CHAPTER 44

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THE STORY OF CHARLOTTE

An hour later, Charlotte stood just outside of the medical bay nervously waiting for the results of Amy's tests on her as Melody and Julia both stared at her in mute fascination. To Charlotte's disbelief, the two children looked at her like she was the coolest thing in the universe. Ordinarily she would have liked all of the attention because she had always loved children, but at the moment she was so worried about turning out to be an agent of the Cybermen that she was about to explode. The children's constant gawking really wasn't helping her nerves any. They were only adding to her growing sense of unease in fact.

"Mels, Julia, stop staring at her and go play together in the arcade, okay?" Amy said as she noticed the tight smile on Charlotte's face as she looked at the children.

"There's an arcade on the TARDIS?" Rory asked in surprise.

"There is now. She just created one," Amy said with a grin.

"Really? What games does it have in it?" Julia asked in excitement.

"It has every console that has ever existed and a few that haven't even come out yet. You get to play them before everyone else does. How about that?" Amy said with an evil look on her face.

Julia and Melody both looked at one another in excitement and raced off to find the arcade at lightning speed. Amy could hear them already asking the TARDIS for its location in her mind.

"Well, that'll get them out of the way for a while," Amy said with a chuckle.

"Thanks, Clio. Sorry. I meant Amy. I still can't get used to that yet," Charlotte said in gratitude.

"It's alright. Don't worry so much, Charlotte. Even if you do turn out to be under their control, I'll free you somehow. I can promise you that right now because I'm not about to lose you again. I'm not losing anyone else anymore . . . ever," Amy said in a determined voice.

"Alright, Clio. What is it? What's bothering you? Tell me right now," Charlotte demanded as her concern for her friend won out over her nervousness for the moment.

Amy ignored her as she said, "Your results are almost ready. We'll know what's going on with you soon enough now I hope. So . . . you still don't remember how you got on Telos yet?"

"Fine, be that way then. I only wanted to talk to you about it so you could get over it easier," Charlotte said.

"It upsets her to talk about it because it hurts her too much," Rory tried to explain.

"Talk about what though? Why won't anyone tell me?" Charlotte said in an irritated voice.

Then she suddenly looked at Amy with eyes filled with tears as she said, "Oh, Cliodna, I'm so sorry! You're going to have to give up your daughter for the second time and just after having lost Arkytior and Theta too. No wonder you're so upset. I didn't know."

Amy looked at her in alarm as she said, "You pulled that from my mind. How did you do that? Our bond with each other should have been broken when you died."

"Died? I . . . died? I can't remember," Charlotte said in confusion.

Amy looked worried now as she said, "Charlotte, no offense but I really don't want you in my head right now especially if you might be working for the Cybermen."

Charlotte nodded as she said, "Yes, of course. I didn't mean to pry in the first place, Amy. It just sort of happened. I'll try to build up a psychic barrier between us to prevent that in the future."

"Isn't there any way to break the bond? That would be simpler, wouldn't it?" Rory asked.

Both women looked at him with bothered looks on their faces as Amy said, "I wouldn't do that to her unless I had to, Rory. A TARDIS that loses its connection to a Time Lord usually dies or at least suffers severe mental trauma as a result."

"Oh, then forget that I said that then," Rory said awkwardly.

"He doesn't understand everything about being a Time Lord just yet. He's still learning. He used to be human until recently," Amy explained to a confused Charlotte.

"I was wondering about that. I thought he seemed more human than Time Lord. Leave it to you to marry a human since you were always so obsessed with that planet growing up, Amy. Not that that's a bad thing of course. I like humans. I'm really surprised he's not Scottish though. I always figured you would go for the burly Highlander type myself," Charlotte said.

"No, I found out that I actually like Romans better amazingly enough," Amy said as she winked at Rory who looked more than a bit put out and worried over the topic of this conversation.

"Roman? He doesn't look Roman," Charlotte said.

"It's a long story. A very long story," Amy said as she exchanged a knowing look with Rory.

Just at that very moment the TARDIS began to emit a series of beeps that let Amy know that the tests on Charlotte were finally finished being processed and Rory audibly sighed in relief. Amy couldn't help but laugh a little at the look of discomfort on his face and gave him a tender kiss as a consolation prize.

"What do the tests say?" Charlotte asked in an emotional voice as she began to visibly shake in anticipation of Amy's answer.

Amy spared her an occasional sympathetic glance as she swiftly looked over the results and then she said, "Well, you're definitely not infected with any kind of Cyber technology. So it turns out that you're not a spy for Telos after all."

Charlotte started to smile at that until she saw the upset look on Amy's face that told her that there was much more that she still had left to tell her.

"Shouldn't we be happier about that?" Rory asked as he noticed this as well.

Amy frowned as she said, "That's the good news, Rory. There's plenty of bad news left though. What did the Celestial Intervention Agency do to you, Charlotte?"

"The Celestial Intervention Agency? What do they have to do with anything?" Charlotte asked as she started to look disoriented once again just like she did anytime that Amy asked her questions about her past.

"Everything according to Ushas and Koschei. They told me that they found you hooked up to a mind probe in their headquarters when they broke into it to kill everyone who they thought had assassinated Arkytior at the time.* They said that they found you lying there dead, Charlotte. Apparently you had been tortured to death. You had your matrix burnt out as a result of attempting to resist them. They didn't attempt to remove your body because things got very bad shortly after that. They had to leave the planet very quickly and only told me about you later in a very short communication because they knew that I would want to know. Ushas, she . . . she didn't even sound like the same person anymore. She was so full of hate over the loss of her sister Kali at their hands. Luckily that turned out much better for her in the long run," Amy said.

"Yes, I saw that in your mind. Ari and Kali are both still alive and I'm so glad about that and about Kali finally regaining her sanity once again. I don't understand any of this about me being killed by a mind probe or being in the Celestial Intervention Agency's hands though. I don't remember any of it," Charlotte said in a disturbed tone.

"There's plenty of evidence that something happened though. Your shell has been badly damaged as a result of what looks like extreme torture techniques, Charlotte. All of your systems are starting to break down and develop major faults. Soon the damage will be irreversible. Whatever they did to you, it's slowly killing you. The readouts say that you only have a few days left to live at the most," Amy said in an emotional voice.

Charlotte looked at her in complete shock as she said, "I don't remember what they did. I don't remember any of it. Why don't I remember?"

"If a TARDIS' mind is anything like a human's, then it could be shock caused by severe trauma. It may be making you forget because it was just too painful for you to remember," Rory suggested.

"I want to remember though. I need to know why this is happening to me," Charlotte said in despair.

"Maybe I can help with that. If you can still read my mind, maybe I can read yours," Amy offered.

"That could be extraordinarily dangerous. I have a multi-dimensional mind that even a Time Lord would have trouble fully accessing, Amy. You could wind up as the one with the burnt out brain instead of me if you start poking around in my head," Charlotte warned.

"I didn't mean that I would do it personally. That's why the others used the mind probe obviously. They couldn't do it either. No, I meant that I could call in an old friend of yours," Amy said.

"Idris. You mean the Old Girl is still around?" Charlotte said with a fond smile.

She is and she would appreciate it if you didn't refer to her as old. Only one person can call me that. The unmistakable voice of Clara Oswald/Idris said to Charlotte telepathically.

Charlotte smiled even as she wondered if the others had ever found out that Idris' matrix was based on Clara's brainwaves. Somehow she doubted it. Idris had always protected her secrets closely and rarely revealed them to anyone.

"She's here in the Vortex already isn't she?" Amy realized from the smile on Charlotte's face.

"Amy, this is Cassiopeia. The TARDIS is insisting that I talk to you. I mean really insisting on it. I hope that you know what it's about because I don't have a clue," Cassiopeia suddenly said over the TARDIS' intercom as it sent her message directly to Amy in the medical bay.

"I guess that answers that question," Rory said.

"Cass, I know exactly what it's about. Charlotte is alive!" Amy said.

"What? How?" Cassiopeia said in amazement.

"I'm still not sure about that yet. She won't be alive for long if another TARDIS doesn't help her somehow though. We have to find out what happened to her. Idris has to read her memories because Charlotte can't remember anything at all about the last moments of her life before we found her again," Amy explained.

"It seems that Dad's TARDIS knew about it all along somehow. She was always about ten steps ahead of the rest of us though. Alright, let's land together at the House of Lungbarrow because I know that Clara won't want us just showing up out of nowhere in our apartment without me calling her first. I'll meet you on Gallifrey," Cassiopeia said.

In a matter of moments, the Doctor's and Amy's TARDISes materialized beside each other right in the middle of the House of Lungbarrow's great hall. Amy then quickly ushered Charlotte out of her TARDIS to meet Cassiopeia and the human form of Idris who both stood outside eagerly waiting for her.

Charlotte recognized Idris immediately and laughed as she said, "You look a bit mad in this form, Idris. It suits you."

Idris frowned as she said, "You did it for me and I'm so sorry about that."

"What?" Charlotte asked in confusion.

"I'm answering your question. The one that you haven't asked yet but that you will," Idris said.

Charlotte sighed as she realized that Idris was indeed still pretending to be someone else and was talking in her confusing language yet again. She had hoped that this sort of thing was over when she had told her the truth about herself.

"Can you help her, Idris?" Amy asked hoping that she would actually get a straight answer from the old TARDIS for once.

"That's why I am coming here, wasn't it?" Idris said with an enigmatic smile.

Amy shook her head at the madwoman's usual atrociously mixed verb tenses as she said, "I guess so, yeah. Well, get to it then. Do your thing."

Cassiopeia looked at her in amusement as she said, "Do your thing?"

"Well, I don't know what TARDISes do to help one another do I? I don't know what else to call it," Amy said with a shrug.

"You're exactly the same as ever, Aunt Amy. Never change," Cassiopeia said happily.

"I'll second that," Rory agreed.

"I would think that you would want her to change . . . just a little," Cassiopeia said with a mischievous smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked knowing full well exactly what her friend meant.

"Nothing I'm sure. You're perfect exactly as you are," Rory quickly said.

"Don't you forget it, Mr. Pond," Amy said with a reassuring smile.

Charlotte laughed at them even as she said, "Thanks, Cass. I needed a good laugh."

"I know," Cassiopeia said in a clearly worried tone.

"It's time now. Time for us to link," Idris said to Charlotte as she put her hands on the sides of her head.

"Won't that kill you in that body though?" Charlotte asked in concern.

"Rose, that's Ari's name now, fixed that body especially for her to use however she wanted. She'll be fine," Amy reassured her.

"So she's finally accepted her powers at last. Good. At least I lived long enough to see that. Let's do this then. I need to know what happened to me especially if I'm going to die because of it soon," Charlotte said in a grave voice.

The others all exchanged solemn looks as the two TARDISes began to link their minds to one another's. For several long moments, both of them were silent and then Charlotte's eyes opened wide and she began to scream in pain.

"Charlotte!" Amy said with concern as she started towards her friend.

Idris held out her hand to stop her though as she said, "No, wait! She's alright. She's just remembering."

"So much pain. They did so many horrible things. They injected me with nanotech that was specially designed to eat away at my insides as painfully as possible until I talked but I refused. Then they used the mind probe but I still refused. They even exposed me to intense heat until I could feel everything within me start to burn and liquefy. Then they would take it away before it could kill me outright only to start all over again minutes later. I still wouldn't tell them anything though," Charlotte said in a voice filled with misery.

Amy looked sick as she said, "I am so sorry that you had to go through that. I never would have allowed it if I had known. Why did they do this to you though? What did they want to know that badly?"

"That's the question that I keep asking. Why did I have to suffer so much? Why? I can't remember," Charlotte said in tears.

"I already told you. It was for me. They wanted to know about me," Idris said as she put a comforting arm around Charlotte.

"What about you?" Amy asked eagerly.

Charlotte looked at her with even wider eyes if that was possible as she said, "I do remember now. They had found out about Arkytior's powers and had killed her over them or at least thought they had anyway. They kidnapped me because they had found out that I was a TARDIS in Time Lord form and were trying to discover what I knew about Ari's abilities. They wanted to know who else in her family had them and where they came from in the first place. They asked me all about Persephone but I didn't know anything useful about her apparently because they gave up asking me about her very quickly. Then they asked me about the TT Capsule that the Doctor had stolen recently and if I knew anything important about it or not. When I said no, they realized I was lying and started torturing me for more information. I refused to talk though because I didn't want to betray my friend."

She turned to look at Idris and said, "If they knew that you were based on Clara's brainwaves and were an independent thinker like me, they never would have stopped hunting you down. They would have taken you apart to see what made you that way in the first place just like they did to me. They actually started dissecting me while I was still alive."

"I know," Idris said in tears.

"You're based on Clara?" Cassiopeia said to Idris in disbelief.

"That's not important right now," Idris said dismissively.

"It is though. That's why she had to suffer so much was to protect you," Amy said in anger.

"Stop it. I already feel bad enough about that as it is, Red," Idris said in a voice filled with sorrow.

"You are a part of her," Amy said with an open mouth.

"They did their best but I never told them anything about you. I realized that they were going to kill me if I didn't get away from them soon so I faked my own death by switching off all of my systems and shutting down my matrix. I woke up some time later to find that the entire base was coming down all around me. No doubt I have Ushas and Koschei to thank for that. I used all of the power that I had left to dematerialize and get myself out of there before it was too late," Charlotte said.

"Is that how you wound up on Telos then?" Amy asked.

Charlotte nodded as she said to Amy, "I remember now. I was concentrating on you. I was trying to go to you for help because I was afraid, and I knew that you would always be there for me no matter what. I tried to reach out and touch your timeline as I dematerialized to see if I could find the right version of you that corresponded to me. Only I was so weak and disoriented from what I had already gone through that I picked the wrong part of your life to travel to by mistake. I went to a point in your future instead of in the present. By the time I arrived on Telos, I was so weak I instantly collapsed into unconsciousness. I must have gotten amnesia because it was all too much for my mind to take just like Rory said."

Amy embraced her old friend as she promised, "Don't worry. I will help you, Charlotte. I will save you somehow. I'm not about to let you die like this."

Amy looked at her intently for a few moments and then said, "So they used nanotech on you to eat away at your systems, did they? There was no trace of it in your body when I checked you so at least that's gone now. That makes this easier."

"Makes what easier?" Charlotte asked.

Amy smiled with renewed hope on her face as she said, "Nanotech destroyed you so it's only right that nanotech helps to save you too. Maybe another kind of nanotech can repair all of the damage to your body that they caused. You see I've been working on a sample of the Cybermen's nanogenes to modify them. I can make them do whatever I want them to do now including repairing other machines. All they have to do is examine you. Wait just a minute."

Amy began to grin from ear to ear as she ran back into her TARDIS. A moment later she reappeared with a small box and held it open in front of Charlotte.

"Is that what that was? That was next to the bed every night. I could have opened that by accident," Rory said with a pale look on his face.

"I was experimenting with controlling it with my thoughts every night before I went to bed. It wouldn't have hurt you even if you had opened it, you big baby. It's perfectly safe now," Amy chastised him.

"Are you sure about that?" Rory asked warily even as Amy opened the box.

"I guess we're about to find out," Cassiopeia said as the nanotech flew out of the box.

Amy gestured at the nanotech as she mentally commanded it to fly towards Charlotte. She smiled in triumph as it did exactly as she requested.

The nanotech immediately surrounded Charlotte's entire body and she began to glow briefly as she looked at Amy questioningly.

"What are they doing? It tickles," Charlotte asked.

"They're examining you to determine how best to fix you. Don't worry. It'll all be over soon. They're very smart," Amy reassured her.

Right as she said this, the nanotech immediately went to work in restructuring Charlotte's body as it quickly figured out how to repair her. In a matter of moments, Charlotte immediately started feeling better than she had in years. The nanotech then quietly left her body and hovered nearby as it awaited further orders.

"They did it! Thank you! I knew that you would come through for me in the end. You always did," Charlotte said in an elated voice as she hugged Amy tightly.

Amy smiled and began to cry in relief as she hugged her friend back. This joyous celebration was soon interrupted though by Rory crying out in surprise.

"Amy, the nanotech . . . I think it's dying," Rory said as he pointed to it.

Amy turned her head to see that the small machines were indeed winking out and falling to the ground. They immediately disintegrated into small piles of dust as soon as they landed.

"It was too much for them. I changed them too much from their original programming and they couldn't cope with it. I was kind of afraid of that. That's why I never used them before. The Cybermen wanted to make sure that no one could rewrite their tech that easily it seems," Amy said sadly.

Then she smiled as she said, "I still got them to do some good before they went though. It's kind of ironic isn't it? The stupid Cybermen actually helped me for once instead of taking something away from me. It kind of makes up in a small way for what they did to Oisin. It's almost like we came full circle."

"So what now, Charlotte? What are you going to do with your life now that you're back?" Cassiopeia asked.

Charlotte shrugged as she said, "I don't know yet. I can already sense that everything has changed so much since my time. I'm not sure where I fit in here in this one. I suppose I'll travel with Amy until I figure it all out."

"Or you could travel with me. If Idris doesn't mind that is," Cassiopeia said hopefully.

"I don't mind at all. I'd enjoy someone of equal intelligence to talk to for once," Idris said with a wry grin while the others shot her a dirty look.

Charlotte smiled at her old friend as she said, "I'd like that then."

Then she looked at Amy hesitantly as she said, "I'm still your TARDIS though. We're still linked even though you have another capsule now."

Amy shook her head as she said, "Go on, Charlotte. Enjoy your life and don't worry about me. After what you've just gone through, I'd say that you deserve it."

Charlotte smiled and hugged her in gratitude before following an elated Cassiopeia and Idris back to the Doctor's TARDIS. Amy smiled and was filled with joy that finally something had been given back to her for a change.

She couldn't have been happier in that moment.

"Uh, Mother?" Melody said in a hesitant voice as she poked her head out of Amy's TARDIS.

"Yeah, Mels?" Amy said as she inwardly cringed while waiting for what she already knew was bad news.

"Remember that promise you made to me about forgiving me for anything? Is that still in effect?" Melody asked with a hopeful smile.

Amy laughed and said, "Sure it is."

Melody beamed now as she said, "Good because I just blew your arcade up. It was completely by accident of course."

Amy shook her head as she said, "Of course. I bet Julia's mad, huh?"

Melody frowned as she said, "Yeah, that's another thing that I needed to tell you."

"What happened to Julia?" Amy asked with a frown.

"She's okay. She's just going to need a few replacement teeth I think. They were baby teeth so it's okay, right? Right?" Melody said with a hopeful expression.

Amy picked her up and hugged her as she said to Rory, "Alright, Mr. Pond. Let's go see what the damage is."

*See Tales of Gallifrey Chapter 15 for more details about this if you're curious.

Next: River returns and is guaranteed to cause more than enough trouble to make Amy reconsider that promise that she made to her as a child. That's in addition to the fact that Melody is following her around with awe and imitating her every action. Amy's definitely going to have a hard time keeping River from corrupting her past self, isn't she?