CHAPTER 45

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CHILDHOOD'S END

Xana's gleeful mood was short-lived as a massive soul churning scream could suddenly be heard coming from nearby. Everyone turned to see Katherine in her full vampiric fury with seemingly no trace of her humanity left now. She charged at the mercenaries and began to viciously attack them without mercy.

"We have to stop her. Can someone rein her in?" Donna said.

"I say let her go. They deserve it," Ileana said with no emotion in her voice.

"Lana, we don't do that on this team," Donna said firmly.

"Maybe just this once we should," Ileana said.

"She wouldn't want that. You know that," Alina said.

"I find this highly ironic that suddenly you of all people have appointed yourself the conscience of this group," Ileana said.

"Apparently someone has to since you and Katherine have decided to become overrun by your emotions," Alina said.

"At least we still have emotions. I actually cared about Amanda," Ileana said.

Alina snarled in rage, and her fangs involuntarily extended as she grabbed Ileana's shoulders tightly. She got right in Ileana's face as she said, "Let's get something straight right now! I loved her with all of my heart just like she was a member of my own family. I'm devastated over what happened to her, but I'm not about to dishonor her memory by doing something that she would never approve of. It doesn't mean that I don't care anything about her. Do you understand that?!"

Ileana's face softened as she showed a flicker of sadness and despair for just a moment before suddenly saying in a gentle voice, "I'm sorry."

Donna put a hand on each of their shoulders as she said, "We're all upset because we all loved her in our own way. None of us wanted this to happen to her. She didn't deserve it. We need to calm down and fight them though not each other. If you want to blame someone though then blame me. It's my fault. All of it! It just proves that I don't belong here. I have no idea what I'm doing here. I should just leave once this is all over with before anyone else gets hurt because of me."

"No, that's not true! It's not your fault, Donna," Ileana said.

"That's right. You shouldn't blame yourself for any of this," Alina said.

Donna quickly changed the subject as she said, "Oi! Watch at her go. She's really tearing into them. Can someone please stop Katherine now before she does something that she'll regret when she comes to her senses later?"

"Already on it, boss!" Michelle said as her eyes turned transparent.

Katherine was instantly sent to the Mirror Verse by Michelle where she could cool off and hopefully eventually return to normal. Michelle idly wondered if anything would ever be normal again though especially Katherine without Amanda around anymore.

It felt just like someone had ripped all of their hearts out at once.

They were all surprised when they saw River Song suddenly appear out of nowhere and start shooting the mercenaries right after Katherine disappeared. She had been waiting for Katherine to be taken out of the way first before she started to attack. She hadn't wanted to risk hitting her. If anyone could fell sympathetic to the grief of a mother suddenly losing her child and then getting them back in the worst possible way, it was River Song.

"It's good to see the real you, River. I was wondering what happened to you," Donna said.

"You should know me better than that, Donna. I'm far too tough to be taken down by some third-rate Dracula wannabe," River said as she continued to exchange fire with the mercenaries.

Xana continued to smile even as her hired guns started losing to the combined forces of the Bad Wolves and River. She had never expected them to actually win after all. They were just there to provide a distraction while she launched her real attack.

She wasn't a Time Lord, but she was extremely intelligent. If she were given enough time to study something, she had always been able to master it in the past. She had had several years to master the inner workings of Donna's TARDIS, and she was now confident that she knew exactly how to make it work to her advantage.

She quickly went back inside of the TARDIS and started to slowly create a time loop around everyone in the area. She smiled at the thought of her enemies being trapped in an endless battle for all eternity with no way of ever getting out again.

"What do you think you're doing?" a voice suddenly said behind her.

She turned to see Emmy and Lilith standing in the doorway of the TARDIS and quickly pulled a blaster out from underneath the console and aimed it at them. Neither woman seemed too worried though. They both stood staring at her with a grim look on their faces as Lilith pulled a small doll made in her likeness with a stray piece of Amanda's hair that they had found in the bathroom sink attached to it. Lilith briefly hesitated because she didn't want to hurt Amanda in any way, shape, or form; but she knew that it was necessary so she quickly used the doll to make Xana freeze in her tracks. Xana was now unable to move at all until Lilith wanted her to.

"Can you undo whatever she's done?" Lilith asked.

"I hope so or everyone else outside is going to be lost forever in a few minutes. She's putting them in a time loop," Emmy said.

"That's just great. Please tell me that you know how to undo one of those," Lilith said.

"I've never done it personally, but I did learn about it in school once. Don't worry, Lilith. I'm sure everything will be just fine," Emmy said with that now ever present smile on her face that seemed to be an essential part of this new incarnation of her.

As Emmy set to work trying to stop the time loop from forming, Lilith groaned as she said, "I really don't know if I'm going to like this new extra perky version of you or not."

"Don't worry about it. I'll grow on you. To love one of me is to love all of me," Emmy said happily.

Lilith gave her a warm smile as she said, "You're probably right. It's just that I've always hated overly happy people. They get on my nerves."

"I can't imagine why. You're such a party person," Emmy joked.

Suddenly Emmy was grabbed from behind in a headlock by Sister Pestilence who said, "Let her go or your friend here is going to be missing a head. Let's see her regenerate from that."

"You!" Lilith shouted in anger as she quickly looked around for her two mothers who she half expected to be there with the other Carrionite.

"Is this a friend of yours, Lilith?" Emmy said with a grimace on her face for once.

"No. Far from it," Lilith said as the two Carrionites stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity to Emmy.

"I'll kill her. You know that I will," Sister Pestilence said as she increased the pressure on Emmy's neck making her gasp.

Lilith let the doll drop to the ground with a scowl on her face, and Xana started to move again with a smile on her face as she said, "I decided to break good old Sister Pestilence here out of Shada as insurance against you just in case you decided to get in my way. Needless to say, there's no love lost between her and your little group that's for sure. Now stand there and don't move or your friend dies."

"It won't be long now. The time loop should take effect very soon now. Then all of the Wolves except for these two will be gone forever," Sister Pestilence said happily.

"Amanda, are you still in there? Amanda, don't let her do this! Think about your friends out there. I know that you cared a lot about Alina. She'll be gone for good if you allow Xana to do this. So will Ileana and your Mum. They'll all be gone forever. You can't let her do this, Amanda," Lilith said.

Xana laughed at her as she said, "She's gone. She's been gone from the moment that I took her body over so long ago."

Despite herself, Lilith began to cry. She couldn't believe that the little girl that she had grown to love as if she were her own was really gone now. Xana had already stolen Amanda from her today. She wasn't about to let her take Emmy and the rest of her friends from her too.

"It's over with. You might as well just let it go. Who knows? I may just be merciful and allow you and your friend here to survive once the others are gone. Maybe," Xana said with a chuckle.

"I have a better idea," River said as she suddenly burst into the TARDIS and shot Sister Pestilence with her blaster.

River then quickly pointed the blaster at Xana as she said to Emmy, "Stop the time loop. It's already starting to take effect out there."

"Why weren't you trapped in the loop?" Emmy asked in surprise.

"I don't do time loops," River said with an enigmatic smile on her face.

Emmy ran to the console and started to rapidly undo the time loop as Lilith said," I know that you're still in there, Amanda. You have to be."

"This is Amanda?" River asked in shock.

"Yes, or at least it was. Someone named Xana took her over. I don't know if there's anything still left of her inside of there or not," Lilith said in an emotional voice.

"There is," River said.

"How do you know?" Lilith asked.

"Trust me," River said.

"She doesn't know what she's talking about. Your precious Amanda is long gone. You know even if I do lose here today I still win. I did something even worse than trap your friends. I took their heart and soul away from them, and they'll never get it back. Never!" Xana said with mocking laughter.

Lilith began to glow with power as she said, "Take the foreign mind out of the body of this innocent child and send her into a tree on Florana as surely as her name is Xana."

Xana screamed as her mind was violently yanked out of her body and became merged with an ancient tree on the planet Florana. Once there, she ceased being able to think or even function as she had before. Now she was trapped as a tree forever.

Amanda's body was still alive but seemed to be mindless now as it tumbled forward and landed in River's arms. River laid Amanda down on the floor as Lilith gingerly checked her body for signs of life. The body was functioning completely normally, but there was still no sign of Amanda inside of it.

As Emmy successfully shut down the time loop, she instantly ran to check on Amanda as she knelt down beside Lilith. The two of them started trying to talk to Amanda in an effort to coax her mind back out of wherever it had been hiding all of these years.

River watched this for a moment until her peripheral vision detected that something was missing from the other side of the console. Sister Pestilence had vanished. River cursed herself for being too caught up in watching for signs of life from Amanda to notice that the rogue Carrionite had disappeared.

River raced outside to see the Wolves rapidly approaching the TARDIS with looks of concern on their faces. All of the mercenaries lay on the ground in defeat outside. It looked as if the Wolves had made short work of them.

River rapidly explained what had happened and then immediately took off after Sister Pestilence. She didn't have time to waste. The rogue Carrionite could do all kinds of damage even in just a few minutes.

It turned out though that River didn't have far to go to find her. To her surprise, River found Sister Pestilence lying dead on the ground with a puncture wound in her neck. She had been completely drained of blood.

"The Plasmavore!" River shouted as she realized that the Plasmavore wasn't where she had been lying before.

As she turned around to go after the vampire, she saw Donna standing there holding up an exact duplicate of Sister Pestilence that was so weak that she could barely stand. It looked like something had happened to the Plasmavore but what?

"What did you do?" River asked Donna.

"I didn't do anything, Gun Girl. She's acting just like she's been poisoned," Donna said.

The Plasmavore looked up at the two of them as she said in a weak voice, "I think that I have been. I don't understand it. What was she?"

"A Carrionite," Donna said.

"Her blood burns in my veins. It must be poisonous to my kind," the Plasmavore said as her voice became weaker and weaker.

"Is there anything that I can do for you?" Donna asked.

"Just don't let me die alone. Please," the Plasmavore begged her.

"I won't. I promise," Donna said.

River looked at her in surprise. She wouldn't have cared how the Plasmavore died if it had been her. She would have gladly let her die alone. Donna, however, did care. For someone who acted so tough at times, she was remarkably compassionate. No wonder the Doctor was so close to her. She really was a kindred spirit to him.

"I just wanted to avenge my mother. Is that so bad?" the Plasmavore said.

"When it comes to killing innocent people, it certainly is," Donna said firmly.

"It's what I do though. It's what I was born to do. I live off of other people's deaths. I need blood in order to survive," the Plasmavore protested.

"I know other vampires who can survive without killing. You could have too," Donna said.

"Maybe. I never even thought about trying. For what it's worth, I'm sorry. Sorry for everything. Thank you for staying here with me. You're a better person then I ever was. It's too bad that I never ran across someone like you. Maybe I would have turned out differently. Maybe not. I guess we'll never know now, huh?" the Plasmavore said in a voice that was now a whisper.

"What's your name?" Donna asked.

"Emma. Thank you for staying," the Plasmavore said in a barely audible voice.

"Don't worry about it, Emma," Donna said.

Emma went limp and then died at last. Donna closed her eyes and looked down on her in sorrow for a moment. River still couldn't understand it. The Plasmavore had been just another remorseless killer. Why waste such emotion on her?

Donna was quiet for a while and then said, "I was thinking of leaving the team after what happened to Amanda. After this though, I realize that I can't. Emma was right. Maybe I could have changed her life and made her more like Lilith or Alina. I think that's why I'm here for, River. I'm supposed to make a difference. I'm supposed to claim back these peoples' lives whenever I can and recruit them for our side of the fence. I lost Emma and I may have lost Amanda, but I won't lose the next one that comes along. I just won't."

"You are so much like the Doctor that it's not even funny. Not that that's a bad thing," River said as she smiled at her.

"Donna! River! Amanda's awake!" Lilith screamed from inside of the TARDIS.

Donna and River ran back to the TARDIS to see Amanda awake and talking while the rest of the Wolves looked at her with huge smiles on their faces. She looked extremely disoriented though. She obviously had no idea what had happened to her.

"Mum, why am I talking so funny? This isn't my voice, and my body looks odd too. I don't look like this," Amanda said to Katherine in a state of confusion.

"It's okay, Amanda. It's going to be okay," Katherine said in a calm voice.

"What's going to be okay? What are you talking about, and what is up with this voice?" Amanda said in annoyance.

She got up on unsteady legs, and Katherine helped her walk to a mirror. What Amanda saw there made her scream.

"What's happened to me?" Amanda said in terror.

"Do you remember anything, sweetheart?" Katherine asked.

"The last thing that I remember is that that woman Xana was in my head, and I tried to warn you about her. I couldn't speak though. It was already too late, and everything went black. Then the next thing that I remember is waking up here with all of you staring at me. Now I'm old. Why am I so old?" Amanda said in an upset voice.

"You're not old, sweetie. You only look to be about eighteen years old," Katherine said.

"I know. I'm old!" Amanda said.

Katherine almost laughed at that but didn't because she didn't want Amanda to think that she was making light of her new situation. Amanda was still her old self that was for sure. She was so glad that Amanda was back or at least her essence was. She still wasn't used to her little girl suddenly being all grown up though. Apparently neither was Amanda.

Katherine hugged Amanda close to her as she silently cried. She hoped that Amanda could get over this and move on with her life. She was afraid that she still might lose her even now if she didn't.

Next: Amanda learns to cope with her new body and the trauma of losing years of her life. Donna meanwhile runs across someone very familiar from her past. Someone that she thought never even existed except in her imagination. She's going to find out though that he was very, very real, and he's finally found her at last after searching throughout time and space for her. Is it possible? Could Donna have finally found Lauren's Dad?