THE RISE OF DISCORD
I do not own Doctor Who, Supernatural, or Merlin, and I am not making a profit off of this.
It's been exactly one year since I first published the first chapter of War of the Guardians. So to celebrate that event I've decided to do this story. It's the final battle of Discord, and I hope that you'll enjoy it.
This story takes place in my War of the Guardians universe and also features characters and themes from my stories A Destiny Changed Forever, A New Order, The Return of the Girl Who Waited, and Time and Space. If you need to know more about who Discord is, then you may want to read Time and Space first. This story takes place after every Discord story that you've ever seen in regards to her timeline so it's in the near future of my Guardians universe.
CHAPTER 1
DISCORD GATHERS HER TROOPS
"So have you finally decided to act against her yet or are you still convinced that you should wait?" A nebulous formless being asked Discord as they both stood on Platform One ready to watch the destruction of the Earth five billion years in the future.
"This is the time. This universe's Arkytior has finally realized her true power, and I can no longer keep her in check anymore. If I really want to turn back the clock and reclaim my own universe and the life that I once had, I can't wait any longer," Discord said as she watched a still human Rose Tyler on her first adventure with the Ninth (or was it the Tenth?) Doctor.
Using her powers to conceal herself and anyone with her, she was completely hidden from the sight of everyone there except for her shapeless partner so she could spy on Rose and the Doctor's 'first date' without having to worry about tampering with the timestream. She intended on wiping this entire universe out so that it had never even existed very soon now of course, but it didn't do to create paradoxes or tamper with timelines at the moment. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with doing damage control to the Web of Time right now.
"Why did you come here of all places for?" Discord's companion asked.
"Know thy enemy, Triple Goddess. Isn't that the rule for defeating them? I know my universe's Arkytior inside and out like a book, but up until now I truly didn't know this one. More importantly, I didn't know or understand Rose Tyler, her human half, at all. I needed to watch her story from beginning to end in order to know what truly makes her tick. Now that I've mastered that, I know how best to destroy her. I will defeat her by using her own heart against her. That big warm heart that is both her greatest strength and her biggest weakness," Discord said.
Then with a single gesture she speeded time up so that she could skip ahead to watch the destruction of the Earth as if time was a video that she could fast forward. As she watched the Earth burn, she smiled.
"I have to admit that I'm also here because I wish to see an ending. I'm definitely in the mood for endings these days. The end of this accursed universe, the end of my loneliness and pain after being separated from my Theta and Andromeda for so, so long, and most of all the end of Arkytior in all of her many, many diverse and increasingly more irritating forms. I especially want to get rid of this latest one which has really become a thorn in my side lately. That's what I'm really looking forward to most of all: the end of Rose Tyler," Discord said as her smile became ever wider.
"I prefer to think of this as a time of new beginnings and not endings, my dear Discord. If we can pull this off, we can all have what we want. You want to go back in time and have a happy life with your version of Theta Sigma and your daughter. The Triple Goddess wants the Old Religion to sweep over their Earth and make them its undisputed rulers. I meanwhile want to regain my former power and glory. A power and position that was stripped from me thanks to her," a man dressed in black said as he glared at the Rose Tyler of the past who couldn't see them.
"It would be so easy to just kill her right her and now while she's so vulnerable, wouldn't it?" Discord asked as she watched Rose now too.
The man in black laughed as he said, "It feels so good to finally meet someone who hates her as much as I do."
"I hate to disagree with you, but I hate her even more than you do. I've had a lot more practice at it. I've hated her, the original version of her, long before you even existed. Whatever you feel towards her is nothing compared to what I feel. She stole my one true love from me and then didn't lift a finger to save my Andromeda even though she could certainly save this universe's version of her without a qualm. Oh, yes. I hate her alright. Hate is too mild a word for what I feel. It doesn't even begin to describe it," Discord said in a scornful sibilant voice that sounded like that of a snake's.
"That's funny. I feel the same way about my own enemy," said a voice from nearby as a beautiful woman with a sinister smile in a long white dress came walking up to them.
"And you are?" the man in black asked this new arrival.
"This is Eve. She is the Mother of All Monsters in her world. I brought her back to life after she was killed by a pesky little angel who reminds me a lot of Rose Tyler in a way from what little I've heard of her. I hate her already actually. I've already released her world's version of the Devil to plague her, and now I've brought back another old nemesis of hers. I just love to create chaos, don't you?" Discord said happily.
"What did you promise her?" the man in black asked.
"That her monsters would take over the Earth of her universe and replace humanity. That and Jo Harvelle's head on a silver platter of course," Discord said.
"Excuse me but how are you going to give all of these people anything if you're going to be wiping out this universe and replacing it with yours?" another voice said as a young girl in her late teens with long blonde hair came walking up to them.
"Another member of your new little team, my dear?" the man in black asked.
"Yes. She's my companion. I decided to give having a human tagalong a try since my enemies seem to like it so much. It might help me gain more insight into how they think. This is April Nelson. She's from an alternate Earth that the Doctor once visited and failed to save that was destroyed due to a manmade accident as the fools actually dug to the Earth's core and unleashed the terrible forces hidden there. It resulted in a horrible cataclysm that completely destroyed that world. I saved her from sudden death that day in exchange for her complete loyalty to me. Say hello, April," Discord said as she smiled at her.
"Hello," April said nervously as she quickly moved closer to Discord out of fear of the other much more sinister looking beings around her.
Discord was amused at how April trusted her even though she had only known her for a short time. She had to admit that she had developed a certain fondness for the girl herself that she hadn't expected to be there. It wouldn't stop her from killing her if she ever stood between her and her goals though. She would do that in a heartbeat. She found that she would actually regret it though which surprised her.
"It's okay, April. You're among friends here," Discord said in her best attempt at a kind voice as she put what she hoped would be a comforting arm around her.
It still came out sounding threatening despite her best efforts, but it seemed to calm April somewhat despite that. April actually smiled at her and ceased shaking.
She did admit that she had grown to like the girl. Maybe it was because she reminded her so much of her Andromeda. They did look very similar to one another.
"Yeah, sure. You never did answer my question though. How are they all going to get what they want if their universes are all wiped out too when you bring back yours?" April asked again.
"That's very easy. In the previous universe or should I say multiverse, all of their universes were there too. They were different from the way that they are here but also similar in some ways in the same way that there are different versions of the old King Arthur legends, and yet they're all basically the same story. I can give them those previous versions of the worlds that they know, and they can reshape them to be more like their own or do whatever else that they like with them. All that matters to me is my own world. As long as I can have that, then everyone else can have whatever they like," Discord said.
"What about me? Where do I fit in?" April asked.
Discord blinked because she honestly hadn't thought of that. She had only saved April in order to have someone to talk to who she didn't have to worry about killing her when her back was turned unlike the rest of her 'friends' and to experience what having a companion was like since that was so important to the Doctor and Rose.
"Where would you like to fit in?" Discord finally asked.
"I don't know. I'd just like a home. Somewhere where I belong," April said in a sad voice.
"Then that's what you'll have. I'll give you a home wherever you want," Discord said not sure herself if she really meant it or not.
"Could I stay with you?" April asked surprising Discord and greatly amusing the man in black who chuckled at the expression on her face.
Discord realized for the first time in that moment that the girl had begun to think of her as a mother figure. Discord tried not to laugh as she said, "If you wish. You wouldn't last long though. Humans weren't allowed on Gallifrey back in those days."
"You could change that though, right? I mean you do have all of those cool super impressive powers," April said.
"I can do whatever I wish," Discord said noncommittally.
"Good," April said as she hugged Discord with a warm smile on her face.
The man in black laughed again as Discord looked at the girl with an incredulous expression on her face. She had never done that before. She decided to go ahead and allow her to be this familiar with her though. For now.
Discord didn't even notice herself that as April hugged her that she had put her arm around her for just a moment. The man in black however had and knew immediately that he could use the girl against her if he needed to in order to make her keep her side of the bargain. He wasn't so sure that she would after all. He knew that if he were in her position that he would certainly try to back out of it once he finally got what he wanted.
It amused him greatly that Discord had even a scintilla of feeling for anyone besides herself. He could easily see why however. She was a dead ringer for her long dead daughter whether Discord realized that or not.
"So can we leave this wonderful place like the Doctor and Rose are doing or do we have to stay here to see the aftermath of Cassandra's attempted sabotage too?" the man in black asked.
"We're almost ready. We're waiting for one more member of our little party to show up," Discord said.
"Oh, and who is that? I must say, my dear Discord, that you're really surprising me with this motley little group that you've assembled here so far. I honestly have no idea who's going to show up next," the man in black said.
Then a Dalek appeared out of nowhere and slowly rolled up to them as everyone but Discord backed away from it. It seemed that the reputation of the Daleks was known far and wide all throughout the multiverse by those in the know even in universes where they didn't exist.
Discord smiled as she said, "You don't need to fear. This Dalek is special. He's being controlled by the last member of our little group, the Great Intelligence."
"Hasn't he done enough lately?" the man in black said with a groan.
"This isn't our Intelligence. He's the one from a world where Rose Tyler is just an ordinary girl who is still stuck in Pete's World with her half human Doctor. This GI would have been history after dying in an attempt to kill his version of the Doctor if I hadn't intervened and rescued him. The Dalek, however, was his idea," Discord said.
"Any GI, no matter which universe he inhabits, always has bad taste. I think that I would like this universe without a super powered Rose Tyler in it to bother me though," the man in black commented.
"She was super powered oddly enough, but it was only for a short time. They never returned like our Rose's powers did," Discord said.
"How happy for my counterpart in her world," the man in black said with a frown.
"YOU WILL KEEP YOUR PROMISE THEN? YOU WILL HELP ME KILL THE DOCTOR OF MY WORLD UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY BEFORE YOU ERASE IT?" the Great Intelligence asked in the voice of the Dalek that he was possessing.
"Yes, I will. I'll help you get your revenge, and it will be oh so sweet," Discord said.
"Or you could just wait for him to never have existed in the first place when my girl here undoes everything. That would be much simpler," April said as she rolled her eyes at him.
"NO, THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I WANT HIM TO SUFFER AND KNOW THE REASON WHY AND WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT," the Intelligence said in a cold, dead voice even for a Dalek's.
"Obsessed much?" April asked as she shook her head at him.
Discord smiled at her. She could imagine her daughter saying something very similar in this situation.
"Well, now that we're all assembled here let's go. It's time for my plan to destroy our enemies forever to begin. I will lure them all to us and wipe them out once and for all. Then no one will be able to stop us from achieving all of our dreams," Discord said.
"How are we going to lure them here?" April asked.
"How does anyone lure anyone anywhere, April? With bait. We're going to kidnap someone that each of our enemies cares about and then tell them where to come in order to get them back," Discord said.
"Yeah, like they'll fall for that. They're not that dumb, are they?" April asked.
"These people are all so noble and self-sacrificing, April. Trust me. They'll come and then we'll have them. First we have to get the right bait to attract them to us. Before we do that though, let's go. I no longer have any interest in staying here anymore," Discord said.
Discord grabbed April's hand, and then the two of them joined the others in teleporting away from Platform One. They had gone unnoticed by everyone around them the entire time that they had been there.
Or at least they thought that they had. One person however had seen them the entire time and had only pretended not to. Apparently his senses had been enhanced along with his lifespan and had allowed him to eavesdrop on Discord's little party without her even realizing it.
The Face of Boe quickly left as soon as Discord and the others did. He knew that he had to get a warning through to the Doctor and Rose right away.
Discord smiled with glee as she teleported from world to world ambushing and kidnapping one victim after another from each affected universe. Once she had them all with her, she brought them all to her and her partners' new headquarters, the Valiant. Discord had stolen and completely taken over the Valiant, UNIT's flying base, recently and now she used it as her own mobile base of operations. She was currently using her powers to hide it right in the middle of the Vortex right under Rose Tyler's nose so to speak.
Discord placed all of her victims together in the prison part of the ship each in their own individual cells. She waited until they all woke up, and then she delivered her ominous message to them as she said, "Hello, everyone. I hope that you all enjoy our hospitality during your stay here. Don't worry. You won't be staying long. One way or another, you'll all be leaving very soon."
"My mum is going to kick your butt, whoever you are, and so is my dad," Jenny Pond said as she shook the bars of her cell in frustration.
"Merlin is going to do more than kick your butt when he gets ahold of you. He'll use his magic to do . . . a terrible something to you. Oh, who am I kidding? It's Merlin. I'm doomed," King Arthur said with a sigh.
"Let me out of here, you idjits, or my step daughter will fry your sorry butts into ashes!" Bobby Singer threatened in a surly voice.
"My Chin Boy and Bad Wolf Girl are so going to wipe the floor with you this time, Discord. The Doctor's probably already having a fit without me there. Who else is he going to show his latest new hat off to?" Clara Oswald said trying to sound more confident than she felt at that moment.
"Whoever brought me here is going to pay! I'll slap the lot of you for this! You won't get away with it! Do you hear me?" Jackie Tyler said snarling.
"The whole ship hears you I'm afraid," Discord said with a grimace.
"We'll have to be extra careful with that one. She's almost as dangerous as her daughter. She actually woke up and slapped me before we could get her inside of the cell," the man in black said as he rubbed his face.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Discord said with an amused grin on her face.
"I noticed you got out of the way of her hand very quickly when she broke loose," the man in black protested.
"I tend to avoid all forms of human contact. I find touching them very repellant to me," Discord said.
As soon as she saw the hurt look on April's face, she quickly added, "There are exceptions to every rule though, of course."
As April smiled at that, the man in black shook his head. Was Discord truly that blind at how much she was beginning to care for this girl?
Luckily love was never a weakness that he had ever had to worry about.
Discord smiled as she could sense the arrival of her enemies right away. They had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.
The others with Discord tensed up as the Doctor's TARDIS materialized inside of the prison area.
"Mum, are you alright?" Rose called out as soon as the doors opened.
"Rose, these enemies of yours are real wimps. You should have heard the one in black whine when I slapped him," Jackie said with an evil grin on her face.
Rose smiled at her mother and then her smile faded as she saw just who the man in black was.
"Oh, no! Again?!" Rose said in exasperation.
"It'll always be again. I'll just keep coming back again and again until I finally destroy you, Rose Tyler," the original Black Guardian, the man in black, said in a furious voice.
Discord smiled as she thought of how she had tricked Ishtar into thinking that she had killed him and Braxiatel too when she had killed the Celestial Toymaker and the Shadow. Why on Earth would she kill a valuable potential ally though especially one who hated Rose as much as he did?
As for the Shadow, she knew that he would just return sooner or later anyway. He always did. She didn't care about the Toymaker at all and knew that he'd never help her so his death was no great loss to her.
"Well, he certainly hasn't gone mellow, has he? Clara, are you alright?" the Doctor asked.
"I'm fine, Chin Boy. I'll be even better as soon as you get me out of here. I've really developed a craving for a nice soufflé while I've been here. I'm really looking forward to making it and serving it to all of you. I just know that this time it's going to turn out delicious. This one's the charm," Clara answered in a chipper voice.
"Maybe we should let them keep her," the Doctor joked now that he knew that Clara was okay.
"Oi! I heard that!" Clara protested.
Then another TARDIS belonging to yet another Doctor from another world appeared right beside the Doctor and Rose surprising them. The Doctor from that TARDIS and his companion and partner in crime, the Time Lord known as Amy Pond, came quickly running out of it followed by Amy's Auton husband, Rory Williams, and the Doctor's girlfriend in this world, the now Time Lady Clara Oswald.
"Mum! Is that you?" Jenny Pond cried out to Amy.
"I'm here, sweetie. Everything's going to be okay," Amy said.
"I told them that you'd come. I said that you'd kick their butts," Jenny said proudly.
"I'm going to do more than that to them," Amy growled.
"Look out, everyone! Here comes the Scottish Storm!" Amy's Doctor said with a grin.
"Keep talking and I'll make sure that you're the first one that this 'Hurricane' hits, Raggedy Man!" Amy said.
The Doctor shrunk back from her in fear and hid behind Clara as Rory grinned. He was happy that it wasn't him that was in the line of fire for a change.
Before Amy could talk to her daughter any further, the sound of fluttering wings could be heard as the Archangel Jo Harvelle appeared with her Nephilim daughter, Mary Winchester, and her fiancé, Dean Winchester.
"Bobby? Are you okay?" Dean called out not being able to see him from where he was.
"I'll be just great as soon as you get me out of here. How about stepping on it? I haven't got all day," Bobby said in an annoyed tone.
"He's fine. He's going to stay that way too," Jo promised.
"That's right. If anybody hurts Bobby, they'll have to answer to me," Mary said as her hands glowed with white light.
Seconds later, Merlin, his girlfriend Cara or as she used to be known Nimueh, and his best friend the Sidhe Sophia all appeared next to them holding hands together.
"See? I told you that I could get us here? You didn't believe me," Merlin said to Sophia.
"Okay, so I was wrong. I was sure that was going to be easy money betting against you. I really thought that Cara was going to be the one to have to bring us here because let's face it she's been at this a lot longer than you," Sophia said.
"Thanks for having so much faith in me," Cara said.
"It sounded like a crack about your age to me," Merlin said.
"Shut up, little brother. It wasn't faith in you, Cara. It was lack of faith in Merlin," Sophia joked.
"I can agree to that. I'm amazed that Merlin of all people actually managed to get you here and in one piece no less," Arthur said.
"You're welcome, Arthur," Merlin said as he rolled his eyes at him and called him a prat under his breath.
"Ah, finally everyone's here at last. Now it's time for the games to begin," Discord said with glee.
"Whatever you've got planned, it isn't going to work," Rose said defiantly.
"I wouldn't be so sure, Rose. You haven't met my final two partners yet," Discord said.
Then the Triple Goddess' servant, the woman made out of flowers called Blodeuwedd, appeared along with Discord's secret weapon, the evil version of Rose from a parallel world named the Ouroboros.
"I brought her back to life especially for this occasion. This is the end for all of you, Rose. You're all the most powerful members of your respective groups, and I knew that I had to lure you here to destroy you in order to gain my final victory. Once I've wiped all of you out and then gone on to take down your considerably weaker family and friends, I'll finally implement my plan to reboot this universe back into my own. I will have the last laugh, Rose. I'll remake the entire universe into what I want it to be. Everything will finally be as it should have been all along. I'll finally have the Doctor as my husband and bring my Andromeda back to me at the same time that I turn you and Ishtar into nothing but bad memories," Discord said with an evil laugh.
"Maybe you would have if a friend of mine hadn't overheard you and told me about it. I brought some reinforcements of my own, Discord," the Doctor said with a grin.
As soon as the rest of the Guardians of Time suddenly appeared along with her old enemy, Ishtar, and the object of her affection, Theta, Discord knew that this battle was going to be her last one. Either one way or another. She knew that because she could sense just how much that the Guardians had all grown in their powers and abilities since the last time that she had faced them.
She looked at April guiltily as she said, "I'm sorry to have brought you here, April. I can send you away if you want. Anywhere you want to go."
"No thanks. I'll just stay here," April said firmly.
Discord smiled at her loyalty and devotion to her and silently promised herself that whatever happened that she wouldn't let April die. She couldn't lose another Andromeda again. She would rather die herself first.
Next: The battle begins in deadly earnest as Discord and her army all face off against the greatest defenders of four worlds. Who will live and who will die?