Nova finds an opportunity to kill Madame Kovarian once and for all, only to end up failing, resulting in severe consequences. Will this be the end for Nova and her family—particularly the Doctor?
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Several minutes later, I am, once again, shoved into another room, but this room seems to be much darker than the previous one—fitting for a twisted bunch of psychopaths, I think to myself.
Geez, I scoff at the soldier who shoved me, do you always have to shove me around everywhere? It's really starting to get on my nerves. No surprise, he responds by sliding the door in my face, though he doesn't lock it this time. I scoff at him again, this time out loud, "Same to you, pal...again." Not that he heard me, and even if he did, he wouldn't have cared. At least I managed to stay on my feet this time, unlike last time when I was pushed completely to the floor, practically shattering my knees in the process (not really, but it definitely felt like it at the time).
I take a moment to look around the dimly lit room. Thankfully it's not so dark to the point where one would feel required to use Night Vision, but it's still dark where a person's normal vision—even a Time Lord's—would take several seconds to adjust. After a few seconds, I can gradually make out a large desk and monitor along one wall, and on the far side of the room is an average-sized table that strangely appears to be set like Sunday Tea—a typical tea set with assorted pastries and the lot. I can barely make out the outline of the Wicked Witch herself, Madame Kovarian, sitting at the table, casually sipping from a small cup. A broad-shouldered soldier stands on guard by her side who I find strangely familiar, but the room is too dark to make out any major features of the man's face.
I snort at the ridiculous setup. Apparently, Kovarian wasn't kidding when she said she literally wanted to have tea with me. I can't believe she'd have the audacity to actually go through with it. This is an absolute joke, and, of course, I don't buy a second of it. As I cautiously approach the table, I realize that the setting is, in fact, real; not a trippy drug-dream that I would honestly prefer to be having instead.
"I know what you're thinking," Kovarian says as she continues sipping from her teacup without looking at me.
"Do you?" I scoff at her, seriously doubting her words. Even if she did know what I was thinking, why would she even care?
"I do," she says, still refusing to look at me. "You thought I was taking the mick when I offered you to have tea with me before. As you can see here, I wasn't taking the mick. I thought we would start on good terms. Get to know each other before you officially made your decision."
Yeah, and why should I believe any of that? I scoff again in my head. "How thoughtful of you," I scoff a third time, this time out loud, "but I'm not interested. In this, I mean." I gesture at the tea setting. God knows why Kovarian even bothered setting all of this up in the first place, whether she knows of my true plans or not, but I sure as hell don't trust any of it. Who the hell would?
She sighs as she finally looks up at me, still sipping from her teacup. "I had a feeling you'd say that." She then gives a sideways glance at the soldier standing nearby. "But it wasn't a request, dearie. Sit."
The soldier takes an aggressive step toward me, raising his gun, and as he does he steps under the light, and that's when I'm able to recognize him fully—the face of the man I always dreaded seeing every time I went in for my weekly Aikido classes. "Master Kang?" I gasp in shock.
"Hello, 'Sydney,'" my former instructor growls at me, enunciating my old name in a way like he knew it to be fake from the very beginning. "Long time no see. Didn't expect me to be one of them, did you?"
"Not until now," I shrug, no longer feeling surprised. "Now I see why you were always such a dick toward me all those years ago." Typical 'Silence' behavior.
"You watch your mouth, girl!" he snaps at me, pointing his gun directly at me in a threatening manner. He then gestures to the empty chair opposite from Kovarian. "You heard the Madame! Take a seat!"
He releases the safety on his gun for good measure in an attempt to increase the level of fear in the room, but it doesn't scare me...at least much. A part of me thinks about refusing just to see what he would do, knowing that the Silence want me alive—at least for now—but I ultimately decide against it, thinking that 'Kang the Conqueror' won't be so merciful, even with his boss in the room. I reluctantly sit in the chair, keeping my cool.
After I get settled in my seat, I glance down at the tea set. The table is filled with everything that people would generally have at a tea party, including an assortment of freshly baked goodies displayed on large plates, but the one thing that catches my eye immediately is the large butter knife placed next to my empty plate, and I immediately have an idea to use it, though my idea is not to use it like a typical butter knife. As I slide my napkin in my lap, I move it across the table in such a way that it drapes over the knife, and I make sure I take the knife with it as I lay it across my lap. Thankfully, Kovarian doesn't notice this as she pours more tea into her empty cup, and Master Kang is busy standing and staring at nothing across the room, gripping his gun tightly in hand, and I do the same with the knife tightly in mine under my napkin, ready to use it when I get the chance—a chance that I definitely do not plan to miss.
"Allow me to pour you some tea, dearie," Kovarian says as she reaches over with the tea kettle and pours some hot tea into my empty cup, even though I never asked her to. "I think you'll really like it; it's been an absolute favorite of mine since I was a child." A large puff of steam wafts up from the cup as the tea is poured, and a fruity scent fills my nostrils, but it is a scent of a fruit I don't recognize. "I hope I haven't made the tea too hot for you."
I shake my head, not interested in touching the tea at all, nor the various pastries, no matter how wonderful they smell. "No. It's perfectly fine, thank you." Not that it matters, I think to myself, as I won't be touching any of it.
Stranger Danger 101: never accept anything from one, especially from one who wants you dead.
"I have also made you some white chocolate and cranberry scones," Kovarian adds as she gestures to one of the large plates. "Your favorites, from what I remember from your mother's memories. I understand your mother-guardian seemed to be an excellent baker and cook."
"Perhaps I will try them later," I nod, feigning honesty. For all I know, everything here is laced with poison, specifically from the Judas Tree, making me think back on Dad's story from that trip to Berlin, 1938. Despite it all, I can't help but wonder where Kovarian got the ingredients from.
There is an awkward silence (no pun intended) between us for a minute before Kovarian speaks up again.
"This must all seem very surreal to you," she points out, "drinking tea with the person you most deeply hate."
"That's a pretty accurate assumption," I shrug carelessly with a raised eyebrow.
She chuckles at this. "Oh, I wasn't assuming things. I know." She then shakes her head, saying, "But you shouldn't hate me. Instead of hating me, you should thank me."
"Thank you?" I scoff incredulously. "You must be joking! Why in the hell would I want to thank you?"
Kovarian shakes her head again. "I'm not joking; far from it, actually. You should be thanking me because I am the reason you are living and breathing. I am the reason for your very existence."
"What the hell does that mean?" I ask, still in complete and utter disbelief.
"Everything I did was for you," Kovarian explains. "Everything I did eventually brought you here to this very moment. A long time ago, I took the child of your father's closest friends—the child that ultimately became your mother—and I raised her into the perfect psychopath to kill him; only she refused to kill him and eventually married him instead, resulting in your eventual birth. In other words, I brought your parents together, and if I hadn't you obviously wouldn't be here; you wouldn't even be alive. That said, you have me to thank for your very existence."
I pause, thinking back on everything she said. Thinking more deeply on it, regrettably, I realize that Kovarian is right; of course, I don't admit this out loud, even though Kovarian, no doubt, already knows that I know she's right and how much it disturbs me. Basically, like she said, literally everything Kovarian has done has led to my birth. In fact, everything she did has seemed to always lead to my birth; in other words, everything leading up to my birth was a fixed point in Time. Knowing this disturbs me even more, and it also makes me wonder if the rest of my family—particularly the Doctor and River—is aware of this as well and how long they've known.
"So," Kovarian says after a minute of letting everything sink into my brain, "I believe a 'thank you' is in order. Or perhaps you don't care to say anything at all." She adds this last bit with a brief eye-roll.
Deciding not to give her the satisfaction of me knowing that she is right, I say, glaring back at her with a frown, "No. I don't, actually. I'm surprised you care. Why would you even care how I feel, anyway? Why not just kill me now? Why not just kill all of us? I know you've wanted to for a while." If she truly wants us dead, why doesn't she just go ahead and do it, rather than waste time with this pointless tea party, despite having instigated my birth from the very beginning?
"I don't want to kill you," she shakes her head, and she sounds genuinely serious, like she truly means it. "I want us to be friends. If not friends, then allies."
I automatically chortle in disbelief at this. "'Friends?' Yeah, good luck making that delusion a reality, 'cause it's not happening! Not by a longshot! I seriously doubt we'd make it very far as allies either!" I then frown, asking seriously, "What's the point of you, anyway? All of this—your entire organization? I mean, I know you want my father dead, but why? Why do all of this just to kill one person? Why waste time in targeting my family when you could've only just targeted my father? Why are you so afraid of him?" That's all this really is: Fear. Nothing more.
Kovarian sighs, seemingly reluctant to explain. "I take it you're familiar with the Prophecy of Silence?"
"'The Fields of Trenzalore?'" I shrug. "'The Fall of the Eleventh?' 'The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight?' Yeah, I know it all. What of it?"
"I imagine, by now, you have theories as to what each part of the Prophecy means?" she says in a knowing tone. "You are also aware that our organization was founded in the far future—your future?"
I shrug again. "And so you came back to the past to...what, prevent a future that's already been established? That being the 'Fall of the Silence?'"
She nods, evidently impressed. "And prevent the First Question from being answered, yes. I must say, I'm impressed with your extensive knowledge of the events."
I shrug again. "I watched a lot of Science Fiction growing up. That is a typical plot point for most of the movies and shows I watched. Like Back to the Future."
"And you wonder where the creators get the idea from. You may have even wondered where the term 'Doctor' comes from. I'll give you a hint: it's not from us."
"Yeah, I didn't think it was from you. It's honestly not too hard to figure out. Like any of that even matters."
"No, of course not," Kovarian agrees with a shrug. "Not to you." She then says after noticing that I still haven't touched anything on the table, "I highly encourage you to try the tea and scones, dearie. You must be famished."
In all honesty, I am, but as I said before, I never accept things from freaks that want me dead.
"No thanks," I shake my head. "I don't fancy getting food poisoning on my first day."
Kovarian snorts incredulously. "You think I poisoned your tea?"
I shrug. "After brainwashing my mother into using some on my father—and with there being so many of you freaks out there that have tried to kill us—I can't be too careful." I then frown at her, noticing that she seemed to have purposefully steered off-topic, "You didn't answer my question."
"Don't be so naïve, child," she snaps at me in response. "I wasn't avoiding the topic on purpose. Perhaps you should let me finish rather than automatically assume I won't tell you." She then sets the empty teacup on the table beside her and leans over on her arms, lowering her voice to a serious whisper. "You want to know why I fear your father...and why you should fear him as well?"
I snort. "Why in all of Space-Time should I fear my own father? You know nothing about him."
"As I said, you shouldn't be so naïve and automatically assume things like that," she says, rolling her eyes. "I know everything about him, not just from your 'dear mummy dearest's' memories. I know what he did in the Last Great Time War—what he did to end it."
"I know that too," I say pointedly. "I saw it in his memories. He made a terrible choice, one that he can't ever fix. But that was the past; it's not like he'll do it again." Just get to the point already, why don't you, I growl in my head.
"Oh, on the contrary, dearie..." she says with a smirk, "he will. He will begin it anew."
"What do you mean?" I frown. How can the Time War happen again when there are no more Time Lords left? How is that even possible?
Kovarian explains, the entire time her smirk never faltering from her face. "One day, many years from now, a message will be broadcast. The oldest message in the universe. And on that day, your father will answer that message. A message said to be sent from the High Council of Gallifrey itself—'Doctor who?' It is said the Time Lords are not truly gone. They were sent to a pocket dimension during the last day of the Time War, and they have been trapped in that dimension ever since, looking for a way to come back into our universe. Once the Doctor answers the Question, the Time Lords will return to our universe, beginning the Time War anew. Your father holds the key to the Time Lords' return. That is why he must die."
I pause, contemplating everything she just said. "'Silence will fall when The Question is asked...'" I mutter to myself. "'The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight...' 'Doctor who?' That's what the 'key' is! My father's true name! He says his true name aloud, the Time Lords come back from that pocket dimension, causing a second Time War! Dad must die to prevent the War from happening again! 'Silence will fall'—Dad's silence. Dad's death—'the Fall of the Eleventh...'" I then glance up at Kovarian with intense hatred. "And you want me to kill him!"
At this point, I don't know what's worse: the Time War happening again, this time on a universal scale, or the fact that I have to kill my own father to prevent this from happening, now that I know the terrible truth.
Dad's and my words spring to mind in that very moment:
'Suppose you knew someone who knew a secret. A terrible, dangerous secret that must never be told. How would you erase that secret—destroy it forever—before it can be spoken? Be honest.'
'Well...depending on the secret, if I had to...I'd destroy the person who owns it.'
'And then silence would fall. You destroy the person, the person's secret dies with him.'
I never even thought that I would have to be the one to do it...
Until now.
"Your mother was weak," Kovarian continues, bringing me back to the present, "but you are stronger than she ever was...only because we made you stronger than her. I'm sure your parents told you about our little 'experiments' on you from when you were a baby; or perhaps you found them out for yourself. You wonder why you can shoot explosive balls of Regeneration Energy out of your palms, destroying anything and everything within close range? You know—and I know—that Regeneration Energy is meant to heal, not destroy anything and everything it comes in contact with. That's because that's not the only kind of energy inside you. There is an energy much more powerful than even Regeneration Energy—the energy of a supernova. We syphoned off the excess energy from the supernova that attempted to destroy our base and merged it with your Regeneration Energy to make it much more powerful. Once you grew up, you would be trained to use that power against your father."
"And what of me being 'Deviant?'" I ask immediately, suddenly remembering that strange word being heard several times. "What's that got to do with anything?"
What the hell am I?
Her smirk widens. "That became a bonus later on. I was aware of the 'myths' about the rare 'Time Lord Deviants'—how much more powerful they were from the average Time Lord. One of the perks of being conceived in the Untempered Schism, I suppose. In any case, it is still unclear as to how you 'Deviants' exist."
"Clearly you don't know me as well as you think you do," I point out. "Since you don't seem to know what a 'Deviant' even is, you don't know how powerful I truly am, even before your twisted experiments. Perhaps your experiments made me even more powerful than you meant for me to, which became your biggest mistake. If you're curious, I can show you how powerful I am right now!" I honestly wouldn't mind blasting that cruel smirk off of her face anyway. She'd never smirk again once I'm finished with her.
"Stop being so naïve, child!" she scoffs at me, shaking her head. "No point in wasting your energy now. You still have a decision to make."
I sigh, rolling my eyes. Oh good; this again?
"I've already made my decision," I snap at her, "and my decision is 'no!' In fact, it doesn't even matter what my decision is! My friends are coming for us as we speak, and once they do, you will regret everything you've ever done to us—to me and my entire family! I told you that a storm was coming, and it's coming for you!" I glare at her, my eyes blazing with that familiar golden energy, as I grip the knife in my hand, prepared to strike. "In fact, the storm is already here! I am that storm!"
I go after her right there and then. I immediately blast energy at my former Aikido instructor, the blast pushing him backwards into the desk, flipping over it and onto the floor on the other side, knocking the computer monitor over in the process. With him incapacitated, I take the opportunity to swipe at Kovarian with the butter knife I'd hidden under my napkin, but she is quick to dodge my attacks by blocking me with her arms. Despite it all, it doesn't stop me from giving up. I won't give up until she is dead! Until all of them are dead, starting with her!
Before I know what, a sudden blow to the side of my head knocks me to the floor, causing me to drop the knife and make my vision go fuzzy and an incessant ringing in my ears. I attempt to get back up, but another hard blow, this time to my back, knocks me down again, and this time I am too weak to get up. The least I can do is roll over on my side, and through the haze in my vision I can just barely make out the outlines of Kovarian and Master Kang standing over me, the former sniggering wickedly.
"You've just made the biggest mistake of your life, girl! Now you will suffer the consequences..." Those are the last words I hear before my vision fades to black.
The next thing I know, my vision clears, and the first person I see is, thankfully, my own father. However, he doesn't look normal. His youthful face is badly bruised, and he is being held at gunpoint by my own mother, her gun pressed firmly at his temple and her free hand wrapped around his throat.
"Dad..." I wince as I struggle to my feet, my body feeling incredibly achy from the attack. "Mom..." Feeling a sudden headache, I place my hand over the place where it hurts the most, and I immediately feel a warm liquid come off on my hands, and I glance down at my hand to see it stained with blood.
Once I'm fully on my feet, I glance around the area properly. I appear to be back on the stage in the main Atrium, my bio-parents perched just ten feet from me, and Hazel, my mother-guardian, and all three members of the Paternoster Gang are standing off to the side, each being held by various soldiers also at gunpoint. In fact, every member of the Silence is here to watch this spectacle, each member lined up exactly like Jenny and I were when we hid among the crowd before. Madame Kovarian and Master Kang are standing behind my bio-parents, devious smirks plastered on their faces, Kovarian's being much wider than Master Kang's.
"What's going on?" I ask as I look uneasily around at everyone, my hearts beginning to beat erratically again out of fear and anxiety.
"Nova..." Dad breathes out in seeming defeat, closing his eyes in regret. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... This should never have happened." He immediately winces in pain as Mom tightens her hold on his throat and presses her gun harder against his temple to shut him up.
I gasp, now realizing what is happening.
"Mom, please..." I say as I raise my hand up in a peaceful manner. "You don't have to do this! You don't have to kill him! You're being—"
"She can't hear you," Kovarian speaks up, interrupting me. "She will never hear you again. She is fully under our control now. You failed to save her. All of you failed. Did you really think I wouldn't know what your real plan was? That I wouldn't listen in when I locked you in that other room with your primitive human family? I heard everything, even your plan to remove the chip from your mother's dusty old head. Good luck. You won't be able to get close. She is beyond your help. She is nothing but an empty shell of herself now."
"No!" I cry in disbelief, my eyes fogging up with tears. "That's not true! I know she's still in there!"
"She's gone," Kovarian says, her smirk widening. "I can prove it. River?"
Like before, upon hearing her name like a command, Mom straightens up, releases Dad, and begins walking toward me, her gun still in hand, pointing down at the floor at her side. This time, her face bears the expression that a cat would give to a mouse before feasting on it, and her eyes show no emotion at all. Seeing her like this, a part of me thinks about running away, but I stay put, refusing to abandon my family. Never again, I demand of myself.
Instead, I take a step back, unsure of what she is going to do once she reaches me. "Mom?" I say nervously. "It's me, Nova! Whatever you're going to do, you don't ne—"
I scream in pain once she reaches me, grabbing me firmly by the arms and forcing her gun into my dominant hand. "Mom!" I yell at her. "What're you doing? Let me go!" I fight to pull her off of me, but her grip is much too tight—tight enough to bruise. She wraps her fingers around my own, preventing me from dropping the gun, as she aims it directly at my father, right between his eyes. Suddenly noticing this, I scream, "Mom! No! You can't! You can't make me do this!"
"Nova!" Dad sighs in an assuring manner, which shocks me. "It's alright... Perhaps it's time..."
"No, it's not!" I cry in horror, tears streaming down my cheeks as I continue to pull away from my mother's unbearably tight grip to no avail. "Don't say that! I won't kill you! I can't! Mom, please don't make me do this! Please!"
This is my absolute worst nightmare come true. Me, standing here, forced into position by my mother, River Song, in preparation to kill my father, the Doctor. Never in my entire life would I have thought this would happen, and now it is, and there seems to be no way to stop it.
It's over. We failed. And, yet again, it is all because of me.
"I warned you that you would have to face the consequences if you disobeyed me again, Nova," Kovarian continues smirking off to the side. "That was your last chance, and now you leave me no choice."
I glare at her through tears of absolute hatred. "You psychotic, evil bitch! How could you do this? How could you make us do this?"
"I told you..." she shrugs in a 'it's not going to matter anymore' manner. "The Time Lord plague must be purged, and you and your mother were always the ones to do it. You two were born to kill the Doctor, and now you will finally fulfill that destiny. Welcome to the family, Nova Susan Song: The New Woman to Kill the Doctor. Become one of us!"
I glance to my father and see him close his eyes in defeat at these words, seemingly accepting his death at the hands of his lover and daughter. The Paternoster Gang immediately begin crying for him, as do Hazel and my mother-guardian for me, knowing this to be the end.
"No! Please!" I sob uncontrollably, trying and failing to pull away from my mother as she holds my arm firmly in place, aiming right at Dad's head. "Don't make me do this! Don't make me kill him! I love him! Please! DAD! NO!"
I close my eyes and turn my head away from my father, refusing to see the deadly shot that would momentarily end his life—for good this time, since he is now completely out of regenerations. I hear Kovarian's deep sniggers in the background, happy to see her enemy finally slain with the twisted fate of him being slain by none other than his own family.
I scream once more as a shot is fired.