Time flowed exactly it was meant to. Amy's flesh avatar got disintegrated, just as Anna's had done. They went out in search of DA (the Doctor's Army) and together, they defeated the army at Demon's Run, not a single drop spilled.
The conversation about how conception had occurred still happened, and Vastra still declared that this had still been too easy. They all swept from the room, Anna absently putting protection on Maldovar before Kovarian popped up on the screen.
"I see you accessed our files. Do you understand, yet? Oh, don't worry, I'm a long way away. But I like to keep tabs on the both of you. The child, then. What do you think?"
"What is she?"
"Hope. Hope in this endless, bitter war."
Despite the fact that neither of them had to ask, the Doctor still did. "Against who?"
"Against her."
The Doctor did what he rarely did. He got angry. "A child is not a weapon!"
"Oh, give us time. She can be. She will be."
"Except you've already lost her, and I swear, I will never let you anywhere near her again."
"Fooling you pair once was a joy, but fooling you twice the same way? It's a privilege."
"Amy. Amy!"
The screen went dark, her smile the last thing that Anna saw. She waited for a long moment, tense as she grabbed the table. As soon as the screen came back on, she looked up at the camera, an expectant look on her face.
"Nobody got flesh goo on them, did they?"
"What have you done?"
She sat down, kicking her heels up onto the table, unable to help the smirk that came to her face.
"You really thought that I would let you take a child?" She tsked her.
"It's a fixed. Point. Even you wouldn't risk something like that."
"Mm, except, I think I did. And now, I'm coming for you. Run, as far and as fast as you can. And pray to your god that I don't catch up. Because you won't like the consequences if I do."
She felt giddy. She felt light headed with joy as she walked down to where Baby Melody was still cradled in her mother's arms.
Saxon stepping in had been a blessing in disguise. She'd been able to step in because he'd stepped in, changing it just enough that she was able to change it as well. Melody would get to grow up with her family, have a normal childhood, be a person before she was River Song.
That said nothing for how things would have to play out, but this was not a consolation prize. This was a bonafide miracle that she'd actually gotten to perform.
All because she'd told Saxon how to kill her.
She frowned when she saw Amy and the Doctor both panicking. Amy's eyes landed on her and she immediately moved past the Doctor, who was staring at his sonic intently.
"The Doctor said that something was wrong, what-"
"Oh, no, sorry, that was part of the show for Kovarian. Thought he would've caught on, but, well, he's a bit thick sometimes."
"Oi!" he replied, but he didn't sound more indignant than that, the relief too great for him to be truly annoyed.
"Hello, baby Melody, you wonderful, precious thing, you."
She heard the sound of thunder and knew that it was far from over.
"How unravels the day, Commander?"
She kissed Baby Melody on the forehead, imparting protection, before she did the same with both Amy and Rory. Amy was receptive to it. Rory was probably only receptive to it because she'd just saved his child. She couldn't really blame him for that. It was a bit weird. Still, it gave them blanket protection from the likes of Kovarian and Saxon, who wouldn't be able to touch any of them again. Well. Time being what it was, there was wiggle room, but for the most part, they would be protected until the time was right.
"And here she is," the Doctor said, sounding particularly unhappy but doing his usual thing of acting as if he weren't. "River Song herself. One question, where the hell where you today? We've come every time that you have called-"
"Not every time."
"Whatever you're talking about, the point still stands. We come every time that you call, and you abandoned the lot of us today, and why? Because of your perpetual spoilers?"
"What do you think, Anna? Think I could've prevented this?"
"No," she answered simply, sitting down on one of the crates and kicking her legs up. "You couldn't have."
The Doctor glanced back and forth between the two of them, his hands on his hips, calculation in his eyes. "Does one of you want to clue me in on what's happening here?"
She smiled, her arms crossed over her chest. "Who are you, Dr. River Song?"
"Not just Dr. River Song, for a start," she replied. "Doctor? With me."
She showed him the same thing that she had done in the show, and the Doctor had the same reaction. She smiled at it before she watched as he clapped his hands, spinning on his heels. "Come along, everyone! No use hanging around this dusty old base."
"But she's okay, though? Melody, she's okay?" Amy asked, harried.
She moved to Amy, clasping her shoulders in her hands. "Amy, she is more than okay. Melody Pond is, and will always be, absolutely brilliant."
#####
"So you're our... daughter," Rory said, later that night, as everyone crowded together in the kitchen.
It had just been the Pond family for that particular conversation, but Anna and the Doctor had wandered into the kitchen later to see that they were still processing. Everybody was exhausted from the battle, but Rory and Amy didn't want to part, and so baby Melody was still cradled in Amy's arms, sleeping peacefully, the family back together again. Anna had set about making dinner, but she felt a warm glow filling her.
"Yes," River said, for what was probably the millionth time, though she said it as if she were saying it for the first. River was good like that.
"But... you three are married," he said, pointing between the three of them.
The Doctor did a double take. "I'm sorry, we're what?"
Amy's face lit up. "No, sorry, that was just a guess," she said. "Because of the way that you three interact. Are you, though? Married? The three of you?"
"Spoilers," River said.
"But that's... weird. Because I'm assuming that they're there, when Melody- when you were... you know growing up. So how- I mean, I don't even want to- that's-"
"Yes. About that."
For the first time that day, Anna genuinely frowned.
"Your time traveling in the Tardis is over. With the exception of one or two adventures, your journey ends here. You'll head home, raise me... and you won't see them again for another eighteen years."
She raised her eyebrows, but it clicked for her. This was why she'd landed so late. Two whole years... so that the Ponds could have their adventures, in the Tardis. All the while still getting the family life that they'd never gotten.
She froze time around them, sobbing as she stood and grabbed onto the Doctor.
"Woah, hey, hey, it's all right, we'll see them again," he said, reassuringly rubbing a comforting hand on her back.
"No you- you don't understand. I fixed it. I got to fix it. They-they had their adventures and they still get to have a family."
She sobbed into his shoulder, the stress finally melting away, to be replaced with a warmth in her chest.
She hadn't just saved Gallifrey. She'd saved the Ponds. And that? That was everything.
#####
"Ponds!"
The Doctor was overjoyed. They'd set the Tardis to random, right after they'd dropped off the Ponds, in search of adventure (read here as distraction) only to find themselves in the Ponds' living room.
"Hold on, you're not eighteen years older-" He yanked a hair out of Rory's head, sniffing it, though Rory yelped indignantly. "It's been three weeks!"
"Yeah, probably something to do with me," Mels said, lazily.
"Who're you?"
"I'm offended," she said. "Aren't time lords supposed to recognize each other?"
Anna felt her jaw drop.
"What's that mean?" Rory asked.
"You're a what?"
"Everybody into the Tardis, let's go, move it."
"No, hold on, where's Melody?"
"With-with my dad, seriously, what does that mean?"
"Come on, dad, you're not thick."
"Dad?"
The Tardis doors closed behind him.
She felt surprise running through her when Mels grabbed her in a chokehold, putting a gun to her temple.
"Pilot us."
"Woah."
"Mels, what're you doing?!"
"Yes, Mels, what are you doing? Why've you come back in time to visit your-" He snarled when she cocked the gun, barely holding up his hands. "Anna?"
"Do as she says," she said, even though confusion was filling her.
"Okay, but how're you a time lord? We grew up together, you're my best friend, why-"
"She's your what?" the Doctor asked, looking around the rotor, though he'd already put them in the vortex.
"Oh, for god's sake-" she said, and the gun left her temple a moment later, aiming the gun directly for the rotor before she fired.
#####
"Hitler."
"What about him?"
"Lousy shot."
"Mels? Mels!"
"No, Amy, stay back!" the Doctor said, pulling her back. Amy fought him, but it was like he wasn't straining at all. "You know what to do?"
"Done it once before," she said.
"Good luck."
"What're you two talking about?" she asked, struggling.
"Amy, stop it, stop," Anna said, and Amy stopped.
"She's a time lord," he said. "And time lords have this trick, a way to cheat death. It's called-"
"Regeneration, yeah, River told us about it. So?"
"So Mels is a time lord," the Doctor said. "What do you think she's about to do?"
Her hands started to glow.
#####
"Oh, that's lovely! And now, for my next trick-"
Anna was all-powerful, but she didn't always see everything coming. She certainly didn't see River pointing a gun at her and firing.
Except, it wasn't a gun. A moment later, she felt as if her energy was being drained away.
And, it hurt.
She screamed.
"Twenty one years I've had to backwards engineer the gun that killed her," she said, and they all watched, horrified, as Anna slowly started to disintegrate. "Did it in six."
"Stop it, stop it, you're killing her!" The Doctor shouted, sending reassurance through the connection by the truckloads. "Time will collapse!"
It was the only thing that anchored her enough that she froze time around them.
She collapsed where she was, shaking, breathing hard. She looked up at Melody, swallowing, before she unfroze her. "What- the hell are you trying- trying to do?"
"Let me go," she said, panicked.
"Tell me what-what you're trying to-" time unfroze for a second and she cried out as the blaster hit her again. The Doctor panicked, and she hung onto that as she froze time again, breathing hard. "What you're trying to-"
"I'm trying to save your life!" she said, desperately trying to move. Anna was breathing hard, nauseous. The Doctor didn't move, for fear that it would disrupt her concentration somehow, but he desperately wanted to move to her. "If I kill you now, time gets rewritten, because you can never die on the beach."
"Time-"
"Riv- Melody, it doesn't work like that-"
"You're an all-powerful being, you can do anything you like!"
"But I don't!" she said, shaking her head. She held up her hand, keeping time frozen. "I don't, because that would make me the wrong kind of being of power. It would mean that I would think that my way is the best way, the ultimate way, the way it should be, when the universe exists as it does and that is beautiful. Everything ends, Ri... Melody. Everything ends, so that beautiful things, wonderful things, can start. I died so that something amazing could come along."
"What good could come of my killing someone? Or did you forget that I'll be the one to pull the trigger? I don't want to have been the one to kill you!"
She managed to stand on shaking legs, though she held her hand out to the Doctor when he tried to move to her, and he anxiously rocked on his heels. "I know," she said, gently moving to her on shaking legs. "I know, and I am so sorry for that. If there was something I could do about that, I would. But I can't."
"You're all-powerful," she protested.
"But that doesn't mean fixer of everything. Sometimes, bad things happen. But that doesn't mean that life can't still be good. And Melody, you didn't kill me. That was a mad man with ideas that he's the king of the universe. He just used you to do it. And I'm sorry for that. But doing this, killing me like this? It will mean that you will tear the universe apart, and you will have killed so much more than me. Maybe you can't fix this, but that doesn't mean that it's your fault." She searched her before she stepped back into the path of the weapon's energy.
"Anna-" he said, in an alarmed voice.
"If you really think that this is for the betterment of the universe, then do it. But Melody, I swear to you, there's always another way."
She held her arms out, closing her eyes. A moment later, she unfroze time.
She screamed for one, long, terrible moment...
Before she dropped to the ground, shaking hard. The Doctor immediately rushed to her. "Anna, Anna, hey, it's okay, I've got you."
She let her nose bleed, making River think that it had worked, and the Doctor didn't miss a beat, wiping at the blood dripping from her nose with his handkerchief.
"Everybody, in the Tardis, now."
They left a very confused Teselecta crew behind. They weren't confused for long, brushing it off to finish what they started.
#####
"I've been planning this for over two decades," Melody said, blankly.
"I know," she said, sitting in front of her. "And, now that it's over, you can live your life. Be whoever you want to be. Get your degree, be the right kind of doctor." She searched her, smiling slightly. "Even be one of my holy consorts, spread the message about what wonderful things I can do. Maybe even answer some prayers along the way. Somebody's got to do it."
"Bit conceited, that," Melody pointed out.
Anna laughed. "Yeah, but it'll be a lot of fun."
Melody shrugged. "Might as well," she said. "I have my whole life ahead of me, now."
She crossed her arms, leaning back. "How would you feel about a new name, to go with this fresh start?"
She frowned, looking down. "What about... River Song?" Anna raised her eyebrows. "It's the name on my prayer cloth, the one Lorna gave to mum. It's how my name translates in the language of the Gamma Forests. The only water in the forest is the river."
She smiled. "I think that's perfect."
#####
The Ponds were dropped back off at home, and River was all enrolled and set at Luna University. "We should celebrate."
"Any ideas?"
She considered it for a moment. "How about... Christmas?"
