Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

         The streets were crowded with locals and thousands of visitors from every corner of the galaxy, who travelled enormous distances to visit the trademark of this place, the mesmerising Singing Towers. The peaceful melody brought by them was accompanied by the sound of loud chatting and laughter. This part of the planet never slept, although it has been night for decades on it.

The melody flew through the night and was audible, even more clearly, in the further, calmer ends of the city. At times it was intense, other times softer or barely audible, it was never exactly the same but it was always pleasant, always soothing, and always wanted. The tourists experienced it as a miracle, for the Doctor it was home.

In the backyard of the house situated closest to the top of the hill on which this smaller village-like extension of the city was spreading over, suddenly a blue box materialised.

“She’s back!” a voice shouted from the window and a moment later a young girl ran out of the house approaching the blue box.

“You’re late.” she said half-heartedly. “Father noticed.” she added with a crest-fallen yet complicit pout as she looked back above her shoulder on the man who has just stepped out on the terrace and leaned against the wall with crossed arms and a faked serious look.

“And this is the first time since we are here that I actually catch you stealing it.” he said.

The Doctor was not the type to stick around for a long time in the same place. And neither was River Song. He knew that his Tardis has been regularly borrowed by his wife, he never caught her in the act though. The box was always back in time, and it was just a well aimed word of hers or a smirk which, most of the time intentionally, gave it away that she was out for a ride. And he didn’t mind it. After all he did the same. They couldn’t leave together, not without risking that they’ll never find each other again. Buying time for themselves was possible, but rewriting it wasn’t an option. Not for them. With time they even made a game out of it, which one of them can sneak away to random adventures or even unexpected meetings with the other one and come back without the other one noticing. They just didn’t want to say goodbye. And they always wanted to come back anyway. And this way things which were bittersweet at the beginning became more acceptable and light hearted as the time passed. At least for a while.

“I am good.” she said smugly as she closed the Tardis’s door and approached the terrace. “Sometimes I have the feeling that I bond better with the Old Girl than you.

“Yes, sure… All due respect to your intimate bonding, but I've spent a lot more time with her than you, dear. You are just stealing it.”

“Didn't you do that too?” she said as she stepped near the man and breathed a kiss on his cheek. "You're not jealous, are you?" she teased him.

“Ugh… you are doing this again!” the girl rolled her eyes. “It is a VE-HI-CLE you are talking about! And you get all serious and worried when I ask you whether I can at least have my own vortex manipulator. I am almost 18, I should already-”

“Hey, take it slow, Rorie, you have plenty of time to fly around time and space on your own.” the Doctor said calmly.

“For the hundredth of time… you know that I don’t like it when you call me like that. That sounds like grandfather’s name! Why can’t you just call me Aurora? love it. I do love the dawn, even if I’ve just seen two of them somewhere far away from here. I wish we’d see more daylight around here too." she added lightly.

The Doctor glanced at River, they haven't been talking about this for a rather long time, and Rorie had no idea about what daylight meant for them, for a short moment River looked back at him but then she quickly turned towards the girl.

"Anyway, I just want you to know that the widget is still on the top of my wish list.”  she contnued. “I’m going in to make some tea. Trish and Vic are coming over today before we go in the downtown, by the way. At least one of us uses this house for something.”

And the long blonde hair vanished behind the doors.

“Maybe it’s not a bad idea.” River said as they entered the Tardis.

“What? Her spending even more time with the twins? They have a bad influence on her. I don’t like them… Especially not the boy. Just look at his hair!“

River turned around to look at him.

“I meant the vortex manipulator.”

“Oh! Well… I still think she’s too young. When I was her age-”

“When I was her age I already had a profound knowledge about different ways to kill someone, could handle a gun, was twice in prison and dumped three guys. She’s just hanging around with some space glam rockers and occasionally wants to travel. She’s not going to blow up the universe.”

“It’s not the universe I am worried about.”

“You talk like you’ve never shown her how to drive the Tardis!”

“Yeah, because you have obviously thought her how she shouldn’t drive it!”

“That’s the same thing, honey.” River grinned.

The Doctor rolled his eyes but couldn't hide his smile.

“Are we awful parents? Sometimes I ask myself…” River wondered as she took out a bag full with some scrolls she has just brought with herself to organize them.

"She certainly has the recklessness in her genes, but other than that I think we are doing fine. She’s an amazing girl. We were just awful enough to name our daughter after the thing we… dread the most.” he said quietly and looked at River who was gazing at something what looked like a map.

“I thought you are not dreading the dawn.” she said.

The Doctor hesitated. This was the first time that it was him who initiated this conversation. And he already regretted it. But it was time for them to talk about things. It has been a bit more than 23 earthly years since they arrived here. And they both agreed that they better avoid the subject, because these conversations never led anywhere, they just ruined the rest of their day, and they didn't want to spend the time they had in bitterness. However it was always in the back of their minds, it was in his, and he was sure that it was in River's too. Especially since a couple of years ago the dark sky started to take a brighter, purpleish shade. But she didn't show it. Yet he still couldn't call his daughter by her name.

"I might have… accepted it. But that doesn’t mean that I am okay with it. I am not used to seeing the time being the boss of me. And there’s also even more at stake now than we initially thought... Why did you want this name so much anyway?” he asked.

“Look who’s talking! You wanted to call her Prudence!” she said mockingly. “I wanted it because… this way that word got a new meaning. This way it means a beginning, not an end.” she said with a faint smile.
 
“You really do find a way to make something good out of even the worst of the things, don’t you?” he smiled back at her.

“That’s how I survive.” she said playfully but there was something sad in her tone. “So… she gets the vortex manipulator, right?” River asked firmly.

“River… Why… why do you suddenly think she is grown-up enough to travel alone?” The Doctor asked calmly but he already knew the answer.

River put back the scrolls in the box and pushed them away.

“On the one hand because she is old enough for it. She has to learn to handle things on her own. And on the other hand… even if she’d decide to stick with either of us or stay on this planet for the rest of her life, there will come a time when if she wants to visit us, I mean... you, or me... ever again, she definitely will need it.”

The Doctor sighed. He has been thinking about this too. He knew what the morning will bring to the two of them, but he had no idea what it has in store for Rorie.

“All right.” he said pensively.

River was surprised by the short answer. He seemed so resigned. She hid it well during all those years, including from herself, but somewhere deep down she still couldn’t believe that her Doctor can’t do anything to avoid what comes next. He did extend their last night and she was more than grateful for that, but as she saw it, he wasn’t even trying to avoid it being the last one. And that hurt her somewhere. 

“Good. This is settled then.” she said as she stood up. “Nothing is all right, though.” She didn’t want to say it out loud, it just slipped.

The Doctor closed his eyes. 

“You should never have looked up those stories, River.” the Doctor sighed being worried and reached out to hold her hand, but she has already stepped away. “We’ve been over this. There are things I can do, River. But there are also things I… just know… that I can’t. Even if I'd want to. Things end."

"Maybe then you should have never brought us here in the first place!” River snapped. 

“River… we crashed…”

“No, wait, I didn’t mean that…” River said wearily and sat down on a box trying to pull herself together. “I just… I can’t stand here watching as our time runs out and our family will be torn apart. Maybe you can deal with it, but I just can’t do that! What are we going to do in the end anyway? Just step in the Tardis and leave and then wait for something which separates us to happen? Kiss goodbye and go in different directions? Stay here and... wait? I still don’t understand why it MUST be the last night. Why is it SO inevitable. Who says this is it anyway? Time can be rewritten, who told you that you can’t do it? You act as if your hands would be cuffed and you can’t act, but they clearly aren’t, so all I can think about is that you are just-”

The Doctor  took a deep breath and looked away. River’s words cut open a never truly healed scar, which has already been getting worse since the morning got closer and closer. That has put a mark, again, on the both of them. He sat down near her and took her face in his palms to calm her down.

“Please… stop. I would want to change it, believe me, but it would not work out. Not for our benefits.” He said but then he stopped talking, he has already said too much.

River looked puzzled for a moment.

"You know more than you tell me, don't you?" she frowned.

He bit his lip.

"There was a time when it was the other way around." 

She stood up. “Fine then. We indeed shouldn’t spend the time we have left being bitter.” she said and tried to give him a smile, failing miserably. "How long is that anyway? 5 months?“ she asked as she took the way upstairs. "It's time we tell her too." she added looking back at him then disappeared behind a corner.

The Doctor shook his head and struck his wrist into the wall as he turned around. He felt guilty and awful, and the round eyes lurking from behind the slightly opened doors of The Tardis, which he directly gazed into, didn’t make it easier at all. No need to to do that, honey. He thought.

"5 months?” Rorie repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"How long have you been there?” he asked quietly.

“Not long enough to understand what the hell you were talking about, but long enough to get it what it means.”

“Aurora…”

“This won’t work now, dad. You knew that our time together will be soon up?! You knew and you didn’t do a thing?!“

“Aurora… listen…”

“You are the mighty time lord, who does what he wants, when he wants, and you just sit by and let this happen? You took me to see things I could have never even imagined and you tell me you can’t fix this?”

"You don’t understand…” He portested.

"Then explain it to me! What is this? Some sort of fancy, complicated, time-lordish version of the thing normal human beings call a divorce?"

The Doctor frowned. He understood just now how she might have interpreted it. No, normal human beings don't call this as divorce. This is a timey-wimey version of something worse than that. But how could he tell her that? She might understand why his hands are tied, but he can't put this weight on her too.

“No, you got the wrong idea. That’s not what this is about…”

"It doesn’t matter. You took me to another galaxy when I was 6 because I kept telling you that I want to see real light after I read about it. You took me to the first ever Alice Cooper concert because you thought it would be a great idea for my 16th birthday, and yes, it was. You even went back to fix the trouble I caused last year, yes, mom told me. You did all that and more, and now you are telling me that you can’t do anything about this?”

“If you know what I can do, you should understand that if I am not doing anything, it is either impossible or I have a very good reason." he said, but he knew there was no way he can come out as the winner from this discussion.

“The one thing I surely have learned from you is that nothing is impossible. And I refuse to stop believing that. If you don't do something, it can just mean that you don't want to." she added looking at him with disappointment. "I don’t want to see you. I hate you!” she said and as the Doctor looked into the blue eyes which were full with blame it occured to him that he has never heard those three words uttered so coldly and with so much credibility.

Aurora was about to run away, but he grabbed her arm. He was familiar with empty threats, but he couldn’t know for sure whether this was one of them. The girl had River’s temper, his old tendancy to want to escape the the unfavourable. And the urge of running away ran in her blood. And she was also an angry teenager, he really didn’t know what was going on in her head. He couldn't risk losing her too.

“Okay. Hate me, blame me, do that if that’s how you feel now, but… just keep in mind that if you ever feel like… well, throwing that in my face again, you will always find me here... after the sun rises. Just remember that, please!"

Aurora looked at him with disbelief. He was sure she didn't understand him at this point, but it didn't matter. She just had to remember it.

"I just told you that I don’t want to see you.” she said, pulled her arm back from his hold and disappeared.

  (Note: The chapter title is a verse from the song Beauty Of The Beast by Nightwish.)

Chapter Text

     Aurora gazed at the remaining soda on the bottom of her glass. It was already too warm. The temperature outside has also got higher lately since the first rays of the sun started to paint the sky in different shades of colors from time to time. There were around 40 degrees outside and it felt unusual after the around 15 to which people were used to during the night. There was still around an earthly month until the sun would be visible on the horizon. And that was the moment everyone was looking forward to to celebrate. The soon to come New Day On Darillium!

A while back she was eagerly looking forward to this moment too, but now she was just playing with her glass, not even looking out of the window on the vivid, dark purple shades of the sky.

This much about expectations. She thought. A couple of months back she had the urge to just leave this planet and run into the unknown, but she didn’t. That would have just caused even more trouble to her parents and as much as she hated his father in that moment, she didn’t want to do that to them. After a discussion she had with her mother about the complicated relationship they had, her anger eased a bit and she decided to behave tolerably around him, but she was still disappointed. The old relationship they had, the adventures, the stories, the laughs, were gone.

I could still steal the the Tardis, hide it somewhere, then come back and do the same with the little widgets. Neither of them could leave then. No. This was a childish idea, and she knew it. And it wouldn’t matter, she was planning to leave anyway.

“Hey, you still here?” the girl who sat next to her poked her with her elbow.

“Sorry?” For a moment she zoned out and totally forgot that she was sitting by a table with other people.

“What’s wrong? You’re usually not the moody type.”

Yes she was. When she had something on her mind.

They didn’t know everything about her. All they knew was that she was rather rich, which wasn’t true, not literally, and that her parents travelled a lot and sometimes she went with them too. These were her friends, but none of them knew the complete truth about her. She was raised being told that she has to keep her identity a secret, for her own safety. After all, being a Time Lady meant being a rare species in a wild universe.

She almost told about it to Vic and Trish, but she changed her mind in the last minute. It felt a bit like constantly lying to them, but she wasn’t. They never actually asked it after all. - she kept telling herself.

“I’m fine, Gina. I’m just… tired. I think I better go home.” she looked at them as she grabbed her things.

“Come on… you’ll soon be leaving to go to that university, you don’t even want to spend time with us?”

“I’ll be here next time, I promise. Have fun!”

“I’ll walk you home.” Vic stood up.

“Still worried about that prophecy thing you told me about?” he asked when they stepped out of the local.

“I don’t think it’s a prophecy. But… yeah.”

“I’m sorry. It must be hard for you to dance through these New Day parties.”

“Well locking myself in my room wouldn’t serve me better either, would it? I’m just not in the mood today.”

“And then you’re leaving.” he said coldly.

“I love to go and see new places, learn new things. That has been my life! But there are also times when I get tired of running and I just want to have a place where I could spend the rest of my life, without things constantly changing and it would be nice to have familiar faces around me… That’s quite a contradiction, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it kind of is… But it’s also human.” he shrugged.

“I guess it is.” she left it at that. “Thanks for coming with me. I’ll miss your blue mane when I leave.

“Well… you can always count on me if you want a familiar face sometime.”

“Thank you.” She hugged him.

”See you next time, Aurora!” he nodded.

”Just call me Rorie, okay?”

“You used to dislike that.”

“Well I dislike the other one more now.” she said with a tired smile.

She opened their street door and stepped into their yard. She went to the backyard and saw a strange woman, in strange clothes, with an old fashioned bun, and with an umbrella in her hand, talking with her parents in the door of the Tardis. She had no idea who she could be, they didn’t have guests often.

She curiously approached the trio.

“You?” the Doctor asked sharply.

“Me!” the woman answered cheerfully and quickly bowed before him.

River gazed at her then back on the Doctor.

“What are you doing here?” The Doctor asked and stepped between the unexpected guest and River.

“Just visiting you! Long time no see, my dear old friend! I was bored! And I was wondering what happened with you. I can’t believe that you actually settled down! Wow!” she said while checking River out. “Congratulations! Well, I have some curls too, not that daring, and darker, but…”

River narrowed her eyes. She has never met this woman but her image now started to merge with some stories the Doctor has told her in the past. And if she was right, that meant no good.

“I am flattered, but we are… busy.” the Doctor said guiding her towards the street door. ”So… I’m sorry but you have to-”

“Oh, look there, this must be Aurora!” she clapped her hands when she noticed the girl approaching them.

“Come here, my girl! Let me see you! I could have been your godmother.“

Over my dead body. - the Doctor’s eyes screamed.

“If only your father wouldn’t be such a grumpy old man.” she said giving a look to the Doctor too.

“Get away from her.”

"I can take care of myself, Doctor." Rorie said coldly.

“Oh you don’t think I would hurt children, Doctor? You know I love children. Youngsters! Oh, they are so innocent, naive, optimistic and full of life until something unexpected pops the bubble they live in. Then they get conflicted, bitter and so, so impressionable. And when they get angry they might accidentally blow up your world.” she pursed her lips.

“River, Rorie… get away from here. Come back in an hour or so. She’ll  be gone until then.”

“Is everything all right?” River asked stepping near Rorie.

“Yeah, for now. It’s just that something always goes wrong when this old friend shows his face. So just in case…”

In the next moment River and Rorie disappeared.

“Now that went smoothly.” Missy said with the sturgeon face.

“Oh, it’s finally just the two if us, like in the old times!”

“Missy.” the Doctor said venomously. “What do you want now?”

“Nothing. You’ve spent far too much time in one place. I was just worried about you!”

“Talk!” he demanded with no patience in his voice. He had no time for games.

“All riiight… You are not into foreplays as I see. Straight to the point, eh? Good then… I came to warn you.”

“Warn me about what?”

“A massive solar flare.”

“What?! There was no solar flare around here in this time.“

"Someone must have deleted all the records about it. The guy must have suffered from some sort of weird sense of shame. …Oops.” she grimaced.

The Doctor scowled, he couldn’t believe what this sounded like.

“You weren’t talking about Rorie.” he said slowly. “You were talking about… yourself.”

“I was young… I had a phase!”  she flailed apologetically. “But I wouldn’t hang around here when the sun rises.” she added. “Just a friendly advice…”

“You!“ the Doctor pointd at her. “I had several of scenarios about how this could end but I never thought it would be because of you!” the Doctor snapped. But then he remembered a discussion they had a long, long time ago. “It was not a phase. This was that incident when that… you know..  thing happened, and you blew up a star in dispair, wasn’t it?” he asked.

Missy’s face was unreadable.

“Yeees… rough times.” she finally said with another faint grimace.

The Doctor closed his eyes and let out a sigh. It’s not her fault. She couldn’t know. What did he expect anyway? They wouldn’t have left this place until they felt the ground under their feet and had air to breath. And then he realised the bitter truth. It was never about them leaving, it was about them staying for far too long.

There was a flashing in the sky and the purple rook dark reddish shade.

“The beginning of the end.” Missy gazed on the phenomenon. “You should pack.”

“I’m not leaving without them.”

“Oh, Doctor, Doctor… Always trying to save people. And always failing…”

The Doctor gasped. No! So this was it? He didn’t even say goodbye. 

“But you are clever. You’ll make up for it.”

“What are you implying?” he frowned.

“Come on Doctor! You were working on a device, weren’t you?”

“How do you know about that?”  The Doctor was surprised.

Missy rolled her eyes. “I know you. Like it or not, but I really do, Doctor. And you have everything figured out. You just need a kick to do it. And the reassuurance that everything will be… o-kay.“ she smiled at him with wide open eyes.

“I can’t do it. It will backfire. It always does. I won’t risk that.”

“There is a way. With a price of course… which I, for one, wouldn’t pay… but you? Who knows?”

“What do you mean?”

“Think! You want to steal some time from the universe. How can you make it not tip the scale?“

The Doctor was thinkng for a moment then he looked at Missy and she was rejoiced to see the fire being back in his eyes.

“I’ll pay it back.” the Doctor said firmly.

Missy smirked.

“Would you really do that? It would cost around half of the time you have left.”

“Would it work?”

“Yes.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“What would I get out of it if you fail?”

“Chaos. What do you get out of it if I succeed?”

“I’m just trying to help!” she flailed. “That’s what friends are for!” she shrugged.

“No. You want something. You always something.”

“I’ll get it if you do this.”

“What is that?”

“This thing is against at least 7 of the rules of our people. You are rebelling. Again. You are fighting time itslef. And if you see that it can be done without anyone suffering because of it, then you will finally help me. It will be us against the rules again. Running and kissing, just think about the power we could have together, we could rule the universe!”

The Doctor looked at her with disapproval.

“Fiiine, let’s cut out the kissing.” Missy whined. “But think about it!”

The Doctor gazed in the distance.

“You are being selfless for the most selfish reason possible.”

Missy blinked.

“Hello! It’s me.”

“You already told me what I needed to know. And if I trust you… what if I won’t help you?”

“Then take it as an apology for ruining your honeymoon.” she shrugged and turned her back on him. “See you soon, Doctor, you know where to find me.” she waved. “Oh, and get away from here as soon as you can.” she added and disappeared.

There was another wave of heat, this time bigger and a couple of trees in the distance took fire.

No! He thought. He ran to the Tardis, went half an our forward, and when stepped outside the temperature was almost unbearable. A tree has fallen on a house, everything was in flames, their place included. He saw people running on the streets, trying to get away. Some of them teleported, others didn’t have the luxury to do so.

“Here!” he shouted and waved towards a group of people to get in the Tardis. He took them to a safe place, didn’t even pay attention to their surprise while seeing the Tardis. He glimpsed a blue blot in the mass outside.

“Victor!” he shouted. “Come here!”

The boy ran towards the Tardis and the Doctor helped him in.

“What the hell?!” He asked as he looked around.

The Doctor went back, took another group, and he did that again and again until there were no people left on the streets. He hoped he’ll find River and Rorie, but he didn’t. After the 10th round he was sure that they were already somewhere far away. They were gone. And he didn’t even say goodbye.

When he was finally alone in the Tardis, being exhausted, he froze.  Rorie!

He jumped to the console and pressed some buttons again. When he stepped out the light and the heat was even more unbearable than before.Thinngs were not burning anymore, there was not much left to burn. An angry, reddish yellow globe was on the sky right above the horizon, looking down at the distruction it caused. The air was not breahable, it was life threatening to be there but this was their last chance.

He sat down in the door of the Tardis at the top of the hill near the ruins of their home. He waited. After a couple of hours he thought she will never come, but then he noticed a dark shadow drewing nigh in the smoke.

“Rorie!”

He jumped up.

“Come in, quickly!”

The girl stepped in the Tardis but stopped in the door. Was she still angry with him?

“Rorie.. you came back!" he smiled at her. "Is everything all right?” he asked.

“It’s over.” the girl said on a hollow voice.

“Yes.” the Doctor sighed. Now that he took a better look at her she seemed a bit different. She was slightly taller, a less hectic, and the thick black contoure around her eyes which he didn’t understand what served disappeared. Other than that she looked the same for him. But he felt that time has passed. She couldn’t be talking about the planet.

“Not that.” She said and took out a blue book from her bag. “This.”

“How do you have that?” The Doctor blinked at it.

“A friend of mom’s brought it to me. He said he found it in a library and recognised it. I didn’t read it, don’t worry.” she gave him a small smile. ”But I did peek at the end. I had to know. And I found this.” she opened it to the last page and handed it to the Doctor.

It was River’s handwriting:

“Hello Sweetie,

I know you won’t read this, not until the very end anyway.

But I want you to know, that now I understand everything. And it’s okay. Don’t worry about it, I am okay with what I am going to do.

Now I know it was not you giving up. It was me asking you to let it be. It all makes sense now.

Be safe, Doctor. And don’t be alone.

Take care of Aurora. I hope that by the time you read these lines you have sorted out your differences.

We had the best of times.

Love,
River

xxx

“From what I heard… you... were there.” Rorie said carefully. “You knew it all along?’

“Yes.” the Doctor put the book down, still open.

“It must have been hard.” she said and hugged the man. “I’m sorry dad… for everything.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t expect you to just be fine with it. You are my daughter after all.” He smiled patting her back.

“So… what now?” the girl asked.

“I don’t know.” he answered quietly.

“Not long ago I ended up on a planet where the people for some unnkown reason just started singing in the musicalish way instead of talking. And they can’t stop. You want to check it out? It’s not contagious. …I think. ” she smiled.

The Doctor’s face cheered up.

“Oh yes!”

Chapter Text

Read Chapter 3 here.