NOTE: Thank you all for following along and encouraging me during this story!

For the next story I want you guys to determine who the companion(s) will be. Just either leave a comment in the review for your choice or send me a PM. Choices are as follows: Amy and Rory, Amy alone, or Clara. I don't have River on there since I just got done with a story with her. Voting closes Friday August 29th 2014.

Next story, Doctor Who: Leviathan.

Epilogue

"What the hell is going on?"

Throwing his drink at the far wall in his anxious temper the Seller got to his feet. He paced the living space that was decorated in a modern minimalistic style in ever increasing agitation. Striding over to the small circular window set in the right hand wall the Seller looked out at the rain that lashed the side of the ship. They should have been deep into space by now but they were just sitting on the ground.

The Seller had sent off a guard to see what the problem was but he had not returned yet. Looking at his watch the sallow skinned man shifted his weight uncomfortably. Ever since his last encounter with the Phantom he hadn't felt right. There had been a growing uneasiness in the pit of his stomach that had never been there before. He didn't even remember the Phantom feeding from his emotion so he couldn't even begin to understand the emptiness that had been left behind from the experience. All he knew was that he needed to get away from this wretched world.

Once again he cursed himself for ever going into business with the green eyed dragon. He had never taken special requests for kidnapping certain people for sale on the Market before, he had always just cleaned up the streets. The Seller still wasn't exactly sure how he'd been talked into not only accepting the deal but assuring the Phantom that he would handle all of the sales personally. Turning to high profile targets had brought the Agency down on him in ernest and the Seller directly blamed the Phantom for the recent raids on his auction houses.

"The customer is always...trouble." The Seller growled to himself.

Unable to just sit and wait any longer the Seller stormed out of his quarters and headed towards the bridge of the large private ship. The ship was manned by a crew of about thirty highly paid men. The Seller knew better than to trust his safety to slaves no matter how beaten down they were. Loyalty was so much easier to just buy. However as he strode through the halls he couldn't find any of them. The Seller's uneasiness increased as he discovered that the communication system was down. Getting to the bridge he finally found someone. The captain sat in the high back chair with his back turned on the Seller as he mucked with the various buttons and controls.

"What is going on? Where is everyone? Why haven't we taken off?"

The Seller jerked back as the captain's chair swiveled around to reveal a lanky creature with an unruly mop of dark hair and a bright smile beaming at him. The Seller looked over the Doctor in stunned silence. No one had ever made it aboard his ship uninvited without quickly meeting an untimely death at the hands of his guards before. Quickly composing himself the Seller stormed up to confront the stranger, stopping about six feet from the Doctor.

"Who are you?" The Seller demanded.

"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor replied as he got to his feet. "And to answer your other questions in order: your ship has been taken over, everyone else is busy, and we haven't taken off because I haven't figured out how this heap flies...not that I've tried all that hard to figure it out."

"Wha...what?" The Seller sputtered in indignant rage. "Guards!"

"I already told you everyone else is busy."

"Who are you?" The Seller repeated as he stepped back and bumped into someone.

"He's my husband." A familiar voice whispered in the Sellers ear. "And he's jealous protective type, although right now he's mostly protecting you from me."

The Seller whipped around to face River. He instantly recognized her as the last woman he had sold to the Phantom, but it was the three menacing figures in full black tactical type armour behind her that demanded most of his attention. River stepped to the side to allow the leader of the figures to step forward. The precision with which he moved was oddly inhuman. A blue light sprang from his dark featureless visor and scanned across the Seller's face.

"Yuris Modek," the cold voice identified the Seller "you are under arrest."

Modek was caught off guard at first by hearing his name but he quickly recovered. Turning around he stared icily at the Doctor as he peacefully allowed his hands to be ion cuffed behind his back.

"You're taking this better than I thought you would." The Doctor said approvingly.

"There is no reason to fight, not here anyway." Modek shrugged. "My lawyers will tear apart any charges brought against me by the Agency. I'm a very careful man with powerful connections."

"You're probably right, which is why I didn't bring the Agency."

"What?"

"These are emissaries of the Shadow Proclamation here to arrest you on grounds of violating Article 27 subsection E. I think you'll find their trials harder to weasel out of, what with mind readers and such."

"No!" The Modek exclaimed in shock.

"Enjoy Stormcage." River smiled. "If I'm ever over in your cell block I'll stop in and say 'hi'."

"The Market doesn't end with me, Doctor!" Modek hissed. "The humans were selling one another before I arrived and they will continue! Remove the serpent's head and two grow in its place!"

"And yet I'm still satisfied to see you taken away." The Doctor turned his attention to the emissary. "Thank you for your help."

The amoured figure nodded curtly and placed his hand on Modek's shoulder. With a blinding flash Modek along with the three emissaries vanished. The Doctor stepped up to River and put his arms around her waist. She smiled and gave his cheek a quick kiss.

"That wasn't nearly as much fun as my idea of how to deal with the Seller." River said with a mock pout.

"True, but a lot less messy and wouldn't give me nightmares for the rest of my life."

"I never said you had to watch and I would have cleaned up the mess." River chuckled.

"You disturb me sometimes."

River laughed again. Hugging the Doctor closer for a moment she then pulled away.

"Come on, let's get back to Quay and Dace." River said. "One last stop before I head back to Stormcage for a bit of rest."

The Doctor nodded and took River's hand. The pair made their way down the hall to where the TARDIS was tucked into the corner. They had dropped Quay and Dace off to help Tanya while they tied up the loose ends. Parking on the lawn of Tanya's mother's house they were quickly welcomed inside by Tanya's mother. Going upstairs River was enthusiastically greeted by Tanya. Tanya threw her arms around River in a warm embrace before she began chattering and chirping like an over excited sparrow.

"Oh dear." River looked to the Doctor. "Is this what I sounded like?"

"You did." The Doctor nodded. "But Riku gave me a chance to really study the necklaces."

Quay stepped up and put his arm around Tanya to comfort her as the Doctor used the sonic to play with the settings on the necklace that Tanya wore. The stone flashed red before going dark. The Doctor pulled off the necklace and put it in his pocket. Quay looked at Tanya anxiously.

"Tanya?"

"Can you understand me now?" Tanya asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I can." Quay said with obvious relief as he hugged her closer. "Thank you, Doctor. And of course thank you, River, she would have never survived without you."

"Thank you both so much." Tanya beamed.

"Our pleasure." River replied as she reached out and embraced the pair.

"Are you going to open the Nightingale back up?" The Doctor asked.

Quay looked to Tanya, trying to gauge if she was going to want to return to headlining at the Nightengale.

"Of course he is." Tanya chuckled. "With my voice back I can't wait to use it."

"Can we talk Miss Afterglow into another show?" Quay asked hopefully.

"I kind of strained my voice on that last song." River rubbed at her throat in exaggerated pain. "I think I'm going to retire after that one. Kind of a hard performance to top anyway."

"Always leave them wanting more." Quay chuckled.

"Where is Dace?" The Doctor asked as he looked around.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, I couldn't stop him." Quay admitted.

"Stop him from what?"

"From going home."

"Home?" River repeated in alarm. "He still has a sizable bounty on his head, even with the Seller gone the next in line at the Market will certainly want him hunted down to make an example of him if nothing else."

"I don't think he cares." Quay sighed.

"Come on, River, we can't let him get himself killed, not after all this."

River said a hasty good-bye to Quay and Tanya promising that she would be in the audience for Tanya's return show at the Nightingale. River and the Doctor hurried back to the TARDIS and made the short hop to Dace's apartment. The apartment was dark and seemingly empty. Stepping quietly into the apartment they quickly discovered that a violent fight had occurred there. The furniture was over turned and the coffee table was shattered. There was a crumpled figure on the floor that the Doctor carefully approached. A quick look told him the man was not Dace, a slightly closer inspection told him the man was also dead.

River tugged on the Doctor's sleeve as she caught sight of Dace. He was sitting in a metal chair out on the small porch that looked out over the city. On the small glass table next to him was a half empty bottle of scotch, in his hand was his gun which he was turning over as he studied it. The Doctor walked up to where the sliding glass door had been but was now just a shower of glass on the floor.

"Dace..."

The Doctor froze when Dace brought the gun to bear on his chest in the blink of an eye. Dace eyed the Doctor in the dark with River standing beside him for a moment before he relaxed his aim after determining that they weren't a threat. Putting the weapon back in his lap he stared out over the city.

"Did you get your man, Doctor?"

"We did. I'm sorry I couldn't hand him over to your Agency."

"It's fine. He would have just gotten away." Dace growled darkly. "The rich rarely see the punishment that they deserve around here. I'm glad you could do better, Doctor. Now if you don't mind I have this bottle to finish off here and I'd rather not share."

"Dace, you aren't safe here." River said gently. "More will be coming for you."

"I know. The Agency wants me in witness relocation, but...without Sara..."

"About that..." the Doctor smiled "I know who bought her."

"What?" Dace asked as he leapt to his feet sending the gun clattering across the floor. "I...I thought you said you couldn't help her?"

"Technically I said I couldn't go back on your timeline, so I went back on her's instead."

"But the paradox?"

"There is no paradox, Dace, that's why I kept pressing you to find out if you knew for a fact that she was dead. If you had and the event of her death had pushed you into taking that undercover assignment then there would have been nothing I could do. Still it was a tricky move, but since we are all here now and everything is all right apparently I pulled it off."

"Who has her?" Dace demanded. "Who bought her?"

"I don't recall the name of the original buyer, but the second time around it was the Emperor."

It took Dace a second to understand what the Doctor was talking about. However as soon as he figured out that whatever path Sara had been put on had been erased by the time traveler he rushed forward and lifted the Doctor up off the ground in an enthusiastic embrace. After putting the Doctor down Dace looked to River as if needing confirmation from another person about the news. River nodded, she and the Doctor had gone back for Sara before going after the Seller.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Dace asked sounding more hurt than angry.

"I wasn't confident that I could save her, I needed some time to figure out how it was going to affect my own timeline which is a much trickier thing than you might expect. It requi..."

"You know what, I don't care. I just care that she's found." Dace interrupted before a look of terrified realization fell over his face. "But...she...she won't be safe with me...I'm a marked man, even the Agency's relocation program might not be able to keep us hidden..."

"Dace, I have a relocation program of my own." The Doctor assured. "Trust me, I have a safe place for you both."

"Where?"

"Right here." The Doctor proclaimed proudly.

"Here?"

"Of course, this world isn't perfect but it is your home. The better question rather than 'where' would have been 'when'?"

"Wha...what?"

"No one is going to think to look for you a hundred years from now."