CHAPTER 36
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Martha Jones waited for Donna to answer the phone as she tried to call her with some very important news. She had only just heard it herself, or she would have called sooner to warn her. Donna answered her cell phone right in the middle of what sounded to Martha like a particularly nasty battle between what she now thought of as Donna's Wolves and some very nasty aliens.
"Hello, Martha. I'm a little busy right now so you'd better make it quick. Oi! Hit them with a little of your cosmic mojo, Dorothy," Martha heard Donna say as she shouted the last part off into the distance.
"Did I get you at a bad time?" Martha asked.
"Whatever gave you that idea, Martha? Hey! That coat cost a lot of money! If you damage it, you'll pay for it somehow even if you have to conjure me up a new one!" Martha could hear Donna shouting.
"I don't think that they can do that, Donna," Martha heard Ileana say.
"They'll get me a new one somehow even if they have to make it out of that tangled mop on their heads that they call hair," Martha heard Donna shouting.
"This is a bad time, isn't it? I just called to tell you that Mother Doomfinger and Mother Bloodtide escaped and are on the loose," Martha said as she finally got to the point.
"No kidding! Who do you think that we're fighting right now, Martha? A bunch of tap dancing Cybermen?" Donna said sarcastically.
"Oh, sorry about that. I'll just leave you girls to it then," Martha said embarrassed.
"It's no problem, Martha. Thanks for trying to warn us. I'm sorry for the quick fuse. I'm just a little mad because those two showed up while I was trying to have a vacation. They attacked me right in the middle of sunbathing on the beach. I'd been looking forward to that all week. They didn't burst into flames though which surprised me," Donna said.
"That's vampires not Carrionites," Martha said.
"They're so ugly that they should burst into flames though whether they're vampires or not when they see the light of day," Donna joked.
"They want me. They're trying to find me," a voice suddenly said next to Martha frightening her and causing her to drop the phone.
Martha turned to see Lilith standing there with a sad expression on her face. She picked the phone up and handed it back to Martha as she said, "I'm sorry, Martha. I didn't mean to scare you."
"Martha, are you okay?" Martha heard Donna shouting on the other end of the phone.
"I'm fine. I just got distracted for a minute. Lilith suddenly appeared here," Martha said.
"Do you need me to send you some help?" Donna asked in concern.
"No," Martha said although she still felt a little apprehensive about being alone with Lilith.
"Tell her that I'm coming. Once they see me, they'll stop bothering them. It's me that they want. They want me to come back to them, and I don't want to go. I've changed, Martha, and they don't understand. They could never understand," Lilith said in such a sad voice that even Martha felt sorry for her.
"Donna . . . ," Martha started to say.
"I heard. Tell her to get over here quickly if she wants her two moms to still be in one piece by the time that she gets here," Donna said.
Martha started to tell Lilith what Donna said, but Lilith was already leaving. She was flying out the door just as she had when Martha had first met her. As Martha raced to watch her go, Lilith turned to her and said, "I'm so sorry, Martha, for everything. Make sure that Emmy knows that."
"Lilith, stop. Whatever you're planning on doing, don't do it," Martha said.
Lilith was already out of earshot though. Donna, however, had heard everything.
"What is it that she's planning? Please tell me that she's not about to do something stupid," Donna asked in concern.
"I don't know. It sounded like she was saying good bye. I still don't know if I trust Lilith or not, but it really did seem like she didn't want to go back to what she was. She looked so sad," Martha said in an upset voice.
"I'll let you know what happened, Martha. I'll do my best to make sure that even Lilith makes it out of this one alright," Donna assured her.
"Thanks, Donna," Martha said as she hung up.
Donna was now left to wonder just what Lilith had planned that she would say good bye to her best friend, Emmy, in that way. It sounded bad whatever it was. She just hoped that whatever it was that Lilith didn't take her and her Wolves along with her.
The two Carrionites just kept attacking the Wolves relentlessly as one or the other kept shouting about bringing Lilith to them. Obviously, they had heard Donna's conversation with Martha.
"I'm here," Lilith said as she flew towards them and landed in front of the Wolves.
"At last we have our dear Lilith back. Now we are whole again. Together we can bring the rest of our kind here at last and destroy the human infestation on this world once and for all. The Carrionites will rule over this world forever and make it our new home," Mother Doomfinger said happily.
"No. I won't help you to do that," Lilith said.
"What are you talking about?" Mother Bloodtide asked.
"I won't help you to kill anymore. This world belongs to humanity not to us. What we tried to do was wrong. I won't participate in it in any way this time. I will go with you though if you promise to leave the Earth and the humans alone, and that's the only way that I will go," Lilith said.
"What did they do to you, Lilith? They've corrupted you," Mother Doomfinger said in concern.
"No, they just made me see that other species have rights too not just ours, Mother. I will help you to find a new world for our people, but I won't help you to destroy this one. I will no longer kill for you," Lilith said firmly.
"This world is the only one that the words will work upon. You know this. It is the only one in the correct alignment and configuration for the power of our spell to work on. We can't open a gateway to our sisters anywhere else," Mother Bloodtide said.
"I won't let you do this," Lilith said.
"Lilith has been brainwashed by the human filth. She must be purified from their corrupting influence," Mother Doomfinger said to Mother Bloodtide.
Both of them nodded at each other and then started to chant together in unison as they said, "Help us bind our wayward member who has been poisoned by the humans' myths so that we can make sure that her mind is once again Lilith's."
Both of them looked on in surprise as their spell had no effect. Lilith looked shocked as well. She had no idea why it hadn't worked. They had used the power of the name after all. That should have worked on her no matter what.
"What's going on?" Donna asked no one in particular.
"I'm not sure. Their spell should have rendered me unable to move, but it had no effect. It was using my name though. It should have worked," Lilith explained.
"There is the name that we are given at birth, and then there is the name that we give ourselves. That is our true name. It is our secret name, and the only one that holds real power over us," Ileana said.
"What? What mumbo jumbo are you spouting, Lana?" Donna asked.
"It's just something that I heard once from someone very wise. I think that maybe it applies to this situation here and now," Ileana said.
"What are you going on about?" Donna asked.
"Lilith has changed, Donna. She's no longer the same person any more as she was when she left her two mothers. Maybe her name has changed too just like I changed mine when I reformed. I knew that Sister of Mine no longer applied to me anymore so I came up with a new name for myself," Michelle said.
"I haven't renamed myself," Lilith said.
"Not yet but maybe you should," Michelle said smiling.
"This is impossible! She is our Lilith. That is her name. She has not changed that much. She can't have!" Mother Doomfinger said in an upset tone.
"Then why does that name no longer work?" Mother Bloodtide asked in an equally upset voice.
"They act like they actually care about her," Donna said in surprise.
"Of course they do. They are my mothers," Lilith said in anger.
"I guess I just didn't think that Carrionites were capable of that," Donna admitted.
"We care about each other just not other species. All that matters is our own kind," Lilith explained.
"That sounds like my family," Michelle said.
"They both sound better than my old mother. Not that that's too hard," Dorothy said.
"Old mother? When did you get another mother?" Donna asked Dorothy curiously.
"You'll find out eventually. You already know her. Past me just hasn't told her how she feels about her yet because she's too afraid to at the moment," Dorothy said.
Donna smiled as she had a pretty good idea who it was now, and she knew that knowing this woman as she did that she probably had no clue that Ace felt that way about her. She wondered if she could help her with that sometime.
"We command our lost member to sing and dance to show that it is just a myth that there is no more Lilith," the two Mothers said together.
Lilith should have started to do just as they requested against her will, but nothing happened at all. Lilith couldn't understand it. She had no other name. What if the Wolves were right though? Maybe she really had changed so much that her old name no longer applied to her. Could that possibly be true?
"It doesn't work. If the power of the name no longer works, then she is no longer one of us, and we can no longer use her to open the gateway to free our sisters. The Carrionites are no more. We are now the last of our kind," Mother Bloodtide said sadly.
"I'm sorry that my sisters are trapped. However, I'm so happy that I am no longer the key to freeing them. I didn't want to be the cause of any more deaths," Lilith said.
"What will we do now that we can no longer free our people? What fate can be left to us then but death? What else are we good for now?" Mother Doomfinger said in a depressed voice.
"We can find Sister Pestilence perhaps. She may work in Lilith's place," Mother Bloodtide said.
"I no longer feel her here on Earth though, Mother," Mother Doomfinger said.
"She isn't. She's nowhere near the Earth now," Donna said happily.
Jenny had taken her to the Time Lord prison planet of Shada, but Donna wasn't about to tell them that in case they ever got the chance to try to find her. Let them think that it was useless to try.
"We will not give up. We will find another way even without our Lilith," Mother Doomfinger said.
"We will never find another Lilith though," Mother Bloodtide said sadly.
The two Carrionites then hugged Lilith tightly and said their good byes to her. Both they and Lilith began to tear up as things between them became very emotional.
"It's almost heartbreaking if you forget about the fact that they want to wipe out all life on this planet," Donna admitted.
"I'm afraid that we can't let you go, Carrionites," Ileana said.
"We know. You will have little choice in the matter though, vampire. Make her suffer a fata morgana just as surely as her name is Ileana," Mother Doomfinger said.
"What?" Ileana said.
Then she began to see vampires all around her. There were dozens of them. They were everywhere. They must be working with the Carrionites. They had tricked them into thinking that they were alone when they had brought all of these vermin with them.
Ileana was now filled with bloodlust as she attacked the vampires with her fangs extended. She would destroy them all, and then she would stop the Carrionites. If they thought that these nasty minions of theirs were going to do them any good, then they were wrong.
"I'll drink you all to the last drop," Ileana threatened.
"This isn't a coffee commercial, Lana! It's us!" Donna said in irritation.
"She isn't listening to you, Donna," Michelle said.
Ileana launched herself at them in a feral rage and was immediately answered by a force field generated by Victoria. She encased Ileana inside of the force field, and Ileana banged away on it futilely as she attempted to break free of it.
"You've just been dying to try out one of your new powers haven't you, Vicky?" Donna asked with a sigh.
"Yep. A fighting mad Lana is as good a time as any to do it too," Victoria said
"I don't know if you've noticed or not, but the Carrionites are getting away," Dorothy said.
"I noticed," Michelle said.
The two Carrionites had been flying away in all of the confusion caused by Ileana, but Michelle had been keeping a close eye on them the whole time. She gestured at them as her eyes turned transparent, and they both became trapped in the Mirror Verse.
"Good work, Shelly. The Carrionites can stay there until we get back to Martha, and she can arrange to have them picked up and put back in UNIT's lock-up," Donna said.
"Maybe we should just take them to Shada," Dorothy suggested.
Donna vehemently shook her head at that without saying why. That was the last place that she wanted them taken. She didn't want them anywhere near Sister Pestilence if she could help it!
Michelle looked at Lilith's sad expression, and she knew exactly what she was going through. She was feeling terrible at being so abruptly cut off from her former life and those that she still loved despite her changes in personality. She was also uncertain about her own future or even who she was anymore. That was exactly what had happened to her not too long ago.
"Where are you going now, Lilith?" Michelle asked her in a sympathetic voice.
"I was staying with Emmy at her mother and step-father's house. I guess I'll go back there," Lilith said.
Both Michelle and the now back to normal Ileana looked at Donna with a pleading look, and Donna sighed. She knew what they wanted, but she just wasn't too sure about it. Rose believed that Lilith had really changed, but she still didn't quite believe it herself. Then again she had been wary of Michelle once, and that had turned out just fine. She decided to take a chance.
"How would you like to join my team, Lilith? We could certainly use you with all of those fancy magic powers of yours. You could have a place to stay with us that way," Donna offered.
Lilith considered it for a moment, and then she smiled for the first time that day as she said, "I'd love to. Thank you, Donna. You won't regret this."
Donna looked at the newest member of the Wolves and nodded. She had a feeling that Lilith was going to work out just fine. She was already starting to like her already.
Lilith was certainly no longer the cold, heartless person that the others had described to her. She seemed just like an ordinary girl now. Maybe that was why the spell had really failed to work on her. Maybe it wasn't so much a change in name as much as a change in her very self.
The Lilith who had been responsible for forming their team no longer existed anymore. The Lilith that she saw now was a normal, kind young woman just like any other that you would pass on the street. She was human in everything but biology now.
It looked like the Carrionites had been right. She had been infected by humanity after all but in a good way.
Amanda's eyes lit up as soon as Lilith came to the Wolves' living quarters. She had yet another new project to work on. Between her and Alina, Amanda was going to have her work cut out for her. That was okay though. She loved a challenge, and she always would go the extra mile to take care of her Wolves. They were her family after all, and she would always watch over them no matter what and keep them safe. Even from themselves. That was her job. She protected them even as they protected her.
Next: Part 4 of my Silence storyline is here next time. This is the wind-up to my whole Silence over the Earth storyline as the fate of the planet lies in the hands of the Wolves.