Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Some of her associates had thought it to be a doomed endeavor right from the beginning. But they should be proven wrong. For she rose up her organization quite brilliantly out of nothing.

And that all whilst remaining unknown behind the scenes. And anyway, the timelines forbade her to get known before it was time.

But now the multigalactic empire for all things regarding intergalactic law and law enforcement stood on solid grounds and was well off.

Namely, the Shadow Proclamation.

But the story should be told from the beginning.

In the year 2174, Shadow lived full time in the Royal Suite of the Al Maha Desert Resort. Over time she had been charged with the whole property and by now had it transferred into a full blown military base.

Underneath at least. On the surface everything still looked as it always had. The higher ups in her little band of mercenaries, for that was what it actually was what she was leading, were living in the suites above ground and the lower foot soldiers were in the barracks in the basement.

It had been a real effort to keep it quiet where the base of the "Shadows" was. Well, Shadow thought that the name was a bit dumb and that her group didn't really need a name, but the organizations that she worked with thought so.

Shadow had taken up old members that were fed up with how things worked at their old organizations. It made for a pretty diverse group. Some came from the various militaries all over the world; some came from UNIT or intelligence agencies. Some had even been terrorists that left their groups and got protection in exchange for information and services. Peacekeepers, scientists, soldiers, mercenaries, terrorists; all working together to make the world a better place.

It had all started when Shadow realized that the world was at the verge of being plunged into total disarray by various terrorist organizations and leaders that got the wrong idea. She saw the need to stop what was happening and called upon a few of her contacts and got word out that she was paying for anyone who was willing to help stop what was happening.

When she had a few people assembled to form some little teams to send into the centers of the crisis to precisely take out the root of the evil, she was glad that she had the support of UNIT and some other organizations, although on the condition of plausible deniability.

After a few successful operations and the calming of the storm around the world, Shadow got together with a few people and started to plan the base. As it turned out, the interest in her little group had surged and she got a lot of applications. Even from people still active at their respective organizations, who asked to be transferred.

And the scale of her operations was getting bigger and more complex. She needed more space to house all the men and women in the group for one and she needed training facilities, offices and labs. An armory would also be nice. But at the same time it had to be virtually invisible for the naked eye.

The weird people that build bog out shelters pitched the idea to go completely underground. They even drew up plans for ventilation and other vital systems.

After Shadow had a few experts look it over and a few architects draw up a base, she decided that it was worth a shot. And the construction began. It was very difficult. They were working underground in a desert; where the sand ended solid rock began. They disguised the building as renovating the Resort and so it didn't raise too much suspicion when the big machines arrived in the desert and started to dig.

It took several years to complete the project but in the end the effort was worth it for the base was absolutely amazing.

Hewn directly into the rock where possible but as roomy as any structure that could be found above ground.

Shadow had a private access to the Royal Suite from her office. It was a thing for a quick escape when the paperwork or annoying underlings were getting too much.

After the base was finalized and the total capacity was known, she could finally start selecting members.

What she had in mind was a resistance of sorts that was the option for governments or such to call upon when they didn't or couldn't risk getting involved.

One of the examples she always put to the forefront when lecturing about the history of resistance was Adam von Trott zu Solz.

A guy that only did what was necessary in order to survive and possibly overthrow the ruling dictator, Adolf Hitler. He was active in the Kreisau Circle with Stauffenberg and only got caught because Stauffenberg's driver had the visits to von Trott in his driver's log.

Otherwise von Trott grew up in a very small village called Imshausen that only had about 120 inhabitants. His idealistic character forbade him to believe in Hitler and his methods although he didn't completely disagree with the basic, initial approach of the Nazi party towards law and ethics.

But in the end he had joined the party to work in the civil services in a branch that allowed him to travel abroad and help in organizing the resistance. This branch was the Foreign Office. Nobody in the whole branch believed in Hitler and everyone wanted to see him out of the picture.

They had been hiding in plain sight. Planning and scheming even in the office of their Hitler loyal boss when he was out.

Shadow put what they did as examples for excellent infiltration work.

Most of her recruits wanted to see results and that quickly. But she taught them that some things take time. Occasionally you have to wait for some decades for the first little results to show.

Her group of people, her organization, grew and prospered, delivering results and getting recognition around the world. They were respected everywhere.

It went even so far that one call from Shadow herself could settle an argument between nations and make peace.

When the human race had finally mastered space travel and founded their first extraterrestrial settlements on planets outside the local solar system, they encountered other species there. Shadow, as well as UNIT, were aware of the problem, but could do little to interfere. The human race would have to prove its worth in the galactic society.

Only when the conflicts grew too heated and were threatening to become a full blown war or slaughter, did Shadow take her most capable officers and they silently stepped in.

It was around that time that the name of 'The Shadows' cemented itself within the minds of everyone. So the group got a name.

And still nobody quite knew who the mastermind behind all this was. Of course the heads of UNIT always knew who it was, after all they were the major cooperation partner, but the heads of the nations never got a grasp of the organization.

And when Shadow went on missions herself and was asked about who was her boss, she remained cryptic, only saying that she got her orders, did her duty and didn't care who was in charge as long as she was paid in full.

When the missions spanned several solar systems and the human race had made treaties with other races, Shadow saw the need for her organization to relocate to a more universally accessible location. Because the other races and governments had heard of the Shadows' efficiency when it came to dealing with threats, they were also employing them.

Shadow knew that it had to be on neutral territory; so she asked the science department about asteroids and if it was possible to rope them together. It turned out that it was all very possible and there were some asteroids that would suit the purpose of building a space base quite nicely.

All that Shadow then had to do was locate a place in the galaxy that was as neutral as can be.

It took her several months and in the end it was a fluke that got her the perfect location.

As it turned out, she had to go back in time a bit to find that place but in the end there was that bit of territory within Ogron space. The Ogrons would give up a bit of their space in exchange for employment.

Shadow knew that the Shadow Proclamation had employed the Ogrons and so she had to employ them to, once again, preserve the timelines.

She had a sort of Cheat Sheet with big points of early Shadow Proclamation history. Actually it was just what she had gathered when she had come into contact with the Shadow Proclamation.

When Shadow first came into contact with it, she even cracked a joke about it seeming like she had made it, because of the name. She had never thought it would actually be her who would make it.

When the space base was finished she set up her office there and pulled reliable personnel from Earth and put it to work in the various departments. Because of the time differentiation it was a bit more complicated than it looked like. So, actually the Shadow Proclamation itself was founded before the founding group "The Shadows" was even thought of.

And because of that Shadow made sure that the organization was well established with as many other races as possible before the humans entered the stage. So it was ensured that, when the time came, the human race would want to be part of the Shadow Proclamation.

Shadow herself didn't actively govern the Shadow Proclamation for most of the time. She put a person in charge that she trusted and that was more than capable to govern the organization. In the meantime, when she wasn't setting up the Proclamation, she oversaw the retrofitting of the Shadows base on Earth.

She had struck a deal with UNIT that they could use it as a vault for their various little things. The new Black Archives. The base had almost perfect conditions to serve that purpose. Only a few entrances would have to be sealed off.

When this endeavor was finished, Shadow went back to the Shadow Proclamation to instate a branch that would oversee prisons in which the prisoners that the executive branch of the Proclamation made or that were sentenced under Proclamation jurisdiction could be sent. It was another step to independency. The first prison Shadow acquired, or more accurately said founded, was, of course, the Stormcage Containment Facility.

Shadow made sure that River got some privileges once she was imprisoned, like phone privileges and that roomy cell. She got medium security and an order was placed that no one was to shoot her when she should break out. Naturally, the official reason was that only the head of the Shadow Proclamation was to go after her because of expertise with that particular criminal. And because Dr. River Song was bloody dangerous when aggravated.

All this took Shadow about 150 years. And in the end, when all was done, Shadow worked at the space base of the Shadow Proclamation full time and intended the Royal Suite in Dubai as a place where she and River could live when River was finally released from prison.

And then came the time, when River was set free, because somebody apparently had made up the charges against her. Apparently River had killed a person that didn't exist. And because that wasn't possible, she was immediately pardoned and released.

This was also the time when Shadow had to come clean about her work on the side. She had to tell River about what she did. And because Shadow desperately needed someone capable that was in charge of the history department at the Proclamation, she wanted to ask River, if she might be interested in filling that position.

Chapter Text

Shadow had sent River only a note with space-time coordinates in an envelope on her day of release.

She had gotten dinner for them and then planned on telling River afterwards about the whole Shadow Proclamation business.

River arrived right on time and they put River's stuff away and then had their dinner.

After eating and cleaning the dishes, Shadow sat down with River on the sofa in the living area only to almost immediately jump up again. River looked at her in bewilderment.

"River. We need to talk." Skepticism joined the bewilderment.

"What is it?"

"It's about…" Shadow wrung her hands nervously. "It's about what I've been doing. And…well…I don't know, if you remember when I showed you this abode." River nodded and Shadow went on.

"You asked me why we just walked around Stormcage like I owned the place and I haven't given you an answer, yet. But I will do so now."

"Alright." River grew a bit suspicious.

"It was because I do own the place. In a manner of speaking."

"What!?" River was stunned. This was something she didn't expect. "I thought the Shadow Proclamation owned Stormcage."

Shadow just looked sheepishly at her and shrugged. "You really never made the connection?"

River just shook her head negative.

"Well…here's the big news. I'm the head and commander-in-chief of the Shadow Proclamation. Surprise!" Shadow playfully threw her hands to the sides.

River was speechless and opened her mouth a few times but no words would come until finally "You're what?!"

"I founded the Shadow Proclamation. And before that I led a big Black Ops group on Earth called 'The Shadows'. And guess where their base was."

River finally recovered from her initial shock and extended her hand towards Shadow that the other woman would sit back down. Shadow followed the request. "I don't know. London? New York? … Montreal?"

"Nope, nope and nope again." Shadow grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "It was in the location where UNIT now has the main part of their Black Archives."

River playfully rolled her eyes. "And where is that?"

Shadow giggled slightly. "Here. Well…not here here. Beneath us actually. A giant underground base."

"How did you do all this? Without someone figuring it out I mean."

"Meticulous planning. Well…and of course some people knew. The UNIT Commander knows, for example. But other than that I told nobody. And this base was covered up with renovation. And once we could put the machines underground nobody saw what was going on. And let me tell you…the last 150 years have been busy for me."

"150 years?"

"Give or take. I could give you my exact age but what for?" Shadow grinned.

"Because I would like to know?" River disbelievingly said.

"Alright." Shadow surrendered. "198 years."

"Where did the time go? We really have become old." River shook her head a little.

"Old? We!? You can talk…"

"I'm almost as old as you." River cut her off.

"Oh? How old are you then?" Shadow challenged.

"186." And River deadpanned.

Shadow hesitated for a moment until settling on "Ah." and looking sorry.

River pulled Shadow over to her and hugged her. "Don't worry. We're still as good as ever. Just not as in sync when it comes to our age."

"That's not it. I didn't mean that you didn't spent a lot of time in prison, my prison, by the way and didn't age. Of course you did but I never expected it to be that much." Shadow indicated subtly for River to lie back on the couch and then laid herself on top of her, comfortably resting her head in the crook of River's neck.

"Basically what you are saying is that I still look young?" River inquired.

"Of course. You're still drop dead gorgeous." Shadow immediately replied.

"Thank you. You don't look too bad either." Shadow chuckled for a moment before River went on. "But I think there is still more that you have on your mind."

Shadow was silent for a moment. "There is. Now that you are free and cleared of all charges, I thought that you might be in need of a job. And as it is, the Shadow Proclamation has an opening."

"Really? What a coincidence." River's voice a slightly mocking undertone to it.

"Yes. It's a leading position in the history department. Actually you would be the head of the history department. I need someone capable in that position and you fit the bill."

"What would my duties be?"

"You would be responsible for, naturally, history and also because of the nature of the Shadow Proclamation and the occasional time travel that happens, you would be responsible for making sure that the future isn't damaged. Basically you are in charge of preserving the timelines."

"Isn't that your job?" River wondered.

"Not on this scale. So…welcome to the club." Shadow smirked at River. "And also you would coordinate with the executive forces and advise on their missions. I should maybe mention that with that position comes also a veto power over all the doings of the other departments. So, basically you have a lot of responsibility and power. What do you say? Would you feel up to the challenge?"

River looked at Shadow with narrowed eyes. "Where's the catch? And don't even try to tell me there is none, because with a position like this there always is one."

Shadow sighed heavily. "There is. Basically you would be my second in command." Shadow closed her eyes saying her next words. "And that would mean that we can't be involved with each other romantically." She felt River tense up under her and rushed to get her next words out. "But I don't want to end things between us. We would just have to have a secret affair. And my private life is absolutely secret there. Nobody knows where I live and what I do when I am not at work. And that is actually the policy for all department heads." River relaxed again.

"So you want to have an illicit illegal affair with one of your subordinates? And that subordinate would just happen to be me?"

"Basically yes."

"And nobody would know about it except us?"

"No one needs to know. And I think we, of all people, know how to be secretive. Of course, because the history department and the boss are working closely together, there will be rumors. But where would be the fun in having an affair without rumors about it?" Shadow smirked at River again and River smiled back.

"True." They fell silent for a moment.

"So? You take the offer?" Shadow asked, a little unsure.

"I think. I mean, the Proclamation seems to pay well and if you think I'm the perfect person to fill that position…"

"You are. Believe me, my last head of history was an utter moron. I had to step in more often than not to stop a potentially time breaking mission."

"In that case I'll accept your gracious offer. When do I start?"

Shadow leaned up and gave River a deep kiss. "Thank you." She smiled brightly.

"You are absolutely impossible." River whispered.

"Not impossible; just a bit unlikely." Shadow whispered back.

"Shut up and kiss me." River demanded and Shadow gladly complied.