CHAPTER 13
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SHIP OF DOOM PART 2
"Doctor, please help me. Please!" Mikaela said in absolute terror.
"It's going to be okay, Mikaela. Just stay calm and I'll get you through this," the Doctor lied.
"You're lying to me. I always know when you're lying to me," Mikaela said.
"Now I know I would have liked you. You're clever. I'm sorry for lying. I just wanted you to have some hope in your final moments," the Doctor said.
"I don't want hope! I want to live! Please help me!" Mikaela screamed as she dissolved into tears.
Rose moved toward Mikaela despite the Doctor trying to grab her arm to stop her and revealed her full power as she became the Bad Wolf. The shadow touching Mikaela seemed to lengthen as if it was trying to move as far away from Rose as possible.
"You know who I am, don't you? I'm not just the Bad Wolf but also the White Guardian. I am the light to your darkness. This child is one of mine. She belongs to my family. She is under my full protection and so is everyone else in this room. If you harm her or any of the rest of them in any way, you'll have to answer to me. If you doubt that I'll destroy you for killing the girl, just try me. Ask the Daleks what happens when someone kills a person that I love. I'm sure you've heard their name for me before. The Great Devourer. It's not very flattering I have to admit, but it's pretty accurate since I destroyed every Dalek on the Gamestation for all of the innocent deaths that they caused that day including that of my friend, Jack Harkness. Don't test my patience with you. I'm already furious that you killed my friend Miss Evangelista and temporarily caused the death of River Song by what you did at the Library. Don't you dare push me any further. Don't make me tear this ship apart with you still in it because . . . I . . . WILL!" Rose said in a cold merciless voice.
Then just to show that she wasn't kidding around the entire ship began to rock and shake as Rose smiled. Mikaela began to smile too. This was the Rose that she knew. Loving and kind to a fault but if you messed with the people that she cared about she would destroy you without mercy if she had to in order to save them. She would give any enemy a chance to live though first and that was what she was currently doing to the Vashta Narada. Giving them a chance.
The Vashta Narada touching Mikaela immediately detached itself from her and all of the shadows on the ship seemed to vanish instantly. Rose stopped shaking the ship immediately.
"That's good. Stay out of our way and I'll stay out of yours. Got it?" Rose said as she powered down and returned to normal.
Mikaela ran to Rose and embraced her as she shook with fear. Rose kissed the top of her head and wrapped her arms around her in comfort as she said in a kind voice, "It's alright now. It's alright."
"Thank you," Mikaela said in an emotional voice.
The Doctor smiled at Rose as he said, "I want to thank you too. I didn't want to lose her especially not before I was even supposed to have met her. I already had that happen once thanks to them, and I never want it to happen again. Thank you, Rose."
"Anything for you, Doctor. You know that," Rose said.
The look between the two of them spoke volumes about all of the love that the two of them shared. For the first time, Mikaela now knew that despite the Doctor's different personality and appearance that this was the same man as her Doctor. They both loved Rose with all of their hearts. Mikaela finally felt safe for the first time since she had come to this time with both of them standing over her protectively like they were.
"It's hard to believe that that was the same Rose that I see all of the time. She seemed so cold and distant," Clara whispered to Polly.
"That's what the Doctor used to do whenever someone made him angry too. It was like he became a stranger. They're still the people that you know, but it's just a different side of them, Clara. A side that they like to keep hidden. I think that the real Rose is the person who constantly checks on all of us to see if we're alright though," Polly whispered back.
"What? What are you talking about?" Clara asked.
"You're never seen her do that, have you? Whenever any of the Doctor's friends stay in the TARDIS at the same time that she's there, she always comes and checks on all of us late at night. I caught her doing it to me one time, and she quickly apologized and left," Polly said.
"What is it that she's doing coming into our rooms at night?" Clara asked surprised.
"I told you. She's checking on us," Polly said with an amused smile on her face.
"You mean like I used to check on Angie and Artie at night whenever they'd stay with me?" Clara asked.
"Exactly," Polly said.
"We're not kids though," Clara said indignantly.
"She's two hundred and thirty one years old, Clara. To her we're all kids, and she just wants to watch over us and make sure that we're alright. I think it's sweet," Polly said.
"I'm not so sure. I guess it's not so bad though. At least it shows that she cares," Clara said.
"That's right. It does. That darkness that you just saw showed that too. She's worried about us and is trying to keep us safe," Polly said.
"It's still unnerving though to see her like that when I'm used to her being so kind and gentle," Clara said.
"It's unnerving to her too. Watch her closely, Clara," Polly said.
Clara did so and noticed now that Rose was shaking. It was barely perceptible, and if you blinked, you'd miss it. It was still there though. Rose was shaking and Clara wondered if by embracing Mikaela she wasn't as much reassuring the girl that everything was alright as she was reassuring herself that she was still human even if she was a Time Lord.
"How do you know all of this?" Clara asked Polly in amazement.
"I've been around a while, Clara, despite my appearance. I've also had children and grandchildren. I tend to observe a lot of things that younger people don't. Someday you will too," Polly said confidently.
"I hope so. Thanks, Polly, for making me feel better," Clara said smiling at her.
"No problem. It's my job to show the new girls the ropes," Polly said smiling back at her.
"New girl. Oh, I like that," Clara said laughing.
Then all of the laughing stopped as a chilling disembodied voice spoke from out of nowhere and said, "Someone has scared the shadows. How amusing! Does that mean that the Big Bad Wolf is around? I bet it does."
"Who are you?" the Doctor asked as he stepped protectively in front of Rose since the entity whoever it was had singled her out.
"Look at him trying to protect his Wolf. That's so touching. As if anyone could save her from us. You should be more worried about yourself, Doctor. You are the one who is in danger and no one will keep you safe from us. Not your Wolf, not your Impossible Girl, not your once and future companion, and certainly not that frightened girl cowering in your wife's arms. You will fall to us here today, Time Lord. You will die so that you can never go to Trenzalore. The Time War must never start again, and you must die to make sure of that," the voice said.
"This was all a trap to catch me from the start. You created the time fissure around me as I traveled and then sent the ship with the jamming device on it into the fissure in order to trap me inside of it. You knew that I would have to come here to shut the device off in order to leave and that's when you and your group of Vashta Narada would have me. Or at least you think you do anyway. It remains to be seen whether you can keep me or not. What I'd like to know is how did you build a device capable of keeping a TARDIS from dematerializing? Where did you get that kind of knowledge?" the Doctor demanded.
"We're highly intelligent and inventive, Doctor. All we had to do was to gain access to the secrets of your technology and then it was only a matter of time before we had found a way to counteract it," the voice said.
"Who are you? How do you know about our technology? Come on out and show yourselves!" the Doctor demanded as he grew tired of his unseen foe's games.
A group of three beings suddenly appeared in front of the Doctor and he could now see them for what they were for the first time. They were robots. They didn't look human in the slightest but they had a humanoid form and reminded the Doctor of the Clockwork robots that he had run into when he had met Reinette.
"They're Vortex shielded, Doctor. My powers won't work on them. At least not directly," Rose said.
"That's just wonderful. Who are they?" the Doctor pondered.
"They're called the Symmetry," Mikaela hissed.
"You know them, Ella?" the Doctor asked surprised.
"It's Mikaela, you bow tie wearing idiot, and duh! They once kidnapped my mum years before I was even born. That's how they knew about the secrets of the TARDIS. They probably got them from her when they broke into her database and downloaded everything that was in there. I was almost never born at all thanks to them since they would have kept my mum from ever seeing my dad again if they'd had their way. They wanted to keep her locked up. They've done nothing but attack my family ever since then because they became obsessed with my mum," Mikaela said.
"You are the daughter of the Movellan? Where is she? We have been searching for her for decades. We didn't even know that you had been born yet," one of the Symmetry, the one who had spoken before, said as it turned toward her with sudden interest. The other robots with it looked at her with awe.
"Uh oh. Me and my big mouth. I'm sorry, Mum," Mikaela said in a low voice.
"Movellan? Megan? You're Megan's daughter? Wait a minute! How could you be?" the Doctor asked in confusion.
Megan Harris had been a companion of the Doctor's during his eighth incarnation. She was fatally wounded during one of the Doctor's adventures, but before she could die he brought her to the Movellans, a race of androids who were the enemies of the Daleks. The Movellans placed Megan's brain into a Movellan built duplicate of her body and saved her life. The Doctor had always felt guilty about it ever since though when he noticed how unhappy being an android made her despite her attempts to cover up her true feelings from him. She was now traveling with River Song and Donald Noble, the Metacrisis Doctor.
"It's a long story, Doctor. I shouldn't tell you about it anyway. As Aunt Melody always says, Spoilers!" Mikaela said as she eyed the Symmetry with growing fear.
"The Promised One," the Symmetry all said together as they looked at Mikaela with covetous eyes.
"Oh, great. Here it comes," Mikaela said.
"Who is the Promised One?" Clara asked.
"It's just some silly prophecy of theirs. They became convinced that my mum was special because she's a human in a Movellan body. They came up with this crazy prophecy that my mum would have a child one day despite that seeming to be impossible at the time, and that her child would lead them and all other artificial life forms to total domination over the universe. Then when I was born, they became convinced that they were right. They started to hound my family even more than they had before, and they still attack us even in my time," Mikaela said with a sigh.
"Aren't you worried that it might be true?" Clara asked.
"It's not. I'm not some kind of silly robot messiah. I'm just a normal ordinary everyday girl," Mikaela said.
"An ordinary girl whose mother is an android and who goes traveling through time and space in a blue snog box with two aliens," Clara said laughing.
"Oh, shut up! You know what I mean," Mikaela said smiling at her.
One of the Symmetry turned to the other who had been speaking up until that point and said in an angry voice, "Your Vashta Narada almost killed the Promised One!"
The first member of the Symmetry defended itself as it said, "She didn't die though so that shows that she is protected by the prophecy. She cannot die until she leads all machine kind to universal dominance."
"Hello! I'm not leading anyone anywhere so you can just get that out of your demented little mechanized brains right now! I command you to turn off the machine that's keeping the TARDIS here and let us go! Now!" Mikaela said.
"You can do that?" Clara asked amazed.
"Yup. According to their prophecy, they have to obey whatever I tell them to do unless it's to stop bothering me. That one they never obey," Mikaela said.
One of the Symmetry approached Mikaela in an almost reverent manner and said, "I'm afraid that we can't obey you, Promised One."
"Why not? I thought your prophecy said that you had to or it wouldn't come true. Isn't that right?" Mikaela asked.
"Normally I would have to obey but it is written that the commands of the Promised One can be disobeyed if they would cause her harm or prevent her from fulfilling her destiny. Letting the Doctor leave here would endanger not only you but the entire universe. He must be destroyed to save you," the member of the Symmetry said.
"No, you're not going to touch him. He's my friend even if this one is a brainless buffoon," Mikaela said.
"Oi!" the Doctor said.
"Oh, shut up! I'm trying to save your life!" Mikaela shouted.
"It seems that she does care about you in her own twisted little way, Chin Boy," Clara said laughing.
"You and the two humans can go in peace, Promised One, but the Doctor and the Wolf must stay here. I'm afraid that they have to die," the member of the Symmetry said.
"No. They're coming too," Mikaela protested.
"Disable her," another member of the Symmetry ordered.
The Symmetry closest to Mikaela shot her with a blast of energy from its hand, and she instantly fell to the ground unconscious.
"What did you do to her?" Clara asked in outrage as she ran to check on Mikaela.
"She's fine, Clara," Rose said as her eyes briefly glowed.
"Are you sure?" Clara asked with concern as she checked Mikaela's pulse.
"Yeah, it was a stun blast," Rose said.
"We would never harm the Promised One," the Symmetry that had shot Mikaela said as if it were offended.
"We're leaving right now, and you're not going to stop us," the Doctor said to the Symmetry.
"You cannot leave this ship until you find the device that is preventing your TARDIS from dematerializing. There are thousands of us on this ship, Doctor, along with thousands more of the Vashta Narada that we keep as security. Do you really think that you can get through them all in order to reach the jamming device? You and your wife must die. The others can go. We have no grievances with them, and we do not wish for the Promised One to be alone in her current state," the Symmetry said.
"That's just too bad because we're not leaving here without them," Clara said.
"Neither is your Promised One I'll wager," Polly added.
"You've . . . you've got that right," Mikaela said in a weak voice as she woke up.
"Are you alright?" Clara asked her with concern.
"Yeah, I just have a really bad headache. I hate those stun blasts of theirs. They always do that to me when they can't get me to do what they want," Mikaela said as she tried to stand up.
"I am sorry, Promised One," the Symmetry who shot her said.
"MY NAME IS MIKAELA! IT'S NOT THE PROMISED ONE!" Mikaela shouted in frustration.
"Of course," the Symmetry said as it backed away from her in what to Clara looked almost like shame.
She noted with amusement that the robots seemed to be hurt by Mikaela's rejection of them. It was almost as if they were her children.
"You're going to turn off your device and let us go right now or I'll have to stop you. This is your last warning," the Doctor said.
"You cannot stop us, Time Lord. This is the first time that you've ever met us. You know nothing of our weaknesses," the Symmetry said in unison.
"No, but I do. Use setting 438, Doctor. Set it on the highest volume possible," Mikaela said.
"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked surprised.
"Yes. Do it," Mikaela said.
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders, and the sonic screwdriver started playing music. More specifically, it was the music of Rose's favorite singer. The Doctor turned the sonic up to maximum volume, and the Symmetry began to scream in agony.
"What the?!" Clara said in complete bewilderment.
"Everyone's a critic," Rose said frowning.
"It hurts! It hurts!" the Symmetry shouted.
"Oi! It's not that bad! Most people liked it in the day!" Rose protested.
"Just keep that music playing, and we can reach the jamming device and shut it off without them bothering us. I'm not sure about the Vashta Narada though," Mikaela said.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of them if they try anything," Rose said as her hands began to glow.
They quickly made their way to the jamming device past row after row of paralyzed robots with their hands pressed over their ears in agony. Rose snorted more and more in irritation the more she saw how violently the robots rejected the music that the Doctor played. Many of them started shutting off or exploding.
"Wouldn't know good music if it bit them," Rose mumbled.
Rose destroyed the jamming device with a blast of energy, and then the Doctor quickly brought the TARDIS to them with his key. As soon as they were inside it, the Doctor dematerialized and left as soon as possible.
"Okay, what was that about? Why did the music do that to them for?" Clara asked Mikaela.
"Yes, it was almost as if it were actually causing them pain," Polly said.
"Well, I guess I can see why. It isn't exactly my kind of thing. I only put it on the sonic because Rose insisted on it. I'm more into punk myself," the Doctor said.
"Yes, I know. The Old Man sings it all the time. He drives me nuts with it," Mikaela said smiling fondly.
"Well, I guess Eyebrows isn't all bad after all," the Doctor said.
"Mikaela, tell me! Why did the music do that to them for?" Clara asked again.
"It's because they can't stand certain musical notes sung in a particular sequence and at a specific pitch. Something about the notes in the music of Rose's favorite singer causes pain to their auditory sensors and causes them to eventually switch off from auditory overload. They can't process it. We discovered that about them before in my time. Rose was just as happy about it then too," Mikaela said grinning.
"So their weakness is pop music? I have to admit that no one would ever think of that. I can't say that I disagree with them though," Polly said laughing.
"Oi! Nothing's wrong with my, I mean her, music," Rose protested.
"What was that?" Clara asked in surprise.
"What was what?" Rose asked.
"You said 'my' music," Clara said.
"No, I didn't. I said her," Rose said.
"You're not . . . I mean you can't be, right? Are you? No, you couldn't be. That's not possible," Clara said.
"No, it's not. Why would you even think such a thing? We just look a lot alike. That's all. I get mistaken for her all the time. I have a much lovelier singing voice though," Rose said as she winked at the Doctor.
"I've always thought you sounded exactly the same myself," the Doctor said.
"Quiet," Rose said in a low voice.
"Doctor, why did they think that they had to kill you and Rose to save the universe for?" Polly asked.
"I imagine it was because of the prophecy that if my name is spoken at Trenzalore that silence will fall. Whatever that means. Rose knows my name too," the Doctor said.
"So does Aunt Melody," Mikaela said.
"Do you think that they'll go after her?" Rose asked in concern.
"It's possible. I'll have to warn her," the Doctor said.
Mikaela said nothing more even though she desperately wanted to. She knew what was to come after all and it made her feel so guilty. Without even meaning to, she had just set the wheels into motion for another attack on her mother by the Symmetry by causing them to have a sudden renewed interest in her since they now knew for sure that their prophecy was likely of at least partially coming true when they saw her. Her aunt would be the first one to tell her that she couldn't say anything that might change the future though.
"So I guess I'm going to be staying here a while then," Mikaela said in defeat.
"I'm afraid so," the Doctor said with a sour look on his face.
"Doctor!" Rose said in irritation.
The Doctor started to smile as he looked back at Mikaela and said, "I'm sure it'll be fine, Ella. The time will go by in no time."
"It's not Ella. It's . . . Oh, forget it," Mikaela said in exasperation.
"The TARDIS should already have your room from the future ready for you. She tends to store things that haven't happened yet after all. I'm sure it'll be just like you left it if you want to go to it," the Doctor said.
"I guess I should. I'm kind of tired. I still can't believe all of this has happened to me," Mikaela said in a sad voice.
"Cheer up, Mikaela. You won't be with Old Floppy Hair forever. You'll be back where you belong in no time," a voice said from the monitor.
"Doctor! Can I go home now? Please!" Mikaela said as the Twelfth Doctor appeared on the monitor.
"I'm afraid not, Mikaela. It won't be too long though. I promise. It's supposed to be this way to maintain the timeline," Twelve said.
"I just love how you never told me about this," Mikaela said in irritation.
"I couldn't. You know that," Twelve said looking sorry about it.
"I know but I still don't like it. I guess I know why you always seemed to like me so much though. You already knew me," Mikaela said.
"I would have liked you anyway," Twelve said.
"Really? Chin Boy doesn't," Mikaela said.
"Oh, don't pay any attention to him. He has no taste. I mean just look at what he's wearing. It's nowhere near as cultured and sophisticated as what I wear," Twelve said.
"It looks like you raided Fancy Pants' wardrobe to me. Do I really revert back that far? I must be reliving my childhood. Then again if I survive what's to come I might want to," Eleven said looking depressed.
"Keep your chin up, old boy. You might hurt someone if you don't," Twelve said trying to cheer him up in his own way.
"That's easy for you to say. Time could always be rewritten for me, and I could die while you could possibly live on as a temporal anomaly," Eleven said.
"Nothing's going to happen to you, Doctor. I'll make sure of that," Rose promised.
The Doctor nodded but he didn't look very reassured. Mikaela almost felt sorry for him and wanted to give him a hug despite not being able to stand him. Her Doctor would never show so much weakness not even to his friends. This one was different from hers in so many ways.
"Goodbye, Mikaela. I promise you that you'll be coming home soon," Twelve said as he signed off.
"Go find your bedroom, Ella, and get some sleep. Have a good night," the Doctor said with sadness in his voice and on his face.
The Doctor was surprised as Mikaela gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. Then she headed down the hall to find her room.
"I guess she's not that bad. Maybe she'll fit right in," the Doctor said hopefully.
"Doctor! Why is the swimming pool in my bedroom?! My bed is floating on top of it! Stupid Chin Boy!" Mikaela suddenly screamed.
Clara and Polly burst out laughing while the Doctor said, "Then again maybe not."
Rose smiled and kissed him as she said, "It'll be fine. I'm sure of it."
Later that night, while everyone else was asleep Clara stayed awake. She just lay there in the darkness waiting to see if Rose would pay her a visit. She wasn't disappointed.
Rose suddenly appeared in her room silently without even a burst of golden energy to show her arrival. She came closer to Clara's bedside, and Clara quickly closed her eyes while she pretended to be asleep.
Then when she heard Rose moving away from her, Clara quickly jumped up and gave her a hug. Rose looked at her in complete surprise as Clara laughed at her.
"So you caught me," Rose said looking embarrassed.
"Yeah, I did. I just wanted to say thank you," Clara said as she released her from the hug.
"For what?" Rose asked.
"For being such a good friend. No, for being such a good sister," Clara said.
Rose smiled at her and said in a touched voice, "I think of you as my family too. Good night, Clara."
"Good night, Billie," Clara said smiling.
"I'm not her. I swear. We just happen to look a lot alike, and we both have remarkable singing voices. I mean it's not like I was secretly her all along playing myself on TV or something," Rose said laughing nervously.
"What?" Clara asked confused as she started to wonder for the first time if Rose was really serious or not.
She had just been joking about the two of them being the same person. It wasn't like that could really be possible. Could it?
"Nothing, Clara. It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Good night," Rose said as she quickly vanished.
Clara laid there for a while wondering about what Rose had just said, and then she quickly shook her head as she said, "Naw! There's no way! Things like that just don't happen. That's the kind of thing that only happens on television or fan fiction. It doesn't happen for real. Go to sleep, Clara, and stop thinking such crazy thoughts."
Next: Billie, I mean Rose, is still here next time as the Doctor and his crew encounter a mysterious race called the Viyrans who both he and Rose have met before. Could they be responsible for a deadly disease ravaging the entire planet that's slowly transforming every human being there into Vortex users? It's a disease that will wind up quickly killing its victims once the transformation is complete since a regular person can't handle that kind of power. Or are they really trying to stop it as they claim? It's up to the Doctor and his crew to find out as they try to put a stop to the disease before it wipes out the entire human race and more specifically before it wipes out Clara.
