CHAPTER 32
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!
Author's Note: This chapter continues straight from the ending of Amy Pond, The Girl Who Waited Chapter 46. I'll explain what happened in that story though for those of you who didn't read it.
LIVES REWRITTEN
"Amelia, look out!" The Doctor shouted as two Weeping Angels closed in on Amy Pond and the Matriarch and stretched their hands towards them with twisted smiles on their faces.
The Doctor immediately started to race towards Amy in a near panic as all of the stories that Rose had ever told him about how Amy and Rory had been taken away from him forever by the Angels in the original timeline flashed through his mind in a single terrifying instant. Even as he did so, he already knew that he was much too far away to save either woman from the Angels in time however. Both of his hearts were filled with dread now as he knew that his best chance to get Rose back in time to prevent the end of the universe would be gone for good within moments.
He couldn't believe that it was about to end this way. Not when they had been so very close to saving everything.
It had all started when Clara's dark side, the Matriarch, had rewritten time for her friends in order to give them what she thought would be much happier lives while making them completely forget their previous ones. It was all a twisted attempt by her to keep them safe from harm by exercising absolute control over their reality.
What she didn't realize though was that what she had done had strained an already weakened Web of Time (thanks to Missy's tampering with the laws of the universe) to its limits and beyond. Now time had started completely breaking down and massive cracks in the very fabric of reality had begun appearing everywhere and swallowing people whole as a result.
Thanks to the intervention of Clara's future self, however, the Doctor, Rose, and several of their family and friends were made to remember the truth about their lives once again. Unfortunately they were all swallowed by a crack in time and space created by the Trickster to prevent them from restoring reality to its proper state again almost as soon as Rose had received the power of the Bad Wolf back again from a repentant Matriarch.
Marissa and Koschei, who also remembered the truth, had still managed to help Amy Pond remember the Doctor though after confronting her about him at her home in Leadworth. Amy had then managed to use the abilities that she had once gained from the crack in her wall to remember the Doctor (or at least the Eleventh incarnation of him), Clara, Cydonia, Nina Montague, Oswin, the future Clara, and the Matriarch back out of the crack.
Unfortunately they had been attacked by the Angels almost as soon as they had been freed as the Trickster tried a last ditch attempt to keep Amy from releasing Rose next. Now it looked like he was just about to succeed at any moment and finally undo all of the changes that Rose had made to the universe for good when the Web fell apart and reformed itself into a completely different reality soon.
"Leave them alone!" A voice that the Doctor instantly recognized as belonging to Victoria Waterfield suddenly shouted out of nowhere.
The Doctor couldn't see Victoria but he could instantly see the results of her actions as the two Angels suddenly disintegrated into dust right before they would have reached their targets. The Doctor immediately sighed in relief as the Trickster hissed in anger and began to look around for the source of his failure.
"Where are you? Show yourself to me, you coward!" The Trickster shouted in a furious voice.
Victoria instantly appeared directly in front of him with a mischievous smile on her face as she said, "Okay, but just remember that you asked for it."
Then she snapped her fingers and the Trickster was completely disintegrated before he could lift a single finger to stop her.
"Amy, hurry up and bring Rose back while he's still gone because he won't stay that way for long I'm afraid," The Doctor said in an anxious tone.
Amy nodded and began to concentrate on what she now remembered about Rose as she did her best to bring her friend back out of the crack. She knew that she had to hurry quickly before the Trickster returned to try to stop her once more.
"Bring her back? What happened to her, Father?" Victoria said in an upset voice.
The Doctor looked at her in surprise for a moment until he remembered that in this new reality that he and Rose had adopted Victoria as their daughter. It was something that he probably should have done in the true reality come to think of it since he had always thought of her as a daughter anyway.
Perhaps if they actually managed to save the universe he could ask her about that later.
"The Trickster trapped her in a crack in time and space. Don't worry though, Victoria. She'll get her out of there before you can say 'wibbly wobbly' or I'll eat my fez. That is if I still had a fez. Grouchy got rid of all of them," The Doctor said with a frown.
"Why are you back in this form again anyway?" Victoria asked in confusion.
"That was how Pond remembered me the best at first. Don't worry. This will soon wear off and the proper course of time will reassert itself once more. Then I'll be back to my regular grouchy and completely uncool self in no time so enjoy this me while you still can," The Doctor said with a sad smile.
"It doesn't matter to me. I love both of you equally," Victoria said as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I'll still stay my proper age now that Amy's brought me back out of the crack as an adult again though, right? I definitely don't want to go back to being a teenager again. I don't know why Evil Me did that to me anyway," Clara asked with a frown.
"Yes, you do. Because that was the last time that you were completely happy. That's why I restored you back to that age and brought back Mum in order to give us a second chance to have her see us finish growing up again," The Matriarch said.
Clara looked away from her because she knew that what she said was true. Her mother had died when she was a teenager after all, and she had never been truly happy since that day. She had always regretted that her mother hadn't gotten to see her become an adult.
The Doctor looked at her sympathetically now even as he admitted, "You and the other Claras won't stay an adult any more than I'll stay this young and handsome I'm afraid."
"What? Why? I'm actually supposed to be an adult," Clara protested.
"Not in this reality and we're still subject to the rules of this new universe until Rose can fix everything back again. In this universe, you're eighteen and so that's what you're going to be again in about . . . five seconds," The Doctor explained.
In the very next second, Clara felt herself growing younger once more even as she watched Oswin, Cydonia, and Nina grow young right along with her. She had to bite her lip to keep from swearing as she could literally see her hands change right in front of her.
"Oh my stars!" Clara said instead.
"Give or take a few seconds. Chinny was always a bit off on his personal timetable. Just ask Amelia," The newly returned Twelve said with a frown as he watched Amy continue to concentrate on Rose with no success.
Apparently the Trickster was still blocking her from remembering Rose well enough to bring her back despite the fact that he was currently floating around the room in microscopic pieces at the moment. That told him more than anything else did that the Trickster would soon reintegrate himself since his power was still very much in full effect.
"Why do you keep calling it 'this reality'? I'm afraid that I don't understand, Father. Are you trying to say that our world has been changed somehow?" Victoria said in confusion and more than a trace of fear.
"I do understand though unfortunately, Victoria. It explains why I keep feeling as if my life is wrong somehow even if I can't pinpoint why exactly. Someone's changed it, haven't they?" Polly asked as she joined them in Amy's yard now along with Jamie.
"Changed it? Can someone really be powerful enough to do something like that, Doctor? That sounds too amazing even for you," Jamie asked in disbelief.
"It isn't too amazing for the Matriarch, Jamie. When she had the power of the Bad Wolf, she could literally control the building blocks of this entire reality. Not that she used that ability for anything constructive of course," The Doctor said as he looked at the Matriarch in disdain.
"I was only trying to help everyone. I screwed up, okay? I can admit that now," The Matriarch said with a groan.
"Really? Then why aren't you helping Amy bring Rose back then? She seems to be having trouble with it," Clara said.
"I can't," The Matriarch said in a low voice.
"Excuse me? What was that?" The future Clara asked in a voice filled with growing anger as she spoke for the first time since being released from the crack.
"I said I can't, alright? The state of reality is starting to become so bad that even my powers are becoming affected now. I'm having trouble using them," The Matriarch admitted with a sigh.
"And whose fault is that, huh? You should have listened when everyone was telling you to fix all of this. Now it might be too late," The future Clara said in an angry voice.
"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think that I'd do anything to undo what I did? Cassiopeia is still trapped in the crack too along with Rose and I can't even save her," The Matriarch said as her voice shook with unrestrained emotion.
The future Clara couldn't help but put her arms around her and embrace her in that moment. The Matriarch found to her surprise that she was actually returning her other self's embrace.
"Don't give up hope yet, neither of you. Amy can still pull this off yet. I know that she can," The Doctor said.
"That's strange to hear coming from you, Old Man. You're usually the pessimistic one in this incarnation," The present day Clara said in surprise.
"I have to be the optimist this time, Clara. I just can't allow myself to believe that this is really the end. I believe in Amy you see and more than that I believe in Rose. I know that she'll find some way back to me in time. She always finds her way back. Always. I didn't used to believe that once but now I do. Once I thought that I'd never see her again, but thankfully I was proven wrong. She does that you know? She's always proving the entire universe wrong when it says that she can't do something. She's done it before and she'll do it again. She will find her way back. It's only a matter of time now," The Doctor said in a voice filled with unshakeable faith.
Clara immediately smiled at him and gave him a hug as she said in a soft voice, "I believe you're right, Old Man. I really do."
As they all waited on either Amy to bring Rose back or the Trickster to return to attack them once more, Jamie asked, "What's been changed about our lives though? Mine doesn't feel wrong at all to me."
Polly smiled as she said, "Of course it doesn't. You're married to Victoria. You have everything that you want here."
"That's what's been changed, Jamie. You're only dating Victoria in the proper timeline. I'm sure that you soon will marry her before too long though so you don't have to worry about much," The Doctor said which made Jamie immediately smile with relief.
"Well, I'm certainly glad of that. I was afraid that maybe I had been sent back home to Scotland or something before I ever gathered the courage to get together with her. Now that would have been really terrible," Jamie said.
"Yes," The Doctor said in an unemotional tone as he remembered how Jamie had originally had that very thing happen to him until he had found him again.
"What about me, Doctor?" What changed in my life?" Polly asked as a look of fear came over her face.
"Ben is dead is the proper timeline and has been for some time now," The Doctor said in a matter of fact manner without pulling any punches.
Part of him hated himself for that because he knew how much Polly had loved her husband.
Polly nodded as she said in a sad voice, "I know. Somehow I knew all along which is why I told him to stay at home this time. That's what I could feel that wasn't right. I just didn't want to admit it to myself."
"I'm sorry, Polly. Ben's a good man. I wish that he could stay with you," Jamie said as he put his arms around her to comfort her.
"I knew it was too good to be true to have both of us suddenly becoming younger and traveling with the Doctor again. That had to be a fantasy," Polly said.
"Actually part of that is right. You did become younger and started to travel with me again. Ben was not so lucky however," The Doctor explained.
"I would rather have stayed an old woman and kept him instead," Polly admitted as she struggled not to cry.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," The Matriarch said meaning it.
Polly smiled at her through her tears as she said, "At least you brought him back to me one last time. You should never apologize for that."
The Matriarch smiled and then hugged her. The Doctor couldn't help but be shocked by her behavior. She was slowly becoming more and more like the true Clara by the moment as she started to let go of her anger and hatred.
That only confirmed a theory that he was starting to develop about her and why she had really lost her powers. He was almost certain that it had nothing to do with the further disintegration of the Web of Time at all.
If he was right about that theory, then the Matriarch might be losing more than her powers soon.
"I'm almost afraid to ask but I have to know. What about Zoe, Doctor? Is her life different too? Tell me that she's okay in the original world. She is, isn't she?" Jamie asked with concern.
"It depends on how you define okay I suppose. She's still alive and well but her parents are dead. She never got to see them again as she did in this reality. Instead of living with them and traveling with me from time to time as she does here, she's staying with you and Victoria at my home in Gallifrey in the proper reality. The two of you are the only family that she has," The Doctor said.
Jamie nodded sadly as he said, "Aye, I was afraid of that. It seems that she's just like Polly then."
"Yes, unfortunately," The Doctor said.
"And this is the universe that you're fighting so hard to bring back, Doctor? One filled with such despair in it? I'm actually starting to think that I'm doing your friends a favor by ensuring its destruction. Perhaps the next universe that forms will be more like this altered one. Then again it may not even include humans at all. Not that that would be much of a loss in my opinion," The Trickster said with mocking laughter as he finally returned once more.
"You're never going to get a chance to find out," Victoria said as she began to attack him with a massive blast of energy which immediately sent him on the defensive as he put up a hastily erected force field to protect himself from her this time.
"Hurry up, Red," Clara said to Amy in a worried tone as she watched the Trickster with growing anxiety.
"I almost have her. I'm starting to remember clearer now the more that Victoria attacks him. I think I . . . Yes!" Amy said with a triumphant grin.
Suddenly Rose appeared in front of Amy in a burst of golden energy and brought Cassiopeia, Jenny, Gillian, Lily, and Sarah Jane along with her. The Doctor immediately gave her a deep and extremely passionate kiss causing her to look at him in complete surprise as a result.
The Old Man wasn't so unemotional after all when it came to her it seemed.
"Blimey! I need to be wiped out of existence more often if that's the kind of reception that I get when I return, yeah?" Rose said with a grin after the Doctor pulled away from her.
The Doctor however was definitely not smiling as he said in a voice filled with raw anger, "Don't ever do that to me again."
"Well, it's not like I could do anything about it," Rose said.
"I know. I'm not saying that it's your fault. Just don't do it again," The Doctor said in a softer voice.
"Yes, sir. I won't die until you give me permission, sir," Rose said with a grin as she gave him a mock salute.
"If that's the case, you won't ever die then. Understand?" The Doctor said in a completely serious tone.
"Yeah, I understand perfectly, you old softy," Rose said with a warm smile as she kissed him.
"I know you two do this all the time and that it's your thing and all, but you really need to stop with the flirting and get down to business already. I don't think that Victoria can hold Old Tricky back for long. She's still too new to her power, and he's a hardened veteran with his," Clara said with concern.
"Don't worry so much, Soufflé Girl. Now that I' m back, really and truly back, I'll fix everything now. In fact, I'm already doing it," Rose said with a reassuring smile as her eyes glowed with power.
"You are? Why am I still this young then?" Clara said.
Rose's smile quickly faded now as she said in a bothered voice, "Oi! I'd like to see you sort out a mess this big with a snap of your fingers. The universe was already thoroughly shaken up by Missy and now the fabric of reality is about as flimsy as toilet paper after what the Matriarch did to it on top of all of that. Based on how thoroughly mucked up it all is, I think that I'm doing pretty well so far. At least I've managed to close all the cracks up, return everybody they swallowed back home, and almost stopped the Web from breaking any further too. Once I finish stabilizing it, then I can finally start to fix all the changes that were made. I have to fix those first before I can repair everything completely."
Then her face suddenly began to become filled with horror which caused Clara to ask, "What is it? What's happening?"
Rose looked completely terrified for one of the few times that Clara could remember as she said, "I can't stabilize the Web. It won't stop breaking."
The Trickster began to laugh now even while he continued to fight with Victoria as he said, "You still don't understand do you? They thought that they had won when they managed to bring you back, but it's already too late now. Even you can't stop it at this point. This universe is already too far gone. You can't save it now, Bad Wolf. No one can. You should all say your final good byes while you still can. You have fifteen hours left now in which to do them. More or less."
He immediately faded away but his mocking laughter could be heard for several moments longer. The hearts of everyone who heard it became even more filled with silent dread as a result.
They knew for sure that they were all doomed now even if none of them had dared to speak it out loud.
Rose wasn't ready to give up just yet though despite the cold fear that she could feel entering her own hearts at that moment. She still had one last card to play before she would even begin to give up yet.
"Doctor, we have to find Lilith. The real problem is the changes to the basic nature of the universe that Missy made in the first place. We're going to need someone with the proper understanding of reality that a Carrionite has to fix those back I think. I just hope that she still remembers how to do her incantations," Rose said.
"Why wouldn't she?" Clara asked curiously.
"You obviously don't remember how changed things really are anymore in this altered reality of the Matriarch's, Clara. My memories of it are fading as well I've noticed, but I still remember enough to know that Lilith isn't going to be as helpful as she would have been before," The Doctor said.
"Really? And why is this exactly, Stick Man? Has she gone back to hating you again?" Clara asked.
"It's quite the opposite actually. She loves me dearly in this universe, but that's only to be expected of course. You see in this universe Lilith is a Time Lady not a Carrionite, and . . . she and I both had the same parents," The Doctor said.
Clara's eyes widened as she said, "You mean . . . ?"
"Yes, I mean exactly that, Clara. She's my sister," The Doctor said.
TO BE CONTINUED IN BAD WOLVES CHAPTER 74
Next: Now that Rose and the Doctor are finally back again, where does this leave Clara as far as her leadership of their family house goes? Is she still Lady Lungbarrow? Surely Rose will take the title back now, right? Right? Plus Polly makes a fateful decision as in the wake of recent events she finally decides to do something that she's put off for long enough now. We'll find out more about all of this in the next chapter even while a brand new storyline starts up as the Doctor comes across an old companion of his whom desperately needs his help. A woman named . . . Mary Shelley. Yes, that Mary Shelley.
As for what happens next in this storyline, that will slowly take place across every chapter of my Guardian Who stories (except Time and Space and Tales of Gallifrey) and have its grand finale (along with the final fate of the Matriarch) in Chapter 18 of The Thief of Time. If you don't follow the rest of my Guardian Who stories though, don't worry. You'll find out all about what happened right here next time.
