The Stone slightly raised a brow when two Romans walked into the tower she was being locked up in. They didn't believe her, no one did and so Winston Churchill, once her friend was forced to lock her away in a tower like she was some kind of princess in a fairy tale. A fairy tale went wrong. The Stone was locked up for being mad with the Doctor nowhere in sight. For once she couldn't find him anywhere.

"Leave us," Winston ordered the guards who nodded and turned, walking away with the Silurian doctor. "Tick tock goes the clock, as the old song says, but they don't, do they?" He raised a brow. "The clocks never tick. Something has happened to time. That's what you say. What you never stop saying. All of history is happening at once. But what does that mean?" He slightly leant forward. " What happened? Explain to me in terms that I can understand what happened to time."

The Stone opened her mouth to speak for to someone else for the first time in a long while. She hadn't noticed but her hair had gotten significantly longer, once going just past her shoulders now to the middle of her back. "My sister."

"Imagine you were dying." The Stone said walking through a corridor, small fires burned either side of her as she walked. "Imagine you were afraid and a long way from home and in terrible pain. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, you looked up and saw the face of the devil himself." She smiled slightly. "Hello, pepper pot."

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She walked through a corridor full of smoke and ash, the only light being her sonic and the small fires still burning, illuminating the silhouette of the most dangerous creature. "Emergency." It said in a gravelly voice, she would almost say in pain if it wasn't a Dalek. "Emergency. Weapon system disabled. Emergency." Ignoring it she flashed her sonic at the pepper pot, opening the top of its head. She removed it and rolling her eyes. "Oh stop it no one is coming to help you, you're just giving me a headache and distracting me I need some information from your data core." She then flashed her sonic at a small round ball that went into the centre of the Dalek. "Everything the Daleks know about the Silence."

She then went to the Docks of Calisto B, The Doctor had forgotten one thing. Even if he now hiding she could still try to find him. She walked through the cloudy alleyway before entering a door and walking towards a bar where a red alien looked at her curiously. "Gideon Vandaleur." She stated. "Get him. Now."

"Who says he's here?" The alien sneered at her. She only smirked and dropped the Dalek eyestalk onto the counter and watched as the eyes of the alien widened before it disappeared in the back of the bar.

Patiently she waited, tapping her fingers on the table before a cloaked figure sat down. Removing the hood was a man with an eyepatch like Madam Kovarian's. "Father Gideon Vandaleur, former envoy of the Silence." She nodded at the man, keeping her sonic in her hand and hidden she mumbled: "My condolences."

"Your what?"

"I said 'my condolences' considering that Gideon Vandaleur has been dead for six months." She then flashed her sonic at him and watched him tense. She sighed slightly and looked into the eye that wasn't covered. Seeing the man there she addressed him. "Can I speak to the Captain, please?" He nodded looking slightly scared before hurrying off.

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"Hello again, the Teselecta, time-travelling shape-changing robot powered by miniaturised people." She slightly smiled. "my husband would never get bored of that." The Stone wiped the smile off her face. "It has been a very long time since Berlin."

"Stone, what have you done to our systems?"

"They'll be fine if you behave." She warningly narrowed her eyes. "Now, this unit can disguise itself as anyone in the universe, so if you're posing as Vandaleur, you're investigating the Silence. Tell me about them."

"Tell you what?"

"One thing. Just one tiny little thing. Their weakest link."

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The Stone sat opposite Gantok who she was playing live chess with. His Queen now sizzled with four million volts running right through it. She relaxed and smirked. Chess: the one thing she had to admit the Time Lords actually decently made and was good at. Smirking the Time Lady glanced at the stands where multiple people watched, many of them chanting for the alien that looks like a Viking to move his queen. "The crowd are getting restless." She stated, watching the nervous Gantok with an eye patch. "They know the Queen is your only legal move, except you've already moved it twelve times, which means there are now over four million volts running through it. That's why they call it Live Chess. Even with the gauntlet, you'll never make it to Bishop Four alive."

"I am a dead man, unless you concede the game."

"But I'm winning." She couldn't help but smirk even more at that. He was a fool to even accept her challenge in the first place, she was a Time Lady, they invented chess.

"Name your price." He said.

"Information." She replied. All along the Time Lady knew she had to just play good enough but not enough to win. Not too good so she would win too early on in the game. She needed him to tell her what he knew.

"I work for the Silence." He said to her knowing exactly what she wanted. "They would kill me."

"Perhaps I can help you but they're going to kill me too, very soon. I was just going to lie down and take it, but you know what? My husband is nowhere to be seen and before I go, I'd like to know why the Doctor and I have to die."

"Dorium Maldovar is the only one who can help you."

"Dorium's dead. The Monks beheaded him at Demon's Run."

"I know. Concede the game, Stone, and I'll take you to him."

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So far Gantok kept to his word however the Time Lady was still cautious while following him. Shelves in every direction were filled with skeleton heads as they entered where Dorium was kept there were many skulls scattered on the floor. "The Seventh Transept, where the Headless Monks keep the leftovers." The blonde Viking alien stated slowly stepping through the room. "Watch your step. There are traps everywhere."

"My husband hates rats." She quietly muttered more so to herself. She sighed slightly wishing that he was actually there with her and not where ever he ran off to for some reason. She didn't understand why and most likely never will. Perhaps he couldn't face her knowing that there was nothing they could do. That he knew she would try and fix things, possibly he was as well and didn't want to hurt her if he found out she wasn't attempting to. He should know her better than that, better to tell that she couldn't just leave this mess alone.

"There are no rats in the transept," Gantok informed her.

"Oh, good." She mindlessly nodded,

"The skulls eat them." Just as he said that the multiple skulls on the shelves turned to look at the two visitors all at the same time.

"The headless monks behead you alive, remember."

"Why are some of them in boxes?" She curiously asked noticing the quite nice boxes set on cleanish pillars.

"Because some people are rich, and some people are left to rot. And Dorium Maldovar was always very rich."

The Stone walked over and opened the hatch on Doriums box just as the man sneezed.

"Thank you for bringing me, Gantok." She turned around to see that he was pointing a gun at her face.

"My pleasure." He sneered. "It saves me the trouble of burying you. Nobody beats me at chess."

The Stones eyes flickered down to his feet just before he stepped on a trap door and fell right through into a pit of skulls. "Gantok!" She shouted before wincing as the heads buried him. She then quickly flashed her sonic at the hole before they could try and get her. Dorium then opened his eyes and noticed her.

"Stone." He breathed out a sigh. "Thank God it's you. The Monks, they turned on me."

"Well," She eyed the head. "I'm afraid they rather did, a bit."

"Give it to me straight, Stone. How bad are my injuries?"

"Umm..."

He then burst out laughing. "Oh, your face."

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"This is absurd," Winston said after she finished part of her story. His face was full of shock "Other worlds, carnivorous skulls, talking heads. I don't know why I'm listening to you. "

"Because, in another reality, you and I are friends." She explained. "And you sense that. Just as you sense there is something wrong with time."

"You mentioned your sister."

"Well she isn't technically my sister but she told me that she sees me like one so I don't see why I can't call her that." She shrugged.

"What's she like?" He curiously asked.

"In some ways, she's the complete opposite to me."

"Tell me more."

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"Oh, it's not so bad, really, as long as they get your box the right way up," Dorium reassured. "I got a media-chip fitted in my head years ago, and the Wi-Fi down here is excellent, so I keep myself entertained."

"I need to know about the Silence."

"Oh. A religious order of great power and discretion. The sentinels of history, as they like to call themselves."

"And they want me dead."

"No, not really. They just don't want you to remain alive."

"Oh that's lovely I was thinking that I would have to plan a headstone to be made, not to mention that I was a bit worried about the Doctor."

"Speaking of which where is your husband?" He curiously asked. "Usually he isn't that far away from you and now he is nowhere to be seen."

"I don't know." She sighed. "Something happened and he disappeared."

"If he's running away it's pointless," Dorium shook his head, "he is a man with a long and dangerous past, but yours and his future are infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted."

"You know, you could've told us all this the last time we met," the Time Lady muttered, crossing her arms, a thin line being drawn on her lips.

"It was a busy day and I got beheaded."

"What's so dangerous about my husbands future?" She questioned.

"On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of Twenty-two, when no living creature can speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered."

"Silence will fall when the question is asked." The Stone whispered remembering the words she heard a thousand times before.

"Silence must fall would be a better translation. The Silence are determined the question will never be answered. That the Doctor and the Stone will never reach Trenzalore."

"I don't understand, " She frowned. "What is it to do with my husband and why am I involved in this?" She frowned at him. "What's it got to do with me?"

"Everyone knows that you know the first question, he looked her right in the eye, "The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" He asked just as some of the heads started to chatter their jaws. "Very, very sure?"

The Stone swallowed slightly. "Of course."

"Then I shall tell you. But on your own head be it."

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The Stone shook her head and walked into the TARDIS, carrying Dorium's box. "It's not my fault. Put me back. Ow! I've fallen on my nose. Have you got wi-fi here?" He asked as she dropped the box and walked towards the console, "I'm bored already and my nose is hurting. We all have to die, Stone, but you and the Doctor more than most. You do see that, don't you? You know what the question is now. You do see that you have to die."

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Winston followed the Time Lady into the Senate room. "But what was the question? Why did it mean your death?"

"Suppose there was a man who knew a secret." She turned to him. "A terrible, dangerous secret that must never be told. Suppose that a man and a woman who has been best friends for almost their whole lives found out that they loved each other and then got married and suppose that if one of them died so did the other and that the man happened to know the secret and disappeared. How would you erase that secret from the world?" She questioned and then answered her own question before Winston could get a word in. "Destroy it forever, before it can be spoken."

"If I had to, I'd destroy the woman which would in effect destroy the man." He answered.

The Stone slightly nodded. "And silence would fall." She sighed shaking her head. " All the times I've heard those words, I never realised it was mine and the Doctors silence, our deaths. The Doctor and the Stone will fall." She then frowned. "Why are we here?"

"This, this is the Senate Room."

"I understand that but why did we leave your office?"

"Well, we wanted a stroll, didn't we?"

"I think I've been running." She frowned then noticed the gun in his hand. "Why do you have your revolver?"
"Well, you're dangerous company, Soothsayer."

The Stone then looked at her arm and saw a tally mark on it. "Yes. I think I am."

"Resume your story."

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"Stone, please, open my hatch," Dorium begged as she moved around the TARDIS. "I've got an awful headache. Which to be honest means more than it used to. It's like some terrible weight pressing down on my-" The Time Lady sighed and opened the box, Dorium stared at her upside down.

"Oh. I see."

"Why Lake Silencio?" The Stone asked the head. "Why Utah?"

"It's a still point in time. Makes it easier to create a fixed point. And your death is a fixed point, Stone You can't run away from this."

"My husband has been running all his life. He clearly hasn't stopped so why should I?" She asked wanting to desperately catch up to the Doctor if he was running, she just wanted to find him.

"Because now you know what's at stake. Why your life must end."

"Not today."

"What's the point in delaying? How long have you delayed already?"

"Before the Doctor disappeared we were wondering around as per usual, but with more of a goal. A bit of a farewell tour. Things to do, people to see. There's always more." Se shrugged. "I could invent a new colour just to amuse the Doctor or save the Dodo. He mentioned wanting to do that before we saw Craig. He could join the Beatles." "Hello?" She said into a telephone, Yes it's me. Could you get him please and tell him, we're going out and it's all on the Doctor." She snorted a little. "Well sadly except for the money and driving you know how he is." She looked at Dorium. "I have got a time machine, Dorium. "Liz the First is still waiting in a glade to get married to my husband which will honestly never happen so long as I'm alive which is ironic since if I die so does the Doctor. I could also help go and help Rose Tyler with her homework and force the Doctor to go on all of Jack's stag parties in one night just because I'm mean like that."

"Time catches up with us all, Stone."

"Dorium I'm a Time Lady." She shook her head at him. "My husband is the best person at running away and I've been running right beside him from the first day, surely it isn't that hard to stay ahead of time."

"Stone, I'm so sorry." A nurse on the other end of the phone spoke up. "We didn't know how to contact you or the Doctor. I'm afraid Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart passed away a few months ago."

"Oh, my..." she whispered ducking her head. "I'm so sorry..."

"It was very peaceful." She reassured. "He talked a lot about you and the Doctor, if that's any comfort. Always made us pour an extra brandy and tea in case you both came round one of these days."

"Stone?" Dorium frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She shook her head.

"Thank you, I'll tell the Doctor." She placed the phone down. "Nothing."

She sighed and brought the TARDIS blue envelopes out of her pocket. "I don't want to do this without him but it's time."

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The Stone was sat back in the bar facing the Teselecta. "Surely you could deliver the messages yourself?"

"It would involve crossing my own time stream, if I somehow see the Doctor I most likely will convince myself that this is a horrible idea. It's best for me not go deliver the message."

"According to our files, this is the end for you, your husband's files go no further. This is your final journey. We'll deliver your messages. You can depend on us."

"Thank you." She stood up.

"Stone, whatever you think of the Teselecta, we are champions of law and order just as you and the Doctor have always been. Is there nothing else we can do?"

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Churchill frowned at the Time Lady. "Why would you do this? Of all the things you've told me, this I find hardest to believe. Why would you invite your friends to see your death?"

"I had to die," She sighed, "My husband had disappeared and I didn't have to die alone." She swallowed hard. The Doctor must have had a good reason to run away. Not even she could think why though.

"If it's time to go, remember what you're leaving. Remember the best. Apart from my husband who will have the best excuse for running like that. My friends have always been the best."

"And did you tell them this was going to happen?"

The Stone narrowed her eyes at him. "It would help if you didn't keep asking questions," She glanced down at her arm noticing three tally marks, "we don't have much time."

"And this woman you spoke of," He raised a brow, "Did you invite her?"

"Yes I invited my sister," She nodded, "River Song came twice. Everything was in place."

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"Well, then." She whispered seeing River lift the visor on the space helmet. "Here we are at last."

"I can't stop it." She sobbed. "The suit's in control."

"You're not supposed to." The Stone replied. "This has to happen."

"Run."

"I did run." The Stone protested. "I ran with the Doctor who is still somewhere out there about to die. "Running brought me right here."

"I'm trying to fight it, but I can't. It's too strong."

"I know River and I understand it's okay. This is where I die. This is a fixed point. This must happen." She said emphasising it's importance. "This always happens. Don't worry. You won't even remember this. Look over there."

River glanced over and her eyes widened seeing who was there. "That's me. How can I be there?"

"That's you from the future, serving time for a murder you probably can't remember. Mine and the Doctors murder."

"Why would you do that? Make me watch?"

"So that you know this is inevitable. And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.

"Please, my sister please, please just run!"

"I can't."

"Time can be rewritten."

The Stone shot her a dark look. "Don't you dare," She sighed, "goodbye, River."

The Stone waited for the blast but nothing happened. "Hello, Sweetie." River smirked making the Stone open her eyes and frown.

"What have you done?"

"Well, I think I just drained my weapon systems."

"But this is a fixed point in time."

"Fixed points can be rewritten."

"No, they can't." She replied. "Of course they can't, has the Doctor been feeding you lies?"

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"Well? What happened?" Churchill asked.

"Nothing." She replied.

"Nothing?"

"Well everything happened, every single thing in history happened at once and if will never stop. Time is dying. It's going to be five o two in the afternoon for all eternity. A needle stuck on a record."

"A record? Good Lord, you never heard of downloads?"

"Says, Winston Churchill." She muttered.

"Gunsmoke." He stated. "That's Gunsmoke. Oh, I appear to have fired this." He held up a gun. The Stone frowned and held up the spear in her own hand. "We seem to be defending ourselves."

"I don't understand." He admitted.

"The creatures that lead the Silence. Remarkable beings. They're memory-proof."

"But what does that mean?" He curiously asked.

"It means that no matter how hard you try you can't remember them. The moment you look away, you forget they were ever there." She glanced at her arm and noticed there was now four marks. "But don't panic. In small numbers, they're not too difficult." She added. She then noticed that her other arm was covered in tally marks. The Time Lady looked up and saw a large group hanging from the ceiling. There was a small sound and she looked down at the ground, a small grenade rolled in. Her eyes widened and she pushed Churchill down. A loud booming noise echoed in the room and soldiers suddenly entered from all corners of the room.

"Go! Go! Go!" A soldier shouted. "Keep the Silence in sight at all times, keep your eye drives active."

"Who the devil are you?" Churchill looked right at Amy. "Identify yourselves."

"Pond. Amelia Pond."

The man pointed a gun right at her. "No!" The Stone shouted. "She's on our side. It's okay." The Stone blinked and her hearts practically fell seeing Amy with an eye patch. "No. No, Amy. Why are you wearing that?"

She then shot the Stone.

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The Stone winced walking up to a loud screeching noise of a train whistle. "Amy?"

"Those stun guns aren't fun." She admitted. "I'm sorry. I wanted to avoid a long conversation. You need to get up, though. We'll be in Cairo shortly."

"Amy Pond." The Stone stood up glancing around the small room that looked a lot like a train carriage made into an office. "Amelia Pond from Leadworth. I like what you did with the place." She grinned seeing the drawings all around the train cabin and the small modal TARDIS. "Do you happen to have any red or black clothes or a beanie?"

"What like this?" Amy raised a brow tossing a red beanie at the Time Lady and then holding up her dark red shirt with black buttons going up it.

"In the words of my husband: 'Geronimo'."

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A little while later the Stone was back in Amy's office in her regular clothes. "I do like your office. I guess the eye patches are for something to do with the Silence?"

"Yes but it's not an eye patch. Time's gone wrong and some of us noticed. There's a whole team of us working on it."

"Where's Rory?"

"My husband Rory, yeah?" She asked taking a drawing from her desk. "That's him, isn't it?" She asked handing it to the Stone. "I've no idea. I can't find him, but I love him very much, don't I?"

"Apparently." She said through a giggle at the drawing that honestly looked nothing like Rory.

"I have to keep doing this, writing and drawing things. It's just it's so hard to keep remembering."

"Well, it's not your fault. Time's gone wrong. Do you remember why?"

"The lakeside."

"Lake Silencio, Utah. I died."

"But then you didn't." She replied. "See, I remember it twice, different ways."

"Two different versions of the same event, both happening in the same moment. Time split wide open. Now, look at it. All of history happening at once."

"But does it matter?" Amy asked. "I mean, can't we just stay like this?"

"Time isn't just frozen, it's disintegrating." The Stone explained. "It will spread and spread and all of reality will simply fall apart."

A soldier then entered and the Stone faintly smiled seeing it was none other than Rory. "Ma'am? We're about to arrive. Eye drives need to be activated as soon as we disembark."

"Good point." Amy nodded. "Thank you, Captain Williams."

"Hello." The Stone politely nodded.

"Hello, ma'am. Pleased to meet you."

"Captain Williams, best of the best," Amy said after he left. "Couldn't live without him."

"No." The Stone couldn't help but laugh at the drawing this time.

"What is wrong?"

"Oh, Amy." She shook her head. "Don't worry you'll find Rory, just like you always do but you have to really look."

"I am looking."

"Oh, Amelia Pond. You don't always look hard enough."

"Why are you older?" Amy asked. "If time isn't really passing, then how can you be ageing?"

"Time is still passing for me." She then quietly muttered, "possibly even the Doctor, I don't know. Every explosion has an epicentre. I'm it. I'm what's wrong."

"What's wrong with you?"

"I'm still alive."

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The Stone stood with Amy and Rory in a storage area. "You have to put it on, ma'am."

"I'm guessing it isn't called an eye patch so what is it called?"

"It's called an eye drive," Amy informed. "Just like you guessed earlier it aids us with the silence.

"It communicates directly with the memory centres of the brain," Rory added. "Acts as external storage."

"Only thing that works on them. Because no living mind can remember these things."

"The Silence," Rory said as they started to walk. Tanks filled with silence and liquid on both sides in rows.

"We've captured over a hundred of them now, all held in this pyramid."

"Yeah. I've encountered them before." The Stone muttered. "I've always wondered what they really looked like." She placed her eye drive on. "The Silence have human servants." She remembered Korvarian. "They all wear these."

"They'd have to."

"This way." Rory headed off away and frowned when they wouldn't keep their eyes off the Time Lady. "They seem to be noticing you."

"Yeah, they would." The Stone nodded. "They want me dead."

"So why aren't the human race killing the Silence on sight any more?" Amy asked.

"That was another reality." She explained. "What are the tanks for?"

"They can draw electricity from anything," Rory stated. "It's how they attack. The fluid insulates them. And I really don't like the way they're looking at you."

"I don't really like it either." The Time Lady muttered.

Rory turned to Amy. "Ma'am, I'm sure it's nothing, but I should really check this out. They haven't been this active in a while." He looked at two nearby soldiers. "You two, upstairs. Check all the tank seals. Then the floors above. Get everyone checking."

"Sir." One of the soldiers nodded then walked off with the other.

"You go ahead, Ma'am."

"Thank you, Captain Williams. Stone, this way."

"Captain Williams, nice guy." The Stone said before questioning her. "What's his first name?"

"Captain. Just through here."

"I'll only be a moment." The Stone walked towards Rory.

"I'm not one to get involved in other peoples love lives very much but I think your boss likes you."

"Really?" He blinked. "What did she say?"

"I promised not to tell but you should ask her to possibly go on a date."

"I'm not sure that would be appropriate."

"Your loss then." She chuckled walking back to Amy.

"Come on, Stone. Time for you to meet some old friends." She walked through the door.