CHAPTER 23

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LOST IN TIME PART 3

The clone of Elizabeth finally completed its transformation and became a full Cyberman. It stepped toward Amy with murderous intent as it said, "Now you will be converted. You will become the Cyber Queen."

"Not in this lifetime," Amy said as she prepared to fight the Cyberman in unarmed combat since her sonic no longer worked on it.

"Why am I always being copied? First those horrible Zygons come after me and now these insipid mechanical men. Can't I ever be impersonated by anyone of quality?" Elizabeth protested.

"So you'd rather have someone much cooler trying to kill you?" Amy said with amusement.

"What exactly does that word mean in future speak? The other Doctor always kept going on about it, but from its context I don't believe that he was referring to the temperature," Elizabeth said.

"Oh, no. He was talking about something else entirely, Queenie," Shakespeare said as he came walking up to them out of nowhere.

"Queenie? Since when do you refer to me as that?" Elizabeth asked offended.

"Since I became converted to the Cyber cause and joined the party," Shakespeare said with a huge grin on his face.

"It's you, isn't it? Hello, Mr. Clever," Amy said.

"Yes, I decided to use only the best for my body this time. Hello, Pond. It's so nice to finally meet you in person at last. Might I say that you're looking pretty good too! I definitely need to make you into my Queen now that I've seen you." Mr. Clever said.

"It sounds like you've adopted some of Will's personality traits now too in addition to the Doctor's," Amy said with a grin.

Then without warning, she grabbed Mr. Clever's arm and twisted it behind his back while wrapping her other arm around him. River then quickly pointed her gun at Mr. Clever with an evil grin on her face.

Amy turned to the Cyberman and said, "Now back down or I'll kill your Cyber Controller."

"His death is irrelevant. We will always create another one," the Cyberman said.

"Well, there's loyalty for you," Julia said.

"Here I thought that you were the expert on Cybermen. Please don't tell me that you didn't actually think that that would work," Mr. Clever mocked Amy.

Then before she could stop him, Mr. Clever quickly injected her with Cybermites. Amy released him immediately and rubbed her arm in shock as Julia shouted, "No!"

"You should never have let me get that close to you. It's over now, Pond. You're already being converted right now even as I speak. Soon you will be one of us. I think I'll let you keep your outward appearance for the most part though. I don't see why we need to do a full conversion. I like the idea of having a trophy wife," Mr. Clever said with a smug look on his face.

Suddenly Mr. Clever began to scream as his borrowed body instantly exploded in pain. Now it was Amy's turn to smirk as she said, "Having some trouble?"

"What have you done to me?" he asked as he fell to his knees on the ground.

"It's a little something that I first thought of a long time ago for my invasion of Telos, but I never perfected it until recently. It's based on the Dalek nanocloud except instead of converting people into Daleks this one turns anything made out of Cybertechnology into dust. I injected it into my bloodstream as an inoculation not too long ago, and it prevents me from ever being converted. As you can see, it also can infect whoever comes into contact with my blood as well. Maybe I should think of a name for it. Maybe The Not So Clever Anymore Virus?" Amy said with a snicker.

"You won't . . . win. Already my body's coming up with a way to stop it," Mr. Clever said.

"Maybe but it's not soon enough. It's already spread out of your body through the carbon dioxide being expelled from your lungs, and now it's entering the atmosphere. It always does that at the time of a person's first exposure to it, but unfortunately that effect fades away in the next few hours or else I'd be killing Cybermen all of the time just by standing too near them. Soon it will cover this entire area and keep it safe from any future Cyber attacks for a period of twenty four hours. Any Cyberman who comes here will be either turned to dust or converted back to their original form if any trace of their host body is still there. It's the ultimate weapon against the Cybermen, and I've just made you into a carrier of it. Even if you do become immune to it, you'll still carry it inside of you from now on. I've made you into a walking engine of destruction to your own kind. Now who's cool, huh? Oh, great! Forget I just said that," Amy said in embarrassment.

"Now he's got you doing it too," River said with a grin.

"Shut up," Amy said.

"You're going to be wearing fezzes and bow ties in no time now," River continued.

"Shut up, Melody," Amy said.

"You'll also start waving your hands around like a hyperactive two year old and start saying things like 'Yowza!'" River said.

"Will you please shut up?!" Amy said with a half frown half grin on her face.

"This can't be happening," Mr. Clever said as he could already see the truth of Amy's words in action.

The Cyberman who the Queen's clone had become now screamed as it was quickly converted back into a human being once more. The pain of this sudden conversion made the clone instantly pass out as soon as her transformation was finished.

"It doesn't matter even if you have infected this body. I'll soon get another one," Mr. Clever said.

"It doesn't matter. It's become a part of you now. Even as you become immune to it yourself, it's still in each and every part of you. It always will be too. Forever," Amy said with a wicked smile

"You've won in this time zone, but I still have two other chances to get it right. It's not over, Pond," Mr. Clever said as he left Shakespeare's body and reentered the Cyberiad, the collective consciousness linking all Cybermen together.

Shakespeare was left there blinking at Amy in incomprehension as he said, "I was taken over by aliens again, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so. It's going to happen to you again at least once more that I know of so you might as well get used to it," Amy said.

"I'll never get used to it. Every time I see you I'm either shot at, taken over, or almost killed," Shakespeare complained.

"And your point is?" Amy asked.

"My point is that you're always so much fun to be around, Amy Pond. If you weren't already married, I'd marry you myself," Shakespeare said with a warm smile.

"Then you'd just cheat on me with the next pretty face that comes along. No thanks," Amy said.

"We could have such epic adventures together though, and the plays that I could write based on your courage and beauty would become legendary," Shakespeare said.

"Whoa! Calm down, Will. I already told you that I'm married, and even if I wasn't, I'm just not interested. I like you as a friend, but that's it. I have absolutely zero interest in you," Amy said.

Shakespeare looked genuinely sad, and Amy said in a gentler voice, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to sound as cruel as that. I love my husband though. I don't love you."

"I wish you did. I really do think that I'd stay true to you and never even so much as think of another," Shakespeare said.

Amy smiled and kissed his cheek as she said, "Somehow, I don't believe you. I appreciate the sentiment though."

"So does this mean that the threat to my kingdom is over?" Elizabeth asked Amy.

"Yes, this time. It's still being threatened in the future though. Now I have to go do something about that. I'll see you later, Elizabeth. I have to say that it was so nice to see you again though before I leave. I'm glad that the lonely little girl without a mother that I met before got to have a happy ending after all," Amy said.

"If I do have a happy ending, it was in no small part because of you and your example to me, Amy. You stood up to my father and showed me that it could and even should be done. We should always stand up to the tyrants around us. You taught me that if nothing else. Thank you for that," Elizabeth said as she hugged her.

Amy was surprised at this display of emotion from her but was also pleased by it nonetheless. She returned Elizabeth's hug and said, "So you're not going to want to chop off my head the next time that I visit?"

"No, never. You'll always be welcome here. You're not at all like other treacherous oath breaking Time Lords that I could mention. So how are you leaving us then? In your TARDIS?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, not this time. I didn't bring one with me. This time the ambassador from Freedonia will have to give me a ride. I suppose I should take your clone with me too. I can't leave her here to cause trouble, can I? She'd probably have herself made the Queen in no time if I did," Amy said as she looked at the unconscious clone on the ground.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. I've dealt with troublesome copies of myself before after all. Why don't you leave her here?" Elizabeth asked

"Are you sure?" Amy asked in surprise.

"Yes, leave her here. I'll make sure that she toes the line and knows who's in charge. Besides it would be nice sometimes to be able to be in two places at once. If I can't trust me, then who can I trust anyway?" Elizabeth asked.

"I have to admit that my own clone didn't turn out to be so bad either. Just in case you have any more trouble with her though, I'll just give you this," Amy said as she handed Elizabeth a mobile phone.

"I don't know how to use this though. It looks almost as complicated at the Doctor's machine that goes ding," Elizabeth said as she looked at the phone in confusion.

"Unlike that piece of junk though, this actually works. All you have to do is press that button with my number already preprogrammed on it, and the phone will call me automatically. You'll be able to talk to me on it just like we're talking now," Amy said.

"Amazing. Rest assured that I'll take good care of it and not show it to anyone else. I remember the Doctor's warnings about changing the future. I will only speak to you on it in an emergency," Elizabeth said.

Amy wondered about that though from the way that she kept looking at the phone like a child having been handed a new toy and being eager to play with it. She had a feeling that she had just made a huge mistake. Still she felt better about leaving the clone with her that way.

"Goodbye, Elizabeth," Amy said as she smiled at her.

Then she turned to Shakespeare and embraced him as she said, "Goodbye, Will. I'm sure that I'll see you again. Don't worry too much about me, okay? I'm sure you'll find someone else to steal your attention away from me any day now."

"Yes, of course," Shakespeare said in an unconvinced voice.

Amy kissed his cheek again, and then walked over to River and Julia as they all placed their hands on the Vortex Manipulator together. Amy felt like a heel for putting that look on Shakespeare's face, but what else could she do? She loved Rory more than anyone else that she had ever known, and that was never going to change.

The three of them left then in the blink of an eye, and Shakespeare looked away sadly. Elizabeth touched his shoulder in sympathy and said, "Maybe you'll find another to take her place in your heart."

Shakespeare walked away without speaking. For once even he didn't have the words to express how he was feeling.

Amy, River, and Julia now reappeared on top of the Nautilus thanks to the directions that Rory gave in his letter to River. They instantly saw that Captain Nemo's crew were locked in a ferocious battle with the Cyber Sea Devils. They quickly spotted Rory and Selene right in the thick of it and ran to their side.

Amy immediately grabbed Rory and kissed him passionately right in the middle of the battle. A Cyber Sea Devil tried to attack her during this embrace and she quickly knocked it away with a high kick to its chest without breaking away from Rory for a moment.

Julia meanwhile found herself being picked up and held by Selene who squeezed her to her so tightly that she couldn't breathe. Selene then started kissing her face over and over again, and Julia started to quickly become embarrassed.

"Stop that. People are going to think that you like me or something," Julia joked.

Selene smiled at her as she said, "I can't help it. I was so worried about you."

"Is this your sister then? The one that you told me about?" Jules Verne asked.

Julia could feel her heart stop beating as Jules Verne walked up to her and shook her hand. Julia couldn't speak as Verne said, "It's so nice to meet you. I understand from your sister that you're my biggest fan."

Then Julia smiled wider than Selene had ever seen her and let out a massive scream of joy that made even the Cyber Devils look at her in terror. Julia grabbed Verne and practically squashed him as she hugged him tightly and said in a fast, squeaky voice that even a chipmunk would envy, "I love you so much. I love each and every thing that you've ever written. I'm your greatest fan of all time."

Verne smiled as he could see the true love and devotion that Julia had for him and returned her hug with an affectionate laugh. It was a fan like her that always made him keep writing no matter how many times that he wanted to stop due to writer's block. Reactions like hers always made all of the trouble of writing a novel worthwhile.

"I'm so sorry, Jules. I didn't mean for her to embarrass you like that," Selene said with a mortified look on her face.

"I'm not embarrassed at all. It's quite alright," Verne said happily.

"Good," Selene said in a low voice with a secret smile that briefly flared up and was then replaced by her official sisterly reaction of mortification.

She was so glad that Julia had finally gotten to meet her idol at last.

Suddenly everyone stopped fighting as the Cyber Sea Devils started to change back to normal before their eyes. Amy smiled as she saw her handiwork in action.

"What did you do?" Rory asked.

"What makes you think that I did anything?" Amy asked with an innocent look on her face.

"You have that guilty look in your eyes that you always have when you're up to something. That's why," Rory said.

"Okay, you've got me. I gave Mr. Clever a nanotech virus that made him its carrier and reversed or destroyed all Cybertechnology around him. He must have thought that by retreating into the Cyberiad that he was keeping the others safe from it, but he was wrong. My little virus also acts just like a computer virus and can infect anyone on the same network together through their programming as well as by being shared through the air. By running back to the Cybermen's network, he did exactly what I wanted him to do. That's what they get from having a shared network anyway. I mean haven't they ever heard of a computer virus?" Amy said in triumph.

In the 1940s, the Cybermen of that time were doing exactly the same thing as the ones in the 1860s. They were falling to pieces or being returned to human once more in the blink of an eye.

Ace looked on in disappointment as she said, "I was having so much fun too. I hate it when there's nothing left to blow up anymore."

Rose smiled at her as she said, "I'll find you a nice dead solar system somewhere, and you can blow things up there as much as you like, okay?"

"Do you promise?" Ace asked hopefully.

"Of course. It's better having you blow up a few chunks of rock than the TARDIS. Again," Rose said with a grin.

"So what do you think's going on here?" the Doctor asked Rose.

"Amy," Rose said without hesitation.

"Oh, it's definitely Pond alright. This has her handiwork written all over it," the Doctor said proudly.

"How could Amy do all of this?" Clara asked in surprise.

"My mother could do anything once she set her mind to it," Sirona said proudly.

"I see that in some ways that she's not any different at all from the way that she was and the person that I know now then," Brian said.

"In some ways, no. In other ways, she's changed a lot. She's happy though, and that's all that matters to me. That and that she still cares about me," Sirona admitted.

Sirona was surprised to find herself embraced by her mother in the next second as Amy said, "Of course I care about you. I didn't even know who you were when you were Amber, and I still loved you. Nothing's ever going to change that."

"You did this, didn't you?" Sirona asked as she pointed to the Cybermen changing or falling apart around them.

"Yep. That's one massive Cyber invasion foiled without anyone even having to lift a finger. Score one for the Scottish girl," Amy said proudly.

Then she realized what she had said and quickly added, "I mean for the Time Lady from Gallifrey of course."

Sirona smiled at her as she said, "No, you didn't. You still think of yourself as human and that's okay. I don't care. I meant what I said, Mum. As long as you're happy and you still love me, then it doesn't matter to me how you see yourself or how much you change. Besides, I kind of like Amy Pond. She's definitely growing on me."

"I'm glad. I've been kind of worried that you might reject me once you found out that the old me wasn't there anymore," Amy admitted.

"Never. Besides I think that you haven't changed as much as you think. You're still the same person in so many ways. In all of the ways that matter anyway," Sirona said.

Mother and daughter embraced again even as the Cybermen were as defeated in the 1940's as they had been in the 1860's. The Cybermen were all gone or changed now, and it was just like they had never been there in the first place. The confused former Cybermen were quickly escorted away by Churchill's soldiers as an official cover-up story was already being fed to them as to why they had found themselves there.

"I still wish that I had gotten to stay longer with Jules Verne. I didn't even get to really see Captain Nemo. He was too busy fighting all the time," Julia complained.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I have a feeling you'll see a lot of him from now on," Selene said with an evil smile.

"You're going to start dating him, aren't you?" Julia guessed.

"Yeah. I'll make sure that you get to talk to him the next time he comes to take me out," Selene said.

Julia smiled as she said, "You really are the coolest big sister of all time. Did you know that?"

"Are you just now noticing that?" Selene asked with a smile.

Churchill finally came out of hiding to find a jubilant reunion scene going on as Amy's family reunited for the first time in a while. He smiled to himself as he realized that people really were the same everywhere deep down even people from other worlds.

"Doctor, I see that you finally made it back to see me again. You've been hiding from me, haven't you? You just keep making poor Amy answer my calls all of the time lately. That's not very chivalrous of you," Churchill said as he pretended to scold him.

"It has nothing to do with chivalry, Winston. I just decided to always send you the very best," the Doctor said with a warm smile directed Amy's way.

Churchill couldn't help but chuckle at what Amy said next.

"You know, Doctor, you are so full of it. You're just too lazy to come," Amy said.

Then her tone switched from one of annoyance to anger as she said, "I still appreciate the compliment though."

"I meant it. Every word of it. I know that when I send you that it's just like I'm going myself," the Doctor said with a serious expression on his face.

Even as the old friends smiled at one another, Churchill came closer and closer to the Doctor as he tried not to be noticed in the midst of this warm moment. Just as he was about to lift the Doctor's key to the TARDIS from his pocket, Amy said, "Nice try, Winston."

Churchill sighed as he said, "Well, perhaps next time I'll succeed."

"It wouldn't matter if you did. The key is isomorphic. It only works for the Doctor," Amy said.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" Churchill asked.

The Doctor smiled at Amy's clever lie which he had used himself on more than one occasion to fool people as he played along with it and said, "I enjoyed the game. I wanted to see if you could get the key without my noticing it or not."

"Well, apparently I can't. I should have known that entering an advanced ship like yours wouldn't be that easy. Thank you for finally telling me that, Amy," Churchill said.

"It's no problem, Winston. I guess we should all be going then. We've long since wore out our welcome here I'm sure. Goodbye, Winston," Amy said.

"You're always welcome here, Amy, so don't worry about that. Goodbye, Amy," Winston said.

"I don't understand it. Everyone always tells me to never come back again most places that I go. They tell you that you're always welcome though," the Doctor noted.

"Yeah, imagine that. I can't think why," Amy said sarcastically.

"Have I been insulted again?" the Doctor asked Rose.

"Oh, most definitely," Rose said with a chuckle.

"That's what I get after that heartfelt talk that we had earlier. I can't believe you, Pond," the Doctor protested as he pretended to pout.

"Let's go, Doctor. You can make your pouty face later," Rose said.

"Do you promise?" the Doctor asked.

"Of course. I always love your pouty face. It's so kissable," Rose said as she proceeded to do exactly that.

Amy laughed as Rose then led the Doctor by the hand back to the TARDIS like a mother and child crossing the street together. It seemed like an apt comparison to her.

As they all went to their own TARDISes and went their separate ways, Rory said to Amy once they were inside, "You lied about the key only working for the Doctor, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. Anyone can use it. Winston doesn't have to know that though. It'll finally get him off of the Doctor's back about it all of the time," Amy said.

"You lied to Winston Churchill?" Brian asked in astonishment.

"I certainly did," Amy said.

"Can't you get thrown in the Tower for that or something?" Brian asked.

"Let him try," Amy said boldly.

"Even if he did, they'd just let her out again in no time. No one would put up with her for long," Selene joked.

"Zip it, Selene, or I'll chuck you out at the next supernova," Amy threatened.

Brian just watched them playfully argue like that for several minutes with a smile on his face. He had been unsure of his place on Amy's TARDIS at first, but now it felt like home. He finally felt as if he belonged there, and he was glad.

It used to be that he never got to see Rory anymore once the Doctor entered his life, and he never wanted to go back to that again. If the price for that was traveling around with him and Amy through time and space, then that was a small price to pay.

Besides he was growing to like it. He still couldn't get over Amy lying to Churchill and getting away with it. If nothing else, all of this traveling was providing him with plenty of things to laugh about, and at his age that was a gift in itself to feel like laughing about anything.

Brian's thoughts were suddenly interrupted though when Amy's phone rang, and it was Queen Elizabeth on the other end already. Amy groaned as she realized right away what a huge mistake that giving her that phone had been.

"What is it, Elizabeth?" Amy asked already dreading the answer.

"I just thought that I'd tell you that I captured the Doctor at last for getting out of his commitment of marriage to me. Can you believe that he actually claims that he never married me and has no idea what I'm talking about? He also keeps calling himself Donald. Does he think that I'm that stupid?" Elizabeth said.

Amy immediately put the cellphone on speaker phone as she said, "Donald is not the Doctor that you know. He's his clone just like the other Elizabeth is yours."

River's eyes widened in alarm now as she realized what must have happened. Her hand automatically went to her gun as her face contorted with anger.

"I know you're his friend, but you shouldn't lie for him, Amy. I just thought that I'd tell you that I have him so that you'll be there for him at the end. He deserves to have a friendly face there at least when his final moment comes," Elizabeth said.

"What? What are you talking about?" Amy asked.

"I'm having him executed first thing tomorrow. You might want to get here as soon as you can or you just might miss it," Elizabeth said as she hung up the phone.

"That's it. Bessie is dead," River said as she pulled out her gun.

"Don't worry, Melody. I won't let her do this. I'll get him out of there somehow," Amy promised her.

"You'd better hope that I don't get to her before you do or the history books are going to be greatly changed soon," River threatened.

Amy sighed. Things had been going so well too. Now she was going to have to somehow save Donald's life for something that the other Doctor did and prevent River from killing Queen Elizabeth I and changing history at the same time.

If she thought that she had problems now, she should have seen what Mr. Clever had planned for her next.

Next: It's River versus Elizabeth I with Amy caught in the middle while Mr. Clever plots his revenge from the shadows. In other words, it's life as usual for our favorite Scottish Time Lady.