Chapter Text
i said i moved on
but hearing your name alone ignited a flicker of hope inside me
the doctor was in a dalek spaceship once again
he was alone , all by himself
he didn't bring bill or nardole ,
he didn't bring them because this was dangerous- not exactly , and well not for him danger is kinda a hobby at this point
he didn't actually wanted to be here ,no , he's here because the daleks keeps rebuilding themselves, kinda annoying i know ,they don't even know how to decorate their ship properly ,over thousands of years it's still all the same ,same walls ,same alarm,same dramatic lighting
Well that's not the entire reason , he just really wanna be left alone for some time being, I know what you are thinking , he hates alone why would he wanna be alone, well I don't know either
The doctor strode down the corridor coat flapping behind him running from the daleks chasing him from behind
“Honestly ”he muttered,sonic screwdriver buzzing in his hand pointing towards the upcoming door “you've conquered galaxies and yet every ship look like a prototypes of the toaster”
a squad of daleks rounded in front of him
“DOCTOR YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO RUN YOU WILL DIE IN THE HANDS OF THE DALEKS!!”
“well yeah! no thank-you i don't like you guys ”he said provoking the daleks
“EXTERMINATE!” one of the daleks shouted and a blaster fire erupted.
the doctor threw himself sideways beneath to an unnoticed doorway,
the blasts that was supposed to hit him struck a nearby power conduit instead
because of that the corridor exploded
metal rained from the ceiling ,the corridor was collapsing
the daleks banished from the collapsed
when all the dramatic collapse was done the doctor stood and dusted off his coat “See? that what happens when you shoot first and think never”he muttered to himself proudly
alarms intensified. the ship lights flashed red
the doctor grinned. because the thing he'd come for was already done.
The central reactor was currently entering a delightful state known as catastrophic failure
A countdown appeared across every monitor.
SELF-DESTRUCTION IN TEN MINUTES
"Oh, plenty of time."
He continued walking.
Daleks emerged from every direction.
The Doctor simply kept going.unfazed of the danger in front of him he just kept working
He rewired doors.
Disabled weapons.
Redirected power.
At one point he trapped thirty Daleks inside their own storage chamber... with him , but dont worry he has a plan to get out
furious daleks screams echoed through the ship. he ignored it
and eventually he reached the bridge.
Hundreds of screens covered the walls.
The Dalek Supreme waited at the center.
Its eyestalk fixed upon him.
"THE DOCTOR."
"Dalek."
"YOU HAVE DESTROYED THIS VESSEL."
"Yes."
"YOU HAVE KILLED THOUSANDS OF DALEKS."
"Also yes."now he is nodding sarcastically
"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE.YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"
The Doctor checked his watch.
"Hm. Eight minutes left. Plenty of time still"he said pretending to ignore the dalek, and then he looked up towards the Dalek Supreme"Sorry what were you saying?" the doctor said smirking
The Supreme remained silent.
Which immediately made the Doctor suspicious.
Daleks usually couldn't resist shouting.
Then the Supreme spoke.
"WE HAVE A QUESTION."
The Doctor blinked.
"A question?" he raised his thick eyebrows
"AFFIRMATIVE.”
"That's new. is this a trap ? nevermind go on with the question"
The Dalek's eyestalk focused tighter. “YOU WILL DIE DOCTOR”
“yes but not today , or rather it already happened ” he smiled at the dalek
“IT'S NOT THE QUESTION DOCTOR!”
his smile faltered he raised his eyebrow once again
“RIVER SONG” the dalek says
he froze hearing the name, his expression hardened
clearing his throat “what about her” he asked
"RIVER SONG IS DECEASED."
The Doctor said nothing.
"RIVER SONG DIED ON THE PLANET LIBRARY."
Still nothing.
"OUR RECORDS CONFIRM HER DEATH."
The Doctor's jaw tightened. eyes darkening, is this dalek trying to provoke him or something? he thinks "Get to the point."he warned
"IF SHE IS DEAD ,THEN WHY HAVE DALEK PATROLS ENCOUNTERED HER ON SEVENTEEN SEPARATE OCCASIONS AFTER HER DEATH?"
Silence.
The Doctor's hearts skipped.
Just once.
then he recovered
“thats imposible, and why would i even believe you?“ he muttered
The screens changed in the ship.Images appeared.Blurry security footage.
Battle recordings.Witness reports.
A woman.
Curly big blonde hair. imposible to not notice
And a blue diary.
And a smile he knew better than his own face.
he holds his breath
River.
River laughing at a Dalek.
River stealing a weapon.
River blowing up a command center.
River running through a corridor.
River.
River.
River.
River.
his river
The Doctor stared.but he knew better, that might be the river from the past , its not good to hope for nothing ,beside all their encounter was gone now, its buried in the past, so he put his hopes down
“she,s a timetraveler “ he assured the dalek, why is he assuring a dalek?
" HER INFORMATION SAYS SHE IS PAST THE LIBRARY DOCTOR"
thats imposible
The Doctor examined the footage again.
At first glance it looked normal.
River blowing things up.River stealing classified information.River being River.
Then he noticed something.
His expression changed.
Slightly.
Dangerously.
He stepped closer to one screen.
There.
River was holding her diary.A blue diary
Open. its open
The camera briefly caught a page.but Only for a second.But a second was enough.
looking at it The Doctor froze.
Because he knew that page.He knew exactly that page.River had shown it to him once.Thousands of years ago.
The Supreme spoke.
"THE FOOTAGE IS AUTHENTIC."
The Doctor ignored it. instead he moved to another recording.Another glimpse of the diary.Another page.Another impossible detail.
His stomach dropped.
Because the pages weren't from Young River.
Or middle-aged River.
Or any River he knew.
The diary was almost full.No. no it was full
his heartbeat spiked
It's Far fuller than it should have been.Far fuller than the last time he'd seen it.
The Doctor's face lost all color.Because River's diary worked like a timeline.
Every page represented experiences.
Memories.
Meetings.
A life.
And there were entries there that shouldn't exist.Entries that happened after the Library. and during it
After her death. and during it
After everything.
The Doctor stared at the screen.At River's smile.At the impossible diary.
At a woman who should not exist.
Then very quietly he said:
"No."
A Dalek sounded The ship shook violently.
Thirty seconds later the Doctor stole an escape pod, downloaded every file in the database, and blew up the Dalek flagship, and vanished into the vortex.
Because if the footage wasn't from River's past... Then there were only three possibilities.
1.Somebody was pretending to be River.
2.Reality was breaking.
3.River Song had somehow cheated death.
And knowing River…
Option three was somehow the least ridiculous.
but that was imposible she has no body anymore ,he saw it in their first meeting he saw it be destroyed so how ? is someone tricking him?
The Doctor stood over the console, staring at the Dalek files.
River.
River.
More River.
Enough River sightings to make an entire committee of historians develop migraines.
He opened the first report.Then the second.
Then the twentieth.
His expression became increasingly annoyed.
Not hopeful.Annoyed.
Because every report said the same thing.RIVER SONG.
ALIVE.
“Oh, rubbish. i need proof!! ”
The TARDIS hummed.
The Doctor pointed at the screen”No!!.how i am supposed to believe all this without proof!! a more believable one”
The TARDIS hummed again.
“Don't start.”he warned to the spaceship
Another hum.
“She is not alive.” he tells himself trying to forget the glimpse of her diary in the footage in the dalek spaceship "she can't be! i cannot just hope for nothing , i saw her die infront of me!.."
The TARDIS made a noise that sounded suspiciously like disagreement.The Doctor began checking dates.That was the obvious answer.
River was a time traveler.Of course she was being seen after her death.Half the universe had technically met River after her deathThat was how timelines worked.so He highlighted the first sighting.
“Two hundred years before the Library.”
Another.
“Seven years before the Library.”
Another
“Three months ago.”
and Another.
“Four hundred years before”
The Doctor relaxed.
There.
Satisfied.
Case closed.
he sighed
River was simply River.
Traveling around. Annoying the Daleks.
Stealing things
Exploding things.
digging with her trowel
Perfectly normal.
Well.
Normal for River.
Then he reached the final file.
The Doctor stopped.His smile vanished.
The date was wrong.Not wrong as in inaccurate.Wrong as in impossible.
The sighting occurred seventy-three years after River's death.Not seventy-three years after the Doctor saw her.Seventy-three years after her personal timeline ended .The Daleks had accounted for temporal displacement.
They weren't measuring history.They were measuring River's own chronology.He ran a deeper analysis. A very expensive analysis.
The kind that usually resulted in either enlightenment or explosions.
Occasionally both.
The result appeared.TEMPORAL POSITION: AFTER THE LIBRARY
The Doctor stared.
“That's impossible! just how!?”
Because River's death wasn't merely a historical event.It was the end of her timeline.
No future River existed beyond that point.There couldn't be. its impossible. Every version of River eventually reached the Library.
And died.
That was the finish line.Yet the Dalek records insisted they had encountered a River who came after that finish line.
but then new file appeared
One the Daleks had marked as important.The Doctor opened it. of course
it says
Security footage.Recent.
Only three days old.Recorded on a remote trading station.
The image flickered.Crowds moved through a marketplace.Alie ns.Merchants.Travelers
and Then the camera caught her.
River.
Not running.no
Not fighting.
Not blowing anything up.Not blowing anything up.
Just walking.
Calmly.Like she didn't have the entire universe questioning how she existed.
The Doctor leaned closer. there's a lump of something forming in his two hearts
Something felt wrong.Not dangerous.
Wrong.
In a way he couldn't explain.
Then River stopped.then Slowly turned.
And looked directly at the camera.The Doctor froze.that was expected but unexpected at the same time
Because she smiled.Not at the camera.
At him.
him...
The footage continued.
River reached into her coat and Removed a piece of paper.
she Held it up.for him to see
Just long enough for the camera to read.
Then she walked away.Vanishing into the crowd.The Doctor stared.
Then stared harder.
Because the note contained four words.for him
Four impossible words.
only for him. because it's written in galliffreyian
the words was
‘Hello, Sweetie. Took you long enough.’
his breath caught a flicker of hope in his hearts
but then
The footage timestamp changed.
The Doctor blinked.
Then blinked again.
The date was changing.
Right in front of him.
That wasn't possible.
so many impossible things happening, what is going on??? how is this possible?
Recorded events didn't rewrite themselves.History didn't edit itself.
Not unless something very serious was happening.The timestamp shifted backward.
One year.Five years.Ten years.Fifty.
A hundred.
The Doctor's face went pale.
Because the footage wasn't anchored in time.
It was moving.
Traveling.
Like the recording itself was alive.Then the screen displayed one final message.
One not written by the Daleks.
One not written by the station.
One written directly into the data stream itself.
'Find me... and yes i am pass the library'.
but thenThe TARDIS screamed.Not a mechanical alarm.A genuine terrified scream from the ancient ship.The entire console room shook.Lights exploded.Sparks rained from the ceiling.
The Doctor grabbed the controls.”What is it?!”
The answer appeared immediately.
And for perhaps the first time in centuries…The Doctor felt fear.
Because the source of the signal wasn't located anywhere in the universe.
It wasn't in the future.Or the past.
Or another dimension.
Or another timeline.
but in that fear he felt hope
but one thing he didn't notice about all of that was , why are the daleks helping him?
a very tiny detail
and that little detail that he didn't notice can be a reason to his ruins