CHAPTER 25

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IT'S PANDORA'S WORLD WE'RE JUST LIVING IN IT PART TWO

"What are you waiting on? Fire!" Pandora ordered the guards.

Suddenly all of the guards fell to the floor unconscious, and Sarah Jane sighed in relief. She had no idea what had just happened, but at least for the moment they were all still alive.

Pandora looked confused as well as she looked all around her trying to find what had just incapacitated the guards. She quickly found out her answer though when a woman that the Doctor recognized as Rani Chandra suddenly appeared out of nowhere and punched Pandora in the face.

"Annika," Pandora said the name like a curse as she hit the floor hard.

Annika immediately started to attack Pandora's mind with an enormous mind blast as Pandora started fighting back. The two of them immediately engaged in a mental duel that was essentially mindbending without an imaging device as each tried to destroy the other with their little game of psychic wrestling.

"I didn't think that she existed but it's true," Sarah Jane said with awe.

"Who?" the Doctor asked out of curiosity. Exactly who was Rani in this mixed-up timeline?

"We've heard stories for years of some mysterious woman who constantly undermined everything that Pandora did and always managed to find a way to set her plans back. We could never find any evidence of her existence though because no one could ever remember seeing her. It was almost as if she could erase their memories or alter their perceptions somehow. She was more like a legend or a rumor than the truth," Sarah Jane explained.

"So she's like Batman? I mean Batgirl?" Clyde asked excited.

"Something like that," Sarah Jane said.

"She sounds so cool. She's not bad looking either," Clyde said as he watched Annika fight Pandora.

"Calm down and get that lovesick look off of your face, Romeo. We don't even know if she's on our side or not yet," Maria cautioned him.

"She is. Trust me," Arkytior said.

"Oh, yeah. We should really trust you who's been lying to us about who you are the entire time that we've known you. Besides that you're a Time Lady. I don't trust any of your kind," Maria said in a cold voice.

"I'm not like Pandora. I try to help people. Other than lying about who I am when have I ever done anything to make you doubt me?" Arkytior asked.

Maria had to admit that she had nothing else that she could bring up so she remained silent.

"That's what I thought. Annika has been working with me all of this time. She's been my right-hand woman helping me out wherever I needed it the most. I've been sending her on secret missions to demoralize Pandora's forces with hit and run tactics and to take certain key objects and people away from her that she would need to finally complete her stranglehold over the Earth. Working together, we've helped the resistance to keep Pandora from achieving a total victory for a long time now," Arkytior said triumphantly.

"You sound like a soldier," the Doctor said sadly.

"I've had to become one in order to save the Earth," Arkytior said.

"I never wanted that for you," the Doctor said.

"I was trained for combat anyway in Torchwood or at least I was in the real timeline," Arkytior said.

"Do you remember the whole timeline now?" the Doctor asked hopefully.

"No. Not yet. The longer I'm with you though, the more memories come rushing back to me," Arkytior admitted.

They were suddenly both interrupted by a voice saying, "Ari? Is that you?"

It was the Master who had finally recognized her at last. He hadn't been able to before because she was human and had regenerated since they had last met. Now he looked at her with equal parts amazement and sorrow.

"I thought that you were dead. You never came back, and I had no one left to help me fight back against the drums. They slowly drove me insane until one day I just didn't care and no longer even tried to fight them anymore. What was the point without you there?" the Master admitted.

"I'm so sorry, Koschei. I was always afraid that something like this would happen someday with that constant pounding sound driving you off the deep end more and more each day. I wish things could have turned out differently. I never wanted to get trapped here for all of that time. You can blame the Daleks for that," Arkytior said.

"So what now? Is he suddenly supposed to be on our side?" Maria asked skeptically.

"I'm on the same side that I'm always on, girl. Mine. It just so happens that my side and Ari's side just happen to be one and the same in this case. For your sake and yours only, we stop Pandora and save the Earth, Ari. Just this once," the Master said.

Arkytior smiled at him as she said, "Maybe there's hope for you yet."

"You don't really trust him, do you?" Sarah Jane asked her in disbelief.

"He would never let anything happen to me, Sarah Jane. I can trust in that," Arkytior responded.

"Well, now that the Prince of Darkness is willing to help us what do we do? Does anyone have a plan? We have to help that nice incredibly hot girl over there who's trying to save us all," Clyde said.

"She does look like she's in a little bit of trouble," the Doctor said as he noticed the strain on Rani's face as her showdown with Pandora finally took its toll.

"Always a master of the obvious, aren't you?" Arkytior said as she shook her head at him.

The Master pulled his TCE out once again and pointed it at Pandora as he said with an evil smile, "This is the best way that I know how to stop all of this once and for all. I can't say that I won't enjoy it though."

"No!" Carrie said as she grabbed ahold of the end of the weapon.

She had been awake for some time now and had been watching all of this in frustration not knowing what to do. She did know one thing for sure. No one was killing Hope if she could help it. She was going to save her. Somehow in some way she was going to save her and make her remember exactly who she really was again. She was going to get her friend back.

"Let go or you'll join her," the Master threatened.

"You're not using that on anyone," Sarah Jane said.

"Let him do it. We tried it your way and look what happened. We almost got killed," Maria said.

"We didn't though. That hot girl saved us so everything turned out okay. I wonder if she likes a sense of humor in a guy," Clyde said.

"Clyde, will you stop thinking about asking her out and concentrate on the life and death struggle going on right in front of you. Do you think that you could do that for half a minute?" Maria asked in complete annoyance.

"We're not using guns or any other kind of weapons. That's not who we are," Sarah Jane said to Maria.

"Speak for yourself," the Master said as he finally pulled the TCE out of Carrie's hands and pointed it right at her.

Suddenly the Master screamed and immediately fell to the floor unconscious. All of them looked to see Pandora standing in front of him with a look of pure anger on her face while Annika lay unmoving and motionless behind her.

"No one hurts her. No one," Pandora said.

"Hope, you remember, don't you?" Carrie asked.

"I remember that you helped me and continue to do so. I don't know who this Hope is that you keep talking about though. My name is Pandora," Pandora said.

"Yes, but you're also a girl named Hope in the future. You're my best friend. We live together, work together, and go shopping together. Remember the shopping and how much fun we had? We're inseparable, Hope. You even made a deal to bring me back to life for which I'll always be grateful. I love you and you love me," Carrie said trying to get through to her.

Pandora hesitated and looked at her as if her memories of her were just on the tip of her tongue.

That was when Maria picked up the Master's TCE and used it. Carrie instantly ran in front of the blast. She screamed and died as she was shrunken to the size of a doll.

"No!" Pandora screamed as she looked at Carrie's lifeless body.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I just wanted it to end. I just wanted things to be like they were before," Maria said in tears as she dropped the TCE to the floor in disgust.

Sarah Jane immediately wrapped her arms around her to comfort her as Maria broke down. "I'm so sorry. I should have found another way. I should have prevented this," Sarah Jane said.

"It wasn't your fault. It's mine. I did this. I did all of it. My friend is dead again, and it's my fault," Pandora said.

"You remember now?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes. I remember that while I used to be Pandora that that's not who I have to be. My name is Hope, and that's who I'm going to be from now on. I did all of this and now I'm going to fix it. Carrie's death should mean something," Hope said.

"I'm sorry," Maria said again.

"I know. I'm sorry for what I did to your parents and to everyone else. I'm going to fix it though. I'm going to fix all of it. The only way that I know how," Hope said as she began to regenerate.

"What is she doing?" Sarah Jane asked as the energy started to surround her.

"She's going to use up all of her regenerations at once and kill herself. Don't do this. You don't have to do this. We'll find another way," the Doctor said.

"I'm supposed to die, Doctor. Maybe when I do, history will be returned to normal. Maybe Carrie will be too, and this time she'll be in a world where Hope never existed. She'll be better off never having known me anyway. All I bring is misery and death to everyone around me," Hope said as the energy engulfed her.

"Hope, wait! Just don't do anything until you listen to what I have to say, okay?" Sarah Jane said.

Hope nodded and held the energy at bay for a moment while she listened.

"You can't do this because then time will be changed, and things might never be set right anyway. Things have to be as they were before. You have to let yourself be captured by the High Council and then executed so that the timeline will be on the right course. I don't want that to happen, but it has to in order to make things right again," Sarah Jane said.

"You remember everything now too, don't you?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes. I remember being a Guardian and knowing that you have to preserve the timeline so that no paradoxes are created. That doesn't mean that I have to agree with it though," Sarah Jane said with a sad look on her face.

"I have to relive it all again, don't I? I have to go through all of the horror and pain of being killed and then being trapped as a disembodied consciousness in the Vaults underneath the Capitol until I was set free by manipulating Romana. Why? Why can't I just end it here?" Hope said in sorrow.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything that's coming, but it did all lead you to Carrie though so it can't be that bad, can it?" Sarah Jane said.

"I suppose not. What will happen to Carrie though? Will she be okay?" Hope asked.

"I honestly don't know. I hope so," Sarah Jane said.

"Go. Get yourselves out of here. As soon as you leave, I'll surrender to the High Council; and then I'll make myself forget everything that I know about the future," Hope promised as she stopped her regeneration before it was too late to go back.

"What about Dracula there? Somehow I don't think that leaving him here is such a good idea," Clyde said.

"I'll take care of him," Arkytior said as her eyes glowed with power.

The Master disappeared and she smiled as she said, "He's now back in his TARDIS in the Vortex with no memory of this whatsoever."

"Rose?" the Doctor asked.

"Hello," Rose said with a huge smile as she waved her hand at him.

"She remembers everything now too because time is being set back to its proper course again. It's weird to know things like that. I'm always the one that had to ask you. Now it just sort of comes to me," Sarah Jane said to the Doctor.

"Don't focus too much on it. It'll drive you mad," the Doctor advised.

"That's right. Look what happened to him," Rose joked.

"Shut up," the Doctor said sulking.

"You two are engaging in your usual bantering, and the Doctor's sulking waiting for a kiss. It looks like things are finally going back to normal," Rani said as she woke up.

Hope picked up the shrunken body that once had been her best friend as she said, "Almost everything."

"I'm sure everything will be fixed back as it was before," Sarah Jane said.

"Yeah and she'll be dead. Is that what this is about? The timeline fixing itself back to the way it's supposed to be?" Hope asked sadly.

"Maybe but I've always been a big believer in the saying that time can be rewritten," Sarah Jane said.

"Oi! I said that," the Doctor said.

"Yes, and I'm a big believer in it," Sarah Jane said with a sly smile.

"Don't mind him. He's just grumpy because he wants a kiss," Rose said as she finally kissed him to shut him up.

Everyone then piled into the TARDIS and started to leave. Sarah Jane was the last one not to have left yet. Hope handed her the doll that once was her friend and said, "Maybe if she goes with you, she'll be fixed. If she isn't, please give her a proper funeral. She deserves that."

"I will," Sarah Jane said as she took the body and tried to fight back tears at the sight of it.

"If I never see you again, I just want you to know that I'm sorry for all of this," Hope said.

"So am I. I hope that you'll get a second chance. I believe in those too," Sarah Jane said.

"Thank you. Good bye, Sarah Jane. I really think that we could have been good friends in another life," Hope said.

"Maybe we still will be," Sarah Jane said in a hopeful voice.

As soon as Sarah Jane got into the TARDIS, it dematerialized. Then Hope went to give herself up to the High Council. She sighed as she walked towards them. She really hoped that everything would be fixed by this. She supposed that she'd never know.

In the TARDIS, a sudden jolt shot through everyone for a moment and Maria asked, "What was that?"

"That was Time righting itself. She did it," Sarah Jane said with a sad look on her face.

"What's the matter, Sarah Jane? What are you so sad about?" a familiar voice said behind her.

Everyone turned to see a restored Hope and Carrie standing at the far end of the Console Room with huge smiles on their faces. Sarah Jane's face lit up, and she burst into happy laughter. Everything really was fixed back to normal again.

"You know you're really getting to be as big a pain in my side as Rose is," Discord said as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the TARDIS.

"Get out of here," Hope said with a face contorted with anger as she started to glow with power.

"I can't believe that you'd rather join them instead of staying with me. You could control the Time Lords and be the complete master of all of time and space. You would have the universe at your fingertips. You could rule forever in the world that I'd create. I don't want to run things anyway. I'd leave all of those little details to you. All I care about is having my Theta and Andromeda back," Discord said.

"Meh. I've ruled Gallifrey before. It isn't all it's cracked up to be," Hope said.

"Tell me about it," the Doctor said.

"You'll pay for this. You could have had everything if you had stayed with me," Discord said.

"I already have anything that I want. No, wait. There is one thing left that you could give me come to think of it," Hope said.

"Really? What's that?" Discord said with a hopeful look on her face.

"Your head on a stick!" Hope said as she started toward Discord with a grim smile on her face.

"You'll regret this," Discord said as she teleported away.

"I doubt it," Hope said.

"I'm so proud of you," Carrie said as she embraced her.

Then she let out a huge scream and fell to the ground dead.

"No!" Hope said.

"That was the price for your betrayal. The Trickster's wish has been rescinded," Discord's voice called out from nowhere.

"Oh, I don't think so. The Trickster and Hope made a bargain which Hope kept so the Trickster has to keep his side of the deal. Those are the rules," Sarah Jane said as she snapped her fingers, and Carrie returned to life instantly.

"You're just as bad as that interfering Doctor and Rose Tyler!" Discord's disembodied voice said in a huff.

"Thank you very much!" Sarah Jane said with a warm smile.

"No, thank you," Hope said as she hugged Sarah Jane.

"So Maria tells me that you think I'm hot, huh?" Rani said to Clyde.

"Yeah, it turns out that I still fell for you even when I didn't even know you. Go figure," Clyde said nervously.

"To tell you the truth, I thought that you were pretty hot yourself from what little bit of a glimpse that I got of you that is. I was a little busy at the time of course," Rani said.

"Not too busy to notice how much of a beefcake that I am though, huh?" Clyde said smugly.

"Oh, give me a break," Rani said as she rolled her eyes at him and kissed him.

Even as the two of them started kissing, Maria stood off to the side of the room away from everyone else and looked troubled. Sarah Jane walked over to her side at once and said, "That wasn't really you back there. It was your life as it would have been in another time and place. Besides that, you didn't kill Carrie on purpose."

"No, but I still did it, didn't I? Even with everything fixed, I still feel guilty about it. I killed that poor girl," Maria said.

She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Carrie standing there. She quickly looked away from her in shame.

Carrie said, "I don't blame you for what happened. It was an accident. Let it go."

Hope joined her as she said, "She's right. Besides that if anyone should feel guilty it's me. I've done far worse than you have. Far, far worse. What you did was an accident, and nobody blames you for it but yourself. Let it go."

"How about I don't let it go entirely and use it as a lesson instead? It's made me learn to think about my actions before I do something rash like that again," Maria said.

"Trust me when I say that you'll never do anything like that again, Maria. It's like I said before, that wasn't really you. It was an alternate reality with an alternate you that you remember," Sarah Jane said.

As the TARDIS landed in Sarah Jane's attic, Sarah Jane said," Maybe Luke will make you feel better."

Sure enough as soon as the doors opened, Luke and Sky were standing there waiting for them. Maria shook her head at Sarah Jane as she said, "Those Guardian powers of yours are freaky."

"Who was using them? I don't have to. I just have to know my son. I'm sure that he's been worried sick about you the whole time and me too I suppose," Sarah Jane said with a huge grin.

All traces of worry left Maria's face as she launched herself toward Luke and began kissing him right away. Sarah Jane smiled as she watched the two of them fondly.

"I couldn't have chosen a better daughter-in-law if I tried," She said to herself.

"Is that the future? Did you just see the future?" Clyde asked in amazement.

"No, that's just me knowing my son again," Sarah Jane said with a mischievous smile.

Hope and Carrie were then taken back to their home by the Doctor, and the two of them went back to their ordinary lives once again. Well, it was almost ordinary. If you can call having epic adventures together in time and space when they weren't working and out shopping ordinary that is.

Maybe it is in Sarah Jane and the Doctor's world.

Next: Maria goes to visit her friend Bea Nelson-Stanley from the Eye of the Gorgon episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures at the nursing home just as she usually does since she returned to England and gets quite a shock when she finds out that Bea has yet another secret besides the Gorgon talisman that she keeps. It's a secret that just may save both of their lives when there's an alien attack!