what the Master says. Everyone felt their hearts break at the pain that the poor girl must've felt. River remembered when Charlotte told her that having all those people in her mind, it felt like her brain was on fire.
"I take it back, Ryan, she's so much better than that stupid cartoon."
"Hey! It's not stupid."
"She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well… me."
"So what do we do?"
"Auto destruct in ten minutes."
"Easy! Beam the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult, Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space."
"Difficult. It'll kill you stone dead."
"Easy ro critisize."
"You'll burn up both your hearts. And don't think you'll regenerate!"
"I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing."
"Doctor!"
"I'm right! This'll work. Shut up! Now, listen, you and Lux go back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download. And before you say anything else, Professor, may I just mention in passing as you're here, shut up!"
"I hate you sometimes!"
"I know!"
River runs over to Anita and points at the Doctor.
"Mr. Lux, with me. Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!"
Anita asks the Doctor about the Vashta Nerada after the other two leave and he starts to speak,
"These are their forests. I'm gonna seal Charlotte in her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."
"So you think they're just going to let us go?"
"Best offer they're going to get."
"You're going to make them an offer?"
"They'd better take it. Cause right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all. You know what? I really liked Anita."
"No! When did they get her?"
Rose gasped and looked for an answer. The three up front, shrugged and gave her a sad look before pointing at the screen.
"She was brave, even when she was crying, and she never gave in, and you ate her."
He points his sonic at the suit, the visor clears and Anita's skull appears.
"But, I'm gonna let that pass, just as long as you let them pass."
"How long have you known?"
"I counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Be kind."
"These are our forests. We are not kind."
"I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go."
"These are our forests. They are our meat."
Shadows begin to grow from the suit, reaching towards the Doctor as he walks away.
"Don't play games with me. You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor! And you're in the biggest Library in the universe. Look me up."
The shadows pull away and Anita's voice speaks
"You have one day."
The suit falls to the floor as River runs in.
"Anita!"
"I'm sorry, she's been dead a while now. I told you to go."
"Lux can manage without me. But you can't."
"River… don't you dare. You get out of there, right now!" Rory yelled as he gripped his wife's hand tightly. River turned in her seat and took his other hand.
"Daddy, it's okay. I'm here."
"River, you tell me, you tell me right now. Tell me that you left."
Amy cried out as tears rolled down her face.
"Mummy, you know I can't. I can't do that. I never have."
River turned, keeping her parents hands in hers, they crossed under her chin.
The rest on the companions took a deep breath as they noticed the reactions of the small family up front.
River was going to die. They were going to watch as the Doctor's wife, Amy and Rory's daughter, died.
River punches the Doctor as he turns to face her and the scene changes. River is sitting in a chair fusing two wires together, the Doctor's eyes open as he hears the computer say,
"Auto destruct in two minutes."
He tries to stand and finds that his hand is handcuffed to a pipe.
"Oh no, no, no, come on what are you doing? That's my job!"
"Oh and I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?"
"Why are my hands… why do you even have handcuffs?"
"Spoilers."
"This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is gonna kill you! I'd have a chance, you don't have any!"
"You wouldn't have a chance and neither do I! I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There will be a blip in the common flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download."
"River, please, no!"
"Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you. The real you, the future you, I mean… you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the singing towers. What a night that was. The towers sang, and you cried."
"Auto destruct in one minute."
"You wouldn't tell me why. But I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to The Library. You even gave me your screwdriver, that should've been a clue!"
The Doctor sees the sonic laying on the floor and reaches for it but his arms are too short.
"There's nothing you can do."
"You can let me do this!"
"If you die here, it will mean I've never met you!"
"Time can be rewritten!"
"Not those times! Not one line. Don't you dare! It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me. Time and space. You watch us run!"
"River you know my name…"
"Auto destruct in…"
"You whispered my name in my ear."
"Ten. Nine, eight, seven…"
River places a crown on her head, wires are hooked onto it and tears roll down her face.
"There's only one reason I would ever tell anyone my name."
"Six, five, four, three…"
"There's only one time I ever could…"
"Hush now, spoilers…"
"Two, one."
River clicks two wires together and a bright light takes over the screen, her head is thrown back and her hands fall to her lap.
"NO!" Amy and Rory screamed as they watched their daughter die. The rest of the room gasped at the sight in front of them. No one was ready to see it, despite spending time trying to prepare themselves.
River gripped her parents' hands tightly and placed a kiss into their palms. She whimpered as they sobbed behind her.
Lee runs into the house and yells out for Donna, she stands up and tells him that it's all fake, none of it is real. He asks if he's real and she tells him that he is, that she'll find him. He gets pulled away from her as the room begins to glow white.
Lux is standing in the main room, near the TARDIS, as a group of people arrive. One of them asks where they are.
"Look at you. You're back! You're all back! He did it! You're all back. Look at you."
He runs to the lookout point that the Doctor and Donna were standing at earlier and looks out at the planet.
"Look at that. Look at that, he did it! Four thousand and twenty two people, saved!"
The Doctor sits, his had still cuffed as he looks at the seat where River was.
A voice is heard over head as people line up to use the teleport pads.
"Please be patient. Only three people can teleport at a time. Do not state your intended destination until you arrive…"
Donna walks towards the Doctor. The Doctor is leaning up against a bookcase with a broken look on his face.
"Any luck?"
Donna shakes her head and leans next to him.
"There wasn't even anyone called Lee in the library that day. I suppose he could've had a different name out here, but… Let's be honest, he wasn't real, was he?"
"Maybe not."
"I made up the perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word. What does that say about me?"
"Everything…"
Donna turns to give him a hard look.
"Sorry did I say 'everything'? I meant to say 'nothing'! I was aiming for 'nothing'! I accidentally said 'everything'."
He turns to look away from the angry redhead and watches the people get onto the teleport pads.
"Stand right in the middle of the teleport. Please keep your…"
"What about you? Are you alright?"
"I'm always alright."
"Is 'alright' some kind of special Time Lord code for 'really not alright at all'?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm alright, too."
The Doctor reaches down and grabs her hand before pulling her away towards the TARDIS.
"Come on."
Behind them, on the teleport, is Lee. He tries to call out to Donna but his stutter stops him and he's teleported away.
Donna brought her hand up to her mouth and gasped.
"Oh my god, he was real!"
The Doctor and Donna make a quick stop at the lookout and he places Rivers's diary on the railing.
"Your friend, Professor Song. She knew you in the future but, she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me…"
"Donna, this is her diary. My future. I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?"
"Spoilers, right?"
"Right."
The two smile at each other, the Doctor reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out River's sonic. He places the sonic on top of the diary before he and Donna walk away.
"Come on. The next chapter's this way."
River's voice plays over the video.
"When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it will never end. But however hard you try, you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody does. And nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepted…"
The Doctor and Donna run back and the Doctor picks up the sonic.
Amy gasped.
"Doctor, please. Please save her. Please, save my baby."
"Why? Why did I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that? The thing is, future me had years to think about it. All those years to think of a way to save her."
The people in the room started to grin as the Doctor on screen spoke. He was going to save her. He was going to save River.
"What he did was give her a screwdriver! Why would I do that?"
He pulls on the sonic and sees a neural relay device, the lights are still blinking, just barely.
"Oh! Oh! OH! Look at that! I'm very good!"
"What have you done?"
"Saved her!"
The room erupted into cheers as the Doctor showed Donna the neural relay. Amy and Rory hugged and sobbed as they watched their best friend save their daughter. They knew she was a data ghost but even then, she still had a chance. River looked over at her wife who was beaming, she reached over and pulled the woman's face close.
"Sweetie. You saved me."
"I always will."
The taller woman pulled her wife in for a kiss, Jack and a few of the others whistled and clapped until the pair broke away. The blonde had a very strong blush on her face while the curly haired woman wore a smirk.
On screen, the Doctor takes off running through the halls until he gets to the room with the gravity elevator.
"Stay with me! You can do it, stay with me. Come on! You and me, one last run! Sorry River, shortcut."
He jumps down into the data core and runs into the room where he and River were.
"Everybody knows that everybody dies."
The Doctor plugs the sonic into the wall and shares a smile with Charlotte.
"But not every day. Not today."
River appears on a lawn in a white dress, Charlotte and Doctor Moon walk up to her.
"It's okay. You're safe. You'll always be safe here. The Doctor fixed the data 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?"
River turns when she hears a familiar voice from behind her.
"Aren't we all?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake. He just can't do it, can he? That man. That impossible man. He just can't give in."
She runs towards Anita, Miss Evangelista and both Daves as they walk up to her, they all trade hugs and hellos.
"Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed."
The Doctor pulls open a set of double doors and walks up to the TARDIS with a grin and a swagger in his step. He looks at the ship and holds his hand up before snapping.
"Some days nobody dies at all."
The TARDIS doors open and he steps in, he and Donna face the doors as they close on another snap.
"Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call…"
The scene changes and we see a hand, River's hand, closing her diary as she finishes reading.
"Everybody lives."
She places a kiss on Charlotte's forehand and tucks Ella and Joshua in before walking to the door a flicking the light off with a smile.
"Sweet dreams, everyone"
The room clapped once more as the screen went dark. The lights brightened and people stood to stretch. Amy and Rory looked at each other before grabbing their daughter and friend.
"You're coming with us, we need to talk."
The companions watched the parents walk away with their charges, both alien and child arguing the whole way through the door.
—-
A door appeared in front of Amy and she opened it, it led to a sitting room with a fire place and two sofas. Between the sofas were four cups of still steaming, tea and a plate of biscuits.
The wives sat on one sofa while Amy and Rory sat in the other.
"How long? If we had kept traveling with you, how long would you have waited before telling us our daughter was dead? Would we be on Darillium? After? Would you just not have told us?"
Amy spoke in a quiet but deadly voice, her eyes were hard as she stared at her son/daughter in law. The Doctor sighed.
"I don't know. I'm sorry, I know that's not the answer you wanted, but I truly don't know. I tried, I tried to look for a way to save her, but I couldn't find anything. Nothing."
"We traveled with you for years, you should've told us."
Rory looked his friend in the eye, trying to convey how deeply hurt he was by this secret.
"Mummy, Daddy, you have had more adventures with a 'post-library' me than you think."
"What?"
"The Bizantium? I didn't know what the Pandorica was when I left, so how could I have told you about it? The Pandorica? That was where I just was before I got back. Besides, did you really think that a TARDIS shaped journal wouldn't be bigger on the inside?"
The other three people in the room looked at River with a mix of glee and confusion. She smiled and sipped her tea while they started to realize that they had had more adventures with this River.
"But you gave him all your regenerations, how are you back?"
River shook her head
"I don't know."
A light appeared in the room and the TARDIS appeared.
"The next video you watch will explain most things, but I warn you. It won't be easy to watch, and you will end up with far more questions than answers, are you ready for that?"
Both couples turned to look at each other before smiling wide,
"Yes. We are."
Donna sat at the dining table, fiddling with her wedding ring. Everyone else was either still in the theater or in the kitchen, but the Master was sitting at the other end of the table.
He turned to Donna and spoke.
"I had a child, once. She was beautiful, by far a much better person than me."
"What happened to her?"
"She died, in the Time War. In my arms. That's what let to me fully giving in to the madness. I was mad before, but her death pushed me fully over the edge."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I'm not telling you this for your pity. I'm telling you… because… at least your children still survived in some capacity."
He took a deep breath before continuing.
"They may have felt real, and to you they may still be real, but you have a child. Rose? And a husband. When we leave here, go to them, hug them and hold them close. Because you still have them. If you had found the man from the video, you wouldn't have them now."
He gave her an odd look before standing.
"You probably wouldn't be who you are now. And anyone who can stand up to me the way you did? Deserves to exist, though, don't do it again."
With that, he left the room and walked back into the theater. Donna stared after him with a confused smile.
Once more the group gathered in the theater with refreshed snacks and drinks, the Doctor clapped as everyone sat in their seats.
With everyone seated, the room dimmed and the screen came to life with the words.
"A Rescue and a Kidnapping"
"I wonder what this is?"
"I guess we'll find out!"
Here we go! One more chapter down. I'm exhausted.
The next chapter will be a fully original chapter, that means I made it up. I'm so nervous for everyone to read it, I truly am. I hope you all like it. It will be posted on Christmas Eve.
I hope you liked this chapter, if you did, please let me know.
See you in the next update!
