Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, any of the other characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories.
7-8-2010 Here I go again, but hopefully this itch is finally fully scratched. I have re-written chapters 37 through 40, and apologize if someone was actually in the midst of reading this part of the story.
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"And just why would your people put a sentence of death on those four girls?" Betty asked angrily, struggling to keep her voice down.
The Doctor sighed. "An old cliche, I'm afraid, 'Forbidden Knowledge'." He hesitated a moment before adding, "In point of fact, the greatest temptation a Time Lord can face!"
A sarcastic comment about how much that might cover died on Betty's lips as her brow furrowed thoughtfully. Finally she hazarded a guess. "To know when all of his lives..." Then her eye widened, "No! To know when the Time Lords as a race will come to an end?"
The Doctor nodded grimly. "They saw the end of Gallifrey, thanks to me! As did I, but there are ways to handle that! In the very beginning of the Time Lords, Rassillon saw the possibility of such a thing happening, with my people being able to avoid such a disaster through foreknowledge. This 'guaranteed' immortality as a race could have led to all sorts of trouble for my people, and those we contacted." He paused, regretfully shaking his head, "A sense of invincibility can alter the behavior of even the most moral of species." He hesitated for the briefest moment before continuing, "And while we were there, we helped two other Time Lords escape...with Charley, there was no other option. And for the record, I didn't recognize the second one at the time, I was too preoccupied with how to save those girls' lives!"
"The Rani and the Valeyard?" Betty guessed. The Doctor nodded, and she winced slightly before asking "Is that why Charley knew so much about her?"
A sour look appeared on the Doctor's features. "Yes, but she shouldn't have done! I did my absolute best, with the help of others, to bury those memories under a new set, so they couldn't be traced!"
Now Betty was puzzled, but her suspicions made her frown deeply. "New set? And traced by who?"
"The Matrix!" The Doctor snapped, before making an effort to calm himself before continuing, "The original one, that is. It was aware that I had gone forward in time past the time of it's own existence, and therefore may have broken that particular Law of Rassillon! I had to find a way to hide the presence of that knowledge in the girls' heads, or it would have meant the death of them! My knowing it could be handled in other ways, until I regenerated, at which time I could block those memories from passing to my next regeneration."
"And where did the memories the girls believe in now come from? Did you make them up from whole cloth?" Betty's voice held a touch of bitter accusation in it that made the Doctor wince before answering.
"In point of fact, no, Doctor Director, those memories, with a few alterations, came from four living persons from a future age. In Charley's case, a direct descendant of her family. Who just happened to have three good friends..well, the story they told you of 'their' lives is essentially true, only a few adjustments were necessary. Name substitution, for one. Plus of course in their memories their appearance had to match their real selves."
Betty had too many questions for a moment, and decided to choose one that might answer a mystery. "'Her family', you say? Not a direct descendant of Charley herself?"
"Ah..No, not of Charley herself..." He grimaced slightly, "I did try to tell this story in order, please remember that! Charley's real name is Charlene Camilla Ward. Her father was a well-to-do entrepreneur in Ohio, who had seen brief service in the First World War. She had four younger brothers, including one set of twins." He hesitated slightly before finishing in a slight rush, "And her mother's maiden name was Charlotte Imogene...Possible." Betty's lack of reaction caused his eyes to narrow suspiciously. "And somehow, you already knew that?"
Betty's smile held a hint of triumph in it. "A DNA analysis, which had an unforeseen delay in reaching me..." She paused significantly, and the Doctor had the decency to look chastened, "...connected her to the Possibles, to start with. And then I went out on a limb and showed Slim Possible her picture. He's the current expert on the family's history. He recognized her face immediately because of some peculiar circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Mind you, she's a bit older then when she disappeared, which was the year 1928."
The Doctor looked slightly miffed to have part of his tale spoiled. "So, you already knew something was wrong with her story?"
Betty nodded. "Yes, but I couldn't begin to guess what. But knowing you were involved...that story about founding an organization in the future, was that true?"
"Yes, the Knights Valkyr, they'll be real enough." He regarded her warily again, "I suppose I messed up by having them think six hundred years...far too brief a time for all that they believed in to have transpired! Some of my colleagues tried to get me to stretch it, I suppose I should have listened!"
"And who were these 'colleagues'?" Betty asked next, "I'm willing to bet some of the Ar'Ithane were involved?"
"Err, yes, them...and the back-up Matrix." The Doctor replied carefully. " I needed it's help to retrieve the memories I implanted in them, and the Ar'Ithane to do the actual implanting itself. I had no idea at the time, of course, that I was actually giving the Matrix itself an opportunity..." He trailed off a bit lamely.
Betty's began to speak angrily, then stopped and shook her head, before using a more controlled tone of voice. "Of course, Charley did make contact with the Matrix somehow, and if the original tale is false...Doctor, do you have any idea when this machine of your peoples' began to plot something like this?"
"Actually, you have only to remember the reason it was built in the first place, Doctor Director, to replace the original if necessary. And in order for it to be necessary, the original had to have been destroyed, which in turn probably meant the extinction of my people." The Doctor replied quietly. "So, it may have actually began to consider this course of action the moment it became aware of it's purpose in existing."
Betty had winced at the reminder of the Time Lords' extinction, she had forgotten the implications..."Doctor, I'm sorry, that has to be a terrible burden to have to carry, to know...what will happen in what is to you your future."
"It had to happen eventually, Doctor Director, nothing is eternal." He replied, then smiled slightly, "And I only have to remember it until my next regeneration, after all." Then he returned to their previous topic. "I had no idea what the back-up Matrix was up to at the time, I assure you! As I said, I needed to use it to build a cohesive set of false memories, and the Ar'Ithane to implant them. Then, I brought the girls to Earth...at a time and place the Matrix itself recommended, with solid reasons, or so I thought at the time. It galls me now, I'll admit, to think it may have manipulated me at the time!" He shook his head angrily, "Since the original Matrix was not allowed to upload data from the back-up, since that theoretically might include the fate of Gallifrey, my association with the back-up was safe."
"And the whole thing was out of fear that some group of Time Lords might track down Charley and her friends and extract that information from them, how Gallifrey...ended?" Betty surmised.
"And change that future..precisely, Doctor Director." Once again, the Time Lord checked his watch, clicking his tongue nervously. "Well, you already know how Charlene Ward disappeared?" He asked as he tucked the watch away again.
She nodded. "According to Slim, she and her family attended a County Fair in late August of 1928. Charlene apparently became bored sooner then her young brothers, and asked permission to walk home. Her parents weren't certain that that was a good idea, but then three classmates of hers, all boys, offered to escort her, also having become tired of the fair. Their parents consented, and they all left just after six. None were ever seen again."
The Doctor's face was grim. "If Charley had not been with the three boys, she wouldn't have been taken, the Cadre ship was targeting young males. She was only taken to avoid leaving a witness, and because she was in the right age group. Mind you, some of the Cadre weren't entirely reluctant to take girls, one of their more successful war leaders was a girl born in Elizabethan England!"
As intriguing as that revelation was, Betty stuck to her own line of questioning. "But what about the other three girls, when were they taken?"
"At the same time, though not the same place." The Doctor replied, "Marjorie Reeder was a modestly successful Broadway actress who saw little chance of hitting it big in her late thirties. But she had hopes her twin daughters would go into show business, they certainly had some appealing attributes for the profession. But until they were a little older, Marjorie sought out a husband of means to keep them all in comfort. One fellow who was interested owned a yacht, and invited the three Reeder women on a cruise from San Diego to Hawaii."
A little more relaxed now that he was relating a story, the Doctor idly studied the rim of the entrance hatch as he continued, "Also aboard was a Japanese steward and his young daughter, who helped out the maids to earn her keep. He had emigrated from Japan to America fifteen years earlier after marrying a Korean woman, which was not looked upon favorably in Japan at that time, if it ever has been. JJ's mother died of tuberculosis when she was eleven. With her father's shipboard career, it was fortunate his employer offered to let the young girl accompany her father. At least, fortunate up until this particular voyage."
"I don't suppose it's a large assumption to think they never made it to Hawaii?" Betty asked rhetorically, while actually wondering at the Doctor's interest in the time. Though the Rani's hint that the Doctor had to keep on the move to prevent the back-up Matrix from locking on to him was the obvious answer.
"No, though they made it within a hundred miles of the islands before being overtaken by a powerful typhoon. The yacht began to sink, and then the Cadre ship appeared. The yacht's owner had a teenaged son, and had invited a half-dozen of his schoolmates along on the trip. The Cadre took them, and the three girls as well. Different ship from Charley's doing the collecting but both were based on the same mother-ship, and belonged to the same individual Cadre."
"Leaving the girls' parents to die, nice." Betty commented bitterly.
The Doctor nodded grimly. "Yes...in any event, they were taken to the Cadre in question's current base. Not a planet, mind you, each Cadre operated from a large mobile base, each with it's own supporting fleet. They hide the location of their home world as much as possible, for they have made some powerful enemies." He paused thoughtfully, tapping his chin, then continued slowly, "I don't know too many details of their early time with the Cadre, save that the four girls did form a bond. And their behavior in training caused the Cadre to test them as a team on their first campaign, giving them 'routine' assignments, or as routine as CSAR operations ever are."
"How many campaigns did they fight in?" Betty asked, "And why CSAR?"
"Just the two, Doctor Director. As to their assigned specialization..Cadre training techniques involve Virtual Reality to a high degree. And within the simulations the details are completely realistic, all the horrors possible in war experienced without filtering. But, when the subjects are removed from the program, a layer of detail is erased from their memories, making what they remember no more horrible then the average video game. The ones deemed suitable for teenagers, that is."
Betty nodded, brow furrowed in concentration. "So, they get as accurate an understanding as possible as to how the 'subject' will perform in real combat, provide realistic training, but reduce the psychological trauma? Sounds...effective, if it worked."
"Oh, it works, Doctor Director." The Doctor replied bitterly, "The drawback being, eventually they do experience the real thing, and they don't forget those memories later. In any event, the results of their training saw them formed into a CSAR team, though not all of their tasks involved combat, even on campaign. And after just two campaigns, the four of them had accumulated an impressive number of points toward their freedom, helped by a specific incident where a grateful individual gave their Cadre a huge sum as a reward for his salvation."
"And then what happened?" Betty asked, though she had a sneaking suspicion what the answer was.
The Doctor looked her in the eye and confirmed it. "I happened." He said solemnly.
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Shego suddenly, violently, hurled herself away from Kim, a shocked look on her face. Kim herself lay there blinking for several moments, a sheen of sweat covering her body, with a look of amazement on her face. "Did we...was that...I mean, I wouldn't know, I've never...Shego, did I just..." she stammered.
Shego nodded, still stunned. "Yeah, it sure felt like...I mean, it's not the way I'm used to...for instance, I'm not wiped out, I actually feel...energized! But whatever that was, it's not a bad substitute for the real thing...I mean, if it wasn't the real thing, that is!" She stopped and shook her head. "I'm blathering like an idiot, and even if that was what we think it was, we picked a damned inappropriate time and place to do it! And if we ever do it again, we'll have to remember to consider our wardrobe!"
Kim was momentarily puzzled, since Shego's armor looked intact. Then she looked down at herself. "Eep!" All the non-metal parts of her clothing were gone, and the carpeting underneath her was scorched. She automatically tried to cover herself, blushing red. "Why didn't it affect your armor!" She snapped peevishly.
Mostly recovered from her shock, Shego smirked. "Well, this armor was designed to resist my plasma, after all! Your clothes, on the other hand...Oh! I've got your armor with me!" She snatched up her discarded shoulder pack and tossed it to Kim, who had realized how silly her modesty was under the circumstances. She sent Shego a grateful look, pulled out her armor, then got to her feet to dress.
She tossed the metal girdle of her slave girl costume to Shego, who picked it up and examined it curiously. Then her eyes widened in surprise. "Princess, this stuff is platinum!" she snatched up a discarded bracelet. "This, too! Whoever made this outfit wasn't going cheap on materials!"
Kim merely shrugged, scowling. "Like I care!" She finished settling the suit in place, and activated the armor. "Let's get going! First we have to see if GoGore recovered from the beating I gave him yet!"
The platinum hit the floor as Shego shot to her feet, the look on her face pure fury. "Where is he!" She snapped, and Kim flinched involuntarily at her tone. But she sensed now was not the time to try talking Shego out of committing mayhem on the villain. But she wasn't going to allow murder, either. Right now, though, she just gestured towards the stairs. "This way."
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When Ron had reached the foot of the stairs, he grimaced briefly at the dissolving corpse of the Master simulacrum, then spent several moments studying the monitors. He spotted JJ briefly, and Belle, but none of the cameras showed Charley. Finally turning away, he spotted something lying on the floor. Kim's disguise pendant. Scooping it up, he studied it curiously. Just then he heard a faint noise, some kind of tapping, coming from behind the stairs themselves. He pocketed the pendant, then went to investigate.
Ignoring the doors to the laboratory and the cell area for the moment, he circled around the stairs, and spotted a door behind them that was almost completely flush with the wall. He moved silently forward and placed his ear against the door. He heard nothing with his ears, but felt something in his mind... He searched for a means to open the door, and was having no success, when there was a quiet 'click' and the door popped open an inch. A half-grin appeared on his face momentarily, then it set in a determined, focused expression as he pushed through the doorway.
He found himself on an enclosed staircase that doubled back on itself just below. "How big is this place? I know I got lost in the TARDIS, but can this place be as big?" He descended cautiously, keeping his back pressed against the wall, until he could see down to the bottom of the next flight. From what he could tell, hallways went three different directions from the bottom. "Great! If someone just came down, hope he left some clue which way he went!"
Reaching the foot of the steps, He found his choices reduced to two...maybe. To his right, the hall appeared to be a dead end after ten feet, but there was no apparent purpose to the extension, which made him suspicious. To the left, the hall ended in a door, also after ten feet. While straight ahead it ran thirty feet before ending in yet another door. Midway to it, there were doors on each side of the hallway. "These doors and corridors look too normal, not like something from another planet! But then, the whole decor does, I wonder if it adapts to the planet it's on? Four doors to choose from, which to start with?" But even as he thought this some instinct drew him to the left, and he moved directly to that door, hesitated, then entered.
He found himself in a small room, faintly lit, with walls on which a swirling blue pattern appeared. In the center of the room was a cylindrical column, black, with a wide silver base. Frowning, Ron raised a hand towards it, then stepped forward. He ignored a sharp tug on his pants leg, instead stepping right up and placing his hand on the column, then putting his ear against it.
He stood there for a minute, a puzzled look growing on his face. "Charley?" He whispered.
"I don't think so, my boy." Came a voice from the doorway, causing to him to spin around and drop into a ready stance.
What he saw there however caused him to become less wary, and far more puzzled. "Who are you?" He finally managed to ask.
"That, young man, is an excellent question!"
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On the roof of the shelter, four curious men, two of them Rangers, two of them Marines, forming two sniper teams, watched the Reeder sisters assemble two curious apparatuses. Each consisted of a four-legged stand, the legs adjustable in length. On the stand was a framework designed to cradle a ten inch long by three wide cylinder, which each of the two sisters were gingerly easing into place on their individual weapons. On one side of the stand, a thin rod extended upwards about two feet, then bent 90 degrees and extended away from the stand about eighteen inches. At the end of the rod was mounted a scope of some kind, with a large eye shield on it.
After satisfying themselves with the cylinders' placement, the two girls each began to enter numbers on a small keypad on one side of the stand, while also adjusting the legs' height to insure that the cylinders were above the eleven inch parapet of the shelter roof. "I'm going to set Red to 3, Green to 1, and Blue to 5." Belle informed her sister, then looked up to see as alarmed look on Beth's face. "What?"
"Oh, nothing at all, except with the composition of their outer shells, that setting could result in nuclear fission, that's all!" Beth replied sarcastically.
Belle's face paled, then flamed red. "Oops, My Bad!" She turned her attention to the keypad again. "How about Red at 1?"
"Move Green to 6, and that should be cool." Beth replied after a moment's consideration. They paid no attention to their audience, who exchanged puzzled looks before turning to their own preparations.
After a moment, however, Belle looked up and announced aloud, "When we fire these things, they're going to make a very sharp report, ear protection is highly advised!" Then after a moment's hesitation she added apologetically, "And, the surviving machines may just target this rooftop in response!"
On the ground, Charley and JJ, with Drakken hovering nearby, were conferring with the leaders of the various military contingents about which of their weapons would be effective at stopping their approaching enemies, and no one was happy with the conclusions they were reaching.
Charley gestured at the 84mm recoilless rifles that both the Marines and Rangers had brought with them. "Those won't penetrate their armor, though they may disable some peripheral systems. Weapons, maybe." She looked at the UNIT representative. "And your big gun was wrecked when the helicopter it was on crashed?"
The man nodded grimly. "Besides, it had a thirty second recycle time, and a big signature, probably would have only survived one shot!"
"Well, that still would have been one more kill!" The Marines' commander observed sourly, before looking at Charley. "You're sure what you have can kill two of them?"
Charley nodded confidently. "Oh, yes! You form a marble-sized Black Hole inside a machine for three seconds, it tends to wreck it pretty thoroughly!" Several jaws dropped at that, then Drakken stepped closer and spoke up.
"Excuse me, Gentlemen, Charley." He began, then smiled at the frowning military types, who had no idea who he was, "Professor Kedden, and I was just wondering, did you bring anything with you that you hoped would breach the shelter's walls, or maybe it's roof?" That caused Charley and JJ to nod slowly, with Charley looking approvingly at Drakken.
"Well, yeah..." The Air Force man began, "In fact, we have some...well you can call it 'super-thermite' or nano-thermite, either works." He pointed to some sealed containers nearby. "Those are roof-breaching charges, we brought two, they burn far hotter than any devices we've used before."
"But how do we use them against these things?" One Marine officer asked, checking his watch apprehensively. "As land mines? They're too big to throw."
"Leave that to me." Charley replied, giving Drakken a grateful smile. Then she frowned. "But that still leaves one, and I'd hate to deal with it the hard way." She added significantly, looking JJ in the eye."
JJ responded with a wan grin. "Against a Class Five? Not going to be fun!"
"Good!" Charley replied solemnly, "War isn't meant to be fun!" Then she grinned back at JJ. "I'm glad we have our real memories back, they're more use against these things!" She declared quietly, so only JJ could hear.
"Yeah," JJ replied, "But what happened to our 'future' memories? I remember everything we've told people, and I know we weren't lying, so why can't I remember any of that stuff?"
Charley looked momentarily surprised, then shook her head. "No idea, and we have no time to figure it out now! Let's get these charges ready..." She trailed off, frowning in puzzlement, head cocked as if hearing something. "Ron?" she muttered, then shook her head and went to talk to whoever was responsible for the breaching charges.
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"I was alone, for the first time in a long time." The Doctor told Betty, "And I was seriously thinking of never taking a companion with me again. But then I landed on the Cadre base ship where the girls lived, and...well, to make a long story short, I averted a disaster, with their help! Afterward, the Cadre found themselves indebted to the four of them. After all, preventing the destruction of the Cadre base scored them some big points!"
"How nice!" Betty replied sarcastically.
A smile flitted across the Doctor's face briefly. "Yes, well they added it all up, and the girls had not only earned a trip home, but some additional benefits as well. For instance, four A.I. personalities that had been linked with Charley wished to accompany her, and this was permitted."
"The boys, obviously." Betty commented.
"Yes, but just their programs, not their bodies. Mind you, those could be changed by the Cadres to suit various mission needs. So the A.I.s in question were very flexible! And in addition, a ship A.I. who had developed almost maternal feelings toward the four of them also asked to come along. This too was granted."
Now Betty was surprised. "Thundagirl? Ahhh, I should have thought of that, if the rest of the girls' story was untrue, where did she come from?"
"Yes, I wondered when that would occur to you." The Doctor replied with a quick grin, "For the record, I never altered Thundagirl's memories, though the Matrix may have. You see, her program was stored in a receptacle aboard the TARDIS when we were on Gallifrey, so she didn't 'see' anything dangerous. And the Boys' programs were stored in memory chips on a necklace Charley wore, but they received no input, so they didn't witness Gallifrey's impending doom, either. I had the Ar'Ithane create bodies for them later, deliberately making Thundagirl's appearance fit with the girls' new memories."
"And Thundagirl has known the truth all along?" Though there was no accusation in Doctor Director's tone, the Doctor felt it necessary to speak in T-Girl's defense.
"Yes, and she went along with it to keep the girls safe. She'd do practically anything to protect them, Doctor Director. In fact, she'd..." Betty cut him off short with a gesture.
"Tell me something I haven't already guessed, Doctor!" She said with a faint smile. "I've noticed how fierce she is at times. A remarkable achievement in Artificial Intelligence, as Doctor Laird understated the case! But if these Cadre can make more like her, I wonder why they need organic beings at all?"
"They have their reasons, and even I have to admit that they're logical ones, Doctor Director." The Doctor replied mysteriously. "But back to our original topic, you can easily guess what happened. I impulsively offered to give them a ride home, but things didn't go as planned. I responded to a signal, and the TARDIS was drawn to the end of Gallifrey. By the time I realized we might be heading for forbidden times, it was too late, I couldn't alter her course! That part still puzzles me, I will admit. But all that matters is that it led me to the point of altering those young women's lives even more then they'd already been disrupted. And, it prevented me from returning them to their own time and place, though truthfully that may have been a bad idea for all but Charlene. Reuniting her with her parents..." He sighed quietly, "Well, that's all water under the bridge, no going back now!"
"I still can't understand how, after the explosion in that other world, that the Matrix was able to again use the girls in it's plans, and didn't you bring them back to Earth, yet again?"
Now the Doctor looked embarrassed. "Actually, I haven't quite figured that out myself! I have some theories, but I'm afraid they'd go right over your head, Doctor Director!"
Arguing that point with the Doctor was certainly futile, so Betty shifted the topic back to the girls. "So, now the girls have to live with false memories for the rest of their lives?" She asked pointedly, "Never knowing the truth about where they came from, all of it?"
The Doctor shrugged helplessly. "I see no way of making it safe for them to remember, Doctor Director! Trust me when I say..." Then his brow furrowed, and he cocked his head as if listening. Moments later, Betty heard the cause of his concern, or rather confusion.
The sound of a TARDIS materializing...
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"This is not good." Kim muttered as she and Shego stood at the foot of the stairs, "GoGore was right there, I swear he was!" she gestured emphatically at the spot where she'd left the villain unconscious.
"Easy Princess, I believe you!" Shego replied calmly as she looked warily around, "It just means he recovered from you hitting him..which I admit is unlikely this quickly, or he changed bodies again." She gestured at the nearly dissolved body of the pseudo Master. "Sure that isn't him?"
Kim shook her head sadly. "No, that's the guy who abducted me..."
"And the girls?" Shego growled.
"No, that was someone else, this man took me, but when he realized what was at stake, he switched sides." Kim explained.
Shego responded with a noncommittal grunt, then suddenly her eyes widened as she remembered something. "Stoppable! He got through the door ahead of me!" She looked quickly around. "But where did he disappear to?"
"We've got to find him!" Kim responded urgently. She pointed at the door leading towards her former cell. "Better try this way!"
It took them only minutes to search the rooms in that direction, including the one the babies had been in. Kim noticed that the prop she'd used to hold the cell door open was gone, though the door remained open. But there was no sign of Ron.
The door into the laboratory area was sealed in some manner that resisted both force and Shego's plasma. Frustrated, they spent several minutes studying the video feeds from outside. They saw Drakken working on the breaching charge, and Charley suddenly collapse, which made both women even more anxious.
While Kim chewed her lip and dug her nails into her palms, Shego spun and paced away along one wall, and spotted the door Ron had found. "Princess! Over here!" She called, bringing Kim hurrying to her side. The door was still ajar, and after an exchange of determined glances and one look back at the screens, they descended.
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"There, that should fix it, Captain!" Doctor Drakken said with obvious satisfaction as he examined the firing circuit for one of the breaching charges, "I take it these are relatively new? Otherwise, I'd have to develop a very poor opinion of your quality control!" He started to rise from his knees, and received a boost from Charley. He started to nod gratefully to her, when he saw an odd shimmer just behind her head. The next moment he staggered as she fell against him, suddenly limp. "Miss Cob?"
A loud shriek emanating from Ben caused all around them to look in surprise as he and the other three skulls streaked through the air towards Charley, though their focus was actually the green skull, George, who had been the source of the strange shimmer and now became visible hovering in front of Drakken's eyes. Something dangled in the air in front of him, appearing to be a mesh made of extremely fine gold wire. The mesh dropped to the ground as George vanished yet again and apparently departed, leaving Charley's boys buzzing angrily in frustration as they circled over their fallen mistress.
"Oh my God!" JJ cried as she dropped to her knees next to Charley as Drakken lowered her to the ground, but with his eyes on the the object George had dropped. He already had a suspicion as to what it might be, and JJ confirmed it, even as an Air Force medic knelt down to check Charley's condition.
Looking at the tangled mass of tiny wires, JJ spat out angrily,"He pulled the interface out of Charley's head! That damn machine is fighting dirty!"
"You mean, there was a physical interface to allow her to interact with her skulls?" Drakken asked as he tried to pick up the fallen device, and found that it seemed to be disintegrating as he touched it. "Blast!" He cursed under his breath.
"Yes!" JJ snapped, stroking Charley's forehead, "Interact, and boost their teleport capability! Without that in her head, our plan to deal with the fifth machine just went out the window! And don't bother trying to save that, according to the Cadre doctors who put it in, it shouldn't even have physical substance anymore! Once implanted...guess they didn't figure on a Time Lord computer wanting it out again!" She spat out angrily.
Casting a quick glance out at the water for any sign of the approaching enemy, a Ranger captain asked, "And how exactly were you planning to disable the fifth machine before?"
"'port on top of it..." JJ pulled a disk shaped blue object similar in dimensions to a Frisbee from a hip pouch, "Use this to paralyze the machine for a minute or so, then try and cut through to it's control node with this.." She indicated a fat cylindrical object that Charley had strapped to her thigh. Both items had been brought from Thundagirl by the Reeder sisters earlier. "We need the machine immobile to use this, it has to be held very steady for it's cutting beam to focus, and it bucks like nobody's business!"
"I don't understand what you mean by Charley 'boosting' the boys teleport capability." Drakken asked.
JJ cast an anxious glance out at the water. "No time for a long explanation...Charley has a latent psychic ability, psychoportation. The Cadre doctors believed it runs in her family, probably her mother's side. It's so weak it can only be used by instinct normally, conscious control is impossible. Supposedly, she might actually 'will' herself a few extra inches when she jumps, sustain her momentum a second of two longer, or even reduce it slightly. Not much, just a very little. But the Cadre found ways to use that latent ability and channel it through the boys, boosting their normal teleport capability. They can still move stuff on their own now, but they might have to network and combine their powers to move heavy stuff, a hundred pounds or so would be the max for them all together without Charley. I mean, that's why Fred and Saul could only 'port the babies down in Thailand, not Kim or Shego."
"Then how did they teleport all of you out of Shegos' house in the Yucatan, with Charley not there?" Drakken asked skeptically.
"There were six skulls available, combined they could..." JJ shook her head, "No, they couldn't! That idea must have been something the Ar'Ithane implanted in us! It's not literally the skulls that interface with Charley, it's the A.I.s that inhabit them, so we should never have believed the new skulls...I haven't a clue how they did it, unless the skulls the Valeyard had made are more powerful, or had their own booster!" The girl ended with a frustrated shrug.
Though obviously not satisfied, Drakken switched topics. "And who are these 'Cadre'? Another race you met in the future?"
JJ winced, but was saved from explaining the latest memory madness by a call from Belle. "We've got movement! Think the leader's about to break the surface!"
JJ grabbed hold of Charley's shoulders and lifted as the medic took her feet. "Time for explanations later, Doc—Professor!" Then she added under her breath, "Assuming there is a 'later', of course!"
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Already caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a stranger he hadn't heard enter, Ron was staggered suddenly as he felt a wave of anger violently radiate out from the cylinder in the center of the room. He turned towards it even as he staggered, and the stranger caught him just before he lost his balance and fell. "Steady there! Don't worry, I believe our friend here was being forced to do something, and has just been released!"
"Friend? Forced? What do you mean..I mean, who are you! Why does that thing feel like Charley?" Ron's logical mind was trying desperately to assert some sort of control and stop the babbling, but was having little success. The hawk-nosed old man with thinning white hair made a placating gesture.
"Calm down, my boy, calm down." The old man replied soothingly. Then he indicated the column. "This device is somehow imprinted with the abilities, and personality, of a living being, either dead or alive now. But I believe it to be enslaved by a more powerful entity, artificial or organic, though not controlled at all times. That last part is purely conjecture, of course, but I noticed the presence of emotion in it, until just before you came in. Then it seemed to be stifled, until that outburst we just felt."
Ron's brow furrowed deeply, then his eyes widened, "It's the Matrix!" he exclaimed heatedly, "That's what's responsible! It must have copied Charley's brain, in order to operate it's own set of skulls!"
Ron's first three words had caused the old man's eyes to narrow, and the rest went unheeded. "The Matrix? And what do you know of that?" He said suspiciously.
"Not the original!" Ron responded without thinking. Then he looked at the old man warily. "I mean, this is just the back-up, sort of."
The old man had his lapels in his hands, fingers drumming as he digested that statement. Finally he said "So, they built it, did they? I remember the Chief Archivist saying it was a ridiculous measure, it would never be needed. I objected as well, though for different reasons..." He trailed off thoughtfully.
Ron now studied the man curiously. He was wearing checked trousers and a battered coat over a white shirt. He seemed old...but if he was, as Ron suspected, another aspect of the Valeyard, then who? And then it struck him, and he barely avoided blurting out his conclusion. Instead, he remembered what the man had said before. "You don't know who you are?"
Startled out of his reverie, the man drew himself up and regarded Ron imperiously. "Well, that's not strictly true!" But then he grimaced slightly, "Or maybe it is!" He muttered in disgust. "I thought I knew who I was, I thought I lived a decent life, then passed away! But instead, there have been fleeting moments since then, hours at a time at most. Waking in strange places, sometimes dressed outlandishly! On this occasion, I woke up wearing leather trousers, of all things! Then I found these clothes...I don't know, there's something not quite right here!"
Ron bit his lip, then nodded to himself. "I think I can explain some of it to you." He began...
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Mego, the Doctor, and Betty Director eyed the newly arrived TARDIS with apprehension. It had materialized right next to the Seventh Doctor's time machine, the doors of the two aligned side-by-side. And now the doors swung open, and out stepped the Tenth Doctor.
His earlier self studied him warily. "And who are you?" He asked.
The Tenth Doctor sucked air in through his teeth, then replied almost apologetically. "I'm you, the tenth regeneration."
The Seventh Doctor studied him narrowly, then shook his head. "No, I don't feel it in you..." He said doubtfully.
"Ah..that's because I've never been linked to the Matrix, so we can't sense our bond." His newer self replied.
The other Doctor's eyebrows rose. "Never linked to the Matrix? Willingly? Or..." Then comprehension dawned, and a grim look appeared on his countenance. "Ah, I see...I survived." It wasn't a question, merely a flat statement of fact.
"Yes." The other replied, almost reluctantly. "I survived."
They were both silent for a minute, then the Seventh Doctor asked "And why are you here, now?"
"Ah, well...I Just had a friend of mine tell Charley and her friends the code phrase to restore their own memories and erase the false ones." The reply was rapid, but not quite fast enough for him to continue uninterrupted. "And then..."
"You WHAT!" The Seventh Doctor's bellow made Mego shrink two feet out of reflex, and even Betty flinched, despite her own state of shock, switching to anger rapidly. "Are you Mad!" The Doctor continued, "Do you know what you've done! You've put those four girls..."
"And then I introduced myself to them..." The Tenth Doctor interjected quietly, almost unheard in the rant.
"..in great danger! Our people will find them and then they'll..." Then the Seventh paused, before adding quietly, "You introduced yourself?" The Tenth nodded. The Seventh Doctor's bemused look faded to be replaced by one of dawning comprehension, "That—you mean, you...that's...Brilliant!" He exclaimed, a wide smile appearing on his face, "Of course, I couldn't have done it, obviously, since I would have needed to know you existed..."
"Would someone explain to me what's going on, and why what he did is so 'brilliant'?" Mego asked testily. Having missed most of Doctor Director's conversation with the Seventh Doctor, he was more than confused.
"By introducing himself to the girls.." Betty explained before either Doctor could speak, "He connected them to his own life, technically making them 'off limits' to the original Matrix, if I understand correctly." Both Doctor's nodded enthusiastically, beaming widely until her next words. "Which, if that was all that was needed, was unnecessary, since they've already met the Rani's post-Gallifrey self, which I'd think would serve the same purpose?"
Both Doctors stopped smiling, eyes blinking, then they looked at each other. "Wellll..." The Tenth began grudgingly, "Maybe that would have been enough...but it's better to be safe then sorry, right?" He ended in a chipper tone, smile faltering in the face of Betty's stern look. "Anyway, I have to be going, this sort of thing is against the rules, you know."
He looked to his earlier self for agreement, but instead saw suspicion. "But you no longer have to worry about those, do you?" The Seventh Doctor asked.
The Tenth Doctor bit his lip briefly, then replied soberly "Yes, I do, even if no one is around to make me obey anymore. I've learned that lesson just recently...never mind, I must be going!" He reached out and clasped Betty's hand. "Goodbye, Doctor Director...Betty, keep an eye on those girls, will you? They have important destinies. And so does Kim, as if you couldn't guess that!" He smiled warmly, but the smile vanished quickly. "I...have to go, sorry." He released her hand and stepped back, entering the TARDIS almost hastily.
The Seventh Doctor watched it fade away, a contemplative look on his features. Then he snapped out of it and hastily pulled his watch out again, concern appearing on his face. Mego had just started to speak, "Is someone going to explain..." When the Doctor seized both of them by an arm and guided them forcefully towards the console.
"No time, I'm afraid!" He snapped, indicating the control terminal. "Now, look at these readouts! When all three of those indicators lower into the blue range, it's safe to shut the containment field down! You do that by taking both of these levers here, and pulling them back to the stops. Do it in one smooth pull, no stops, no hitches! Now, I have to go, to try and stall the Matrix!" He headed for his TARDIS, after collecting his umbrella and hat.
"Is that wise, Doctor?" Betty called after him, "I thought the Matrix could read your thoughts if you confront it directly!"
"I never said I was going to confront it directly!" The Doctor replied, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!" Then he was inside the TARDIS, and the white light atop it began to flash.
"Where have I heard that before?" Betty commented dryly as the time machine completed it's noisome departure.
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Kim and Shego faced far less of a dilemma when they reached the bottom of the stairs, as far as choosing a direction. They could clearly hear faint voices coming from the partially open door to their left, one of them Ron's.
Kim began a cautious approach to the door as she tried to make out the words being said. Shego however frowned at the closed door at the far end of the corridor. She felt something, but couldn't quite decide what. The door definitely made her uneasy. She trailed after Kim, but kept the other door in sight as long as she possibly could.
Kim paused just short of the door. She heard Ron saying, "And that's the whole story, as far as I know. Short version, that is!"
"I see, I see...most disturbing, if true..." came a subdued reply. Kim peered around the corner and her eyes widened as she recognized the man Ron was talking to from her dream about the Doctors. Her conversation with the Master also came to mind. "So, beating up GoGore made him revert to his first incarnation, the Doctor? No, it was probably still random."
Kim stepped quickly into the room, and Ron grinned widely as he caught sight of her. She smiled back while studying her surroundings. She sensed Shego entering behind her, and then became aware of the intense scrutiny with which the Valeyard was regarding her.
Shego looked at the old man with a confused scowl on her face. She nudged Kim and whispered "Is that..."
Kim nodded, and whispered back. "His original self, identical to the original Doctor." The scowl on Shego's face only deepened as she tried to reconcile her hatred of the Valeyard with the frail old man before her.
"I may be identical, young lady," The Valeyard addressed Kim, who blushed faintly at having been overheard, "But if this young man is telling the truth, that may not last for long!" He placed one hand on his chest, fingers gently drumming, face becoming unfocused. "This is a bad business. I told Rassillon, I told them all, that cloning was not wise. Too many changes made in our genetic structure to create the Time Lords, there were certain to be problems! And now it seems I was right, how ironic that I became the subject of that foolish experiment!"
"Sir, we understand how disturbing this may all be." Kim told him, "But right now, we need to concentrate on stopping the Matrix's plan, no matter what it takes!"
The Valeyard peered keenly at her for a moment, then nodded decisively. "You're absolutely right, my child, we need to act immediately!" He looked at the cylinder in the center of the room, and mused aloud, "I'm not sure anything can be accomplished here, however! We need to get to the heart of the matter, as it were!" He looked at the three of them in turn. "Anyone know where that might be?"
Kim nodded. "I think I know precisely where we need to go!"
"That's all well and good," Shego remarked warily, "But has anyone else begun to worry about what the Matrix is going to do to stop us?"
They all exchanged glances, then Ron grinned weakly. "I suppose it would be too much to hope that it doesn't have anything inside the shelter to stop us with?" But even as he said it, Ron felt something from that part of him connected to the Mystical Monkey Power. And he didn't like the feeling.
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In the chamber behind the door that had given Shego a bad vibe, a containment field switched off. The occupant of that field stirred lazily and cast it's senses out by reflex. After a moment, a sense of amusement and anticipation swept through it as it became fully awake.
It would have shaken the twin-hearted female who had 'captured' the creature to have known that her containment field had no hope of actually holding it had it chosen to leave. It had the benefit, however, of shielding out disturbing frequencies and allowed the creature to enjoy a nice, long, nap. It had occasionally awakened and taken a look around, but nothing had excited it, nothing had offered any kind of challenge. But now...
It detected the unstable twin-heart and four other creatures, two female and one some kind of mutant, but it ignored those three to focus on the fourth, a male. The male was connected to some kind of powerful mystic force, a force that the creature sensed was fully aware and filled with apprehension about it. And well it should be. The creature measured the strength of the power as it mentally 'stretched' itself. A challenge, to be sure, but one that should be easily won. Still, it was better than just going back to sleep again.
With that thought, the creature began to glide towards the entrance to it's 'prison', maliciously savoring the thought of what it was about to do...
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