CHAPTER 50

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Author's Note: This chapter takes place just before the events of The Adventures of Rose Tyler Chapter 120.

BANE OF THE CYBERMEN PART 2

As Amy watched on helplessly while a Cyberman seemed to be moments away from killing her mother, Tabetha, she suddenly heard a voice call out, "Hey, Metal Face! Over here!"

Just as the Cyberman turned to look at someone that was just out of Amy's view, he was suddenly hit right in the face with an enormous blast of energy that completely blew him apart!

The other Cybermen standing nearby immediately backed away from their unseen assailant now as the same voice as before called out, "That's what happens to anyone who threatens my mother. Get the message, morons? Get away from my parents right now or you'll wind up as a puddle of silver goo on the floor just like your friend over there."

Amy couldn't help but laugh with joy now as she finally recognized that voice at last and immediately started to become filled with renewed hope once more as a result. The holographic image of what was happening on the ship began to instantly start fading in and out now as the sounds of multiple blasts (and screams) could be heard in the background. It was obvious to everyone that whatever was happening was doing massive damage to the entire area and was threatening to pull the plug on the hologram for good at any moment as a result.

"Karen, what are you doing? How are you doing it?" Tabetha asked in a shocked voice from somewhere off-screen.

"Sorry if I'm upsetting you, Mum. When Amy told you that you didn't need to worry about her being off in space on her own, she definitely wasn't kidding though. She fights almost as good as I do after all. Could you excuse me for just a minute? I'll get right back with you I promise. I just have a few more Cybers to blow apart first. Don't worry. It shouldn't take too long," Karen replied in a jovial tone as several explosions went off in the background.

"Tabetha?" Augustus said in a concerned voice.

"Don't worry. She's okay, Ames. She just fainted after finally seeing exactly how awesome that I am. She's finally realized that her little girl isn't so little anymore," Karen joked as she briefly came on-screen.

"If she thinks this is bad, she should try raising you as a Time Lady instead of as a human. That was easily ten times worse even for someone with my positive attitude. You know there were many times that I almost, almost mind you, frowned while having to deal with you as a child," Cessair, Amy's birth mother, said without a smile leaving her face once.

"Leader, we are under attack by yet another version of Amelia Pond and have already suffered multiple casualties in less than two minutes. Estimated chances of success against her based on all current data are 0 percent. Estimated chances of survival are almost the same," One of the Cybermen caught up in the battle managed to report.

The Cyber Leader almost looked angry now as he turned to Amy and said, "So you had a secret plan in place to destroy us all along even as you pretended to be worried about your parents' survival."

"Who was pretending? I was completely terrified that Karen wouldn't show up in time. Unfortunately for you though she did, and she's almost as amazing a shot as I am. Feel like giving up now?" Amy said with a smug grin.

"So it's your clone onboard that ship then. How did she get here so quickly though? You only just found out about the Cybermen yourself," Brian said in confusion.

"She's a part of me, Brian. We have a permanent telepathic link with one another that I can use to let her instantly know about anything that's happening to me and vice versa. It comes in handy sometimes especially when both of us have a TARDIS. That means that each of us constantly has the other's back twenty four seven," Amy said with a proud smile.

"And how long have you had this previously unmentioned before mental link with Karen, Mum?" Sirona asked suspiciously.

"Oh, offhand I'd say ever since you started staying with her part-time on Gallifrey. We came up with the idea as a way to keep an eye on you wherever you went so that the other me could be there instantly when not if you got into trouble. We knew that it would take both of us working together just to keep you in line after all," Amy said with a mischievous smirk.

"Very funny," Sirona said with a deep frown.

"Who's joking? Did you or did you not almost start a major war between the Brenar System and Gallifrey not one week ago?" Amy said.

"That was a complete misunderstanding! How was I to know that that was the leader of Brenas IX? I thought he was a baby," Sirona protested.

"Yes, and it went over very well when you started asking his wife if you could hold him," Amy said as she struggled not to laugh.

"Yeah, don't remind me. She was actually going to rip my eyes out if not for the Chancellery Guards. I thought she was his mum. How did I know that all the men on that world were so small? It was an honest mistake. Anyone could have made it," Sirona said with a groan.

"You seem to make those kinds of mistakes a lot, Sirona. And here I thought Melody was the troublemaker of the family," Amy said with a chuckle.

"Just . . . shut up," Sirona said as her face turned bright red in embarrassment.

"And this is exactly why we will ultimately prevail against you, Amy Pond, because your overconfidence and extreme arrogance are on full display here. As soon as your clone appears, you instantly proceed to engage in meaningless emotional conversations with your family as if we weren't even there. You actually believe that you no longer need to fear us with your parents seemingly being safe from us for the moment. You are very much mistaken however. You ignore the Cybermen at your own peril, Time Lord," The Cyber Leader warned.

"The same thing might be said about me too, Metal Face. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee it. Maybe you just need a little reminder as to exactly why that is, eh?" Amy said with a huge smile as she quickly pulled a large gun out of her (bigger on the inside) jacket pocket and instantly shot the Cyber Leader down with it.

All of the Cybermen around her immediately began to open fire on Amy at once, and she had to move like lightning in order to avoid being quickly ripped apart by their massive assault. Somehow even as she did so, she immediately threw Rory her TARDIS remote while giving him a quick apologetic look for not giving him any type of warning ahead of time.

"Alright, Dad, I think this is where we get out of the way and let the experts handle this," Rory said as he gestured for Brian and the rest of his family to gather together.

Rory immediately called the TARDIS to him as he made sure to materialize it around himself and all of Amy's family except for River. A moment later the TARDIS quickly dematerialized and Amy instantly breathed out a sigh of relief as soon as it was gone. Now the only ones that were in any immediate danger were Amy, her other selves, and River as they all fought side by side with one another against the Cybermen's murderous assault.

"Now aren't you grateful that I got that gun for you as a Christmas present, Mother? I still don't understand why you made such a face when I gave it to you," River said with a mad smile as she too pulled out her own gun and began joining Amy in her unexpected assault on the Cybermen.

"Well, I would have preferred something a little more normal like a new mini-skirt, but I guess that just wouldn't be you would it?" Amy said with a warm grin as she shot down several more Cybermen in a row.

"Mother, that's something that you should have understood about me a very long time ago. Normal and I don't even live in the same universe together," River said as she shot through five Cybermen in a row with one blast.

"Yeah, you were never going to wind up making cookies for your kids' school bake sale were you?" Amy said in an almost wistful voice as she automatically blew the head off of a Cyberman that was sneaking up behind her without even looking.

"Mother?" River asked with worry as she saw a sad look in Amy's eyes for a moment.

Amy began to smile once more reassuringly as she said, "I'm fine, Melody. I just can't help wishing that you had had a chance at a normal life sometimes."

"Did you ever think that I would never have been happy with a life like that? That maybe I got the only life that I ever would or could have possibly been satisfied with having? I never would have been cut out as the nine to five type of person. I would have probably wound up punching out every boss I had. And that would be on a good day," River said with a wicked smile.

Amy laughed at that as she said, "Yeah, you probably would have. I guess . . . I guess all that matters is that you're happy, Melody, and I'm so, so glad that you are."

"Well, you know what they say, Mother. The family that guns down an entire army of killer cyborgs together stays together," River said with a chuckle as she threw an incendiary bomb that completely blew apart a dozen or more Cybermen at once.

Amy grimaced as she said, "Oh, that's just great. You just took out half of Brian's garden, Melody! You know how much he loves tending to it. I'm never going to stop feeling guilty now. Be sure and watch what you're blowing up from now on before you get me into any more trouble if you don't mind."

As River started laughing in response, Amy gave her a dirty look as she said, "Excuse me? You think blowing up your grandfather's yard is funny?"

River shook her head as she said, "No, it's not that. It's just that this reminds me of our days growing up together. In fact, it reminds me of practically all of our days growing up together. Those were some really good times weren't they?"

Amy immediately started to laugh and smiled as she said, "Yeah, they really were even if I didn't think so at the time. It may be hard to believe but I wouldn't trade any of those times for anything now."

"I believe you, Mother. I really do," River said as both she and Amy fired on a particularly hard to kill Cyberman at once together and instantly blew him into several very tiny pieces.

That was the moment that Amy finally forgave herself for not being able to save Melody and decided to fully embrace her past at last.

"Is this what I become in the future? A complete psychopath who thinks blowing things up is fun?" The First Cliodna said in disbelief as she finally spoke for the first time since the fight started even as she too blew apart her fair share of Cybermen.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong. I'm the psychopath here. She's the one who keeps me in line. Sort of," River said with an evil grin.

"Yeah, I suppose I haven't been doing too good of a job of that lately have I?" Amy said with a warm smile that told River that she was just teasing her.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so hard on myself if I were you, Mother. After all, you also had to keep an eye on Sirona too, didn't you?" River quipped as she used yet another bomb that luckily this time didn't blow up anything of any vital importance while it was busy turning all of the Cybermen around it into rubble.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's a wonder the universe is still in one piece between the two of you," Amy said with a large smile as she unexpectedly did a backwards flip over an incoming Cyberman's head just before he could get within firing range of her and immediately shot him in the back.

"So I'm a raving loon with an uncontrollable temper in addition to being a bad parent. Even better! Apparently I just let Sirona run completely wild in the future," The Fourth Amy said with a groan as she finished the same Cybermen off with a well-placed head shot.

"You seem to be completely missing the point about her, girls. You may not always like her style or her way of doing things, but she's still the same old us in all of the ways that matter. She's a loving mother who will go to the ends of the universe for her family, she doesn't take any disrespect or abuse from anyone, and no one in their right mind would dare to make her angry. In other words, we haven't changed a bit," The future Amy said with a wry grin as she destroyed another Cybermen with a bazooka that she pulled from the back pocket of her jeans.

"Aren't you afraid that you'll accidentally blow yourself up when you sit down with that thing in there?" Amy said with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't worry. My pants are both explosive and flameproof," The future Amy joked.

"Is that because of me, dear?" River said with a grin.

"How'd you guess?" The future Amy said with a giggle.

"She's completely mad too," The Fourth Cliodna said to her first self in disbelief.

"Maybe we hung around Theta too long. That has to be it. He finally corrupted us," The First Cliodna said with a wince.

"Oh, for the love of . . . ! Would you two please just shut up?!" Amy shouted as she finally lost her temper at last while blowing apart the last of the Cybermen on Earth with a probability bomb that she had once taken from the Omega Arsenal when no one was looking.

You never knew when a few of the powerful timestream altering bombs might come in handy after all. She would find out just how handy that they really could be soon enough now.*

At the moment however, she still had to worry about the Cyber Fleet that was still in orbit. She couldn't expect even Karen to be able to handle them all by herself after all.

Only the original her could pull something like that off she thought to herself with a smug look on her face.

"Oh, I know that look! Just look at her, everyone! It's not too hard to figure out what you're thinking about, is it? We definitely haven't lost our arrogance have we?" The First Cliodna said as she finally began to smile.

"I prefer to think of it as loving myself enough to know exactly what I'm capable of and not being ashamed to admit it," Amy said as she smiled back.

"Well, that goes without saying, doesn't it?" The Fourth Cliodna said as she too began to smile now.

"Enough talking, Mothers! Are we going to let Karen have all of the fun up there by herself? I'd say that it's well past time for us to join her, don't you?" River said as she gestured to her Vortex Manipulator.

"So this is what my future is going to be like then? Me constantly getting into fights and blowing things up?" The First Cliodna asked as she grabbed ahold of River's arm.

Amy shook her head while grabbing onto River's other arm as she said, "Oh, no. That's only what happens in the moments in-between constantly snogging the most wonderful man in the universe and raising the best children that anyone could ever want. That's what our future is going to be like and it's a good one. Believe me."

The Fourth Cliodna exchanged a pleased smile with her first self while she locked arms with River as she said, "I can live with that."

"As long as I wind up with that handsome specimen that I saw you with earlier, I suppose I can too," The First Cliodna agreed.

"He's still mine until you're me just in case you were harboring any unwholesome thoughts," Amy warned.

"Who, me?" The First Cliodna said with an evil grin.

"Don't even think about it if you want to live long enough to be me someday," Amy said in an angry voice.

River immediately rolled her eyes as she said, "Only you would threaten to wipe out your own timestream out of jealousy, Mother."

"Like you wouldn't if you ever caught your past self hitting on Donald?" Amy said.

"Touché," River said with a chuckle as she quickly entered coordinates on her Manipulator, and they all instantly traveled up to the ship that Karen was on.

Later that night skywatchers and astronomers alike around the world all reported that they saw a magnificent explosion that briefly lit up the entire atmosphere as if it was daytime. Scientists had no idea what had caused it and offered up the explanation that it must have been a meteor burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

"What do you make of that explosion up in the sky last night, Old Man? Do you think it's anything that we have to worry about? I certainly don't buy that whole meteor excuse do you?" Clara asked early the next day.

The Doctor of course knew exactly what it was as he said, "Of course not. That was just yet another in a long line of the pudding brains' idiotic excuses for something that they don't understand. I know exactly what happened however. There was a major Cyber Fleet up there last night."

"Well, isn't that something that we should be worried about then?" Clara said with concern.

"There's no need. I was just about to deal with them myself when I overheard them making plans and decided that it would be better just to stay out of it for once," The Doctor said.

"You? Stay out of trouble? Now you're just not making any sense whatsoever," Clara said in disbelief.

"I overheard them talking about attacking Amy," The Doctor said in a nonchalant tone.

"Oh, well that answers everything then. I almost feel sorry for them. Poor little metal men never really stood a chance did they?" Clara said with a shudder.

"Better them than me," The Doctor said with a wicked little smile.

He wouldn't stay out of things forever though. This newest attack on Amy along with what Rose had already told him earlier about the Cybermen's possible threat to Clara had convinced him to go along with Rose on her planned trip to Telos soon and to ask Amy to go along with them too as back-up. He had to find out exactly what the Cybermen were up to lately and see what if anything he could do to put a huge spanner in their plans.

He just hoped that he wasn't already far too late.

*See The Adventures of Rose Tyler Chapter 120.

Next: Amy's other selves finally leave at last just as Brian finds out about his yard. He's none too happy about that either. I'm sure that those two events are completely unconnected of course. The wrath of Brian is going to be nothing compared to the fallout of Amy's trip with Rose to Telos in that aforementioned Rose Tyler chapter however. Amy decides that she doesn't completely agree with Rose's decision there especially in light of their recent attack on her in this story and wants to do something far more final about their constant threat to her existence. Will Amy actually decide to do the unthinkable and can even she pull such a thing off if she does?

Let's just say that I definitely wouldn't want to be in the Cybermen's shoes right now.