Weapon

bendingwind

"You won't find her here," she says, stepping out of the shadows. He whirls to face her, goes a bit too far, and turns back.

"River?" he asks, shock evident in his face, "I thought—"

"You thought you'd find a helpless little girl, scared and looking for her mother, and you thought you'd sweep her off her feet and carry her to a better life, didn't you, Doctor?" she asks, and she takes another step forward. A beam of sunlight filters through the roof, casting her face into sharp relief. Her hands finds the settings of her gun, and with a quiet click, she sets it to kill. He stares at her with quiet horror.

"She told them you'd come for them, and you did, didn't you? Killed them all, the people that protected me, my Silence. They saved me from Korvarian when you couldn't, they cared for me as best as they could, and you killed them for it. What does that make you, Doctor?" Slowly, she pulls her gun from its holster and makes a show of checking it over. "You've come to rescue Melody Pond, only she's grown up before you could whisk her away and teach her to love you; your Ganymede, your Hyacinth." Carefully, she aims at his primary heart.

"Bang," she says quietly, "You're dead."

"River?" he asks, voice high and eyes wide. "What—"

She releases a short bark of laughter. "You haven't even got my name right. I'm Melody Pond. I can see where you might have gone off, though."

"Were you going to shoot me?" he asks, staring at her with confusion and a little bit of fascination.

"Not today, no. Today I just wanted to meet you, to see if you're as fearsome as the legends tell. I find you rather lacking, I'm afraid to say."

"What happened to you?" he whispers. She's moved once again into better light, and he can see the elaborate scars decorating her face and arms. This isn't the River he knows, though the wild curls are similar—this River is red-headed and willowy, less beautiful but more intriguing.

"They told me all about you, when they trained me," she says, smiling at him. It is not the loving smile he is used to, but a dangerous, sharp smile that he can't quite reconcile with his River. "How you dashed through space and time, burning and pillaging and destroying everything that didn't agree with you." She tilts her head, and her smile morphs into something that is almost cute. "Is that so, Doctor?"

"I never killed anyone if I could help it," he whispers, hoarsely. It is too soon after Demon's Run, too soon after River's burning accusations, for him to deny what he has become. "I never meant to be a warrior."

"But a warrior you have become!" she crows, "And your enemies have forged a weapon to fight you. What do you think of that, Doctor?"

"You don't have to be a weapon, you know—" he begins, only to be interrupted by another sharp burst of laughter.

"Oh, Doctor, still trying to save me even now. Can't you see it's too late? I am a weapon—there is nothing else I can be."

And suddenly, he understands.

"That's what you want." He meets her eyes for the first time, and for once she looks as if he's put her off balance. "You want me to make you a better offer. You don't believe you can be anything but a weapon—so, Melody Pond, be my weapon."

"The greatest warrior in all of time and space," she says, making her way to him with quick, light steps. "How could I resist?"

Timidly, he reaches down to brush her nose. "You couldn't," he says, quietly.