CHAPTER 25

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CLIODNA FOREVER

Selene had started the TARDIS and sent them into the Vortex twenty minutes before, but Julia was still crying non-stop. Amy didn't know the little girl but listening to her cry still tore her heart out. She couldn't stand listening to it and was trying everything that she could to calm her down.

She talked to her in a gentle, loving tone that she usually reserved only for her loved ones when they were upset. It was beyond strange to her that she had only just met this girl and already cared about her so much.

"Please stop crying, sweetie. I promise that you can stay with me, okay? I mean you seem like such a sweet girl that I can't imagine not adopting you," Amy said to Julia as she held her close to her.

Julia still couldn't stop though. It was as if her mother was only a shell of her former self now. She was Amy and yet she wasn't. She didn't give her that smile that only belonged to her anymore or remember how she liked to have a kiss on the forehead when she was upset even though she said she didn't like it. This was still Amy, but she wasn't her Amy. She wanted her Amy back.

She missed her.

"She's going to be alright, Julia. You'll see," Brian said as he tried to reassure his granddaughter.

"No, she's gone. She'll never remember me again," Julia mumbled in despair.

"Rory, why doesn't she stop crying?" Amy asked in despair.

"She will eventually, Amy. She's just having a hard time adjusting," Brian said.

"Of course she is. She misses her mother. She misses you, Amy. The old you," Rory said.

"I am the old me. What's going on here? Why does everyone act like I'm somebody else all of a sudden?" Amy asked.

"Maybe because you are. You're not the Cliodna that I know anyway," Selene said.

"And you are?" Amy asked.

"They said you had lost your memory, but it still hurts to hear you say that. I'm your little sister, Clio. Don't you remember me at all? Even a little bit?" Selene asked with sadness.

Selene's sadness touched Amy, and she could sense that it was genuine so it made her voice quiver with guilt and sorrow as she responded back, "No, I'm sorry."

Selene started to cry despite telling herself that she wouldn't. That was when Sirona wrapped her arms around her and tried to calm her down.

As Amy watched them, she wanted to ask who Sirona was too. She didn't though because she didn't want to see Sirona become any more upset than she already obviously was. She didn't know why, but she couldn't stand the idea of bringing this girl anymore pain.

"I'm sorry. I wish that I could remember because you both seem like such nice people especially you," Amy said as she touched Sirona's shoulder.

"You must have no memories if you're calling me nice," Selene said sarcastically.

"Mum?" Sirona asked as she looked at Amy's hand on her shoulder with hope in her eyes.

Amy pulled her hand back in disbelief, and Sirona began to cry now. Now it was Selene's turn to comfort her.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't rejecting you. I was just surprised," Amy said as she put her hand back on Sirona's shoulder and smiled at her.

"You don't remember though. I'm just a stranger to you," Sirona said in a hurt voice.

"I'm sorry," Amy said again.

Amy was completely shocked that she had yet another grown daughter whose childhood she didn't remember being a part of. Was she always destined to never raise a child?

"Rory, Brian, explain. Tell me what's going on here," Amy said as she continued to lightly run her fingers through Julia's hair in an attempt to calm her down with one hand while she kept her other hand on Sirona's shoulder.

This one gesture of love for her and her sister was the only thing that convinced Julia that Amy was still her mum and that she shouldn't give up hope yet. Amy still caring about her no matter what was the only thing keeping her from completely falling apart.

"What's the last thing that you remember?" Rory asked unsure where to begin.

"I remember that we were traveling with the Doctor and Rose after he found Rose again. The very last thing that I remember was that we were in a large forest and found the Doctor's sister, Emmy. Then the Great Intelligence tried to use her TARDIS to blow us up, but somehow I saved us by flying the TARDIS. That was weird, right? I guess I learned more from the Doctor and River than I thought, huh?" Amy said.

"You knew how to do it because you're a Time Lord, Amy. It was shortly after you flew the TARDIS to save us from Emmy's TARDIS exploding that you found that out. Mr. Clever wiped that out of your mind though along with every trace of Cliodna," Rory said.

"Cliodna? Who is Cliodna?" Amy asked.

"You are. That's your name," Rory said.

Amy shook her head not accepting what he was saying. This couldn't be right, but then the others with them seemed to believe it all as well. Could it really be true?

"It took me a while to accept it too but it's true, Amy," Brian said.

Amy looked at Brian in disbelief but knew that he and Rory would never lie to her.

"Where did Melody go?" Amy asked suddenly noticing that she wasn't there when she tried to look to her for answers next.

"She went to get Rose to help you get your memory back. At least she said she was going to anyway. I'm not sure if she will or not. River isn't too fond of Rose these days," Rory said.

"Why? Is she still mad at her about the Doctor?" Amy asked confused.

"No, it's something else. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you have to know who you are again. The Cybermen wanted to get you out of the way for some reason and whatever it was can't be good," Rory said.

"Why can't I be me? What's wrong with me? Why do you want to replace me with this other person?" Amy asked hurt.

"She isn't another person, Mum. She's you but she's a more complete version of you. It's hard to explain," Julia said.

"You called me Mum," Amy said shocked.

"That's because you are. Please remember," Julia said in tears.

"I want to, sweetheart. I really do but I don't. I'm so sorry," Amy said as she held her.

Then on a sudden impulse she did something that neither she or Julia expected. She kissed Julia on the forehead.

Julia smiled at her as she said, "You're still in there. I knew it."

"You used to do that to her whenever she was upset. The other you I mean," Rory explained when Amy looked at him questioningly.

"How would I know that though?" Amy asked in disbelief.

"That's what I'd like to know," the voice of Mr. Clever said as it reverberated throughout the TARDIS.

"Who is that?" Amy asked frightened.

"Oh, I'm Mr. Clever. I'm the grand poobah of coolness and the one who made you the woman that you are at the moment. You should be thanking me for that you know. Now you get a second chance to be Amy Pond all over again without all of that extra baggage weighing you down. You can be your true self once again. Who needs Cliodna? Bad Cliodna. Bad, bad Cliodna," Mr. Clever said with distaste.

Amy had an image of the Doctor discussing his hatred of beans with her when she was a little girl. She couldn't help but smile at that image.

Then she screamed as several more images flooded into her mind for a moment, and she remembered for a brief moment. She remembered and then it all faded away again.

"What just happened?" Mr. Clever asked in shock.

"What happened was that I'm getting stronger than ever, you Raggedy Man reject," the unmistakable voice of Amy herself said throughout the TARDIS.

"Mum!" Julia cried out in joy.

"What?! What?!" Mr Clever shouted in disbelief.

"Did you think that you were the only one who could download themselves into the TARDIS? Two can play at that game. I've been here the entire time since I realized that I was making a mistake by arching myself. I was going to put my consciousness right back into the watch when the whole thing was finished with and make myself open it, but there was no watch. That's when I knew that you had done something to me. I've been hiding in the TARDIS ever since slowly gaining more and more control over it until I was strong enough to fight you. Now I have complete control over her, and it's time for you to go. I've just handed you your eviction papers, Mr. Clever," the voice of Amy said from all around them.

"This is just so weird. I'm listening to myself fighting with a voice that sounds like the Doctor's. It's like a very twisted version of déjà vu," Amy said with a grin.

"That's her. The other you," Rory said.

"I thought you said that she was a Time Lord. She sounds and acts like me though. I don't see any difference between us," Amy asked confused.

"Not all Time Lords act like the Doctor. He's considered a little . . . out there even by the other Time Lords," the voice of the other Amy said.

"I knew it!" Amy said laughing.

"See? I'm not so bad, am I?" the voice of the other Amy said.

"I guess not," Amy admitted.

"Pardon me for interrupting this touching, heartwarming moment, but I'm not going anywhere. This is what I get for being Mr. Nice Guy instead of Mr. Clever. I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place. I'm going to kill you, Pond! Both of you!" Mr. Clever said.

"Okay, that's very disturbing. He sounds like a demented version of the Doctor," Amy said.

"I know. That's what makes him so dangerous because he is a demented version of him," the voice of Amy said from all around them.

"I'll show you disturbing. You haven't seen anything yet," Mr. Clever said.

Suddenly the TARDIS' lights went dim, and the air started being sucked out of it. Then the gravity inside of the Console Room increased dramatically and slammed them all to the ground instantly.

As the crew of the TARDIS struggled to move or even breathe, Mr. Clever laughed at them. He was going to get rid of Amy Pond one way or another even if he had to die to do it.

"I know you're saying to yourselves right now what else can he possibly do to us, but you'd be so wrong. There's much more where that came from," Mr. Clever said.

The consciousness of Amy could feel the TARDIS suddenly changing course and heading towards a black hole with its shields down. They would be crushed within moments if she couldn't stop it from reaching its new destination in time.

She immediately went to work attempting to override Mr. Clever's control of her ship and reestablished life support and the proper gravity for the Console Room. Changing course though was a different story.

"Amy, I'm going to have to be whole again in order to change course. I'll have to quickly rewrite and reprogram the TARDIS, and I'll need hands for that," the voice of Time Lord Amy said to her human counterpart.

Amy took a deep breath and then asked, "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to get back into the Chameleon Arch. This is going to be tricky, but I think that I can use it to restore us back to who we were before even without a watch. Please trust me when I say that you won't change at all. I'm just you with some extra bits and pieces added on from my past life as Cliodna," the voice of Time Lord Amy said.

Amy looked at the hopeful faces of her family and nodded. She knew that she had to do this even if she was afraid. She knew that Rory and Brian would never let her die, and she was sure that the others wouldn't either. She trusted them even though she barely knew them. She knew that her love for them must be strong to even survive losing her memories like that. She refused to believe that she would love someone who would harm her so she went with her gut and followed her other self's advice.

As Amy was directed back to the room with the Chameleon Arch in it, Mr. Clever was rapidly spouting out any and all expletives that he could think of. Amy's will was just too strong for him to overcome. He was rapidly losing control over the entire ship and knew that he would even lose control over the ship's course soon if Amy was restored to her true form. He had to stop her now before it was too late.

As soon as Amy was seated back in the Arch, Mr. Clever sent a massive jolt of electricity through the machine in an attempt to get her out of it. Amy screamed in pain but continued to use it anyway despite that.

"Amy!" Rory screamed as he started to go toward her.

He was held back by Selene and Sirona as Selene said, "Don't interfere. You'll just be killed. As soon as she starts transforming, she'll be alright."

"What if it kills her before she can start?" Rory said in concern.

Selene had no answer for that.

That was when River and Rose appeared. River had a sour expression on her face and wouldn't even look at Rose. She would never have asked for help from Miss Goody Two Shoes if it hadn't been Amy's life at stake.

"Oh, they brought out the big gun! It's not going to do you any good though. She's already dead," Mr. Clever said happily.

Amy slumped over and stopped moving even as the Arch began doing its job.

"No!" Rory screamed as he finally broke free from Selene and Sirona.

Before he could even get to Amy though, she suddenly came back to life with her eyes glowing with energy and screamed as her transformation began. She smiled at Rory for a brief moment as her body was covered with energy. Then she screamed as her entire body was rewritten.

"No! You can't!" Mr. Clever screamed.

Amy quickly left the Arch as soon as her body had stopped glowing and ran to the console as she said, "Oh, I can. I'm just too stubborn to ever give up. Just ask anybody. Oh, hello, Rose."

"River said you were in trouble, but it looks like you've got the whole situation wrapped up to me," Rose said grinning.

"Oh, she just overreacts sometimes. You know how kids are," Amy said.

"I went to her and apologized. I even asked for help. I never ask anyone for help. Do you mean that I did that for nothing?" River said sounding disgusted.

"Looks like it. Sorry," Amy said as she finally reached the console and began rapidly rewiring several wires underneath it at lightning speed.

"Whoa!" Julia said in awe as she watched her mother move faster than she had ever seen her move before.

As soon as the rewriting was finished, Amy hit several controls in rapid succession, and the TARDIS came to a full stop and then reentered the Vortex. She then smiled with a look of triumph on her face as she hit several more buttons and then pulled down a large lever.

"Oh, that's good. That's just brilliant as the Doctor would say," Rose said in appreciation.

"What is? What did she do?" Rory asked.

"She just sent a massive psionic disrupter wave through the entire telepathic network of the TARDIS. Either it'll scramble his brainwaves so bad that he'll never come back out again in one piece or . . ." Rose said before she was interrupted by a sudden noise of intense anger coming from Selene.

Selene was looking at them with snarling fury on her face as Rose finished, "He'll come out angrier than ever and take over the first person that he can jump into."

"Oh, that's just great," Sirona said as everyone backed away from Selene.

"Don't worry. I've got it covered," Amy said.

She hit a button on her watch, and a massive sonic wave poured out of it as Mr. Clever screamed in agony. Amy smiled as she pushed another button on her watch, and the noise that it was making became even louder.

"A sonic watch? I like it," Rose said impressed.

"I programmed a new app into it to disrupt Clever's hold on people and drive him out of them. It's pretty good, isn't it?" Amy asked as Selene screamed and collapsed to the floor.

"Sorry, Selene. I didn't know it would be that painful for you. I'll have to work on that," Amy said with a sheepish look on her face.

"Yeah, you do that. I'll just take an aspirin for this headache when I find the strength to pick myself up off the floor," Selene said.

"I thought aspirin was poison for Time Lords," Brian said confused.

"It is. That's how bad my head hurts," Selene said.

"I'm not finished yet. Now that you've seen how much it hurts my hosts, let's see you use it on your little girl. I'm betting you won't," Mr. Clever said through Julia's mouth.

"Amy, don't. She's too young. She's not strong enough to withstand it," Selene said with worry as she tried to get up off the floor.

"That's right. You won't use it on the child, will you? You don't dare," Mr. Clever said smugly.

"You're right. I won't," Amy said.

Then she quickly ran over to Julia and placed her hands on the sides of her head so fast that Mr. Clever didn't even have time to realize what was going on. Clever felt himself being yanked out of Julia's mind and into Amy's before he could even put up a fight.

Amy quickly touched the interface for the telepathic circuits on her console and shunted Clever's consciousness into the TARDIS' telepathic network yet again. This time though she wasn't going to allow him to stay inside of it. She quickly reconfigured the network to expel Clever from inside of it before he could gain a foothold there again.

She smiled as she felt a fading psychic impression of Clever's consciousness in her mind as he floated further and further away from the TARDIS to be hopelessly lost in the Vortex. He would now be trapped there forever being pulled further and further apart by the vast forces inside of it.

"That's Amy Pond, one and Mr. Not So Clever After All a great big fat zero!" Amy said proudly.

"I did it all for nothing," River grumbled.

"You did it for your mum. That's always something," Rose said.

River looked away from her in anger as Amy said, "Be nice to her, Melody. She didn't come here to be insulted."

"It's okay, Amy," Rose said.

"No, it's not. You're one of my best friends, and I won't have you treated like that," Amy said.

"She brought Reinette back and didn't even care how it would affect others," River said finally

"I brought her back to protect my daughter," Rose said.

"Yes, from this Fenris person who so far hasn't made a single appearance again from what I can tell. I think you just brought her back to be nice to your new granddaughter so you could score points with her," River accused her.

"That was part of it I have to admit. She was so sad that I didn't see what the harm would be in letting her have her mum back as long as history wasn't being changed. That's not the only reason though and neither is Fenris," Rose said.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked as both she and River looked at Rose for more clarification of that statement.

Rose looked like she was going to say something else but just said, "I just want her there to do what I wouldn't be able to do if the worst were to happen not just to me but to others in my family too."

"You gave her some of your power to stop you or your other family members with Vortex powers if they ever went rogue, didn't you?" River said suddenly understanding now.

"Yes," Rose said in a low voice.

"How did you know that?" Amy asked.

"It's the kind of plan I'd come up with only I wouldn't act so ashamed of it," River said.

"She's just like me, Melody. She can't even conceive of doing anything to harm her family," Amy said.

"That's why she'll have Reinette who isn't family ready to do it for her. That's very smart," River said.

Rose looked down in shame and River said, "No, don't be ashamed. You're trying to protect others. That's nothing to be ashamed of. Besides I don't think that Reinette could hurt your family either unless there was just no other choice. I don't like her but I know that you can trust her to do her best to save their lives. You made the right decision, Rose. I'm . . . sorry. I shouldn't have treated you that way."

"Thanks," Rose said with a soft smile and hugged her.

"Hey, you don't have to be all mushy. You're way too emotional sometimes. You're such a girly girl," River complained as she tried to push her off of her.

Amy made things worse by hugging River too and making River gag. "What are you doing?" River protested.

"I'm just showing you how proud I am of you for reaching out to her," Amy said.

"Alright, alright. You don't have to make such a big deal about it," River said looking disgusted and yet displaying a small smile at the same time that let Amy know that she secretly liked it.

Then Amy pulled away from River and hugged Julia tightly as she said, "I'm sorry, baby."

"It's okay, mum. I know it wasn't your idea," Julia said as she hugged her back and wouldn't let go.

Amy pulled Julia along with her with a grin on her face as she then hugged Sirona with one arm as she said, "I'd give you a bigger hug, but I'm a little occupied at the time."

"I can see that. Let her stay there a while. She missed you so much," Sirona said smiling.

"She isn't the only one, is she?" Amy said as she kissed Sirona's cheek.

"No, she isn't," Sirona said as she kissed her mother back on her cheek.

Then Amy looked down at Selene on the floor and said, "Sorry about the headache."

"No problem. I needed a little rest anyway. I've been pushing myself too hard lately," Selene joked.

The two sisters looked at one another in silence for a moment and then Selene said, "I like missed you and stuff."

Amy smiled as she said, "Well, I like missed you too."

Selene struggled to hold back tears as her façade broke for a moment, and she said, "I love you so much. Don't you ever, ever leave me like that again or I'll kick your scrawny little butt!"

"Yes, ma'am! Wait a minute. Scrawny? Who are you calling scrawny?" Amy said.

"You look like a rail. You need to eat more. More than one piece of bread a day preferably," Selene joked.

"Did you become Mum while I was gone all of a sudden?" Amy asked.

"Oh, no! You did not just go there! That's a low blow! I mean low!" Selene said.

Rory started laughing at them going at it and Brian said, "Is this how they normally act?"

It was Rose who answered as she said, "Yes, it is. They've been doing this to keep from admitting how much they love each other for centuries. That's how you know that they're alright. It's when they don't fight that you have to be worried."

"You take that back, Rose Tyler. How dare you say that I love my sister," Selene said.

"You just said it yourself not five minutes ago," Julia pointed out.

"I did not," Selene said.

"Yes, you did," Amy said.

"I did not," Selene said.

"Yes, you did. You love me," Amy said taunting her as she hugged her.

"No, don't. You're ruining my reputation. No one's going to think I'm tough anymore," Selene said.

"I've got news for you. No one thinks you're tough now," Julia said.

"Shut up, Jules," Selene said but with a warm smile on her face instead of anger.

"Yes, everything's back to normal alright," Amy said still hugging her sister.

"If you tell people that I liked this, I'll deny it," Selene said but her smile said otherwise.

For the moment, Amy felt at peace, and her family was safe and sound. She knew that it wouldn't last, but she would make sure to enjoy every minute of it while it did.

The girl who waited no longer had to wait anymore for anyone. She finally had the family that she had wanted for so long, and she was so grateful for that.

Next: It's Rory's worst nightmare as he suddenly finds not just his Amy but also Karen Pond, the Amy from my story The Return of the Girl Who Waited, and the Amy Pond from Pete's World in the Console Room together. What is going on here? The bigger question is will Rory survive it?