CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe, and River Song and the Shadow come from the present day of that universe from just before the last couple of chapters of War of the Guardians.

"What has this been all about? Is this some sick twisted little game that you've been playing with me all of this time? If it isn't, then why take WOTAN out of mothballs for? He's nothing but a two bit menace that I defeated ages ago. He's in no way a major threat to this planet as long as I'm around to stop him. It seems like you've been mocking me all of this time," the Doctor said to the Shadow.

"You're accusing me of playing games? That's rich coming from you, Doctor, especially from this version of you. In this incarnation, you're well known for loving to play games with the lives of the people around you and with those of your companions," the Shadow responded.

"Get to the point. What is this all about? It can't be just to kill me. No, this is something else. You want to change something and alter history. What though? What in this time and place is so important that you would spend all of this time and effort to change it, and what does WOTAN have to do it?" the Doctor asked as he thought out loud.

"Didn't you ever wonder about WOTAN, Doctor? Not even once? Had did an ordinary machine built on Earth by some primitive backwards human scientists gain sentience so quickly and turn on them? Also how did WOTAN know what the word TARDIS meant? It was asked that question the first time that you met it, and it actually answered it correctly. That alone should have alerted you that something was different about this particular 'two bit menace' as you called it. You were nearly at the end of your first incarnation though so I can see why you wouldn't have really been particularly interested in such things at the time. Your mind was on your upcoming regeneration. The first one that you had ever gone through I believe. Maybe you were distracted with how scared you were at what you knew was yet to come? That distraction was exactly what I was counting on, Doctor, once I realized that you were starting to interfere with my plan. I had hoped that it would blind you to what was really going on and keep you from being able to defeat it until it was too late. I even took away your current companion, Dodo, by having WOTAN control her mind and turn her against you. What WOTAN did to her eventually made her decide to leave you altogether because she had decided that she couldn't take the dangers of your life anymore. I had hoped that that would be all that I would need to finally finish you off once and for all because then you would be alone in a weakened and emotional state with no one to help you," the Shadow said.

"You made Drax build WOTAN, and then made the humans believe that they had built it. That's how it knew what the word TARDIS meant because a Time Lord had built it," the Doctor realized.

"Yes, I had planned to use WOTAN to set the Earth's development back generations. WOTAN was to completely dominate mankind for years until he derailed all human progress. He would eventually be defeated but not before causing incalculable damage to the future. Humanity would no longer be the major force that they were supposed to become in the future. The balance of power in the universe would therefore be changed forever, and all of history would change for the worst as a result. All of that was undone though when you and your new companions, Ben and Polly, stopped me. You still were able to beat me, and you even found some new friends along the way. It was that day that I vowed to destroy you one day for your interference, and that is why I volunteered for the job on Atrios centuries later," the Shadow said in anger.

"That makes me doubly glad that I was able to overcome your plan even though I had no idea that you were involved," the Doctor said.

"The Professor's so good he beats enemies he doesn't even know that he has," Ace said with a grin.

"He's much smarter than you are then. You have an enemy that you don't even know about that's been after you your whole life, and you haven't done a thing to stop him. Someone else has had to do that for you," the Shadow taunted her.

"What are you talking about? What enemy?" Ace asked with a sense of alarm and confusion.

The Doctor and River exchanged glances at the Shadow's words. Both of them knew that the Shadow was talking about Fenric, but only River knew that he was also referring to Rose.

"Don't listen to him, Ace. It's what people like him do. They mess with your mind and try to manipulate you," River said.

"You would know, Professor," the Shadow said.

"Oi! You shut your mouth, or I'm going to rearrange your face with my bat," Ace threatened.

"That's not much of a threat, Ace. You couldn't make him any uglier than he already is," River joked.

"Prattle on all that you like, Time Lady. It doesn't matter because I have already won. I used WOTAN one last time in order to draw you here, Professor. I knew that you would sense that he was not of this time and stop in order to investigate. His plot to take over the world yet again was all that you needed to make you stay here in order to alert the Doctor to his presence. Then my master arranged for you to be trapped here even after you had warned the Doctor by destroying your Vortex Manipulator. You had to be here after all to ensure my new plan's victory in case WOTAN failed again. So you see, I will still change history this time even though WOTAN was defeated; and your being here has helped me to assure it," the Shadow explained.

"Why is that then? Don't try telling me that you think that I'm going to help you. That's not going to happen," River said with a smirk.

"Don't be so sure," the Shadow said ominously.

Then he vanished and reappeared next to River as he whispered something into her ear. River froze up and stiffly stood to attention as the Shadow laughed. Her face was completely devoid of emotion now as if she were in a trance.

"What have you done to her?" the Doctor cried out in outrage.

"Merely utilizing the programming that was already there that was left over from her previous masters. They brainwashed her into becoming their mindless assassin you see. She eventually overcame that programming, but she never knew that they left a back door. A secret phrase that once said would reactivate her programming and make her obey the instructions of whoever said it to her. I have now used that secret phrase and made her into my own personal assassin. Now, Professor, kill Mary Wilkes! She must die!" the Shadow ordered.

"No!" Polly screamed as she placed herself between River and Mary.

"What is this about? Why do you want to kill one teenage girl so badly?" the Doctor asked.

"Can't you guess, Doctor? WOTAN has already told you why," the Shadow said.

River pulled out her meson blaster and started toward Polly. The Doctor knew that he only had moments to act before River would be forced to shoot and kill not only Mary but Polly as well with one blast.

"Mary Wilkes must die before she marries your son, Doctor. Her death will tip the balance of power in my master's favor. WOTAN has failed to kill her along with the rest of you as I anticipated that he might, but now my newest servant will finish the job that he started," the Shadow said.

River continued forward as the Doctor got in her way and tried to stop her. She violently brushed him aside as if he was nothing, and he hit his head on the ground knocking him unconscious instantly. Ace tried to stop her as well, and she easily knocked Ace out with one blow.

"Mary, run!" Alex said as he tried to stop River as well.

River tossed him to the ground and knocked the breath out of him. She then held her gun up to Polly and prepared to fire. River hesitated as she started to struggle against the programming in her mind.

"Please leave her alone! She's all I have left! Take me instead!" Polly begged.

Mary had never truly realized until that moment just how much that her grandmother loved her. Mary tried to push her grandmother out of the way to protect her, but Polly was amazingly strong and wouldn't budge.

"Get out of the way, Grandma Polly. I don't want her to kill you. It's me she wants not you," Mary insisted.

"No!" Polly insisted.

Mary decided then that she had to take the choice out of everyone else's hands. She suddenly ran from River as fast as she could.

"No! Wait!" Polly screamed.

"Destroy her!" the Shadow shouted at River at the top of his lungs.

River was fighting him with everything in her, but it wasn't enough. As she pulled the trigger of her gun, Polly jumped in front of it. Polly then fell to the ground with a mortal wound. She was dying now, and nothing could save her. River had managed to fight her programming enough to reduce the setting on her gun, or Polly wouldn't still be alive now. Not that that would matter in a few minutes.

Mary screamed, and River finally came out of her programming at last. She pointed her blaster at the Shadow and shot him in the chest several times with it. The Shadow screamed in pain and then disappeared in a flash of dark energy.

"Unfortunately, I'm sure that that's not the last I'll see of him," River said.

"No. No. No," Mary said as she wept over her grandmother's dying form.

The Doctor woke up then to find the Shadow gone, and River kneeling over Polly as she shook all over with anger and frustration.

"Maybe I can save her," River said as her hands started to glow with regenerative energy.

"There's no need for that. Keep your regenerations," a voice said from behind all of them.

River turned to see a young blonde woman approaching them with her own hands glowing with energy. River had never seen the woman before, but she realized that her hands were covered in Vortex energy.

"I can help her. In fact, I'm supposed to," the woman said.

"What? Who are you?" River asked.

"Spoilers!" the woman said with a wide smile.

River knew that the two of them must know each other in the future. She immediately moved aside and let the woman get near Polly.

"No. What are you going to do to her?" Mary asked as she tried to protect her grandmother.

"Nothing bad I promise. I wouldn't hurt her any more than you would," the woman replied in a gentle voice.

Mary moved out of her way and watched her intensely. She felt very odd as she watched her. It seemed like to her that she should know her, and yet she knew that she had never seen her before in her life.

The young woman put her hands on Polly's wound, and it was instantly healed. Then, to everyone's astonishment, Polly began to get visibly younger as they watched. The Doctor watched in fascination as Polly became younger and younger, and the marks of old age were erased from her features. In less than a minute, Polly looked exactly like she had when he had first met her in his first incarnation.

Polly set up in shock and said in a now much younger voice, "What just happened? I thought that I was dying. Wait a minute! My voice sounds all funny. I haven't sounded like this in a long time. What's going on?"

She looked down at her hands and then at the rest of her body as she began to realize that she had changed. She looked at the Doctor with suspicion and wondered for a minute if he had somehow rejuvenated her like he once had himself. She had no idea, of course, just how regeneration worked.

"I had nothing to do with this. She did it somehow," the Doctor said in answer to her unspoken question.

"Who are you?" Polly asked the young woman who she had only just now realized was there.

"I'm a friend, and someone who wishes you well. I have to go now. I'm not supposed to tell any of you anything about myself. I can't let you know too much about the future after all," the blonde woman said.

Mary believed that she now knew who this woman was, and she went about immediately testing her theory.

"I want you to stay and talk to us," Mary demanded.

"I'm sorry. I can't do that," the woman said as she started to walk away.

"Don't you walk away from me, young lady! You pay attention when I'm talking to you!" Mary said in her best impersonation of her mother's voice when she used to be angry at her.

"But Mum!" the young woman said with a groan.

Then she stopped in her tracks and turned around with her eyes widened in horror. She had just given herself away without meaning too.

Mary looked at her future daughter now with shock at first, and then she began to smile. Mary rushed to her and embraced her.

Polly just looked at the scene before her with an open mouth. Things like this had never happened to her at all in all of the time since she had left the Doctor. Now she had only been around him for a few hours and immediately the whole world goes topsy-turvy. River looked at her and could tell what she was thinking by the expression on her face.

"Welcome to life with the Doctor again, Polly. It's never boring, that's for sure," River said with a relieved smile on her face.

Next: What will Polly do now that she's a young woman again, and what happens to Mary and Alex? Maybe River Song has some ideas. Also more details about Mary's daughter from the future and why the Shadow and the Black Guardian wanted to erase her from history so badly.