The epilogue, aka: an in-text explanation of the whole AU circumstances around River and how it was changed simply from Aliya's presence (ripple in the pond, and all that), and a teaser of a character that is very important in the next story.

River Song hummed her favourite Stevie Wonder song as she settled back into her cell and got changed out of her Regency dress. She had been to the Frost Fairs with the Doctor before, but Aliya had been present the first time. While her presence was far from a negative, there was something nice about being alone with the Doctor, and this time he'd brought Stevie Wonder to sing for her as well.

It was probably the most romantic gesture she'd get out of him in a long time, so River intended to savour it as long as possible. She grabbed her diary and sat down on her bed to start transcribing the trip.

She didn't mind being in prison - not really. It had taken her by surprise at first, given how the Doctor had promised her a new life in the 51st century when they first met and provided her with that chance. But it hadn't been long before some people, ones from whatever organisation had handpicked her for the academy where she had been trained to kill the Doctor, had found her and taken her in front of the Shadow Proclamation.

Between the murders she had committed, and some of the ones she almost had, she'd been put into Stormcage for life. Though a part of her suspected to this day that the same people who had found her in the first place had ensured her life sentence as punishment for failing as opposed to her crimes.

But it wasn't really a problem either way. She escaped whenever she liked, and ran off to have adventures. Sometimes her husband was invited, and sometimes he wasn't. And sometimes their best friend was with him too. River's life was not what she would have hoped for, but yet somehow better than she could have ever imagined.

And Stormcage wasn't all bad. The guards were frightened of her, or at least the young ones were. The older ones were practically pals, or fanboys.

River was broken from her thoughts by the sound of movement in the cell next to her. She immediately froze. No one was in the cell next to her. No one had ever been in it - she wasn't trusted to be near anyone. (It actually came in handy when the Doctor popped in for more private visits.)

"Hello?" River said tentatively from her perch on the bed, diary in her lap. There was a short silence before a reply came.

"Hello." The voice sounded female.

"I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing in there? They've never put anyone next to me before." River got off the bed and approached the wall on the opposite side.

The other person laughed, a refined feminine laugh that sounded like it was out of a mid-twentieth century Earth movie. "I'm not anyone. And I've been in here for almost a week now. You have merely been...out."

Her voice was modulated, and almost overly eloquent, though not deliberately so.

"I see," River replied uneasily, "Well, I'm River Song. I suppose if we're going to be neighbours we might as well get to know each other."

"I know who you are. And I'm afraid that I likely won't be here much longer. They'll soon come for me."

"Who?"

The woman laughed again and there was a noise which sounded as though she was sitting down on the floor against the wall that kept them apart. "What was that word? Spoilers?"

"But...that's my word," River said, frowning, "How do you know about it?"

"I know a number of things. And in many ways, you are the reason I'm here."

"Me?" The woman had to be talking nonsense.

"You have no idea how many things could have been different," the stranger continued, "But one person at the right time can make all the difference. You know her. Aliyanadevoralundar."

River wasn't sure she cared for her fellow prisoner's tone or the way she said the name of one of River's dearest friends. "What does she have to do with this?"

"...I suppose it all begins and ends with Utah. You remember it, surely?"

"Yes...how do you know about it?"

"That's not important. How long has it been since then, for you?"

"It was six months ago," River said quietly, letting her face fall because no one could see it, and sliding to the ground to also sit against the wall, "The Doctor died and even though Aliya saw it, she hasn't mentioned it to me since even though I know some of the version of her I've met have done Utah."

It had been bothering her ever since it happened, how Aliya hadn't brought it up again. Even if both of them knew they couldn't interfere with the future they had seen, for Aliya to not show any concern or grief afterwards made no sense.

"The Silence took it from her memories," her prison mate said, "She has no more knowledge of what happened at that lakeside than the Doctor does, which is how they needed it."

Oh. Well that would explain it.

"How do you know so much? And why are you telling me so freely?"

"If you keep listening, you will find out. And you have the right to know all this. You're the Doctor's wife."

"But you said that I'm the reason that you're here - how does that relate to all this? Who are the Silence? I thought they were those memory proof creatures."

"The creatures are their agents. The Silence is a religious order. They want the Doctor dead, and they had the perfect plan. His companions were married, and they were to conceive a child in the Time Vortex, a child which could then be taken and used as a weapon...but there was a problem. Someone else arrived on the TARDIS."

"Aliya," River murmured.

"Yes. The Ponds were dropped on a honeymoon planet, and their child was conceived there. And when they found out, they went to Earth, leaving the TARDIS behind. The Silence were suddenly out of options. But then...there was you. You were the great granddaughter of Amy and Rory Pond, your father caught in a time storm and ending up in the end of the 50th century before meeting your mother. That century that followed is the domain of the Silence. They took you and put you into the academy, to train you as the perfect assassin so that you could take out the Doctor before he suspected a thing. And you excelled, and you passed their test, you were ready."

Shock and grief flooded through River. "You know about that too?" Her voice wavered just a little.

"To prove your commitment, you had to kill the best man you had ever known. Your own father, Brian Pond, who took the name Pond instead of Williams after he found himself in the 50th century. Grandson of Vincent Williams. And your know who his parents were-"

"They brainwashed me at that academy," River said, horrified at having to remember what she had spent years trying to forget, "I barely knew what I was doing, and they'd have killed him anyway if I hadn't."

"I know," the woman replied, and her voice held a surprising amount of sympathy, "They use everyone like that, it's not remotely your fault. They've ruined so many lives, in their quest to kill the Doctor. They thought you would be able to kill him so efficiently that she wouldn't have time to put doubt in your mind."

"But that's not what happened."

"They failed to see the timelines. They believed that despite your supposed future with him, you would be able to kill him and change it all. But he was able to bring you to his side. Their plan B - you - was made as redundant as their first."

"So what was plan C?"

There was a pause. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much. All I will say is that they got very lucky. They saw an opportunity far better than either of the others. And it worked."

The obvious guess came to River's head. "The astronaut. The one that killed the Doctor."

"Yes," the woman said, her voice taking on an odd tone, "The astronaut."

"There's something I still don't understand," River began slowly, "And that's how this relates back to you."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you. It all happens too far in the future from where you are now. If you were to mention even the slightest thing to the Doctor or Aliya...the results would be devastating. And to be frank, I'm not so sure you would want to hear most of it, but then I don't know you very well so it's impossible to know."

"But why-"

Before she could finish the question, footsteps began to sound down the corridor. That was when the other woman's breathing shifted and became a fraction heavier.

"Right on time," she whispered, with a mildness that sounded very forced compared to the easy calm she had been exhibiting not half a minute before. "River, I'd like you to know that I am glad to have had the chance to speak to you. I wish I could have properly known you. From what I hear, the two of us might have gotten along famously."

"Hear from who?"

"The Doctor and Aliya, of course. They both speak so very highly of you."

"Who are you?" River demanded. But she received no answer. A group of soldiers who were all wearing dark eyepatches filed into the corridor and stopped outside the cell belonging to River's new neighbour. With a jolt of alarm, River recalled that the people who had been behind her training and incarceration had worn eyepatches too.

"She is waiting for you," one of the soldiers said as another unlocked the cell door, "With her verdict."

"Well obviously, or else you wouldn't be here," the woman said with a roll of her eyes as she came out of her cell and into River's view for the first time. She looked about thirty by human standards and had tangled red hair and solemn hazel eyes. She held herself with what could have been the posture of a queen, but it wasn't dissimilar to how the soldiers around her were standing either. She smiled slightly at River, but it wasn't particularly convincing. "Well, it was nice to talk with you."

"Where are they taking you?" River asked.

"My execution, most likely. Assuming that is her verdict."

"What? Why? What have you done to warrant an execution? Even I didn't get that."

"Well, I can't exactly be angry about it, frankly they'd be idiots to keep me alive at this point. I'm too dangerous. And when you kill someone in an aborted timeline, they tend to remember and want a chance to make you regret it. Not that I will, of course." The woman grinned, and it was rather chilling, even for someone like River who dealt with psychopaths on a daily basis and was a bit of one herself.

"Who are you?" River asked again, awed this time.

The redhead shrugged. "You were the woman who was supposed to kill the Doctor. I'm the one who did."

River's eyebrows shot up. "You're the astronaut!" Then she frowned. "But you killed the Doctor. You made it sound like you were on his side."

"Well, to say the whole situation is complicated will never come close to doing it justice." The woman glanced at her captors before pushing away from them and rushing to the bars of River's cell, pulling her in by her shirt through the bars so that she could whisper in her ear. "He would want me to tell you this. Yes, I am the astronaut. But he tricked them all. He is very, very alive."

The soldiers yanked her back from River and held her more firmly by the tops of her arms.

"Time for me to go and die, is it?" She asked them, sounding bored but in a way that could easily have been an act. "Get on with it then."

"You don't seem very concerned about your life being terminated," River noted.

"I had my chance to live it," the astronaut said, shrugging again, "The fault is mine for somewhat failing to do so until these last few months. Besides, to quote a storybook character who the Doctor resembles in more ways than one...to die would be an awfully big adventure."

She had a sad smile on her face as the guards started to drag her away down the corridor.

"Thank you," River called out.

The woman let out a strangled sort of laugh. "Now there's something not many people have ever said to me! Not that I deserved any different. But you're very welcome. It was an honour to meet you, River Song."

With that, the woman and the soldiers rounded a corner that would take them to the block door, and they disappeared from River's sight. She was left bewildered but inexplicitly relieved.

The Doctor did not die at Lake Silencio. He somehow lived.

But this woman raised more questions than she had answered. Who was the other 'her' waiting for her with a verdict that was apparently likely to be death? And what made this 'astronaut' so ideal for the job of killing the Doctor? What was so special about plan C?

It would seem that the Doctor's future was more troubling than she had ever wanted to imagine. But he did not die at Silencio, and for knowing that, River would sleep more soundly tonight.

I hope that all actually made sense! I imagine a few of you are possibly scratching your heads over the random redhead but if you continue on to the sequel, In Between the Shadows, all will eventually be explained.

Summary and link for IBTS:

Their friendship again intact, but still mourning River, the two Time Lords settle back into adventures and running for their lives. But both begin to realise that perhaps being friends is more difficult than they thought – in more ways than one. But with River Song dead, what is the Silence's plan? And who is the Astronaut?

/ s / 9890091 / 1 / In - Between - the - Shadows

Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought!

-MayFairy :)