CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who, and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.

This chapter takes places right after Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel Chapter 38. You shouldn't need to read that first though in order to understand it.

Amy and Rory were sleeping after a particularly hard day on the planet Florana. They had originally gone there to find the Doctor's old companion, Leela, in order to ask her just what would happen to a human if they decided to mentally link with a Time Lord. Their trip had turned out to be more than they had bargained for though because they had also found the Silence, Davros, and Madame Kovarian there testing a new weapon that they hoped would kill a TARDIS.

It had seemed to Amy ever since she had opened her fob watch and become a Time Lady again that trouble seemed to be drawn to her like a magnet just like it had always been for the Doctor. When she was human, she used to think that it must be a Time Lord thing to have trouble always following you. Now that she was a Time Lord herself again, she wasn't so sure anymore. She didn't remember having this much trouble when she was just Cliodna. She decided that maybe it was an Amy Pond thing, and it was just the old Pond luck in action.

Now that Davros and Kovarian had been kicked off of the planet by Jenny Tyler, who had also gone there to talk to Leela for the same reason, Amy and Rory had decided that they both deserved a long, long rest before they went to see K'anpo Rimpoche, an old Time Lord who Leela had told them could help them achieve a link without any problems for Rory. They actually managed to get a few hours of sleep this time before the old Pond luck struck once more. Amy was surprised that it took that long frankly. The bad luck fairy must be falling down on the job lately, or maybe she was all worn out after Florana and needed a little rest herself.

Amy sensed a presence in her bedroom that woke her up out of a sound sleep, and Cliodna's old battle instincts took over inside of her mind as she jumped out of bed into an instant combat stance in one fluid motion. She was ready for anything except for what she found standing there.

"Hi!" Jacqueline 'Cassie' Tyler, Rose and the Doctor's daughter from the future, said with a limp wave and an extremely embarrassed look on her face.

Rory now woke up at the sound of Cassie's voice in alarm. He saw that it was just Cassie though and immediately lay back down.

"Sorry, Cassie, but I've had a really hard day of people trying to kill me again, and I need a nice, long rest for about a week or so in order to recover from it. It's nice to see you again though," Rory said sleepily with his eyes still closed.

"Since when did you get such a healthy sense of humor?" Amy asked him with a small grin.

"I must have gotten it from you. You're finally rubbing off on me I guess," Rory said as he smiled too. He still hadn't opened his eyes again yet.

"Well, it's about time. I'll turn you into a proper Pond yet," Amy joked.

"Can you do that later? I really need to sleep. Maybe you don't need as much sleep as you used to anymore, but I still do," Rory said in a faint voice.

Amy could tell that he was close to drifting off again at any minute now so she just said, "You just let me handle whatever it is all by myself then. I'll be fine."

"Okay," Rory said with a yawn.

"Well, you didn't have to agree so quickly," Amy said with a fake look of anger on her face that quickly turned into a smile as Rory began to snore loudly.

Amy led Cassie out of the bedroom and closed the door behind them. They listened to Rory produce snores that would scare off a Dalek for a minute before they began to speak.

"I'm so sorry, Aunt Amy. I overshot the Console Room and appeared in your bedroom by mistake. It was an accident. I'm so jittery right now that my powers aren't working as well as they should," Cassie admitted.

Amy realized for the first time now that Cassie looked scared and extremely upset about something. She felt guilty for not having noticed it before, but she knew that she was probably too tired for it to register until she woke up completely. She was going to have to train her mind to stop acting like a human's so that lack of sleep wouldn't affect it so much anymore. She needed to remain sharp and aware of her surroundings at all times now with the Silence waiting to strike at any moment.

"What's wrong, Cassie?" Amy asked.

"Davros wants to kill me. He's turned on me. I thought that he was my friend, but I was wrong. I can't believe that he actually tried to hurt me!" Cassie said as she began to cry.

"What? When was this?" Amy asked as she began to grow angry. She wasn't going to let Davros get away with this, whatever it was.

"Just now. I went to visit him as I sometimes do when I have a problem or just need someone to talk to, and he shot some kind of weapon at me. I started feeling like I was on fire all over so I quickly destroyed whatever it was that he was using before it could do anything more to me. I started to panic when he started ordering the Daleks with him to exterminate me, and I got out of there as quickly as possible. I just blindly chose a destination. All I could think of was that I wanted to be somewhere safe, and somehow I wound up here. I guess in my subconscious mind I equated safety with you," Cassie said with embarrassment on her face once more.

"That's okay. You are safe here. He won't do anything to you as long as I can help it. I'll rip him in half if he tries anything. Just ask Rory what I can do when I get mad enough. Why don't you go to the Console Room and call your parents? They need to know what happened," Amy said.

"Thank you. I'm sorry to bother you like this," Cassie said.

"Don't apologize, and don't worry a thing about it. I want you to know that you can always come to me for help no matter what," Amy said warmly.

Cassie smiled at her and left to contact Rose and the Doctor. As soon as Cassie was gone though, Rose suddenly appeared standing next to Amy and took her completely by surprise.

"Thanks for warning me! I nearly jumped out of my skin. I thought you were Davros. Since when can you do that? I thought that you lost your powers," Amy said.

"I did but I've found new ways to make up for them. Oswin gave me a temporal shift device like the one that she uses to travel around with," Rose said as she pointed to a small object on her belt.

"Why did you come here just at this moment? Did you know about Cassie being attacked?" Amy asked.

"Yes, I did. I felt her mind calling out to mine as she fled from Davros. She showed me a mental image of the whole incident. I don't think that she even realized that she was doing it. Luckily, I was able to track her down to your TARDIS using this handy little device I whipped up to track my kids down with. It lets me follow their specific energy signatures anywhere in the universe. I came up with it after Jenny got lose in time a while back. I always thought that it would prove useful sometime," Rose said as she held out a small black box with a blinking light on it in her hand to show to Amy.

"I've heard of overprotective parents, but you take the cake," Amy said as she shook her head at her.

"I have children with great powers that are always being sought after by the greatest maniacs in the universe to either enslave or kill them. You bet I'm overprotective, especially lately! The Silence have decided to kill or strip the powers from all of the Vortex energy users. They took mine, they tried to take Jenny's, they've just attacked Ace recently, and now they're going after Cassie. Will you let her stay here and protect her until I can find some way to stop them? I would feel much so better about her safety if you did that for me," Rose pleaded.

"Of course I will. She can stay here as long as she's in danger," Amy said.

"Thank you. I owe you a big one," Rose said.

"You don't owe me anything. She feels just like my daughter too which is just odd. I don't even know her that well yet, but I feel like there's already a connection between us for some reason," Amy admitted.

Rose smiled as she already knew from Jenny that Cassie and Amy's son Anthony would be married in the future. So in a way, Cassie was like Amy's daughter or at least she would be.

"I know that smile. I see it on Melody's face all the time. It's the whole 'I know the future, but I can't tell you about it' smile. I hate it when people do that to me," Amy said with a groan.

Cassie suddenly spoke up from behind Amy in an apologetic tone as she said, "I'm sorry about that, Amy. I would tell you more if I could. All I can say is that we become very close to each other in the future as I grow up."

"You heard the whole thing then?" Rose asked.

"Yes. I'm okay with it as long as Amy is. I think I might like visiting her at this point in her life anyway," Cassie said.

Cassie and Rose both shared a knowing look with each other. Rose knew that Cassie meant that she would enjoy being around Anthony when he was still just a baby. She didn't really have any memories of him from this time after all so this would be just like seeing a whole new side of him for her. Rose almost laughed. This kind of thing would only happen in her family!

Amy knew that the two of them were silently communicating about something that she didn't know about yet, and it irritated her that she wouldn't know the real meaning behind what was going on here today until much later. She just let it go. She knew that there was no use in worrying about it so she just consoled herself with the knowledge that she would know everything someday. She was so impatient though that she could barely contain her curiosity.

"I'll see you later once I'm sure that everything's safe," Rose said as she hugged Cassie tightly.

She took one last regretful look at her, and then she used Oswin's device to return to wherever she had come from. Amy knew that she hated not being able to keep Cassie with her and having to entrust her to someone else. She would feel the same way in her place she knew.

"I still don't know why Davros did it. I thought that he actually cared about me. I guess that was all just an act," Cassie said as she began to sob again.

Amy felt bad for her. She knew that Cassie had always felt like Davros was her friend. None of her friends and family had ever been able to understand why that was though. The relationship between those two was unfathomable to Amy. She couldn't understand what drove it at all. The only thing that Amy had ever been able to come up with was that Cassie thought that she could redeem him. Apparently she had been very, very wrong.

"I'm sorry, Cass. I know it hurts, but you have to realize that not everyone can be changed, especially not Davros," Amy said.

"No, you don't understand. He's not as bad as everyone thinks he is. He has another side to him. I think that I'm the only one who's seen it in a long time. He likes me because I remind him of his sister who died a long time ago," Cassie explained.

"He was tricking you, sweetie. That was all phony. Frankly, I'm surprised it took him this long to turn on you," Amy said.

Cassie started to shake her head at Amy's words, and then she stopped herself. Maybe Amy was right after all. She no longer knew anymore.

Davros watched Cassie cry through a secret device that he had shot at her when he had fired that basically harmless skin irritation ray at her. She hadn't noticed it attaching itself to her clothing because of all of the pain that she had been experiencing at the time.

On the outside, Davros' face remained a mask of impassivity as it showed no emotion at all at what he was witnessing. On the inside, however, he felt ashamed. He had made the one person that he still had any kind of emotional connection to feel as though he had betrayed her.

He wanted to tell her the truth behind what he had done, but he didn't dare. He knew that Kovarian had spies everywhere, and they might find out and use Cassie against him somehow if they knew the true nature of their relationship together. He had to pretend that he cared nothing at all about her in order to protect her.

That was why he had done what he did today. Kovarian wanted all of the Vortex users dead or severed from the Vortex. She didn't know about his connection to Cassie. and he preferred to keep it that way. Therefore, he had come up with a plan to make it seem like to Kovarian that he was after Cassie personally because he had a special grudge against her. He wanted to make Kovarian think that Davros was going to take care of her himself so that she wouldn't send anyone else after her.

He had to pretend that he wanted Cassie dead in order to keep her safe. He knew that it would drive her to seek shelter with one of the other Time Lords, and that he could then use that as a future excuse as to why he couldn't kill her. That had been his plan all along.

He was glad in particular that her protector had turned out to be Amy Pond. He knew that Kovarian feared her more than anyone else other than possibly River Song. He felt sure that Amy would be able to keep her safe from anything that the Silence might have planned.

One day when this was all over with, he would find a way to make this up to Cassie. Until then though he had to live with the thought that the one person that he actually cared about now no longer trusted him and actively feared and hated him. It was not a pleasant feeling.

He almost laughed then as he realized at last that he still had a conscience after all. He had thought that it was dead, but it had only been sleeping until the right person had come along to reawaken it. He wasn't sure if that had been a good thing or not, but he was sure that he wouldn't trade whatever his relationship was with Cassie, for even he wasn't sure as to its exact nature, for anything.

Back on Amy's TARDIS, Cassie was still crying when Julia came up to her and said, "Do you want to know what always cheers me up when I'm upset?"

Cassie looked at Julia and smiled. She would come to know her very well in the future, and she would become one of her closest friends. This however was Julia's first meeting with her. She knew that Julia didn't know her at all, but she was still reaching out to her regardless. That was so much like Julia Pond even in the future. She was always trying to help others, even total strangers.

"What do you do?" Cassie asked Julia with a smile on her face.

"I go play with Anthony. He's funny. He' so sweet and innocent that he always makes me feel like everything's right with the world no matter how bad I happen to feel at the time," Julia said.

"Yeah, he still does that in the future too. It's nice to know that he hasn't changed," Cassie said more to herself than to Julia.

"What?" Julia asked in confusion.

"It doesn't matter. I'm just babbling to myself. I do that sometimes. Pay no attention to it. It's meaningless most of the time," Cassie said as she followed Julia to Anthony's room.

"Oh, I understand. I'm used to people babbling nonsense. My sister's Francine after all. She does it all the time. I just pretend that she didn't say anything because most of the time it's just like she didn't. None of it really means anything anyway most of the time so I don't really miss out on anything by ignoring her," Julia said with an evil grin.

"I heard that!" Selene said grumpily as they came into Anthony's room where she was babysitting her little nephew.

"I know," Julia said, still grinning.

Oisin stood at attention nearby and watched Cassie begin to smile as she picked little Anthony up in her arms while the two sisters continued to fight with one another, oblivious to everything else around them. Cliodna's family seemed to be growing more and more since he had come here. Now someone else was joining them apparently.

Oisin knew of Cassie Tyler from the files of the Cybermen, and he knew that she had great power. He began to wonder if she might be able to use it to make him into a Time Lord once again. He had heard stories that her mother had been able to, but he didn't know if her children would have the same level of power or not.

He wasn't sure if he should even attempt to do such a thing. He knew that it would just make things hard on Cliodna if he did so, and he didn't want to cause her any more pain. He realized now that he had caused her enough of that to fill several lifetimes already. There was no need for him to cause her any more.

Still, he couldn't help but think about becoming his old self again someday. He wanted to be who he was again so much even if he could no longer have the same life that he had before. He wouldn't take Cliodna away from Rory for anything after all. He knew that Rory had made her happy for the first time in a very long time when all that he had brought her for so long was sorrow. No, he would not do that to him or to her.

He could still dream of being whole again though, couldn't he? Maybe he could even someday turn that dream into a reality.

Amy watched Oisin from the doorway and wondered, not for the first time, about just who her mysterious guest really was. She felt that she could trust him so it wasn't a question of that. It was more like a question of just why that she felt that way. Why did this Cyberman seem so familiar to her? It was almost as if she knew him.

Amy's eyes almost popped from their sockets as a horrible thought popped into her mind for just a moment. Then she chuckled to herself and shook her head at her own stupidity. She could be so silly sometimes.

Of course, it couldn't be him. He had been dead for a very long time now. She had seen the ship that he was on explode herself. There was no way that he could have survived that. Was there?

Amy shook her head again as she cleared her mind of all of her weird thoughts. She knew what it really was. It was having a Cyberman around all of the time. It had reawakened old memories of the past for her, and she needed to stop thinking about them and bring her emotions under control. The past was gone forever after all, never to return.

Next: Amy and Rory talk to Donna Noble in order to find out the exact location of Iceworld, the ship where K'anpo Rimpoche lives. You know that it couldn't be just a simple conversation though. Nothing in Doctor Who is ever that easy, especially where the Bad Wolves are concerned.