Author's note: I am so sorry everyone, I thought I had posted this chapter months ago! I didn't realise that it wasn't on here. You probably all hate me now! I don't blame you! Sorry, sorry, sorry! Here you go, I will let you read the final chapter and I will talk more at the end!
Bella could hear the Doctor running somewhere behind her and she felt happier than she had done in days. They were back together, just like they should be, just like they were meant to be. She ran around the outside of the stables and through the doorway where she slid to a stop on the hay-covered stone floor. Seconds later the Doctor ran into her and he quickly grabbed her so she didn't fly forwards as they both looked at the scene before them.
The breezeway was covered in hay and the mirror at the opposite end had been smashed. The three horses poked their heads out of their stables to gaze, ears forward, down to the corner on their right.
"Tack room," Bella whispered to the Doctor as Jack, Sally and Dylan ran in behind them.
"Looks like someone has had a bit of a tantrum," the Doctor said loudly.
"You don't know anything about it!" said a strange sounding voice that seemed to crack from the end of the room.
"Is that the Trickster?" Sally whispered fearfully.
"It sounds like Milton," Dylan said quietly. "Maybe him and the Trickster are actually one and the same?" he pondered and everyone turned to look at him doubtfully. "What?" he asked.
"You have been watching too much Coronation Street," the Doctor said, frowning.
"It sounds more like East-enders to me!" said the cackling voice and everyone turned to see a tall, bright green alien with a long, slim neck, huge claws and big, black eyes standing facing them.
Sally let out a small yelp and jumped backwards into Jack and Dylan stared unbelievingly with wide eyes and he managed to whisper "Blimey!"
"What happened?" Bella asked the tall, foreboding Slitheen after recovering from the small, frightened step she had taken backwards. Even though she had known what Milton really had been the whole time, it still hadn't prepared her for seeing a fully grown Slitheen in her best-friend's stables, not after her last encounter with the Family on Nealon.
"I failed, didn't I?" Milton snapped at her.
"Why did you smash the mirror?" she pressed.
Milton hesitated. "The Trickster broke my compression field."
"Serves you right," Jack said lightly.
"Jack," Bella reprimanded. "What is your name?" she continued in softer tones.
"My name?" he asked sounding slightly surprised.
Bella nodded.
"My name is Glog Fel Fotch Happen-Bar Slitheen," he said slowly.
"And did you destroy the interior of my home?" Bella asked somewhat coolly.
"No," he said shaking his head, and Bella was inclined to believe him. "That wasn't me, someone else must have broken in."
Bella exchanged a quick glance with the Doctor.
"Right," the Doctor said. "Now that we've established that you are a member of the Slitheen family and break and enter isn't your style, perhaps you could tell us how you became wound up in this in the first place."
"Why?" Glog snapped, glaring at the Doctor.
"Because I would like to know." Said Bella quietly and Glog's harsh expression suddenly changed. "It was on Nealon, wasn't it?"
The Doctor and Jack looked sharply to her as Glog nodded sadly.
"He's from four years in the future and he's a Slitheen," Bella told them quietly. "It wasn't hard to put two and two together."
"I lay in the mud in the middle of the battlefield on Nealon," Glog told them quietly. "I had managed to escape the vinegar that the Nealonians had managed to cover everything in, but I had still been critically injured. The rain had stopped by this stage, and you and the Doctor had already vanished in your blue box, and I just stared up at the clearing sky to see the stars above me. There were so many dead around me; my enemies, my allies… we knew their secret and they knew ours."
"I'm sorry." Bella whispered emotionally and the Doctor quickly took her hand.
Glog waved his claw dismissively. "I felt the lines that divided us and the Nealonians, the lines between us and the enemy had already begun to blur before that moment anyway, and I wondered if our five year assault could be justified. I wondered if John Lumic had been truthful to us; had the Nealonians really been plotting against us."
Bella bowed her head, feeling sick as Sally and Dylan exchanged bewildered glances.
"It felt like hours passed as I lay dying and I wept. I didn't want to die; I hadn't even wanted to go there in the first place! I'm not like the others in my family; I've never been like them really. I am more a man of science than anything else and I've never understood the Slitheen way or their bloodlust. I was only there because my own father had forced me to go…
"Eventually the Trickster appeared and gave me the chance to live a new, simple life at an apparently small price, but it wasn't. He didn't tell me what the cost would be –"
"Did you really think there wouldn't be repercussions, Glog?" said a new voice from the small mirror beside Bella, who jumped sideways, taken completely by surprise as she realised the Trickster's ugly, terrifying face filled the entire mirror.
"Hello Bella," the Trickster smiled baring his mouthful of razor sharp teeth.
Bella suddenly fell backwards into the Doctor, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, her body completely limp. The Doctor held her as he sunk to the ground, the others all crowding around them.
"Good to see that I obviously still have some power over her mind. "The Trickster said somewhat happily as the Doctor glared up at him.
"What have you done now?" he asked furiously.
The Trickster's smile widened. "Oh Doctor." He smiled, laughing with an eerie smugness that made them all uncomfortable. "Surely you didn't think that it would as easy as your faithful TARDIS staying in her head, holding tightly onto all those apparently precious memories, helping her to slowly remember did you?"
The Doctor remained silent, looking back down to Bella's pale face.
"I think you forget how I work," the Trickster continued, his amused tone disappearing. "Perhaps you should go and ask Ms Smith –"
"Don't you dare do anything to her!" the Doctor yelled, his hearts beating very fast.
"She won't see it coming this time, none of them will." The Trickster told him slowly, obviously enjoying the distress he was causing them all. "It will be such a happy day for Sarah Jane, a day that every little girl dreams of –"
"I will stop you!" the Doctor stated boldly.
"Stop me?" the Trickster repeated, laughing cruelly. "How can you possibly stop in unstoppable? As you hold Bella in your arms her mind is reverting itself back to what it was like before she ever met you and you cannot stop it."
"But why Bella?" asked Dylan suddenly and the Trickster looked to him.
"Has the Doctor not told you that they travel throughout time and space saving planet after planet from all the many wrong do-ers in the universe, or did you simply not believe him?" he asked Dylan who looked guiltily down to the Doctor. "It is rather annoying in reality. I do believe that things would be much more interesting if the Doctor was left on his own."
"Why?" asked Sally tentatively.
"Would you like to answer that Doctor, or shall I?" the Trickster sneered, and the Doctor just stared at him furiously. "Very well, I will then. I don't know if you have noticed, but the Doctor is a very dangerous man to be around. He calls himself Doctor, but I think he is more of a destroyer than a healer personally. Sometimes he goes too far… oh; you should have seen him in Pompeii, such a magnificent display of destruction! That is what Bella is for; to stop him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes – more often than not, really – his companions become his weapons and Bella is certainly no exception. Why don't you tell them what Bella did on the planet Keyna, Doctor, tell her friends what she sacrificed, what she destroyed –"
"Stop it!" the Doctor said dangerously.
"I wonder how many others have travelled with the Doctor only to become like the very monsters they fight. Twenty, maybe even thirty? School teachers, students, military men, shop assistants all becoming the Doctor's private army."
"You need to stop this," the Doctor said. "Please let Bella go, put me in her place if you want, just let her go!"
"What, and miss out on all this angst, I don't think so!" the Trickster laughed. "Can't you see that this is a good thing? Sure, without Bella you will probably die within the next year – prepare for the deadly four knocks – but I am giving her what you cannot; a proper life. Just think a proper human husband that she could grow old with."
"But she can't!" the Doctor said and everyone, Jack included, wondered if that was because he loved her too much to accept this theory. "Have you forgotten that Bella doesn't age like normal humans do? Even if she did want to marry Dylan she would outlive him, just like she would outlive everyone she has ever known, she is just as cursed as I am!"
Jack placed a supportive (and very understanding) hand on the Doctor's shoulder as Sally and Dylan exchanged yet another confused glance.
"Please," the Doctor continued quietly. "Just let Bella go."
"I don't think so," the Trickster smiled.
There were a few moments of tense silence before Bella began to stir in the Doctor's arms where she slowly opened her eyes to look up to the Doctor's scared face.
"I passed out again, didn't I?" she said, sounding somewhat annoyed with herself.
"Impossible!" the Trickster gasped as Bella sat up, glaring up at him. "You can't remember, you just can't!"
"I think you have made them suffer enough, Trickster," said the Slitheen's strange voice.
"You traitor!" the Trickster hissed, turning to look at Glog, who was leaning against the wall behind him. "You fool, would you really die to save this half-human thing?"
"He's calling me a thing?" Bella said hotly.
Yes," Glog said faintly as if Bella had never interrupted.
"So be it." The Trickster snarled.
"Glog," Bella started, getting to her feet as Glog began to slide slowly down the wall. "You don't have to do this, we can find another way –"
"There is no other way child!" the Trickster said with a strange kind of smile on his face. "He will slowly die, Lumic, and this time it's on your head!"
"It is not!" she said defensively glaring. "If you hadn't gotten involved, trying to alter the future, none of this would be happening!"
"Don't you see? He was already dying."
Bella knelt beside the huge Slitheen, putting a hand on his thick, green claw. "I am so sorry," she said, her voice breaking with emotion and guilt. The big, green beast looked at her with the softest expression a Slitheen could make.
"I can't blame you," Glog said quietly, making Bella look away from him tearfully.
The trickster gave a low, cruel laugh and everyone looked to him. "The same murderous blood runs through her veins, passed lovingly down from father to daughter –"
"Not true!" said Jack furiously as the Doctor stood back up.
"Really?" the Trickster asked condescendingly. "If my memories serve me correctly, John Lumic changed after his wife died. Are you telling me that young Bella here would remain unchanged if anything should ever happen to you, Doctor?"
The Doctor glanced down to his companion, who held tightly onto Glog's arm and she couldn't bring herself to look up to him.
"Would she, if she knew that your death was to come, not do anything within her power to stop it, even if it meant destroying everything in her path?"
Bella's eyes met briefly and guiltily with the Doctor's.
"You are both so alike, Doctor." The Trickster said in a low, dangerous tone. "Yet we don't have to wait too long, I'm afraid for this to be proven. My only regret is that I have nothing to do with it."
"Nothing to do with what?" asked Bella suspiciously.
"The Death of the Doctor." The Trickster smiled.
"That will never happen!" Bella said with sheer determination, despite the quiver of fear in her voice.
The Trickster's smile widened. "Remember four knocks." He said and he disappeared, leaving everyone standing contemplating his last words.
Bella turned to the Doctor, looking absolutely horrified. They looked to each other for a few moments, so many unspoken things passing between them. He reached out to take her hand, but Glog suddenly gave a pain-filled cry. Both the Doctor and Bella rushed to his side as he looked up to him fearfully.
"I do not expect your kindness," he gasped as Bella knelt down beside him, taking his claw in her hands. "Not after what I've done and what the family did to your kind."
"Tough, you're getting it." Bella said, giving him a small smile before adding, "Besides, that wasn't your fault either. John Lumic used you… the Nealonians had never heard of you before, just as I am assuming that you'd never heard of them. He only wanted to get back at them. None of us ever stood a chance, I'm sorry!"
"I don't blame you," Glog his breath becoming shallow. ""There is nothing you can do for me now, Bella. I am dying, I always have been. Doctor," he gasped, looking now to him instead. "He is planning something else, the Trickster, with your friend…"
"I will be keeping an eye on her." The Doctor assured him.
Glog nodded slowly, closing his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered.
"No, thank you, Glog Fel Fotch Happen-Bar Slitheen," the Doctor said gently, reaching over the Slitheen's suddenly lifeless body to place his hand on Bella's shoulder.
"Is he dead?" Sally whispered with wide eyes and Bella looked down emotionally, still not letting go of Glog's claw.
"Yes," the Doctor said sadly.
"Can we take him home?" Bella asked quietly.
"Of course," the Doctor answered her and she nodded.
- O -
Once the Doctor and Jack had placed the Slitheen's body inside the TARDIS, they watched Bella with Sally and Dylan about a metre away from the TARDIS doors.
"There is nothing that I can say to make you stay, is there?" Dylan asked Bella slowly.
"I'm sorry, Dylan." Bella said truthfully.
He nodded, looking away from her. Eventually he gave a sigh. "Well, from what I've seen, the Doctor needs you. He was bloody useless without you."
Bella gave a laugh and glanced back to the Doctor, who gave an "Oi!" of protest but ended up shrugging the comment off in acceptance.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
"Welcome," Dylan answered her. "Just don't leave it so long next time, okay? We worry about you."
"Deal," Bella smiled. "I'm sure the Doctor wouldn't mind some extra company –"
"Uh, thanks, but no thanks." Dylan said hastily. "I don't think I am quite made out for the whole time-and-space-travel-thing."
Bella laughed again.
"One question though," he asked and she raised her eyebrows. "That Slitheen-thing and the Trickster… they gave me the impression that you were sort of… well – you know, like them."
"I am," Bella said, blushing slightly. "My mum was an alien apparently; half and half."
"Okay." Dylan said with a grin. "I should have known…"
"Bye, Dylan!" she laughed as she gave him a hug before turning to Sally. "Oh Sally…" she sighed as she saw tears in her best friend's eyes.
"I don't want you to go again," she said. "We have so much to catch up on, and you need to explain so much, it's not even funny! Who knows when I will see you again; you could be gone for a whole year before you come back."
"Sally," Bella started. "As soon as I leave, the TARDIS can be right on that same spot again ten seconds later, but for me three years could have gone by… time seems so strange and different once you stand in that ship. I promise I will come back."
"Or you could just come with us now," the Doctor said, moving to Bella's side and they both looked to him surprised. "I hear that you aren't entirely convinced about the existence of aliens and I would like to prove a point."
Bella looked from the Doctor's twinkling eyes to her best friend's startled expression.
"Come with you?" she asked and the Doctor nodded enthusiastically. "Really?"
"Yes!" the Doctor laughed.
Sally grinned excitedly before she gave a small frown. "It isn't going to be all Star Trek is it?"
The Doctor groaned painfully before, laughing, Bella told her to go and pack her pyjamas before the Doctor had the chance to change his mind. Dylan looked to the Doctor seriously.
"You better look after both of them." He said sternly. "And she has got to be back before next Monday because we've got to help dad with the sheep."
"I will have her back just after we leave." The Doctor said seriously in answer.
"I think I misjudged you," Dylan said holding out his hand and the Doctor shook it with a smile. "Well, see you later, Bell, I better tell Sally to get a move on, otherwise you'll be waiting all afternoon."
He gave them a wave and headed slowly back into their house and the Doctor and Bella turned to Jack.
"Are you coming with us?" the Doctor asked him.
"As much as I would love to see all of Sally's reactions, I need to get back to Cardiff." Jack said with a laugh.
"Aww, but we always enjoying having you on the TARDIS," Bella smiled.
He gave her his usual cheeky grin before pulling her into a rough hug. "Try and stay out of trouble," he said, taking a long look at Bella and the Doctor, and Bella wondered if it had anything to do with the Trickster's ominous words before he too walked towards the house to say goodbye to his two new friends.
The Doctor and Bella looked to each other and smiled; finally they were together again.
"You okay?" he asked her quietly with a smile.
"Yeah," she nodded, "You?"
"Yeah," he answered, taking her arm in his as they began to walk slowly towards the TARDIS.
"Doctor, about what the Trickster said –"
"Let's not, hey?" he asked quietly, looking down to her.
"Yeah," Bella nodded and they fell into a worried silence.
"Now, I don't know what you've done – or rather – what you will do to make the TARDIS want to save you all the time, but it's obviously a doozey!" the Doctor said lightly with a proud smile.
"Maybe she just likes me!" Bella laughed at him.
"I have no doubt that she does," the Doctor laughed with her.
"Hey, wait for me!" they both heard Sally yell and Bella glanced over her shoulder.
"She'll look shocked, back out the doors and gasp 'it's bigger on the inside.'" The Doctor said quietly to Bella as he unlocked the door for them.
"No way," Bella smiled. "There is no way that she'll go for something that predictable."
"Oh, you'd be surprised." The Doctor laughed as he entered through the doors.
Dylan watched his sister run into the blue police box with Captain Jack Harkness standing beside him, before she ran back out again, yelling "It's bigger on the inside!" to be met with laughed from inside the box. Jack gave a chuckle beside him and Sally ran back into the police box, shutting the doors behind her.
There was suddenly a strange noise and a strong wind blew from nowhere as the blue box suddenly began to disappear right before their very eyes, and Dylan wondered how long it would take for his sister and her best friend to come home again and what adventures they would be able to tell him about…
Again, I am super sorry about how long it's been. I've been back at uni, so my poor fan fiction has definately suffered. I hope this has made up for it. Too all of you who left comments on the last chapter, thank you, I am not sure who I replied to or not, just let me know if I missed you and I will go back and reply for you. I have been spending my very little spare time working on something new that has nothing to do with Doctor Who, which I hope to have up on here within the next few months. I feel that is a bit more mature for me. Hopefully you'll enjoy :D
Now, let me give you a bit of a peak at the series to come. There will be some robots, a Roman holiday, maybe an Australian holiday, an old, decaying ship wreck, another trip to WWII and some new information about Bella's race, the Nealonians. There will be loads more, but that is just the stuff that I have planned out so far. Thirteen episodes all up and the next one witll be called... *drum roll* The Cannibal Machine. Woo. Not sure when they will be up, I don't want to rush them, plus it seems that I can't write Doctor Who fan fiction at the same time as the other fan fiction that I am working on. All the characters feel like they begin to blur and I don't like that one bit!
Sorry again for how long this has taken!