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!

THE GREATEST DELICACY IN THE UNIVERSE

The Doctor's TARDIS finally materialized after several days of traveling in the Vortex in which Sirona had gotten to know the human version of her mother while carefully dodging questions about her past and who she really was from the Doctor. She had to admit that seeing Amy this way was an unexpected treat for her since she hadn't known her when she was human. She was the same as the Time Lord version of Amy Pond that she knew and yet different somehow. She was somehow purer and more undiluted as a human being, and she definitely seemed happier somehow and less dark.

Sirona knew for a fact that her personality had changed from her human self's since becoming a Time Lord again, but in these last few days that seemed to be becoming undone somehow. In fact now that she was around a human Amy it seemed to be bringing out the human side of her that she was afraid that she had lost.

She was acting more and more like Amber Loch instead of Sirona the longer that she stayed with her. She was suddenly more reckless and carefree now than the Time Lord version of herself had become. She was even starting to think about various money making cons and schemes for the first time since becoming a Time Lord again.

She knew that she was going to have to maintain careful control of herself or she was going to get into major trouble. It just felt so good to feel human again for a while even though she wasn't anymore, and this version of Amy was bringing that back out of her in a major way for whatever reason.

Sirona was the first one to run out of the TARDIS with a huge grin on her face as she felt a wave of excitement go through her that she hadn't felt since she was her mother's human companion years ago.

"Let's see what the old girl has for us today," Sirona said happily.

Then her face fell as she saw that they had landed in the middle of a huge room filled with table after table of different kinds of food. It looked like some kind of cooking contest judging from the banners on the wall.

"Well, that's a bit of a letdown, isn't it? I expected some alien action or the end of the world, and I get a cooking competition. I mean what's the danger here? Is someone trying to stuff humanity to death?" Sirona complained.

Amy laughed and hooked a friendly arm through Sirona's as she said, "You're nothing like what I expected from another Time Lord. You're not like him at all. You're just like an ordinary girl."

"I am an ordinary girl. More or less," Sirona said as she winked at her mother.

"Don't let her fool you. She's obviously been around humans for a while now and has picked up some of their behavioral traits, Pond. She's just trying to fit in better with you and put you at ease around her. Thanks for that by the way. She's very important to me," the Doctor said as he gave Sirona a meaningful look.

"Don't mention it. I agree with you by the way. She's a very special girl, Doctor," Sirona said.

More than you know. She thought to herself.

Amy smiled with a flattered look on her face as she said, "If you two don't stop, I'm going to get a swelled head. Two people with swelled heads onboard the TARDIS might just make it explode or something."

"Oi!" the Doctor said offended.

"Hello. Are you the new arrivals to our little contest?" An unfamiliar voice said nearby.

The three of them turned toward the direction of that voice to discover a thick heavyset man with large orange eyebrows and grey warts all over his face staring at them with a curious look. That curiosity soon turned into something else entirely though. Sirona might almost have called it hunger.

She suddenly had a very bad feeling about this place.

"Androgums," the Doctor muttered in a low voice as a look of fear briefly came over his face that he quickly wiped away with an impish grin.

Now Sirona knew that they were in trouble.

"Well, hello there! It's so very nice to meet you. We're the new judges. We came to help decide who's going to be the winner of this very important contest," the Doctor said as he started slowly backing away from the huge man.

"New judges? I haven't heard anything about any new judges. Why would they be aliens anyway? Only an Androgum can truly appreciate the cooking of another Androgum. The Androgums are the culinary masters of the universe after all. We know how to cook and prepare any species in order to make them into a great meal," the Androgum said as he looked the three of them up and down while licking his lips.

Amy started to shudder as his eyes lingered on her the longest, and she realized that it wasn't because he found her attractive. She was suddenly starting to put two and two together and didn't like what it added up to one bit.

"Doctor, when these Androgums say any species do they mean . . .?" Amy whispered trailing off.

"Yes, Pond, they mean humans and Time Lords included. They'll eat anything and anyone, and I do mean anyone. I've heard that they even eat other Androgums," the Doctor whispered back.

Sirona's eyes widened as she overheard this, and she had to try very hard to keep a friendly smile on her face as the Androgum continued to look at the three of them suspiciously. Then he pulled out a large knife from a belt around his waist and smiled a wicked grin at them.

"I don't think that you're judges at all. I think that you're the latest meal. Don't worry. I'm no savage. I'll make your deaths as quick and painless as possible. Then I will make you into the finest feast that the universe has ever seen. I'll surely win the contest now. My immortality as a master chef is now assured!" The Androgum shouted as he began to chase them with his knife held over his head.

"That really makes me feel oh so much better," Amy said in a horrified voice.

"Run!" the Doctor shouted as the three of them headed straight toward the TARDIS which luckily wasn't too far away.

"There is no escape. Give up now and make things easier on yourselves," the Androgum said behind them.

"No thanks. In this case the hard way is definitely better. I love the hard way," Sirona babbled as the three of them continued to run.

"Almost there," the Doctor said as he pulled the TARDIS key out of his pocket and prepared to open the door with it.

Suddenly another Androgum appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of the TARDIS blocking their way. This one had a huge meat cleaver in his hand as he said, "You cannot escape!"

"Yeah? Well, you certainly can't blame us for trying, can you?" Amy said as the three of them turned around and suddenly changed directions.

Neither Amy or Sirona realized that Amy had taken Sirona's hand and was subconsciously dragging her along with her. Even now she was trying to protect her daughter without even realizing who she was. The Doctor saw this though, and wheels began to turn in his mind even as he ran.

He knew right from the start that something was very familiar about Sirona, and now even Pond seemed to recognize her on some level. He made it his business now to eventually figure out who she was somehow just to make sure that she was no threat to them. He would know the truth about her sooner or later somehow. It was only a matter of time now.

As the three time travelers ran for their lives back in the not so distant past, the present day Amy and her crew returned to Gallifrey to report on Sirona's loss to Karen and Oisin. She knew that they would want to know.

As soon as Amy's TARDIS materialized inside of the House of Brightshore, Amy slowly walked out to see Karen's warm smile of greeting turn to an immediate frown. She knew herself too well not to know what that look on her face meant.

Oisin knew what it meant as well.

"Amy, what's happened?" Oisin asked with concern.

He had taken to calling Amy by her human name and Karen Cliodna these days since he had married her. It had just seemed right to him somehow.

"Oisin, I don't know how to tell you this. I really wish that I didn't have to," Amy said in an emotional voice.

Karen immediately realized what was wrong when she didn't see Sirona there with Amy. She started to cry before Amy could even say, "Sirona is . . . missing. She was sucked out of the TARDIS hundreds of feet over the ocean in the twenty second century. She could have survived though. I mean it's possible, right? She could have regenerated and swam to safety."

"Yes, of course she could have. Maybe she's out there somewhere, and you just haven't found her yet," Oisin said in a hopeful voice but still sounding unconvinced somehow.

"If I was still the President, I could have convinced the High Council to use all of their resources to search for her. As it is though, I think that I've probably burned my bridges with that lot after punching out a Cardinal and resigning," Karen said in a disgusted tone.

"I don't blame you for doing that, Cliodna. They were trying to railroad Arkytior with a whole list of false charges," Oisin said.

"That doesn't help Sirona any does it?" Karen said in despair.

"Who's the new President? Maybe we can appeal to them," Amy asked.

"It's Koschei. He might help if we can find him. He seems to have become almost impossible to find ever since he took the job. He's been too busy trying to find out something incriminating against that creep on the High Council, Cardinal Oneiros, who tried to railroad Rose. I haven't seen him since his coronation," Karen said.

"Wonderful," Amy said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry," Karen apologized.

"No, don't do that. It's not your fault. You couldn't have possibly known," Amy said.

A sudden idea struck Rory as he said, "She couldn't have known but what about Melody? Do you think that Melody would know?"

"Yeah, maybe she would already know how the whole thing turns out. She always seems to know everything," Julia said hopefully.

"She may not tell us even if she does. It's foreknowledge of the future after all," Amy said.

"I don't care what excuse she comes up with. I'll make her tell us. I have to know if Sirona's okay or not," Selene said in a hard voice.

"Selene, stop it. We're not going to attack her. We're just going to see what she knows or is willing to tell us," Amy said.

"She'll tell me everything," Selene insisted.

"Will I?" River asked as she suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Melody, how did you know that I needed to talk to you?" Amy asked surprised.

"That's the question, isn't it? How would I know?" River asked grinning.

Selene suddenly slammed River into the nearest wall and growled at her as she said, "No more riddles! No stupid little questions with no answers. I don't want to hear it. I want to know right now what happened to Sirona! I don't want to hear you say 'spoilers' or anything else as an excuse either. I want to hear the truth. Where is Sirona? Is she alive? Tell me! Please!"

River looked at her with sadness in her eyes and let her attack slide when she normally wouldn't as she said, "It wasn't your fault, Selene. It was Jennifer Lucas' fault. You need to stop blaming yourself for what happened both to Sirona and your father. Sirona doesn't blame you in the slightest."

Selene slowly let go of River as she said, "She's alive?"

River smiled but said nothing.

"She has to be. She's alive or how would you know to come here? She must have told you that this was when she went missing. How else could you have known? We never told anyone else until now," Selene said grabbing at straws.

"Melody, please say something. Anything," Amy pleaded.

"You already know where Sirona is, Mother. You've always known. You just haven't always remembered. Don't you think that it's about time that you did?" River asked.

Both Amy and Karen suddenly clutched their heads and gasped as a group of secret repressed memories became unlocked at River's words. They each looked at one other and said in unison, "Of course! She's alive! She's alive and in the past!"

"What? Where in the past?" Rory asked with renewed hope in his voice at last.

"She's in my past. She's with me and the Doctor back in the early days of our traveling together. We saved her from the fall! It was right before I was almost killed by the Weeping Angels," Amy said.

"We have to go back and find her then," Selene said.

"I know I'm new at this sort of thing but wouldn't that be bad though? You said that you weren't supposed to cross your own timeline," Brian said.

"Usually that's true, yes. This time though it's okay because it's already happened, Brian. I already remember meeting the future me, this me, in the past. That's why I forgot about saving Sirona because I had to make myself forget what I learned about my own future," Amy said.

"So you already know what's going to happen then?" Brian asked.

"Sort of. I'm still not remembering everything just yet. It's coming back to me in bits and pieces a little at a time," Amy said.

"It's only being revealed to you as you need to remember it so that you don't accidentally alter what's already happened. You put the mental blocks in yourself to make sure of that," River revealed.

"I know. I remember that much. Let's go then. We've got a special appearance to make," Amy said as they all quickly entered Amy's TARDIS and it dematerialized.

Back on the planet of the Androgums, the Doctor, past Amy, and Sirona were still on the run from the two Androgum chefs. They had just managed to keep one step ahead of them at all times, but the huge men were rapidly catching up with them despite their massive size.

Finally Amy screamed as one of the Androgums managed to grab ahold of her and ripped her from Sirona's hand. Sirona immediately stopped and started to go back to help her.

"Mum!" Sirona screamed as the Androgum brought his huge knife to Amy's throat and was just about to cut it.

Suddenly the Androgum fell over and hit the floor with an enormous boom after he was shot several times in the stomach with several energy blasts and dropped Amy to the ground. Sirona pulled Amy to safety while the second Androgum charged toward the first Androgum's attacker, who she couldn't see, with his cleaver in his hand.

"Are you alright, Amy?" Sirona asked her mother with concern.

"I'm fine. He didn't get a chance to cut me. That's not what I'm worried about right now though. You called me Mum. Why did you call me that?" Amy demanded.

"I didn't say that. You must have been hearing things," Sirona lied.

"Yes, you did. You called me Mum. Doctor, you heard her, didn't you?" Amy said obstinately.

The Doctor didn't answer, and both women looked for him to find him missing. They were suddenly alone while Amy called out, "Doctor, where are you?"

"We'll have to go find him. This isn't over, Amber. I'm going to find out who you really are," Amy said as she grabbed Sirona by the hand and led her along with her yet again.

Sirona couldn't help but smile at how Amy was still doing her best to protect her even now that she was suspicious of her. She wouldn't let her out of her sight.

The Doctor meanwhile had found the second Androgum with his arms wrapped around River Song in a massive bear hug that was rapidly squeezing the life out of her. River was doing her best to get the enormous alien off of her, but even she wasn't quite strong enough to break the Androgum's death grip.

"Let her go," the Doctor said in a threatening voice.

The Androgum laughed and ignored the Doctor as he said, "Wait your turn, little morsel. I'll kill you soon enough."

The Doctor barely knew River at this point in time, but he still had vivid memories of her dying in the Library. He wasn't about to let that happen again on his watch. He might have to let her die one day but not today!

The Doctor unleashed a massive sonic wave from his screwdriver that had the Androgum screaming in agony. This caused him to subsequently loosen his grip on River just enough for her to break free from him. Then she immediately grabbed her gun where she had dropped it when the Androgum grabbed her and shot him with it at point blank range.

As the Androgum fell, the Doctor turned off his sonic and said with a smile, "Professor Song, it seems that I just keep running into you in the strangest places."

"Don't you just hate that sort of thing? Then again maybe you planned it this way because you just couldn't get enough of me," River joked.

"Melody, is Sirona here?" Selene asked as she suddenly appeared along with her version of Amy.

"Yes, she's around here somewhere with past Amy," River said.

"I have to find her," Selene said as she rushed off.

The Doctor meanwhile looked at Amy with his mouth hanging open as he recognized her as Cliodna right away. Amy smiled at him as she said, "Hello, Doctor. I guess you finally know why the two of us hit it off so quickly now, huh?"

"Amelia, you're Cliodna," the Doctor said in disbelief.

"Yeah, I certainly am," Amy said laughing.

"My best friend in the present is also my best friend in the past," the Doctor said as he continued to stare at her in shock.

"Yes, I believe that we've established that," Amy said as she began to get annoyed.

"You're alive! You disappeared and I thought that you had died," the Doctor said as he grabbed her and hugged her tightly.

Amy smiled again as the Doctor became overjoyed at seeing her again. She had to admit that it would have made her feel good if it had been at any other time. Right now though, she was more interested in finding Sirona.

The Doctor seemed to realize this at the exact same time as he slapped himself in the forehead and said, "Of course! Sirona! Amber is Sirona! I knew that I remembered her from somewhere. I'm a stupid foolish old Doctor!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Theta. You've always been that way. Old age has nothing to do with it," Amy joked as she started to walk by him.

"Oi!" the Doctor said as he and River followed Amy down the hall while they searched for Sirona and the past Amy.

Selene found them first though. This turned out to be a good thing as yet another group of Androgums had found the two women and were about to butcher them with the various kitchen equipment that they were carrying. They were obviously more cooks who had entered into the cooking contest.

"Sirona!" Selene shouted with a combination of fear and joy as she finally spotted Sirona at last.

"Selene! I see my message to River worked. I sent a message to her to come and get me when I pickpocketed the Doctor's psychic paper from his pocket while we were running from the Androgums. I told her exactly where and when I was so that I didn't wind up dying here," Sirona said as she tried to fend off the Androgums.

"You pickpocketed him while you were running?" Selene asked in disbelief.

Sirona grinned as she said, "What can I say? I'm just that good. I had to survive somehow on my own while wandering the universe, and I didn't just do it with my many schemes for making quick money. I'm not proud of it of course, but it does come in very handy sometimes."

Selene shook her head at her and then became deadly serious once more as more and more Androgums began to enter the room. She knew that Sirona and Amy would be dead soon if she didn't act quickly.

"Hold on, Sirona. I'll get you out of this. A small army of massive Androgums are going to be no problem for a terrified aunt out to save her favorite niece," Selene said as she began attacking the cooks with her martial arts skills.

"Sirona? Why does that name sound so familiar?" past Amy asked her with a strange look on her face.

"You know why. You recognized me the minute you saw me. You just can't remember consciously yet," Sirona said.

Amy started to cry as she said, "You're my daughter."

"Hello, Mum," Sirona said as she hugged her.

"No, that can't be right. I don't have a daughter. Are you from the future or something?" Amy asked in confusion.

"I can't tell you right now. You're not supposed to remember any of this yet. Someday you will though and that's when you'll meet me again," Sirona said.

Amy continued to look at her in shock as she said, "You're my daughter from the past. I - I'm not human. No, that can't be right. I have to be human. I have to be."

"I'm sorry, Mum," Sirona said as she put a comforting arm around her.

She could see that Amy was becoming more and more upset at this new revelation and realized that this was what she must have gone through when she eventually did figure it out. She had always known that her past as Amy mattered a lot to her mother, but she hadn't really understood just how much until now.

She still valued her time as Amber too, but this was something else. Amy truly loved being Amy Pond much more than being Cliodna. She hadn't truly understood just how much pain that being Cliodna had caused her until this exact moment when she saw her mother so violently rejecting that identity.

While Amy was struggling with her identity problems, Selene was tearing through the Androgums all by herself until River, present Amy, and the Doctor finally arrived. The four of them quickly became a formidable team and made quick work of the cooks in no time.

As the cooks lay unconscious on the floor, present Amy quickly explained what had happened to the Doctor and her past self. The Doctor immediately realized that both he and Amy were going to have to repress this information until the right time for them to remember it.

As he prepared to guide past Amy through this process, she still couldn't cope with all of these new revelations and stood there shell shocked. She stared at Sirona and wouldn't let go of her hand as if she were her lifeline to holding onto her sanity now which Sirona supposed in a way that she was.

"Come on, Amy. You've got to let her go home with future you. Let her go now," the Doctor said gently as he pulled Amy's hand off of Sirona's.

"Good bye, Mum," Sirona said as she started to leave with the correct version of her mother.

As present Amy and her crew returned to her TARDIS, the Doctor and past Amy finished suppressing their memories and then quickly returned to their own TARDIS before the Androgums woke up again. They definitely didn't want to stick around to be lunch after all!

Back in Amy's TARDIS, Sirona was hugged by first her mother, then Selene, and finally Karen and Oisin who were all openly weeping at seeing her alive and well again. Selene in particular had fallen to pieces and just kept asking Sirona to forgive her over and over again.

"For what? What happened wasn't your fault. I know that you did your best to save me. I saw you reaching out to grab me, but you were just a second too late. I was afraid that you were going to be sucked out too trying to help me. I'm so glad that you weren't," Sirona said as she hugged her aunt reassuringly.

Selene continued to cry as Sirona comforted her. Amy couldn't help but smile because it just showed that despite how much Selene had changed that at her core she was still the same loving person that she had grown up with on Gallifrey. She had just learned to hide that side of herself in order to keep from falling apart when Amy had disappeared. That part of her wasn't gone forever though. It was merely sleeping.

Amy was about to dematerialize and leave the planet of the Androgums behind when suddenly the doors to her TARDIS opened and little Melody and Mels came inside. She stared at both of them in absolute shock as River said with a frown on her face, "I remember this now. This is not going to be fun!"

"Melody, what's happening?" Amy asked as the two other versions of her daughter looked at both River and her in confusion.

"Sirona's message was sent to me, but it also got through to the past versions of me as well. The Silence then sent them here to find out what it was all about. I must have done some memory repressing of my own because I'm only just now starting to remember this," River admitted.

"Where are we? How did you get a TARDIS, Amy?" Mels asked.

"Who are all of you? Do you know my parents? I miss them so much," little Melody asked hopefully.

Rory moved forward and held her hand as he said, "I'm your dad, Melody, and that's your mum."

Little Melody looked at the two of them and smiled. Rory could tell that somehow she remembered them despite not having seen them since she was a baby.

"Well, now that we have her all caught up on what should have been obvious to anyone with half a brain from the start and I now know that this version of you finally knows who I am, I'd like to know whose TARDIS this is and what you're all doing here. Who is Sirona anyway, and why did she send a message to me? Oh, and who is . . . that? She looks like she stuck her finger in a light socket with that frizzy hair," Mels said.

"Hey!" Both Melody and River said indignantly.

"I'm not stupid!" Melody cried out.

At the same time, River said, "Don't make cracks about my hair! Your hair isn't exactly winning any prizes either."

"Shut up! The both of you! I'm trying to talk to my mother!" Mels shouted.

"She's my mother too," Both Melody and River said together.

"Oh, no! Surely I don't become you. I thought I had better fashion sense and hairstyling skills than that," Mels said as she looked at River with a sigh.

River pulled out her gun and pointed at Mels even as Melody kicked Mels in the leg and said, "You're just mean!"

"Ow, you little brat!" Mels said.

"I'll do worse than that to you if you don't knock off the remarks about my appearance," River said with her gun pointed at Mels.

Mels stuck her tongue out at River as she said, "You can't shoot me. You'll be killing yourself."

River smiled evilly as she said, "What can I say? I'm a bit mad. I'm liable to actually do it and not even care. The TARDIS will keep me alive as a temporal anomaly after all as long as I stay in her."

"You wouldn't dare!" Mels said.

"Try me," River said as a massive grin spread all over her face.

"River, don't point guns at yourself! Melody, stop hitting yourself! Mels, stop making fun of your selves! Now!" Amy ordered.

"She started it!" All three Melodys said at once as they pointed at one of their other selves.

Amy sighed and held her head in her hands. It was going to be another one of those days when she wished that she had an aspirin for this splitting headache of hers despite its lethal effects on Time Lords. She could already tell.

Next: Amy has to deal with three versions of River at the same time who simply won't stop fighting with one another. Oh, and the three of them wind up getting Amy caught up in a whole boatload full of trouble. Then again it is River times three so what else did you expect?