[A/N:Okay, I'm going to put a trigger warning here because, to put it bluntly, Rassilon's plan was to r*pe River via artificial insemination. And the Doctor does Not Like That. There isn't vivid detail, mostly just implications and mentions but be aware. Also less important to remember:
-The Doctor deleting himself from all databases in season 7
-Missy is in possession of River's diary after the Doctor traded it for her help
-Timelords can sense each other's presence ]

"River, stop. Please stop, you're not ready yet!"

"Not ready? Rassilon isn't going to wait until I'm ready, Vastra. I need to go. Now."

Vastra's hand halts River at the shoulder as she tries to walk out the door. River nearly growls. "I appreciate your help, I really do, but do not think that just because you're my friend I won't take you down if you try to stop me."

"I'm not trying to stop you," Vastra rebutted.

"Oh, so you're just blocking my exit for fun, are you?"

"Don't be fresh with me, River."

"Then don't treat me like a grounded teenager. My child is out there somewhere. My husband is too and I need to find them."

"I'm not arguing against that, but you can't rush into this without a damn plan. You know that! You haven't even told me where you're going, what if you need a backup?"

"I'm going to find my family."

"No, be more specific. Where are you going River?"

There is hesitation.

"I'm going to the Library."

-x-

Suppose there was a war.

This war, this was a very complicated war. This was a war bigger and brighter than any war in the universe. What the point of the war? Well, no one could remember the point of it, but if your leader says fight then you do.

Suppose this war was between races of life. Powerful races of life. Perhaps it started as an international dispute, then planets, then galaxies, but now entire races took sides. But there were two that started it. Suppose one of them was a perfect, unparalleled killing machine. Suppose there was nothing in the universe that could beat it. Suppose, however, the other race had an element that wasn't quite part of this universe. Suppose the other race could manipulate time.

That's just a stalemate, isn't it?

Almost.

No one is winning this war of wars. Anyone who enters never leaves and all sides are taking more losses than they can count for. There are mutiny and trade deals and completely unethical tactics but ignore all that. Ignore death for one moment because life is what's important. Life that you can manipulate how you please is even more important.

Suppose you realize you can engineer life. Suppose you are a war general and you bring this idea to your Lord President. He is happy with you, yes. And now there is a plan and the blueprint is a woman locked in a computer.

Suppose you have more questions than answers. Suppose you are the scientist that is told by the Lord President to answer the questions and do it quickly or I will rewrite your history and make your life hell.

Better get on it then.

Question one: what is wrong with the Looms? They make life. No, they make full-grown Timelords with the brain capacity of infants. They still need growing. And natural birth just makes regular infants which is no help at all.

The President wants super soldiers. Question two: how do you make a super soldier when the Looms are too slow? Answer: a child born of the womb but engineered to grow quickly and fight like hell.

Question three: who can host a child? Not the people of the Plains. Their regenerating capabilities are lacking and their bodies weak. And surely the people of the city would refuse such an experiment. It would be unethical. But the answer is the woman locked in a computer with Gallifreyan DNA. A woman was rumored to be engineered with the strength of ten men and the fire of a burning sun. Yes, she could host such a child.

Suppose there is a plan to build a body and abduct a woman made of binary data. Suppose that plan includes using her body to make super soldiers to end the war of all wars. Suppose you are the scientist who presents this plan to the Lord President and is then is made head of the project.

Does it feel good? Does it feel right? In the name of all your people, hurting one woman could save them. And yes, your President has ordered you on the threat of death to fulfill your duty. It's not your fault, is it? You're being forced to. But will he ask for more? More hosts, more subjected to this experiment if the first trial succeeds. Will it snowball?

Suppose there is a war.

This war, this was a very complicated war. This war hid atrocities and crimes unnamable to the universe. But what is the point of this war? Well, no one could remember the point of it, but if your leader says to hurt her, then you do.

-x-

There is someone else here. He can feel it like a fly buzzing around the room just out of sight. It's circling him.

"So, are you just going to stand there and stare at it?"

The Doctor snaps out of his thoughts and exhaled slowly. "I didn't bring you with me for the commentary."

"It's encouragement," Missy insisted. "You've been staring at that chair for ages."

The chair in question still has ashes of a body burned long ago. Behind it, a computer towers up into the rafters, connecting to a bright and glistening DataCore, buzzing with energy. In the ashes, drag marks show the evidence of trespassers.

"It's not very efficient," Missy hummed, staring up at the DataCore.

"What?" The Doctor blinked, still lost in thought.

"This computer. It's huge. Inefficient. Whoever built it clearly could have done more research—maybe take some notes from Gallifrey."

"We're not here to fix the architecture."

"We are not here to stare at your wife's grave for an hour, but here we are."

The Doctor squared his jaw. "I don't expect you to understand grief like this—"

"Don't." Missy held up a hand. "Do not go there."

He coughed. "Right… sorry."

There is a beat of silence that Missy interrupts with, "So are you going to help with this bit or not?"

She's by one of the computer interfaces, typing rapidly into the keyboard. When did she get over there? It doesn't matter. He handed her a memory stick. "Have you pulled up the cameras?"

"It's a library. It doesn't have cameras."

"I had one. A surveillance droid."

"This one?" Missy pulled up a file on the screen. "You mean the one that's been deactivated for centuries?"

The Doctor sighed. "Okay, so maybe there weren't any cameras."

"Well, I've uploaded your information into the database. Why did you delete yourself?"

"Doesn't matter," he nudged Missy over and started typing something. After a minute, he stopped and turned around to where one of the walls was moving aside. Behind it, white a command node with a child's face turned to face him.

"You know," Missy started nonplussed, "the fact that this computer is sentient would have been a tinsy bit helpful to know. Thanks for leaving bit that out, yeah, didn't need to know that at all."

"Hush," the Doctor muttered.

CAL opened her eyes and stared at the grey-haired man. "Information required."

"The Doctor," said the Doctor.

"Retrieving," said the computer. Behind them, Missy monitored the screen. "You are the Doctor."

"Yes. I am. I need to know what happened to her," he said to CAL.

"Information required."

"River Song."

"Retrieving," said the computer. "Professor River Song has left the library, Professor River Song has been downloaded."

"How?"

"Information required."

The Doctor sighed. "Can I please speak with CAL, please? Not the system, I want to speak with Charlotte."

There was a moment before the child's face softened into a more human expression and blinked at him. "You don't look like the Doctor."

"Regeneration, it's in my file. I need to know about River."

"Oh, she was very nice to me," CAL smiled weakly. "I miss her very much."

"You said she was downloaded."

"That's the nice way of putting it. She was stolen. People came and stole her out of me. They were not nice. It hurt very badly."

The Doctor tried to ignore that last part. "Who were they?"

"People like you."

Missy strolled over to them, more intrigued now. "Two hearts? Dumb red robes? That kind of people?"

"Yes. They were not nice. And they had strange devices I did not recognize."

"Devices used to bring little Miss Song back to life," Missy hummed.

"They had so many ashes," CAL added. "The ashes became flesh and the flesh became her. And she was like them."

"Like them?" the Doctor and Missy exchanged glances. "They made her new body Gallifreyan? Why?"

"Rassilon does have a pure-breed fetish," Missy pointed out.

The Doctor scowled at that. "But would he really waste all those resources to edit her very DNA? He's particular, but he's desperate. He needed her to be rewritten for a reason."

"To carry."

"What?" The Timelords looked at CAL together.

"According to my data, Professor River Song was not capable of carrying a viable Gallifreyan fetus without suffering mortality of one or both lives." The computer was back to a droning voice rather than Charlotte's.

"But she was pregnant when she took the mission."

"Affirmative."

"Are you saying… are you saying she would have died anyway?

"There is a 73% chance Professor Song's biology would have resulted in maternal death had she attempted to carry the fetus to term."

"Feeling alright there, Dad?" Missy asked as the Doctor took a few steps backward.

"I…" He turned away from the computer, then back. He turned left, then right, then started pacing out of sheer uncertainty.

"You saved her life," CAL said, back to her human voice.

"But I didn't know!" The words came out louder than he'd meant. "And neither did she. And neither did- wait Rassilon didn't know. Did he? He couldn't have."

Missy raised an eyebrow. "I'd be surprised."

"So he took her, made her a body that could safely carry a pregnancy without knowing about the baby. He was going to—He was going to—," he put his hands over his mouth as the realization dawned on him. "Oh god."

"Now that's a level even I wouldn't stoop to," Missy muttered. "Probably."

"Don't you d—"

"Shut up," Missy interrupted, suddenly alert to something. "Do you feel that?"

The Doctor felt a lot of things and at the moment the shock and anger were overwhelming all other senses. "I—"

"Computer scan for other life forms. There's someone else here. Exclude anything that isn't bipedal."

"Three life forms found."

"Doctor there's a Timelord here."

For just a second, the Doctor tried to push away the flood of emotions. He'd felt it earlier, that tingling presence of Gallifreyan life. That feeling was sharp now, clear and sound. "It's him. I'm going to strangle him."

"No, you're going back to the TARDIS with me and we're leaving."

"Rassilon—"

"Is a threat but less so if we can keep the element of surprise. Let's go."

"Missy—"

"Now!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him away from the data room.

Several floors above the data room, a woman with brilliant curls walked carefully down the stairs of an outlook. Two hearts beat fast in her chest; she knew she wasn't alone and had to be quick. There were others here, others like her and were probably looking for her.

She approached the rail of the outlook ready to take what she needed and leave, but where she was hoping to find a little blue book with the pages of her life, there was nothing.