A/N: I'm so excited for this chapter. I can't even tell you. Hence the early upload.
Become a God
The next morning, Sarah Jane drove them all back to the school, arriving just as the children were filing in for class. The Wolf quickly got out of the car, anxious to get the situation taken care of. "John and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers. I need to see the hardware inside," she told them. "Here, you might need this." She flipped her sonic screwdriver over to John, who caught it easily. Sarah Jane just nodded her assent. "Kate, surveillance. I want you outside," she said to the teen.
"Just stand outside?" Kate complained.
"You're nineteen," the Wolf said firmly. "It's safer out here."
Kate looked like she wanted to protest again, but Sarah Jane interrupted by tossing her car keys to her. "Here, you can keep K9 company," the older woman suggested.
Kate groaned, but complied, leaning against the boot of the car and watching them head inside. "Don't forget to leave the window open a crack," the Wolf threw over her shoulder.
"But he's metal," Kate called back, brow furrowed.
"She didn't mean him," John said with a teasing grin. Kate rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at them, causing Sarah Jane to chuckle. "What are you going to do?" John asked the Wolf when they were inside and surrounded by milling children.
The Wolf turned her gaze upward, toward the headmaster that was staring down at her over the bannister. "It's time I had a word with Mister Finch," she murmured.
"Be careful," John warned before he gave her a quick one-armed hug and left with Sarah Jane to inspect the computer system in the Maths department.
Mister Finch moved away from the railing. Following the sense of him she had in her mind, the Wolf tailed him to the school's swimming pool. She found Finch there, waiting for her on the other side. She stayed on her end, fine with keeping some distance between them. "Who are you?" she finally asked.
"My name is Brother Lassa," Finch answered in a smooth voice. "And you?"
"The Wolf. Since when did Krillitane's have wings?" she asked curiously.
"Oh," Finch demurred, "it's been our form for nearly ten generations now. Our ancestors invaded Bessan. The people there had some rather lovely wings. They made a million widows in one day," he said in quiet delight. "Just imagine."
"And now you're shaped human."
Finch waved it off. "A personal favorite, that's all."
"And the others?" the Wolf wondered.
"My brothers remain bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion," Finch explained. "Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath. And what of the Time Lords?" he changed the subject. "I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos. And of course, now they're all but extinct. Only you. The last."
The Wolf refused to flinch at his words. "This plan of yours, what is it?" She refrained from the angry response she wanted to give him. The children were what were important, not her troubles.
Finch looked at her. "You don't know?" he asked, honestly surprised.
The Wolf gave him a grim smirk. "That's why I'm asking. Nicely."
"Well, show how clever you are," Finch goaded her. "Work it out."
The Wolf finally moved toward him, making her way around the pool so she could address him directly, even if she did have to look up. "If I don't like it, then it will end," she said quietly.
Finch cocked his head, appraising her resolve. "Fascinating," he murmured. "Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Wolf?"
She eyed him up and down, as a predator would assess her prey. "I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy," she told him. Finch tensed, sensing her anger bubbling just beneath the surface. She backed away slowly, eyes still fixed on him. "You get one warning. That was it." With that subtle threat, the Wolf turned her back on Finch and left him.
"But we're not even enemies," Finch suddenly called out, causing her to turn back to him. "Soon you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you will join with me. I promise you," he insisted.
"You made me your enemy the instant you threatened those children," the Wolf countered, exiting the pool room and leaving the headmaster fuming.
John watched Sarah Jane struggle with the sonic screwdriver, unable to get into the computer system. She had seemed to want to be the one to use it, so John had given it up without a fight. Sarah appeared to be a little more controlled than the day before and had a better attitude, but she was still giving John looks that he didn't quite appreciate and was short with him. "It's not working," she said, breaking the silence.
John sighed. "Here, let me see it."
Sarah Jane got to her feet and handed it over. John knelt under the desk to give it a shot. "Used to work the first time in my day," she muttered.
"Everything's – just a lot more complicated now," John answered, hesitant.
"John, can I give you a bit of advice?" Sarah Jane asked abruptly.
"Go for it." He concentrated on the computers.
Sarah took a deep breath. "Traveling with the Wolf can be – intense. And I don't want you to feel that I'm intruding –"
John peeked out from under the desk. "I don't feel threatened by you, Sarah Jane," he interrupted her.
"Right. Good." Sarah Jane gave him a short nod, still sounding miffed.
John heaved another sigh and stood so that he could look at Sarah Jane clearly. They needed to have a talk. "I know I wasn't the first, Sarah Jane," he said gently. "The Wolf doesn't talk about her past very much, but I know there were many others before me, just as there will be more after me. I mean, she's nine hundred years old. At least. Probably more, but I think she's too vain to say so," he grinned at the thought before sobering. "I also know that she cares for each of her friends deeply."
Sarah Jane tried to interrupt.
"No. Just listen for one more minute," John told her. His eyes lost focus, staring off into space as he considered his next words carefully. Sarah Jane remained silent, listening intently. "She has nightmares, you know," he continued. "About the ones she's lost, and I think she's scared of what she might find if she ever goes back to the ones she left. So the Wolf keeps moving forward, running as fast as she can."
Sarah Jane's eyes finally softened as she considered John's words. "You two are really close, aren't you?" she eventually asked quietly. "You understand her – in a way I never did."
John shrugged uncomfortably. "I've only been with her about a year. I'm sure you knew her just as well when you traveled with her," he said.
Sarah Jane shook her head. "Never quite like that. Are you and her..." she trailed off.
"What?" John's head shot up. "Oh! No! No, no, no, nothing like that," he denied quickly. "She's my best friend."
"Well, she's lucky to have you."
"She was lucky to have someone like you, as well."
Sarah Jane smiled, finally at ease. "I have to say, I do still miss all that space stuff. I saw things you wouldn't believe."
"Try me," John challenged with a grin.
"Mummies."
"I've met ghosts."
"Robots. Lots of robots," Sarah countered.
"Slitheen, in Downing Street."
"Kate told me about that one. Oh! Daleks!"
John scoffed. "Met the Emperor."
"Anti-matter monsters."
"Gas masked zombies."
"Real living dinosaurs."
"Just met real living vampires and a werewolf."
"The. Loch Ness Monster!"
John paused. "Seriously?" he asked, breaking the competition. Sarah Jane was smiling widely now. "Tell you what, though," he changed the subject, "with you, did she do that thing where she'd explain something at ninety miles an hour, and then look at you like you've dribbled on your shirt when you didn't understand her?"
"All the time. Does she still stroke bits of the TARDIS?"
"Yeah, she does," John chuckled. "To be fair though, she's got me talking to the ship now all the time too. But honestly, I'm like, 'Do you two want to be alone?'" The pair burst into laughter just as the Wolf found them.
"How's it going?" she asked them. The two couldn't control themselves enough to answer her. "Listen, I'm glad you two bonded, but I need to find out what's programmed inside these," the Wolf huffed. John and Sarah just kept laughing. "Guys, stop it!" she complained.
"I can't shift it," the Wolf muttered as she failed at getting into the computer hard drive.
"I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything," Sarah Jane said, surprised.
The Wolf growled. "Anything except a deadlock seal. There's got to be something inside here." She stood and began tapping away at a keyboard. "What are they teaching those kids?"
A moment later, Sarah Jane spoke up. "You wanted the program? There it is." She pointed at the computer screens which now all showed a strange cuboid symbol spinning on an oblique axis.
"Some sort of code?" the Wolf wondered. Parts of the cube began to disappear before their eyes, the code working itself out somehow. "No. No that can't be," she whispered, horrified.
Kate yelled at the young boy stuck inside the school to back away from the locked glass doors. She jumped into Sarah Jane's car and started it up. Apologizing silently to the older woman for the paint job the car would need, she flattened the accelerator on the floor and rammed the vehicle through the school entrance, shattering the glass.
"It's the Skasis Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm," the Wolf realized.
"The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked.
"The God maker. The universal theory," the Wolf clarified. "If they crack that equation, they gain control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, all theirs to use as they see fit."
"Isn't that kind of like you, though, Wolf?" John asked. "You know, the whole Bad Wolf thing?"
"What Bad Wolf thing?" Sarah Jane inquired.
The Wolf quickly glanced at him before looking away. "No, John, it isn't. Never mind that," she dismissed. "The Krillitane's are using the children as a giant computer. Their learning power is being accelerated by the oil from the kitchens. It works as a – as a conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer."
John blanched. "That oil was on the chips, we both tasted it," he said, worried. "I ate some of those."
"What's fifty-nine times thirty-five?" the Wolf tested, eyes on the computer still.
"Two thousand and sixty-five," he answered immediately. The Wolf gave him a significant look. John's eyes widened. "Oh, my God."
"But why use children?" Sarah Jane wondered. "Can't they use adults?"
The Wolf shook her head. "No, it has to be children. The God maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code. They're using their souls."
Finch entered that moment, speaking from behind them. "Let the lesson begin." They all spun to face him. "Think of it, Wolf," he continued, "with the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it."
"Oh yeah?" the Wolf scoffed. "The whole of creation with the face of Mister Finch? Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are."
Finch gave her a superior look. "You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."
"What, by someone like you?" she asked derisively.
Finch shook his head. "No, someone like you." The Wolf froze. "The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a god at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilizations you could save. Pergano, Assinta. Your own people, Wolf, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn."
The Wolf was silent.
"Wolf, don't listen to him," Sarah Jane said quickly.
Finch turned his gaze to her. "And you could be with her throughout eternity. You and John – young, fresh never wither, never age, never die. Their lives are so fleeting," he told the Wolf. "So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Wolf. Join us."
John watched the Wolf, frightened at what she would decide. She took a deep breath, and he braced himself to talk some sense into her if she became tempted. "There are only three problems with your logic, Finch," she finally said.
Finch looked momentarily surprised, but quickly regained his composure. "And what pray tell, are those?"
The Wolf held up a finger. "One. You didn't see what the Time Lords became, how corrupt they were at the end of the War. I wouldn't save them if I could. Two," she held up a second finger. "I told you that you made me your enemy the second you threatened those children. I would never join you. And three. I would make a very. Bad. God." With that, the Wolf hefted a chair and threw it at the large screen, smashing it. "Out!" she ordered, herding John and Sarah Jane from the classroom and Finch yelled in fury.
The trio clattered down the stairs, nearly colliding with Kate and Kenny as they reached the first floor. "What is going on?" Kate asked.
John glanced behind them, seeing the now undisguised bats approaching from the air. "No time for that. We have to go." The group fled to the cafeteria, only to be followed by the bats, Finch entering with them.
"Are they my teachers?" Kenny asked.
The Wolf winced. "Yeah. Sorry."
"We need the Wolf alive," Finch told his subordinates. "As for the others? You can feast."
The Wolf and the others took cover behind tables as the Krillitanes swooped over them. Finch screamed in fury when a laser beam suddenly felled one of the attacking bats.
"K9!" Sarah Jane yelled in delight.
"Suggest you engage running mode. Mistress," K9 said robotically.
"Come on!" the Wolf called, waving them to the exit. "K9, hold them back!" she ordered as the others ran out.
"Affirmative. Mistress," K9 agreed. "Maximum defense mode."
The Wolf sealed the doors with her screwdriver and ran after her companions. She followed them to the physics laboratory, where she immediately began pacing. "It's the oil, gotta be. Krillitane life forms can't handle the oil," she muttered before an idea came to her. "That's it! They've changed their physiology so much, even their own oil is toxic to them. How much was there in the kitchens?" she asked John.
"Barrels of it," he replied promptly. The bats began pounding on the door, making them all flinch.
"Okay, we need to get to the kitchens," the Wolf said. "Kate."
Kate frowned. "Uh-uh. You can't send me away again, I can help," she protested.
"Get all the children unplugged and out of the school," the Wolf ordered instead. Kate nodded. The Wolf turned away, thinking hard. "Now then, bats, bats, bats. How do we fight bats?" No one answered until Kenny rolled his eyes and stalked over to a fire alarm, setting it off just as the Krillitanes broke down the door. The high pitched ring caused them to fall to the ground in pain. Even Finch staggered at the noise. The humans took the opportunity to make their way around the bats and escape toward the kitchens.
"Mistress," K9's voice broke in.
The Wolf grinned at the dog. "Come on, boy," she urged. He obeyed, following them. "Good boy."
The children Kate had rescued all cheered loudly as the school exploded. Kate grabbed John in a hug. He just grinned and patted her shoulder. The Wolf held Sarah Jane to keep her from trying to go back for K9, though the older-looking woman was now still, staring at the school with a deep look of loss on her face.
"I'm sorry," the Wolf whispered.
Sarah Jane shrugged. "It's alright. He was just a daft metal dog." Her voice cracked. "It's fine, really." The tears running down Sarah's cheeks belayed her insistence that she was fine, and the Wolf could only try to comfort her as she started crying.
A few hours later, the Wolf had relocated the TARDIS to a park a few blocks down from the school. Sarah Jane walked up just as the Wolf exited, leaving John and Kate inside. Sarah Jane had told them that she would meet them there, wanting to take the time to compose herself after her breakdown.
"Cup of tea?" the Wolf offered, slightly uncomfortable.
"What Finch said before, Wolf," Sarah Jane said abruptly, ignoring the offer. "About the Time Lords. And what you said. That they're all gone. What happened?"
The Wolf stiffened, hesitating. "A war," was her brief answer.
"One you couldn't stop?" Sarah asked.
The Wolf shook her head. "One I did stop."
"At what cost?"
"Everyone else." The Wolf turned tortured eyes to the woman that was one of her oldest and best friends. "To save the universe, I destroyed them. The Time Lords. Before they could destroy the whole of existence."
Sarah gazed at her friend sadly. "The universe has to move forward," she said gently. "And you do too. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends."
The Wolf stilled for a moment before pulling Sarah Jane into a tight hug. She was startled to realize that she was now shorter than her former companion. "When did you get so wise?" she muttered.
Sarah Jane chuckled lowly. "Years of experience. You'll understand when you're older," she teased, making the Wolf laugh.
"Do you want to come inside? The TARDIS missed you when you left," she offered.
Sarah Jane nodded eagerly. "I missed her too," she said as she followed the Wolf into the ship.
Kate grinned when she saw the pair enter. She bounded over to them while John just watched the girls from the console, a stupid smile on his face. Sarah Jane extracted herself from the other two and came over to talk to him. "She hasn't changed a bit," she murmured. "Not in the ways that matter, at least."
"She's amazing," John agreed as he listened to the Wolf talk to Kate about Cambridge and catch up on the Brig and Doris' lives.
"Are you going to stay with her?" Sarah Jane asked, pulling John's attention away from the Wolf.
"Hmm?" John hummed. "Oh. Yes. As long as I can, anyway. She needs someone, and right now, I'm what she's got."
Sarah Jane nodded thoughtfully. "Find me, if you need to, one day. Find me. Some things are worth getting your heart broken for, but I hope – for her sake – that the three of yours stay whole."
"I'll do my best," John promised.
Sarah Jane smiled up at him, giving him a quick, tight hug. "Good for you. Hang on to this one, Wolf," she called over. "After all, you need some kind of a Smith on board, even if he doesn't quite fit the bill," she teased.
"I don't plan on letting him go for a while," the Wolf agreed. "But what about you? What are you going to do now?"
"Oh, I've got a much bigger adventure ahead. Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own," Sarah Jane said firmly. "After all, there's plenty of aliens on Earth."
"Can I come?" Kate asked suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at her. "No, not with you," she elaborated to the Wolf quickly. "With you," she told Sarah Jane. "Just, you know, if you're gonna get into trouble with aliens, I want to come too. Whenever I'm not at Cambridge, at least."
Sarah Jane thought it over before nodding happily. "I think that that is an excellent idea." Kate gave a yelp of excitement and grabbed Sarah in a tight hug.
The Wolf breathed a sigh of relief. "Now Doris will have someone new to berate for putting her daughter in danger."
Kate turned to give the Wolf a hard glare. "Don't think I've forgotten about those flowers, Wolf," she threatened. The Wolf's face fell.
"You didn't, Wolf," Sarah Jane whispered.
John grinned. "Oh, she did."
The TARDIS took off soon after, leaving a teenager, an old friend, and a brand new robot dog to their adventures on Earth.