FIC: Hold On, Be Strong [Chapter 4]
Chapter 4: You Can Be Punished
RUN!
Sarah Jane thought it, she yelled it, and she heard the others shout it at the same time. “K9, protect us!”
The deadly electricity grew around the Silents’ hands and they moved in a way that was both terrifying and graceful. Their mouths opened into wide O’s like they would inhale everyone in the garden.
“Don’t look away!” Amy shouted to everyone. “When you look away, you don’t remember them!”
K9 already had his gun out and fired on the Silents. The monster on the right aimed its hand and shot first. Sarah Jane nearly screamed at the thought of losing him again, but Jack suddenly stepped behind him. He pushed K9 aside with one foot as he took a shooter’s balanced stance. The Silent’s bolt of killing energy struck the ground and Jack fired. The shot hit the alien in the shoulder, but he never hesitated and launched another attack; this one branched out and looked even more like lightning in a macabre imitation of Zeus.
River Song appeared from nowhere and slammed into Jack with a full body block that tackled him to the ground a couple feet away from where the Silent aimed.
“Immortal!” Jack shouted and started scrambling from underneath her.
“Don’t count on it!” she shouted back. “They vaporize! There’d be nothing left of you to come back, not even dust!”
He had looked up at her and the sky when they fell. His forehead furrowed with confusion. “What’s going on?”
Sarah Jane asked herself the same thing. She saw laser blasts everywhere and didn’t know why.
River already had jerked her head over to the aliens. Jack made a guttural noise and Sarah Jane gasped when she saw them. How could they be in her garden and she not know?
River grabbed Jack’s wrist without bothering to stand. She started to hurriedly program his vortex manipulator. “Does this thing at least teleport? Never mind. If it doesn’t work now, it will after I’m done.”
“Don’t send me! Where’s yours? You gotta have one to get here!”
“Bring it back with you! We need someone who knows what they’re doing!”
“You are a fool, Melody Pond,” the Silent in the middle said in one long sibilant jeer.
“Don’t you use my daughter’s name!” Amy snarled at them.
They ignored her for River. “You attempt to save the ones who will kill you if we were to leave.”
Her fingers stilled in a hover over Jack’s wrist. Amy shouted, “No, River!”
“Amy!” Rory yelled. “You looked away!”
A Silent launched its lethal charge at them. They jumped away in opposite directions.
River screamed in fury. “LEAVE MY PARENTS ALONE!”
“We cannot allow you to die from your misjudgments.”
Sarah Jane’s stomach took a sickening plummet. They couldn’t tell her what they knew about the Doctor. But River kept moving to save all of them if she could, even if it meant, in her mind, they would kill her when this was through.
“Hey,” Jack started, “I’m not -- look out!”
They landed a few feet away from each other. River dove back and did a bellyflop on the ground. She snatched his wrist and keyed the last couple commands. She put herself between the Silents and Jack like a shield, and grabbed him by the shoulders. She threw him across the garden at Rory and Amy. Sarah Jane couldn’t believe the strength it would take to do that. “Get them out of here!” she shouted at him.
His eyes shot everywhere before he gave in. “I’ll be right back!” He snatched the Ponds and slammed his hand down on the vortex manipulator. Rory and Amy hollering threats at him hung in the air with the noise of the battle raging.
Mickey and Martha had grabbed the bench and threw it at the Silents. She signaled something to Ian and Barbara.
River turned and she froze at seeing Wilf and Jo. She buried her face in her hands and cursed herself as she jerked her whole upper body in an angry shake. “I shouldn’t have done that! Sorry!” she said to them. “Instinct!”
That was when Sarah Jane knew she meant saving her parents first before someone like Wilf who was more vulnerable.
“Stop, don’t worry about us!” he told her. “We're able to handle ourselves. Turn around!”
Mickey swung a chair as Martha threw one of the small tables at the Silents in an attempt to allow Ian and Barbara a chance to get past. They swarmed over Wilf like the Royal Protection Squad around the Queen: “You’re right, we’re able to handle ourselves right out of here.” They hustled towards the house as K9 provided covering fire, always moving to avoid being a target, but their enemies’ constant attack never allowed him to move from a defense to an answering offense. A Silent’s fire hit Ian across his arm and made him shout; Wilf got a hold of him so the three of them didn’t stop.
Still so many of them left to get to safety, past the blockade the aliens formed with themselves and their attack. The garden was a good size, but not meant for combat, and the surrounding brick wall and the house made them fish in a barrel.
But fish that fought back.
River ran to Dorothy who shouted, “I should’ve known I’d need explosives at the Professor’s funeral!” She picked up another chair and got close enough, so when she threw it, one of its legs got a Silent in the eye. She grinned in victory until its arm came around, already sparking with electricity. “Oh, damn.” River got there just as she jumped.
Sarah Jane hurried to help and then just made out her mobile ringing. She ducked behind her garden swing to answer the call. A Silent shot at her and she dove to the ground behind the rubble. She blinked at the decimated garden furniture. The next shot made her look up and she screamed inside at the nightmare she saw.
“Mum! Hang on, we’re on our way!” Luke shouted into the phone.
“Don’t you dare! You’ll only give them someone else to shoot!”
Clyde must have heard her. “We can help, Sarah Jane!”
“You can help by going downstairs and give everyone who comes in whatever they need! I’ll meet you there!” She swapped the phone for her sonic lipstick. She aimed it at the Silents and activated it as one of them took a shot at Tegan. Nothing. It had no effect. She made an aggravated noise and caught River looking over, sharing her irritation that they couldn’t use the sonic. The other woman pointed at the garden’s entrance, making Sarah Jane turn. She couldn’t believe the horror attacking them.
She remembered Amy telling her not to look away and sternly told herself not to do it again. She saw Jovenka’s look and the way she kept Jo with her. Sarah Jane nodded. One of her small tables laid on its side; she grabbed it and threw it hard.
Tegan broke into a run with Jo and tried for the gate, like Ian’s group had done. But the Silents stood ready for it this time: lightning covered the opening in a pseudo force field. They made the women turn back.
Everyone kept trying: they snatched anything they could throw and ran sideways like sped up crabs to keep their eyes on the aliens. Mickey picked up a piece of her swing and started to run at them, but he barely missed being hit and his make-shift club vaporized. He nearly lost his hands all together and he yelled as they burned. Martha grabbed and pulled him after her. River showed up and put herself between the married couple and the aliens, as Martha hurriedly snatched another piece of wood, but this time flung it like a boomerang. She nearly took off a Silent’s head who barely dodged it, but at least the distraction caused it to miss hitting them. Mickey cheered and Tegan shouted she did it like an Australian. Dorothy gave her a thumbs up.
Jack came back with a sizzle. His colour was off, Sarah Jane noticed. He held another vortex manipulator in his hand and threw it to River. “Yours! It’s set up! Wait, why are we--!” He cut himself off as he turned in the direction of the attack. He yanked his gun out and laid down another covering fire as he moved. It didn’t do as much as they hoped, because too many bolts came at them, making it impossible to stay long enough in one place for accurate shooting, or even to fire so many shots the odds meant some would hit with more damage.
And the enemy learned to move faster than they had at the start.
River shook her head. Sarah Jane barely made out what she said. “They’ve gotten better.”
River’s battle plan -- for herself -- became obvious, at least. She ran in front of whoever was in the most danger at the moment. The Silents needed her alive.
They split their efforts to attack multiple targets simultaneously. One concentrated on Jack and K9; another focused on Martha and Mickey; and the third shot at Jo and Tegan. River couldn’t protect them all at once. She called instead for Dorothy to help Mickey as much as she could as she ran to Jovenka. Sarah Jane went with Jack and ordered K9 to protect Jo’s group.
Electricity crisscrossed everywhere forcing them down and River to roll to Tegan. Martha used herself as bait to draw fire away from them as well as from Mickey. He tried coming round on the side, Dorothy on line with him, but nothing could divert the aliens long enough. They got chased off, energy blasts burning the ground where they ran.
K9 took a glancing blow that would have been a direct shot if Tegan hadn’t gotten her hand over to him and shoved him just enough out of the way. River slapped the time traveling device on the closest wrist -- Jo’s, who stretched her arm out for Tegan -- and punched the button. They disappeared just in time as a bolt passed through the spot.
Dorothy took off at full speed for River who was left out in the open. Sarah Jane could see the exact moment she remembered that River wasn’t in any danger.
K9 backed up to Sarah Jane and Jack reached for her. “No!” she shouted. Her house, her garden, her guests: she wasn’t leaving them. She pointed at Mickey and Martha, and he ran to them instead. They shouted just as loudly that they were staying, but he grabbed them as he yelled, “Twenty-five in two!”
“Harkness!” River shouted. “Give me the gun!” Too late, he had already hit the control and they were gone.
Sarah Jane had looked away again and heard K9 call, “Mistress! Dangerous lifeforms have invaded the garden!”
Bless him, he didn’t forget when he turned around.
Trapping them in the garden did nothing because of the vortex manipulators, so the Silents spread out to take them on, one on one. Sarah Jane turned to keep the closest in sight. She moved one step behind her and another, and felt herself bump into Dorothy and River who were also back to back.
“Any ideas?” she asked them. She had one, besides what already had worked. The way to her house was clear again. They could get through if they found a way to keep the one Silent from firing across the gate. A sudden movement in front of her made her shout, “Down!”
Bolts from each of the aliens sliced through the air above them. They unintentionally scurried as a group with K9 holding back the Silents as much as possible.
“I have a few ideas,” River said. “McShane?”
“Don’t worry about me. Fighter and not a screamer.”
Again they moved and K9 valiantly kept up his defense. Sarah Jane heard the smirk in River’s voice. “You know how that sounds, don’t you?”
Dorothy’s answering grin could be heard too. “Now that you mention it--”
“You two have to be kidding me!”
“Sorry, I -- Sarah Jane, move!” She felt Dorothy push her so she leapt clear.
River shouted at them and they looked around. The latest enemy attack had forced them to separate themselves from her and trapped them against the house.
River yelled again at the Silents who slowly grouped together between them. “I already warned you! You’re going to start a war with his younger versions by attacking these people!”
The answering hiss dragged fingernails down Sarah Jane’s spine. “The war has already been waged. We are its victors because of you. This is merely a battle.”
“I’ll leave!” she pleaded. “Right now and never come back around them. You can let them go!”
“You believe they will not go through with their threat to punish you? You murdered the Doctor.”
Dorothy shouted, “Don’t listen to them! We-- bloody hell!”
She and Sarah Jane dropped, but they had nowhere else to go. The sound of K9’s motors got louder, but he was still across the garden. He started firing as soon as he could.
“Mistress!”
He saw it coming too. She wouldn't be able to stop the Silent this time. “It’s okay, K9. Take care of Luke!
Dorothy snarled, “I hate them for how brilliant this was,” and braced herself.
And then: River, back in front of them. She had used the whole thing to outmaneuver the Silents and now stared them down.
“We have our limits with you, Melody Pond.”
McShane sounded disgusted as she got to her feet. “They yell at you like a kid who’s acting up.”
“No,” River answered and the sadness broke Sarah Jane’s heart. “They yell at me like a gun that jammed.”
She charged the Silents and slammed into them. Two of them staggered and fell. The third caught himself just in time. She bashed him in the head with her fists clenched together like a hammer. He dropped hard. Sarah Jane marveled again at the sheer strength in the woman.
“McShane!” River shouted.
Dorothy had looked away and now stared at the aliens. But she already searched for something to use as a weapon, except nothing was left.
“No, you have to-- Sarah Jane!” River gestured hard before the aliens rose and threw her off.
Why? What was it about Dorothy that River was trying to say, and why not tell her directly?
Sarah Jane figured it out and shoved the younger woman with her shoulder a second before Jack came back right there. Those numbers he had called out: they were aimed at River. She had understood he changed part of the coordinates because he was changing where he’d come back. The last number told her how long he’d be away. That was why she hadn’t said anything out loud; so she wouldn’t give the Silents a chance to aim and kill him when he arrived.
River shouted, “Captain! Eyes front!”
He looked deadly pale before he even saw them, but started firing immediately to keep the monsters off them. “Your parents are screaming about you sending them out!” he called to River. “And that covers your son too, Sarah Jane!” He grabbed Dorothy and tossed the other vortex manipulator. He missed River and it dropped to the ground a foot away.
“Go!” she hollered. His jaw clenched, but he jumped back out.
That left her, Sarah Jane, and K9. They all knew it too. She and River ran to each other, the latter scooping up her vortex manipulator, with the mechanical dog between them and the enemy. But it gave the aliens one collective target again and they gave no quarter. Fire rained down heavier all around them and one hit right next to her foot. She jumped and rolled to the side. She had to stay low and even constantly moving wasn’t helping as she saw the Silents used their firepower to herd them to where they’d be hemmed in by shots and killed.
Even with that, she thought she and everyone else would make it. She didn’t know what they would do once they were all in her home, but they’d be out of here.
And the others had to be in her house. Luke would have called back and told her if they weren’t. So she and River just had to make it to there with K9. Something had to be left for them to use. Something, anything to distract their enemy so they could break out of the garden gate.
Then each Silent raised a hand and aimed at her. The electricity crackled around their hands.
River suddenly threw her arms around Sarah Jane and pulled her in tight. Her back formed a barrier between her and that fire, and she got K9 in between their feet. “They can’t kill me.”
“But you can be punished, Melody Pond.” They shot her.
River stiffened and her head threw back, teeth clenched, and a scream forced back down her throat. Sarah Jane felt those knees tremble and the hands clenched into fists shaking from holding in the pain, but those arms didn’t drop and she refused to move away. She instead tried to get her vortex manipulator to activate, but her fingers wouldn’t work, not to even grip it, and the lightning kept coming and coming and coming.
Sarah Jane tried to do it herself, but their colliding hands caused the band to drop off to the side. One of the Silents tried to hit it and kept them from grabbing it.
She realized River’s back was to them, so she wouldn’t know who hurt her. “It’s those aliens, the ones who--” Dammit, she was going to have to keep up the lie. “--killed the Doctor.” She tried lowering her voice to tell the truth, but the noise around them was too great and could River understand anything through her agony?
Jack’s shout was the only thing she heard that said he had come back. River tried to talk, but opening her mouth only let out the start of a cry. She clamped her jaw shut and weakly pushed Sarah Jane. She half-stumbled, half-ran backwards with River still as the shield so she could get away.
Jack waited there and then tried grabbing them both, but the Silents used his getting close as a way to target him. River formed the centre of the bullseye and getting near her put them at ground zero. He fired at the aliens to cover his moving and Sarah Jane tried from the opposite direction to get close to the other woman, but they couldn’t escape that concentrated attack. Worse, two Silents started sweeping their deadly energy towards each of them and they darted away completely. K9 tried leading the enemy away, as Martha had, with an attack from the brick wall, but the aliens casually flicked one hand to meet and overpower the dog’s shots, and Sarah Jane could see his power ran low. He was forced to retreat, but kept up what fight he had left in him. Jack shook his head, turned so he could keep her and their attackers in his sight lines, and held out his hand.
She didn’t want to go. Leaving the other woman to that torture went against everything she felt, but if she stayed, the disgusting truth was: the Silents still wouldn’t kill River, but they would kill she and Jack by luring them in with their attack on the poor woman. They turned punishing her into a weapon.
She and Jack had to get out of the garden to force the aliens to focus on moving after everyone else. Then maybe - no, they would get River out of here somehow. With the group together again and not bottled in, they had to find a way. Somehow, they must.
Jack ran behind her and she reluctantly took hold of his wrist, but before they could transport out, she heard someone else yell. She swung her head and couldn’t believe it.
Yes, she could. She’d do the same if Luke were here. The Ponds came back to the garden, back to their daughter, in a hard run. And Rory was armed.
Sarah Jane had killed; she once killed a family of Slitheen as they begged for their lives or for her to at least save the child. But she had stood there and watched as the explosion went off. Even though the child had ended up surviving didn’t change what she had done. So she held back her automatic response to his bringing in another gun. And remembered to look front again.
Jack swore. Now they were stuck again with more people to get out, but Rory called over to them. “Take the centre! Have the dog take the left, I got the right!”
The Silent he claimed as his greeted him. “The man who dies with this as your last battleground.” He blasted at Rory who moved away in time.
He returned fire with his white laser pistol. “No. Now I do what I thought I did on Demon’s Run. Protect my family from you.” He fired again and so did the Silent. Energy shot hit energy bolt, sparking the air.
Maybe the violence made Jack turn to her. “Sorry, but no more playing around, Sarah Jane.”
He, Rory, and K9 began the dance all over again of constantly moving while firing, at last on the offensive. Amy dodged around behind them and Jack told her to take Sarah Jane, who protested. She wasn’t leaving now. Now the game had changed and she would find a way to be an active part of it again. The Silents were kept busy with only one shooting River, and Rory constantly made that one break off to defend itself. As Sarah Jane ran behind Jack, she heard him say, “Where did he get an Alpha Mason pistol?”, but the real tragedy that happened next made his words disappear from her mind.
The one alien used their own tactics against them. It dropped back so the other two Silents protected it. It fired on River, and River:
River at last collapsed. She slammed down on her knees, her arms flung wide, and her screams pouring out to the sky.
Sarah Jane passed Amy and called out mother to mother: “You don’t want me!”
She got no response except the other woman running by and she doubted Amy Pond had ever meant to come to her, which was exactly the way it should be. Rory shot in rapid fire speed, forcing his enemy to stop attacking again, and Sarah Jane saw Amy lift her daughter to her feet. “Told you.” She looked down into River’s face as she started dragging her out. “Not even an army can stand in the way.”
“I’m staying to help them,” Jack called out to her. “Grab my vortex--”
“I’m staying too!”
But the Silent who had tortured River wasn’t done. The other two heightened their attack to keep K9, Jack, and Rory busy. “Amelia Pond. We gave you honour once. You brought the Silence.”
She hunched her back but never stopped. Sarah Jane ran, grabbed River’s other arm, and slung it over her shoulders. She gave Amy credit for the strength it took to do the hardest thing: not answer them. Her daughter needed her, and a verbal battle, even for a moment, risked getting River to safety. She had her head tilted enough to keep the aliens in sight and kept moving.
“But you have forgotten your part is over. The woman who loses her daughter and will lose her again. She has a new purpose. She has no choice but to still serve us.”
The sound of a gun firing: the Silent suddenly jerked in the air and then collapsed from Rory’s shot to its chest.
He safeguarded his wife and daughter as they struggled out of the garden. Harkness had gotten the shoulders on his Silent and the next shot killed it. That meant only the one on the left could still fire at them. K9 hit its legs and it fell, but quickly began lifting its hand again.
“Sarah Jane, keep moving!” Jack yelled.
They had to make it to the house. She knew the Silents would follow and maybe bring in reinforcements, but they still would have the temporary safety of her home. Or Harkness could get them our using the vortex manipulators. She did wonder why he and River hadn't done that to begin with: jump them somewhere far from here.
She heard running footsteps and then shots aimed back at the garden. Rory or Jack then. She called over her shoulder, “K9, come here!”
The sound of whirring motors answered her.
Her front door stood open and they finally made it through into--
--the Tardis.
The Tardis!
The console room made her sag with relief and her surprise at the ship being there couldn’t supersede it. The warm colours and light soothed her as much as its presence, but most of all, it meant the Doctor had come for them. He wasn’t anywhere in sight, but that didn’t matter. He would whisk them to safety in the big, blue box.
Rory gave her a gentle push and took her place at River’s side. His daughter’s feet dragged uselessly on the floor and the toes of her boots made a harsh rubbing sound. “Daddy.”
He made comforting shushing noises. “It’s okay, we got you. Just hold on to us.” Amy kissed the golden curls.
Luke ran over to Sarah Jane and they clutched each other tightly. “Mum. I tried to get to you!”
“I know.” She kissed his head before opening an arm to Rani and Clyde. “You helping out here was the right thing to do.”
Rani said as she stepped back, “Something weird is going on. Nobody remembers what happened. Even the ones who got hurt.”
Clyde looked over Sarah Jane’s shoulder. “What went on out there? Jack told us to remind him to reload every time he came back. Who’s he shooting at?”
“The--” She blinked. “I don’t know.”
“Mum, how can you not remember?”
Amy called over, “It’s how the Silents work. You look away and can’t remember them. We’ll explain later.”
Martha hurried from person to person, asking them if they were alright and working on the injuries. The Ponds surprised more than her by handling River as gently as they could up to the console instead of bringing her to the group for treatment. Rory swung the monitor around and ordered a body scan.
Jack ran in carrying the drained K9 and put him down to slam the doors behind them. “I locked the front door, but one’s still-- what -- who’s following us?”
Sarah Jane had made it to the others to help Martha. “We were attacked.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
Rory dug in a drawer and came out with what must be a hypodermic. River protested, “We have to get out of here.”
“We will.” He injected it into her arm.
“I’m okay,” she insisted feebly.
“Liar.” He dropped the hypodermic on the console and pulled a small, corked test tube.
The colour suddenly drained from River’s face and her eyes took on the blank state of someone about to pass out. Amy tightened her grip.
Rory put a hand on her cheek. “River! Focus on me!”
She struggled with it, but she concentrated and then shook her head as if it would throw off what had happened to her. Sarah Jane could only remember someone had hurt the woman. “I told you I’m all right. You made it through the same thing before, at Area 52.”
“That was just my eyedrive and they didn’t hurt me as long. Stop arguing. Drink this.” He handed her the test tube and she shot down the blue liquid inside. He cupped her face in his hands. He searched her with his eyes and turned to Amy. “Got her?”
She pulled River closer so she leaned against her. “Of course. Go do your thing.”
Rory leapt the rail and landed near the group. He hurriedly started his own triage behind Martha. She glanced over. “Did the med-packs help?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she answered. Some of her hair had fallen from down around her face. “Do you have more? I was going to take people to the sickbay, but things are moved around. We’ll be fine if we have more of those kits.”
Jack nearly snapped in frustration. “Hey! How were we attacked and why can’t I remember?!”
Rory had nodded at Martha and looked back up to the console. “It’s how the Silents work.”
“Who are the Silents?”
Amy kept one arm around River’s waist, put the vortex manipulator and pistol in a compartment, and tossed two packs to Rory with the other hand. He held one out to Martha. “Here you go, two more, stocked with the best from -- well, you know.”
Sarah Jane answered Jack. “They promised to tell us later.”
Mickey looked over. “You’re confused? Somebody burned my hands and I got no idea who did it.”
Martha and Rory still focused on their work and missed this. She had smiled in thanks. “Like I said before, I’m glad you’re here, Nurse. We got minor burns and some nausea from the trips.”
“We have to go,” River announced, although Sarah Jane swore the woman was talking to herself, to the damaged body that didn’t want to move. “Now.”
More than one head swept around the room. Tegan excitedly asked the question they all wanted to know. “Where’s the Doctor?”
“Not here,” River said.
Sarah Jane’s heart plummeted into her stomach. It was more than disappointment over not seeing the Time Lord after all. Shots thudded against the doors, made all the worse because she couldn’t remember who made them. “Then how are we getting out?”
River got her feet under her. “The same way we would if he was here.” She leaned on the console hand over hand, along with Amy pressed to her side, constantly holding and moving with her. She typed at the keyboard and reached for the controls above.
Tegan’s lips parted at the sight. “You -- you’re going to fly the Tardis.”
Amy smiled. “Yeah, she is.” She kept River upright and going as fast as they could. They acted in sync; where the daughter moved, the mother did too.
Sarah Jane, Jack, Mickey, and Martha exchanged glances. They had helped pilot the ship once, but they had needed the Doctor. River was doing what they had only seen the Time Lord do: pilot the Tardis solo.
Other sounds joined the shots. Scraping, dragging sounds against the ship’s outer shell and over its top. As if someone pulled bags of sand up the walls.
Jack grabbed his gun from its holster and put a hand on the door, ready in case something came through.
Mickey pulled Martha closer. “I can’t believe we’re being attacked and we don’t know who it is.”
River shoved the monitor around and then stretched across the console. Amy hit the control she reached for.
Sarah Jane felt her chest squeeze with fear. Monsters swarmed over the Tardis outside. Skin the colour of death, dark pits that lead to pinhole eyes at the bottom, mouths opened like black holes.
Wilf said it best. “That must be what hell looks like.”
Rory caught himself drawing hash marks on his arms. “I think they finally called in reinforcements.”
Sarah Jane remembered when they sat peacefully in her garden a lifetime ago and found three lines on Amy’s arm.
The sounds grew worse and the bodies on the monitor slid like zombies over the ship’s outer shell until they filled the gaps between them with the crackle of their electricity.
Ian shook his head in disbelief. “They made a net out of themselves.”
Worse, they began to speak. Sarah Jane expected whatever they said to be for River. For some reason, she felt it always was. She got it horribly wrong.
Killing her won’t bring back the Doctor
.
You cannot save him. He is already dead.
Save yourselves by not carrying out your threat.
Save yourselves as you cannot save him.
Save yourselves, Companions of the Doctor.
Then, like salvation itself, River yanked down on a lever and they were gone. The storm of the Vortex was the only thing on the monitor and speakers.
She sagged against the console. “We’re clear.”
Jack fell back against the doors, Luke hugged Sarah Jane again, and in way or another, they all let out a breath of relief. Rory and Amy looked down and saw the marks on their skin. They took each other’s hand and she buried her face in River’s hair.
The monitor cleared from showing what was outside and returned to what it had displayed before.
Jo shook her head, her silver hair dancing around her face. “Wasn’t something just on the monitor?”
Sarah Jane answered, “I don’t know. But I think I’m glad it’s gone.”
Wilf looked up at River and smiled. “We’re lucky he taught you to fly the ship. I don’t how we’d get out with just those armbands.”
Amy’s smile was covered mostly by gold curls. “He didn’t teach her. And that’s a good thing.”
Rory still had his forehead pressed against where he held his wife’s hand on the railing. “It’s how we get to things on time and the right place.”
Tegan scoffed at herself. “I should have known it wasn’t him. He didn’t teach anyone to fly the Tardis, not even Nyssa. Just a few controls to monitor things.”
Dorothy asked, “Then who did teach you? Did you find another Time Lord?”
“Better,” Amy answered again. She pulled back and grinned at River. “Let’s just say, she had lessons from the very best.”
Her daughter managed to lift her head at that. “Oo, I like that. Doctor Jones, do you still need the sickbay?”
“Ah...” Martha had to pull her mind back. Sarah Jane knew just how she felt. “I still think we’ll be fine. I’ll let you know. We could use some chairs.”
Clyde offered hurriedly, “We’ll get them.” Luke and Rani nodded. “Anyone know where we can find some?”
No one had to do anything though. The chairs came out of the floor from hatches that formed after Martha’s words. She looked up to the console. “Uh... thanks.”
Jo pulled out two small bottles from her bag. "Lavender oil. Wonderful for burns. I got them in Saint Emilion near Libourne. It's in the Aquitaine Gironde region. A Frenchman discovered its healing properties, so I went to the home source. They're yours if you want."
Mickey tried to help his wife, the woman with a medical degree in 21st Century science, and experience in a lot more. "That’s nice, but--"
"Yeah," Martha cut in, "she's right actually. Thank you." She took one of the bottles and pointed with her chin. "Could you keep that one and help Ian?” She had already applied something else on her husband’s injuries. She started using this too. “This keeps you from getting scars. It’ll keep the pain away too after the other ointment wears off.”
Jo hustled to do as she was asked, but when she got to Ian, she pressed the bottle into Barbara's hands instead. She reached back to see what else she could do. Dorothy shook her head, signaling she was fine, and Wilf sat down just for the sake of sitting down as the adrenaline drained off.
Rory held an open med-pack at Martha. “I’m taking these to Jack.”
She glanced quickly and nodded in agreement. “He needs them. He had to do all the trips back and forth."
Rory hurried over and handed Jack two red pills. “Anti-nausea. They’re chewables, but I can get you some water.”
“Nah, it’s okay.” Jack crunched them and patted Rory’s shoulder in thanks.
Clyde asked him, “Is that why you didn’t transport the last time? You were getting sick?” He held up his hands at Jack’s stare. “Hey, no judgement here. I transported once. It made me nearly sick on the floor.”
Jack chuckled and called out to everyone in general, “Isn’t anybody going to kiss me and make me feel better?”
Mickey yelled back, “Kiss the dog.”
“Negative.” The sound warbled from K9 being so weak. “I am not engaging in such activities.”
Sarah Jane bent down to take hold of him. "K9!"
“Power exhausted, Mistress. This unit requires recharging--” he wound down.
"Here."
She spun to see what River meant. The other woman pointed weakly down to a spot on the glass floor and flipped a few things on the console. A small door popped open where Sarah Jane made out a power cord and a port. “He'll recharge faster, instead of him doing it alone.”
She hurriedly plugged him and put an arm around his neck. Luke dashed over and sat at his other side. “Mum, he’s damaged. Was he shot?”
“He’ll be fine,” she reassured him. “I’m sure there’s something on the Tardis to repair him. Isn’t that right, River?”
“Of course, he’s K9. The Doctor has a reserved area for him in the workshop. Anything he needs is there. The Tardis needs work on her outer shell too.” She put a hand up to the time rotor and simply stood like that for a beat. “But everyone else is alright, then?”
Martha’s eyes swept across them all and she nodded. “Although I wanted to ask you. Why did you have the Doctor’s internal scan on the monitor? It’s back up there now. Hold on.” She squinted. “Is that for--”
River nearly fell as she grabbed at it. She smacked a control and the screen went blank. “Just an old scan... after he died. I.. I needed to confirm he was dead.”
Amy frowned, so did everyone else because of what they knew, but they didn’t get a chance to say so. River leaned heavily on the console as she looked around at each of them. She suddenly stiff-armed her mother and turned to clutch the railing. Still, she stood straighter than she had as the shot Rory had given her took greater effect.
She walked down the steps. “We’re in the Vortex. The Tardis has moved the sickbay and workshop to right outside the control room.”
Her head turned heavily to her mother and then her father before she faced Jack at the doors. He scrambled to his feet.
Amy said, “River?”
She came up to Harkness. “You don’t have to worry about anyone. The Tardis is programmed to get all of you home. Everyone will land shortly after they left, except for Sarah Jane.”
Amy started coming after her. “River, what are you doing?”
“What needs to be done. Sarah Jane, it’ll be tomorrow when you return, so you’re nowhere around the Silents when you go back. They won’t stay with us already gone, but it’s an added layer of safety. I know I can count on you when it comes to protecting people’s lives.”
McShane frowned. “What’s all this about?”
“We were making a point before they showed up back there.” She returned to Jack. “I was telling you, you’re looking for the Doctor’s killer.”
Her hand shot out. She was still recovering, but surprise beat out Jack stopping her from getting his gun. She cocked it and put it to her chest. “That’s me.”
Chapter notes: The line about Dorothy "Ace" McShane being "fighter and not a screamer" is a quote from "Doctor Who: How Ace Set the Template for Modern Companions" by Andrew Younger. Written: 5 Jan, 2015
I originally thought the story would be done in 4 chapters, this is one was too long, so we have at least one more. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story!
Read Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4