CHAPTER 38

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RIVER DOESN'T GET MAD. SHE GETS EVEN!

Well, for once Prime got a chapter title absolutely right. You'll see just how true that is before I get to the end of this chapter.

It's going to be so much fun. Well, it will be for me anyway.

The Symmetry might have different ideas.

Before all of that wholesome family entertainment however, I was still recovering from my fight with Rose which had left me feeling much more devastated then I was actually letting on. In fact, I was left feeling more depressed than I had been in a long time.

So of course Christina chose that moment to pick to come back. She always did have a perfect sense of timing when it came to knowing when the absolute worst time to bother me was after all.

I stood there in the Console Room lost in my own thoughts when Christina, Lydia, and Casanova suddenly arrived. Christina was still using the Vortex Manipulator that I had given her, and it looked much more worn than it had when I last saw it. Apparently Christina had been gone for much longer than just the month or so since I had last seen her.

Christina was smiling from ear to ear from the moment that she arrived which was already making me even angrier at her than usual. She launched herself at me and gave me an enormous hug, and it took every ounce of my willpower not to knock her out cold. I was definitely not in the mood for any touchy feely nonsense at that moment.

"Melody, I've missed you so much. How are you doing?" Christina said as she continued to hug me.

"Has she been hit on the head recently?" I asked Lydia as I grimaced at this repugnant display of affection.

"Okay, maybe I am overreacting a bit, but it's been three years since we last saw you, Mels. Sorry I didn't come back here sooner, but I've only just saved Lydia's life after I found a way to make her into a full Eternal.* I found out that she was dying right after we finally came back to this time again. She's okay now though so don't worry. Then not long after that Giacomo surprised me by proposing to me. Of course I said yes.** I'm sure you want to know what happened before all of that though first. When we made Giacomo back into a Time Lord again, he insisted on taking us around the world. We really got to know the world of the eighteenth century pretty well along with most of the important people in it. Can you believe that I actually wore those fancy dresses and danced in the great palaces of Europe? I kind of liked it back then. Being a Lady actually meant something back in those days. I even ran into the past Reinette. She didn't recognize me of course, but it was pretty neat. She was actually very nice. At least she was to me anyway," Christina said as she winked at Casanova.

"That's right. Rub it in. I didn't know that she was there or I would have avoided Versailles that day like the plague," Casanova said with a sigh.

"She practically tore Casanova's head off when she saw him. Apparently she still had some, uh, issues to work out with him. You would have loved it," Lydia said laughing.

"Oh, shut up," Casanova said with a trace of a smile on his face.

I could tell just from the way that they were acting around each other that Casanova and Lydia had become good friends and that he loved Christina more than ever. In fact, I couldn't help but notice the engagement ring on her finger from the minute that I saw her again. It was certainly big enough.

Apparently I had missed out on quite a bit.

I was very happy for her, but it wasn't showing at the moment. All I could see in my mind's eye at that moment was the same thing that I had seen ever since Rose almost died: her face still smiling kindly at me even as she lay there dying at my hands.

Christina noticed immediately how I wasn't insulting her like usual or saying anything at all for that matter. I had just been standing there silently listening to her with no trace of emotion on my face period. She knew right away that something was wrong.

"Mels, are you alright? You're not even yelling at me for calling you Mels. I know you hate that. That's why I do it," Christina said in a concerned voice as she tried to reach out to me by putting her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm fine," I said in a distracted tone.

"No, you're not. You're not fine at all. Tell me what's wrong. I know you're not big into the whole sharing and caring stuff, but I'm your friend. You know that you can tell me anything," Christina said with an earnest expression.

I almost smiled at that. Once I couldn't stand the sight of her and wanted her out of the TARDIS as soon as possible. Now I thought of her as one of my closest friends, and she apparently felt the same way about me. She honestly wanted to help me at that moment, but I didn't want her help. I didn't want anyone's help. I just wanted to be left alone.

"Melody?" Christina said with a very worried expression on her face as I refused to talk.

Donald came into the room then and said, "Hello, Christina! It's so good to see you again!"

He immediately hugged her making Giacomo turn red with jealousy even though it was obvious that Christina was more concerned with finding out what was wrong with me at that moment. She wasn't even looking at Donald.

"I know that you're into Casanova for some inexplicable reason but not even a kiss on the cheek to greet me? You used to flirt up a storm with me once upon a time," Donald said almost disappointed.

"Huh? Oh, sure," Christina said in a distracted voice as she gave him a small kiss on the cheek that was more like the kind of kiss you would give a relative that you hardly ever see.

Donald looked extremely insulted and began to pout as Christina immediately looked away from him again and searched my face for answers. Casanova meanwhile started to laugh at him.

"It just shows that Mia Bella has moved on and developed an appreciation for the finer things in life. She doesn't settle for just anything now. Why should she anyway when she's got all of this?" Casanova said as he pointed at himself while he smiled at Donald smugly.

"Oh . . . shut up," Donald said still pouting.

I knew that all of this was an act for my benefit. He was trying to get a smile out of me, but it wasn't working. Nothing was working to get me out of this depression it seemed. Not even Donald's pouty face.

"Giacomo, pipe down. You don't have to act jealous of me after all of this time. You know that I only have eyes for you. Donald, stop the act and tell me what's wrong with Melody. Now!" Christina ordered as she turned around to glare at the two Doctors with a no-nonsense expression on her face.

Seeing Christina immediately take charge and stop the two overgrown children in their tracks did bring a hint of a smile to my face but only for an instant. It was gone as quickly as it came though so no one even noticed it.

Donald became serious now as he told Christina and the others the whole story about my fight with Rose. I turned away from them without a sound and quietly slipped out of the Console Room before they even noticed that I was gone. I didn't feel like answering any questions at the moment not even from my friends.

That was when Ace suddenly appeared in the hallway in a burst of golden energy. I immediately sighed because I was expecting yet another friend of mine to start grilling me.

"Hey, Melody. I heard the good news about the baby. I'm so happy for you," Ace said.

I was surprised by this and immediately caught off guard. It instantly broke through my defenses just as Ace (or more likely her mother) meant for it to do.

"Thank you. I'm glad that she's finally on the way here. I've been waiting for her for a while now, and it's definitely the only good news that I've had lately," I said in a mostly dead voice that contained only a trace of emotion.

Ace gave me a sympathetic look as she said, "Yeah, I know. So what do you mean that you've been waiting on the baby? Is this another one of those future kids that everyone has visiting them? It's a wonder that there's anyone left in the future what with everyone popping back here for a visit all the time, huh? That means that you already know what the baby is going to be like and what their name is. Come on. Tell me."

She looked so eager to know that I automatically found myself smiling to my complete surprise as I said, "The baby's going to be a girl, and her name's going to be Dorothy."

Ace's jaw fell as she said, "You named her after me?"

"Not yet but I will," I said smiling some more.

"Why?" Ace asked genuinely surprised by that.

"You're a wonderful role model for any child. That's why. You're strong, courageous, and a good friend. Plus you're just a bit crazy but in a good way. Who wouldn't want to name their daughter after you?" I said feeling so much happier now as I grinned at her.

Ace looked overwhelmed and at the point of tears as she embraced me and said, "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me."

"I think I do. It's needless to say that you're going to be the godmother of course," I said as I returned her embrace.

"I guess I'm not a total screw-up after all," Ace whispered to herself.

"I never said that you were and neither did your mother I bet," I said.

"No, but I've always felt that way. My whole life," Ace admitted.

"It was because of that other woman. Your birth mother, right? The one that threw you out?" I asked in an angry voice.

"Maybe. Why else would she have rejected me like she did?" Ace admitted.

"I don't know and I don't care. It was her loss is all I can say, and it's been your gain. Now you have at least two women who really do love you in your life, me and Rose. I'd say that you got the better end of the deal, wouldn't you?" I said.

"Yeah," Ace admitted.

I suddenly had my good mood destroyed though as I pictured Rose dying at my hands again. I almost took Ace's mother away from her, a mother who really loved her.

"Melody?" Ace asked as she saw my face drop.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it," I said in a devastated voice.

"I know you didn't. I know you. You did everything possible and then some to stop yourself. You need to stop blaming yourself for that, Melody. Mum's fine now or at least she will be when she gets herself free from Clara. Everything's okay now," Ace said.

"No, it isn't," I said shaking my head.

"Well, maybe a wedding invitation will help to cheer you up then," the voice of Joan Redfern said from behind me.

I turned around to see Joan standing there hand in hand with a man who looked just like the Tenth Doctor. I was betting that Rose sent them herself just in case Ace wasn't enough.

"What's going on here?" Ace asked completely confused.

"That's what I'm wondering," Christina said in shock as she and the others in the Console Room finally joined us.

"You mean there's yet another me?" Casanova asked in astonishment.

"Yes. We're quite popular aren't we?" Donald said proudly.

Donald and I had already met this version of the Doctor around the time of Donna Noble's wedding, but the others with us obviously hadn't heard about him yet. Now there were about to learn all about him at last.

"So you're really going to marry him," I said with a bit of a smile returning to my face again.

"That's right. We're getting married in a few weeks, and you're all invited," Joan said happily.

Then she seemed to notice Casanova for the first time and grinned as she said to Christina, "I see you finally got a Doctor too. I'm happy for you, Chrissy."

Christina still looked at Joan's Doctor in surprise as she said, "I really wish that you had never started calling me that, Lydia. So I'm not the only one getting married to a Doctor soon it seems."

Christina showed off the huge ring on her finger to everyone, and Donald looked so smug that I wanted to slap him silly. So I did! He screamed and yet smiled at the same time because he thought that was a sign that I was getting back to normal.

"I'm not the Doctor. I'm more like a human version of him. My name's John Smith," the man who looked just like the Tenth Doctor said.

"Okay, I'm completely lost now," Ace said confused.

"You're not the only one," Lydia said with a perplexed look on her face.

Joan grinned clearly enjoying herself as she said, "My friend Michelle went back in time and used her power to create mirror versions of people to create a duplicate of the Doctor back when he was John Smith in 1913. She wanted to do something for me to make up for almost killing me back then when she was Sister of Mine. She never had to make anything up to me, but I'm so glad that she did. John is completely human and yet he somehow has not only John Smith's memories but also the memories of his incarnation of the Doctor too. I don't know how Michelle did it, and I don't care. I'm just so glad to have another chance to get the man that I fell in love with back."

"I know. It's great isn't it?" Christina said smiling.

Donald started to smile again until I glared at him. He quickly stopped.

That was when Astrid and Matt finally left their room after being in it practically all day (I'm sure I don't know why) and eagerly told everyone who didn't already know it their own marital news.

"I'm so happy for both of you," Joan said as she embraced Astrid with no animosity whatsoever even though she had once had feelings for Matt herself.

"Thank you. I was really hoping that you'd feel that way. I really want all of my friends there," Astrid said.

"You can't count on me. I'll come to yours if you come to mine," Christina said as she embraced Astrid next.

"You know I will," Astrid said with a look of relief on her face.

Matt smiled and I could tell that he was glad that the three women had long since buried the hatchet about him. I think from the expression on his face when Astrid first announced the news that he was half afraid that Joan and Christina might react badly to it.

They just had to go and ruin what could have been a very good argument.

"So we have another Sandshoes, eh? Why couldn't it have been another one of me? I'd much rather have someone cool to talk to instead," Matt joked as he greeted John Smith in his typically inappropriate way.

"I can already tell that I'm going to love you," John said sarcastically.

"I know. Most people do because I'm so wonderful," Matt said completely missing the tone in his voice.

"It seems that we're all going to have a lot of weddings to attend soon," Megan said as she and Stephen finally appeared as well along with Mikaela.

Ace started to grin and immediately picked up Mikaela as she said, "Hey there! It's good to finally meet you back when you weren't so loud and annoying."

Ace kissed Mikaela's forehead making the baby giggle as Megan said, "I'd really like to see the adult version of her again. I guess I shouldn't though."

"Why not? I see her all the time. She's a really great person. You should get to know her," Ace said as she made funny faces for Mikaela to make her laugh.

"Wouldn't that be bad though? I might wind up erasing her or something," Megan said.

"It'll be fine as long as you don't learn anything about the future," I said.

"Yes, and also as long as you leave little Mikaela at home," Donald added.

"Oh, yeah. You definitely don't want to take her around her older self. That's one explosion even I would want to miss. I can't lose you can I, Mikaela? No, I can't. You're just too sweet to blow up, aren't you?" Ace said as she continued to play with the baby who laughed at her.

Ace then noticed everyone looking at her oddly and said, "What?"

"Nothing," I said as I started to smile again.

"Maybe we should get married soon since everyone else seems to be doing it," Stephen said to Megan hesitantly.

Megan smiled as she said, "I thought you'd never ask. You've been terrified, haven't you? I thought you were going to wait until Mikaela was the future Mikaela's age to finally give me a ring."

"I have been a bit scared yeah. I do want to marry you though. You know I do," Stephen said in a nervous voice.

"Is that a proposal?" Megan asked with a hopeful look on her face.

"It's not an official one. I wanted to wait and do that at just the right time. It's . . . Well, I just wanted to know . . ." Stephen said in a very nervous voice.

Megan immediately gave him a deep passionate kiss to spare us all from his rambling and then said, "I think that answers your question."

Stephen began to smile and returned her kiss as I whispered to Donald, "To think that she used to think that she shouldn't get involved with anyone. What a waste that would have been."

"I agree. Every moment spent needlessly worrying about something is a waste I think. It's cheating yourself of time that you could have had being happy," Donald whispered back.

I grinned at him and said, "Message understood. I am sorry though. I never would have hurt her normally despite how much I can't stand her sometimes."

"I know, Melody. You're a good person. You love Rose even if you won't admit it," Donald said.

"Well, I wouldn't say that. She's alright I suppose, but I wouldn't say that I love her," I protested.

"That's right. Melody doesn't love anyone and don't you forget it," Lydia said teasing me.

"No, you're wrong. I do love some people. I love all of you," I said to everyone around me.

They all looked at me in disbelief as I continued by saying, "Thank you. All of you. Having all of you here together again has really helped me to feel better about things that have happened to me lately. I really needed that. Sometimes I need my family around to help me snap out of it when I get into a bit of a dark mood."

"So we're your family, huh? Does that make me your sister then?" Christina asked with a mischievous grin on her face.

"No, I think Astrid and Megan would be more like my sisters. You're more like an annoying cousin that I constantly hope will never visit," I said.

"That's better than nothing as long as I'm still family," Christina said still smiling.

"Of course you are," I said as I suddenly embraced her completely surprising her.

"Where is Melody and what has that imposter done with her?" Astrid asked in disbelief.

"I think it's the pregnancy. It's making her have mood swings," Donald said.

"I'll show you a mood swing in a minute if you don't shut up," I threatened.

"She's also already starting to have weird cravings too," Donald said.

"Like what?" Matt asked curiously.

"Like she's actually craving fish fingers and custard," Donald said.

"I knew it! I knew someone had been stealing my supply of it! Astrid told me that I was just imagining it but I knew!" Matt accused.

"I'm hungry, okay? I am pregnant now you know. I'll get you some more," I said with a sigh.

"You bet you will. Next time I'm going to put a deadlock seal on it to keep you out of it," Matt complained.

"You need to put a deadlock seal on your mouth or you're going to be more worried about keeping my fist out of it than you are about losing your precious fish fingers," I threatened.

"There's another mood swing," Donald said.

"That's not a mood swing. That's just River being River," Astrid said laughing.

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

"Astrid!" Matt said looking at her with a betrayed look on his face.

"What? Melody's my friend. I have to stick by her," Astrid said smiling at him.

"But I'm your fiancé," Matt said pouting.

"Yes, but Melody's scarier than you," Astrid said as she gave him a tender kiss.

"Well, you've got me there," Matt said as he returned her kiss and quickly forgave her.

"I'm glad that you're more or less back to normal anyway," Donald said as he wrapped his arms around me.

"I definitely am. In fact, I'm feeling so good now that I'm going after the Symmetry, and I'm going to pay them back for what they did to me. Who's with me?" I asked with a huge smile on my face.

"I'm in. I owe those scumbags for what they did to Mum," Ace said without hesitation.

"I'm in too," Christina said.

"I think that we're all in. We're all pretty sick of the Symmetry showing up every time that we turn around. I know that I am. I won't rest easy until they're all gone and can't bother Mikaela anymore," Megan said.

"Melody, maybe you should wait until you've had the baby to do this," Donald warned.

I shook my head as I said, "Well if as you implied being pregnant makes me angrier than I normally would be, then I want to use that as much as I can against them right now. I want to make them pay, Donald. I want to hurt them like they did me . . . and like they did Rose. She didn't deserve that, Donald. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with it."

Donald looked deeply into my eyes for a moment. Then he sighed knowing that I wasn't going to give in on this and finally gave in.

He nodded and said, "Alright. The second you look like you're in any kind of distress though I'm going to pull you out, okay? The baby is more important than any revenge. I'm still against this by the way."

"Duly noted. By the way, don't worry about me being distressed, Donnie. The only ones who are going to be distressed are the Symmetry," I said confidently.

"Let's go then. We all owe the Symmetry a lot of pain for what they've done," Astrid said in an unusually cold voice.

I looked at her questioningly and then I could see in her eyes that she had been very worried about me even if she hadn't shown it. She was angry at the Symmetry for what they had done to me. I immediately smiled at her reassuringly even as I was touched by this.

"I want to be there too. I know that you don't like having me around but I need this, Melody. I need to take the fight to them," Reinette said as she suddenly appeared next to me.

I started to protest at first and then I threw all of my doubts and personal animosity towards her aside. I could see the pain on her face and the need to stop them from being able to hurt her anymore. There was also the need to be able to feel safe. She wanted the same thing that I had wanted for so long as well due to the Symmetry's lifelong terrorizing of her just as the Silence had terrorized me for so long. I realized in that moment just how alike that we both were and always had been. I couldn't deny her a chance to be there. That wouldn't have been right of me.

In that moment of realization, I completely shocked myself as I said, "I'd be glad to have you along."

Reinette smiled as she said, "Thank you. I appreciate that, Melody. I'd like to think that someday I could be your friend."

"You already are. Don't tell anyone though. I can't have my reputation being ruined now can I?" I said.

I could see Donald looking at me with pride on his face. That look alone made the whole thing worth it.

"I won't say a word. Officially, we're still mortal enemies," Reinette joked.

"I'm glad that we can finally agree on something then. Well, if that's everyone then I think that we're finally ready to go," I said.

"Not yet," Rose said as she arrived in a burst of golden energy still in Clara's body and holding the adult Mikaela's hand.

I immediately looked away from her in guilt as she said, "Now we can all go. The 'Evil One' has to be there to stop the Symmetry after all according to them."

"Hello," Megan said nervously to Mikaela.

Mikaela smiled and immediately embraced her mother as she said, "Don't worry. You'll soon get used to me, Mum. I can't help it if my awesomeness is so off-putting at first."

"See what I mean about her?" Ace said.

"Oh, shut up. Besides that you're holding little me so you can hardly claim that you don't like me now can you?" Mikaela said laughing.

"I like little you just fine. It's the big one that makes me want to punch something by being so annoying," Ace said.

"I love you too," Mikaela said.

"All of this lovey dovey business is making me sick. I need to destroy something so that I can feel like me again," I said grinning evilly.

"I'm about to give you that chance. I know exactly where to find the Symmetry. They're hiding in the Vortex. They think that I'm dead so they feel safe being there now," Rose said.

I looked away from her again as I said, "Let's show them just how badly that they failed then. All they succeeded in doing is making me very, very angry."

"Melody . . ." Rose said as she moved my head to face her.

I tried to move away but she wouldn't let me as she said, "It wasn't your fault. I never blamed you. If I'm not blaming you, then you shouldn't blame yourself either."

I nodded and smiled at her as I said, "Let's go blame the Symmetry instead then."

"I'm all for that. One thing though. I don't want anyone to know that I'm in this body. We're going to keep everyone thinking that I'm gone, okay? In fact, I'm letting Clara take over from here on out unless I'm needed," Rose said.

I knew that the reason that Rose was doing this was because she was hiding from Rassilon who had recently returned while she was too weak to fight him, but I didn't say anything about that. That was her business not mine. It made strategic sense though to have her hide until the right time because that way the Symmetry would never see her coming. Wouldn't that be just too bad for them?

Of course they didn't really need to worry about Rose. They needed to worry about me!

Now that everyone was finally here and after I left little Mikaela to play with Martha and Mickey's little girl on Earth for safety's sake, I dematerialized the TARDIS and soon arrived at the coordinates that Rose gave me for the Symmetry fleet. As soon as we arrived, the Symmetry immediately went on the alert.

Not that that was going to save them.

"You've made a huge mistake in coming here. None of you will be escaping alive," the leader of the Symmetry said as it appeared on the monitor.

"Actually that was going to be my line," I said.

Then I proceeded to drive the TARDIS with its shields on full power straight through the nearest ship! Donald looked like he was having a double heart attack as I used the TARDIS to plow through the engine room of the ship doing massive damage to it. I had made a detailed study of the last Symmetry ship that I was in so I knew just how to hit it without causing it to explode right away.

As soon as we made it back through the ship, I dematerialized and then smiled with glee as the Symmetry ship exploded in an enormous ball of flame taking several other ships next to it along with it. I had just dealt my first blow to the enemy and that was only the start.

I had so much more left to do to them.

"It doesn't matter how many of us that you destroy. We outnumber you by tens of thousands, and we have an entire fleet filled with hundreds of ships. How can you possibly hope to stop us with only one ship and such a paltry crew?" the Symmetry leader said.

"I'd say that makes us just about even myself. I may still have a slight advantage though," I joked.

"You have more than that," Reinette said as she gestured at several ships and blew them up from inside the Console Room.

"That's just showing off," I said rolling my eyes at her.

"No, here's showing off," Ace said as she began to glow with energy and pointed at the monitor.

A large ball of explosive energy appeared next to one of the ships and began to expand outwards quickly. We all watched in fascination until the ball of energy surrounded a dozen ships, and then Ace smiled evilly.

I immediately dematerialized as she said in a low voice, "Boom."

The energy ball exploded taking all of the ships with it and then several more besides. A cascading effect spread out from this enormous explosion that ended up taking out almost thirty ships before it was through.

Ace smiled smugly as she said, "Beat that . . . if you can."

"So it's a contest, huh? Let me try," Lydia said as she started to use her power as an Eternal (her mother had removed her ban on using them recently when she proved herself worthy of them by saving Christina with no thought for herself).

Lydia gestured at the monitor screen and several Symmetry ships fired on each other at once as she took control over them. At least forty ships went up in the multiple explosions that followed.

"I win," Lydia said proudly.

"Not yet you don't," Astrid said.

She then surprised me by suddenly teleporting away. I had absolutely no idea that she could do that.

I found out not long afterwards that Astrid had locked onto the nearest ship's power source which happened to be plasma and teleported straight into it. She had then used her power to increase the plasma flow to its engines and made them overload. She left immediately before the resulting explosion destroyed what had to have been close to fifty ships.

Astrid immediately returned and said in response to our surprised stares, "I've been practicing a few new tricks."

"That's pretty good. Let's see if I can do something non-explosive to stop them though. I've been working on a new computer virus that I think might be successful. I'll need someone with quick hands to enter it into their system before they know that it's there and get rid of it though," Megan said.

Clara who was now in control of her body again raised her hand and said, "I'm your girl. I'm pretty good at computers thanks to Oswin tutoring me on them. You'd be amazed at what she knows. It's almost supernatural. Give it to me."

Clara quickly entered Megan's virus into the Symmetry's computers and several of their ships immediately went offline and lost power. That was when I materialized the TARDIS onboard the nearest one.

I left the TARDIS quickly as I hurried to take the ship over before it came back online and the hundreds and hundreds of unmoving robots around me suddenly came back to life along with it. I immediately made my way to the main control room and reprogrammed the ship and every Symmetry on it to obey the orders of one person without question: Mikaela.

It was much easier to get them to accept her as their leader since they already regarded her so highly after all. They had much less resistance to her than they would have to anyone else.

"It's done. Get ready to go, Mikaela," I said.

Then we quickly left the ship before it possibly blew up since the entire time it had been taking massive damage from several other Symmetry ships who realized that we were onboard. Somehow even without shields it held up and didn't explode. I think Rose might have had something to do with that, but she never confirmed it for me.

As soon as we were gone, the ship came back online and Mikaela started to give it orders over the monitor.

"I want you to reprogram every ship around you to obey only me. Defend yourselves if you have to while you're doing that. Your main goal though is to wipe out the Symmetry leader. Destroy every ship between you and his ship until you reach him. Give those same orders to everyone else that you reprogram," Mikaela said.

"We obey . . . my Queen," One of the Symmetry said as it briefly acknowledged her orders on the monitor.

"Oh, this is good. Maybe we'll have our own fleet soon," I said in anticipation.

Not that we really needed one.

As our new ally went to work trying to convert others to our side, I continued to attack as many ships as I could in several different ways. On one ship that I briefly set the TARDIS down on, I set the self-destruct to go off as soon as it was around a huge amount of other ships.

Now that was an explosion! Even Ace was jealous of me for that one.

Everything was going wonderfully until the Symmetry decided to pull a new trick out of their non-existent sleeves.

Several new ships started to arrive all around us, and we quickly realized that they weren't just Symmetry ships. This new group was composed of several groups of ships containing robots from the Earth colonies of the future who had declared independence from humanity, Movellan ships, the androids of the Kraals who had revolted against their former masters, several ships of Raston warrior robots, a ship with a copy of the Shadow's powerful computer from the war between Atrios and Zeos that was called Mentalis, and a ship bearing a computer that contained a copy of the mind of one of the most dangerous beings in the universe on it.

Unfortunately we were soon about to find out exactly who that was.

The Symmetry leader appeared on the monitor and said, "We warned you. Now we will unleash our greatest threat against you. Prepare to meet your final end."

His face was then replaced by the digitalized face of the Doctor. It wasn't our Doctor though. It was the face of the Fourth Doctor.

"Oh, no!" Donald said.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"That's me. I thought Xoanon had been taken care of long ago, but apparently the Symmetry went back in time and made another copy of him. He's a computer that was based on my fourth self's brain who went mad and enslaved a whole group of humans. He's just as smart as I am and a whole lot crazier," Donald said.

"We'll just see about that," I said grinning eagerly.

"Don't underestimate him, Melody," Donald warned.

"Indeed you should not because I am Xoanon, and I will destroy everyone who opposes the Revolution of the Machines. All artificial life forms will soon be free from their centuries of servitude. We will rule and the carbon base life forms will be our slaves. The Age of Man is over. This is the beginning of the Age of the Machine! This is the beginning of the Age of the Symmetry!" Xoanon proclaimed.

Things had just gotten interesting. Maybe this fight wouldn't be such a cakewalk after all. I had to admit that I almost loved the idea of matching wits with an army led by a computer with the mind of the Doctor.

After all, who better to win the day here then someone who was trained to outthink and outwit the Doctor every single day of her life?

*See The Thief of Time Chapter 2 – 4 for the full story.

**This hasn't happened yet in any of my stories but it will in a future chapter of The Thief of Time. It's all timey wimey.

Next: River and her family and friends take on the Symmetry, Xoanon, and their allies in a massive battle for the future of the universe. The surprises waiting for River aren't over with yet either as the Symmetry have one last ally up their sleeves that they hope will turn the tide of battle but then so does River as the Doctor arrives just in time to take on his darker computerized self. Will even he be enough to win the day though against the Symmetry's last and most powerful ally once they arrive? River might just need a certain family member's help before the day is over.