CHAPTER 9
I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.
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"Where is the Bane child named Henry Barnes? Bring him to me so that I may collect the reward on his head!" Kildridge the Mighty, formerly Kildridge the Undefeated until he had to change his name after he came across a Time Lady named Lily Wright, shouted.
"I'm afraid that he's not here, sir. We have no idea where the boy is now. Will you please go away?" a rather bored sounding UNIT soldier said.
It had been the same thing all day today. Hired assassins like Kildridge, bounty hunters, or worse had been showing up all day to drive the soldiers at UNIT HQ crazy searching for Henry since this was one of his last known locations. Some of the beings that came here were very dangerous and had to be dealt with accordingly, and some of them were more incredibly annoying than they were deadly like Kildridge.
Kildridge had been extremely dangerous once, but he was more bluster than bite these days since he had his rear handed to him by Lily and had his self-confidence utterly destroyed. Now he was a shell of the man that he had once been since spending time in a Zygon prison. This was where he planned on reestablishing his reputation though. This was where he would become a name to be feared once more!
"Excuse me," a young woman said as she pushed past Kildridge like he wasn't even there.
The woman walked up to the UNIT Guard and said with a warm smile, "Hello, I'm Maria Jackson. I was asked to come here and report to Colonel Mace."
"Yes, Miss Jackson. I have your name on my list. Go right in. The Colonel is waiting to see you," the guard said.
"Wait a minute here! You'll let this girl in, but you won't allow me inside?" Kildridge protested.
"She has an appointment to be here. If you'd like to make an appointment, I'm sure that we can accommodate you. Our next available time is tomorrow at 8 AM. Is that good for you?" the guard said.
"What?! You can't talk to me this way! I am Kildridge the Mighty! I will not be denied!" Kildridge screamed.
Maria looked at Kildridge with a smile as she said, "Why don't you just go home? The boy's not here. Knowing Sarah Jane he's probably not even on Earth anymore. She's probably got the Doctor or some other Time Lord protecting him now. She's the Doctor's friend you know," Maria said.
"The Doctor? The same Doctor who is the son-in-law of L-L-L-L-Lily!" Kildridge said as he began to shake all over as if he was in the middle of an earthquake.
"I do believe that's her name, sir. She was just here very recently. She often visits this base," the guard said.
"Lily comes here?!" Kildridge asked in complete terror.
"That's right. So you'd better watch out, or we'll call her and let her know that you're here," Maria said with a chuckle.
Kildridge turned pale and started to sway back and forth on his feet. Then he passed out and hit the ground with an enormous boom! Maria giggled at him and then went inside the base without a backwards glance.
The guard then called out behind him, "There's an unconscious alien at the gate, sir. What shall I do with him?"
"Call the Doctor. He'll take care of him. There's a good fellow," a voice answered him from inside.
The guard suddenly developed a malicious smile on his face as he decided to call Lily instead. That would teach this bugger to come here and bother him on the weekend.
Maria walked in to Colonel Mace's office and sat down outside as she waited to be announced. She had to admit that she was a little nervous. This was her first real job at UNIT. She had joined and passed all of the courses while meeting all of the qualifications without even mentioning Sarah Jane's name.
Somehow Colonel Mace had found out about her connection to Sarah Jane anyway and had personally asked for her to come here. He had told her about the current situation involving Henry over the phone and had asked her to come back to London in order to be his official UNIT representative in this matter. Basically since she was Sarah Jane's friend, he wanted her to ask Sarah Jane to help get all of these attacking aliens who were looking for Henry off of their backs.
This was fine by her. She enjoyed any excuse that would allow her to see Sarah Jane again. She met with the Colonel, and he briefed her on the situation while officially giving her the job. Then he set her loose with instructions to find Sarah Jane and talk to her immediately.
Maria then traveled to Sarah Jane's house and knocked on the door. She frowned when after several knocks on the door no one answered. She hated to do it, but she would have to use her old key to the front door to let herself in. She had orders after all.
Maria opened the door and then locked it back behind her. She was sure that Sarah Jane would forgive her for this. At least she hoped so anyway.
She searched everywhere but could find no trace of anyone in the house. She finally went up to the attic and found no one there either. She only had one way of finding her left now. She just hoped that he was in a good mood.
"Mr. Smith, I need you!" Maria called out as she hoped that it still worked for her.
Mr. Smith instantly came out of his hiding place inside of the attic wall as he said, "Greetings, Maria Jackson. It's been a long time since I've seen you. I trust that you are well."
"I'm fine. How are you doing?" Maria asked.
"Quite well, Maria. I assume that you're here to see Sarah Jane and not to inquire about my health, however," Mr. Smith said coming to the point.
"I actually was wondering how you were doing, Mr. Smith. Now that you mention it though, I'm here to find Sarah Jane as well. There's something that I need to talk to her about right away. Where is she?" Maria asked.
"She is no longer on Earth. She is on a spaceship named Ice World that is currently in orbit around this planet," Mr. Smith informed her.
"Why am I not surprised? Is there any way that you can contact her and let her know that I'm here. UNIT wants me to talk to her. There are tons of assassins and bounty hunters crawling all over Earth looking for Henry Barnes and causing trouble. UNIT wants her to do something about that. I just wanted an excuse to talk to her again personally," Maria admitted with a warm smile.
"I can contact Rani if you wish. She may be able to come here shortly and collect you," Mr. Smith offered.
Maria looked at him oddly since she knew nothing about Rani being a Time Lady as she said, "Rani can come here and collect me? Since when?"
"I'll tell her that you're here," Mr. Smith said without answering her.
Seconds later, Maria was shocked as a large tree appeared in the middle of the attic. She recognized the sound accompanying it as the sound of a TARDIS materializing. She had never met the Doctor, but she had studied everything about him and the other Time Lords that UNIT had available. She wondered which Time Lord this was and what their connection was to Sarah Jane.
As soon as the TARDIS finished materializing, the doors opened, and Maria cautiously stepped inside of it. Finding Rani at the controls of this TARDIS was definitely not what she had expected to see when she had walked inside.
Rani looked just as surprised as she was as she said, "Maria? Maria Jackson?"
"Mr. Smith didn't tell you about me?" Maria asked.
"No, he didn't. He just said that someone from UNIT needed to talk to Sarah Jane. I bet that was his idea of a joke," Rani said.
"Why would that be funny?" Maria asked.
"I used to be a little jealous of you, that's why," Rani admitted.
"You're the one piloting a TARDIS, Rani. I'm the one that's jealous right now. How did you persuade some Time Lord to let you do this?" Maria asked as she looked around her in awe.
"It was kind of easy actually. I happen to be very close to the Time Lord who owns this particular TARDIS," Rani said with a grin as she began to put in the coordinates for Ice World into the console.
"Really? You must be in order to get them to trust you enough to fly it by yourself," Maria said as she continued to look at the TARDIS interior with wide eyes.
The TARDIS landed inside of K'anpo's room, and Maria and Rani saw Sarah Jane and K'anpo talking as soon as they went out the TARDIS doors. Sarah Jane didn't even look up to see who Rani had brought because she was too absorbed in her conversation with K'anpo. The two of them were old friends from the days when she used to travel with the Doctor so they had both been trading stories about their lives since then to each other non-stop ever since she had arrived here. She was now completely absorbed in listening to K'anpo tell her about how he had first met Mel and Glitz and hadn't even noticed Rani returning.
K'anpo, however, noticed the two new arrivals immediately and said, "Sarah Jane, I believe we have some company."
"What? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even notice. You know I've been around Time Lords too long when a TARDIS suddenly appearing in front of me doesn't even get my attention anymore," Sarah Jane said laughing without even looking at who her visitor from UNIT was yet.
"Hello, Sarah Jane," Maria said.
Sarah Jane immediately recognized her voice and now turned to look at her with eyes filled with joy. She ran to Maria and hugged her tightly as she said, "It's so good to see you again, Maria!"
Those old feelings of jealousy came bubbling up to the surface again for Rani as she looked at the two of them together. She knew that it was petty and stupid, but she couldn't help it. She was very close to Sarah Jane and the rest of her friends, and she hated to think of anyone taking her place with them. She suddenly thought to herself that she had no reason to be jealous and that she was the epitome of the word cool since she was a Time Lord. She smiled as she thought to herself that she must have been around the Doctor too long.
"I was so proud to hear about you making it through UNIT, Maria. It was hoping that you'd get assigned to England so that I could see you again," Sarah Jane said.
"You knew?" Maria asked.
"Of course I did. I know just about everything that's going on in UNIT whether they think that I do or not. I have my ways. So did they send you to ask about Henry, is that it?" Sarah Jane guessed.
"Yeah, they did, Sarah Jane. It's not just to ask about him though. It's to see if you can do something about all of these aliens coming to Earth looking for him. They're causing a lot of headaches among the top brass," Maria said.
"I was hoping that would stop once we brought Henry here. I guess not. It seems that if you wave enough money in their faces that some people will never give up trying to collect it. I really wish that we could find Mrs. Wormwood so that we could get her to call this bounty off of Henry's head," Sarah Jane said.
"What makes you think that you could convince her to do that even if you could find her?" Maria asked.
"I could convince her I assure you," Rani said in an angry voice.
"I said that I don't want you using your powers again, Rani," Sarah Jane said.
"I might have to risk it, Sarah Jane. I won't let them get my s . . . Henry. I'll rip them apart with my bare hands first before I let them anywhere near him!" Rani said as she suddenly erupted in anger.
Sarah Jane looked at Rani in surprise. She knew that Rani had developed a close bond with Henry, but she didn't know that she felt that strongly about him. She had no idea.
K'anpo immediately spoke up then as he tried to defuse the situation by saying, "I assure you that he's safe here, Annika. I have him in the most secure area of this ship. No one can even detect his presence here if I don't want them to. The greatest danger to him at the moment is Kali. Why don't you let me try to get her out of your mind?"
Maria looked confused as she said, "Okay, I know that Rani is a Time Lord but who is Kali?"
Rani looked at her with a smile as she said, "I didn't fool you for a minute, did I?"
"No, of course not. You know how to pilot a TARDIS much too well to be human. Therefore, you must have been a hidden Time Lord who discovered who you really were not too long ago. Am I right?" Maria asked.
Rani had an impressed look on her face as she said, "Right on the mark. My name's Annika, but you can still call me Rani if you want. I'm pretty attached to that name. Kali is another Time Lord who's trapped in my mind. She's not as friendly as I am."
"Is she dangerous?" Maria asked in alarm.
"Extremely but I have complete control over her," Rani said with a slight hint of hesitation in her voice.
"I feel so much better now," Maria said as she noticed Rani's uncertainty.
"Maria, you can't tell UNIT about this. If you do, they might do something horrible to Rani. Rani does have her under her control unless she uses Kali's powers, and she's not going to do that anymore. Are you, Rani?" Sarah Jane said firmly.
"No, Sarah Jane. Of course not. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that earlier. I'm just worried about Henry. I promise I won't use them," Rani said.
"You'd better not, or I'm going to be very cross with you if Kali kills me," Sarah Jane said.
"I would never let her. I'd use up all of my regenerations instantly and kill myself first," Rani said firmly.
"It won't come to that, Rani. I know it won't," Sarah Jane said softly.
"The burden of having someone as murderous and insane as Kali in your mind would be too much for anyone to bear. Let me try to help you, Annika. Despite what you may have heard, I am pretty good at this sort of thing," K'anpo said with a grin.
"Alright," Rani said reluctantly.
"We need to go to the prison area of the ship. Its walls are heavily reinforced and virtually inescapable; and if I have to, I can lock us inside of it in case anything goes wrong," K'anpo said.
"You're making me feel so much better," Rani said with a frown as she followed him out of the room.
"Is she going to be alright?" Maria asked after Rani and K'anpo left.
"I think so. She's very strong, and she has incredible willpower. She was that way even before she became a Time Lord again," Sarah Jane said confidently.
"Sarah Jane, I have to tell you something. I always want to be honest with you," Maria said as her mood suddenly darkened considerably.
"What is it?" Sarah Jane asked as she noticed this sudden change in her young friend.
"I wasn't just sent here about Henry, Sarah Jane. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I can't keep secrets from you. I won't," Maria said as she looked at her guiltily.
"What's bothering you, Maria? You can tell me," Sarah Jane prodded her.
"I was also sent to find out more about Rani. Someone, I wasn't told who, told UNIT several things about her. They claimed that she was dangerous, and that she might represent a threat to the world. They don't know that she's a Time Lord though, and they have no idea that Kali even exists as far as I know. I was sent to gather information on Rani to see if she was really dangerous or not, and then make a recommendation about what UNIT should do about her. I think that they sent me because they knew that you would trust me and not be suspicious of me. Maybe it was a test for me too to see who I would be more loyal to, you or them. I guess I failed that test already, but I can't betray you. I can't," Maria said.
"You didn't fail anything as far as I'm concerned, Maria. You passed with flying colors. What are you going to do about Rani then?" Sarah Jane asked.
"I'm not going to tell them anything about her. We'll solve this problem ourselves just like we used to do back in the old days," Maria said with a smile.
"That's my girl," Sarah Jane said as she hugged her.
"Oh, drat. There goes my plans down the drain," the Valeyard said in a voice filled with mock concern as he suddenly appeared in the room with them.
"Who is that?" Maria asked.
"That's the Valeyard, Maria. He's the Doctor's dark side. I never would have believed that the man I know him to be would have such a foul thing inside of him, but I suppose we all do whether we care to admit it or not," Sarah Jane said.
"Oh, how poetic, Sarah Jane! I think you missed your calling. You should have become a poet instead of a journalist. I played you all like a finely tuned instrument. I went to UNIT in disguise and told them some vague story about the threat that Rani represents to humanity knowing that they would send someone to spy on her. I then followed that spy until they led me straight to Sarah Jane and Rani," the Valeyard said.
"Why? So that you can threaten to blackmail Rani some more if she doesn't work for you? Yes, I know it was you. Marissa told us. She knows all about what you did now," Sarah Jane said.
"I know. I anticipated that as well. I knew that Rani would go to her since she is Kali's sister and would be the least likely to betray her to the High Council because of that, and I knew that Ushas would beg Rani to have her sister removed from her mind and saved somehow. I know Ushas like a book, Sarah Jane. We're old acquaintances after all. I also knew that Rani was most likely to come to K'anpo to get Kali taken out of her mind especially if I gave her a little extra incentive," the Valeyard said smiling smugly.
"It wasn't Mrs. Wormwood who put the bounty on Henry! It was you!" Sarah Jane suddenly realized.
"Correct, Sarah Jane. You always were the smartest of my companions. I knew that would give Rani, who obviously has maternal feelings for the boy, an extra reason to come to K'anpo in order to protect him from all of the scum of the universe that have come after him. The end result of all of that planning is exactly as I anticipated. Rani is now alone with K'anpo in a sealed off part of this ship. She'll be lowering her defenses in order to let him attempt to take Kali out of her mind even as we speak. That is when my new friend will strike when Rani is at her weakest and most vulnerable state," the Valeyard said as he began to laugh.
"What are you up to? What are you going to do to Rani?" Sarah Jane asked.
"My new friend wants new recruits to add to her cause especially recruits that need a new body once more. These recruits will then feel indebted to her and do whatever she asks of them. Imagine having Kali on our side," the Valeyard said with an evil smirk.
"You're insane. Kali won't work for you or your 'new friend' whoever that is. She has no loyalty to anyone," Sarah Jane protested.
"You don't know my new friend, Sarah Jane. She can be very persuasive. I'm sure that she's in there even now freeing Kali while I'm standing here distracting you. No one is going to help Rani this time. Kali is ours now," the Valeyard said.
"I have to admit that you did plan this out pretty well, but you forgot about one thing," a voice suddenly said behind the Valeyard.
The Valeyard twirled around and hissed as he said, "You!"
He was then knocked out cold with a solid punch to the head.
"You have no idea how much I'd like to do that to the real Doctor sometimes," Amy said with a huge grin on her face.
"We have to help Rani," Sarah Jane said.
"Yeah, I know. I heard the whole story. I came here to tell her that what she did is okay with the High Council since history wasn't technically changed. I smoothed it over with them. We all came to a nice little agreement with each other as I managed to persuade them that what Rani did really wasn't that bad. It probably didn't hurt that I threatened to stop giving them money for the rest of my lives either. She doesn't have to worry about them anymore. I had no idea that it was never about that at all though. Let's go. I just hope that whoever the Valeyard's new friend is hasn't already arrived yet," Amy said as the three of them raced to the prison area of the ship.
As soon as they got there, Amy tried her sonic screwdriver on the main door to the prison area and sighed in frustration.
"It's deadlock sealed. I can't get in," Amy said.
"Great. Rani and K'anpo are all alone in there then. Anything could be happening," Sarah Jane said.
"Wait a minute! Surely someone else besides K'anpo must know how to get in there. Is there anyone else who he'd trust with that knowledge?" Maria asked.
"Mel! I'm sure she knows. We've got to find her," Sarah Jane said.
As the three of them raced off to find K'anpo's friend and companion, K'anpo was even then attempting to enter Rani's mind in order to drive Kali out of it. He was going to attempt to move Kali's mind from Rani's body into a waiting mini Matrix that he had sitting nearby as Marissa had requested. Rani had already put herself into a trance and completely cleared the way for him so that he could proceed directly into her brain without any problems.
There was one problem that he hadn't even thought of though. One that he had never even suspected existed.
K'anpo was taken completely by surprise as a woman in a black hood and cloak appeared right in front of him out of nowhere. She immediately knocked him out cold with a single gesture of her hand as her eyes glowed red for a moment.
"Now that he's taken care of, it's just you and me, Kali. I've come to make you an offer that I don't think that you'll refuse. At least not if you ever want to have a body again," the woman said with an evil laugh.
Who are you? The woman in black heard in her mind.
"Little old me? Why, I'm the Black Guardian, Kali. I'm the new and improved not to mention much better looking one. Do you know that's the first time I've ever called myself that? It feels good. It just feels so right. It fits me like a glove. It's as if I've been waiting for this moment my whole life, Kali. You have no idea just how long that is. I'm sure that you couldn't even begin to imagine. That doesn't matter now anyway. What does matter is this. Will you join me? I can give you a new body again with unlimited regenerations. Well? What do you say?" The new Black Guardian said out loud to Kali.
What's the catch? I'm sure you're not doing this out of the kindness of your heart. Kali responded skeptically.
"I want you to serve me of course. Well, really I honestly don't care even if you don't. You'll be serving my cause even if you just use your newfound life to spread fear and terror through the universe just like you did before. It amuses me actually to think about you doing exactly that. That's another reason that I feel like I was born to this role, Kali. I love to cause trouble and chaos wherever I go. It's why I had that little argument with Rassilon so long ago. He and I didn't exactly see eye to eye over that sort of thing, you know? So what's your answer? Do you want a body or not? Do you want to spend the rest of eternity in a mini Matrix, or do you want to go out there and just be you again doing what you do best? It's a one-time offer, Kali. It's only on the table for a limited time only. Going, going . . . ," The Black Guardian said in an amused voice.
"Of course I want a body. Free me and I'll cause trouble like you've never seen," Kali promised.
"Oh, I was so hoping that you'd say that," the Black Guardian said with a large smile on her face as she began to remove Kali from Rani's mind.
Next: Kali is set free! Will she serve the new Black Guardian or does she have an agenda all her own?
