A/N: This particular chapter is like a prologue for the finale episode for "Becoming," and is another dream that Nova has that is similar to the last dream she had of her father-guardian before the "pilot" episode; except in this chapter, it is mostly River's point of view, and Nova projects her mind into hers and sees what happens to her (sorry, River).
Chapter 23: Mind Control
The sounds of turning dials and clicking on keyboards rouse me from unconsciousness, as well as an exceedingly bright light shining down on my face. Looking past the brightness, the image of hanging wires and cords gradually becomes clearer through the haze in my vision, a couple of which are attached to my temples in a very odd fashion. A man in a familiar military uniform glances at me for a second before he swiftly rises from his seat at a console and rushes into the darkness. Wincing in pain from a slight headache, I attempt to reach up to pull at the wires at my temples, only to discover that my wrists are stuck in place at my sides.
"What…" I frown in confusion at the large metallic cuffs attached to the table I am laying on. "How…" I tug roughly on the cuffs in an attempt to free myself, but the cuffs don't budge. I keep trying until I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my left wrist from the cuff having cut the sensitive skin. Despite the pain, I refuse to give up.
"Don't bother wasting your energy trying to break free," an all-too-familiar female voice slices through the silence like a knife. "Those cuffs are locked with a triple-deadlock seal—impenetrable to break through, even with a sonic screwdriver."
I glance over and spot her materializing out of the darkness, dressed in her usual black suit and iDrive attached to her right eye. Even after her own followers' betrayal when they electrocuted every single iDrive, including her own, in the aborted '5:02' timeline, it's a surprise to see her still wearing that thing over her eye—the very thing that killed her last time.
"Kovarian!" I growl, my hearts filled to the brim with contempt. "I should kill you!"
"Foolish girl!" she says, rolling her eyes (eye). "Did you not hear what I just said? You can't break through those handcuffs!" She sighs. "A hundred-and-fifty years later, and you still don't listen to your mummy!"
"You clearly underestimate my abilities," I snap back at her. "I've broken though many types of handcuffs during my time at Stormcage, even deadlocked ones. And you've never been my mother! My mother is one of the most caring people I've ever known. In fact, she has been, and still is, the only true mother who has ever loved me and has proven time and time again to do whatever it takes to protect me! All you've done is cause me constant pain and misery!" My words make me think back to how Amy protected me by killing Kovarian in the '5:02 world' and would more than likely do it again in our universe if given the chance. Of course she would. She's Amy.
Kovarian smirks in that devilish way that she always does. "That was my intention all along. Pain and misery, when heightened, eventually lead to anger, and we planned for you to use that anger as your primary weapon. Your anger made you more powerful than you could ever imagine."
"Keep talking, and you'll piss me off to the point of me breaking out of these bonds and blowing your brains out all over the floor in front of all of your followers!" I spit back at her, the temptation to do just that increasing the more her very presence lingers.
"Even if you could break out of those bonds," she says in a careless tone, "you wouldn't be able to kill me, no matter how hard you try."
"Try me!" I snap back. "I've proved you wrong multiple times before." My entire experience with her—the majority of it being hazy at best—she was always convinced that I would one day succeed in killing the Doctor. However, the joke ultimately ended up being on her, because she never expected that I would, in fact, refuse to kill him instead; and on top of that, marrying him and having a daughter with him.
Kovarian pauses as if thinking about agreeing. "Perhaps I would…" She then shakes her head. "But I'm no fool. You've always thought of me as a fool, but you've never understood how clever I truly am." She then approaches me and leans in close to my face, and a wave of fear rushes through my body. "Of course, you don't remember this, but after we took you away at Demons Run, we planted a Neural Block in your head—a precautionary measure to ensure that you wouldn't be so naïve as to attempt to murder your own guardian. And, oh, have you tried on multiple occasions."
Her statement makes me smirk slightly as old memories rise to the surface. "Yes, that I remember clearly." The memory of when I was being taught how to use throwing stars flashes in my mind. At one point during the training session, for some reason I felt like throwing one of the stars at Kovarian, and despite having perfect aim at literally everything, I could never aim at Kovarian directly, only near her. I never understood why this always happened…at least until now.
"You may also remember that every time you've tried, you've never actually succeeded to physically harm me in any way," she says, like she read my mind. "Now, you must understand why, don't you?" I don't answer, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of knowing that I know the answer, so she continues, "Every time the Neural Block sensed you attempting to kill me, it triggered a message through your Nervous System that would command your body to stop. I knew you would be difficult to control, so I had to take precautions."
"You treated me like a lab rat," I growl in disgust, "and you plan to do the same exact thing to my daughter! My daughter! I will have you killed one way or another. Even if I can't kill you myself, I'll make sure you die either way!" My entire life, she's been treating me like a slave, controlling my every move; and now she plans to control Nova's life in the exact same way! I will not permit this, especially not to my own daughter!
Kovarian sighs, shaking her head. "You will no longer be in any position to be making threats toward me once I'm finished with you." She adjusts a dial on the control console that is hooked up to the machine that I am strapped to.
"Killing me won't accomplish anything," I snap. "Even if you genetically engineer someone else to kill the Doctor in my place, they'll fail just as I did! He can't be defeated!"
Kovarian smirks. "I never said anything about killing you, dearie. In fact, I knew you'd come. You're so predictable, 'River;' you and the Doctor both! No doubt the Doctor wouldn't allow your precious princess anywhere near us to rescue her precious little family, so he sent you instead, and that was his biggest mistake! Seeing as you failed to save them, in truth, he sent you back to us so that you could be reborn into the perfect psychopath you were meant to be since the beginning."
I shake my head, knowing that to be a total lie. The Doctor never sent me here; I sent myself here, against his and Nova's protests. Regretfully, looking back, that did end up being the greatest mistake of my life. I thought I would succeed in saving Nova's guardians, and I was so close, but I failed, hence how I must have ended up in this mess. Looking back, I should not have ignored the Doctor's message to not go inside the base alone when he sent me the coordinates to my psychic paper. I failed Nova, and I failed her human family, all because I was foolish into thinking that I could take down the Vokanari once and for all, all on my own. Now, I can see that there is no defeating them, certainly not alone. Not even an army would be enough to take them down. They've grown too powerful since Demons Run.
"No!" I scream at her. "You're lying! He would never! That's all you've ever done, is lie! You've lied to me about my parents, you've lied to me about the Doctor… Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie!"
"Believe what you must," Kovarian shrugs. "None of it will matter once this is over." She then snaps her fingers, and a small group of soldiers, as well as tall, monstrous figures with bulbous heads and pinstriped suits, appears from the darkness around her. A soldier and bulbous-headed creature approach me, the soldier adjusting one of the wires at my temples.
"What are you going to do?" I ask, intense panic beginning to course through my veins. "And what are those things?" I say in fear, nodding to the tall creature that had accompanied the soldier.
Kovarian rolls her eyes (eye) again. "As I've said time and time again, they are your owners. And very soon they will own little Nova as well…with your help. You failed to kill the Doctor before, but she will not fail."
"I didn't fail to kill him; I refused!" I snap back. "Totally different! And I'll never help you! You leave my daughter out of this! She's done nothing to you, and she never will! She's just a child!"
"On the contrary," Kovarian shakes her head, "she will be our crowning jewel! She will be our salvation against the looming threat that the Time Lords have posed since the very dawn of Time! The Doctor is the key to their return, and she will be the one to destroy him to ensure that they never return! It is the very reason for which she was made! It is her destiny!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I growl back at her. "The only way you'll get at my daughter is over my dead body!"
Kovarian sighs again, this time having enough. "Say what you will now. Like I said, none of it will matter once this is over."
"Once what is over?" I frown at her, my panic increasing. "And what the hell is that? No! Get away from me, whatever you are!" A tall, bulbous-headed creature (Wait! Didn't I see this thing before? How could I forget?) leans over me, its hollow face hovering just inches from my nose.
"You're in no position to be making demands, River," Kovarian taunts, shaking her head. "In a minute, you will be back under our control, and this time there will be no way to break free. I do not know how you managed to break free last time, but this time, no matter what you do, it will not work."
"As I've said before," I snap, this time keeping my full attention on the creature before me so as not to forget (how I managed to forget it before, I'll never know), "you underestimate me, Kovarian! I'm part-Time Lord. You can't control the mind of a Time Lord, no matter what percentage of Time Lord they are. They're too powerful even for your technology."
"That was true a long time ago, but we've upgraded since then," Kovarian admits—words that I never wanted to hear. "Once we activate this machine, it will send a shock to the Neural Block in your head that will make your brainwashing return indefinitely. Any and all commands given to you will be performed without choice, and we have made it so it will be impossible for you to resist. Perhaps this time you would actually succeed in killing the Doctor, but we think it would be much more amusing for you to watch your own daughter kill him instead. Consider this as punishment for 'refusing,' as you say, to kill him last time."
A flood of anger washes over me in that moment. "You psychotic, evil bitch! Why bother even telling me this?"
Kovarian sighs. "For the last time, none of it matters. In a minute, you will forget everything about this conversation. You will forget having tried to save your child's guardians. You will even forget the love you have for your husband and child. The only thing you will remember is the fact that you failed to defeat me yet again."
"No!" I exclaim angrily. "I won't give in to this! I will find a way to stop you once and for all!" She's a fool to think that she will ever get away with this, but she has absolutely no idea how much I've grown since Demons Run, how powerful I've become.
Kovarian shrugs carelessly. "Be that as it may. You won't remember having said those words on top of everything else. What little life you have left is ours henceforth. Welcome back to the family, Melody Pond: The Woman Who Failed to Kill the Doctor! Soon we will have a new family member. Nova Susan Song: The New Woman to Kill the Doctor."
"No!" I scream, struggling against the cuffs around my wrists. "You can't! She won't! No! No!"
I suddenly begin screaming in pain from a massive electric charge that shoots through my brain. All the while, the monstrous creature before me murmurs commands to me in a raspy voice, "Find Nova Susan Song. Find the Doctor. Bring them to us."
"No!" I shout back against the pain. "I will not give in! I won't…"
The pain is becoming too much to handle, and I begin to lose the ability to fight back the twisted commands this creature seems to be forcefully imbedding into my head.
"Find Nova Susan Song. Find the Doctor. Bring them to us. Find Nova Susan Song. Find the Doctor. Bring them to us." The creature repeats the words over and over again, forcing me to hang on to every word, making it impossible for me to resist, like Kovarian said.
The entire world turns to white for a moment until the scene becomes clear once again, and there is a single thought left in my head. A single task.
I will find the child. I will find the Doctor. I will bring them to Madame Kovarian. I will ensure that the child kills the Doctor when the time comes. And this time, I will not fail in my mission. The Doctor will fall, and the Time Lord plague will be purged. Forever.
A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!
For anyone who was confused after reading this chapter:
About the Neural Block: you can find information on it on the Doctor Who Wiki site, but it was something that the Silence implanted in Melody's head to control her into not being able to directly kill Madame Kovarian. Aside from that, I have a theory/head-canon that the Neural Block in her head also controlled River's brainwashing into killing the Doctor. But in "let's kill Hitler" when the Doctor whispered whatever he whispered in her ear before he succumbed to the poison, the words he whispered may have been a code word or phrase that turned off the brainwashing setting, or it was the deeper meaning behind the words that broke River free from the brainwashing. In other words, after hearing the Doctor's words, River felt a certain emotion towards him (love instead of hate?) that wiped away the Silence's control over her. Like, the brainwashing always made her feel hatred toward the Doctor and nothing else, but when she started feeling love toward him, the brainwashing disappeared.
In this story, now that the Silence have reactivated the brainwashing setting in the Neural Block, she hates the Doctor again, but this time, no matter what he or Nova do to try to reverse it, they can't. River is completely under the Silence's control again. Don't worry, River will eventually be saved in some way (I already have an idea how. Spoilers, of course), but it won't be until the end of Part 1.