CHAPTER 27
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WAR OF THE MACHINES PART 2
As soon as Mikaela stepped outside the TARDIS, she found the leader of the Symmetry waiting for her. He smiled in triumph with his mechanical lips which just made Mikaela shiver at the extremely creepy image that it created.
"So you finally understand now don't you? Without you the entire universe is in jeopardy. As terrible as you think that we are, the Half-Face Man's group is far worse. They wish to help the invader from another reality to conquer everything in exchange for her false promises. Her Promised Land is just an illusion nothing more," The leader of the Symmetry said.
"I know. She was just bragging to us about all of the trouble that her group has started. I want to help you stop them if I can. I still don't want to become your leader, but I don't want you all to die either. I have to do something. I can't just stand by and watch," Mikaela said in a shaky voice.
To Mikaela's surprise, the Symmetry leader placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as he said, "We won't force you to do anything. I've learned my lesson about that a long time ago. What's happening here now is my fault for trying to force you to come and scaring you away. It's just that I knew that we would need you for this very day. The prophecies about you always said so."
"It's not your fault. It's mine. I was afraid of losing who I am. To be honest, I was afraid of becoming more machine than human. I've always hated being part Symmetry. It always seemed to make me less real somehow as if I wasn't a real girl," Mikaela admitted.
"I didn't realize what being a part of two worlds had done to you or I would have handled the whole thing much better. I am truly sorry," The Symmetry leader said in a sad voice.
Mikaela actually felt herself feeling sorry for him as she said, "It's alright. Let's put it all behind us now. We have much more important things to worry about."
"Mikaela, are you alright?" Clara asked as she, Rose, and the Doctor joined Mikaela outside.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Maybe it's not going to be as bad as I thought. Shouldn't you be back in the TARDIS? It's not safe out here," Mikaela said even as another portal opened up nearby and massive blasts of energy came out of it quickly followed by yet another group of Half-Face Man's soldiers.
"We'll risk it, Mikaela. We're not about to let you do this alone especially after Missy's last little challenge to us. We're going to make her eat her words. Oh, I shouldn't have said that. Now I really need some chips," Rose said.
"So? Just conjure some up then. What's the problem, Bad Wolf Girl?" Clara asked.
"The ones that I make don't taste anywhere near as good as the ones that are made naturally. They just don't have the same zing to them," Rose said.
"Ari, this is an extremely dangerous situation. I can't believe that you're making jokes about chips," The Doctor said in disbelief.
"Shut up, Old Man! Her babbling is making me feel better because right now I'm completely terrified especially after those visions that I had," Clara admitted.
"What visions?" Mikaela asked.*
"It's nothing, Mikaela. Nothing to do with you anyway," Clara said with a warm smile.
"Uh huh," Mikaela said knowing full well that Clara was lying to her.
It never ceased to amaze her how someone who was an otherwise sweet and decent person like Clara could be such a huge liar at times. Then again she had been stuck on Trenzalore for 900 years with the Doctor so it was really no wonder that she had picked up some of his bad habits was it?
"You can stop worrying, Clara. I'm sure that between me and Rose that we can keep everyone safe at least for a little while anyway. I've created a force field around all of us, and I just sent in some reinforcements of my own," Victoria said as she too now came outside to join them along with Jamie, Zoe, and Polly.
She smiled as several Yetis now appeared out of nowhere and began to fight the Half-Face Man's half-human half-android soldiers. Then as if that wasn't enough several snowmen, icemen, and Whisper Girls joined them.
"You needed help? Now you've got it," Victoria said.
"Why are we suddenly siding with them now? I thought that they were the enemy," Jamie asked in confusion.
"From what I've heard of this Missy, she sounds like she's even worse. I remember reading many horrible stories about her once and that was just the ones that weren't classified," Zoe said.
"Did you ever read what happens to her? Or anything about this day?" Polly asked curiously.
"No, I'm afraid not. Sorry," Zoe said.
"How did you read any stories about Missy? They would all be kept from the general public as much as possible by UNIT," The Doctor asked.
"I may have hacked into their computers once and looked into their files on her one of the times that we were at UNIT HQ Even I couldn't decrypt the classified files on her though. I didn't have enough time. I only had a few minutes to use their computer. I would have definitely done it in ten more minutes though if not sooner," Zoe admitted with a grin.
The Doctor briefly smiled as he said, "Still as good with computers as ever I see."
"I wish I were better with them. I'm absolutely useless at them. I always have been because I developed a phobia about them after WOTAN took control of my mind when I first met you. He gave me a bit of a phobia about technology," Polly admitted.
"I bet running across the first Cybermen didn't do anything to help with that either," Clara said.
All of this talk about computers had suddenly given Mikaela an idea. She wasn't sure that it would work or not, but it wouldn't hurt to try it. She was beginning to become desperate.
Mikaela looked at Zoe now as she said, "Do you think that you could understand the technology of the Half-Face Man's group of androids if you studied it enough? Maybe well enough to create a virus to disrupt it?"
"Probably. I always have been a quick learner especially when it comes to computers. I once caused a computer to destroy itself by giving it an unsolvable problem in ALGOL so I do have some experience at destroying machines," Zoe said proudly.
"Good, then we're definitely going to need you. Give her access to whatever enemy tech that you have. Hurry!" Mikaela ordered the Symmetry Leader.
The Leader smiled now as he said, "Yes, Promised One. I will eagerly obey your first real commands to me."
"Hey, don't get too excited. This doesn't mean that I'm staying on with you lot, got it?" Mikaela said.
"Of course not," The Leader said in a nervous voice because he was afraid of driving her away again.
"Clara, you're good at hacking. You help her all that you can," Mikaela said.
Clara looked at her in surprise even as she said, "Right, Boss."
"You can actually admit that someone else is the boss of you?" The Doctor said with a snort.
"I can when I respect them, Mr. Stick," Clara said with an evil smile directed at the Doctor.
"Ooh, do you need to put some balm on that burn, Doctor?" Rose said with a chuckle at the resulting frown on the Doctor's face.
Suddenly all such frivolity was stopped in its tracks as more and more cracks in time opened up everywhere around them by the moment, and more reinforcements for the Half-Face Man began to spill out of them. Mikaela couldn't help but wonder where they were coming from. There seemed to be an almost infinite supply of them.
Then she noticed something. Many of the Half-Face Man's androids had the same face! After she had noticed it over and over again, she finally brought it to everyone else's attention.
"Yes, I've noticed it too, Ella. I've also noticed something else. Some of them look like people who I know that are now dead, and I've seen multiple versions of them too," The Doctor admitted.
"She's doing it again," Rose said with a frown.
"Doing what?" The Doctor asked.
"Remember how I told you that in the original timeline that she fought you with the stolen souls of everyone who had ever died on Earth who she made into Cybermen, Doctor? Apparently this Missy still did that too. Her timeline must be identical to the old timeline of this reality before I changed it. That means that she must be the same Master who tried to kidnap Koschei and Marissa before and force them to work for him along with every other version of the Master and the Rani throughout the Multiverse," Rose said.
"You said that most of Missy's captured souls were set free when they blew themselves up though to stop her plan. So where are these people coming from?" The Doctor asked.
Then he hit himself in the head as he said, "Multiple faces. That's it! Oh, this is horrible even for her. She's not just taking the dead from one universe now. She's taking them from all universes! She's using the Half-Face Man to create new cyborg bodies for them based on their old appearance to create a massive army to conquer the entire multiverse. That has to be it. She's either deleted their emotions again or twisted them in some way to make them serve her as you said that she did to Nightshade. With an army of all of the dead of every universe at her command, who could stop her?"
"An alliance of machines maybe," Mikaela said.
Rose began to smile at her even while the others looked at her in surprise. The Symmetry Leader meanwhile nodded as he saw that she was beginning to understand now.
"We can mass produce as many soldiers as we need and replace any who are lost. We've long ago learned how to recreate ourselves quickly and efficiently. Furthermore we know that the Cybermen of several realities have turned against Missy after she stole their technology to create her own Cybermen with for her stolen souls to inhabit. The Movellans are also against Missy because they are aware that they would be the next to fall before the Half-Face Man's forces if they enslave all carbon based lifeforms. Missy doesn't have a good track record of playing well with others after all," The Symmetry Leader acknowledged.
"I don't want to conquer the carbon based lifeforms either so that part of your prophecy is not happening, understand?" Mikaela said.
"Yes, Promised One. We would do whatever you wished if you took command despite it conflicting with the prophecy," The Symmetry Leader said.
Mikaela then began to smile as she said, "What if it didn't conflict with the prophecy at all?"
"What are you getting at?" Clara asked in a worried voice.
"Don't give me that worried look, Soufflé Girl. I haven't lost my humanity just yet. Bear with me here and it'll make sense. The prophecy said that I lead the Symmetry to a victory over all organic life, and there's a new Age of the Machine where we rule over the universe, right?" Mikaela asked the Symmetry Leader who nodded.
"Stop saying we, Mikaela. You're scaring me," Clara said warily.
Mikaela smiled and said, "I didn't mean it like that. Here's my idea. What if the prophecy has been misinterpreted? What if the organic life that I'm supposed to lead the Symmetry to victory against are these people who used to be alive but are now androids? Maybe I'm supposed to defeat them and that starts a new Age of the Machine that way. As for ruling over the universe, well maybe we could rule over our own little corner of it. We could create our own Promised Land. It would be a real one though not a Matrix slice created to simulate one. Would the Symmetry agree to something like that?"
All of the Symmetry in the area suddenly looked at Mikaela in unison now as the Symmetry Leader asked, "If we did, would you finally agree to lead us?"
Mikaela hesitated as she said, "Let's just defeat Missy's army first. Then we'll talk about that later. We can all agree on that, right?"
The Symmetry turned away with disappointment on their faces as their Leader said, "Yes, for now."
The massive battle continued to rage on now as both sides continued to pound away at each other while the Cybermen and the Movellans seemed more and more to be picking the Symmetry's side over the Half-Face Man's. Then the tide of the battle seemed to finally about to be turned at last as Zoe waved at Mikaela to come and talk to her in an excited manner.
"Do you have something?" Mikaela asked eagerly.
"Yes, I believe that I do. I discovered that the Doctor was right. Missy did do something to the androids' emotions. She's twisted them all into nothing but violent hatred for her enemies. Apparently she's made them into the complete opposite of the Cybermen," Zoe said.
"So what can we do about that?" Mikaela asked.
"I can create a virus that will switch their emotions back to normal. It would be like setting them back to their default settings you could say. Clara could then help me hack into their network in order to help me deliver it. It shouldn't take too long to do. I just need a little more time," Zoe said.
"Let's just hope that we have it," Mikaela said in a worried tone.
Even as Zoe struggled to quickly come up with her virus, the fighting continued to get worse and worse as more and more soldiers entered the battle by the moment through cracks in time. Mikaela was beginning to wonder if they would ever stop fighting them all.
"Doctor, how big could Missy's army potentially be? Would it be a lot bigger than what we're seeing here? She's not pulling them all away from the rest of the universe is she? They're still fighting there too aren't they?" Mikaela asked already sure that she knew the answer.
"She's only just begun to throw soldiers at us, Ella. This is only the tip of the iceberg. She could have more of them than there are people in this entire universe if she had the dead of all universes at her command," The Doctor said.
Mikaela nodded with a sigh as she said in a low voice, "I've got to do it then."
"You don't have to do anything, Mikaela," Rose said.
"You knew. You knew from the start," Mikaela said.
"Nothing is set in stone. Missy's already changing the nature of this fight by bringing in all of the dead too. They weren't involved originally. It was just the Half-Face Man's forces," Rose said.
"You did know then. Yes, of course you did," Mikaela said with tear-filled eyes.
"Mikaela, we can always do this another way if you want to," Rose reassured her.
"Do what? What do you have planned, Mikaela, and why don't I like the sound of it?" Clara asked.
Mikaela sighed as she said, "You definitely won't."
Suddenly Zoe said, "I have it. Now we just need to deliver it somehow."
"I know that the Symmetry have a Cyberiad like network between them. Does the Half-Face Man's group have one too since you're both offshoots of an earlier group? If they do, can our network link to theirs in any way?" Mikaela asked the Symmetry Leader.
"There you go with the shared pronouns again, Mikaela," Clara said as she began to have a sinking feeling in her heart.
Mikaela only looked at her sadly but didn't answer.
"Yes, the enemy has a network similar to ours and we can link into it. It has several firewalls preventing us from gaining access however," The Symmetry Leader answered Mikaela.
"I can help with that. Just lead me to some kind of computer terminal," Clara said reluctantly.
The Doctor looked at Clara with pride as he saw that she was still going to help despite knowing what Mikaela was potentially going to do soon. The Doctor was almost certain of what she had in mind by this point.
The Symmetry Leader quickly took a portable device out of his chest and gave it to Clara as he said, "You can use this to get into their network."
"Oh, I see. It's like a Symmetry datapad. Here goes then. Wish me luck," Clara said as she started to type away.
"Good luck, Soufflé Girl," Mikaela said in a voice filled with reluctance.
Soon Clara had hacked into the Half-Face Man's net and was quickly uploading Zoe's virus into it. She then sat back with her fingers crossed and watched as she waited to see what would happen next.
Suddenly all of the Half-Face Man's androids in the area stopped fighting and looked around them in confusion. They had done it. Missy's control over them had been undone by the virus.
The Symmetry and their allies (except the Cybermen of course) all cheered at this apparent victory. The Symmetry now all began chanting Mikaela's name in unison.
"This is the first victory of the Promised One. Her idea led us to total victory over the enemy. The prophecy is coming true at last!" Several of the Symmetry started to say together in excitement.
Clara meanwhile knew that it was never going to be that easy.
"I'd hold off on the celebration a bit if I were you. It worked on all of them in this area but someone's already created all new firewalls to keep it from going any further. That was quick," Clara said.
It was Clara's own future dark side, the Matriarch, who had done this. Even now she was working against Clara on Missy's behalf. Clara of course had no idea of this at the time.
"We need to go on the offensive and take the fight to them right now while we still can before they can send any more soldiers here," Mikaela realized.
"Yes, you do," Clara said in a sad voice.
Mikaela hugged Clara tightly and whispered good bye to her and then she said good bye to the others as well. She was finally ready now. She knew now that this was what she was always meant to do.
Mikaela now stood in front of the Symmetry Leader and said, "I accept leadership."
The Symmetry cheered yet again even as Mikaela quickly added, "But only on the conditions that I said earlier. My first order is this. We're going to take the fight to them now and go on the offensive. We're going to track them down throughout time and space no matter where they are and stop them all in their tracks just as fast as we can. We'll keep hacking through their firewalls over and over again no matter how many times that they put them back up again and free the rest of Missy's army with the virus wherever we come upon them. We'll keep doing this until they're all freed everywhere. Then we'll find a nice secluded corner of the universe where we won't bother anyone and establish a Promised Land there. You can tell the Half-Face Man that too when you come across him along with anyone else either mechanical or cyborg who wants to join us. Those are my conditions and that is the only way that I will lead you. That and . . . I want to be able to go back to a normal life someday when all of that is done. Do you all agree?"
The Symmetry all saluted her as the Symmetry Leader nodded and said, "It is agreed then. Welcome, Mikaela. You are now the Queen of the Symmetry."
"I'd prefer to call it the Machine Alliance so that the Movellans, Cybermen, and others could join too. Of course they'd all have to agree to stop attacking carbon based lifeforms to get in," Mikaela stressed.
The Symmetry Leader nodded as he said, "That may be a problem with the Cybermen, but I'm certain that the Movellans and many of the other forms of androids throughout the universe will be willing to abide by that. Do we start the attack now then?"
Mikaela looked back at her friends one last time with a soft smile and then said, "Yes, let's do it."
Then she looked at the Half-Face Man's newly freed androids and said, "You can join us if you like or we'll free you so that you can be at rest. It's your choice. Just come along with us and we'll sort it all out later."
The androids all went along with the Symmetry then as they motioned them towards their ships which were now arriving to pick everyone up to continue the fight elsewhere.
"I'll take you to see your mother and father soon. Don't worry," The Symmetry Leader said to Mikaela as he led her to a waiting ship.
Mikaela looked at him in surprise as she said, "How did you know that I was thinking that?"
"I've learned all about how you think in the time since I last saw you. I probably know you better than you know yourself. That's why I know that you'll eventually leave once your goals have been accomplished. I won't stand in your way when you do either. I promise you that," The Symmetry Leader said.
"Thank you," Mikaela said as she smiled at him.
She waved good bye one last time to the others, and then she was inside a Symmetry ship. The Symmetry and the rest of the newly established Machine Alliance then quickly left as they prepared to take the fight to Missy now with their newly gained advantage.
The cracks in time quickly sealed themselves throughout the area as soon as they had all left. The battle here was finally over with at last. The greater war between the Machine Alliance and Missy had only just begun though.
Clara quietly went back towards the TARDIS with tears in her eyes without saying another world. She was sure that Mikaela would be alright now, but she would still miss her.
Then she smiled as she realized that one day she would get to see her again after the now baby Mikaela grew up and joined them as a companion. That was still something to look forward to, wasn't it?
Rose put a hand on Clara's shoulder and said, "We may not have seen the last of this version of Mikaela you know. She did say that she'd like to leave them someday after all."
"Yeah, but she'll go back to the future not to this time," Clara said.
"Maybe and maybe not. Who knows?" Rose said with a smile.
"You do and you know it. You always know everything," Clara said.
"Not everything," Rose admitted with a troubled look.
Ever since Missy had appeared and started altering the timeline the future was starting to become more and more uncertain by the moment. Now not even Rose was sure how it would ultimately turn out.
As it happened someone else was worried about that as well, and he was about to make his concerns felt very soon now.
*If you'd like to know more about this then take a look at my one-shot story, The Calm Before The Storm. I love shameless plugs!
Next: The version of the Twelfth Doctor from the future who has appeared in both Sarah Jane and Oswin's stories now will appear here as he gets together with Rose and our Twelve in order to try to put a stop to Missy's plans before his entire future is rewritten. What plan will the three of them come up with together I wonder?
