CHAPTER 34

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THE STOWAWAY

Julia was the first one on the ship to notice that something was wrong as it traveled through the Vortex. While she was in the library trying to read more about Time Lords (which she had done ever since her sister had become one), she kept seeing something moving out of the corner of her eye every time that she looked up from her book. She was almost sure that she saw something darting across the bookcases, but it would move so fast that she would just barely catch a glimpse of it before it was gone.

"Hello? I know you're there. Who are you?" Julia asked after seeing this for the fourth time in less than ten minutes.

This time she didn't see anything and yet she could feel a presence nearby as if someone was watching her. She knew without a doubt that she was not alone.

Mum! Selene! Julia thought as loudly as she could in the hope that one of them could pick up her silent calls for help telepathically.

She continued to call for both of them over and over again in her thoughts because she was too afraid of the creature to say anything else out loud. She didn't want it, whatever it was, to suddenly attack her.

Then she felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she turned around with a smile expecting to see her mother standing there. What she saw instead made her shriek in terror.

At that very moment in the Console Room, Amy felt a psychic tug on her mind that she immediately knew was the TARDIS trying to tell her something. An image of first the library and then Julia briefly flashed through her mind's eye, and she instantly knew that the TARDIS was warning her that Julia was in trouble.

Amy immediately ran to the library as fast as she could and found Julia sitting there just as calm as she could be. Amy quickly looked around the area but saw nothing there. It seemed as if nothing was wrong here after all.

Then again she was never one to go off of appearances alone. She had learned a long time ago that just because something appeared innocent didn't mean that it was or vice versa.

"Julia, are you alright?" Amy asked.

Julia looked up at Amy with a warm smile on her face as she said, "Why, yes. I'm just fine. I'm just sitting here reading just like I normally do."

Amy looked at the cover of the book and smiled as she said, "Another book about Time Lords, huh? We're really not that different from humans you know. I really think that Selene hasn't changed that much in her basic personality from Francine's if that's bothering you."

"No, it doesn't bother me. I just like to learn about the species that I live with. For instance, it's interesting that aspirin can kill one of you but will do no harm at all to a human. Very interesting," Julia said in a speech pattern that didn't sound at all like her own.

Amy immediately started to become suspicious, but she had to be sure before she said anything. She didn't want to upset Julia needlessly if there was really nothing going on.

"Well I'm glad that you know that so that you don't accidentally give one to Anthony by mistake one day," Amy said testing her.

Julia's smile quickly faded and her face became very serious as she said, "No, I would never do something like that. I would never harm a child."

"Really? That's good to know. Who are you?" Amy said as she aimed her sonic watch at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mother," Julia said as she looked at her with intense anger twisting her features.

"Oh, yes you do. You're not my daughter. You don't talk anything like her for one thing. She would never refer to her family as the species that she lives with. She would never call me Mother but Mum instead. Your biggest mistake though was that you didn't know that Anthony isn't a Time Lord. He's human. The real Julia would know that. So who are you and where is my daughter? You'd better not have hurt her in any way," Amy said in a very cold voice.

'Julia' then began to warp and change into an absolute duplicate of Amy as she said, "Yes, I made a mistake by not forcibly reading the child's mind. I really don't like to hurt children though. Don't worry. She's safe. She's currently sleeping peacefully behind a bookshelf in the far corner of the room. I was able to put her to sleep easily because I have great control over the minds of others as you'll soon see."

Amy could already feel the creature, whatever it was, trying to take control of her own mind even as it searched through her memories. She tried to block it, but it was far too powerful even for a Time Lady to block. She could feel herself already falling asleep even as the creature grabbed her by the throat.

"I'm afraid you'll have to die now. I won't let anyone stop me from seizing control of this ship. With its power at my command, it won't be long before I can go back in time and rewrite the entire history of Gallifrey. It should have been my species that ruled time and space, Time Lord, not yours! It would have been us if not for that accursed meddler, Atalanta. She slew the last of us long ago or at least she thought that she did. One of us escaped though and with their dying breath they infected a Time Lord and made her into me. I almost took over the entire planet all by myself until Atalanta trapped me in that building," The creature boasted.

"You . . . were a Time Lord?" Amy asked her in shock as she finally overcame her attempt to control her and used her sonic watch to attack the creature.

The creature hissed at her as it said, "Now I am a V'ryllk, a Time Walker, and I will restart my species after I destroy yours. We will rule all of time and reshape it to our desires instead of yours. We will rule everything."

Julia's voice suddenly called out to them from somewhere deep in the library as she said, "I know that name. I read it in one of my books. They used to live in the Vortex and could walk from one time to another like we can cross the street. They couldn't travel in time as accurately as the Time Lords can though. They could also change their form so that they could adapt to other planets, and they could also get into peoples' heads and take them over. I actually read where they tried to take over Gallifrey until they were all killed by this mysterious Time Lady called Atalanta. She was really cool from what I've read about her. I think she was Lily."

"Julia, get out of here!" Amy screamed as she continued to fight with the Time Walker.

"I'm not going anywhere until you're safe, Mum. The Time Walkers have a major weakness. It's how Lily, I mean Atalanta, defeated them. They hate salt. In fact, if they're exposed to enough of it it'll kill them," Julia said from what sounded like a closer position.

"Yeah, well unfortunately I don't have any salt available on me right now. This is starting to feel very familiar to me now for some reason," Amy said as she continued to fight for her life as the Time Walker did her best to sink a pair of long fangs that popped out of her mouth into her neck.

"I wasn't telling you about the salt though. I was telling Selene," Julia said.

"Selene? Selene's not here," Amy said in confusion.

"Not now but she was. She heard me call out to her just like you did. I knew that I could do it. I called to both of your telepathically," Julia said in a triumphant voice.

"The TARDIS brought me here not you," Amy said as she punched the Time Walker halfway across the library.

"Oh. Well, at least it worked with Selene anyway. Maybe it's because I grew up with her," Julia said.

"I hope she gets back soon. This thing is way too strong, and the sonic doesn't seem to work on it," Amy said.

"Don't worry. You can always trust Selene to run her mouth. She'll tell everyone the whole story in no time," Julia said happily.

"It will do you no good. I'll still win in the end," the Time Walker said as she finally knocked Amy out with a single punch.

Julia heard someone cry out and then everything became quiet as she said, "Mum?"

When she heard no answer, she began to start slowly moving closer and closer to the entrance so that she could see what was happening. Despite being terrified of the Time Walker, she couldn't let her kill her mother.

Stay where you are, Jules. I'm gathering together as much salt as I can find in the TARDIS kitchen. I'll be back there in a minute. Selene said in Julia's mind.

You might not get here in time though. I have to help her. Julia responded.

You stay where you are. Selene's voice called again.

Julia reluctantly stayed still even as she heard Selene's voice.

"What game are you trying to play by taking on that appearance? What did you do to her?" Selene said in anger.

"The same thing that I'm about to do to you," the Time Walker said.

Julia could hear the sounds of fighting yet again and then everything became silent once more. She didn't move though until she heard Amy calling her name.

"Julia, are you alright? Where are you?" Amy said.

"How do I know that you're really you and not the Time Walker?" Julia said hesitantly.

"You don't I guess. It really is me though. Don't move. Just stay where you are. At least I know that you're alright. I wish I could say the same about Selene," Amy said in a worried voice.

"Why? What happened to Selene?" Julia asked even though she still wasn't sure whether this was a trick by the Time Walker or not.

"That thing beat her up very badly, Julia. She's going to be alright though I think. I have no idea where the Time Walker is though. I only just woke up to find Selene lying here unconscious. I have to stop her. She could be impersonating me and taking over the TARDIS right now. Stay here, Julia," Amy said as Julia heard her race off.

Julia quietly moved forward until she saw that Selene was indeed lying there unconscious, and Amy and the creature were both gone. Julia checked Selene to make sure that she was still breathing and then quietly held her hand and waited for someone to come and find her.

She just hoped that it wasn't the Time Walker.

Rory, Oisin, and Karen came into the library next it turned out, and Rory instantly looked at Julia with concern as he checked Selene's vital signs.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Rory asked.

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm worried about Mum though. Is she okay?" Julia asked.

Oisin smiled as he answered her instead as he said, "She's more than okay. She caught her impersonating her in the Console Room just in time to stop her from taking us back to Gallifrey's distant past. The beating she gave that thing was . . . amazing. I've never seen anything like it before not even when I was married to her."

"She did, huh? I wish I could have seen that," Julia said with a grin.

"It was because she was so angry about what happened to Selene and because that thing could have hurt you. You can trust me about that," Karen said to Julia knowingly.

"What happened to the Time Walker then? Did Mum kill it with the salt?" Julia asked.

"What? Salt kills it?" Rory asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Didn't Selene tell you? I told her about it and asked her to go get you for help," Julia said.

"Julia, Selene never told us anything. We never saw her. I haven't seen her in at least an hour," Rory said.

"Why didn't she try to get help for? What was she doing? Trying to take it on all by herself?" Julia asked in confusion as she looked at her unconscious sister in anger.

"Apparently so just like Amy's currently trying to do. She's hunting the thing alone through the corridors of the TARDIS right now after chasing it out of the Console Room," Oisin said.

"I think she just found it. I heard fighting just down the hall. Come on," Sirona said as she suddenly appeared in the library.

"I'm going to help," Julia said.

"No, you stay here where you'll be safe," Sirona said just before she left with the others.

"I never get to have any fun," Julia said in a frustrated voice.

Then she heard several yells of pain and began to shake in fear as she said to the unconscious Selene, "Please wake up. Please."

That was when River and Brian briefly came into the library looking for the others.

"Where did they go, Julia?" Brian asked in alarm.

"I'm not sure. They said that they heard fighting just down the hall and then everybody screamed," Julia said in an upset voice.

"Stay here. Don't trust anyone that you see come in here by themselves not even Amy," River warned.

Julia nodded and watched them leave even as she continued to feel completely useless. She heard yet more fighting nearby and the sound of blaster fire going off for several minutes. Then she heard nothing once again.

Finally Amy came back into the library and looked at her with a warm smile as she said, "Julia, it's okay now. We finally killed her and everyone's alright. You can come out now."

"Really?" Julia asked with a huge smile at first and then she hesitated.

"How do I know that you're really Mum?" Julia asked.

"That's a good question, Julia, because she's not me," Another Amy said as she appeared behind the first one.

"Oh, not this again!" Julia said with a sigh.

"This does seem to happen quite a lot, doesn't it?" The second Amy asked with a grin.

"This isn't funny. Julia's extremely upset," The first Amy said.

"I'm aware of that which is why I'm trying to make her laugh. Why do you care anyway? You're just going to kill her along with the rest of us when you take over the ship anyway?" The second Amy asked the first one.

"You mean that you are. You're just trying to confuse her in order to turn her against me," The first Amy said.

"Or you are," River said behind both Amys.

"Melody, shoot her. She's the imposter," The first Amy said.

"No, she's the imposter. Great. I sound like a cliché. I know that I'm me but no one's going to believe that," The second Amy said in frustration.

"That's because they're way too smart to believe your lies. My crew is much smarter than you give them credit for," The first Amy said smiling proudly.

"I know a way to tell thanks to Julia," River said as she pulled a salt shaker out of her belt.

As River held it out in front of her, the second Amy giggled as she said, "You look so ridiculous doing that, Melody."

"Let's see if you still think so after I do this," River said as she took the top off of the shaker and threw the salt up into the air in-between the two Amys.

The second Amy started coughing but was otherwise okay while the first Amy started to scream in agony and quickly ran away from the salt. River grinned in satisfaction because she had correctly guessed which one was the right Amy.

Her grin quickly turned into anger though as the Time Walker grabbed ahold of a terrified Julia and said, "I'm tired of playing games with you, Time Lords. Surrender the TARDIS to me or the girl dies!"

"Really? Why don't I believe you?" Amy said surprising both Julia and River.

"Don't test me, Time Lady. I'll kill her if I have to in order to fulfill my destiny," the Time Walker threatened as fangs came out of her mouth.

"No, you won't. You've had plenty of chances to do that already but you didn't. You could have killed her when you first met her in the library, but you just put her to sleep instead. You didn't even put her into a very deep sleep either apparently or she wouldn't have woken up so quickly. Were you scared of hurting her by putting her into too deep of a sleep? You could have killed her when you attacked and knocked out me and Selene too but you didn't. In fact, I'm willing to bet that you impersonated Selene in Julia's thoughts in order to get her to stay in the library, and you also made her hallucinate that she saw Selene behind me because Selene was never in here when I was still conscious even though Julia claimed that she saw her. You knew that Julia would believe that she was contacting the real Selene if it was done telepathically. You were trying to keep her safe and out of the fight. What you said to me before was true wasn't it? You don't hurt children. That comes from the Time Lady that's still inside of you doesn't it? Did you have a young child when you were transformed?" Amy guessed.

The Time Walker began to shake with emotion, and Amy knew that she had just hit a nerve.

"Just shut up. You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. I'll kill you all starting with her if I don't get what I want!" the Time Walker screamed.

"Do it then!" Julia screamed at her as she freed one of her arms and punched her in the nose as hard as she could.

"What?" the Time Walker asked in surprise.

"Go on! Kill me! I'd rather be dead than to be used against my family this way!" Julia shouted.

Suddenly an idea came to Amy that she hoped would resolve this quickly as she said to River, "You should grant her her wish then, Melody."

"What?" the Time Walker asked in complete shock.

Suddenly Julia screamed out in pain as River shot her with her gun, and then she collapsed in the Time Walker's arms. The Time Walker looked at the two Time Ladies in absolute disbelief as Julia lay there limp and unmoving.

"How could you do that? She was your daughter! I'd give anything to switch places with you and have my daughter back, and you just threw it all away!" the Time Walker screeched in a voice filled with agony.

Suddenly the Time Walker began changing form as she screamed in agony. Amy started to scan her with her sonic watch as she did so, and she smiled in triumph as she could see that the woman was changing right in front of her eyes from one species into another. Her watch told her that she was becoming a Time Lady once more!

As the former Time Walker stopped screaming, she assumed a female form that didn't belong to any of the crew and yet she seemed to be very familiar to Amy somehow. It was as if she had met her somewhere before.

"What happened?" the newly reborn Time Lady said as she looked at herself in confusion.

Julia's eyes popped open as she said, "We tricked you. That's what. I read that Time Walkers could infect people and turn them into one of them but that the person who was changed could sometimes beat the infection if they had something happen to them to strongly remind them of their past self. It was my idea because Mum thought that you missed your child so we came up with this idea telepathically together. It was so cool to finally be useful! I'm sorry for hurting you but I had to."

The Time Lady wasn't upset though. She laughed with joy and hugged Julia tightly as she said, "You were shot though. How did you fake that?"

River grinned as she said, "It was just a harmless beam of light. It's useful when you want to get out of hostage situations with everyone alive."

"Only you would be crazy enough to think of something like that, Melody. Well, I probably would be too," Selene said as she began to come back to consciousness.

"Are you okay?" Julia asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I feel like I could sleep a week, but other than that I'm great. So you're the Time Walker, huh? You look so familiar. Have we met before?" Selene asked.

"I thought she looked familiar too, but I can't place her," Amy said.

"You know me?" the Time Lady asked.

"Possibly. Who are you? If you tell us your name, maybe that'll help jog our memory," Amy said.

"That's just it. I don't know. I don't remember anything about myself except that I have a daughter. I have a daughter who I miss so much. The problem is that I can't . . . I can't even remember what she looks like! How can I find her if I can't remember what she looks like?" the Time Lady asked in despair.

"It'll be okay. It's probably only temporary memory loss because of what happened to you. I'm sure you'll get it all back sooner or later," Amy said in a gentle voice.

"What if it doesn't come back? What if I never remember?" the Time Lady said in despair.

"Tell you what. I'll take you back to Gallifrey and we'll see if you have a biodata extract in the Matrix. That'll tell us who you are at least even if you can't remember it yourself," Amy said.

"Thank you for helping me. You didn't have to especially after what I just did to you," the Time Lady said.

"Oh, yes I do have to. You fought off the Time Walker infection just enough to keep Julia safe so for that I owe you everything. Don't worry. We'll find out exactly who you are one way or another. I promise," Amy said.

"Maybe we'll find out how we know you too," Selene said as she continued to search her memory for an answer but came up with nothing.

"I'm beginning to think that your TARDIS knew what it was doing by taking us there after all and that it wasn't just the Time Walker bringing it there like we first imagined," River said to Amy.

"I'm starting to think so too, Melody. If only I could remember her myself. She just looks so familiar to me somehow. Who could she be?" Amy said perplexed.

Next: Amy takes the mysterious Time Lady to Gallifrey as she attempts to find out the answer to that question. Will she get her answer or will everyone continue to remain in the dark about who she is? Maybe 'Atalanta' can help them all to figure it out. Yeah, that means exactly what you think it does as Amy gets to hear the story about what happened to the Time Lady on the day that she changed straight from the source: Lily herself.