CHAPTER 53
I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.
Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews!
ENTER THE BRETHREN
"Megan, use your night vision to keep a lookout for the Angel. She could be coming for any of us at any moment. Try to keep yourself between her and the rest of us as much as possible," I ordered as I immediately took charge of the situation as soon as the lights went out.
"Excuse me? Since when did Megan suddenly become disposable?" Stephen said in surprise.
"Hang on a minute. No one's saying that she is. It's just that she's the only one of us that the Angel can't affect. She's already lived her life after all so the Angel can't send her anywhere. She's the perfect defense against her," Donald explained.
"Are you sure about that? Her brain never did actually die after all so technically she could still be counted as alive," Stephen said in a worried voice.
"Actually . . ." Megan said in a sad tone.
I inwardly winced because I knew that this was a very touchy topic for her. She had already told me all about it long ago and how much it had affected her when she found out. I was sure that she would much rather not be discussing this with him right now and certainly not in front of all of us.
"When?" Stephen said in a sympathetic voice.
"Decades ago. Luckily I had already completely transferred my consciousness to my memory core long before that. It still hurt though when I discovered that it had suddenly stopped functioning. That's when I realized that I wasn't human in any way anymore," Megan said in a mournful tone.
"Megan," Stephen said in a worried tone.
"Oh, don't worry so much. I'm not getting all down on myself again, Stephen. I realized when I met you just how wrong that I was. Now I understand that I'm still just as human as I ever was or I never would have been worried about losing my humanity in the first place, would I?" Megan said with a smile in her voice.
"It still upsets me though because you technically actually did die even if you are still here," Stephen said in an emotional voice.
"See? This is exactly why I never told you. I knew it would bother you. Relax, okay? I'm not really dead. I'm alright," Megan said in a gentle tone.
"Trust me. That's only a momentary condition. That can be easily changed," The Angel said as she suddenly grabbed Megan's neck from behind in an iron grip.
"Oh, that was so stupid! Never should have let myself get distracted like that. Luckily for me though I can easily do something about it," Megan said in an angry tone.
Then her head suddenly swiveled around and she looked straight at the Angel with a wicked smile on her face as she said, "Bet you didn't see that coming did you?"
"What are you, part Cyberman?" The Angel said in a surprised voice.
"Actually they stole that from me. Little bounders," Megan said with a frown.
The Angel was instantly frozen in her tracks and had to switch back to her Time Lord form. That immediately gave Megan with her superior strength to a Time Lord's the advantage as she instantly turned the tables on her and began to fight with her.
"It's a good thing that Stephen couldn't see you do that little trick, dear. Then he'd really have something to be bothered about, wouldn't he?" I said with a chuckle.
"How do you know what I did? It's pitch black in here," Megan said in a surprised tone as she continued to fight with the Angel.
"I'm one of the most dangerous people in the universe, Megan. Do you think I got that way by having a problem with the dark? Just because I can't see doesn't mean that I don't know exactly what's going on at all times," I said with a smirk.
"What is she talking about? What did you do?" Stephen asked Megan in a confused tone.
"Don't worry about it. It's nothing that you haven't already seen before. You already found out about it when I caught you trying to sneak up behind me to give me a surprise kiss that time," Megan reassured him.
"Oh, was it the swivel head? She's right. That is a bit freaky at first until you get used to it. It definitely gives new meaning to the phrase 'having eyes in the back of your head' though, doesn't it?" Stephen said with a grin.
"Mikaela's never going to get away with anything growing up is she?" Astrid said with a chuckle as she changed into her plasma form and began to join Megan in her fight against the Angel now that she knew exactly where she was.
It wouldn't have been a good idea for her to light up until then because she would have been giving our position away to the Angel after all.
Thanks to Astrid's light show, all of us could see exactly where the Angel was now and instantly began to attack her at once as a result. The Angel was immediately overwhelmed by our superior numbers and probably would have been quickly defeated if she hadn't switched back to her Angel form right away.
Now we were trapped in a stalemate with one another as all of us especially Megan kept an eye on her. We couldn't hurt her and she couldn't hurt us because Megan never blinked unless she wanted to do so. For the moment at least, the Angel was completely neutralized as a threat.
That still didn't solve my most pressing problem though. Where was the disk with all of my memories on it and how could I get it back?
Or was it already too late for that now?
That was when Donald suggested with what I was sure was a huge grin on his face, "Listen. We're just wasting time here with neither one of us having the advantage against the other. You want revenge on the Brethren for betraying you, and we don't want them to get the information on that disk. Wouldn't it make more sense if we cooperated together in order to stop them? That way we both get what we want. You can always get back to trying to kill us later after all."
The Angel switched back to her Time Lord form now and appeared to be thinking it over for a moment before she said, "Fine. Don't even think about trying to escape from me once the Brethren have been dealt with however. That won't end very well for you I promise."
"What are you going to do? Kill us again if we do?" I joked.
"Where you're concerned I just might," The Angel said in an angry tone.
"We won't try to get away when the time comes you have my word," Donald promised.
I immediately gave Donald an 'are you kidding?' look. I really hoped that he was practicing Rule Number One here or he and I were definitely going to have more than a few words about this later on.
The Angel laughed now as she said, "That expression on her face makes it all worth it. I'm so glad that I agreed to this now. I'm really enjoying this."
"I just bet you are. You'd better enjoy it while you can because I'll be the one laughing later, dear. You actually just made a huge mistake agreeing to that deal because you gave me more time. Time to come up with a plan," I threatened.
"What makes you think that I'm not coming up with one too, Professor Song?" The Angel said with a smug, arrogant look on her face that I couldn't wait to wipe off of it soon.
"Now, now. There's no need for that. We can at least pretend to be civil to one another while we're teamed up, can't we? What's your name anyway?" Donald asked the Angel.
The Angel looked at him in surprise now as she said, "What?"
"Welll, I can't very well call you 'Angel' or 'Hey, you', can I? I have to call you something. So what's your name?" Donald asked.
"I can think of a few things to call her," I said with a frown.
"Melody," Donald said with a sigh.
"It's . . . been a long time since anyone asked me my name. I'd almost forgotten it to be honest along with how it once felt to be that person. I'm nothing at all like her anymore. She used to actually believe in something and always stood up for what she considered to be a noble cause. Now all I care about is myself instead of wasting time on lofty goals. I learned that lesson the hard way thanks to Rassilon," The Angel said in a faraway tone.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Donald said and I knew that he meant it.
There he went again sympathizing with his enemies. You would really think that he would stop doing that.
Then again if he hadn't done that with me neither of us would still be here would we? I'm sure that I would have been disposed of by the Silence as soon as I killed the Doctor. At that moment, I would have become far too dangerous to keep around after all.
They would have found that out the hard way as I began wiping every single one of them out as soon as I had regained control of myself. Luckily it never came to that though.
"Melinoe. Melinoe Oakdown," The Angel suddenly said bringing me out of my thoughts.
I was actually grateful to her for once. I definitely didn't want to dwell too long on a world without the Doctor. That was exactly why I was so anxious to get that disk back again before I wound up getting him killed anyway despite everything.
Thankfully that wouldn't be as easy a job as it once would have been with so many Doctors around now. Which was partially the reason why things had turned out that way I bet because I'm sure that didn't come about by accident any more than anything else in this altered timeline does. It could still happen eventually with the incredible resources that this Brethren seemed to have at their disposal however especially if they learned enough information about the Doctor.
That's why I had to act as quickly as possible to ensure that that never happened.
I was so busy worrying about the Doctors that I completely missed the significance of Melinoe's name. Donald however definitely hadn't. I could tell by the stunned look on his face.
"You're Melinoe Oakdown?" Donald asked in disbelief.
"Why? What about it?" Melinoe asked curiously.
"It's . . . It's nothing," Donald said.
"No, it's definitely something. Tell me," Melinoe demanded.
"Melinoe Oakdown is a great hero of Gallifreyan history. Every Time Tot learns about her at the Academy and how she helped overthrow the tyranny of Rassilon," Matt said as he took up where Donald had left off.
Melinoe looked stunned as she said, "I didn't do anything though. Rassilon turned me into this . . . thing before I even got the chance."
"You helped indirectly inspire the revolt against him that followed though. What he did to you shocked everyone because it was the first time that he had punished someone simply for speaking out against him. Before that anyone turned into an Angel had always been guilty of at least some crime or another. This time he had no excuse whatsoever for what he had done. It helped to wake many people up to exactly what kind of monster that they were dealing with by that point. That was the first time that they realized that he was definitely not cool by any means," Matt said with an awestruck look on his face.
"Yeah, you were kind of one of my heroes growing up because you stood up for what was right no matter what the cost. My friend Koschei always rubbed that in my face too when we were growing up together because you were one of his distant family members. I have to admit that it used to make me more than a bit jealous of him because I would have loved to have you in my family tree," Donald admitted as he too looked at her with a star struck look.
"No, you wouldn't. It's all just a tissue of lies, Doctor. I'm no hero. I'm just an idiot who was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Melinoe said in an upset voice.
"I know the feeling," Donald said with a small smile.
"You have the oddest choices for heroes, Donnie: Salyavin, the Corsair, and now her. None of them were exactly the poster child for normalcy were they? Salyavin was thought of as a criminal for centuries until you cleared his name, the Corsair was definitely not anyone's idea of a role model with his constant party attitude, and now you have a woman who was only made a hero by the history books. Apparently they got it all wrong about her," I said in a disapproving tone.
"Oh, you never want to listen to what history says. History is a set of lies agreed upon," Melinoe said with a frown.
Donald and Matt both smiled at that as Donald said, "You're quoting Napoleon."
"Where do you think he got it from?" Melinoe said with a slight smile.
Was it my imagination or was she somehow becoming more likable the more that Donald talked to her? I didn't know if she was just warming up to him after all of that talk about her being his hero or if it was just a trick to lull us all into a false sense of security. Either way I didn't like it.
I also didn't like how she kept smiling at him either for that matter.
I decided to put an end to this whole thing right away by getting directly to the point as I said in an irritated voice, "So do you have any information that can help us to get that disk back or not?"
Melinoe gave me an evil smile as she said, "Don't worry, Professor Song. I'm not after your husband if that's what you're worried about. He's definitely not my type anyway. He's much too idealistic for his own good."
"I actually happen to like that about him myself," I said in an angry voice.
"That's very ironic coming from you. Then again I suppose you would like someone who will even stand up for the likes of you . . . or me," Melinoe said as she immediately turned extremely sad.
"Melinoe, do you know anything that can help us?" Donald asked in a much gentler tone than I had.
Melinoe gave him a brief smile as she said, "It's someone that you already know apparently. She said his name earlier: The Corsair. That's what he called himself anyway."
"The Corsair? But he's dead though. The other me told me that he was killed by some being named House," Donald protested.
"He looked very much alive to me when he contacted me to offer me a deal on behalf of his friends in the Brethren. Was he a strong muscular man with a tattoo of an Ouroboros on his arm? You can't miss him if that's the case," Melinoe said.
"Yes, that's him. It can't be though unless . . . Not unless the Brethren saved his life by altering time somehow. They've never done anything that big before though. This is even worse than I thought. This is bad. This is very bad," Donald said in a voice filled with concern.
Astrid looked at him in confusion now as he said, "But he was your friend though. Matt told me all about him once and how the two of you used to have such happy times together. He said that he was one of the good ones. He must be faking his allegiance to them. Surely he wouldn't really turn against you would he?"
"I wouldn't have believed it myself but who knows? Who knows what the Brethren could have done to him? Or maybe what House did to him drove him completely mad somehow," Donald said in a voice filled with anguish.
"Then maybe we can return him back to normal once again. If we can ever find him that is," I said to him in an encouraging voice because I didn't like seeing that look on his face.
It was that look that said that he had just lost another one. I was sure that he was already adding the Corsair to the long list of people that he had failed to save.
"You haven't failed him yet," I said in response to his unspoken thoughts.
"The Corsair. I seem to remember that name. I came upon a mention of him once in the Library. If only I could remember. It's getting harder and harder to remember what I found out there now that I'm back to normal again I'm afraid," Tallulah said as she finally spoke up for the first time since Melinoe had made a truce with us.
"Thank you, Rose. You couldn't have picked a better time to erase her memory about the future?" I said out loud in an agitated voice.
"We don't know that it's Rose. It could just be that the transition from data ghost back to human once more has altered her brain so much that it's made her forget the things that she learned in the Library. The human brain is a very fragile thing after all," Donald proposed.
"Oh, come off it, Donnie. Haven't you learned by now? It's always Rose. She was so busy trying to protect the Web of Time that she seems to have forgotten about the fact that we might need to know some of the things that Tallulah found out," I said in anger.
"There's no need to get so upset and certainly not with Miss Tyler, Melody. I haven't forgotten. Not everything anyway. It just took a while to bring it all back again. I remember now. I once read a book where the Corsair was mentioned to have mysteriously returned after having been thought dead. It never gave any explanation for how by the way. It just said that he was discovered after his death on a planet called Acheron and I think . . . yeah, it was you that discovered him there if I remember correctly. The book didn't say what happened next either to you or him. Sorry. I know that couldn't have been much help," Tallulah said.
Donald shook his head vigorously as he said with a huge smile, "No, you've been a lot of help. Much more than you think. Acheron! Of course! That makes perfect sense. Come on. We need to go back to the TARDIS."
As he began to race off, I said, "Would you care to explain to the rest of us what suddenly makes such perfect sense to you, Donnie?"
"So it isn't just me then? I'm glad. I hate always being the only one who doesn't understand things," Tallulah said with a sense of relief.
"This is Donald, Tallulah. All of us feel that way around him at some point or another. That's just part of knowing him," I said as I gave her a warm smile while we both struggled to catch up to the rapidly retreating figure of my mad husband.
He seemed filled with renewed energy about something. Suddenly he was back to being his usual manic self once more and had been filled with a renewed sense of hope.
I just hoped that he didn't have those hopes suddenly dashed once again.
"Not me. I know exactly what Sand Shoes is so happy about. It could be our first real lead on the Brethren," Matt said as he passed us.
"Care to enlighten us on what that lead is?" I asked as he too raced ahead of me.
He said nothing which just made me want to hurt him even more. We were definitely going to have a little chat about this incident later.
"I can tell you I think. Acheron is where Rassilon banished his son Erebus into the Void for daring to defy him. Erebus had established a base there where he was gathering his followers, the Brethren, together to prepare for a massive strike against his father on Gallifrey. They disagreed with Rassilon on the direction that Gallifrey would take. They thought that the Time Lords should rule over all of Time itself and reshape it in their own image in order to benefit them. Rassilon thought that they should only preserve the Web and not interfere. That was one of the things that I was protesting against. I thought what he did to his own son was terrible no matter what his crimes were. I see now just how naive that I was. If he was anything like his father, he probably deserved far worse," Melinoe said in a bitter voice.
"And now the Brethren have returned to Acheron. Is that it?" I wondered out loud as I finally reached the TARDIS at last.
"I think it is. I think that maybe they've returned somehow or are at least trying to return anyway by using the Corsair as their agent. Maybe there's still time to stop them before it's too late. We have to go to Acheron right away," Donald said in an excited voice as I and the others entered the TARDIS.
"Not with her we won't," I said as I pointed to Melinoe who had now joined us in the Console Room.
"I'm going too. I want my revenge on them even more than I want to kill all of you. You will take me there or I'll make sure that this TARDIS never goes anywhere ever again," Melinoe said as she switched to her Angel form right in front of the Console.
The threat implied was obvious. She could easily suck the temporal energy out of it and render it completely incapable of traveling anywhere if she wanted.
"Fine. I'm going to be keeping an eye on you though," I promised.
As she returned to her Time Lord form, Melinoe said, "I wouldn't have it any other way, Professor. You know this constant banter between us just makes your inevitable death at my hands all that much sweeter."
Then her face changed from one filled with smugness to a look of uncertainty and sadness instead as she caught Donald giving her a disappointed look. It actually seemed to matter to her what he thought of her amazingly enough.
Maybe she liked being thought of as somebody's hero after all and maybe, just maybe, I could use that against her soon.
"You can come too, Melinoe, but there will be no more talk of killing anyone especially my wife. Is that understood?" Donald said in a cold voice.
"Yes," Melinoe said with what might have almost been a look of shame on her face.
Donald smiled once again as he said, "Good. Let's be on our way then. Allons-y!"
"Geronimo!" Matt said with a grin as the TARDIS immediately dematerialized.
Donald glared at him which immediately caused Matt to say, "Fine. Be that way. One day I will have my own TARDIS though, and then I'll be able to say Geronimo whenever I like."
"One can only live in hope, can't they?" Donald said with a sigh.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Matt asked.
"That you keep promising to go, but you never actually do," Donald said.
"Well, maybe now's finally the time," Matt said in anger.
"Stop it, you two. Now is definitely not the time. We have a common enemy to fight against here. Remember?" Astrid said as he got in-between them.
"He started it," Both Donald and Matt said at once as they pointed fingers at one another.
"It's just like when my Doctor met Umbrella Man all over again," Megan said with a groan.
"Is he always this childish?" Melinoe said in disbelief.
"You've actually caught him on one of his good days. He's usually far worse," I said with a mad smile.
"And this is my little hero worshipper, eh? I guess you have to be a bit childish in order to think of me as any sort of a hero anyway I suppose," Melinoe said in amusement.
That was when the TARDIS finally materialized at last. We emerged from it to find ourselves amid a set of vast and extremely ancient ruins that I would normally have just loved to explore in order to find out all of their juicy little secrets about Gallifrey's past. Right now I was much more interested in finding that disk than anything else though.
"There seems to be nothing here and hasn't been in a very long time," Megan said as she looked out across the horizon.
"Oh, there's something here alright. The TARDIS was picking up definite traces here of another TARDIS somewhere nearby. It must be the Corsair," Donald said in an excited voice as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver.
Then he started to follow the readings on it like it was a Geiger counter as he raced off in a hurry to the east.
"What do we do now, Melody?" Tallulah asked in a confused tone.
"We follow him I suppose if only to make sure that he doesn't get himself killed by falling into some crumbling old ruins somewhere," I said with a smile.
"We should be so lucky," Matt said with a frown.
"Matt," Astrid said in a disapproving voice.
"Let's see you meet yourself sometime, Astrid, and see how nice that you are to her," Matt said as he pouted.
"Yes, I'm sure that you'd love that, Matt. Then you'd have two Astrids around. That would be a win-win for you," I said with a chuckle.
Matt gave me a mischievous smile but said nothing. He knew that it was true.
"I guess the two of us would definitely be fighting in that case because I wouldn't share you with anyone not even myself," Astrid said as she gave him a tender kiss.
I could see a look of longing briefly pass over Melinoe's face as she watched them. I wondered if she was thinking of someone that she had lost perhaps from a long time ago. Maybe she too once had someone who meant as much to her as Matt did to Astrid.
Maybe that was partially why she was the way that she was now and was so filled with anger and resentment.
I quickly had to stop myself at that thought. What was I doing anyway? Sympathizing with the enemy?
I really had become mellow lately, hadn't I?
Shortly afterwards we finally found what was unmistakably a TARDIS because it stuck out like a sore thumb here in the middle of this long abandoned wasteland. It was in the form of a very familiar barn after all. It was the same one that the Doctor had once gone to when the fate of the entire universe had been at stake at the end of the Time War.
Obviously the Corsair had wanted to be found. That wasn't good at all. That meant that this was most definitely a trap and that Donald would definitely walk right into it in order to save his friend. In fact, it seemed that the Corsair was counting on that.
"You do know that he wants to kill you, right?" I warned.
"He's obviously been brainwashed into doing it, Melody. I can help him. I can still save him. Part of him must want me to," Donald reasoned.
"Maybe," I said unconvinced as we headed towards the 'barn'.
That was when each of us was suddenly trapped inside of our own personal force fields that seemed to be impenetrable. I know I certainly tried everything against mine within the first five seconds of being inside of it and nothing so much as put a dent in it not even the segment of the Key to Time that I had.
Just what kind of energy was the Corsair using here I wondered.
Then I realized that it wasn't the Corsair at all as several beings that I didn't know but immediately recognized as Time Lords appeared all around us. That settled the question of whether the Brethren had gotten the disk or not. Obviously they had and had used the information on the Doctor in it to use that barn from his memories in order to lure him into a trap.
"We are the Brethren and we have been waiting to meet you for a very long time now, Doctor. Excuse me. I suppose I should say Doctors shouldn't I?" One of the Brethren said as he looked at Matt.
"Well, at least someone gives me some respect around here," Matt said as he continued to pout.
"Of course we do. You are our honored guests after all," The de facto leader of this group of Brethren said.
"Really? I rather got the impression that you wanted to kill me instead," Donald said in a disbelieving tone.
"That's only if we have no other choice. Right now we're going to make you an offer that we hope that you won't refuse first," The Brethren leader said.
"And if I refuse, which I will, then you'll kill me, right?" Donald asked with a frown.
"You won't refuse this offer I don't think, Doctor, because we're about to give you your fondest wish," The Brethren leader said.
"Oh, you mean you'll go away and never cause any trouble again? That would be too much to hope for though, wouldn't it?" Donald said sarcastically.
The Brethren leader shook his head as he said, "No. That is far from your fondest wish, Doctor. We now know what is though. We know what must be your wish. We want you to help us return our true leader back home to this universe where he belongs. In exchange for that help, we will give you your heart's desire. We can and will alter time so that you can be with your one true love: Rose Tyler."
Donald's jaw dropped open in shock as I finally said, "Oh, now you've just got to die. I've definitely heard enough."
I suddenly brought the entire force field surrounding me down in seconds using the segment of the Key in my gun. It had been resistant to its power at first but even it had fallen before it eventually when I kept subjecting it to a steady stream of energy from it.
Now I suddenly stood in front of the terrified Brethren members with a furious look on my face as I said with an evil smile, "Hello, boys. I think that you're about to find out that you've just made the biggest mistake of your lives."
Next: It's River versus the Brethren as we find out even more about what they're up to on Acheron. Place your bets, readers. I definitely know who I'm betting on.
