CHAPTER 25

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IT'S THE END BUT THE MOMENT HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR

"Who are you?" Arkytior asked.

"It doesn't really matter because soon now you're never going to have existed anyway. You're about to join your precious Theta in oblivion. Say good bye to your existence, Bad Wolf," Discord said as she started blasting Arkytior with waves of dark energy.

Arkytior screamed in fear and quickly ducked in order to miss being instantly incinerated. She shivered in fear as she realized that Discord's attack had just barely missed her head.

"I don't care who you are. It's not going to matter soon because you're going to be dead," Koschei said as he became enraged that she had dared to attack Arkytior.

He pulled a small cylindrical device out of his hand and aimed it at Discord. The tip of it began to glow as he smiled in triumph.

"I'm about to cut you down to size," Koschei said with an evil smile.

Discord laughed as the blast of Koschei's weapon had absolutely no effect on her whatsoever. Koschei's smile quickly faded as he continued to use his newly built Tissue Compression Eliminator against her over and over again with no effect on her whatsoever.

"That's not possible. This will work on any type of being even Time Lords. I made sure of that," Koschei said in disbelief.

Discord continued to laugh at him as she said, "Oh, it does work on any regular opponent, but it's next to useless against someone from a previous universe. The laws of your universe don't apply to me because I was never a part of it."

"Let's see if the law of cause and effect still applies to you," Cliodna said as she suddenly appeared behind Discord and flipped her over her head and into the wall.

Discord stood up in anger and glared as Cliodna said, "Yep. I throw you into the wall, and you feel pain. Well, it seems that you were wrong. At least some of the laws of this universe do still apply to you after all."

"You'll pay for that, little Scottish girl!" Discord said as she attempted to hit Cliodna with a massive burst of energy.

Cliodna easily ducked her attack though as she said, "I guess all of that training that I did with K'anpo came in handy after all. So you really think that I sound Scottish? I've really been trying hard to master the accent. Do you think that I could pass myself off as a native?"

Discord continued trying to kill Cliodna as she threw one blast after another at her while she kept constantly dodging all of her attacks and mocked her. "Well, you don't have to get that angry about it! I was just asking a question. Did anyone ever tell you that you have a serious anger management problem? Yeah, I know that's ironic coming from me," Cliodna said as she continued to run from Discord's attacks.

"Who are all of these people?" Persephone asked Cydonia as Discord and Cliodna continued to tear apart her house.

"The ones who just arrived are my friends. They came to help Calliope. I have no idea who the woman trying to kill everyone is though," Cydonia said.

"Maybe it's something that I did in the future. I've had people that I don't know pop up from the future before to kill me for something that I haven't done yet. Apparently I must really get into a lot of trouble in the future," Persephone said.

"You have no idea," Cydonia said as she remembered some of the things that Clara had let slip about Lily from time to time without meaning to.

"I don't think that it has anything to do with you this time. It all seems to be about me and my husband," Arkytior said as she walked up to the two of them.

"Who are you?" Persephone said.

Cydonia was surprised by this since Persephone had told her earlier that she had met Arkytior as a kid. Why didn't she recognize her now then? Even if this particular incarnation of Arkytior hadn't been the one to meet her, she still should have recognized her. It was almost as if the Arkytior that she met was a different person altogether from the one that she knew. What were the odds of two Arkytiors being involved in Persephone's life though?

Cydonia left that question to be pondered another time as she heard Arkytior say, "I am the Bad Wolf."

Arkytior had decided to go with that name since Persephone had already heard Discord use it. She didn't really think of herself that way though. She had once referred to herself by that name on Halloween, but she had decided since then to give it to the power that she feared so much instead because she felt that it applied much more to it than to herself. The power that she had was always threatening to completely overwhelm her and swallow her whole just like the Bad Wolf in the story did to his victim.

"Really? You took your name from an old Earth fairy tale? I'd go back and ask the High Council if I could change it if I were you," Persephone said.

Arkytior smiled as she said, "Maybe I will. It keeps me from having to tell you my real name though."

"You're trying to preserve the timeline because I'll know you in the future, won't I? Is that why you and your friends are all wearing perception filters so that I can't recognize your faces? I thought that it was something like that," Persephone said.

"Of course. I couldn't take a chance on anyone here recognizing us before they're supposed to have even met us, can I?" Arkytior said.

"Especially me. You're Arkytior, aren't you?" Persephone said.

"What?" Arkytior asked in fear.

"I've actually met you before a long, long time ago. Obviously it wasn't this you though or you wouldn't be so surprised that I know that name. Don't worry, Arkytior. If you were going to be erased just because I found out your name, then it would have happened already, wouldn't it?" Persephone said as she smiled at her warmly.

"I hope you're right. You're got to get out of here before that woman, whoever she is, can kill you. Go try to help Calliope while we keep her busy," Arkytior said.

"Alright. Maybe it's better that way. At least I won't accidentally erase you from existence by finding out too much about you. I'm so glad to have met you again though," Persephone said as she hugged Arkytior.

Arkytior returned her hug, and then Persephone started to leave. Unfortunately her path was quickly blocked by Mortimus.

"I won't let you save her, Persephone. She has to die so that he will too. Then I will have the life that he had. I was promised that. She told me that if I helped her to destroy him that I could take his place in the timeline. I want that. I want his life. It's the life that should have been mine from the start, and you're not going to keep me from getting it," Mortimus said as he slowly moved toward Persephone with a staser in his hand.

"Mortimus, don't move any further unless you want me to give you to some little Earth girl as her new doll. This might not shrink your new friend, but it'll definitely work on you," Koschei threatened.

"You're bluffing," Mortimus said.

Koschei smiled as he used the TCE to shrink a table next to Mortimus until it looked like it belonged inside of a dollhouse. Mortimus began to quiver in fear, and Koschei's laughter afterwards only made him even more terrified.

"Go ahead. Make another move. I'd just love to finally end you once and for all," Koschei said as he continued to laugh.

Arkytior and Cydonia both looked at him in horror. What was wrong with him?

"You would never do that," Mortimus said in a shaky voice.

"Care to bet your life over that?" Koschei asked in a dark, cold tone.

Mortimus slowly bent down toward the ground and laid the staser there. Koschei wasn't satisfied by this though as he barked out, "Kick it to me!"

Mortimus kicked the gun over to Koschei, and then Koschei quickly used it to shoot him in the back. As Mortimus fell over, Arkytior said, "What did you do?"

"He's alive. Not that he deserves it. Why do you care anyway? He's trying to kill your husband. Why show him any mercy?" Koschei said in anger.

"That's because that's not who I am. I'm not about vengeance and death. I'd rather die first before becoming like Mortimus," Arkytior said.

"I know. That's why you need me around to watch over you. I'm here to do the things that you should never do. I don't want you to ever be like me," Koschei said.

"You're not evil," Arkytior said.

"You have no idea of what lies inside of me, Arkytior, and I hope that you never do. I would never be able to stand it if you hated me," Koschei said.

"I could never hate you no matter what," Arkytior said.

Koschei smiled at her. If anyone else had said that, he wouldn't have believed them. Ari, however, was a different story. He didn't believe that she had it in her to ever really hate anyone. Her hearts were too kind and too warm.

"Excuse me? I need a little help here!" Cliodna said as she continued to fight with Discord.

"My TCE won't work on her, Ari. Is there anything that you can do?" Koschei asked as he gave her a meaningful look.

Arkytior looked at her mother and then looked back at Koschei as she glared at him for saying anything around her. Persephone instantly knew that they were talking about something that Arkytior didn't want her to know about.

"I'll leave like you wanted me to. Then you can do whatever you want. Just try not to completely destroy my house while I'm out, okay?" Persephone said.

She started to leave and then turned around and hugged Arkytior once again as she said, "I don't even know you, and I already love you. How did you do that? I hope that I see you again soon."

"You will. I promise. I just want you to know something before you leave. No matter what I say to you in the future or how angry I get, I'll always love you," Arkytior said.

Persephone smiled at her and then forced herself to leave. She had work to do. Who knew how much longer that Calliope had before she died? She had to find out what kind of poison had been given to her before it was too late. She ran to Calliope's home immediately as she took her blood samples with her for study.

Discord smiled at Arkytior as she said, "It won't do you any good to send her away. I'll just hunt her down and stop her as soon as I'm finished with you. You're only delaying the inevitable. I have to admit that it's been quite fun battling with your little friend here, but now I've grown bored with her. It's time for the endgame. If you have anything that you need to say to her, you'd better say it now."

Then Discord pointed at Cliodna and squeezed her hand together into a fist. Cliodna screamed in heart wrenching pain and then hit the floor with a sickening cracking noise.

"Too late. I'm afraid she's far beyond being able to hear you now," Discord said as she stepped over Cliodna's body and headed toward Arkytior.

"No," Arkytior said in a mixture of pain and despair.

"I've wanted to do that to her for a long time now ever since she smarted off at me the last time that we met. That never happened now of course. The person that she would have become in the future now doesn't exist," Discord said in a voice filled with joy.

Arkytior, Koschei, and Cydonia could feel the timelines changing around them now that Cliodna was dead. They all felt sick inside as Discord started to laugh.

"What's with the sad faces? It's not like she was that big of a loss. I'm sure no one will miss her. No one except old Beak Nose. Who cares about him though anyway? Now he can die alone in his comfy little home living his nice, dull ordinary life just like he always wanted. Or at least that's what would have happened if I wasn't about to wipe out this entire reality anyway. Now, who should I kill next? Oh, I know!" Discord said as she pointed at Koschei and shrank him down to the size of a doll with a single gesture killing him instantly.

"That's pretty ironic, I'd say. At least it is if you know his future or what would have been his future anyway," Discord said with a chuckle.

"No!" Arkytior said in a voice filled with pain.

"Next! Let's see. What can I do with you, Cydonia? What kind of name is that anyway? What is it with you echoes of Clara always having one of the names of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, anyway? I think it's pretty pompous of you if you ask me. I knew Athena. Athena was a good friend of mine, and you are no Athena. Oh, that's it. I know exactly what I'll do to you. Old Blodeuwedd would get a big kick out of this," Discord said.

Her eyes glowed, and she turned Cydonia into an owl. The owl tried to fly at Discord and claw her eyes out, but Discord simply gestured at her and disintegrated her in an instant.

"That smells like fried chicken! Now I'm getting hungry. I think I'll eat some chicken later to celebrate after I get done killing you and your mother," Discord said as she let out a cruel laugh.

"No!" Arkytior screamed as she began to glow with the power of the Vortex.

"That's it. Let it out, Arkytior. Show me what you've got. Go ahead and destroy me if you think that you can," Discord mocked her.

Arkytior summoned up the power of the Bad Wolf and began to use it against Discord immediately. She bombarded her with one attack after another of Vortex energy from her hands, and was surprised when Discord never even tried to fight back. She just stood there and absorbed each and every attack that was sent her way.

Then Arkytior felt the power going out of control again, but this time she didn't care. Her friends were all dead, and Theta and Cassiopeia were in danger of following them. She was no longer holding back this time. She unleashed her full power against Discord in one devastating burst and completely destroyed her mother's house with it.

Discord laughed as Arkytior's powers continued to go out of control and destroy everything around her. "What's the matter, Ari? Not quite yourself? You're not who you're meant to be yet so you can't control your power. It's controlling you instead by feeding on your own fears and insecurities. You don't have the self-confidence and fighting spirit that you will have. Or rather you would have. That version of you is about to cease to exist in just a few moments when I finally kill you. Now is the perfect time to destroy you. This is when you're at your weakest when you can't even swat a fly much less stop me. It's finally over. Here's the sad truth about your life, Arkytior. All of your struggles, all of your sorrow, and all of your joy at the end of the day don't amount to anything. Not when I can erase it all in a single instant by killing you here and now. Say good bye, Arkytior," Discord said.

She began to unleash every bit of power that she had against Arkytior and instantly brought her to her knees in pain. Arkytior began to feel herself disintegrating and knew that Discord was trying to completely erase her from time. She realized that she only had minutes left to live if that long.

As Arkytior slumped onto the ground and began to feel herself losing the battle to stay alive, her last thoughts weren't concerned with herself at all. Her thoughts were filled with worry about Theta and Cassiopeia. She wanted them to survive even if she couldn't. She didn't care what happened to her, but she would not let her family die. She had to stop it somehow. There had to be a way.

"Theta, I'm so sorry," Arkytior said out loud in a mournful voice.

"Incredible! It's always about him in the end with you, isn't it? You even die with his name on your lips," Discord said in disgust.

"That's because I'm such an unforgettable fellow I imagine," a very familiar chipper voice said behind Discord.

She turned to see a man with an insane grin on his face standing nearby with the last thing that she ever expected to see in his hands. Theta Sigma was standing there behind her carrying the Key to Time!

"I suppose that you want to know how I got here. That's a very funny story. I thought that I was on my last legs as I continued to fade away and become erased from time, and then all of a sudden I found this thing just sitting there next to me on my bed. As soon as I touched it, I heard a voice in my head telling me that the universe was in danger and that I needed to use this Key to save it. Then the Key brought me straight here to you and helped to stabilize me once more. In other words, it's just a typical day for me," Theta said as he held the Key in front of him as it glowed with power.

"Theta?" Arkytior said in a hopeful voice

Theta seemed to notice Arkytior for the first time, and he became filled with anger as he began to fully understand what was going on now. He moved forward with the Key, and Discord backed away in fear as he said, "You were the reason why I was fading away, weren't you? I never knew what was going on for sure as I lay there dying, but now I finally do. You're trying to kill me and my wife. I don't really care if I never existed, but the universe would be a truly darker place without her having ever been in it. I'm not about to let you get away with that."

The Key glowed as Theta said, "I can feel that you don't belong here. You come from the future, don't you? You came here to try and change the past for your own benefit. Key to Time, I command you to send her back to where she belongs and never allow her to return here ever again."

"No! It's not fair! I had won! I won!" Discord protested as she shimmered away and returned to her own time.

"Theta, she killed everyone. I couldn't stop her," Arkytior said in a weak voice.

"Return everyone to life who was killed and undo all of the damage that was done in this battle," Theta commanded.

Everything was suddenly back to normal, and Arkytior now stood up with renewed strength. Persephone's house was now back in one piece the way that it had been before, and Cliodna, Koschei, and Cydonia were alive once more. Mortimus was still unconscious and Persephone was still gone though. That meant that Calliope was still in danger then Arkytior realized.

"Theta, your mother's in danger. Mortimus poisoned her, and no one knows what he gave her. My mother's trying to help her, but she might not find out what kind of poison that it is in time," Arkytior said.

"No wonder I was fading. I wonder if the Key can help me with that too?" Theta asked.

Suddenly the Key disappeared though like it had never been, and Theta slumped to the floor as he began to fade away once again. "I guess not," Theta said in a now weak voice

"What's going on? Why would the Key fade now without fixing everything?" Arkytior asked in anger.

"Probably because it was only sent here to undo what that crazy woman did because she wasn't supposed to be here in the first place. It won't undo what Mortimus did though because he's a part of our own timeline. It's up to us to do that for ourselves," Cliodna guessed.

"Let's hurry then before Theta fades away," Arkytior said.

Arkytior, Cliodna, and Koschei raced to Calliope's house to help her while Cydonia stayed behind with Theta and the unconscious Mortimus. The three friends arrived at Calliope's house just in time to see Persephone getting ready to give Calliope an injection of something in a small bottle.

"You're all just in time. I found the right poison, and I've prepared the proper antivenom. It was a rare poison found only in the wild lands in the poison glands of a certain kind of carnivore that lives there. No wonder the Time Lords in the Capitol couldn't figure out what it was. I know all about it though thankfully and how to counteract its effects," Persephone said with relief filling her voice.

"How did you know about it?" Arkytior asked.

"I just do. I know all kinds of useless trivia," Persephone said not wishing to discuss her past living in the wild lands with anyone not even her future daughter. It still hurt too much to even think about what happened there even after a billion years of distance from it.

Calliope quickly woke up within just a few minutes after receiving the antivenom and said, "What happened? That guard told me that my mother was lying hurt out in the desert. I followed him out there and was suddenly attacked and bitten by some kind of animal. I quickly ran back to the Capitol while trying to find some help, and that's the last thing that I remember."

"That guard was a phony. He wanted to lure you there with a fake story in order to kill you. He's been caught though, and he'll be dealt with properly I'm sure. You're alright now because I found the proper cure. You just lie there and relax. You'll be better in no time," Persephone said.

"I can't believe that I was so stupid. I never should have fallen for a story like that. He was just so convincing though," Calliope said.

"Don't worry about it. Everybody makes dumb mistakes when they're young. We just need to learn from them and move on," Persephone said as she hugged Calliope and kissed her forehead.

"Thank you, Perse. You really are like a second mother to me. Thank you for always watching out for me. I know that's a full-time job in itself keeping me alive and out of trouble," Calliope said.

"I'm glad to do it. I'd do anything for you, sweetheart," Persephone said.

Arkytior, Cliodna, and Koschei all looked at this scene in shock. In their own time, Persephone and Calliope had been bitter enemies as long as any of them could remember and yet here they seemed to care about each other deeply. Arkytior couldn't help but wonder what had happened, and how she could possibly fix it.

Calliope soon went to sleep, and Persephone said, "She's going to be okay now. She just needs a little rest in order to recover. I guess that means that you're going now."

"I'm afraid so. Now that everything's been fixed, we shouldn't stay here any longer than necessary or we might do even more damage to the timeline than Mortimus already did. I hate to leave though," Arkytior admitted.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. Go on back to your own time now. I'm sure that the future me is missing you. Unless you get back just as soon as you left, then she won't even know the difference," Persephone said.

"I'm sure she would no matter what. You, I mean she, seems to have a sixth sense about that kind of thing," Arkytior admitted.

"That's because I'm amazingly brilliant and observant. I'm modest too," Persephone said with a grin.

"Good bye, Mum," Arkytior said as she kissed Persephone on the cheek and quickly left.

Persephone was already missing her before she went out the door.

As Arkytior and the others entered the TT Capsule and got ready to take Mortimus back home for judgment by the High Council, a thousand years in the future Rose Tyler held the Key to Time in her hands and smiled as she finished telling the Doctor the full story about what had happened that day.

"So it was you that sent me the Key to Time! This you I mean. I always wondered about that. It was why I eventually agreed to help the White Guardian find the missing pieces to the Key centuries later because I thought that he had sent it to help me back then. Then it turns out that it was you the whole time," the Doctor said with a smile.

"You were still right. It was the White Guardian just not the one that you were expecting it to be," Rose said.

"How did you know that it was supposed to be you that sent the Key though?" the Doctor asked.

"Because I heard the past me calling for help while she was being killed by who I now know was Discord," Rose said.

"I don't understand. How could you hear that? She was centuries in the past," the Doctor said.

"I don't honestly know. All I know is that as I lay there I was begging, pleading really, for someone to help me save you and Cassiopeia. I remember feeling a connection for a minute to the mind of someone else, and I begged that person to send help. I could feel so much love in that person's mind for you, and I was astounded that there could be anyone who could love you as much as I did. It didn't matter to me who they were though or why they loved you as long as they helped you. I always wondered who it was for the rest of my life and how they could possibly have sent us the Key to Time. Now though I finally know. It was me all along," Rose said.

"Wibbly wobbly timey wimey," the Doctor said happily.

"Yes, very timey wimey," Rose said as she gave the Doctor a tender kiss.

Standing nearby and watching them with a warm smile on her face, Cassiopeia remembered how even as she lay in her crib when she had felt her mother dying that she had reached out to the mind of the future version of her mother and used her power to connect the minds of the two versions of Rose together for a brief moment. She had never told Rose that of course and never would.

You didn't brag about protecting the people that you loved after all.

Next: The fate of Mortimus is decided as we see what made him so angry at Lily centuries later. Also we'll find out the truth about what happened between Persephone and Calliope to make them such bitter enemies as Arkytior demands the whole story about it from her mother.