𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙊𝙛 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚 ✧ 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 Ⅱ [✓]

Forest Of The Dead Pt. 2

Night has fallen. River and her remaining team are in another round room. She is checking the shadows with her screwdriver.

"You know, it's funny, I keep wishing the Doctor and {Y/N} were here" River says.

"They are here, aren't they? Their coming back, right?" Anita asks.

"You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, they are here. They came when I called, just like they always do. But not my Doctor and {Y/N}. Now my Doctor and {Y/N}, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And they'd just swagger off back to their TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of their fingers. The Doctor and {Y/N} in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere."

"Spoilers. Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that" the Doctor says as him and {Y/N} enter the room.

"It does for the Doctor and {Y/N}" River says.

"I am the Doctor and that's {Y/N}."

"Yeah. Some day."

"How are you doing?"

"Where's Other Dave?" River asks.

"Not coming. Sorry" {Y/N} says.

"Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?" Anita asks.

"I don't know. Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference" the Doctor says Anita has two shadows.

"It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again."

"Can I get you anything?" {Y/N} asks.

"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?"

"I'm all over it."

"{Y/N}. When we first met you and the Doctor, you both didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in your ear, and you did. My life so far. I could do with a word like that. What did she say? Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."

"Safe."

"What?"

"Safe. You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say safe. The data fragment! What did it say?" the Doctor asks.

"Four thousand and twenty-two people saved. No survivors" Lux says.

"{Y/N}? Doctor?"

"Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant, saved!" {Y/N} says, the Doctor has got into a Library Archive File, {Y/N} stands beside him, and River stands on the other side.

"See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out" the Doctor says.

"It tried to teleport four thousand twenty-two people?" River asks.

"It succeeded. Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty-two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So, what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?" {Y/N} asks.

"It saved them" {Y/N} starts drawing on a large polished table.

"The library. A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty-two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive" an alarm sounds.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Lux asks.

"Autodestruct enabled in twenty minutes."

"What's maximum erasure?" River asks.

"In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg" the Doctor says.

"No. No, it's all right. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect Cal" Lux says, the terminal screen goes blank.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor says.

"All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly."

"We need to stop this. We've got to save Cal" Lux says.

"What is it? What is Cal?"

"We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you."

"It's at the core of the planet."

"Well, then. Let's go" River points her screwdriver at the library logo in the middle of the compass rose in the floor. It opens "gravity platform."

"I bet we like you" the Doctor says.

"Oh, you do" the five step on and go down.

*Time skip*

"Autodestruct in fifteen minutes" The Doctor and {Y/N} look up to see a globe with swirling energy in it.

"The data core. Over four thousand living minds trapped inside it" {Y/N} says.

"Yeah, well, they won't be living much longer. We're running out of time" River says, a while later the Doctor finds an access terminal.

"Help me. Please, help me."

"What's that?"

"Was that a child?" River asks.

"The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up. I'm trying" the Doctor mutters tapping at the keyboard.

"{Y/N}, Doctor, these readings" River says.

"We know. You'd think it was dreaming" the Doctor says.

"It is dreaming, of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written" Lux says.

"Computers don't dream" Anita says.

"Help me. Please help me."

"No, but little girls do" Lux pulls a breaker and a door opens. They all run in, a node turns to face them.

"Please help me. Please help me."

"Oh, my God" River says.

"It's the little girl. The girl we saw in the computer."

"She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is Cal" Lux says.

"Cal is a child? A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell us this? We needed to know this!" {Y/N} shouts.

"Because she's family! Cal. Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

"So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her" the Doctor says.

"This is only half a life, of course. But it's for ever."

"And then the shadows came."

"The shadows. I have to. I have to save. Have to save."

"And she saved them. She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe" {Y/N} says.

"Then why didn't she tell us?"

"Because she's forgotten. She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well, me and {Y/N}."

"So, what do we do?"

"Autodestruct in ten minutes."

---

~Bread 🍞