CHAPTER 48

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TURNING POINTS

Rose and Heather appeared on Karn right beside the Sacred Flame. Dorothy was just looking at the flame in shock while the Sisterhood of Karn were chanting and dancing around the flame in a frenzied state. Rose knew right away that something had happened, and she knew that it wasn't going to be good whatever it was. She was beginning to think that she shouldn't have tried to alter time after all.

Just at that moment, Donna's TARDIS materialized next to the flame as well, and Donna came racing out of it with concern written all over her face. All she had to do was look at the shattered look on Dorothy's face though to see that her worst fears had come true.

"What happened to Amanda, Dorothy?" Donna asked.

Dorothy said nothing. She just stood there in a catatonic state. Donna moved her hand in front of her face and got no reaction.

"Her mind's shut down," Rose said.

Donna jumped as she realized for the first time that Rose was there. She hadn't even noticed her before now because she was so worried about Amanda.

Katherine came rushing out of the TARDIS in a frantic state as she shouted at Dorothy, "What happened to her? Where is she? Why did you bring her here?"

Dorothy still didn't respond. She just looked straight at the flame as if she was in a trance and never moved.

"Dorothy. Are you alright?" Rose said in an extremely gentle voice as she lightly touched the side of Dorothy's face.

"She's dead, Mum! She was destroyed by the flame! She leapt in before I knew it. I couldn't stop her. I kept trying to get her back but I can't. I can't bring her back. I'm so sorry," Dorothy finally said as she broke down in front of her.

Katherine hissed in anger as she said, "You got my child killed!"

She began to advance on Dorothy in an enraged state with her fangs extended. Dorothy didn't even try to defend herself as Donna stared at all of this in shock. She couldn't believe that this was happening.

"Freeze," Rose said as her eyes flashed white for a moment. Katherine froze in place as time was stopped around her.

"How did you do that?" Donna asked.

"It's one of my Guardian powers," Rose said as she put her arms around Dorothy to comfort her.

"You're the White Guardian again? When did this happen?" Donna asked feeling completely lost.

"Recently just as all of these other Guardians started popping up. That's not important right now. What's important is bringing Amanda back," Rose said.

Heather walked into Donna's TARDIS while all of this was going on as she said, "Hello?"

"H-h-hello," Lee said as he walked into the Console Room as soon as he saw her come in.

"This is yours. The voice in the watch told me that this belongs to you. I've come so far to bring it back to you," Heather said.

"T-t-this is mine?" Lee said as he looked at the watch in surprise. He had never expected to see it again.

"You sold it to my father, and now I'm bringing it back to you," Heather said in an extremely relieved voice.

It was finally over with. She had no idea what she was going to do with her life next, but finally this whole thing was over with. She just hoped that the people who were after her would finally leave her alone now.

As Lee took the watch, he suddenly seemed to become a different person while he held it in his hand. "I'm so sorry, Heather. I never meant for any of this to happen to you," he said as he looked at her with great sadness in his eyes.

"I know. You wouldn't have saved me if you had. I know how sorry you are. I've felt it every night coming off of it in waves ever since I've had this watch," Heather said.

"I'll make this up to you somehow. I can't bring your family back, but I will help you all that I can," Lee/Drax promised her.

"There's no need for that. All I want is to be left alone," Heather said.

"I can sense Sil and the others nearby even now. They still want this watch. I don't know if they'll leave you alone or not because they may think that I told you something. I'll have to stop them here and now to ensure that you're safe. I can finally do that now that I've been reunited with my body at last. Stand back, Heather," Drax said.

"Wait," Donna said as she walked into the TARDIS.

"I can't, Donna. I have to become my old self again. There's information that I have to give the High Council right away, and I can't do it as Lee. I'd stutter so much that I'd never get it all out before the Celestial Intervention Agency killed me," Drax said.

"What information?" Donna asked.

"I know who all of the heads of the C.I.A. are and many of their major agents. I found a list of them all and memorized it just before the Time War. I was going to tell the High Council then and get them back for what they did to Arkytior, Koschei, and Ushas. Before I could do that though, they sent a league of their best assassins after me. I had to become Lee, someone completely different from who I really am, in order to hide from them. Then the Time War broke out, and I never got the chance to tell anyone anything. Eventually Lee in his amnesia sold this watch and ruined poor Heather's life in the process. So now you see why I have to tell the Council now before Sil and his goons catch up to me. They're nearby even now. I can sense their minds," Drax said in an excited voice.

"It looks like I've already lost Amanda. I don't want to lose Lee too just as I've gotten him back," Donna said in an extremely sad voice.

"You won't lose him completely. I still love you, Donna. Everything that Lee is comes from me you know," Drax said.

"Will it be the same though?" Donna asked.

"I think so. I think that we'll be just as much in love as we ever were. Please, Donna. I have to do this," Drax said.

As Drax tried to talk Donna into letting him open the watch, Rose walked toward the Sacred Flame and studied it with the combined power of both the Bad Wolf and the White Guardian. She had to bring Amanda back. She couldn't let her die because she had tried to make her life better, and there was no way that she was going to let this become a fixed point in time.

"Time is passing quickly, Bad Wolf. You will have to bring her back soon or even you may not be able to fix things," Ohica said.

Rose smiled as she realized what she could do now. She turned back time all around her and watched in silent fascination as everything slowly went backwards. Finally she came back to the moment just before Amanda disappeared forever and froze it like the pause button on a DVD player. Amanda was already her proper age so all Rose had to do was take her from this moment, and she would be safe and fixed back to her normal age once more.

The Guardians weren't supposed to use their powers to manipulate time like this but since it was her meddling that had gotten Amanda killed she knew that it would have to be her that fixed things. Surely fixing her own mistakes would be permissible.

She hoped that the universe agreed and didn't undo what she was about to do in some way. She knew that if the universe didn't like her actions that it would always restore them back to the way that they were in one way or another. Hopefully though, the universe wanted Amanda to live. She certainly hoped so.

Rose reached out and grabbed Amanda from the flame and held her to her tightly before she quickly disappeared back into the future. As Rose returned, she saw with immense relief that Amanda was still with her.

She didn't unpause the flow of time though because she was waiting to see what might happen next. She didn't want to bring Amanda back to the others only to have her taken away from them again somehow. That would be too cruel. She had to make sure that Amanda was going to stay before she restarted time once more.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I'm so sorry," Rose said as she embraced Amanda tightly.

"I died, didn't I?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, and it was my fault," Rose said.

"No, I did it. I didn't listen to Dorothy when she told me to wait and let the Sisterhood help me. I was too impatient and afraid that they wouldn't help. Thank you for saving me!" Amanda said as she kissed Rose's cheek.

"I'm the one who endangered you. I told CAL to tell Donna about this place knowing that you would hear her. I started all of this. I was trying to help you, and I wound up getting you killed. I won't ever do anything like this again. I'm still afraid that the universe will undo it somehow," Rose said as she held onto Amanda tightly. She was afraid to let her go.

"I hope not. No one and nothing should blame you for what I did. It was stupid of me to do this in the first place. I should have been happy for just being alive even if it was as a grown-up. I'm sorry for putting you through this, Rose," Amanda said.

"You're apologizing to me? That just shows how great a person that you really are, Amanda," Rose said.

Surely the universe would agree that it needed someone like her. It had to, didn't it?

After about thirty minutes of time had passed for her and Amanda but no one else, Rose suddenly had a warm feeling pass through her. She could feel somehow in some way that what she had done was acceptable to the universe or whatever or whoever was in charge of it that was higher up than her. Amanda was going to be okay.

Only then did she start time back up again.

"Thank you, Rose," Amanda said again.

Rose unfroze Katherine and put Amanda directly in front of her. Seeing Amanda instantly calmed Katherine down as she returned to normal and kissed Amanda's forehead over and over again.

"I'm okay, Mum. Don't blame Dorothy. I did this to myself. She had nothing to do with it," Amanda said.

Rose had told her about what had happened while time had stood still. Rose had been asking her for her forgiveness at the same time, and Amanda had readily given it. Amanda blamed herself not Rose or Dorothy. She said as much to her mother too.

Dorothy though was having none of it. She wasn't going to do this anymore. She was through. She decided to go back to Perivale now while she was still ahead. This was it for her.

She started to walk toward the TARDIS to tell Donna that she was leaving when she saw that Donna was already in a pretty intense conversation with Lee about a fob watch. Dorothy decided that her news could probably wait and turned back around.

Rose herself decided that she was never going to meddle in time like this again and would stick to straight forward heroics like fighting Daleks and preventing history from being altered by other people. She had definitely learned her lesson here. She also had learned something else.

She now knew for sure that she didn't want to be the White Guardian. She was going to pass the powers on to someone else once the current crisis with the Black Guardian was over with. She already had someone in mind for it from this team, but she wasn't sure if that person would even want it especially after what had happened here today.

Sil and his mercenaries waited just outside the inner chamber that contained the Sacred Flame. Even with triple the pay of a lifetime they were still hesitant to try to steal the watch from under the nose of the Bad Wolf, her daughter, and the DoctorDonna. Not to mention several vampires, a Carrionite, a Wolf Queen, a Time Lady, and assorted other powerful individuals who could each just by themselves probably take their whole group apart.

They were greedy not stupid.

Sil decided to try trickery instead. He gave one of his men a perception filter and then quietly said, "Slip in and take the watch while the rest of us create a distraction."

The mercenary nodded and put on the perception filter. Then the mercenaries started attacking the members of the Sisterhood and caused a massive fight just outside the chamber. Suddenly everyone's attention was distracted just as Sil had planned as the lone mercenary quietly and silently made his way toward Donna's TARDIS.

Meanwhile back inside of the TARDIS, Donna and Drax were still at a standoff about opening the watch. Neither one had been able to convince the other to agree with them.

"Now I know that we'll make a great couple, Donna. We're already fighting. All of the best couples fight like cats and dogs you know. That's how you know that you're really passionate about one another," Drax joked.

"This is no time for jokes. I said you're not opening the watch. You can just go ahead and tell the Council what you need to right now from here. Go on. Do it, Motormouth!" Donna ordered.

"Motormouth?" Drax asked.

"That's because you never stop talking!" Donna shouted.

"What a hypocrite! It's not like you ever do!" Drax shouted back.

"Now I know that I don't want Lee opening that watch," Donna said.

Heather had had more than enough. She pushed the button on the watch as it still lay in Drax's hand and said, "I'll open it then. I'm not going to have all of my suffering be for nothing!"

"No!" Donna and Drax both shouted at once.

Heather screamed as a golden glow surrounded both her and Drax at the same time!

At that moment of supreme distraction, the hidden mercenary struck and yanked the watch out of Drax's hand at the same moment that it quickly slammed shut. Drax was now Lee once again, and he and Heather both collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Donna was so worried about Lee that she failed to see the perception filter protected mercenary or notice that the watch was suddenly gone. In the chaos going on all around him, the mercenary quickly made it outside onto the surface of Karn without being seen.

He met up with a hooded figure several feet away and gave them the watch. The man eagerly seized the watch and then said, "Very good. Tell Sil that I'll wire him the money as soon as I'm safely off of the planet."

Then the man's expression changed to one of extreme anger as he said, "You idiot! This watch is empty! You stole the watch after it had already been opened!"

"You didn't say anything about it never having been opened," the mercenary said in a voice filled with confusion.

"Idiot!" the man said as he shot the mercenary with a staser instantly killing him.

"Well, Sil, I guess there will be no payment for you today. It looks like I'll have to handle this myself after all," Goth, the secret head of the C.I.A., said to himself as he took the mercenary's perception filter and silently made his way into the Sisterhood's headquarters.

Goth was now going to have to kill Drax personally before he could tell anyone what he knew. He hadn't broken free from Shada with the help of several C.I.A. agents working on the inside there just to fail now because of the loose lips of one lowly renegade.

As Goth made his way inside, he found Donna standing all alone in the Console Room of her TARDIS over an unconscious Lee and Heather. He knew that this was his best chance. He could kill all three of them at the same time and insure that his organization's secrets would remain safe.

As Goth prepared to fire his staser at them though, he was suddenly knocked unconscious by Michelle. She smirked at him as she said, "Like I'm going to be fooled by a perception filter. I'm the mistress of mirrors. Nothing can hide from me. I see everything just like a mirror."

"The mistress of mirrors? Really, Mirror Girl?" Donna said as she rolled her eyes at her.

"Thank you for saving my life, Michelle. Don't mention it, Donna. You're one of my best friends after all," Michelle said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, Michelle. Thank you. I'm just wound up so tight with everything that's been going on here today that I'm about to scream," Donna said in an apologetic tone.

"I think that we all are lately. Things have just been hectic non-stop ever since Amanda was kidnapped by Xana. I hope that they'll finally start to settle down now," Michelle said.

"Don't count on it," Donna said.

As if to underscore her words, Lee and Heather both woke up at the same time with a strange expression on both of their faces. "Lee? Are you still Lee or Drax?" Donna asked Lee in concern.

"I-I-I'm Lee. Who's Drax? Why do I feel so f-f-funny?" Lee asked in confusion.

Heather's eyes widened in shock as she said, "I think that I might be Drax somehow now. I've gotten his memories and all of his knowledge even though I still feel like myself so far. I feel kind of strange now too. I feel like I'm about to throw up, and my head is killing me. What's happening?"

Donna immediately scanned the two of them with her sonic screwdriver and realized the awful truth. They essence of Drax has been split between Lee and Heather. Both of them were now half Time Lord and half human just as she had once been, and it was killing Heather who seemed to possess all of Drax's memories and knowledge now! It didn't seem to be doing Lee any good either.

Donna immediately said, "We've got to find Rose or Dorothy. We need them to help fix these two."

Amanda quickly spoke up and said, "They've both left. Dorothy said to tell you that she's leaving the group. I tried to get her not to, but I couldn't convince her to stay. It's my fault what happened not hers. I couldn't get her to see that though. She left with her mother."

"Oh, no! Who's going to fix this now? Why pick now to leave out of all of the times that she could leave? What a rotten sense of timing!" Donna shouted in dismay.

"You'll just have to take them both to Gallifrey. You'll have to take Goth back there anyway," Emmy suggested.

"Let's go then. The Sisterhood seems to have pretty much driven off those soldiers or whatever they were anyway so they don't need us anymore," Donna said as she gestured for the Wolves to get into the TARDIS immediately.

As they all did and Donna left Karn as quickly as she could, Sil and the remaining mercenaries not already captured by the Sisterhood quickly made their way off planet. He silently cursed himself for ever trusting a Time Lord. He should have known that all Time Lords, even the crooked ones, were nothing but trouble. Now he had lost half of his men and hadn't gotten paid a thing for it. Sil was silently fuming in frustration all of the way back home.

Meanwhile back in the TARDIS, Ileana pulled Donna aside and said, "Elisabeta and Abraham are going back home for a while I'm afraid, Donna. They're both needed back there. There's been a major vampire uprising in the Old Country lately. By that, I mean Transylvania of course."

"Yes, I understood that. We won't be losing you too, will we?" Donna asked.

"No, I'll stick around. I know that the whole team would fall apart without me here to keep it together," Ileana said as she tried to make Donna smile.

"It's not working, Lana. I'm not in the mood for smiling. Besides that, we seem to be falling apart anyway. Dorothy's gone and now Abraham and Elisabeta. I almost got Amanda killed twice now too. Not to mention what's just happened to Lee and Heather. I think that this is it for me. I'm leaving," Donna said.

"No, you can't! Who's going to lead us?" Ileana said in complete shock.

"Someone much better I hope. Maybe it will be someone who won't lead you all straight downhill. I'm sorry, Lana. I have to leave. Maybe you should head the team. You'd probably be better at it," Donna said sadly.

"I guess this is a terrible time to ask if Stefania can join the team," Alina said.

"Sure why not. It can be my last act as leader to welcome her in. Good luck, Stefania. I hope that you have a much better time here than I did," Donna said.

"I'm sorry. Maybe you should reconsider things. I haven't been here long, but you seem like a good leader to me," Stefania said.

"That's right, Donna. Listen to her," Ileana said.

"No, that's it, girls. I'm through. This was never for me anyway. Once I make sure that Lee and Heather are okay, then I'm going back home to Chiswick. I think Dorothy's right. It's time to quit," Donna said.

"Donna, just think about it before you do anything rash. Promise me that," Ileana said.

"No, Lana. That's it. My mind is made up," Donna said firmly.

She then became silent as she watched Lee with worry in her eyes. He had become unconscious again now and so had Heather. The High Council just had to fix this. She couldn't have finally found Lee only to lose him again!

Next: Donna desperately tries to get the High Council of the Time Lords and Lady President Karen Pond to help her fix Lee and Heather in exchange for Drax's information on the C.I.A. Can they succeed or will Donna have to find help from a higher source? What will Donna have to do in order to save Lee and how might it change her life forever? Also who will be the leader of the Bad Wolves? Will Donna stay or will someone else take up the leadership mantle?